1. Jazz Up Your Profile
To edit your profile, roll over "Profile" on the top nav and choose "edit profile".
- A mistake I often see people make is a less-than-interesting title under their names. "Holistic Health Coach" doesn't really tell me much.
- To create a title with a punch, think about the benefits your products and services deliver to your ideal clients, and craft a title reflecting them. This title appears next to your name when you post something in a group where your target market use - your ideal clients will be seeing your post and your title... you want to grab their attention so they will check you out.
- Add a high-quality photo that reflects your brand and how you want to be perceived. A stiff headshot may work well for an accountant, but as a health and wellness coach/practitioner you may want to add a little warmth (smile!) and a personal touch to the photo. People want to know the face of the person they are (or potentially will be) "doing business" with, so you want a professional-looking photo that communicate a message of "you are serious about your business".
- Make sure the file size of the photo is large enough that it doesn't look blurry. You want to crop it in such as way that people can actually see your face - if you show the entire length of your body, nobody can tell what you look like!
- In the summary section, be succinct and tell people what you do - your elevator speech would be a good place to start. Include relevant links back to your website, and you can also mention your list-building free offer.
- If you have a short PDF (e.g. a brochure, your "manifesto") you can upload the link in the field toward the end of this section as well.
You can share updates, ideas, and links back to your website (e.g. your blog posts) on your timeline update and in groups. If you have social share buttons on your website (e.g. Sexy Bookmark for WP), you can use the LinkedIn button and share a link on both your timeline and in your group within a few clicks. (You can even link it with twitter!)
When someone joins a group, she can choose to receive a "digest" on all the posts at a certain interval via email. In some groups these digests can get pretty "crowded". To get more attention and click-throughs, try these:
- Write a benefit-oriented, catchy subject line for your post. "new blog post on weight loss" sounds kinda blah. How about "Get Ready For the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - How To Lose 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks Without Giving Up Chocolate"?
- Strategically (and sparingly) use all caps and symbols to draw the eye. E.g. {{ FREE Download }} Special Report On How To Lose 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks Without Giving Up Chocolate.
- Spend a few minutes each day looking through your digest emails and see if you want to chime in on a couple of discussions. Participating in groups will make you friends, connections and earn your some clout.
- As a list-building strategy, post your free opt-in - and post it multiple times. Not everyone will see all the posts, so you want to catch them at different times. Don't be shy... on average, people need to be exposed to a "promotional" message 7 times before taking action!
- When you receive the "digests" via email, note the days of the week (e.g. Sunday) that they tend to be less crowded. Time your high-stake juicy posts to appear in the digests on those days to get more attention. (You need to test and look at your analytics to find out what works. The possible downside of appearing in a weekend digest is that people may get the Monday email overwhelm and delete without reading.)
- Bonus point: participate in LinkedIn Q&A to further establish your expert status.
3. Don't Just "Add", Connect!
Get "social" with your social media activities! Don't just add people to your network. When you accept someone's invite, or someone accepts your invitation to connect, check out her profile.
- Could she be a potential client? Send a message with a paragraph or two introducing yourself - e.g. include a variation of your elevator speech, make your message more personal if you can glean any information from her profile, and invite her to check out your resource (e.g. blog posts) or opt-in free gift. You can keep a generic message you can cut-and-paste handy, so all you need to do is to tweak a couple of things, add a name and hit send.
- Could she be a possible JV partner? A good candidate for a JV relationship can be someone who shares your target market but not in your exact area of expertise. Your products and services can complement her offerings, and vice versa. Check out her profile and her updates to see if it's a good fit. You may want to "follow" this person for a while so you have a good understanding of her approach. When you feel you have an idea of how this relationship could look like and how you can support her, send her a message that is a more in-depth than "nice to meet you" to share your thoughts and highlight "what's in it for her".
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