Harness the Power of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the social media channel for professionals, in fact over 66% of the Irish working population have accounts.

This is a great place to build connections and interact with like-minded people.  LinkedIn provides so many networking and sales opportunities, so it is no wonder that there are over 675 million members there.  Here is some advice to help you make the most of LinkedIn:

Step 1 – Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile

If you have not been using LinkedIn for a while it may be time to optimise your profile.  Particularly if it still looks like a cv from when you were job searching many years ago.  Your headshot gives the first impression so make sure it’s great!  Include a background cover image that reflects your current role within your business.  The text under your name is not your job title, it is your headline and that should explain what you do and how you can help your customer.

Your ‘about’ is your story so explain it simply but with passion. Make your first sentence count, grab attention, and use straightforward language. Use your previous experience to frame your past and highlight your successes.  Above all make it relevant to your connections.

Step 2 – Build up LinkedIn connections

Get your numbers up and start to build connections.  Reach out to everybody you already know first, that is the easy place to start.  Think about colleagues, past college buddies, friends, or anybody you know that may be on there.  Then continue by reaching out to people you meet networking or at meetings from now on.

Step 3 – Be active and engage

Now that your profile looks great, and you have lots of new connections you need to start engaging.  Start sharing content, both your own original content and some relevant third-party articles or posts.  Follow some business leaders to get a good stream of sharable content in your feed.  Share news from your website, or a video you have created or even an infographic.  You are trying to create and build awareness around you as a brand.

LinkedIn creates many opportunities for you to build a support network around you as an entrepreneur. It will help create and nurture connections that may lead to sales or leads.  Plus it will allow you to share information about your brand and learn about others.  Time to dust off that old LinkedIn profile, shine it up and use it to get where you need to be.