The Secret:
Don’t see LinkedIn as a Business Social Network
While LinkedIn markets itself as a Social Network, thats not the right way to see it if you want to mine LinkedIn for Leads & Profits.
You need to see LinkedIn as a “B2B Search Engine“.
Yes! LinkedIn is a Search Engine used by thousands of professionals, businesses & investors to find the right professional or business to work with. Thats like a million leads for you.
Just like how Google is a Search Engine for anything, Just like how we use our website to search engine optimize it to come up in search results, You need to optimize your LinkedIn profile to come up in LinkedIn search results.
Analyzing a LinkedIn Search
In this example I am searching for “designer“. Lets see the results that LinkedIn gives me.
The first Preference goes to the profiles with whom I have “Shared Connections“. So the more profiles you connect with, the more chances are that your profile will come up in search for anyone.
After the shared connections comes the profiles who you dont have any connections with. Now, on what basis that LinkedIn orders them? -> Those profiles have been optimized for the keyword “Designer“
Anatomy of a Highly Optimized LinkedIn Profile
Lets check out the very first profile that appears whom I dont have a shared connection with:
Headline
Davina Kim’s headline has the word “Designer” in it. Her headline is “Product Designer at Tumblr“.
The headline is the most important part in your profile.
Experience
Majority of her experience has the word “designer“.
Endorsements
LinkedIn gives more preference to profiles which has highly credible endorsements from many people related the the searched keyword. For example, This profile has endorsements related to “designer”
Recommendations
This is Davina’s recommendations. You can see lot of words related the “designer” in those recommendations.
These are the basic optimizations that one needs in their LinkedIn Profile to come up in LinkedIn search for a keyword.
Now I am going to give you a cheatsheet so that you can optimize your LinkedIn Profile.
LinkedIn Profile Optimization Cheatsheet
1.) Keyword
Choose the keyword you want to come up in the results. Its usually your designation.
2.) Establish Credentials by Filling your LinkedIn Profile with your keyword
Connect with lot of people in your industries network. You need minimum 500 connections. More people from your industry, more chances of you coming at the top.
3.) Show LinkedIn Your Authority for the keyword
Get atleast one recommendation for all your experiences. Make sure the recommendations has your keyword.
And get endorsements for skills related to your keyword. One nice way to endorse others and they will endorse you back.
4.) Generate your keyword related content
Post powerful, targeted content to build your reputation and stand out from the crowd. Share blog posts, videos, podcasts, e-books, and other forms of content to establish your expertise.
5.) Create Presentations in SlideShare and add to your Profile
SlideShare is part of LinkedIn, Generating SlideShare presentations will establish your authority over a keyword. Make sure you create multiple presentations related to your keyword
6.) Optimize Location
Your current location is important for showing your profile to location based searches. For example: “Designer in New York“.
As you can see in this result, a location optimized profile is coming above a profile with which I have shared connections.
7.) Start Networking in LinkedIn Groups
Join LinkedIn Groups related to your industry and find people to connect with. Share your content with those groups. You can create your own group too. Having keyword related groups in your profile is a plus.
8.) Follow Companies related to your keyword
Here is a profile that has design related companies under Following.
Questions? Please let us know the comments section below. Happy to Answer 🙂