LinkedIn has always been one of the social media platforms that I am probably the least familiar with and I don’t think I am alone. When it first came out, it seemed more like a public platform to put your resume. But as we know in life, things don’t stay the same and now LinkedIn has morphed into a business to business lead generator.

Last night, I attended a local business event on LinkedIn by Mark Warncken, who has recently been named amongst LinkedIn’s Top Global Experts. Warncken’s resume includes a sales career of over 30 years. This is his point of difference - most social media gurus don’t have sales experience. His singular focus in all his courses, is how you can increase sales through LinkedIn by generating enough leads for your business.

LinkedIn as a lead generator

Known as the Facebook for business, LinkedIn is best suited as a business to business social media platform. With over 500 million users worldwide and an average member salary of AUD107,000 per annum, this is one mighty database, you have got to tap into!

The key points Warncken was saying, is that whilst most of us have a profile on LinkedIn, a few tweaks and a little time engaging in the LinkedIn community will see you getting leads before you know it!

These are the three main things we are not doing and should be -

1. Utilise the real estate

Most people are not using the space efficiently on their LinkedIn profile. This is important to get your message across as fast as possible. LinkedIn isn’t any different from websites and other social media platforms; people only spend 2.3 seconds on each profile to decide whether they want to continue reading or connect.

Your profile picture – ensure your photo is high quality and you are wearing the most appropriate clothing for your industry. Business attire for corporates, casual for creatives, whatever…you know the drill.

In the top box area, most people leave the generic image in this space but Mark wants you to put some words on this banner. This is a missed opportunity to tell your story and get your message across loud and clear.

I used CANVA, a free graphic design website which has templates made just for this purpose. Drop your image into the template and write the words – now there are no excuses! If you are stuck for an image, my blog provides some great websites for free images you can use.

From this –

To this -

My updated LinkedIn top box area now, not only looks professional, I stand out from the other copywriters using the generic top box image and I have been able to get more of my message to the reader. (thanks Mark! I'm off to a good start.)

Utilising the 2000-word count in the summary section. This is the most read part of your profile, so make the most of it.

Here are his quick tips for the summary section -

1.   Write in first person
2.   Use short, three line paragraphs – this makes it easier to read and scan
3.   Write 25% about you and 75% about how you can help others
4.   Add your contact details, such as an email address or phone number
5.   Use bullet points
6.   Use your main keywords
7.   Add a call to action

2. Spend just 5 minutes a day on LinkedIn

All it takes is 5 minutes a day to maintain your profile and presence on Linkedin. As Warncken said the search engines love it when you interact with social media platforms, it makes you visible, it shows credibility, and can increase your sales leads and profitability.

In these 5 minutes, he says you should be –

•   Liking other people posts
•   Commenting on posts
•   Sharing information
•   Joining groups
•   Accepting connections

3. Call to action

I bet you don’t have a call to action on your profile? I didn’t. But it makes sense, doesn’t it? And why shouldn’t you? You use a call to action on your other digital platforms, so why would LinkedIn be any different?

You want to tell the reader what you want them to do, whether it is to call, email, look at your website, sign up to a newsletter, it doesn’t matter, just tell them what to do.

I will be upping my game on LinkedIn, will you join me? Tell me how you go or if you need help writing that profile summary or creating a snazzy top box image – just give me a shout, happy to help.

Need more help with LinkedIn, contact Mark Warncken