It's A New Year for Small Biz Owners - 4 tips to Refresh Your Linkedin

Could your Linkedin profile be holding your back from greater connections and business? You are networking a ton and working to build relationships and business but little is happening. There are several areas to check in your process and one of them is your Linkedin profile. Professionals use Linkedin to connect, research and make a decision about whether or not to move forward in a relationship. Here are some must do tips to ensure your profile tells the story you want it to tell about you and your business.

Get Clear

General readability of your profile is important, and so is the story you tell. For most of us, telling our story takes great introspection and effort. Here are some questions to help guide you to clarity about your story and your businesses' story:

• - What are the top 3-5 personal qualities that you’re proud of?

• - What are the top 3-5 skills that you’re proud of?

• - How do you want to use all of these to attract talent and create your business?

• - How do you currently use them to build your business?

Use the answers to the last two questions to write your Linkedin profile overview. It is the critical part of telling the story.

Celebrate Successes

Go through your work experience descriptions in your background. Are you just saying what work you did or are you telling the exciting story of what lead you to start your own business? In each job experience highlight key achievements that are relative to the work you do today as the first thing. Be as specific as possible, give metrics if available or share the result of the work they did. Celebrate your successes and be proud of them, you worked hard.

Use a Professional Photo/Video

Get a professional photo taken. It is worth it to tell your story with an image. Your profile picture should reflect the overall message you are sending and give a glimpse of your business. Give the photographer your description and see if they have ideas for how to help communicate your top qualities.

There are too many profile photos that discredit because they tell a story that shouldn’t be told.

Build Your References

Reach out to former and current co-workers, clients, vendors, and encourage them to endorse you and write a reference for you. When you ask, be specific about what you want to communicate. You can tactfully say something like, “remember project X that we worked on together? Would you be open to posting a reference on Linkedin on my profile about working with me on that project?”

These are little things that can make the difference in converting new connections to lasting relationships. For even more tips, click the image below to sign up for a free job market analysis and gain important insights into real-time market trends.