10 steps to building better LinkedIn Connections

Need some help building better LinkedIn connections?

We have put 10 steps together for you to follow to help you make your profile stand out.  Spend a little bit of time checking your profile and making sure you have the right information in the right places.  This can help the right connections find your profile and help you with building better LinkedIn connections.

1. Optimise your profile

When you first set up your account, LinkedIn will walk you through each step to optimise your profile.  Make sure you fill out all the sections and provide the right information about yourself.  It is important to use keywords that are relevant to you and the skills that you can offer.  This way when people search for these skills on LinkedIn, your profile will come up in the results.

2. Make your profile stand out.

When someone searches or finds you on LinkedIn, you need to make your profile stand out, as all they will see is your name and headline.  Depending on your settings and connections they will also see your profile picture.  Make sure your profile picture is appropriate to the image you want to portray.  Getting a professional head shot can make all the difference on a first impression.

Your headline needs to be a statement about you to make people want to view your profile.  Just listing your current job position does not say much about you.  List your key skills here to really sell yourself, remember to use keywords.

When someone clicks on your profile, they will then be able to see your cover image.  This will also be a statement about you.  Choose your image wisely, what is your brand?  How do you want to be seen?  Choose an image that represents your skills or create your own image with keywords outlining your skills.  It is also good to add some CTA links to your other social media accounts, email, or phone number.   You also need to make sure this is desktop and mobile responsive.  A great tool to create your own image is Canva.com where they have lots of templates and images available for free.

3. Contact details

Your contact details are accessed from your intro, add as many contact points here that are relevant to you and your business.  Make it really easy for someone to find out more information about you and get in contact.

Remember to change your unique LinkedIn URL.  Go to your profile and go down to your contact details and click the edit icon.  Here you can change your URL that LinkedIn has allocated to you.  You can remove the numbers and make it unique with your name and maybe your main skill.  This will help show you have a professional LinkedIn profile.

4. About you

Generally, you use the about you section to talk about yourself, your skills and experience.  If you can, use bullet points to make it clear and easy to read.

If you run your own business, it is useful to use this section to also promote you and your business.  What can people expect from you, how can you help them.

Again, this is an important section to use keywords about what you and your business can do.  E.g. If you are in marketing you can list skills like: Social media, SEO, web design etc.

5. Experience

Use this section to tell people about your past and current job experience.  Explain what you do now and what you are passionate about.

With your past experience you can showcase your skills and achievements.  Include links through to evidence of your work.  If you have created a website, you could link it though so your profile visitor can see your achievements for themselves.  Just make sure you review this, as if you are no longer associated with the company, things may have changed since you carried out the work.

6. Skills, endorsements, and recommendations

You can ask past employers, colleagues, and recent connections to highlight your skills through endorsements and recommendations on your LinkedIn profile.  This will make you stand out if people are happy to say they would recommend you.

7. Create your company profile

If you have your own business, you can create a company profile page on LinkedIn.  Much the same as your personal profile, you need a profile image – which should be your company logo to make your brand recognisable.   Your cover image should represent your business and what products or service it provides.  Remember to add CTAs again to your business social media, email, and phone number.

From your company profile, on the right-hand side it gives you the option in invite your connections to follow your business page.  Go through your connections and invite those who you know will be happy to follow and share your content.

You can use your own profile to share your companies’ content and vice versa.  This helps to build a link between the two profiles so that people make the connection.  This will also help you build up your LinkedIn credibility.

Also, don’t forget to follow the relevant hashtags for your business.  You can choose up to three to make your business stand out.  But you can also follow hashtags from your personal profile.

8. Start conversations

On LinkedIn you can start conversations to build connections with other people and other businesses.  You can follow businesses to receive their content posts in your news feed.  By building your personal connections on LinkedIn you will also be able to see their posts on your news feed.

You can start a conversation with someone by commenting on their posts.  Join in the discussion to let them know you are listening, share your views, give advice, or even ask questions.  Most people are happy to give you advice if you are interacting and sharing their content.

9. Reach out to make new connections

By building your connections, you will build your profile and stand out on LinkedIn searches.  But don’t just click connect on anyone, make the right connections for you and your business.

Use the search tool to find the people that would benefit from your products or services.  You can adjust the search show people that are connected to your connections, choose from other options such as location.  You could ask for an introduction from someone you know or connect by saying you have many connections in common.

Don’t just click connect, send a personalised message.  People are more likely to connect with you if you make a personal approach.  Say who you are and why you are trying to connect.  Once they connect with you, thank them, and start a conversation.  Start following their content on your news feed and comment and join in the discussions.

10. Write an article

You can write and share posts on your news feed.  But it is also great to write an article to tell people more about your business and tell people about your achievements.  You could write an article on something you are passionate about, a new skill you have learnt that you want to share.  Take a look at the type of articles the people you are connected with write.  This will also help you know what interests them so that they will be interested in reading your articles too.

We hope that this blog has helped you to polish up your LinkedIn profile.  We have also written a blog ‘Putting your brand on social media’ which can help you focus your other social media platforms.

If you would like to know more about our Social Media Management services, get in contact with a member of the team today via [email protected].  Or visit our services page on our website.