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Making Yourself Look Attractive on LinkedIn: Part 2

Written by: Jason Helfenbaum

Article Overview: Leveraging social networking. How to promote yourself by creating a LinkedIn profile that attracts those that you want connect with

Making Yourself Look Attractive on LinkedIn: Part 2

Note: This is the second article in the series. If you have not already, it is recommended that you read these articles in order for maximum benefit. The second half of deals with these remaining sections:

- Summary

- Specialties

- Work Experience

- Contact Settings

The Summary

At last we come to the part of your profile that really, truly is you: the Summary. This is your free-form elevator pitch where you get to tell the world what you're all about. Yes, it should be attractive, but the two other words that should be used to describe it are "modest" and "inspiring." Here is a snippet from one entreprebeur's Summary:

The past 10 years have been focused on early stage technology initiatives. We started [my company] in 1997, raising significant venture capital and building one of the best recognized new brands in the [my city] market. I enjoy the exhilaration that can only be found in early stage, rapid growth technology companies and all of the challenges that come with it.

In his first paragraph you hear loud and clear his successful track record and the sustained passion that he applies to his work. The last sentence especially gives a clear indication of who he is. This is another advantage of LinkedIn. Again, much like a dating site, this person is able to state his interests, and you can get the "inside scoop" without ever having met.

For the past 5 years we have been investing in terrific entrepreneurs with passion and vision and helping them to raise the capital they need as well as getting involved to help them grow their business. Our goal is to work with interesting and motivated people and help them cross the finish line still owning their companies.

The second paragraph is perhaps even more attractive. It qualifies what he is up to and what he is looking for, and if I fit the bill, it's in my own best interest to contact him. You need to create something comparable: something that shows both your personality and your accomplishments; something that compels people to meet you. For various reasons, most user choose to ignore the Summary, so entering anything here automatically gives you a leg up on the majority of users.

Your Specialties

Before adding your specialties, ask yourself this question: according to most SEO experts, what is the most important element in your site being picked up by a search engine? Keywords. So why should the same logic not apply to your profile? You may have the most eloquent way of describing your talents; if you want to be found though, simply list your specialties and separate them with commas, bullets, or hyphens.

Work Experience

Your work experience is similar to a CV, and in fact, in many cases, you can simply copy and paste from your CV to your profile. Here are some other facts to consider:

• As much as possible, try to tie your accomplishments to metrics. It's one thing to say you had the top sales for eight consecutive quarters, but it's another thing to add that during that time period your sales were in excess of $200 million and were 320% over quota.
• Try to get at least one endorsement for each position. Often, your endorsers are more than willing to sing your praises, but are not sure what to say. Use this to your advantage. Determine how to best position yourself, and then help them to craft what you want to say.
• Endorse others as much as you can...if they deserve it. Some people take a quid pro quo attitude, giving endorsements in exchange for your endorsement. Many people are wise to this and often discount or disregard reciprocal endorsements. If deserved, however, endorsements are an excellent way to have your name prominently displayed on someone else's profile (not to mention a grateful connection).

Contact Settings

The very last item to discuss is one that is often overlooked: Contact Settings. Your Summary section may offer your career highlights and what makes you tick, but your contact settings offer you an opportunity to reach out to would-be connections and qualify in whom and what you are interested. You might add something along the lines of "I welcome connections from all VCs." Imagine that you are a networking party, and in addition to name, your tag indicates whom you wanted to meet and under what conditions. Do you think you would meet more people that you actually wanted to meet? By qualifying your contact settings, you are qualifying both the people who will want to meet with you and their motives.

Now take a look at your profile as if it were someone else's. Ask yourself these questions:

Is this someone that I find intriguing and interesting?

Is this someone that I need to meet?

If you answered "yes," then you can bet that others who view your profile will feel the same way. You should now see a marked difference in the way you are perceived and the quality of invitations you receive.

Related Articles
  Legal Marketing: More LinkedIn questions and answers
  Legal Marketing: LinkedIn's professional growth
  Part IV: Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?
  Making Yourself Look Attractive on LinkedIn: Part 1
  Leverage Social Media - LinkedIn Strategies

Article Tags: connect, connections, LinkedIn, network, networking, profile, selfpromotion, social networking



Related Forum Posts
Re: On Which Social Media Sites Are You Most Active? - I'd be curious to hear how you guys use LinkedIn. I have close to 3,000 connections and never use it. I've been told the secret is to use groups (which I don't) so I'd love to hear how you guys are benefiting from LinkedIn.
Re: Twiiter an sales - [quote="soldlab":1ycb8vnm]I guess though LinkedIn is better for actual leag generation and personal contacts. What do you think?[/quote:1ycb8vnm] I've had a lot more success (thus far) with Twitter than LinkedIn or Facebook.
Making Money in 2011 - Hello forum members! As we draw closer to the new year I thought it would be appropriate to change the title of our forum category "Making Money in 2010" to "Making Money in 2011" - I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions and wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
Re: Social Media Effectively? - Personally, I use social media to build my company brand in order to get awareness of the various franchises I work with. I am active on LinkedIn and Twitter (@DougSchadle), always posting information about the franchise opportunities I work with. I have started discussions and basically just try to get the word out there. Also, I turned one of my clients to social media as well. I work with Doctors Express, the first national urgent care franchise, expanding their franchise base. They are quickly spreading throughout the country and I told the founder to jump on to Twitter and LinkedIn as well. He just started a few weeks ago (Twitter handle @Doctors_Express) and tells me he is loving it. He is posting different medical issues he sees and is tweeting about Doctors Express. He is joining medical groups on LinkedIn and trying to connect to other doctors. So in short, I do think franchises can be very successful with social media, they just have to put in the time to do it.
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.


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