| Right under your name, does your LinkedIn
profile headline look like this...
- CEO & Founder at XYZ and Associates?
- Business Owner at ABC Consulting?
- Speaker at YourName.com?
3 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Profile Should Not Be the Same
as Your Position
1. Think of your headline as your first sales pitch to
people who want to connect with you. If I am unfamiliar with you or your company, how does
mentioning your company name and your position show me what you do and why I need to
connect with you? It doesn't! These headlines are too general, simple and straight
forward. They are too vague and too broad. In order for your headline to be effective, it
needs to grab my attention. It needs to make me want to read the rest of your profile. As
a potential client or potential referral source, I need to see right away how you can help
me or my clients.
2. When I am invited to connect with someone, I view their
profile before I choose to accept. The first thing that I look at is their headline to see
if there is any possible synergy between the person who wants to connect with me and my
business. By doing this I can see if it is worth my time and energy to view the rest of
their profile. Make your headline enticing so I will want to read your profile and connect
with you.
3. If someone is going through people search or through the
groups to see who they should connect with, they are looking at hundred to thousands of
opportunities. You need to make your business stand out to entice others to want to click
on your name to read your profile and learn more about you.
Now that you know that you need to drastically improve
your LinkedIn profile headline in order to attract more clients, the question is, how do
you fix it?
4 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Creating Your
LinkedIn Profile Headline
1) What can you say in your headline that will give your
instant credibility?
One of the easiest ways to gain that instant credibility is
to use any media attention. For example, I was recently called a "Social Media
Expert" by the New York Times. Look how I use this media mention in my new LinkedIn
profile headline to give me instant credibility:
"Read my profile now and discover LinkedIn secrets
from the woman the New York Times called a social media expert".
2) Does your LinkedIn profile headline command action?
The best way to get someone to read your profile further is
to tell them to do so. Just look at my example above. Notice I'm giving you a
call-to-action. By stating read, view or learn more by reading my profile, you are
instructing the reader to do so. And, guess what - chances are they'll listen. You just
have to tell your prospects what to do - and why they need to take the action.
3) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show why you are
different?
Go to people search on LinkedIn and type in your career
description. Look at how many people match your description. For example, when I type in
"internet marketing consultant" into people search it gives me 139,041 results.
The phrase "life coach" gives me 83,847 results. The phrase "business coach
returns" 224,274 results. In your headline if you show how and why you are unique
chances are your prospects will explore your business further than that of your
competition.
For example Article Marketing Experts Eric Gruber's profile
headline was: See how we can get you published on websites like About.com - instead of
just article directories like our competition.
4) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show a benefit to
the reader?
By implying there is an advantage to your reader by viewing
your profile you are telling them that there is a benefit of using your products or
services. The reader needs a reason to accept a connection with you. By giving them a
benefit you are instilling confidence in your business. For example:
- Help My Website Sell Founder Adam Hommey's headline is: Top
internet marketing consultant and expert webmaster reveals how to make your website sell
more products and services
- The Global Institute of Visionary Executives Founder Carrie
Jacobs has this as her headline: Read my profile and learn from a champion visionary
executive coach how you can profit from your own brand of success
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