Colleen McKenna — March 20, 2018 As one quarter comes to a close and we roll into another, how are you doing with your intentions, resolutions, goals, and plan? Have you moved your LinkedIn initiative forward and are you making tangible progress? (We’d like to hear about those successes, feel free to comment and share your success.)
If your LinkedIn initiative is progressing, good work and congratulations. Now, determine what’s next to master on LinkedIn. Is it personalizing more, curating and posting content, writing original content, engaging with other people’s content? Whatever it is, map out your next steps.
If you haven’t begun your company’s LinkedIn initiative, I want to encourage you — CEOs, business owners, marketers, recruiters, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs, to get started.
The answer to these questions will inform how you move forward and celebrate you and your team’s good work.
Review your executive leadership team’s LinkedIn profiles (CEO or business owner included) with the following in mind:
- If your largest client’s CEO reviewed your leadership team’s profiles, would they be impressed?
- Would your client understand how your company serves their clients?
- Does their profile look like their resume?
- Do they have an up to date professional photo?
- Do they have few connections?
Review your sales team’s LinkedIn profiles with the following in mind:
- Would their clients and prospects understand how your salespeople help solve problems, provide a superior product or service, and add value?
- Do their profiles look like resumes of quota-crushing salespeople who are going to “sell” as soon as they talk to someone?
- Do they have an up to date professional photo?
- Are they connecting with the right people (clients, prospects, centers of influence etc.)?
- Are they sharing the content your marketing team is creating, (assuming you are creating original blogs, white papers, ebooks, and videos)?
Review your hiring and talent acquisition team’s LinkedIn profiles with the following in mind:
- Are they leveraging their LinkedIn profiles to talk about why your company is a preferred employer?
- Are they creating a potential bench of candidates for your company?
- Do their LinkedIn profile and network include a company description or value proposition?
- Do they have an up to date professional network?
Over and over, people tell me they use LinkedIn every day. In fact, I was working with a group last week where well over 75% of the group said they were on LinkedIn every day and felt rather confident with using LinkedIn. When I asked them to check their Social Selling Index score, which is based on their professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships only one person had a score of more than 50.
Why use the Social Selling Index score as a barometer to determine how effective someone is on LinkedIn? It’s objective. It’s not my opinion but LinkedIn’s algorithm at work. It level sets an individual or team quickly and focuses people’s activity so they can become more effective. I talk with people every day who think their profile is perfectly acceptable until they begin to understand how their profile could look. It’s all relative.
Controlling your story and building your brand and network, whether one individual or a company of 10,000, requires ongoing insight, coaching and training. Don’t let another year slip by without thinking strategically about how you and your team can increase your sales and recruiting funnels through LinkedIn.
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