If you’ve been using social media for any period of time you’ve heard about LinkedIn. Chances are you’ve put up a profile hoping to attract business.
Whether or not you’re getting the most out of LinkedIn may be open for discussion. The same holds true for virtually any social network. You may have an account and a profile, but are you getting the most out of your efforts?
Each social network has specific strategies you must implement in order to optimize what you are doing. With LinkedIn your profile plays a big role as to whether or not you are easy to find beyond someone simply imputing your name. Ideally when someone inputs keywords that are specific to what you do your profile is near (or at) the top.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for most people listed on LinkedIn. Only a fraction of active members are found based on keyword searches. Why? Because most experts are incredibly ambiguous in how they describe themselves, who their market is and what their background is.
Expertise
Although there are some profiles that are very detailed and specific to an area of expertise there are countless more that are not.
The one commonality in the majority of the profiles is an ambiguous identification of what the person does and who their target market is.
For example, in the coaching industry there are life coaches, business coaches, executive coaches, marketing consultant, etc. Although some may think this is enough of an identifier to attract the right type of client… it’s not.
The question that begs to be asked is, “What kind of Life Coach and for whom?” “Who are you a marketing consultant for? What industry and type of client?”
A life coach for recently divorced professional women is very different than a life coach for professional athletes. A marketing consultant for the equestrian industry is very different than one for the entertainment industry.
Ask most coaches and consultants what their major challenge in business is and they will likely answer, “Attracting enough of the right kind of clients.” The right kind of clients would be those you are a great match for and they are a great match for your expertise.
The solution… be clear on who you are and who your ideal client is.
To attract more than enough business you have to be much more specific about who you are and what makes you an expert.
Ambiguity won’t work. In the past it might have, but today there are far too many coaches and consultants for a client to choose from. This means the more specific you are the better.
Some may believe that by being too specific they are eliminating business. Actually, you are. But it’s likely the business that is a better fit for someone else rather than you.
When you are viewed as an expert for a specific market (or markets) you actually have an easier time attracting an abundance of clients for your practice/business AND you will attract more of the types of clients you want to work with.
If your business is not where you want it to be start with the basics:
- Who am I? What is my expertise? What is unique about what I do?
- Who do I enjoy working with? Who am I qualified to work with? Who do I want to work with?
Consider this:
- Is your profile clear and specific?
- Will you stand out from the thousands of others who might be vying for the same business you are?
- Will potential clients have an easy time finding you?
If you answered NO to the “consider this” questions rework your profile as soon as possible. To see what’s working for other experts do a profile search with the keywords your potential clients would use to find someone with your expertise.
Notice which experts rise to the top of a search. Review their profile. How have they positioned their expertise AND how does the description of the type of clients they work with read?
Reworking your profile is not something that should be put on the “someday I will do it” list. Do it immediately. After all, don’t you want to begin attracting more business immediately?
To learn more about how to attract more of the right kind of business join in for the FREE New Horizons Telesummit, February 23th & 24th Marcia Bench, Jeff Herring, Bill Baren, Denise Wakeman, Viki Winterton will be joined by other leading experts where you will learn exactly what to do to create an abundant coaching and/or consulting business. CLICK HERE
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
LinkedIn
Be in the Blog Spotlight! How to get More Visibility!
Be in the Blog Spotlight
Hello Everyone:
Learning to let go of our blogs and putting it out there is the hardest thing to to. I realize it is our baby and the fear of what people might think when they read our blog post. Will they like us and will they come back for more! What do you do when no one notices you or even visit your blog? Such a sad shame. Then you start to internalize and get feelings of “What’s wrong with the picture? Nobody loves me! The reality is once your blog is out. You got to be visible! How do people know you or even find out about you?
How to Get More Visibility
Guest Blogging
Be a guest blogger- That is writing a blog post for someone else’s blog. This will not only get one noticed and provide more visibility. When readers from the other blog sees your post and wants to know more about your services/product they will visit your site. There is also a little bio that is printed at the bottom. How cool is that! You are being marketed!
Here is an example: Yvonne A. Jones from Maintain a Success Circle in Direct Sales & Relationship Marketing (click on Yvonne’s name to get to her actual site for more info) asked me to be a guest blogger for her weekly “Monday Writer” series on her blog.
This is what the guest blog post looked like 4 Reasons Why Customer Service is Critical to the Growth of your Business
Comments
Why bother commenting? Yes, I admit in the beginning I was shy and did not want to write the first comment because other people may judge me. It’s nothing serious. The reason why you comment on other blogs is that you send a message to the blogger that they wrote valuable content or not and if it made a difference of some kind or impact. Commenting is a good thing. Restaurants always want you us fill out their comment cards to let them know what the experience was like and how they can continue to provide great service. We learn things from one another. Since I love using WordPress, there are so many new materials that comes on board. The blog posts that I frequent will provide updates that I am not aware of. So I give them credit and Thank them. What happens then? Magic!
A) The blogger just noticed that their blog post was a resource and helped someone that makes them feel good
B) This blogger will probably want to check you out and find out more about who you are and what you are all about
C) The readers who frequent her/his blog will notice your comment and will want to check you out as well
Just feel the love! It’s all about reciprocating people.
Tweet This, FaceBook, Share this and Digg that people
Do not forget to have a tweetme, facebook share, Share this and Digg buttons on your blog. These are plugins that you can upload to your wordpress site. Why are these buttons important? Do I really need one? Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked In can provide visibility and exposure to your blog. When readers visit your blog and find your information valuable then they want to share it with their friends and others who needs to see your stuff. What better way to get noticed and more visibility then getting syndicated all over Twitter and Facebook. No fun tweeting your own blog articles. Having others tweet and retweet your material makes you more of an expert.
Blog Challenges
Evaluate if a blog challenge is right for you first. It is a chunk of time that you have to committ to. How is it going to be received with your readers? If you do not have a lot of traffic visiting your site or you want to challenge yourself to blog on a consistant basis then participating in a blog challenge is right for you. Being in a blog challenge has it’s rewards.
A) Meet other bloggers and like minded people
B) Other blogger will tweet and comment on your blog post
C) Get customer and new clients
Also you can join the Continuity Blogging Community on Facebook, and continue to post your blog post and get more readers and connect with other bloggers
This was a fun blog post. I have so many more tips, but these are the core ones to get you started. If you want more blogging information. Fill in the opt-in box on the upper right hand corner and I will send the latest buzz on what happening in the blogging world.
Happy Blogging!