I was having a coffee with my good friend and fellow Entrepreneur Alex Pirouz…
Alex is the founder of Linkfluencer, the world’s leading online LinkedIn training company as recognized by Inc Magazine.
As usual we started chatting about LinkedIn.
What we discovered is that when we talk to people who aren’t really active on it, both he and I always seem to get the same response…
“LinkedIn?! That’s just an online resume site isn’t it?”
“It’s just a place to get pitched for a new job.” They say.
If you’re one of these people and you;
- Haven’t updated your profile in 6 months
- Don’t plan to in the next 6 months
- Don’t want to start to leverage the power of LinkedIn to grow your business
My suggestion is to forget about LinkedIn now. Seriously, just delete your profile right now.
Go to tools, settings and delete your account – it’s doing more harm than good for your personal brand.
Collectively, that’s what Alex and I have decided to tell people.
Now, for those that are serious about leveraging the power of LinkedIn, let me tell you why I would tell my readers to delete their profiles and what you can do to turn it around after speaking with Alex.
Tip: I use Agorapulse for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s my social media management tool of choice.
Reason 1: You are who Google says you are
Did you know that most people’s LinkedIn profiles rank higher in Google search than their company’s websites?
Before doing business with anyone, smart people do their research with who they’re about to get into bed with (so to speak).
If you have an old profile, with no connections, a 10 year old picture – or worse yet, no profile picture – you lose all credibility.
If this is you – your first impression could be your last impression.
Need a few tips on how to get your profile up to scratch? I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Alex’s free guide on the 3 steps to Linkedin Mastery – you won’t be disappointed.
Over 14,000 people have been impacted by this methodology. Click here to grab your copy.
Reason 2: People buy into people – not companies
I’m not saying anything ground breaking when I reiterate the fact that people do business with people that they like.
Research has shown that people will buy products, even if it’s an inferior product and even if it’s more expensive, off someone they like compared to someone they don’t like.
The second most viewed page on a company’s website is the about us section. It’s blatant proof that people buy into people not companies.
Now, what is being discovered is that people with high intelligence are often lacking in emotional intelligence.
Unfortunately for the people gifted with high IQ, the ability to leverage your emotional intelligence is what is going to sell people when they look at your profile on LinkedIn.
Most people write their own profiles, they don’t follow any format and unfortunately if they are just not the marketing type who can sprinkle magic marketing fairy dust on things it begins to diminish your credibility.
If that’s you – you’re better off not doing it at all.
It pays to get professional help if you have no idea on how to create that unbelievable first impression that knocks over anyone who checks out your profile.
An investment in this area is well worth it in the long run.
If we like it or not, the social web has made us all in the business of marketing – full time 24/7.
If you have a 24 hour digital sales person, who’s LinkedIn profile isn’t performing, then it’s time to give them the skills they need to start generating interest.
Reason 3: You need to stand out
Did you know that LinkedIn gets over 1 billion searches a day?
As well as that, over 49% of key decision makers are on LinkedIn…
Regardless of what industry you’re in, the size of company, number of employees or the product you sell, ultimately we are all in the business of MARKETING.
And the sole purpose of why we market our business is to get our message in front of the right key decision makers.
With the huge volume of searches on LinkedIn (as noted above), most of these people are searching for these key decision makers and making contact.
Unfortunately they just don’t do it the right way.
Alex told me that he finds that most of his students who come into his online course have previously been using techniques that come across like spam.
We all get them, someone sends you a contact, you accept and 5 minutes later they are pitching their product.
Who actually responds to that? (not me)
The biggest challenge for him is to break old habits.
Alex said: “There’s a lot of wasted opportunity out there, through LinkedIn you can literally connect with hundreds if not thousands of key decision makers and start building a relationship with them WITHOUT spending a cent on advertising or marketing!”
If you do it right, LinkedIn is an absolute gold mine for new business, partnerships and media opportunities. So my point, get on your profile now and start working on it, then really start to harness the power of LinkedIn for your business growth.
If you need some free advice, I can’t recommend Alex’s free guide highly enough, download it now and be one of the other 14,000 professionals who are transforming the way they market themselves using his 3 step methodology.