10 Common Mistakes People Make on LinkedIn
10 Common Mistakes People Make on LinkedIn
If you ask some social media experts, they all have different opinions on which social media platform you should focus on. One of my mentors, Rachel Pederson, would say that TikTok is the best one to focus on for almost any type of business. That is true to some extent. I mean, TikTok is still in the early adoption phase. This means that it’s only a matter of time before they perfect their paid platform (ads) and kill their organic reach. Just like Facebook did to their platform. The same thing goes for LinkedIn. It’s not owned by Zuckerberg, so LinkedIn has a good chance of actually becoming a social media platform that doesn’t rely fully on ads. LinkedIn is one of the most underutilized social media platforms out there. It’s not for job searching anymore, it’s great for networking and getting potential clients.
Making Your Profile About You
I see this mistake all the time. As harsh as it sounds, nobody on social media cares about you. They care about what can you do for THEM. Are you speaking to your audience or are you speaking to your friend? People are always looking at your profile from the “how can you help me?” filter.
When you are looking on your profile make sure you are answering the following questions:
Am I positioning myself as an authority in my field?
Do I have the right skills as THE go-to person in my field?
Am I getting the right recommendations as social proof?
Am I speaking directly to my target audience?
If you answered no to any of these questions then, you need to re-do your profile. Even if you aren’t a business owner, you will need to re-do your profile so recruiters can find you!
2. Putting Something Other than Your Name in the Name Field
I see this quite a bit with people wanting to stand out from the crowd. If you have symbols, characters, acronyms or your company name in the place of your name, you can get your account restricted. Yes, it’s true. This is against the LinkedIn terms of service and they can absolutely restrict your account.
Other than this being an obvious breach of rules, it actually makes it harder for you to find on LinkedIn, and it just makes you look incredibly unprofessional.
You can add things like Ph.D, former names, maiden names and nicknames, as it might be easier for people to find you.
3. No Profile Photo
You need to have a professional headshot. Whether you like it or not, you need a headshot. Headshots are very easy to make these days because everyone has a camera on their phone. Most camera phones can take quality pictures if you have the right lighting. I took a bunch of headshots recently in the middle of the day one time when the lighting was the best I ever seen it. I still don’t think the light I see right now on the porch was as good as it was that day. I listened to my intuition and I took the headshots and they came out nearly flawless.
I had a tripod, but my very first headshot I took for LinkedIn, I literally had my phone propped up against two planters and I set my camera on a timer. I had no choice but to bend my knees which was kinda painful because I just had knee surgery, but I was super happy with the result.
You can spend thousands on a professional photoshoot, or just some photos by yourself. Whatever you do, don’t take a selfie.
4. You Have No Headline/Boring Headline
Your headline is your lifeline on LinkedIn. It’s the biggest real estate you have on LinkedIn besides your cover photo and your profile photo. This is your opportunity to stand out. My headline says “I help spiritual/conscious minded brands generate sales and revenue!”, it’s short, sweet and gets right to the point. If anyone wants to connect with me, they know in three seconds what I do and who I am.
This is important because over half of all LinkedIn users access LinkedIn through a mobile device (source). On mobile, users can only see your cover photo, profile photo, your headline and maybe some of your summary, but that’s about it. This is why having a headline that really pops is important. Everyone is on a mobile device, and if you are in the business of helping other businesses, it’s really important to make a headline that lets people know who you are within three seconds or less.
5. No Social Proof
How do you expect people to trust you as an authority figure when you don’t have the social proof to back it up? You need to have recommendations, people endorsing your skill set, and testimonial graphics. If you don’t have any testimonials yet, create a program for free or for a very low price and in exchange tell them to leave you a testimonial. If you do have testimonials, make sure you tell your clients to also leave a recommendation for you on LinkedIn!
6. You Aren’t Personalizing Your Connection Requests
I see people sending request after request and not personalizing them. You need to be customizing each request, sending notes and making sure they are your ideal request. There is a lot of work that goes into finding your ideal client. You don’t have to create an “avatar”, in fact I actually hate that word. Don’t create an avatar, but DO create an ideal audience. Who do you want to reach? What are their interests? What do they do? If you are a B2B business, you might want to ask on your intake form “where are you in your business?” or “how many years have you been in business?” and “what are your goals?”. Putting those questions in your intake form when you get them on a call will do wonders.
7. You Aren’t Sending the Right DMs.
You are sending the same old same old message on LinkedIn. You know the creepy messages that say “Hey I saw you viewed my profile”. No! That’s creepy. Just say “Hey thanks for the connection. I love the fact you do so and so with your company, that is one of my biggest missions in life.” Personalization is key. Make sure you are customizing each one. When you are not customizing each one, you will fall under spam. Yes LinkedIn has a spam filter, don’t fall underneath that by sending basic messages.
8. You Aren’t Following Up
Most people will send messages but will fail to follow up with them. You don’t make sales on the first try. As Donald Miller says in his book “Building a Story Brand”, you can’t ask people to marry you on the first date. You need to follow up with people. Ask for the sale each time or just ask for a call each time. Unless they say not to contact you anymore, just keep following up.
You will find that a lot of people are just busy, especially if they didn’t answer you the first time! You need to create relationships, not just connections. You can’t just depend on your messages to create the relationship. Get on a call and build upon it.
9. You Are Inactive
You need to log in to your LinkedIn profile at least three times per week in order for people to see how active you are. People are more likely to message you back if you are active on the platform. You don’t have to personally be on the platform, if you think LinkedIn is too much for you then don’t be afraid to hire out the things you don’t want to do on there.
I have two VAs that help me out with some of the things that take the most time for me on social media. One of those areas happens to be LinkedIn. It’s a little demanding to do yourself at times, especially if you are a B2B business. Be more active, and you will have people reach out to you because you are active.
10. You Aren’t Writing Articles that Position Yourself as an Expert
This is a common one I see all the time on LinkedIn. A lot of people want a presence, and be a thought leader without doing the work. You need to do the work, the hard work. That is creating long form content in the form of a blog, podcast, video or something that can get people to notice your long form content. What you do is take that long form content and transcribe it into a blog post and more importantly, a article on Linkedin. Always repurpose your content. Work smarter not harder!
Need Help Getting Your LinkedIn to the Next Level?
The Spirit Digital works with many B2B businesses on getting their LinkedIn pages and profiles to the next level. We create that funnel for you so you can get the clients you want and deserve for your amazing business. We connect you with top decision makers, create the articles and the content you need to stand out amongst the crowd!
Interested? Let’s get on a call.