Copyright Alison Rakoto ©2019

Introduction 2
Career Success with LinkedIn 2
How Should I Use LinkedIn?: 3

Section 1: A lesson in branding for humans. 4

Case Study #1 6

Section 2: How People (not bots) Read Profiles 7

Where will people see your profile first? 7
Your Blink Impact 8

Case Study # 2 9

Section 3: Why are YOU on LinkedIn? 10

Your LinkedIn WHY 10
Profile Picture Basics in a Blink 16
Background Image Basics in a Blink 17
Smash it with your Headline in a Blink 19

Case Study # 3 24

Section 4: ABOUT + Performance Profile 25

Reflection ~ 20 minutes 26
Write Your ABOUT ~ 40 minutes 30
Formatting Your About ~ 40 minutes 33

Case Study #4 34

SECTION 5: A Complete Narrative 35

Case Study #5 41

Section 6: Other People Matter 42

The Power of Skills and Endorsements. 42
Build out your Accomplishments: 43
LinkedIn Etiquette & Best Practices: 46
URL & Contact Information 47
Benefits of a Paid Account 48

Case Study # 6 49

Section 7: LinkedIn Publishing 50

The End - You Did It! 54

1
Introduction
Career Success with LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the primary social media platform that employers and clients around the
world use to verify, vet, and learn about potential employees, consultants, and more.

The LinkedIn advantage is that it allows all working professionals to leverage and
craft their authentic identity. If you take one lesson away from this workbook, I want
that lesson to be that the story your profile puts forward, is what people will believe.

No profile picture? The headline is your job title from 3 years ago? Your profile is
wasted space and might be hurting your career.

Updating your profile ASAP is urgent.

Why? Because everyone looks people up on LinkedIn. You look people up? Right? So
expect that they will return the favor.

If LinkedIn is not working for you, the most likely scenario is that you’ve not
optimized your profile based upon a clear goal for what you want to achieve.

With a little thought, time, and persistent effort you can leverage LinkedIn to:

❏ Own and celebrate your professional narrative and (hi)story;

❏ To substitute for or complement a professional website or online biography;
❏ To provide reliable social proof by demonstrating to the world what you’ve
done, what you can do and where you are going; become an expert;
❏ To provide a vision for how you see work and of what it is like to work with you;
❏ To lay the foundation for a career pivot, promotion or other job change;
❏ To direct the focus and outcome of your career;
❏ To strategically and effectively grow your professional network and access new
and exciting opportunities.

Unlike your resume which recounts your past, LinkedIn is a future-forward platform
that tells folks not only what you CAN do, but also what WILL do in the future -- own
your story and choose your direction.

How to use this Workbook:

● This workbook is divided into 7 sections.

● My suggestion is to spend an hour reviewing the entire workbook and then
scheduling the work into your calendar in the coming week.
● Expect to spend at least 30-minutes to 60-minutes on each section.
● Section 4 will take 60-minutes to several hours to complete -- writing your
About is crucial.
● Your goal is not to create a PERFECT profile, but an authentic profile. If you aim
for perfection, you’ll get stuck.

2
How Should I Use LinkedIn?:
This workbook is for ANYONE with a LinkedIn Profile 😊
How you use LinkedIn will depend on your personal goals and situation.

➔ Networking
➔ Job seeking
➔ Sales
➔ Authority Building
➔ You decide!

One of the most surprising tips for writing on LinkedIn, given that it is a professional
platform, is the suggestion to always write in the first person and ideally the present
tense. The level of formality and professionalism in your language choice should be
carefully considered; however, what makes LinkedIn work is the humanity in our
shared communications, goals, and professional networks. First-person makes your
profile and your content approachable. 3rd person is for celebrities.

The Job Seeker (traditional, pivot, or remote) & Employee:

Today LinkedIn is re-defining the art of resume writing and professional networking.
Without it, it’s hard to be seen — and even harder to be discovered — leverage it!
Research has shown that 85% of the jobs are filled via networking. LinkedIn is a
professional network of 600+ million people. With an optimized LinkedIn profile, you
clearly target the work you want and distinguish yourself from the competition. You
don’t have to actively seek work on LinkedIn, your profile itself is an invitation.

The Consultant, Coach, Start-up, Creative, or Freelancer:

LinkedIn should be considered and incorporated into your personal branding and
marketing kit. As you grow and cultivate your business over time, be sure to
continually update your profile to show your growth. Always watch your engagement
-- just because you’ve got engagement doesn’t mean you are successfully engaging
and reaching the right people.

The Executive or Entrepreneur, Start-up, Small Biz Owner

Your success within and outside your biz is affected by your image -- how your peers
and management view you as an individual. LinkedIn opens the door to defining
your goals, highlighting your values -- building out your professional identity. The
professional narrative you design can re-define your image over-night.

The Recent (or soon-to-be) Graduate:

Learning to write a proper and human-voiced resume, create a “professional brand”
and stage your future path through LinkedIn is likely a life-long skill. If you are like
many people you may pivot or hop from job to job every 18-months to 3-years until
you settle into a particular field or role for a longer period. Get the knack of using
LinkedIn today and understand the power of the professional narrative and it will
serve you for the entirety of your career.

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Section 1: A lesson in branding for humans.
Whether you are your average job seeker, a consultant, or even the
CEO of a marketing agency, you may cringe at the idea of personal
branding. With the advent of online platforms like LinkedIn, you need
to take this concept seriously. You cannot hide, so own your story.
In this section you will learn:

❏ Why personal branding affects YOU

❏ How you can measure the success of your “brand”

❏ Why LinkedIn is the perfect tool to make defining your brand as painless and
simple as possible

Don’t let the word “brand” scare you. Don’t shut down this PDF or run off and hire a
marketing expert. You already know your brand, you just need to define it in a way
that others can understand.

Your brand is your reputation and image when people think of you in professional
circles; it is defined by how you talk about yourself, your interests, your goals.

If you downplay, diminish, or apologize for what you do, so will others.

If a peer, a client, or your neighbor were to describe you to someone, what would
they say? How would they describe you? Would you agree with what they say?

Notice the difference between these bullets:

- A high school teacher that does something with computers.

- That lady who messes with websites and lets her yard go.
- The best web designer I know, who can code and design the right flow!

This workbook is designed to guide you through various exercises that will help you
to build self-awareness by telling your story. It may also guide you to reevaluate your
career goals. The end result is that you will be able to confidently write and create a
LinkedIn profile that empowers you to be your best.

When we are finished, you will not only have an amazing LinkedIn profile you will
also be able to answer:

What is it that I am known for TODAY?

What kinds of things do my co-workers, friends, and family come to me to solve?
What do I want to be known for tomorrow?
What kinds of projects or challenges do I want to get invited to work on or solve?

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Case Study #1
Database Engineer (DBA) to Database Architect

Situation: The client, a software developer specializing as a Database Engineer, has

been with the same company for nearly a decade; he is bored and ready for a
change. Recently the company, once an energetic start-up with a dynamic and
enjoyable culture, has been bought out by one of it's largest customers. They get a
benefit downgrade, and the company culture is frozen. On the job the DBA has been
taking on special projects and learning MySQL, he starts to read more SME books at
home and takes on my side projects.

LinkedIn Actions:
➔ Add profile picture (had none).
➔ The old headline was job title: DBA/Developer
➔ New Headline: Database Architect specializing in MySQL supporting
➔ Update professional summary to show future-forward potential: talking about
special projects as a data architect, knowledge of MySQL, specific goals and
interests, work ethic and values,
➔ Update education, Skills & Endorsements, Accomplishments; and get
Recommendations.

Results: Within ten days of updating his LinkedIn profile, his inbox is overflowing
with recruiter messages. Within three weeks he has his first interview. In 4-months
he's had three job offers and has started the job of his pick with a great new salary,
excellent benefits, and fun company culture.

5
Section 2: How People (not bots) Read Profiles
In Section I, we learned to understand why owning our story and creating a
professional brand is important.

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for your profile, take a look at HOW people read
and assess the content in your LinkedIn profile.

Where will people see your profile first?

What will they notice? The first two sections of your profile that get noticed tend to
be your HEADLINE and your PROFILE picture.

These most commonly get noticed in the “News Feed,” “Search Box” or the “My
Network” viewing boxes, and when you comment on a post.

What people see (or don’t see):

❏ Your profile picture: if your profile picture is hidden to 2nd and 3rd-degree
connections or is not clear, people may think your profile is fake or old.

❏ Your headline: if your headline is confusing or your job title you are missing
opportunities for views and potential click-throughs.

The effect of these views is an either-or:

❏ Curiosity is aroused, they click on your profile to find out more.

❏ Viewers misinterpret your situation and or totally ignore you.

Why you should care:

❏ You’ve got value: make understanding what you do easy.

❏ You are a real human: profiles with pictures get 80% more click-throughs.

❏ You want to be known for the right thing. LinkedIn stats show sentence
headlines arouse curiosity and click-throughs, simple job titles, less so.

Try it out for yourself:

❏ Type a common name into the search box and notice which profiles pop and
which ones you want to ignore. What is your BLINK reaction?

❏ Visit “My Network” and see who LinkedIn recommends to you — notice your
emotional and intellectual response to profile pictures and headlines.

❏ Go to your news feed and look at some posts with comments. How do the
headlines and profile pictures of various folks stand out or confuse you?

6
Your Blink Impact
All profiles share the same challenges when it comes to profile pictures, headlines,
and background images. BLINK impact is what people decide about you in the time
it takes them to blink and (re)focus. Look at some profiles and consider:

➔ What are the effects of the profile picture and the headline?
➔ Do you see how a small difference can convey big information?
➔ Which profiles give you the most information? Curiosity? Trust?

Your work is important and everyone is busy.

Make assessing your profile EASY in a BLINK.

7
Understand your brand “Blink” image as it stands today.
What is your brand today? Ask 3 to 5 people from your close family, to friends, peers,
coworkers, or boss to describe your strengths and how they see your work. Ask them
to compare their answers to your LinkedIn profile. Questions to guide your inquiry:

What are five words you’d use to describe me?

If you wanted me to help you with something, what would you come to me for?

What would you say are my key strengths?

Do you think my LinkedIn profile projects this image or something different?

8
Case Study # 2
Nonprofit CEO turned Fundraising Development Professional

Situation: The client, a nonprofit and early education specialist, has successfully and
passionately led and grown the same organization for nearly 20-years. A suite of
events lead to her stepping down to take on a different role; after some soul
searching, she realizes that her passion has always been fund development and so
she decides to switch gears.

The Challenge: convincing potential employers that she is not overqualified and
underemployed; and getting her in front of new potential employers.

LinkedIn Actions:
➔ Update Profile Picture: A classier, approachable professional headshot to
show that she can be the face of an organization to donors. Background is a
red gradient to match her profile picture, showing warmth and power.
➔ Update Headline: Old headline was the job title. New Headline: Tells folks how
she solves fundraising problems and builds relationships.
➔ Add a Background! Clean and simple.
➔ Update About: discusses her commitment to, successes in and philosophy of
fundraising and relationship development.

Results: Within 24-hours of updating her profile, she is getting a 250% increase in
profile views, including views by the right people. Within a week she has several
networking conversations and is invited in for an interview. Once she is hired, the
profile remains suited to introduce her to potential funders and community partners!

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Section 3: Why are YOU on LinkedIn?
How do you figure out what your “BLINK” impact should be? Start with
why you are on LinkedIn and turn that into a specific goal.

Your LinkedIn WHY

The first step to a successful BLINK image and assessment is a clear LinkedIn WHY.
What do you hope to achieve through your presence on LinkedIn?

➔ Get a job? New job, promotion, or move within?

➔ Get clients? Sell a product, course, or service?
➔ Grow your authority? Be known as an expert?
➔ Other?

Keep this answer at the forefront as you do this workbook. Your WHY will help guide
you in creating a profile that authentically connects with and engages your primary
audience, helping you to achieve your overarching professional goals.

Answer your WHY: What overarching professional goal(s) do I hope to accomplish

this year and how can LinkedIn help me to achieve these goals?

Your “why” will guide you as you work through the remainder of the workbook.

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Who Can Help Me Achieve My Why?
Your primary audience. These are the individuals or the representatives of
businesses that you want to reach on LinkedIn. These are the folx who have the
power to make your LinkedIn WHY a success (or not). These are the decision-makers,
hiring managers, recruiters and or your potential clients, buyers or collaborators.

Describe your primary audience: What do they do? Where do they work? What is
their professional personality? What professional problems do they need to solve?
What information will they be looking for when they come to your profile?

If you can, list a few individuals and companies whose profiles fit your primary
audience. Research to verify your ideas — look up their profiles and make a few notes
about what you see. Is it what you expect or do you notice anything that might alter
how you present yourself on LinkedIn? Note below:

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Connect your audience to your LinkedIn WHY.
Describe your primary target audience’s needs — what solutions, expertise, services
or help do they need -- in terms of your own WHY?

Describe how you want your Primary Audience to see you -- what do you want to be
known for? Do you want to be known as an expert? An innovator? A ______________?

12
Highlight Your Values & Strengths: What are your specific values, strengths, skills
and experiences that you primary audience values in someone like you?
How do you use or leverage these to help your target audience?

Language Counts, so avoid using “insider lingo” -- speak to your audience in their
words. What language or keywords do you notice your ideal audience using either
on their profiles or in their marketing materials and discussions?

Go and look at at least three websites, job descriptions, press releases or branding
guidelines of your primary audience. Highlight the language used in these.

Make notes below on the vocabulary, personality, key concepts and keywords or
phrases that you jump out at you from these documents.

13
Be Curious: Your Secondary Audience:
Your secondary audience is made up of your peers and competition. You can use this
information as a thermometer to “check the temperature” on your profile. Beyond
that be cautious not to copy or imitate -- you want your profile to represent YOU.

Look at the profiles of your secondary audience:

Find the profiles of your professional peers and competitors. Think about the
following questions:

What is right about their profiles? What might you do better? What can you learn
from them? How are you unique, or different? Why might your primary audience
prefer YOU over your competition? What have they done that you could do better?
What should you perhaps emulate?

Take note of anything (positive or negative) that catches your attention:

Remember not to get caught up in the comparison game. There is always someone
ahead of you and someone else behind you. Focus on what you do with conviction.

Your ideal audience needs YOU. Not anyone else.

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What is Profile Personality?
And why should I give a damn?
You may have noticed in looking around at profiles on LinkedIn that you naturally
judge other people based on how serious, experienced, or other professional
indicators that you perceive based upon their profile.

You’ll note that profiles that are written in the third person make people sound very
distant and not very warm, it can feel like reading a cool PR bio. On the flip side, a
warm first-person summary invites you to get to know someone.

A profile that highlights an individual’s values and speaks to their worldview invites
you to align yourself with the person (or not!) simply through reading their profile.

Your “personality” on LinkedIn is like the weather you bring into the room when you
walk in: Are you cool, breezy and distant? Warm and welcoming? Scientific? Other?

What else?
Ask yourself again -- what do I want to be known for? And how does my professional
personality fit into this picture?

Check at least one box — you may combine your style by selecting several.

❏ Traditional/Serious: Conservative or Formal Business Professional.

❏ The Minimalist: Business Casual, Polite, but Relaxed.

❏ Disruptive: a bit funky or high-impact #thefutureofwork

❏ Geek: technical language & keyword-heavy

❏ Sales: polite and professional, friendly, keyword-heavy

❏ Impact Driven: future-forward, clear worldview, not shy about impact.

❏ Informal: friendly, inviting, uniquely you and your language.

❏ Other? ______________________________________________

Use your answer to guide you in assessing the language, your tone of voice, your
images, and any rich media (videos, pdfs) you might display on your profile.

PRO-TIP: If you already have a defined brand and marketing guidelines,

remember to be consistent with the image you portray across various
platforms. Use this workbook to make sure that your personal profile
represents you as a unique individual -- while also speaking to your
official brand. Always come back to: why would you work with ME?

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Profile Picture Basics in a Blink
Will your audience recognize you when you walk into a room or turn on Zoom?

❏ Design: Headshot takes up about 1/2 to 2/3 of the frame. If your head is too
small — it’s too hard to see — too big and you’ll be a floating head with no
neck and that’s weird.

❏ Size is ideally 400x400 pixels and up to 4 MB — depending on where in

LinkedIn your profile is displayed it may be displayed as a circle or a square.
Make sure both look right. If your picture is bigger, LinkedIn allows cropping.

❏ YOU in Color. You are alive so use color not black and white. It is against
LinkedIn’s terms of service to use anything but a picture of you (no logos).

❏ Eyes are visible and smiling — approachable with a genuine smile; head and
shoulders appropriately fill the space (no floating heads, no busts/half bodies).

❏ Clothes and colors complement your image and your professional brand style
or are neutral, business dress or business casual is best.

❏ Clean and crisp or neutral background, avoid the car and social shots!

PRO-TIP: Consider
using a consistent
professional profile
picture across all your
social media profiles. If
you don’t use the same
photo, make sure that
you are recognizable
across platforms -- pink
hair on Instagram, blue
on Facebook and blond
on LinkedIn -- just
won’t fly!

PRO-TIP: Great picture

in your car or at a
wedding? Use Canva or
Photoshop for a white
background or another
neutral background!

16
Background Image Basics in a Blink
You want your background to complement your profile not distract or confuse folks!

❏ No background: is your profile up-to-date? Did you last login in 2015?

❏ Philosophical or political quotes or personality pictures might confuse or scare

away your ideal and primary audience.

❏ If you have branded content -- use it -- as long as it looks professional!

❏ A simple single color or gradient that matches a color in your clothes is an

easy, simple, clean and modern look.

❏ A neutral background, bricks, mountains, a lake, or skyline is better than no

background.

The following “Before” and “After” shots give you an idea of what many people want
to shoot for, something that simply defines you and shows that you are active.

17
What KIND of background should you pick?
A solid color is just fine. Branded taglines are OK if your audience will recognize
them, but beware of abstract quotes or things that have meaning to you, but not
necessarily your target audience. This is LinkedIn not MySpace.

PRO-TIP: Image size is technically 1584x396 pixels, but forget that --

just know this is a 4:1 ratio or 2000 x 500 pixels will serve you nicely (up
to 8 MB in size).

PRO-TIP: Your profile picture and background should be clean, crisp

and professional; however, if you decide to be creative or disruptive with
either or both, keep in mind that you are further narrowing and
targeting your audience with these actions.

Background Image Ideas:

What colors represent your business? Fonts?

Jot down some ideas for images that represent your business or professional work.

Avoid imagery that speaks to you personally: yes I want your “personality” in your
profile, but not your hobbies. Draw a line through any ideas above that you think
represent YOU or your personal interests -- this is LinkedIn, not MYSPACE.

Not sure what to put up for a background? Can’t decide in 15 minutes or less?
Grab a solid white, black or other color and just upload it. Leave it. Let it go.

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Smash it with your Headline in a Blink
How do you write a Headline that attracts and engages your primary audience?

Writing headlines is one part of the LinkedIn profile process that gets many of my
clients feeling stuck and frustrated. If you can let go of the significance and focus
more on what you ENJOY in your work you can make it easier.

This is also a good time to remember that you need to focus on what your ideal --
your primary audience -- needs to know about you. If your headline is confusing to
your mom or your neighbor that’s okay (unless they are in your sales demographic).

For example, below is a client’s actual headline that makes absolutely no sense to
many people, but is perfectly targeted to his ideal audience.

Ghostwriting for Ethical Hackers | Creating impact through words, in data privacy,
tech, and mental health.

Before we dive into the “how-to” here are some guidelines you should follow:

❏ Headlines are optimized for 80 to 120 characters and can sometimes be made
up to 160+ characters if you upload on mobile (on a desktop PC you are
usually limited to 120 characters, strange but true).

❏ About 90 characters show up in the “search” or “feed” versions of your

headline, so make sure the most important info is conveyed first.

❏ Be sure to answer the question: what problem do I solve?

❏ Be sure to write from the point of view of your ideal target audience.

❏ If your ideal audience is likely searching for your actual job title, include your
title and or a common variation of your title in the body of your profile and
your headline. But don’t ONLY include your title.

❏ Include at least three keywords to maximize searchability (one of these might

be your job title), but don’t stuff your headline with keywords; stuffed
headlines become generic and ineffective.

❏ If you wish to put color in your headline and it fits your professional brand and
personality -- LinkedIn accepts standard emojis and special characters. These
are a great way to make your headline POP! You cannot modify fonts.
PRO-TIP: LinkedIn says in their profile optimization notes that excessively
keyword-heavy headlines result in your profile being tagged as a spam
profile. It also confuses readers! Stick to a few keywords; don’t go overboard in
your headline! If someone has told you otherwise -- their source is out of line!

19
Headline Building

Generally speaking, a phrase-based headline is highly effective. A phrase tells more

information in a blink than simple keywords or your title.

At the same time, if someone is searching for a particular title, they may not find you
if that title is not in your headline (or at least somewhere in your profile). This is why
the phrase + keywords are effective.

When it comes to phrases -- don’t just write anything eye-catching -- instead focus
on clarity of your message and humblebrag what you do!

Let’s look at a couple of examples of how you can use phrases and keywords to
tell us more than your job title or a general phrase:

⛔ Freelance Writer | Editor | Content Strategist | Copy Writer

✅ I turn ideas into fluff-free articles. | Writer, Editor & Strategist | @yourhandle
⛔ Seeking next opportunity
✅ I love a successful customer journey! | Customer success | Account Management
| Relationship Management | Solutions & Engagement

➔ By virtue of being on LinkedIn you are “seeking” your next opportunity, use
your headline space to tell people what you do!

⛔ Real Estate Consultant

✅ I make finding your dream home stress-free | Broker | Owner at RE/MAX
⛔ Senior Engineer
✅ Strategic & Innovative Senior Software Engineer | Visionary and Technical Leader |
Collaborative Product Manager

⛔ Attorney
✅ I help you navigate wrongful unemployment with confidence and success |
Employment Law Attorney | Colorado | Phone

Some Profiles with effective and unique headlines (notice why you should
personalize your URL):

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcguireemily/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monishabajaj/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorwalsh89/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-nyaradzo-adams-177b3817/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonrakoto/

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Headline Writing Process
The “solution + impact” option tends to be the most effective when done well, but it
can be a challenge to write. Don’t waste hours going for perfection. Just write it!

ORIGINAL HEADLINE [Confusing and lacking impact]

Obsessed with stats and beautiful use of language.

SEO + Job TITLE HEADLINE

Agency Founder | Creative Director | Digital Strategist | SEO & Content Expert

NEW SOLUTION + IMPACT HEADLINE + SEO Headline

Founder | Creative Director | Digital Strategist | Obsessed with stats and language, I
solve messaging problems and deliver impactful content with SEO

OR even better

Focused on stats and language, I solve messaging problems and deliver impactful
content through SEO | Agency Founder | Creative Director | Digital Strategist

Writing your Headline:

You’ll want to try a few headlines before you settle on one. You’ll notice that some
profiles list their keywords first and others their one-sentence solution. What should
you consider when deciding?

What do you want everyone on LinkedIn to know about you? This should be in the
first 90 characters. Everything else is a “bonus” in your headline.

Answer these prompts to write an effective headline:

What professional (job) titles best represent your professional goals? Is your future
title different from your current title? Is your title ambiguous or overly common?

21
What keywords best represent your work? Or what keywords might someone use in
Google or LinkedIn search to find someone like you?

What problems do you solve? What do people come to you for? What do you love
about your work? What are your strengths?

Now use the following template to write a purpose statement.

I am a _______(personal quality/strength) ______________(your profession or title)
_______ that solves/does/creates (your solution/offer) _________for (your
audience)_______________by (how you do it) _________________.

Example: As an approachable and impact-driven servant leader I brings teams

together to solve challenges that drive growth through innovative solutions.

22
Do you have an elevator pitch? If so, write it here.

Note how it is similar to or different from the purpose statement you wrote above.
Which elements of the two might make for a compelling headline? Take those bits
and write out a few headline possibilities (90 to 160 characters in lengths).

SOLUTION + IMPACT HEADLINE + Key Words

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

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Case Study # 3
Nanny that speaks multiple languages turned VA

Situation: A young woman with a bachelor's degree, a love of travel and music,
suddenly finds herself at age 28 to have become a professional nanny. She wants the
freedom to travel more and start her own business. She's helped with music festivals
as a volunteer and managed the family calendar for her clients for several years.

The Challenge: identifying her skills, strengths, and transformable skills, connecting
to her audience and creating a sense of trust and confidence.

LinkedIn Actions:
➔ Update Profile Picture: Go from a picture-taking in a car to a semi-professional
headshot.
➔ The old headline was job title: new headline states she is a VA, but also
identifies her target audience and the services she offers.
➔ Professional Summary: Describes what she offers clients, what she is like to
work with, her values, her strengths, and her specific solutions. Invites clients
to reach out and connect with her.

Results: Immediately boosted confidence in the client and gave her the push she
needed to go out and start looking for a business. Two years in she is a full-time
Virtual Assistant and Digital Nomad.

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Section 4: ABOUT + Performance Profile
A professional narrative is your opportunity to be intentional about your professional
future. From one perspective, this narrative is your “brand identity” that aligns your
work personality (values & strengths) with your work goals (interests, purpose).

As you saw in our branding and headline work above, viewers of your profile decide
who you are and what you represent in a BLINK. If you fail to grab their attention or
lead them to believe inaccurate data about you, your LinkedIn profile is ineffective.

For many of us our work is the foundation of our lives, so invest time and effort into
creating your profile. Make sure that your vision of whom you want to be seen as a
professional is accurate and clear.

Your LinkedIn profile from your profile picture and headline to the professional
summary (ABOUT) to your skills and experiences, defines and supports this narrative.

In the previous sections, you defined the visual image you’d like to portray. In this
section, you will learn how to turn your professional image into a story or narrative
that weaves together the common threads that explains what you do, how, and why.

Unlike a resume which is focused on your past performance, consider that the most
effective use of LinkedIn is to leverage it to create a future-forward profile that shows
your audience not only what you’ve accomplished, but also your future capacity to
perform.

“About” section vs. Performance Profile? Why the distinction?

The main part of your profile on LinkedIn is simply titled “About.” For the purpose of
building your professional narrative and brand, I think it’s important to start your
“About” with a “Performance Profile.”

Why do I recommend this?

The performance profile implies your capacity to perform. A performance profile is

what you offer an employer or client not only in terms of skills, strengths, experience,
and work personality; but also your motivation, worldview, and capacity to perform.

The first 300 characters of your About should logically follow from your headline and
when done well, pack a virtual punch. This tactic is key to immediate engagement
with folks curious to click to read “more.”

You may be more comfortable with titling this a professional summary or personal
statement. If you are job searching, the first 3 to 10 lines is likely an effective start for
a personal statement on your resume or CV.

Set aside 90 Minutes for this Section now and 30 Minutes for editing later.

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PRE-WORK ~ 20 minutes
Note your LinkedIn Why and copy your favorite Headline below: Keep this in front of
you as you write an ABOUT so that your content clearly follows from your headline.
Avoid redundancy.

Next, let’s note the KEYWORDS that are most relevant to your goals. Do some
research (only spend 15 to 20 minutes on this section -- don’t go overboard):

➔ If you are job hunting, pull three to five job descriptions and highlight the
phrases, concepts, keywords that appear across each job description.

➔ If you are a consultant or freelancer -- look at the websites or social profiles of a

few ideal clients -- what language do they use to describe their fundamental
problems and needs?

➔ If you are an entrepreneur, coach or consultant -- what is the critical problem

your business solves for your customer? How do they describe this problem?

➔ Tip: Copy the text of your resume or current LinkedIn profile (you can
download a pdf version) and paste it into CVScan.Uk and compare to your
ideal job descriptions. This will give you a list of keywords to add.

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REFLECTION ~ 20 minutes
Answer the following questions with the FIRST thing that comes to mind. Do not
spend more than 20 minutes on this section!

What unique qualities or goals does your target audience need to know about you
to hire you, engage you, collaborate with you or otherwise help you accomplish your
professional goals?

Now answer the following questions (if one or two items don’t apply to your unique
situation - skip them):

What are your top five skills or specialties that make you the ideal person for this
work?

What are five words or phrases your peers or competition use to describe you?

What are five words would a boss, supervisor, or manager might use to describe
you?

What are five different words that a client or customer would use to describe your
work personality?

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What positively or uniquely differentiates you from your peers?

Why do you do the work that you do? What drives your motivation?

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Do you have any unique experiences, education, projects that might appeal to your
target audience? Did anything unexpected happen in your life or career that
changed your course of study or direction of work?

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Sample About - Straight from LinkedIn
The following About Samples achiever four goals:
1. Clearly target the ideal audience.
2. Demonstrate values, strengths and solutions.
3. Hint at Worldview
4. Include a call to action.

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30
31
 This About is in the 3rd Person
It says all the right things, but 3rd person makes it awkward.

32
WRITE AN ABOUT ~ 40 minutes
[2000 characters max]

Remember your goal is to catch profile views and interest with the first 300
characters. You want your target audience to engage and click through to read your
profile. You don’t *need* to use all 2000 Characters. You can do short and sweet!

Give yourself 40 minutes to write your About -- 10 minutes per section.

Think about what you’d tell a previous mentor, teacher or someone else you’d admire
about your current work and professional goals. Write in a conversational style,
answer the prompts below and just get it done.

SECTION 1: PERFORMANCE PROFILE [up to 500 characters]

Write to your audience using the first person to answer these questions in terms of
your ideal audience.

Who am I?
What do I offer? To whom do I offer it?
How are my career goals aligned with your company’s/personal/client goals?

You might also include:

My secret sauce/superpower/strength is ____________
Worldview: I am driven/committed/dedicated to accomplishing or solving __________.

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PARAGRAPH 2: BACKGROUND [up to 500 characters]
If your first paragraph is WHO you are then your second paragraph is WHAT you’ve
done.
My unique background/experience entails _________
My workstyle is ______________

PARAGRAPH 3: FOCUS [up to 500 characters]

Your third paragraph is where you are going:
What is my specific focus, specialty or offer?
I am motivated to achieve/accomplish/excel because ________________

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PARAGRAPH 4: CONCLUSION [up to 500 characters]
What is the final take away you’d like your readers to have regarding you and your
professional brand? What action would you want them to take? How do you want
them to get in touch?

Call to Action
If you have a business that is seeking clients or sales on LinkedIn make sure you have
a very clear call to action. You might make this a 5th Paragraph.

BONUS SECTION:
You may wish to include a section of ‘Core Skills,’ ‘Key Words,’ ‘Key Interests’ or
something similar. If you work in a technical field or your position includes a variety
of titles you can list these at the end. If there are common misspellings of your name
you can put a small section at the end of your profile to capture this information.

For example, Lynda can also be spelled, Linda.

I’ve seen this used effectively to honestly add keywords for skills and experience you
lack by adding a section that says: Interested in/Learning/Studying ___________.

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Now take each of these sections and work them together into one About Section
in a separate document. Spend a bit of time making sure everything makes
sense and then take a break! Go for a walk, get a coffee then come back.

Formatting & Editing Your About ~ 40 minutes

After this break, come back and read it from the point of view of your primary
audience. Will they like what you have to say? Does it address their needs? Make any
final edits and then give it a final edit.

The structure of the summary is most effective if you keep the following points in
mind as you edit:

❏ Write in the 1st person (not an impersonal or formal 3rd).

❏ Total length is 2000 Characters including spaces, and lines.
❏ Keep paragraphs to 3 to 5 lines of text.
❏ Make sure there is a paragraph space after 5 lines.
❏ Keep bulleted lists to two lines per bullet.
❏ Use emojis or punctuation (dashes - ) to create bullets or definitions.
❏ Make sure you define and speak directly to your audience.
❏ Clearly, and in detail, state what you offer your audience.
❏ Describe how you work and why you are great at what you do.
❏ Offer up some of your unique personality. You don't want to be anyone but
you. And you want your clients to be excited to work with YOU. Differentiate.
❏ Include a call to action -- what outcome do you wish to have from folks
reading your summary?

I recommend asking a friend to give it a final read over or copy the info into an online
document or editor, such as Grammarly.

Formatting ✅✔⭐🌟★☆👉☝👆🔎→↳⇒
If you’d like to use bullet points or highlight any part of your summary you can use
special characters or Emoticons, cut and paste them from MSWord, GoogleDocs or
other word processing software — LinkedIn does not allow formatting or bullets, but
you can insert these “special characters” to highlight your text!

Now What? Take what you’ve written here and copy it into Grammarly or other word
processing software. Read it out loud, let it rest.

This is detailed and important work — congratulations on taking the time to focus
— NOW LET IT REST. Ideally, sleep on it overnight and come back to it tomorrow.

Now that you’ve had a longer break, you’ll likely be impressed with what you wrote!

Print it off, edit it, make notes. Spend up to 30 minutes rewriting it. Now publish it!

36
Case Study #4
Real Estate Agent

Situation: A real estate agent wants to reach out to professional clients without
sounding too sales-y or pushy.

The Challenge: Current Profile talks about why she became a real-estate agent and
reads in the 3rd person. Very much an impersonal PR bio that might be read at a
Business Awards event!

LinkedIn Actions:
➔ Profile Picture: No change. It was professional and approachable.
➔ Background Image: Was a blurry logo -- changed it to a better-fitted logo.
➔ The old headline was job title "Broker" -- new headline describes what she
does for clients -- makes their home search stress-free!
➔ Professional Summary: Describes what she offers clients, what she is like to
work with, her values, her strengths, and her specific solutions. Invites clients
to reach out and connect with her. Also welcomes others to communicate
with her, not just potential clients.

Results: Profile makes it easy for the broker to reach out with confidence and
connect with her ideal client. Ultimately, the profile summary is such a hit that it gets
copied by another agent in a different state, who eventually hires me to write his
profile too.

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SECTION 5: A Comprehensive Narrative
LinkedIn is more than the Blink image. It is the complete story.

The remainder of your profile is your “social” proof that supports the image and the
professional narrative that you’ve created so far.

So, don’t be lazy, don’t make excuses. Complete your profile.

Work Experience:
The Blink image of your profile is your brand image. The ABOUT + your Work
Experience becomes your brand story.

You can write whatever you want, create whatever image you want. When folks are
done with this section, they will scroll down to see if your history backs up your claim.

This means that a compelling narrative includes completing your profile. You should
fill out your work experience, education, certifications, skills and experiences, and
accomplishments. You should also give and receive recommendations.

Section 5 will focus on Work Experience & Education. Section 6 will focus on
Recommendations and Skills & Experience.

Business Pages

Before we dive into work experience, you may need to go and create a Business
Page. If you work for a legit company (even your own) there should be a company
page with a logo that automatically feeds back into your profile. If your company
already has a page, of course you do not need to create a new one!

A company or entrepreneur who doesn’t build out the Business Page, at least with
the most basic contact info, has lost an opportunity at indexing and growing
authority.

What to include on a business page:

❏ Company name
❏ Logo (this will feedback to your profile)
❏ Website (link to a website if you have one)
❏ Phone (only if you want to be called)
❏ Mission Statement or Solution Offered
❏ A background image*

That’s It! Take 15 minutes to do this and then leave it be.

*Background image is approximately 6x1 or 3000x500 pixels. You can include your
logo, a picture or just upload a solid block of color.

38
Creating a Powerful Narrative through Your Experience
Work Experience
The most simple way to complete your work experience is to cut and paste your
resume directly into your profile. This works if you have a good human-voiced
resume and if your work history is consistent and clearly aligned with your
professional narrative and your professional goals. For most people, this isn’t the
case!

General Work Experience Guidelines:

A compelling narrative can actually be exciting to write. Unlike a traditional resume,
think about writing out your work experience to show a bit of your personal history,
the joy you take in your work, the events that got you to where you are today -- don’t
worry about being judged. Focus on being authentic and show how your past
experiences crafted the awesome person you are today!

➔ Complete your work experience back at least 10 years, unless you are a recent
graduate. After 10 to 20 years of experience, you do not need to include first
jobs or unrelated jobs, unless you enjoy showing that diversity on your profile
or it is still relevant to the work you seek.

➔ If you are seeking a new job and have more than 15 years of experience you
can go back about 20 to 25 years. You don’t need to go further — this is overkill
and could contribute to ageism -- unless you are reaching for a job that
requires seniority, a c-level position or something else that needs deep history.

➔ If you are not concerned about ageism and you want to be known as an
expert in your field, you may go back as long as you wish.

➔ You may choose to only include jobs relevant to your current career path -- it’s
okay to have “gaps” on LinkedIn, but it’s better to fill them out (see #5).

➔ If you have a resume you can copy and paste your resume job descriptions
into your profile; however, if or when you do this, consider talking more about
perspective shifts, and learnings that tie to your future career path. Think of
telling a story with your profile.

◆ For each job include accomplishment stories, not only metrics.

◆ Never just copy and paste your job description -- that’s boring.

➔ If you have career gaps (for any reason) that are more than three months in
length, I would recommend including a brief section explaining the gap.
Choose empowering language to describe this period. (See the next section
for more information on how to do this effectively).

Question: Should I include EVERYTHING? Not necessarily. If you work in a very

specialized field or you are pivoting you may want to include only the experience that
is relevant. If you’ve held many simultaneous jobs, include your primary work
experience in the direction of the work you seek to do in the future.

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Updating Your Work Experience to Tell Your Narrative

The crucial part of a compelling professional narrative is to include accomplishments

in narrative form on your resume and in your work experience. Use the following
worksheet/questions to uncover this information (you might want to print several):

Dates of Employment:
Actual Job Title:
Similar Job Titles:
Promotions:

What were my top three to five responsibilities or key activities?

What did I have the opportunity to do that I didn’t expect to do in this work?

What was a significant problem (or failure) I overcame or solved?

What is the best part of this job?

Use these details to build out each job on your resume/profile.

40
Career Gaps
If you have a career gap longer than 3 months, don’t hide it and don’t be ashamed.
Honesty (strategic honesty) can, in fact, be highly effective. Think about how you can
write up your “gap” as an actual job or in a way that owns your story.

For example:

Caregiver | City State | 2014 to 2016

Cared for a family member with terminal cancer; organized all care from doctors’
visits, to treatment to hospice stay. Managed budgets, hospital billing, insurance
negotiations and hospice. Thoughtfully, effectively and consistently collaborated and
communicated with providers, family, and friends.

Make a list and be proud of all the things you did as a caregiver -- it’s a real job even
if your payment was social capital and not cash. Also think of how an experience
might have changed your worldview, built your grit or motivation, taught you the
importance of goal setting, or anything else that might show how you became a
better professional as a result. Include what is relevant to the work you seek.

Professional Sabbatical | City State | 2017 to 2018

Followed my passion and orchestrated an around the world bucket list trip.
Organized all travel plans from ticket purchases to lodging, to researching unique
tours, such as the Trans-Siberian railroad and XYZ.

Kept a blog at (www.sabbaticalme.com), took hundreds of pictures, learned how to

say hello in 32 languages, spent two weeks in a yoga ashram and made several dear
friends. Gained a new understanding of my place in the world and I am now driven
to make an impact, using my skills and experiences to achieve X…

Empowered Storytelling: Include what you are doing now and why.

● Returned home to launch my own business doing X, or returned home refreshed

and ready to hit the road running, or decided to settle in Bali and work remotely…
● Include a lesson learned, how your worldview developed, something that shows
how you’ve matured as a professional.
● If you were an ex-pat spouse or not able to work overseas or for another reason,
you can mention this, but keep it positive. Own it, don't be a victim!

Questions you might answer with your story:

What did I learn?

What did I accomplish?
How has this “situation” led me to be where I am or who I am today?

Own your Narrative.

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By now you should understand that the best way to be authentic is to own your
narrative. Be proud of what makes you, you. Maybe you lack a university education.
Maybe you speak 6 languages. Whatever your story — you’ve learned and grown over
time. You’ve got lots of experience, knowledge, and something of value to contribute.
Own your choices and build a story that shows what you’ve learned and how you
have built your career on your terms.

One aspect of “owning” your story is learning to flip perceived “weaknesses” to build
a more authentic and empowering career narrative.

Note 3 to 5 weaknesses and see if you can reframe them as positives or strengths.

Examples:

Prior to this experience, I had little interest in goal setting and project management. Now I
am currently working on a certification in agile project management because I appreciate
that without a goal and structure, excellence cannot be achieved.

Or maybe...

When I started down this path, my family told me that my obsession with fitness and health
would never lead anywhere. Now understand that my persistence and commitment to stick
with a healthy lifestyle has paid off. As a health coach, I help you to distinguish between
obsession and commitment. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and more.

Digital Nomad/Remote TIP: If you work remotely, as a Freelancer, from

home, or as a Digital Nomad you can customize your “Work Experience”
locations on your profile. For example, I keep my location on the top of my
profile in the Header as my physical location; however, under my work
experience, I identify my zone of work.

Alison Rakoto - Your Guide to Work You Love

Remote | Colorado | USA | Madagascar.

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Build out your Education, Service & Certifications
If you have any university-level education or certifications specific to your field of
work you should include these on your profile. Unless you are a recent high school
graduate, you do not need to include education prior to your University or Military
Service. Military Service, Peace Corps, America Corps should be included under your
Work Experience. Volunteer work has its own spot too, so be accurate.

Note the difference between Education and Licenses & Certifications. Many
certifications and licensures today are digitized. Under the “Certification” heading
LinkedIn is prepared to accept the digital code and link. Complete accordingly.

Education field:

License & Certification Field:

43
Case Study #5
From Call Center Employee to Cyber Security Analyst

Situation: At the age of 26 a young man graduates from university with a degree in
computer science, an introvert and neurotypical, he has 8 LinkedIn connections and
no profile picture. His work experience has been at a golf course, a warehouse and
most recently as a call center employee.

LinkedIn Actions
➔ Profile Picture: From no picture to a professional selfie.
➔ Background Image: No background to a background showing a data center.
➔ Headline: Describes who he is as a professional and includes three keywords:
Cyber Security | Problem Solver | Dedicated
➔ Professional Summary: Describes his deep interest in cybersecurity, how he
works, his commitment to excellence and ethics, his ability to work alone and
be a contributing team member,
➔ Work Experience & Accomplishments: Uses each experience to highlight a
trait critical to his desired role, confidence, problem-solving, loyalty, dedication,
commitment to excellence, process improvement, and so on.
➔ Skills & Endorsements: Make sure all relevant keywords show up.
➔ Tactics: reaches out to recruiters at his ideal jobs and offers his resume and to
give them a hand.

Results: From 8 connections, he strategically grows to 80; get's multiple

informational and formal interviews; gets hired into his top pick job and company in
less than three months.

44
Section 6: Other People Matter
In the world of sales and marketing, it is often said that customers buy a relationship
or an image over an actual product.

If you are an Apple lover think about this -- do you research the features of a new
iPhone before you buy it? Or do you just dive in, because you are already an Apple
devotee?

Whatever your professional goals for LinkedIn -- the platform can be extremely
powerful for the same psychological reasons -- your ideal audience may be looking
for a specific service or product -- but before they get that they get you.

LinkedIn is networking for HUMANS.

Other people matter. When you network on LinkedIn be as polite, respectful, and
thoughtful as you would in any professional setting!

The Power of Skills and Endorsements

Skills and endorsements serve the purpose of allowing for searchable keywords, in
addition to demonstrating your strengths, skills, and core knowledge. Every text box
on your LinkedIn profile is searchable, so if you can’t get all your keywords in under
“Skills & Endorsements” you can still work them in throughout your profile.

❏ Make sure the three skills that are most crucial to your current career goals are
listed first. (Grab the item and drag it to move skills around.)
❏ Compare your skills current list to job descriptions and your peers’ list.
❏ Double-check to make sure that specialty jargon or any other crucial details in
your skillset show up.

Make note of any skills you’d like to add:

45
If you’ve got skills listed that are not relevant to your current goals and that don’t
benefit you from an SEO perspective, delete them.

Make note of any skills you’d like to delete:

Build out your Accomplishments:

All of the following can be completed. If you take a course relevant to your current
work or get a certification, link to it in your accomplishments. If you publish a blog
post or write a relevant article, list it! If you’ve managed a bunch of key projects, list
those too.

❏ Courses
❏ Publication
❏ Certification
❏ Patent
❏ Project
❏ Honor or Award
❏ Test Score
❏ Language
❏ Organization

As LinkedIn is a public platform, be sure you don’t list anything you’ve agreed to
keep confidential, signed an NDA for or that is untrue. You risk the consequences of
legal action or embarrassment!

Make note of any accomplishments or skills you’d like to add:

46
Recommendations
An optimized LinkedIn profile should have received at least three recommendations
and have also given several. Recommendations are the social proof that shows that
you provide value and that you appreciate value. Giving and receiving is crucial.

Obtaining Recommendations:

❏ Make a list of five people that you could ask for a recommendation -- ideally
from the last five years.

❏ Make sure that the company/work experience associated with this person is
on your profile and that you are connected to the person. If not, add them.

❏ Scroll down to your recommendation section and click on “Request a

recommendation.”

❏ Draft a sample recommendation that you could send to each of these

individuals. Make it clear that you’ve included a sample to jog their memory
and make the process easier -- most people will use your sample as a
foundation and then embellish it or write a new one.

❏ Know that you will have the option to request changes or accept any
recommendation -- nothing will auto-publish to your profile without your
approval!

Relationships are Reciprocal

Many people on Linkedin fall short because they ask for help, expect help, or display
an attitude of expectation. There is nothing more annoying than a message that
starts off:

I need...
Can you help me…

Remember that to get the value you need to give value. When you reach out to folks
for help, make sure to make your request in the context of how this is of
interest/benefit to them too. Instead of asking a recruiter for help, offer your resume
to help them fill a need. Get it?

Make an effort to help your connections -- if you see someone post a job posting or
ask for advice -- take a few seconds to respond. It’s kind and it’s good karma.

If you write a post and want to tag a friend or co-worker or other connection, pop
them a PM first and ask if it’s okay (unless you are confident the person is okay with
being tagged).

Just like with any real-life relationship -- if you always take, but never give -- your
LinkedIn network will dry up.

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Giving Recommendations
Now that you’ve requested a few recommendations, think back over the last few
years. Do you have any relationships -- employees, service providers, peers, teachers,
mentors, or bosses that have made your life better, easier, or more interesting?

Write them a recommendation.

A good recommendation given is not only shining a good light on someone else, but
it also demonstrates that you value the people that you work with and that you are a
thoughtful and considerate person.

Make a habit of writing at least one new recommendation a year. If not more.

Strategic Connections - How many do I need?

Many people mistakenly believe that they need to collect lots of connections. In fact,
the reason that LinkedIn stops at showing more than 500 connections, is that it’s not
really possible for you to KNOW more than 500 people.

If you have 86 or 230 or 450 connections -- there is a good chance you actually have
met in person or at least through an acquaintance your entire list of connections.
This is a good thing.

If you are job searching, you can strategically grow connections by reaching out to
recruiters and companies you’d like to work with, but you don’t need to connect with
everybody. (Refer back to Case Study #5!)

Connect with your primary audience and your secondary audience to broaden your
reach. The people you connect with and follow are like a two-way street -- you can
both learn and grow with people who do what you do.

Don’t be afraid of your competition -- know them best! If you want to grow your
connections based on your career goals make a list of the following:

● Who do I want to learn from?

● Who else has a similar skill set, job, or is doing what I’d like to be doing in the
future?

● Who are my peers and or competition? Are we connected?

Another way to look at this is to answer this question: Who do I want to notice me
that is not in my primary audience and why?

Keep in mind that it doesn’t hurt you to grow your connections -- unless those
connections are completely random. You don’t need 20,000 connections to get a job
or to get clients on LinkedIn. What you need is to get in front of the right people.

48
LinkedIn Etiquette & Best Practices:
❏ When you connect with someone -- include a personal message.

❏ When someone accepts your request -- thank them and if you are actively
generating leads, follow up with a strategic response.

❏ Do connect with people you admire or who could help achieve your
professional goals. Tell them why you admire them (in a non-creepy way).

❏ Do connect with people from your past, but always remind them who you are!

❏ You can use “Follow” for people you want to learn from, but who you don’t
need to connect with or for people with more than 30k connections.

❏ If someone comments on your post -- reply as this is polite and it will boost
your engagement.

❏ If you reach out to someone for help -- do your best to reciprocate.

❏ Never ever argue. Be polite -- even when someone else is not.

❏ Don’t harvest email addresses. It goes against LI terms of service.

❏ If someone requests to connect and you don’t know them and it’s obvious
phishing/spam you can report/block/ignore them. Your choice.

❏ Track the status of your connection requests from time to time -- if you’ve got
requests older than, say 2 weeks, that have yet to be accepted -- delete the
request. Some people delete after 2 or 3 days, but many people do not check
LinkedIn daily or only accept requests once per week, so be patient.

❏ Job applications: if you apply to a job or a company once, don’t reapply

immediately, but you can apply again in the future (say 30 days). Do avoid
applying for 20 jobs with the same company, a few similar jobs are ok!

❏ Do try and find the recruiter or hiring manager and ask for feedback. If you
don’t ask, the answer is “no” if you do ask, sometimes you get good feedback
or discover their application system broke and you get to submit again. Polite
persistence pays off when job hunting.

❏ Do reapply to the same company after a few months or even years and or
once you’ve had time to address feedback. Let the recruiter know what has
changed since the last time you applied.

❏ Do connect with people at your ideal job site and reach out for informational
interviews.

49
Personalize Your URL & Contact Information
1. On your main profile page navigate to “contact info” and hover over it, then
click on the pencil to edit.

2. When the box opens up click on the pencil in the upper-righthand corner to
edit your details.

3. If you have yet to personalize your LinkedIn URL follow the arrow to your
Public Profile Settings.

4. On the right-hand column, you will be able to customize your URL.

5. The best practice is to use your name or a variation of your name; best practice
is to avoid using a company name or something clever as this is your URL
for life; once you share it, you won’t want to change it!

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Email Address, Phone Number & Websites
6. If you need to update your email address click on the arrow by your email
address and you will be redirected to your privacy settings.

○ The best practice is a professional email with your name and company.
○ A best practice is not anything cutesy or unprofessional avoid .aol emails.
○ If you are job searching, make sure your personal email is included.

7. You don’t need to list your phone number or your birthday or your address;
those choices are purely personal. I wouldn’t unless you have a good reason.

8. Website: you can list more than one and if you have more than one you can
use the “other” function to name your website something besides “company.”
If you have a professional website, make sure you link to it here and in your
work experience (company page).

○ Other options: you can link to a portfolio and label it “portfolio.”

○ You can link directly to a service or about your page elsewhere.
○ You can link to a scheduling calendar.
○ You can link to a landing or product sales page.

Benefits of a Paid Account

Option 1 (free)
Good enough if you just need your LinkedIn to be a reference page where people
can go to verify you and get social proof that you do what you say you can do.

Option 2: Job Seeker ($)

Okay if you are just starting out and not really doing a lot of online research; maybe
you are sending out resumes and you’ve got your LinkedIn profile URL on your
resume; maybe you want to be able to submit your resume via LinkedIn or signal
recruiters that you are available. This account is however limited in its features and
not much better than “free” in my experience.

Option 3: Premium ($$)

This is my preferred level of paid membership. You get unlimited searches, 15 InMails
(per month and they accrue), access to Profinder (for US members), you can still
signal recruiters and you get more robust reporting, more details on companies, and
when you research jobs and relationships. LinkedIn promotes YOU and you get
useful insights and metrics about interaction, engagement, and your network.

Option 4: Sales Navigator ($$$)

This is really designed for serious and experienced sales professionals. I’ve found it
clunky and not at all intuitive to use and a waste of my time and money.

Option 5: Recruiter Lite ($$$$)

Are you a recruiter? Yes? Then go for it. No? Don’t bother!

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Case Study # 6
From High School Teacher to Digital Agency Founder

Situation: A high school home-economics teacher gets assigned to teach website

development. Over time, she learns with the kids and grows to love web design.
She's had a creative side and gets into digital marketing. Over time her side-project
grows into a business, and she quits her job as a teacher, first by building websites,
and then by learning SEO, and then by just being good at it! Freelance success allows
her to hire helpers and she decides to found a digital marketing agency.

LinkedIn Actions:
➔ Profile Picture: From no picture to a selfie to finally a professional headshot!
➔ Background Image: From a random nature seen to the logo for her agency!
➔ Headline: They type of digital marketing she does, who she helps + the title
"Founder."
➔ Professional Summary: Tells people all about her agency and solutions; what
it's like to work with them and what kind of problems they solve for clients,
clearly highlights issues, solutions, outcomes and invites folks to reach out and
connect with her.
➔ Work Experience & Accomplishments: She nails it -- owning her journey from
teacher to digital agency founder, she weaves in her the details of her journey
with finesse and confidence!

Results: From a weak and confusing profile to a profile that instills confidence and
brings clients to her doorstep! She realizes that her story is her strength!

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Section 7: Publishing on LinkedIn

Short Posts (1300 Characters)

Goal: educate people, connect with people, grow your authority, and audience.

As an individual or a business, short posts are an ideal way to get in front of your
target audience and provide them immediate value. If you want to try publishing on
LinkedIn make a list of pain points or problems, solutions you offer, things you could
teach someone in 15 to 45 minutes.

Distill these “lessons” or value points down into one-page articles and then cut them
again to just the nitty-gritty of 1300 characters that really highlight a transformational
concept or experience. Put your posts up between 9 AM and 11 AM in your desired
audience time zone to get the best interaction.

Photos: You can post images, videos, and quotes with or without a short post, just
make sure they count, be strategic, and don’t use these for blatant self-promotion
or be all philosophical. *Please note it seems algorithm updates may unfavor
images except in sponsored posts or posts of live people (an actual event, profile,
etc.) not stock photos.

Video: Anything you can fit in a 1300 character post would also make a good video!
Make sure to add captions (you can do this in YouTube) before you upload your video
to LinkedIn. You will need to separate your Sound and Video files for this, which may
be a course on it’s on. Here is a link to LinkedIn’s instructions for videos.

Lives: These can be effective if you have an audience that is available and active on
LI. It’s best to plan these and invite people ahead of time.

Long Posts (Articles)

Goal: build your authority, get found in Google searches, be seen as an expert. Get
invited to write Newsletters by LinkedIn.

Article posts are a bit like journal articles or blog posts. They are most effective when
they are at least 800 words upwards of 3500 words long. You should cover an entire
idea or concept in an article. If you already publish blog posts or to another site such
as Medium, you can repurpose content, just give it about 1-week to be registered by
Google at its original publishing spot and then repost to LinkedIn.

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Ideas for Articles:
➔ An opinion piece or worldview piece -- these tend to get good engagement.
➔ A “how-to-article” that shows people how they can accomplish or do
something well or better.
➔ A lessons-learned piece.
➔ Only publish a few per year (maybe 6 max).

What Not to Publish: Content that the LinkedIn Algorithm will not support

➔ Event announcements: instead use LinkedIn Events to share an outside link.

➔ Negative opinions (unless that is your tactic).
➔ Share blog posts or other links without an explanation.
➔ Self-promotion posts that use language that blatantly self-promotes.
➔ Use language that outright directs people to comment and engage.
➔ Do not share videos as an embedded article (use the video function!).
➔ Dumb jokes, vanity pieces, things that waste busy professional’s time!

How Often Should I Publish? How many followers do I need?

LinkedIn suggests you publish thoughtful and valuable content TWO to FOUR times
per week. You do NOT need to publish multiple times per day. You do not even need
to publish daily. Overpublishing is likely to burn you out, not grow your audience.

You don’t need to be an influencer with thousands of followers. LinkedIn is not an

“influencer” site, it is designed to work for real people, every day.

Note for Teachers, Coaches & Therapists: Some of us work in realms of personal
growth and because LinkedIn is a professional platform, your ideal clients may feel
vulnerable commenting and engaging with your content publicly. In my personal
coaching practice I may have minimal “visible” interactions, but high impressions,
and occasional communication via DMs.

You may need to guage your “engagment” over a period of time, however, if you are
publishing consistent content for one month and you do not get anyone reaching
out via DMs you are not engaging your ideal audience.

Focus on growing your audience to be your target audience and your peers. This way
your peers and your target audience will engage. It’s better to have a targeted
follower list of 500 than 20,000 random people.

Sponsored Posts (LinkedIn Ads) -- not ideal for small businesses:

The best way to use sponsored posts is to start by publishing 1300 Character posts
two to four times per week. When you get a post that has decent engagement
(more than 200 to 500 views) in the first few hours and that continues to get
engagement over a one week period, you’ve got a good post to BOOST.

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Pay for this post to be sponsored for a few weeks, while continuing to run new
content. When you’ve got another hit post, boost it next!

➔ Watch your audience metrics -- make sure your engagement is from the RIGHT
audience. Engagement on its own is not any good if you are not getting in
front of the RIGHT audience. Watch this carefully!
➔ LinkedIn recommends running several Boosted posts at a time and maintaining
continuity of your image. If you have one really successful ad, consider running it
consistently, while mixing in new ads from time to time.

Want to try a campaign? LinkedIn will walk you through it.

LinkedIn Text Ads.

Similar in format to Google Ads, LinkedIn advertising is quite expensive and requires
professional targeting. Text Ads tend to have the best return used with an image;
however, keep in mind that you need to carefully target to get a return on
investment. You cannot just “put up an ad” and hope people see it.

● Text Ad images should be 100×100 pixels and JPG or PNG format

● Headlines are limited to 25 characters
● Descriptions - your ad text -- are limited to 75 characters

Part of your targeting is also understanding when and where people are looking at
your ads. Text ads are not seen on mobile, given that 70% of LinkedIn usage is on
mobile, is your audience even on a desktop? Will they see your ad? For 95% of
LinkedIn users, I’d stick with publishing and (maybe) sponsored posts.

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LinkedIn Ads in
Images - not the best
investment...

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Profinder for Consultants, Coaches and Service Providers
Looking to grow your business through LinkedIn? If you are a USA based user you
can and should leverage Profinder. If you think of a site like UpWork or Freelancer --
Profinder is LinkedIn’s better answer. (Not yet available outside of the USA.)

Why do I love Profinder? For a couple of reasons. One is that they limit the number of
proposals for each job request -- unlike Upwork where you compete with a Zillion
others for each job, on Profinder your competition will be limited to, say, FIVE other
people. This means that it is worth your while to put together a proposal.

LinkedIn reviews each request and will need to approve your initial request to join
Profinder. If you do this workbook first, you shouldn’t have any problem. Why?
Because as long as your profile clearly tells what you do and who you serve, they will
approve your request to join.

What services can be bought/sold/hired on Profinder? So far the overarching service

categories for Profinder are the following (there are many, many subcategories).

Software Development
IT Help
Design
Writing & Editing
Marketing
Business Consulting
Legal
Accounting
Financial Services
Coaching
Real Estate
Insurance
Photography
Home Improvement

If you were thinking about using LinkedIn advertising to grow your network, a more
effective marketing plan might be to leverage a mix of LinkedIn Short Posts +
Profinder proposals to grow your client base.

Profinder is free for the first month and then you need to sign up for Premium
service. If you consider that UpWork and other platforms take 20% to 50% of your
income when you consult or provide a service, the monthly Premium membership
fee to access Profinder is a DEAL.

You will need to be responsible for your own contract, project management, and
billing, so be sure to have those processes in place prior to launching on Profinder.

Read more about Profinder on LinkedIn.

Want a Profinder Profile consult? I’d be happy to help. Book a session with me.

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The End - You Did It!

Congratulations!
You’ve completed this workbook and should have an understanding of how to write
an effective profile.

Upload your new details and then go interact with a few of your contacts. Comment
on some posts, message friends for feedback. Consider publishing a short post
letting folks know you’ve updated your profile!

Then sit back and watch as your engagement increases -- watch carefully and see if
your engagement is coming from your target audience. If it’s not -- consider what
you might need to change or modify to better reach your ideal audience. If you’ve
done these exercises with the necessary care you deserve your results will increase
target audience engagement that takes you one step closer to your overarching
career goals!

Now that is something to celebrate!.

Did the work? Want a second pair of eyes to check out your profile?

I do LinkedIn Audits. Click to sign-up!

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