Did you know that LinkedIn currently has more than 706+ million members worldwide, and it’s growing fast with 2 new members per second?
More importantly, LinkedIn is the #1 most powerful platform for B2B lead generation₁ with 4 out of 5 members driving business decisions. This is HUGE!
In other words, if you want to reach high-income professionals and key decision-makers, your ideal clients are most certainly hanging out there. Even as a small business owner or solopreneur!
When used correctly, it can be your most effective platform to establish a strong professional brand, drive high-quality leads, and grow your network with ideal clients — instead of filling your Newsfeed with content from friends, family or colleagues.
Sounds familiar? 😉
In this blog post, I’m sharing the top 5 benefits of LinkedIn for business owners and solopreneurs to build your online brand and market your skills and services:
1. It's the world's largest professional network.
With 706+ million professional across 200 countries and territories LinkedIn is by far the largest professional network worldwide. And this doesn’t mean that it should be a boring platform for corporate business men and women in suits 😉
In fact, people use LinkedIn to establish their professional brand, grow their online network, and connect with business opportunities. They are most likely already in a professional mindset when scrolling the LinkedIn Newsfeed. This makes it a great place to market your products or services!
2. Build your online brand, not your resume.
In the past few years, LinkedIn has grown significantly from a jobseeker platform into the world’s largest professional network full of business potential. If done correctly, your profile can be your powerful online business card that attracts potential business opportunities— whether you’re looking for a new job, ideal clients, PR opportunities, speaking engagements, or brand partnerships,
Think about the following questions: What do you believe in (your “why”)? What is your expertise? How can you help others achieve their goals? Invest time in building your online brand, not your resume on this powerful online network.
3. Grow your network with ideal clients.
LinkedIn is a relationships-driven platform. It is a great tool to build your online network and nurture relationships with key decision makers, CEO’s, recruiters, journalists, and peers in your industry right at your fingertips. The best part? This network is valuable for the rest of your career!
Focus on growing your network with relevant people and always add a personalised note with your connection request. You wouldn’t greet someone at a conference without a thoughtful opening line, would you?
4. Establish credibility for your skills or services.
Another great benefit of LinkedIn is the ability to provide detailed information about your skills, background and experience to your profile. However, you need to add social proof to establish credibility and stand out from your competitors.
Add relevant skills to your profile (you can add up to 50) and try to get ‘endorsements’ from people within your network. You can also ask for recommendations from current or past clients, colleagues, mentors, or peers and highlight these on your profile to quickly add credibility and social proof.
5. Increase your visibility with great organic reach.
Finally, one of the greatest benefits on LinkedIn is its algorithm with great organic reach. You don’t need thousands of followers (or “connections”) to get noticed on this platform— in my early LinkedIn days, I’ve had a status update go viral with resulting in 11,000+ likes, 400+ comments and +2,000 new connections!
Invest time in building a strong online professional brand, grow your network with your ideal clients, establish credibility for your skills and services, and increase your visibility with high-quality content to benefit from LinkedIn’s great organic reach. By doing this, LinkedIn will soon be your most favourite and successful platform to market your online brand and business!
Do you want to take your LinkedIn presence to the next level? Download my free LinkedIn profile checklist to create a complete, well-optimized profile and create a killer first impression with your target audience.
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LinkedIn™ Profile Checklist
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