How to Leverage LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful tool that can help you to grow your business in multiple ways.  It’s a free platform where you can find jobs, showcase your brand, establish solid connections with other likeminded individuals and businesses, and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your field, to name just a few of the benefits.  Wendi Hatton joins us today to talk about how to make the absolute most out of your LinkedIn profile!

Wendi Hatton is a sales coach and LinkedIn specialist helping women entrepreneurs attract quality clients and profitable collaboration opportunities using LinkedIn as their primary platform to establish visibility and credibility.  She has changed businesses teaching her Max Value Formula, a step-by-step group training geared at helping members learn everything about LinkedIn from the basics, all the way up to solidifying long-lasting relationships.  She has been featured in Women of Distinction Magazine in 2015 and was named the 2016 Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women.  On top of all that she is a Navy veteran and a professional clarinet player! 

Wendi quickly dispelled the myth that LinkedIn is only a beneficial platform for job seekers and recruiters.  Though this was its main goal at it’s start in 2003, the introduction of profiles in 2006 made it the perfect place for business owners and entrepreneurs to showcase their skillsets and begin virtually networking.  Profiles allowed members to share their message with a wide audience and to become the brand that they represented. 

Wendi’s work with her clients now is to revamp their LinkedIn profiles so that they are really leveraging the full capability of the platform.  She does this through her Max Value Formula program mentioned previously.  She shared that “Value” is actually an acronym:

•  Vision & Clarity: Wendi encourages her clients to get really clear on what it is they are selling, who their audience is, what unique challenges they are encountering, and how their business can alleviate these challenges. 
•  Abundant Relationships: Once the foundation is laid, she shows her clients how to go about establishing relationships with other likeminded business owners and entrepreneurs.
•  Leverage Each Other’s Audiences: When relationships are established, it’s now time to work together.  How can their audience benefit from your product or service and vice versa?
•  Unlimited Opportunities: Wendi then shows her clients how to determine and identify which opportunities will pack the most punch for their business.  What is worth pursuing and what can be let go of?
•  Escalate: Keep growing these relationships and take them to the next level, while also pursuing new interests.  Want to start a podcast?  Search podcast hosts and start learning all that you can about it!

Wendi cautions that overselling your product or service is the quickest way to damage the relationships you’re trying to build.  She shares that LinkedIn groups used to allow users to email the entire group at once, but an inundation of spam forced the site developers to shut down this function.  Remember that this is a relationship-based platform, not a selling platform.  Take the time to really look through other people’s profiles before reaching out to them.  Are you in alignment?  Can you really benefit one another?  How can you add value and connection?  Randomly adding people to your network is not a way to find your audience. 

Wendi also shared that the “about” section is the most misunderstood of the entire LinkedIn profile.  Contrary to popular belief, this is not a space to just talk about your business.  It’s actually asking you about your visitor!  Who is it that will benefit from your service or product?  She breaks it down further to include four key points that should be touched on in your About section.

1.  Grab your audience’s attention with a paragraph that speaks directly to their needs. “Are you suffering from x, y, z?” or “So, you’re ready to take your business to the next level!” or something along those lines that clearly expresses your visitor’s unique need.
2.  Address the results that your client’s can expect to see. How do you solve their problem?  Is it a program, a training, a product, a service?  How will they feel after they’ve worked with you?  What transformation will take place?
3.  Add in a paragraph about you…who are you and what do you do? This will help to build credibility with your audience and showcase your expertise.
4.  Lastly, offer a free gift. Whether this is a guide, a tool, or something else, doing this will help to deepen the relationship you are trying to establish with your visitor, as well as help you to build your email list. 

So, that’s it!  It’s time to head over to your LinkedIn profile and see if it’s really been optimized to work for you and your business.  If you want a bit more direction, join Wendi for her upcoming event, “Profile to Profits Makeover”.  All attendees will get personalized help optimizing their entire profile.  Each day focuses on one part of the profile section and the trainings are super digestible at about 30-40 minutes each for five days.  There’s also an extra bonus training on Saturday for those who want to talk a bit more about sales.  You can sign up by clicking the link. 

Don’t forget to head over to my site, too, to download your free guide, “How to Build 90 Days of Social Media Content in 30 Minutes”?  That way, you’ll be ready across all channels to amplify your business to the next level.  You can always call me, as well, for private coaching or join me on Facebook in our group, “Be a Confident Entrepreneur, Gain Confidence and Grow Your Business”.  

💥 You really can create social media content with ease!
Grab my free video and guide to show you how you can create 90 days worth of social media content in only 30 minutes.