Linkedin: it’s not a Resume; it’s a Lead GeneRation machine

Linkedin is not a resume

I am a social media and marketing strategist and my company provides LinkedIn training to teach people how to monetize LinkedIn…to use it as a lead generation platform to meet their business and professional goals. This article became necessary as I found the majority of users on LinkedIn do not know what a precious tool they have at their disposal. Instead they spend their time and hard-earned money elsewhere for leads.

If you are looking at LinkedIn from the perspective of a platform to just showcase your resume or “network”, then you have it all wrong!

The reason LinkedIn cannot be seen as just a resume platform is that your resume doesn’t bring in leads…your profile does!

how has Linkedin evolved?

I want to look briefly at how LinkedIn has grown from just 10 members at inception in 2002 to over 364 million members in 2015 with over 115 mil-lion members in United States. LinkedIn has distinguished itself as the top strategic digital business networking platform in the world. So why wouldn’t aren’t you taking advantage of this?

Linkedin as a Lead Generation machine

Simply put, LinkedIn gives its members the platform and the power to gen-erate leads at will. Yes, you can generate leads anytime you want! And not just cold leads…but very targeted and qualified leads. The key is to know HOW to utilize LinkedIn in this fashion…and when you do, it literally can be-come your own pipeline of leads to achieve your cherished goals.

1 | Linkedin: it’s not a Resume; it’s a Lead GeneRation machine

2 | Linkedin: it’s not a Resume; it’s a Lead GeneRation machine

Whatever you sell, your first job is to sell yourself. But you cannot stop

there…you need to let your prospects know that you understand their pain

points and then how you can help them.

So where do you begin? Well, you can start setting up your lead generation

strategy following some simple steps below.

setup your profile to be Lead GeneRatinG!

Your profile is your more than your digital business card or resume. And as

I mentioned earlier, the majority of LinkedIn users build their profile to read

like a resume…and this does nothing to help you with leads. To generate

leads on LinkedIn, your profile needs to become your sales letter. It needs

to speak to your prospects…it shouldn’t be all about you! So here we go:

1. Good, professional looking photograph – your photo is the first thing

anyone would see when they come across your profile. Make it profession-

ally attractive and inviting. This isn’t Facebook…so no pictures of you and

your family or pets.

2. Your headline – This is key. LinkedIn gives you 120 characters to use in

your headline…so use them wisely! By default, LinkedIn will use your current

job title and company name for your headline. DELETE IT! Remember, this

isn’t about you…it’s about your prospects! Let it tell your prospect what

you can do and how you can help them. You have to state your value. State

what you do. Your goal is to grab your prospects’ attention and get them

to click into your profile. Also, your headline is not cast in stone. Feel free to

tweak and modify it to see what performs better.

3. Your summary – So your headline grabbed their attention and they

clicked into your profile…so now what? Well, if you are like most people,

your summary will focus on your job responsibilities…or your accomplish-

ments. Blah. No one cares. Too harsh? Well, sorry but that summary will

not get you leads. You need to convey to prospects that you feel their

pain…you understand their struggles and needs. So tell them! Then after

you craft that language, it’s time to switch to selling mode. They just read

how you nailed their pain points. Now you need to let them know that you

can alleviate that pain! Showcase your services/products…they should

directly correlate with all the pain points and struggles you listed. But you

can’t stop there. For your closing, you need a “Call-To-Action”. Don’t as-

sume that your prospects will know what to do next. Tell them! Whatever

works best for you…”Email me here”; “Call me to get started”; “Go to this

URL”…just make sure they know what to do next!

Obviously, those steps are just the tip of the iceberg, but they are key to

transitioning your LinkedIn profile from boring to lead generating.

3 | Linkedin: it’s not a Resume; it’s a Lead GeneRation machine