You could say that I’m fairly active on LinkedIn.
I’m on the platform at least once or twice a day. And no, I’m not looking for job. Although I’m quite open to some more work if you have it
I use LinkedIn as a prospecting tool. Which sounds very clinical, but it’s really not. I like to search for people who might be good clients or look like they might have something interesting to offer my own company.
I’ve even used it to find resources who now contribute content and other services to my own company.
The point is I use it a lot.
So imagine my horror last week as I was adding a new video and I just happened to see the summary on my LinkedIn profile was at least 3 years out of date.
A part of my job is helping clients optimize their LinkedIn profiles. I read them over and sometimes re-write them to reflect what it is they do in the real world. So how did mine get so out of date?
Well how does anything get out of date? I set it up and forgot all about it. Then I tweaked it and forgot all about it again.
Why is this a big deal? When I request to connect with somebody and they click through to my profile the first thing they see is my headline. If that’s strong then they may go to my summary. And if that summary doesn’t align with what I do for clients, they may be left scratching their heads as to why I’m trying to connect.
Your headline gets attention, but your summary has to make a case. And mine made a great case – for something I don’t do anymore.
A quick look at other connections revealed that I’m not alone. Click after click sent me to profiles of people I knew to be active on the platform but hadn’t updated their summaries in a long time.
Stop reading this now and open your profile in a new tab. I’ll wait.
*Whistle* *Check Twitter* *Update Facebook*>
Welcome back. That took a bit longer than I expected. If you haven’t looked at your summary in the last year or so, you probably made some changes to reflect how things have evolved for you, your job or with your business.
That’s where I found myself. Once I realized how awkwardly out of date my profile had become, I had to fix it right away.
So how am I going to stop this from happening again? I’m creating a recurring appointment in my calendar for every six months to remind me to make sure what I have in my summary is still relevant.
How often do you review your summary? How often do you update the other elements in your profile? LinkedIn is important for building B2B relationships. Make sure you pay attention to it and it will help your business grow.
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