LinkedIn Lessons Learned From Amanda Healy

On Friday I had the privilege of attending the 2018 Pennsylvania Conference for Women held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. #PennWomen

I was there by invitation from fellow woman business owner, Caroline Onyedinma a career coach who teaches clients how to get Sales without Struggle.  Caroline was an Exhibitor and asked if I wanted to join and assist her at the vendor table and I gladly accepted.  This was a sold out conference with over 10k women in attendance with guest speakers such as Serena Williams, Amal Clooney, Amanda Southworth, Ellen McGirt and Mayson Zayid – how could I say, “no”.

As this is going to be a multi blog post I am starting with the LinkedIn Lesson  Learned from Amanda Healy.

Amanda Healy is an award-winning marketing demand generation leader, national speaker and keynote, and social media evangelist. She has trained world-class teams ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies to leverage social media, and has spoken at industry-leading conferences. Profiled by the Washington Post, interviewed by WBZ, lauded as “Social Genius” by the Boston Social Tools Summit, and named to BostonSpeak’s “24 Experts On How to Become a Great Public Speaker” list, Amanda is one to watch. Follow her at @amanda_healy or send her a note on LinkedIn via linkedin.com/in/amandahealy.

Amanda’s workshop covered the various aspects of an effective LinkedIn profile as well as other tips and tricks, and since I will be presenting the same topic to students at Deep Day at Delaware State University, I decided to listen in on the presentation which you can also watch from Caroline’s Facebook Live video below.

Amanda provided a handout which contained the following Tips and Tricks:

1. Use a professional photo and keep it consistent among all profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
2. Upload a background image, even if it’s just a stock photo
3. Create a custom URL and use in email signatures, business cards, social media profiles, etc.
4. Change your headline to more than just title – what value to you provide to your network?
5. Write a great summary: tell your story and use keywords to increase SEO value
6. Edit “Contact Info” to cross reference your Twitter handle and or/website or blog
7. List out all your skills to allow your network to endorse you (be sure to endorse others as well)
8. Build a media portfolio with reports, papers, presentations, blog posts, artwork, etc.
9. Increase your profile strength to 100% =  40x more likely to receive opportunities
10. Update your status weekly with articles, reports, and other items of interest to your network
11. Download the LinkedIn app and check on your network + newsfeed often
12. Aim for 3-5 bullet points in role descriptions, and 1 long-form recommendation per position
13. Change your settings as to who can see you if you view their profile (if you choose)
14. Join only groups you have the bandwidth to actively participate in
15. Customize your LinkedIn invitations to connect with a personal note, always

LinkedIn in 20 minutes per Day:

1. Check “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” and reach out to those who you may want to connect with
2. Check groups for discussions of interest-comment as often as possible
3. Send invitations to those you recently met or talked with (do this same day, if possible)
4. Spend 5 minutes growing your network
5. Spend 5-10 minutes providing interesting posts to groups (treat these as conversations)
6. Comment/like status updates of others in your network to maintain active connections
7. Check your newsfeed for articles of intrigue – share where appropriate
8. Update your role description as major milestone are achieved within your role.

These are all great tips and tricks but remember to “Google Yourself” first to view your digital footprint and then either enhance it or clean it up.

Let’s Chat > Have you checked your LinkedIn profile lately?