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Author: Carol Kaemmerer

Internationally recognized executive branding expert, speaker and author of the award-winning book LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive, Carol Kaemmerer creates powerful brand messaging for senior executives and their companies to increase their visibility, influence, and ability to steer their future.

A member of National Speakers Association and certified as a Virtual Presenter, Carol is also an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Missing the Mark?

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Missing the Mark?

People like to do business with PEOPLE, not companies – and they like to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. These two maxims guide the world of business. Yet many executives and business owners ignore these principles when crafting their LinkedIn profiles. That’s unfortunate because LinkedIn is a primary way people search for other professionals to buy from, partner with, appoint to boards, offer new opportunities, and more. Moreover, the talented people that executives and owners are trying to attract are looking to align themselves with leaders who lead with passion. Executives and business owners who have failed to be authentic and transparent on the LinkedIn platform, and who have failed to sow the seeds of know, like, and trust into their profiles are missing the mark.

Be YOUnique

A quote often attributed to Oscar Wilde reminds us: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” When your profile reads like everyone else’s, you do yourself a great disservice. You are at your most attractive when you share your business principles, processes, and passions. Your personal back story is captivating – tell it. When you share the story of your business journey – including the bumps in the road – you draw us in. You become more human. You become a person with whom we’d like to do business.

Commonly Missed Opportunities

  1. Not customizing your LinkedIn Headline. Your Headline is the text right under your name. Although LinkedIn auto-fills this for you with your current job title and company, you have the option to customize it using up to 220 characters. Customizing your headline is a great way for you to stand out. Add the results you create and how you produce them. Or, identify your customers and how you create value for them.
  2. Using your ABOUT section as sales copy for your business. Oh, please spare us. Stop hiding online. Your ABOUT section should be about YOU and your personal business story. This is where you woo and wow. Of course, mentioning what you currently do and whom you do it for is fine, but tell us more. Share your career journey. Share who YOU are.
  3. No text under each of your positions. Your current position is where you get to tell us all about your company or business. In each of your prior positions, tell us about your accomplishments to help us get to know you better.
  4. Skills section that is outdated and not aligned with current aspirations. LinkedIn is currently showing only three of your skills before the reader has to click to see more. So the three skills that show should be indicative of the things you most want to be known for. Beyond that, make sure your skills reflect what you are doing now and plan to do in the future, as opposed to skills you used 20 years ago and now delegate. Review each of your skills so that each on your list is the highest level expression of that skill that applies to you.

LinkedIn allows you to claim your eminence online 24/7 without having to open your mouth – so you can achieve your personal business goals and attract your ideal opportunities.

 

Carol Kaemmerer's book LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive
LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive – Second Edition is a Featured Selection of the C-Suite Book Club.

 

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer. 

 

Other resources:

Book me to speak either virtually or in person on personal branding via LinkedIn. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discounts or signed copies, contact me directly.

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

OTHER ARTICLES by Carol Kaemmerer

Comfortable in Your Job? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish : Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams on LinkedIn

A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn

“Tell Me More…” — On LinkedIn

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?

C-Suite Executives: Stop Hiding Online

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Human Resources Personal Development Women In Business

Comfortable in Your Current Position? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career

Comfortable in Your Current Position? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career

 

If you are perfectly satisfied with your job and your company and have no plans to seek other employment any time soon, congratulations. This article is for you.

Because, here’s the thing: you are not totally in control of your future.

While you may plan to stay with your company for many more years, your company may have other plans. In response to the Covid-changed market, companies may discontinue product lines, outsource functional areas, or abandon previously served markets. The restructuring will require fewer employees. The action may be swift and unexpected. One day you may be doing your best work and the next you are handed the ubiquitous white cardboard box and given an hour to gather your personal items before being escorted out by security.

Of course, I’m not saying that this will happen to you – as a matter of fact, I truly hope that it doesn’t. But what I can predict with certainty is that if you are not prepared to hit the ground running and you find yourself without a job, it will take a LOT more time to get prepared for a search than you think it will. My certainty comes both from my own experience with unexpected job loss (2011) and the work I have done with C-Suite executives and senior leaders since then to prepare them to enter a job search or their next endeavor following an unexpected job loss.

I offer these personal life lessons learned through my own unanticipated job loss in the hope that you will take action now to become better prepared.

 

Creating and communicating your personal brand online is imperative for the health of your career. Do it now.

I’m not saying that a powerful LinkedIn profile will save your job. If your company is eliminating whole departments, they are not making case-by-case decisions about who will stay and who will go. However, what I do know is that if you have done the work to understand your personal brand – the things you want to be known for and your differentiators – and you’ve articulated your brand online on LinkedIn, you will be able to rebound much more quickly than if you haven’t.

One thing few people anticipate is the extent to which an unexpected job loss delivers a visceral blow to one’s self-esteem. You simply cannot effectively communicate your personal brand powerfully when you are feeling low, and a LinkedIn profile that is weak and underdeveloped will not be an asset in your job search when you need it most.

 

A vibrant professional network outside your company is essential to your career. Build it now.

You’re too busy, you say. That was my problem, too. Sure, I had lots of friends and colleagues within the company, but when everyone from the department is out on the street, suddenly you are all competitors. Everyone knows networking is the top way people find senior-level positions, but creating a network from scratch when you really need one is hard to do. Build a network of professional friends outside your current company now so that you’ll have people who are ready to cheer you up and cheer you on when you need that. Be a resource to others, too.

 

Your same skills and experiences can be applied in new ways in different settings to bring you joy.

I assumed that I had the very best job for me in the world, and that the absence of that job meant the absence of joy in my life going forward. I wallowed in the misery of this untruth for many months. Fortunately, I learned that instead, one’s skills and experiences are like the pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope. Each time we turn the wheel on the kaleidoscope, the picture that appears could be even more beautiful than the last one. Test out the hypothesis that your skills are portable by using some of your core skills in a volunteer capacity. Begin to expand your mind to the alternative ways you can find joy and add value by applying your skills. Yes, the job that I did before my job loss was perfect for me then. However, the business I have created for myself is perfect for me now. My skills are the same; only the context and content are different.

 

You are bigger than any job you hold. You are not your job. You are worthy.

Believe this now. You ARE bigger than any job you hold.

Many of us intertwine our own identity and our own brand with our job. This is dangerous thinking; the corollary to this reasoning is that if we lose our position, we have lost ourselves. What despair this causes! Understanding the difference between ourselves and our job is important; it allows us to move forward, past the real but temporary grief of job loss.

Does it take work to optimize your LinkedIn profile, create a robust professional network, and understand that our skills and ourselves are distinct from our job? You bet it does. But the return on investment is high: by doing this work, you will create a firm foundation for the continuity of your career and your mental health that no one can take away.

Carol Kaemmerer's book LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive
LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive – Second Edition is a Featured Selection of the C-Suite Book Club.

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer. 

Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

OTHER ARTICLES by Carol Kaemmerer

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish

A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn

Tell Me More… — On LinkedIn

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?

C-Suite Executives, Stop Hiding Online

Categories
Leadership Marketing Personal Development

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

Whether you’re hoping to catch the eye of an executive recruiter, a potential customer, or a company looking to fill a gap on its corporate board, the process for ranking highly on a LinkedIn keyword search is essentially the same. LinkedIn is not just an online directory of professionals; it is a search engine. Where you show up in the search results matters because people rarely look beyond the first two pages of results of their search. If you’ve not done a stellar job in maximizing your profile for search, it’s likely that people won’t find you based on a keyword search. That’s a problem because you may never know the opportunities that could have come your way, had you been found.

 

LinkedIn’s search algorithm has two primary drivers: 1) the size of your network and 2) the frequency of the searched words in your profile. So how can you maximize your opportunity to be found for right-for-you opportunities? This article shares ten strategies you can use to maximize your opportunity to be discovered, 24/7.

  1. Have a large network
    If you are not a first, second or third-degree LinkedIn connection or a member of a LinkedIn group with the person doing the search, your profile will not show up for them on a keyword search. You can improve the odds that you’ll be found by having a large network. For example, if you were looking for an opportunity to be a Chief Information Officer, you could improve your odds by connecting with executive recruiters who specialize in recruiting senior leaders in IT. Joining LinkedIn groups related to the opportunity you seek can also be an effective strategy.
  2. Achieve All-Star Status
    All-Star-Status just means that your profile is “complete” – that is, you’ve entered text in all the primary sections. This is not hard to do and it does not address the quality of your text, but LinkedIn research has found that profiles that have achieved All-Star status are 40 times more likely to be found on a keyword search than profiles that are incomplete.
  3. Optimize your headline using your most important keywords
    Keywords need not be single words. Rather, think of them as words someone would use to find someone just like you. Create a list of your most important keywords and make a point to use them in your LinkedIn headline and About section. Your headline, which is auto-filled by default, can be customized instead. Think of your headline as your personal marketing tagline (in 220 characters or fewer).
  4. Write to the margins on LinkedIn – that is, use the maximum character count for each section as your guide
    Why? Because when we tell about our passions and accomplishments in the world of work by “writing to the margins,” we will naturally use our keywords frequently. Don’t “keyword stuff” or just list them one after the other; rather, use them in context within your normal sentence structure. Maximum character counts for each section on LinkedIn as of this writing are as follows: Headline: 220; About section: 2,600 (this is 4-5 paragraphs); for each position entry in your Experience section: 2,000 characters.Failure to include an About section (or to have a very skimpy one), or failure to provide an account of your accomplishments in your various job positions will result in your not ranking highly on a keyword search. And what is the consequence of not ranking highly? Right-for-you opportunities won’t come your way.
  5. Make all your LinkedIn sections public
    Huh? There is an under-the-hood setting that allows you to choose which sections of your profile will (or will not) be seen publicly. Check that you have not made some of your sections private. If you’ve hidden some sections, they may not be searchable for keywords by LinkedIn’s search algorithm, reducing your chance of being found. Beyond that, you may lose the chance to make your best first impression. The setting where you may have elected to make some things private is to the right of your profile under the heading Edit Your Public Profile and URL and the subheading Edit Visibility. For a more thorough discussion of settings errors and how to correct them, see my article Brand-bruising Public Profile and Privacy Settings: What You Can’t See Can Hurt You.
  6. Include LinkedIn’s “new” Featured Section
    The Featured section is a very visual section, with opportunities to add photos, logos, presentations, videos, etc. with text as captions. The text that accompanies these visual assets is another place to use your keywords effectively. If you do not have a Featured section currently, you can add it by clicking the “Add a Section” button (you’ll find this button in the section containing your profile picture).
  7. Include other pertinent optional sections
    If you have publications, patents, awards, certifications, courses, volunteer experience, etc., there are specific sections that you can add in which you can use your keywords. You’ll find them by clicking the “Add a Section” button (you’ll find this button in the section containing your profile picture).
  8. Seek and give recommendations
    Recommendations, whether written by you for someone else or written about you by someone else, are searchable for keywords. Also, if someone is really interested in you, they will certainly read Recommendations written about you closely.
  9. List 50 skills in your skills inventory
    Skills in LinkedIn’s database are keywords. When your entire list of 50 skills (yes, that’s the best practice!) is well-aligned with what you want to communicate about your personal brand, you significantly improve your ability to be found based on keywords of your own choosing. When your profile is well-aligned with your personal brand, you are much more likely to be found for both internal and external opportunities that fit you well. For more information about how to edit the skills in your skills inventory, see my article “Have You Missed the Step that Gives Your LinkedIn Skills POWER?”
  10. Be active on the LinkedIn platform
    Curate and post articles that are on-brand for you. Write and share your own posts and articles. Comment on (don’t just “like”) your colleagues’ postings. All these actions show that you are engaged with people and ideas. Being active may or may not contribute to being found by LinkedIn’s search algorithm, but if you are found via search, people will be more likely to click on your profile if they’ve seen you on their LinkedIn’s homepage often.

Does it take work to optimize your opportunity to rank highly on a LinkedIn keyword search? You bet it does. But the return on investment is high: it’s the opportunity to have your profile work effectively for you around the clock to find you for right-for-you opportunities.

 

Carol Kaemmerer's book LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive
LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive – Second Edition is a Featured Selection of the C-Suite Book Club.

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

 

 Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

  

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

 

Categories
Management Marketing Personal Development Women In Business

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

You don’t play small in person. You have an executive presence in any room, including all the virtual rooms in which we’re doing business these days. You dress for effect. You are careful to ensure that your grooming is on-brand. You command attention when you speak. You’ve seen to it that your LinkedIn profile is one of first entries that appears on a Google search of your name.

So, executives, why are you “playing small” on LinkedIn? LinkedIn is THE business place where people look to see what you’re about. If on the one platform where countless people are making their first impressions of you every day, your profile and presence fail to reflect your eminence then you are failing to attract the talent you wish to hire. You are not managing your career trajectory and maybe actually repelling opportunities that might otherwise find you. If poorly managed, your online presence might actually damage your overall credibility and influence.

Below I’ve spotlighted some of the ways executives tend to “play small” on LinkedIn. Read more to see if any of these cases apply to you – and if so, how to address them.

Failure to package your profile with flair:

Executive presence is a phenomenon embodying poise, confidence, and professionalism, blended with charisma or a “wow” factor. The wow factor on a LinkedIn profile is most often conveyed visually, through your portrait, your banner image (the real estate that is behind your portrait that is various shades of gray-green if you haven’t customized it), and your Featured section.

Let’s start with your portrait. Chapter 3 of my new book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-Second Edition, has an excellent checklist that can help you decide whether you need a new photo. It should look like the best version of you, NOW (not the way you looked ten years ago. If you use a photo that shows you with a healthy head of hair but you are now bald, that deceit will undermine the credibility of all your profile.). You should be wearing your best smile or most approachable expression. You should be looking directly at the camera lens, and you should be dressed appropriately as if you are about to meet with an important new prospect or make a presentation to your board. Chapter 3 also has guidance on choosing a headshot photographer who will create an executive-quality image that matches your own version of executive presence.

Your banner image should definitely be customized, and not the default banner provided by LinkedIn (e.g., currently a non-descript field of three colors of green). Perhaps it could showcase your company logo or provide an image that evokes some aspect of your business or personal brand. Customizing your banner makes a huge difference.

The lack of a Featured Section in your profile is also a sign of playing small. This is a new, visually powerful section for photos, graphics, or videos. Check out my article on the Featured section to help you enhance your online brand by providing visual appeal.

Failure to establish know, like, and trust:

Chapter 5 of my book addresses all sections of an executive-branded LinkedIn profile. Although every section contributes to your brand, the headline (the text right below your name) and the About section can be the most instrumental in establishing your know-like-and-trust factor – a factor that must be present before someone will be interested in doing business with you. (People do business with people that they feel they know, like, and trust).

Your headline is auto-filled by default with your current position and company, but you can replace that default, customizing your headline with up to 220 characters of text. Tell those looking at your profile something more than your title. Tell them who you serve and how you add value; tell them about your leadership style; tell them about your results. Remember, you want to give people a reason to know, like, and trust you.

Your About section should be about YOU — not about what you DO, but who you ARE. Share something that helps people know you. This section can touch on your current role, but really that’s what the text you provide under your current position should be about. Instead, here you have about 4 to 5 paragraphs in the About section (2,600 characters) to tell your professional story. “When what you share is authentic, you connect emotionally with your reader. The more transparent and authentic your profile, the more people will feel they can know, like and trust you even before they meet you in person.” (page 59). What are your business principles, what is your career purpose, what are your passions? Share those. Why? When you share only what you DO, the content could apply to nearly all your competitors. When you share who you ARE, no one else can claim that.

Failure to use logos:

The absence of a logo on your LinkedIn profile is always a negative, but it is most damaging if the missing logo is for your current role in a company for which you are among the top executives (e.g., Owner, Founder, President, CEO, Principal Consultant, etc.). For example, if you are the founder of a company but your LinkedIn profile shows no associated company logo, it may be interpreted that you have a hobby rather than a real business – that you are not serious about your endeavor. Simply put, this error is a primary way senior executives undermine their own credibility. But if you have made this error, it is totally within your power to fix it. Read my article for remedies to this type of missing logo problem as well as several others.

Failure to engage on the LinkedIn platform:

LinkedIn is a great way to share your thought leadership, expand your influence, and nurture relationships that are important to your business success. If you’re not engaging on the LinkedIn platform, you are missing opportunities.

So, stop playing small on LinkedIn:

You have so much to contribute, and so much to gain by showcasing your eminence on your profile and cultivating relationships online. LinkedIn is an essential business tool today. Use it well and thrive.

 

 

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

 

 Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a

Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact, and Power

 Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

  

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

Based on my experience as an Executive Branding Coach, most C-Suite Executives and senior leaders have very poor LinkedIn profiles – profiles that aren’t attracting opportunities to them. If your profile shares very little about you, you’re missing out on….

  • Attracting and maintaining top talent with your thought leadership
  • Building a more loyal customer base
  • Building a broad network based on professional respect
  • Attracting other companies interested in partnering
  • Being considered for in-house for succession planning, enterprise-wide special projects and growth assignments
  • Being considered for external opportunities for non-profit and paid board appointments and corporate executive positions

What does “writing to the margins” mean?

I’m using the expression, “writing to the margins” to indicate that you should take advantage of the full character count that LinkedIn allows for each section. At present the allowed amounts are:

 

Headline

 220 characters

About section

2,600 characters

Each job in Experience section

2,000 characters
Skills section

50 skills

 

Why is does “writing to the margins” bring opportunities your way?

When we “write to the margins,” we naturally use our keywords often – keywords that express our skills, experiences, and passions in the world of work. (A keyword might be multiple words; it is a search term someone might enter into a search engine.)

Because LinkedIn is a search engine, it’s looking to match the keywords that someone is using in their search with the keywords in your profile. It is not just looking for whether the keyword is on your profile or not; it is looking at how many times the keyword appears on your profile.

The search algorithm benefits people who are connected in some way on LinkedIn with the person searching (this correlates with having a large LinkedIn network) and people who have used the keyword being searched for many, many times.

Check out how LinkedIn’s search engine works:

Try this experiment: In the LinkedIn search box, enter the top keyword you are likely to be found by. For many of us, this is our functional job title: e.g., General Manager, National Director of Sales, Chief Operations Officer. When you have entered your top keyword, use LinkedIn’s filters and enter your nearest metropolitan area for the location. This gives you a fighting chance of being found because you’ll be competing just with the people in your locale. Click apply to enable the search.

Who appears on page 1 of your search? Do you know any of them? Pick of one of the people on page 1 and count the number times LinkedIn has highlighted the keyword (or something close to the keyword) on their profile. Check out another profile or two and count the number of keyword mentions.

Do these profiles look similar to yours? In what ways do these top-ranking profiles differ from yours?

How does your profile rank on this keyword search?

Are you on page 1? Are you on page 2?

If your profile is ranked on page 1 or 2, congratulations. Your LinkedIn profile is likely to serve up many right-for-you opportunities because you are ranking at the top of the list. But don’t get too cocky: the result returned on a keyword search is dependent the searcher’s relationship with you. In this experiment, you had an advantage because you have a first-level LinkedIn relationship with yourself.

If you didn’t rank on page 1 or 2, too bad. Your 24/7 digital ambassador is not working as effectively for you as it could to bring you right-for-you opportunities, such as the talent you’d like to hire, the referral relationships you seek, or internal or external executive job possibilities.

Why does ranking on page 1 or 2 of a keyword search matter?

The magic of ranking on the top two pages is that people who are searching are not likely to look beyond the first 20 people. If you’d like to rank more highly, writing “to the margins” will certainly help. This is because when you “write to the margins” you will naturally use your keywords many times – and when you use your keywords many times, your profile is more likely to be found, and lead people to provide you with opportunities that may be right for you.

 

to order click: https://carolk.yourfeaturedauthor.com/LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive - Second Edition Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

 To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Personal Development

A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn

A Small Omission That Undermines
Your Credibility on LinkedIn

Time and again we hear that people come to conclusions about others in a matter of seconds – and they do so based on very small cues. Therefore, when communicating our brand online, paying attention to the “little things” is quite important. One of the little things that packs a huge negative wallop to our eminence is the absence of a logo in our Experience, Education and Volunteer sections. This is an issue on many executive profiles. In this article I discuss:

  • how the absence of a logo can be interpreted
  • remedies for the lack of a logo for a company over which you have control
  • remedies to missing logos where the logo exists within LinkedIn’s database
  • some strategies to explore if the logo is not in the database

How is the Absence of a Logo Interpreted?

The absence of a logo is always negative, but it is most damaging if the missing logo is for your current role with a company for which you are among the top executives (e.g., Owner, Founder, President, CEO, Principal Consultant, etc.). For example, if you are the founder of a company but your LinkedIn profile shows no associated company logo, it may be interpreted that you have a hobby rather than a real business – that you are not serious about your endeavor. Simply put, this error is a primary way that senior executives undermine their own credibility. But if you have made this error, it is totally within your power to fix it. (More on that later.)

Another interpretation people may reach when there are job positions and other entries in one’s LinkedIn profile that do not have associated logos that is that the person is either careless or clueless. If the appropriate logo exists within the LinkedIn database but it is not shown on the person’s profile, either of those assumptions may be correct. Of course, there are situations where there is no logo shown because no logo exists in the LinkedIn database. This can happen if the company is currently out of business or if it is too small to have bothered to create a Company Page and therefore have a logo within the LinkedIn database.

No Logo – and You Control the Company

The good news is that you are in control here. With very little effort you can fix this situation, thereby removing the impression that you have a hobby rather than a real business. The reason that your logo is not showing up is that you need to create a LinkedIn Company Page for your business. When you create a page for your company, you upload the company logo to LinkedIn’s database, making it available to display not only on the Company Page but also on your profile and on the profiles of all employees and board members.

To create a LinkedIn Company Page, you need:

  • a company website
  • an email address that goes to your company’s domain, and you have associated that email address with your LinkedIn account
  • a logo (a square image, at least 60 x 60 pixels in size, in JPEG or PNG file format)

See directions for setting up your company page here.

When you have created your Company Page and uploaded the logo, you and other employees need to delete the company name from your profile, then you can immediately re-enter it, selecting your company’s name and logo from a dropdown menu. The logo will then show up on your profile.  The result – everyone associated with the company will be appropriately branded – a huge win LinkedIn makes available without charge.

By the way, once you have created your Company Page, you need not do anything else with it. It will not become a burden on your time. On the other hand, you could use it as an additional way to amplify your online brand.

Remedies to Missing Logos – Where the Logo Exists Within LinkedIn’s Database

Some of the reasons the logo is not appearing on a profile might be:

  • the company/organization’s name is misspelled or entered incorrectly (for example, searching for The Ohio State University under “Ohio” doesn’t work because the university’s name is The Ohio State University)
  • the company/organization’s name has changed

If you’re not sure how to spell the company name or of the company’s current moniker, search for it on Google. When you’re sure, then delete the company/organization name from your profile and re-enter the name correctly, selecting the company’s name and logo from the dropdown menu LinkedIn will provide.

Strategies to Explore If the Logo Is Not in LinkedIn’s Database

Some absent logos can be addressed by finding the logo of the company/organization’s parent group, then adding the Division or Chapter with which you are associated in the job title line. For example, suppose you were a member of the board of directors for the local chapter of a national charity. You might find that several local chapters have Company Pages on LinkedIn, but the chapter with which you are associated does not. In this case, on the company/organization line of your LinkedIn profile entry for your board of directors experience, enter the national charity and its logo. But to not be misleading, since you were not on the board of the national charity, on the line with your role, list “Board of Directors for the [name of the chapter].”

If the company you worked for is no longer in business but was acquired by another company, list the current name of the (acquiring) company. If there is sufficient space, in your job title line, note in parentheses (formerly [name of company when you worked there)]. If there isn’t enough room for that in your job title, add that information to the first line of your description of the job.

Of course, some companies just won’t have logos.  You’ll just have to do without them. But by making sure you’ve claimed all the logos you can, you will minimize the toll that the lack of logos can take on your personal eminence.

Savvy executives pay attention to their LinkedIn profiles. They know that even small things – like logos – are important to the way others perceive them.

 

LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive - Second EditionIf you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For a quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

 To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

Categories
Growth Personal Development

“Tell Me More…” — on LinkedIn

“TELL ME MORE…” — ON LINKEDIN

Dear Executives:

In many of life’s situations, LESS is MORE. Marie Kondo urges us to de-clutter our surfaces and pare down our belongings, so that with LESS stuff, we actually have MORE room and the ability to find the things we want to use. Likewise, silence following a key conversation point is often more effective than continuing to talk because it invites contemplation and puts the onus for responding on the listener. However, on LinkedIn, LESS is never MORE; only MORE is MORE. Every LinkedIn profile has two kinds of readers: LinkedIn bots and humans. Both crave MORE. If you’re not getting any traction on LinkedIn, a likely reason is that you’ve ignored the needs of one or both kinds of profile readers.

Delighting the LinkedIn Bots

LinkedIn is a search engine, and its bots do its bidding. The job of the bots is to match the keyword being searched for with those profiles that have used that keyword the most in their text. The frequency of use of the keyword being searched for, combined with your relationship with the person searching, determines your position in the search results. When your headline is just your current position title, and you have a minuscule (or no) About section, or your Experience section has no detail, you have seriously undercut yourself.

Although bots are efficient, they are not clever. You could excite the LinkedIn bots by simply listing your keywords, one after the other, and repeating the list ad nauseam. (But then your human readers would be disgusted!) Because it is the bots that determine your ranking on a keyword search, satisfying them is important – only profiles that rank on the first two pages of a keyword search will have right-for-them opportunities come to them without effort.

To determine the keywords your profile should feature, think of the search terms you would use to find someone just like you. Work your keywords into your LinkedIn text and skills section naturally. Of course, you cannot write an infinite amount about yourself.  Each section has an associated character count, which changes from time to time. The limit for each section as of this writing is:

Section Maximum
Headline 220 characters
About 2,600 characters, about 4 paragraphs

Experience (for each job listed)

 2,000 characters, about 3 paragraphs
Skills 50 skills

Delighting Your Human Readers

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. The people reading your profile are looking for an engaging story to help them understand your purpose, passions, and principles. They are deciding whether you are someone they’d like to do business with. They want to read prose that flows with meaning. Neither sentences that are awkward because of keyword stuffing nor text that is barely there will do.

To delight human readers and bots alike, take some time to decide what you’d like to communicate about yourself.

What do you want to communicate?

The three questions I ask to help people identify their personal brand are:

  1. What are the three things you want to be known for?
  2. What are your differentiators?
  3. What are your keywords?

When you’ve identified these, you have identified the building blocks of a great LinkedIn profile that channels right-for-you opportunities to your doorstep. To learn more about using these branding questions to craft your LinkedIn profile, see my article: What’s Your Personal Brand and Why Does It Matter?.

 

to order click: https://carolk.yourfeaturedauthor.com/LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive - Second Edition
Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

 

Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power through online booksellers. For quantity discount or signed copies, contact me directly.

 To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?


Dear Executives,

Perhaps you recognize that your LinkedIn profile is skeletal. Yes, your photo may be great, you’ve listed your job titles, degrees, and schools. But where are YOU? How will people know about your purpose, principles, and business passions? How will they learn of your superpowers – the areas in which you truly excel? How will they learn about the accomplishments upon which you’ve built your career? If your profile doesn’t showcase your personal brand, the real you isn’t online — you’re essentially hiding.

What’s the opportunity cost of hiding online?

You may believe that your skeletal profile is just fine. Sleek; minimalist; just the way you like it. As a matter of fact, your profile looks like the profile of most C-Suite executives. So, no problem, right?

Wrong. LinkedIn is first and foremost a search engine. People around the world are using it 24/7 to search for people with your superpowers, your talents, your experience. But in your minimalist profile, you haven’t used your keywords often enough for the search engine to rank you highly in the search results and put you near the top of the list returned to the user. Since those searching rarely look beyond the first two pages displayed to them, you will never be found. You’ll never know the opportunities you could have had, if you had been found, such as:

  • New customer accounts for your company
  • Business alliances or partnerships
  • Internal or external opportunities for career advancement and challenge
  • Opportunities for Board service
  • Opportunities to attract top talent who are seeking to align themselves with people who lead with passion

More and more, today’s executives have come to appreciate the importance of developing and curating their personal brand online. LinkedIn is a primary tool for communicating your personal brand to woo and wow your ideal audiences, including both internal and external customers and the talent you hope to attract to your company. Executives who have a stellar LinkedIn presence and who use the LinkedIn platform effectively find that it helps them leverage their personal, corporate, and product brands and improve their visibility.

 

to order click: https://carolk.yourfeaturedauthor.com/LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive - Second Edition
Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power

So, stop hiding online:

If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.

Other resources for you and your team:

For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

My NEW book, Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power will be available through online booksellers in mid-December 2020. For bulk orders or signed copies, contact me directly.

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

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