What Type of LinkedIn Profile are You

I recently worked with a client, Peter, in financial services, who said he was spending a lot of time trying to grow his business through LinkedIn but found he was wasting so much time that he gave up and decided to just focus on his old sales methods. He couldn’t understand what he was doing wrong on LinkedIn, so he dismissed it.

Maybe you have been in the same boat, where you have tried to use LinkedIn but received minimal results. A good place to start is to think about the type of user you are before beginning.

Q1: Persister. You’re getting results but it’s taking a lot of time. You’re posting content but unsure if it’s the right content. You feel as though there must be a better way but you’re not sure what that is. You’d like to know some more efficient ways to make your profile work and be less time consuming.
Action: If you’re at this level, you need to focus on efficiency, effectiveness and getting your profile to work for you a lot more. You may also need to look at the sequence of what you’re doing with your profile. The order of your activity may also be out of sequence and need to be adjusted.

Q2: Rockstar. You’re confident and killing it. You know how to design your profile to attract your ideal client. You’re leveraging your content, approaching your clients with ease and generating leads. You know the process, have the system in place and it’s a strategic part of your sales process. You know there is no replacement for face-to-face communication, but you know how to leverage LinkedIn to support other lead-generating activities.
Action: At this level, you can focus on helping others in your business or elevating the business through your profile and other thought-leadership activities.

Q3: Attempter. You’ve tried putting some time into your LinkedIn profile but you’re not getting any results. You’re about to give up if something doesn’t change. You feel overwhelmed and it all seems too hard.
Action: At this level, you need to focus on creating the strategy for your profile that will create the results you’re looking for. You also need to shift from the mindset of taking from others to giving to generate leads.

Q4: Avoider. You think LinkedIn is more a recruitment tool. You may think that if profiles are created for your team, they will leave and not attract clients. You have a private profile because you don’t want attention and you don’t see yourself as an integral part of the sales funnel. Alternatively, you don’t have time to spend on social media and don’t even see the value of it.
Action: If you’re at this level, you need to look at the purpose of your role in the organisation and where LinkedIn’s purpose intersects. From here, your strategy can be designed to leverage the time you spend on it and keep you focussed on business-critical activity.

LinkedIn is not for everyone. Depending on your business and career goals, as well as your position in the organisation will determine your activity online.

Love to know your thoughts...

What Type of LinkedIn Profile are You