linkedin Archives - Jenny Rose Spaudo - Freelance Copywriter and Content Marketer

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Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile and Get More Clients
- September 17, 2020
- 0 comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
Your LinkedIn profile may be the single most important factor in whether or not you’re attracting leads on LinkedIn.

Last week, I shared how LinkedIn is by far the best way I’ve gotten clients. I gave you a peek behind the curtain at the 4 best practices that help me grow my blog traffic and brand awareness on LinkedIn.

You may remember I showed you how to increase your connections, how often you should post, how to publish LinkedIn articles, and how to expand your posts’ reach. (Click here to read that post.)

Pretty good stuff, I’ve got to say!

But even if you follow all 4 of those best practices to a T, you still won’t see the traction you want unless you optimize your LinkedIn profile.

The reason why is pretty simple. When people come across your content on their LinkedIn feed and are intrigued, the very next thing they do is click on your name to view your LinkedIn profile.

The content they find on there determines whether or not they reach out to you, browse your blog, or sign up for your lead magnet.

So you’ve got to make your LinkedIn profile as enticing as possible!

The problem is that many entrepreneurs don’t know how to optimize their LinkedIn profile. So they stuff their About section with distracting details and write a headline that sounds unique but doesn’t really communicate how they help.

Not a great way to start.

What You’ll Learn About Your LinkedIn Profile

In this article, I’m walking you through how to optimize your LinkedIn profile so you can garner as many leads as possible. I’ll teach you best practices for your:
- Headline
- Profile picture
- Cover image
- Contact info
- About section
- Featured section
- Business listing
- And more
Are you excited to get more leads? Let’s dive in!

Your Headline Is the Most Important Aspect of Your LinkedIn Profile

Hands down, this is what you should focus on first when optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Your headline is the title that appears right under your name:

Your name and your headline are what people see when they come across your post in their feed. If your headline is compelling enough, it will get them to click.

So what makes a compelling headline?

Some say to be as unique as possible. But in my experience, this can quickly devolve into simply confusing people. For instance…

“Brand-Focused Growth Hacker for Purpose-Driven Adventurers | Empowering people to change their lives.”

I’m sorry… I still don’t understand what you do or how you can help. Let’s try that again with plain language.

“Marketing Consultant for Christian Entrepreneurs | Helping you grow your business with proven strategies.”

Simple yet effective. After seeing a headline like that, Christian entrepreneurs who need help with their marketing will want to know more.

Some final tips:
- Use plain language
- Use keywords that your ideal client is searching for
- Show immediately how you can help
Update Your Profile Picture

Make sure your profile picture is clear and on brand. I recommend choosing a more professional photo than you would for Facebook or Instagram. This is because most people on LinkedIn are professionals, and when they’re using the platform, they’re thinking with a business mindset.

When choosing a profile picture, also consider your brand colors. It’s a good idea to incorporate your brand colors into both your profile picture and your cover image so that they look good together.

Your Cover Image Should Match Your Branding

Speaking of your cover image, do you even have one? Many people don’t! For a while, I didn’t even know how to change my cover image. I thought the blue placeholder was all that was available.

So wrong. This is simply one example of how tech-challenged I can be!

To change your cover image, just click on the pencil icon on the cover image. Upload a photo that’s 1400 x 425 pixels. You can easily create a compelling cover image in Canva.

Notice how I designed my cover image to match my overall branding (and matched it to my profile pic).

Your Contact Info on Your LinkedIn Profile

Make sure your contact info is filled out with at least your business email and business website. If you have other applicable social media to add there, go ahead and include those as well.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to check out someone’s website but couldn’t find it anywhere on their LinkedIn profile!

What to Do With Your About Section

All right… this is the section most people have major questions about. The About section can be a little intimidating for people because they know what a big deal it is.

Your About section is basically your LinkedIn elevator pitch/warm welcome.

Above all else, I recommend that you open your About section with how you help your ideal clients.

Beyond that client-focused opening, you truly do have some creative flexibility here! Here are some ways to get your creative juices flowing:
- Showcase some of your top products or services.
- Share about the values that drive your business. Perhaps what inspired you to start your business in the first place.
- Add a short and sweet testimonial from one of your star clients.
- Talk about how your blog helps your readers.
- End with a strong call to action. What’s the next step you want them to take?
To see how I did my About section, check out my LinkedIn profile.

Feature Your Lead Magnet or Best Content

If you have a lead magnet to get people to sign up for your email list, your Featured section is the perfect place to highlight it!

Pro Tip: Create a landing page for your lead magnet and use a promotional image as the page’s featured image. That way, when you add the link to your lead magnet’s landing page to the Featured section, it will automatically show the promotional image.

Here’s an example of how I did it:

Don’t see a Featured section on your profile? Simply add that section by clicking “Add profile section” at the top of your profile page.

Optimize Your Business Listing Under the Experience Section

Make sure your business is the latest job visible under your Experience section. Use the description of your job to show people once again how you can help your ideal client.

You can also highlight your lead magnet again by adding your landing page’s link in the job description. (The more times you can promote your lead magnet, the better!)

Add Relevant Info to Your LinkedIn Profile

As long as you have these key points in place, you’re good to go!

But perhaps you want to season your LinkedIn profile with more compelling content. If so, consider adding any of the following that are relevant to you:
- Education
- Certifications relevant to your business
- Awards
- Volunteer positions that have grown your expertise
- Leadership positions in other organizations/chambers/clubs
Are you ready to start optimizing your LinkedIn profile and generate more leads? Make it easier on yourself and use this blog as a reference as you go through your profile piece by piece.

Still need some more help with optimizing your LinkedIn profile? I’d be happy to coach you through how to turn your profile into a lead-generation machine! Set up a free clarity call with me to get started.

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How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Business Blog
- September 9, 2020
- 2 Comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
Wondering how to use LinkedIn to promote your blog and grow your brand?
Great, because it’s actually not that hard!
LinkedIn may be one of the best social media platforms for you if your ideal client is in business in any way.
Although I’m less active on LinkedIn than I am on Facebook or Instagram, LinkedIn has still been my greatest source for getting clients.
This is likely because people on other social media platforms are simply browsing for fun. Many times, they’re not expecting (or even wanting) an interruption from you talking about your blog or services. But when people are on LinkedIn, they’re already thinking with a business mindset. This gives your business blog a huge advantage on that platform.
As of this writing, around half my clients have found me because of my activity on LinkedIn. And the best part is … this is all the result of inbound marketing. I haven’t had to sell to a single person! As a 9 on the Enneagram, I can’t even explain to you how happy it makes me to not aggressively sell. Seriously.
LinkedIn has also been a great place for me to grow my email list and increase my blog traffic. So… you’ll have to excuse my enthusiasm because I’m just a little bit obsessed with LinkedIn right now.
But the real question here is: Is LinkedIn the right fit for you? Let’s find out.
How to Know LinkedIn Is the Right Fit for Your Blog
Before you commit to learning how to use LinkedIn to promote your blog, you need to find out if your audience is even on there.
LinkedIn is likely a good fit for you if your primary audience includes:
- Businessmen and businesswomen
- Entrepreneurs and small-business owners
- People looking for a job
- People wanting to quit their job and start their own money-making venture
Keep in mind that your offer should be—in most cases—something that helps them in their professional goals.
How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Articles and Grow Your Brand
Now that you’ve determined that LinkedIn is a great fit for your business, let’s dive into how to use LinkedIn to grow your brand and your blog.
1. Grow Your LinkedIn Connections
The first step to promoting your blog is actually growing your following. This doesn’t mean you can’t post your blogs on LinkedIn until you have a certain number of followers. But if you have fewer than 500 connections, I would recommend focusing your energy on building genuine connections.
Focus on connecting with people who are your ideal client or who are in the same/similar field as you.
Start by reaching out to connect with 5 people every other day. (I’ve heard people say you should do it every day, but hey, we have lives, right?)
Huge tip for how to use LinkedIn to make connections: Make sure to send a personalized message with each connection request.
This doesn’t have to be long and fancy. Just be sure to use their first name, indicate the connecting link that caused you to reach out to them (friend, school, or former job you have in common), and be friendly.
Here’s an example:
Hi, Tracy. I’m Jenny Rose, a Christian content marketing coach and fellow Stetson grad. (Go Hatters!) I saw you’re connected with my good friend [Insert Friend Here]. I’d love to connect on LinkedIn. Have a great day!
Practical ways to find connections:
- Go to your alma mater’s page and look for fellow alumni.
Some colleges’ LinkedIn pages have settings for you to search based on geographical location, study major, or current job title. Take advantage of these to find your ideal client.
- Look at your friends’ connections.
- When a new person says yes to your connection request, look at their connections.
- Use LinkedIn’s search tool to find your ideal client or fellow business owners in your field.
If you have a free account on LinkedIn, you have a limited amount of monthly searches. You can only find results for 1,000 profiles or 100 pages. So make them count!
If you upgrade to a premium LinkedIn account, you get access to unlimited search results.
2. Post Several Times a Week
Like all social media platforms, you can’t just post once in a blue moon and expect a great return. A huge part of how to use LinkedIn is simply being active on the platform. (That includes posting and liking/commenting on other people’s posts.)
The more active you are on LinkedIn, the more your connections see you and your content.
Not all these posts have to be links to your blog. Be sure to also post content that builds relationships or offers free value without having to click away to get it.
In fact, some claim that LinkedIn’s algorithm disfavors posts with links in them.
The other alternative is putting the link in the comments instead of the post itself. Agorapulse ran a test to see how posts with links in the comments compared to posts with links in the post itself. They found that views (or impressions) were higher for posts with links in comments, indicating that LinkedIn’s algorithm shared those posts more liberally. But those same posts also had fewer comments and likes.
The fewer comments and likes could be from the fact that when you share a link in the post itself, a picture pops up that’s clickable. Like this:
When the link is in the comments, though, there’s no compelling photo or headline to attract attention.
However you choose to post your blog links on LinkedIn, just make sure to do it regularly! I recommend at least 2 to 3 posts per week, with at least 1 of them being a link to your blog.
But blog links aren’t the only aspect of knowing how to use LinkedIn.
3. Publish LinkedIn Articles
I’ve seen many people who have had great success republishing their blogs as LinkedIn articles. (I haven’t had as much success with LinkedIn articles as I have with simply promoting my blog, but this could be because I’m still growing my following on the platform.)
To do this, just click “Write Article” in the lower right-hand corner. Then simply copy-paste your blog into the appropriate fields.
A few recommendations if you choose to do this:
- Wait at least 2 weeks before republishing your articles.
You want to make sure your blog on your own website has a chance to rise in the ranks on Google before adding the same copy on another platform.
- Rewrite the headline.
It doesn’t have to be vastly different, but it should be different enough that people scrolling through Google’s search results won’t be confused by identical headlines.
- When you publish your post, tag a connection you think would get a lot out of it or who you interviewed for the piece.
4. Tag People and Add Hashtags to Your LinkedIn Posts
If you want to know how to use LinkedIn to promote your blog, tagging and hashtags are a great place to start. This way, it’s easier to get your content in front of more eyes.
But don’t tag just anyone. Make sure it’s someone who would get a lot of out of the content, someone you wrote about in the article, or someone you interviewed for the piece.
When adding hashtags, don’t pull an Instagram and add 30. Just don’t. LinkedIn, like Facebook, does just fine with simply 1 or 2 general hashtags that people follow.
To get a feel for how I use LinkedIn to promote my blog, feel free to connect with me. Just click here and send me a connection request!
Pssst! Did you know I wrote an e-book that’s chock-full of valuable tips and tricks to grow your blog?
Click here to grab your Ultimate Business Blogging Bundle. You not only get the e-book when you sign up, but you also get 3 Bonus Resources:
- List of 18+ time-saving blogging tools
- List of ready-to-use hashtags
- List of creative blogging prompts
Get your Blogging Bundle today!

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