LinkedIn is a powerful platform that many of us use to enhance our professional presence. With over 1 billion users worldwide, it is a valuable business tool for recruiting talent and offering services. To achieve specific professional goals, optimizing each profile effectively and building a robust LinkedIn strategy is essential. LinkedIn has become a crucial space for networking, personal branding, lead generation, and thought leadership. Take advantage of its various tools and features to maximize your impact!
Before updating your personal LinkedIn profile or company pages, it’s vital to take a moment to audit what you have and create a focused LinkedIn strategy. This will help you engage more effectively, boost your visibility, and open up exciting business opportunities.
Are you curious about how it works? If you’re just starting with audits or getting to know LinkedIn, follow the helpful steps below to enhance your presence on the platform!
What is a LinkedIn Audit?
Think of audits like that first test you take at the start of a new grade, helping your teacher see how you performed before. With LinkedIn audits, you can explore how well your profile or page is doing, discover areas for improvement, and find ways to optimize your presence. Why is this important? Because understanding your current standing helps you chart a successful path forward. Your next steps could lead you to expand your professional network, attract new leads, or boost your brand visibility.
What can you learn from a LinkedIn audit?
- Gaps that represent an obstacle in your profile’s growth.
- Alignment between your messaging and your goals/ target audience.
- Your engagement percentage and content performance.
- Profile optimization opportunities for search visibility. What your profile needs to improve.
- Features and algorithm changes to implement.
Steps to Perform a LinkedIn Audit
Follow the steps below to analyze your LinkedIn profile or page from a digital marketing perspective. This will help you create a tailored LinkedIn strategy.
Profile/Company Page Basics
- Profile Picture: Consider professional and high-quality options for a profile picture, whether a logo or a headshot.
- Cover Image: Think of it as a first impression with your clients. How do you want them to perceive your value proposition? Some options are your company’s tagline, a call to action, or a branded image that resonates with your audience.
- Headline: Now you’re engaging with your audience! When describing your company in just one phrase, think about what will truly capture their attention and resonate with their needs. Give a catchy title to your services—that’s your headline!
- Summary: We can also refer to it as your elevator pitch. Compellingly tell your professional story. You can include key skills, experiences, and accomplishments and use relevant keywords to optimize LinkedIn’s search functionality.
Evaluate Your Content Strategy
- Content Variety: How do you organize your content? Evaluate your content pillars and consider the number of posts for each pillar. LinkedIn tends to favor profiles and pages that showcase diverse features and content. You should assess how the distribution works within your industry, examining how your page and others handle industry insights, company updates, thought leadership articles, personal stories, and relevant information.
- Engagement Levels: How much engagement are your posts receiving? Assess your posts’ engagement levels by evaluating likes, shares, comments, and overall interactions. Additionally, consider visibility as a metric to gauge your audience’s interest in your content.
- Content Frequency: The number of posts will influence whether the audience misses your content or feels overwhelmed by it. The objective is to find a balance that will please your viewers.
- Hashtags: Hashtags are the social media equivalent of keywords. They will help your post reach the target audience. Take the time to evaluate how many and which ones you want to incorporate and whether they are functional in the industry.
Review Profile/Company Page SEO
- Keyword Optimization: Keywords set the tone for how discoverable your posts will be and how many potential clients, employers, or followers will find you when they search for your services. Assess the effectiveness of keyword usage and placement throughout your profile.
- Skills & Endorsements: LinkedIn allows you to add up to 50 skills to your profile. What are you including, and how relevant are they? Think like a customer and analyze whether you have added the correct abilities to align with your target audience’s interests.
- SEO for LinkedIn Articles: Have you included SEO techniques in your LinkedIn long-form content? Could you enhance the SEO optimizations to help users discover your profile through keyword-rich titles, compelling meta descriptions, and relevant keywords throughout the articles?
Analyze Connections & Networking Opportunities
- Connection Strategy: Who belongs to your network? How relevant are they in the industry? Review your existing network and the types of connections you’re making. Are they aligned with your business or career goals?
- LinkedIn Groups: LinkedIn groups are a great way to engage with your niche audience. Are you actively participating in relevant groups? If not, look for groups in your industry or target market where you can contribute value and build relationships.
Review Recommendations & Endorsements
- Recommendations: How credible is the profile? Recommendations help build trust with the audience, allowing them to decide if the company deserves their attention. Explore the status of your profile recommendations: Have they been updated, and do they reflect your current role and skills?
- Endorsements: For your audit, check which skills have been endorsed, and be proactive in seeking endorsements from those familiar with your work. Endorsements help your profile rank higher in LinkedIn search results and build credibility.
Analyze LinkedIn Analytics
- Post Analytics: Remember to check LinkedIn’s evaluation as well! LinkedIn offers built-in analytics for both personal profiles and company pages. Understand the page’s reach, impressions, and engagement performance to create a LinkedIn strategy based on those metrics.
- Profile Views: Now, let’s focus on the audience. Who is watching your content? Where are they from? How many are there? If your profile views are low, it could indicate a need for further optimization or content sharing.
Developing a LinkedIn Strategy for Growth
Once the audit is complete and you clearly understand the page’s current stance, you have the tools and insights to create a tailored strategy to maximize results. Here are some essential steps to develop a LinkedIn strategy that aligns with your marketing goals:
Define Your Objectives
What do you want to achieve on LinkedIn? Your goals may include building brand awareness, generating leads, establishing industry authority, or promoting your company’s products and services.
Target Audience Analysis
Who are you trying to reach? Understanding your target audience is crucial, whether you’re aiming at potential clients, recruiters, or industry influencers. Your content, tone, and outreach strategies should be tailored to their needs and pain points.
Content Planning
Plan your content calendar ahead of time. Mix content types such as thought leadership posts, success stories, behind-the-scenes looks, case studies, and curated industry news. Ensure your content aligns with your target audience’s interests and needs.
Regular Engagement
Engage with your audience by commenting on their posts, sharing their content, and starting discussions. LinkedIn rewards active users who contribute to the platform’s community.
Measure & Adjust
Assess your content’s performance regularly and adjust your strategy based on what’s working. By examining LinkedIn’s valuable analytics, you can easily adapt your content based on what resonates with your audience and make thoughtful improvements as you go along.
Key Takeaways
When used correctly, LinkedIn is a powerful professional tool. Conducting a LinkedIn audit is ideal for starting on the right foot. This will help you discover ways to enhance your online presence. From there, you can develop a personalized LinkedIn strategy to elevate your visibility, establish trust, and achieve your professional or business goals.
Optimizing your LinkedIn profiles and pages can sometimes feel overwhelming, but don’t worry! The first step is the most important; we can take this journey together. Connect with our team to explore how we can evaluate your profile, set achievable goals, and create a personalized strategy that enhances your LinkedIn presence.
