Leveraging LinkedIn

LEVERAGING THE POWER OF LINKEDIN
Jillian Bowen: General Manager – Content and Social Media, CPA Australia
@jillianbowen #CPAcongress

WHAT IS
THE POINT
OF
LINKEDIN?
COMPLETE
YOUR
LINKEDIN
PROFILE
IDENTIFY AND
ENGAGE
BUILD YOUR
PERSONAL
BRAND

WHAT IS THE POINT OF LINKEDIN?

LinkedIn was started in the living room of co-
founder Reid Hoffman in 2002. The site officially
launched on May 5, 2003 and had 4500 members
by end of the first month.
Jump forward to now, and…

• 380+ million members in over 200 countries
and territories
• Two new members per second
• 24 languages including Chinese
• 39 millions students and recent graduates
THE WORLD’S LARGEST
PROFESSIONAL NETWORK

BUT WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
• Build your personal brand and control
professional perceptions
• Make day to day networking easy
• Stay relevant and current by reading and
sharing news
• Stay connected, informed and get hired
MORE ON THIS LATER!

COMPLETE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE

According to LinkedIn,
a complete profile
increases your chance
of successfully
networking by 40%.

BEST FACE FORWARD
Your profile photo and headline are the
first thing people see – make them
count!
• Dress for the job you want - and smile
• It’s got to be you, so no cartoons,
symbols or drawings
• Look straight at the camera
• Update your image every few years

HEADLINE
• Your headline must be compelling
enough to make people want to read
more
• Keywords increase your chances of
being found in search
• It’s great to be daring with your
headline, but only if it is industry-
appropriate…

The ‘cheat’s guide’ to a great LinkedIn headline
What are you known for?
(Keyword) who (does what)
for (client/company) (evidence)
Still stuck? When you edit your
headline, LinkedIn can show examples
from others in your industry.

SUMMARY
Your first impression. Don’t neglect this opportunity!
• 2000 characters, in first person
• Don’t use clichés – describe your experience
passionately instead of saying you are
passionate
• Include a call to action if you want people to
connect or contact you
• Don’t overuse ‘I’ – try saying ‘we’

The ‘cheat’s guide’ to a great summary
• What do you do, where did you start, and how
do you feel about it?
• Current role: How has it progressed?
• Big achievements – include highlights
• Add a quote from someone else
• Include 3-5 short statements on your philosophy,
passion and beliefs about your industry

EXPERIENCE
It’s more than a company name and dates
• Ask yourself how your experience
relates to the next role you want
• Show don’t tell – don’t say you build
great teams, provide an example of
when you built a team and how it added
value to the organisation

FILL IN THE GAPS
• Add your education then expand your
network via your alumni
• Show more detail with projects and
publications
• Add your volunteer work, awards,
certifications, associations and causes
• Add your contact information

POWER PROFILE OPTIONS
• Optimise for search with keywords
• Create a custom URL and add to your email
signature and business card
• Impress with multimedia
• Connect to your twitter account
• Check you are visible in ‘Privacy & Settings’
• Turn notifications off when making small
changes

IDENTIFY AND ENGAGE

WHY BUILD A NETWORK?
• Hire staff or be hired
• Market services and products
• Bring opportunity knocking
• Seven degrees of LinkedIn - 1000
connections gives me access to nearly 12
million professionals across the globe

DO I NEED A PREMIUM ACCOUNT?
Only if you are serious about how you
use LinkedIn and want to:
• Stand out
• Have more search results and filters
• Use analytics
• Make contact with or be introduced
to people outside your network

HOW TO LEVERAGE LINKEDIN
• Create a professional brand
• Find the right people
• Engage with insights
• Build strong relationships
According to LinkedIn, sales people using social
selling tactics outperform peers by 72.6%.

ESTABLISH YOUR PROFESSIONAL BRAND
• Complete your profile with the audience
in mind
• Add rich content to deepen the
interactive experience
• Create and curate content to show
people more about your expertise and
interests

FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE
• Sync your contacts
• Use the LinkedIn search tools and filters to find
decision makers
• Leverage your colleagues, network and alumni
for warm introductions
• Join topical LinkedIn groups to identify
potential prospects
• Look at ‘other profiles viewed’ on interesting
profiles to find more connections

ENGAGE WITH INSIGHTS
• Become a trusted source of information by
sharing relevant insights
• Use the LinkedIn publishing network to
stay up to date with news and trends
• Engage in discussions with your network

The ‘cheat’s guide’ to great status updates
• Ask a question
• Link to an article but add your own
opinion on the content
• Add images, or share videos and
slide decks to stand out more
prominently in news feeds
• Create your own content!

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
• Be authentic and don’t always talk about
yourself
• Follow up new contacts after you connect
• Focus on decision makers – quality not quantity
• Connect with colleagues for more warm
introductions
• Nurture relationships to stay top of mind –
engage with other people’s status updates

HOW DO YOU RATE?
The LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI)
measures your success in establishing
your professional brand, finding the
right people, engaging with insights
and building relationships.
Login to LinkedIn and go to
linkedin.com/sales/ssi to find out how
you are going.

The ‘cheat’s guide’ to a great first impression
Before an interview or important
meeting, follow the company on
LinkedIn and review some of the
recent posts. It’s a great conversation
starter to refer to some of the things
they are doing and they may check to
see if you are following!

BUILD YOUR PROFESSIONAL BRAND

DAILY
• Review your feed
• Post an update
• Comment, like and
share
WEEKLY
• Connect with new
contacts
• Participate in a
LinkedIn Group
discussion
• Review who is
viewing your profile
to ensure you are
attracting the right
audience
MONTHLY
• Review and update
your profile, adding
rich content to
showcase your most
recent work
• Get colleagues or
established
connections to
recommend you
• Touch base with
important contacts
in your network via
InMail

JILLIAN BOWEN
LINKEDIN: l i n k e d i n . c o m / i n / j i l l i a n b o w e n
SLIDESHARE: s l i d e s h a r e . c o m / j i l l i a n b o w e n
TWITTER: @ j i l l i a n b o w e n
CONTACT

Leveraging LinkedIn

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Leveraging LinkedIn