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3 Things Your LinkedIn Profile Needs Today

3 Things Your LinkedIn Profile Needs Today

Working with insurance agents across the country I have seen my share of LinkedIn profiles, good and bad. Most agents think why does that really matter? According to a Google survey, 84% of prospects search the web for your company, your products and you as the insurance agent. Ever get stood up on an insurance sales appointment? This may be one of the reasons why. In a personal search, Google will pull LinkedIn near the top of your name search almost instantly and most frequently. You had better believe it matters. Let’s take a look at 3 things you can do today to your profile.

First, do you have a professional photograph? If you are selling financial products, it is not a good idea to have your picture in front of a trailer. Nor to crop out your wife so it appears you are missing your right arm. Or my favorite profile picture, a hand on the shoulder that’s been cropped as if you have “thing” from the Addams Family on your shoulder. Your profile picture should be professional and you should be recognizable when someone meets you in public. Do not use a 20 year old glamour photo if you really don’t look like that anymore. It is a sign of deceit.

Second, very important is your headline and your summary. These should be where you explain what you do or sell in very specific terms. LinkedIn can be a search engine itself. By putting keywords in your headline of what you want to be found for greatly improves your chances of people finding you. For example, I sell life insurance my headline starts with “Life Insurance…” Also, your summary is telling your business story, but it should be keyword rich. I have seen some really bad summaries of just keywords that looks like someone threw up alphabet soup. It has to be readable and flow with what you do and why someone wants to do business with you. You must walk a fine line of good content , good flow and keywords to be successful, so take your time and be creative. Think of it as a keyword elevator speech.

Last, you MUST get skill endorsements and testimonials from clients, coworkers and business friends. This is so important to have some type of creditability. It is OK to toot your own horn, but it is so much more powerful when someone else toots your horn. The easiest way to receive endorsements is to endorse others for their skills. They will feel obligated to return the gesture. You do this by clicking on a profile and it will automatically populate at the top of their page.  If life insurance is your skill you should have several endorsements for life insurance. Testimonials are a little bit harder but if you ask enough good people they will submit those to you to post. Go to your profile>recommendations>ask for recommendations>follow the prompts.

Don’t procrastinate, get your LinkedIn profile up to date today and use one of the greatest business tools available to grow your business.

If you wait until all the lights are “green” before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top.” – Zig Ziglar

Special thanks to my good friend and LinkedIn Mentor Mitch Comstock.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.

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