Using LinkedIn to Attract Great Clients
So Many Social Networks — SO Little Time and Business!
If you’ve been actively using social media for any period of time, you’ve probably heard about LinkedIn. Maybe you’ve established a profile there, hoping to make more contacts, and to attract business.
Whether or not you’re getting the most out of LinkedIn may be open for honest discussion, and serious review. Actually, the same holds true for virtually any social network. You may have an account and a profile on several of the popular social media platforms, but are you getting the most out of your many hours of effort spent scattered in social networking activities?
Each social network has specific strategies you must implement effectively, to optimize your presence and for actions taken. With LinkedIn, your profile plays a critical role in being easily located. Ideally, when someone searches with keywords that are specific to what you do, you want your profile to be found at least nearest the top of the search list.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for most people listed on LinkedIn. Only a fraction of active members are found based on keyword searches. Why? Because most are incredibly ambiguous in how they describe themselves, imprecise about who their market is, don’t clearly present their background and expertise.
Personal Branding and Positioning, Based Upon Your Expertise
Although some profiles appear to be intentionally completed with very detailed, precise information geared for a specific area of expertise, countless others are not. One common element in a majority of profiles, is ambiguously identifying what the coach or consultant does, and who their target market is.
In the coaching industry, there are many types of ‘coaches’: life coaches, business coaches, executive coaches, marketing consultants, and more. Although some folks apparently believe this moniker is enough of an identifier to attract the right type of client, such is not the case if the specialty is not clearly defined nor supported by a precise presentation of expertise.
Questions left unanswered include: “What kind of coach are you, and for whom?” “Who are you a marketing consultant for? What industry and type of client do you serve?” A life coach for recently-divorced professional women differs greatly from a life coach for professional athletes. Obviously, a marketing consultant for the equestrian industry is very different than one for the entertainment industry.
If you ask most coaches and consultants what their major challenge in business is, they will often answer, “Attracting enough of the right kind of clients.” ‘The right kind of clients’ are those you and your expertise are a great match to serve and benefit them — they are your target market.
One solution to this challenge, is to be clear about who you are, the scope and benefits of the types of service(s) you provide, and who your ideal client actually is. To attract more than enough business, you have to be much more specific about who you are, and in what aspects you “an expert.”
Key to Attracting Great Clients: Your Mission, if You Choose to Accept it + Your Competitive Advantage
Today, there is a seemingly endless selection of coaches and consultants for any client to choose from. With so many coaches who are equally ambiguous about their business, a competitive advantage is easily created for you if you grasp it as such, and are willing to become more specific about your services. The more crystal-clear your vision and strategy are, the better your market positioning and business will be.
Some folks believe that by being too specific they are eliminating business. To an extent this is true, because in the process of fine-tuning, you are filtering out the potential clients that don’t match your services. By delineating the parameters within which you work, and the services you provide, the business becomes a better fit for you to attract the clients you want, by offering services that are your specialty, specifically geared for your identified market.
When you are viewed or acknowledged as an “expert” for a specific market or aspect, your efforts become more effective, resulting in a far greater return in “the right kind of clients” and more business. When you arrive at this point, it seems like you have an easier time attracting an abundance of clients for your practice or business, while that new business coming in to you is comprised of more of the type of clients you want to work with.
How to Get to “There” from Here: 2 Quick-Check Action Steps Checklists
If your business is not where you want it to be, start with the basics or give your business a check-up…
1) Ask yourself some serious personal branding and positioning questions:
- Personal Branding: Who am I? What is my expertise?
- Unique Positioning Statement: What is unique about what I do?
- Target Market Identification: Who do I enjoy or want to work with?
- Skill Set Identification: Who am I qualified to work with?
>>>>Action Step: Write the above items out. Use them as a framework to work from, as you move forward in building or amping-up your business. Consider if you have been presenting your services as you identify here.
2) Review and consider your LinkedInProfile, with your ideal client in mind (who hasn’t met you, but is looking for your services):
- Your profile Information: Is your profile clear and specific about your expertise, services and market you serve?
- Your Professional Differentiation and Placement in the Market: From the presentation of your expertise, will you stand out from the thousands of others who are vying for the same clients?
- Your Accessibility and Placement in the Search Listings: Will potential clients easily locate you?
>>>>Action Step: If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, it’s highly advisable to rework your LinkedIn profile — soon. Test out to see what’s working for other experts by doing a profile search using keywords your potential clients would use, to find someone with your expertise. Note which experts rise to the top of a search. Review their profile, analyzing how they have positioned their expertise, and described the type of clients they work with. This is an eyeopener to be sure — but also an excellent guide to help you better establish yourself in your desired niche.
It’s All Up to You — It’s Your Business!
BUT — the Bottomline is still the Bottomline…
Reworking your profile is important and is not something that can be quickly hammered out, nor should it be put on your “someday I’ll do it” list. Why put it off — don’t you want to begin attracting more business immediately?!
To learn more about how to attract more of the right kind of business join in for the FREE New Horizons Telesummit, February 23th & 24th with an incredible gathering of 12 experts presenting on a variety of topics to help you develop your business: Marcia Bench, Jeff Herring, Bill Baren, Denise Wakeman, Viki Winterton will be joined by other leading experts where you will learn exactly what to do to create a successful coaching or consulting business.
Hope to see you there — I will be!
For More Information: New Horizons Telesummit Details + Your FREE Pass to Attend (click on this linked text here)
