Today’s Quote: LinkedIn is no longer your online resume, it’s your digital reputation. – Jill Rowley
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are going to talk about how to use LinkedIn smarter, so you can market yourself properly and yes, get clients.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Where are you looking for clients?
A lot of VAs tell me that they are looking for clients on social media.
If that’s you, how’s it working for you?
When we are trying to grow our business, we have to go to the right places, talk to the right people, and say the right things.
That probably sounds challenging, but once you figure it out, it really is quite simple.
And you will spend less time doing it too, because you are working smarter.
There are 810 million users on LinkedIn. 310 million are active monthly.
How many clients do you need? Your clients are there.
Linked In is all business – people are on there for professional reasons. And although there is community there, it’s not the same as most other social media platforms because it’s not really just social.
And the people that are active there (which you can easily see) are the ones you can work with. So it’s time to start making good business connections.
What better place to start having really good business conversations with business people than in a business social setting.
What you need to do is to make sure that what you are putting out there is going to work for you.
It’s not your online resume anymore. There are so many features that you can use to showcase your services.
And you also need to find the people that bring you business. That can be potential clients, or potential referral sources. Connections!
Here’s what to do:
- Optimize your profile
- make sure that you are using keywords – search terms that people will look for, or that LinkedIn will choose to show them
- there are all kinds of neat new things on your profile page that can showcase your services
- by optimizing what you are putting out there, you show people what you want them to see
2. Make your profile work for you
- make your about section read like your website
- fill up the featured section
- your photo headline travel with you everywhere
- detail the services you offer and then
3. Use search bar – to find your ideal clients
- search their occupation, location, services they use
- look at vas or other strategic partners who serve the same clients as you
As you are looking for people, search their job title and then choose 2nd connections to make new connections.
But also don’t forget to look at your 1st connections. are there relationships you haven’t leveraged there yet?
Don’t forget about strategic partners – search them also and see what they are doing – whose stuff they are sharing. Building a partner relationship can be even easier!
Search events to see if there are any that you might attend.
After you find the people you are looking for, start a tracking sheet to keep track of who you are reaching out to. Check to see if they are active, and if so, what is their activity? Look at all of their activity, not just what they are posting (though typically that’s what you want to like, share and comment on), but also what they are liking, sharing and commenting on.
See who else they are connected to – would they be good connections for you also? Look for quality over quantity
Remember you don’t need 100 clients or 310 million. You are just looking for ONE at at time.
By finding the people that are ideal for you, you need far fewer solid connections than you think.
Start to like comment and share their posts
Then by the time you do an introduction or a connection request, you are familiar to them
This takes time, don’t like 2 of their posts and then send an email unless there is a really compelling reason to do so
And next, of course you have to post relevant content of your own.
What are your services?
Post about what you do for your clients and how that helps them in their business.
Your profile and your actual activity are most important – you can post 3x a week but it should be good. You don’t have to post 10x a day. Quality of quantity for content too.
LinkedIn will show your posts to more people when you get interaction on them so make sure you are thoughtfully posting.
And LinkedIn counts your interactions as activity too, as you can see from other people’s activity level – so by stepping that up yourself, you are becoming more visible in everyone’s feed as well. It’s definitely as good as posting yourself, without having to create 20 pieces of content every week.
Post before day starts, lunch hour and after work
And then show up at those times. Don’t just schedule posts and never go there. When your post is published, people will see it and they may comment on it right away. You don’t want to miss that activity.
Just like on Tiktok, the posters post live and then are there to create conversation with the people who are commenting on their video – all social media is the same. It’s how you engage your followers.
It’s about the numbers, but it’s really more about the commitment. Book in 15 minutes at 8 am, 15 at lunch and 15 at the end of your day, 3 days a week – and you’ll find that you are developing a great Linked In habit.
Need Some Help?
If I can help you learn how to figure out how to maximize your LinkedIn strategy, or your messaging, or choose your ideal client, reach out to me at tracey@yourvamentor.com. I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I’d love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.