The statistics are in. Approximately 303 million people per month are active on LinkedIn, and about 40% of those visit the site on a daily basis. For wholesale insurance professionals, it’s a powerful platform to reach your target audience.
It’s crucial to make sure your LinkedIn profile is pulling its weight. Here are a few things to consider when tuning it up for 2020.
Update Your Profile Picture
Your profile picture is the first thing people notice, and it’s your opportunity to make a great first impression. Here are a few tips for making sure it’s effective:
- Your face should take up about 3/5ths of the frame. If you’re positioned back too far, people may not be able to see what you look like on a small screen.
- Your picture should be up-to-date and look like you.
- Make sure it’s a high-resolution image. Otherwise, it can look blurry on some screens.
- Make sure you look relaxed, positive, and approachable. For most people, that means smiling.
- Choose a background that doesn’t distract.
- Wear professional clothes – the kind you’d wear to the office. Avoid colors or prints that draw attention away from your face.
Choose the Right Background Image
The background image sets the tone for your profile and makes a branding statement for you. You could use an image related to your industry or the type of insurance you sell; upload your company’s logo and branding or get an image professionally designed.
Either way, the correct size for these images is 1584 x 396 pixels. Make sure you use a high-resolution image.
Think of Your Headline as a Tagline
Most people just put their current job title at the top of their LinkedIn profile, but you don’t have to. You can think of it as a unique value proposition – a catchy statement that says what you do, who you help, and how it benefits them.
Update Your Relevant Skills
Take a look at your list of skills. Are there any listed that are out of date, or not in focus with the kind of work you’re doing now? Is there anything important missing?
The skills section doesn’t have to be really long. But the skills listed there should be relevant to what you’re doing now.
Gather Endorsements
Getting endorsements from others on LinkedIn can boost your credibility and back up your statements about your expertise. The way to gather endorsements on LinkedIn is to endorse others.
Ideally, you want people to endorse the skills of yours that are relevant to what you do. Not all of them will. That’s why it’s a good idea to endorse others who know you professionally and understand what you do, and perhaps to send a message along with your endorsement asking for them to focus on specific skills.
Remember that you can always edit the list of your endorsements and hide those that aren’t on brand.
Ask for Recommendations
Recommendations are extremely powerful as a way of verifying your skills and expertise. LinkedIn gives you an option to request recommendations directly from your contacts, and it’s best to choose who you ask carefully. Those in the same industry and demographic as your target audience (for example, the types of insurance agents you want to work with) will likely be the most persuasive.
LinkedIn can be a valuable tool for reaching out to the agents you want to work with. It’s worth it to go through and make sure your profile is a powerful representation of you.
Update your photo and background image, strengthen your headline, focus your skills and endorsements, make sure your publications are highlighted and gather recommendations. With these changes, you should be able to build a profile that highlights you in the best light.
Leave a Reply