Avoid these costly LinkedIn mistakes

It can be tempting to try to figure out LinkedIn on your own to promote your small business. Anyway, how hard can it be to write content and send messages? 

I understand that you want to figure it out. I want you to figure it out, too!

In this blog post, I’ll share how you can figure it out while receiving critical support to prevent you from making common—and costly—mistakes. 

Most advice is built for job seekers, not business owners.

Unfortunately, most LinkedIn advice available is geared toward job seekers and those who are formally employed, as that’s LinkedIn’s primary focus (and how they make money).

When advice isn't created for job seekers, it's often for those who are employed and working at companies with significant budgets. As such, when you Google questions about LinkedIn, you’ll likely find the typical audience is one of the following:

• Job seekers

• Employed individuals 

• Large companies 

• Startups

Trying to apply the advice you find online is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. That's because the strategies needed to make sales in your small service-based business are different from the strategies you need to find your next job, promote a multinational company, or make B2B software sales.

For example, the traditional advice online regarding your LinkedIn profile is to share your professional story and experience. However, as a small business owner, your LinkedIn profile’s About section should focus heavily on the clients you serve and the problems they face. Same feature on LinkedIn, different approach.

When you implement advice designed for a different audience, you will likely achieve results; however, they probably won't bring you closer to the outcomes you want. For instance, you might find that you get results such as more followers and impressions, but in all likelihood, those results won’t help you accomplish your actual goal of getting more clients — let alone the right clients. 

(In this related blog post, I explain what creating a LinkedIn strategy for a small business means and why you need one to get leads on LinkedIn.)

Now, let's discuss the three common mistakes you might be making when trying to figure out LinkedIn on your own:

Mistake 1) Vague or unclear positioning

It is critical that your LinkedIn profile and posts demonstrate who you serve, how you can help, and what the next steps are. If you don’t have clear positioning, you will attract interest, but prospects won’t understand how you can help them with their unique problems. In other words, you'll grow your engagement and impressions on the platform, but it won’t get you closer to getting leads for your business. 

Here are a few examples of unclear headlines on a LinkedIn profile:

• Sales Consultant: Helping startup founders 10x their revenue → when you read this, it's not clear how this transformation occurs. Is it by introducing new offerings, forming corporate partnerships, or making more sales?

• Fundraising Consultant: Building major gift programs for nonprofits → when you read this, we don't know the impact of these major gift programs. Additionally, we are unsure of the type of nonprofits the consultant serves. Are they serving nonprofits with big budgets (say $10M+) or startup nonprofits? These different types of organizations have vastly different needs.

When I work with a client, we always start by improving their LinkedIn profile, as their positioning is the foundation of their success on the platform.

Mistake 2) Focusing on the wrong features

LinkedIn has a ton of features like LinkedIn Lives, collaborative articles, service pages, video content, and more. It can be tempting to try out and invest in these features. When you do that, it's easy to go down a rabbit hole and waste a lot of time on the platform.

However, as a business owner, you have limited time. In my program Leads on LinkedIn, we focus on LinkedIn posts and direct messages, the two best and most sustainable strategies to find clients for your small business. 

Mistake 3) Undermining your credibility

I’m surprised by how often I see posts and direct messages that undermine a business owner's credibility. Here is what it looks like:

1. Via posts: When small business owners share content on LinkedIn, they often write personal content about past mistakes and failures, and future goals. However, many of these posts unintentionally discredit the expert, leaving their audience interested but simultaneously destroying trust. You can get all the engagement in the world on posts like these, but without trust, your audience won’t buy from you. 

2. Via direct messages: When small business owners direct message prospects on LinkedIn, they often try to hit a quota and ask themselves “how am I converting these prospects into clients?”. Accordingly, they are quick to send pitches via direct message, asking relevant prospects whether their services are a fit. This strategy is exhausting and unsustainable. Instead of relying on direct pitching, I encourage you to take a relationship-focused approach to direct messaging. You can learn more about why DMs don’t have to be salesy in this blog post. 

You know there’s potential in LinkedIn, but figuring out which steps are worth your time and will actually bring leads is a huge challenge, especially when most LinkedIn advice is designed for job seekers and corporations, not for you as a small business owner. 

The next steps you can take to get leads on LinkedIn (and how I can help you)

When we work together, I'll help you avoid the costly mistakes discussed above — and several others. Here's how my offers work:

Step 1: When I start working with a small business owner, we always start with a Profile Optimization so that you clearly explain your credibility, who you serve, how you serve them, and what action the profile viewer should take.

This process takes about 3 weeks from start to finish, and provides you with a profile that captures the attention of your ideal clients and gets them to take action.

Step 2: Once your profile is optimized, we then create your LinkedIn strategy. Through my monthly coaching program Leads on LinkedIn, you will become comfortable navigating LinkedIn to find the right-fit clients for your business.

Inside Leads on LinkedIn, we focus on two main skills — LinkedIn posting and direct messaging. These skills bring the right clients into your orbit so you can consistently grow your business without relying on time-consuming strategies like video and expensive strategies like ads.

Within just a month, you'll have identified and contacted 30 prospects for your business. You'll have the skills and systems to do it again any time you want an influx of leads. And, this rinse and repeat process gets more effective every time you do it!

Learn more and get started here.