Here Are Simple Ways to Increase the Number of People Who Check out Your LinkedIn Profile

By Wayne Breitbarth, Andersen Alumnus and CEO-Power Formula LLC (Author of “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success: Kick-Start Your Business, Brand and Job Search’)

Most people will agree that LinkedIn has established itself as one of the best marketing tools on the planet for business professionals, and part of your marketing strategy, whether marketing yourself and/or your products and services, should be to encourage marketing events or interactions with your target audience.

One of the most important marketing events on LinkedIn is profile views. When someone views your profile, it's like they walked into your store, ready to do some shopping.

So, how do you attract more shoppers to your store?

Long-term strategy

Of course, almost everyone who checks out your profile could be a potential client/customer or at least know someone who might be interested in you and what you have to offer. However, ultimately you're looking for views from people who quite likely can help you achieve your business goals.

To get on the path to long-term success, it's important to connect with your target audience and share great information, thereby nurturing the relationship and increasing your thought leadership status. Then, when they are ready to engage someone who has your expertise, you have earned your way onto their list—and hopefully, it’s a very short list!

Short-term strategy

In the short term, here are eight simple ways to get more of the right people viewing your profile.

1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile headline. A headline is meant to grab the reader and encourage him/her to read more. If you need help with this, download my free worksheet The Definitive Worksheet to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Headline on the free resources page of my website.

2. Look at other people’s profiles. When people see you’ve looked at their profile, it’s quite likely they’ll take a look at yours if your headline suggests you might be an interesting person to meet.

Be sure your Profile viewing options setting is on the recommended setting of full disclosure. Then they'll see your full name and headline versus something like Insurance agent at Northwestern Mutual.

3. Share your own posts frequently. This doesn’t take as much time as you might think. Simply use the Start a post feature on your home page. Most people don't think they have anything to share, but just think about ways you are helping your network and/or customers. That's a great place to start.

4. Repost, “like” or comment on other people’s posts or published articles. This isn’t quite as powerful as sharing your own posts, but the time commitment is a lot less. It only takes a second to click “like,” and it’s an easy way to stay top of mind with your network.

Consider mentioning them using the "@" sign before typing in their name when sharing one of their updates.

5. Put more of your most important keywords in your profile—and put them in the right spots. For help with this, download my worksheet Keywords: The Key to Being Found on LinkedIn on the free resources page of my website.

6. Endorse people. Not everyone is a fan of this feature, but it does spark lots of engagement—which usually results in more profile views.

7. Take advantage of LinkedIn notifying you of your connections' birthdays, work anniversaries, and starting new jobs. LinkedIn uses the Notifications tab to tell you when these important dates are happening with the people who matter most to you—your connections. So be sure not to just click the Say happy birthday button. Take it to the next level and send them a longer, more helpful or inquiring message that should lead to a profile view for you.

8. Start writing long-form articles using the LinkedIn publishing feature. Admittedly, this will take some work, and many of us shy away from writing, but over time this will get you more profile views. Also, one of the best ways to establish your thought leadership is to share your thoughts by writing.

Take action.

So, which of these steps are you going to take to increase your LinkedIn profile views? And keep in mind that if you get more profile views, you'll then get more traditional interactions (phone calls, emails, meetings, etc.). Of course, this will result in improved ROI for your time spent on LinkedIn.

For more simple strategies to improve your LinkedIn ROI, along with a detailed critique of your profile, be sure to take advantage of my one-hour, one-on-one consultation for just $197.

This consultation will take place on the phone, and I will share my computer screen with you. There are limited spots available, so don't delay. Book yours today by clicking here.