The following blog post was written by Maggy Stewart, Graphic Designer & Marketing Coordinator at RMS.

Picture this: you’ve been making the move on a prospective client, trying to get your foot in the door, and you’ve finally been able to reach them over the phone or in person. Their time is extremely limited, and you’ve got 30 seconds to pitch yourself and what your company has to offer—GO.

If you feel a little unsettled or unprepared, consider a marketing tool that has the ability to streamline the process and boost your preparations for this exact moment: LinkedIn.

After recently attending a LinkedIn—The Sandler Way training, it was evident how powerful LinkedIn can be for sales and marketing professionals. Your LinkedIn profile has the ability to not only present your 30 second commercial to anyone, anywhere, but it can help you become a social selling powerhouse.

There is an average of 53 million views of LinkedIn views each day (source: LinkedIn Sales Solutions), and an efficient user can receive 7% more of a response rate through a direct LinkedIn message versus a cold call or email.

As the largest professional network on the web, LinkedIn can supplement your business development efforts. With a profile that’s visible 24 hours a day, it’s often the first or second item that comes up in an online search. Becoming a social seller isn’t as difficult as it sounds, and the return on investing small amount of time to polish up your profile can be huge.

Your LinkedIn profile should cover some basics while not sounding pushy or looking like a clone of every other LinkedIn profile (a.k.a. boring). To improve your profile’s effectiveness as a marketing and sales tool, take your 30-second commercial and save your prospects from trying to figure out exactly what you do and why they should connect with you. Look at your profile not as a page to boast your accomplishments and capabilities, but how you’ve used your expertise to make your customers happy. Instead of regurgitating a dull mission statement, use emotion to evoke how your brand appreciates the customer experience (CX) and what you do to solve your clients’ problems and ‘pain experiences.’

Here are three things to keep in mind when branding yourself and your business on LinkedIn:

1. It should have your industry specified. Members with an industry listed on their profile typically receive 15 times more profile views than those who don’t.

2. It should be kept current. If your profile does not list your current occupation and company, as well as your education and growing skill set, you’re at a disadvantage. Your competitors’ profiles likely highlight this basic information, and putting it out there without getting into too much detail will help you narrow in on your target audience.

3. Easy on the “I’s”. Do you have a LinkedIn profile mainly because you’re interested in promoting yourself? If that’s the case, you’re probably on the wrong social network. The ultimate goal of your profile is to grab the attention of your target market, which means that it can’t be all about you. A lot of sales-related LinkedIn profiles look like a resume. If you’re not looking to get hired and are looking to generate some leads and beneficial connections, update it to read as a more personal description of your accomplishments and how those successes connect to a problem your ideal prospects experience.

LinkedIn is the Rolodex on steroids. Take the time to dust off your profile, develop a quality network to professionally identify yourself or your business, gather intelligence (join groups, follow your competitors and clients), and become a team player by sharing information, liking posts, participating and offering help and assistance to be a knowledgeable leader in your industry. This not only helps give you the professional edge you should strive for, but it also solidifies the fact that the star of the show isn’t you, your company or your company’s long list of milestones—it’s the results you consistently deliver to your happy customers.

RMS is a full-service market research firm located in Baldwinsville, NY. If you are interested in learning more about our research capabilities, please contact Sandy Baker, our Senior Director of Business Development & Corporate Strategy at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 1-866-567-5422.