Quickguide to LinkedIn Part 1: What Types of People Are Looking At Your LinkedIn Profile Today?

Think you should be doing more with your LinkedIn profile?

First let’s consider your audience.

Who’s actually going to look at your profile?

The 5 types of people looking at your LinkedIn profile today:

1. People you meet who are curious about you

You might hunt them down first, or they might find you first.

They will have these kinds of questions on their mind:

  • Might it be useful to connect with this person?
  • Would connecting with them be consistent with the image I’m trying to project? Do they fit smoothly into my network?
  • Can I connect them to other people I know to make me look good?

2. Employers both past, present and future

They will have these kinds of questions on their mind:

  • Past: What have they done since leaving here?
  • All: Who are they connected to?
  • All: What do they say about themselves?
  • Future: Are there gaps in their employment history?
  • Future: Do they bad-mouth x-bosses or workmates or workplaces?
  • Future: Are they worth poaching?

3. Potential clients getting a feel for your experience and skills

They will have these kinds of questions on their mind:

  • Can I be confident this person will get the job done?
  • What else are they capable of that could be useful?
  • How diluted is their range of services/experience?
  • Do they specialise in what I need them for?

4. Salespeople who just want to sell you something

  • They may be just trying to collect 500+ connections (this is called “vanity metrics”) in the hope that this huge number will engender trust in them and their services

5. Uber-networkers who just want to connect with the entire world if they can

  • They are driven to feel important and like to see themselves in the middle of a giant virtual hub

What Next?

Tomorrow in Part 2 I’ll share with you tips on how to milk LinkedIn, and I’ll detail 8 cows.

In the meantime, start to think about how each of these audience groups have different information needs, and which groups are more important to you right now.

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