As a Christian Business owner, you may have heard of LinkedIn, but you weren’t too sure how to use it for your business.  Let’s talk about some basic LinkedIn strategies to get your started.

What is LinkedIn?

Many people use LinkedIn to find jobs, but it is also a great place to make business connections with other businesses.  LinkedIn is a business oriented social media network.  On their main page this is what they say:

“Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities.”

The first thing we must keep in mind is that LinkedIn is about business.  It is about connecting with others that you know, then you may find common connections with others.  You can share your skill set and your expertise and it is all searchable on LinkedIn.

What do I need to know about LinkedIn?

• Profile picture should be professional.  Look directly at the camera and smile.  Have a professional headshot if at all possible.
• Title is where you tell what you do.  Keep it simple and direct.
• Location is where you live and work.  Make it easy for people to find you in your local area and make connections.
• Summary tells what you do and who you do it for.  Make the first sentence as specific as possible.  You can say, “I do THIS for THESE people.”
• Experience is where you can share your work.  Show off a bit sharing what you have done and make connections with those businesses and people.
• Skills is a list of things you can offer through your business.  List any skills that you would want people to hire you for.  For instance, if you run a dog grooming business, you don’t want to mention anything outside of dog grooming specific skills.  It is important to focus your skills.
• Keywords is another thing you must keep in mind.  You want to have your specific niche keywords mentioned.  Again, if your business is dog grooming, you want to have dog grooming, dog groomer, dog stylist, etc.  You should know your industry enough to pinpoint the keywords that will work for your business.

Christian business owners must keep their profile professional.  Sure you can put a Bible verse in your summary, if it fits your business specifically.  If you only market to Christians, then, yes, put the word Christian in your profile.  Christian is who you are and you don’t need to hide that, but if you want to reach people, you must be wise about how you identify your faith.  See our articles on Tips for Social Media, and What to post on social media.

Conclusion

If you want to connect on LinkedIn and use it to share about your business, you want to make sure your profile is completed.  Make it professional.  You can search your business industry and see who comes up in the search at the top.  Look at how they created their profile and notice the keywords they use.  Complete your profile and make sure you look professional.

In the next article, we will look at what to do after you have your profile completed.  We will talk about connections, endorsements and all those other words that are part of the LinkedIn vocabulary.

LinkedIn is a business oriented social media network. Keep it professional. Click To Tweet