This article is a guideline and challenge for authors who believe their LinkedIn presence could be better. Let’s call it the “7-Day Challenge to Expand and Capitalise on our LinkedIn Presence”.

Preparations for your Profile Sprucing

You won’t need a LinkedIn Premium account, but you will need an account. Don’t forget your email and password (cursed passwords that always change when you’re not looking).

Squint now at your current photo. Are you not smiling? Do you have a tropical shirt on? Has it got a weird background? Is your honey’s arm cut off? It may be time to pick a new one and send your best photo, preferably smiling, to a photo editor. Here I recommend Mr Wikus, as he can do any type of design work and will spruce up your pic in a jiffy.  https://www.fiverr.com/wikus1208

These days you can get a LinkedIn background banner designed, which looks branded and professional. Ensure you don’t put important elements in the middle, as this will be obscured by your photo. If you look at my LinkedIn profile, you’ll see my books at the end. I made mine with Canva Pro, using small book fronts.

Let’s talk Titles

Say you do three things, one of which is write books, but mainly you’re on LinkedIn for consulting gigs. Great, put “[your Speciality] Consultant, Author” in the title. If you put “adding value to business” anywhere in the title, me and the Naff Police will have to come arrest you.

Summary

The most important and yet often overlooked part of your whole Profile is the Summary.  Let’s prepare the summary by writing out a one line philosophy and the 2-3 achievements. Or, if you’re changing direction then write more along the lines of “what I can do for SMEs is…..” Be specific!

I have decided to write mine more specifically for my two target markets, whom I define as:

• Business owners who want to pen a book, for more lead engagement and credibility
• Novice authors who want to grow their influence and book sales.

Re-written Summary Example

Once you’ve got your draft down on paper and then edited it on Text, it’s time to upload.

First, turn off the notifications on profile improvements to all your followers. (Well, it’s up to you of course, but you may do several).  Look to the right side for this.

Click on “improve profile” – the button under your profile image.

Once you have saved your beautiful work, read it once again for typos and easily misunderstood phrases. Check you have a minimum of three paragraphs, not one long block. To proofread your Profile, click the down arrow on the blue Profile button and click ‘Download PDF’. 

Well that was LinkedIn for Authors, Day 1.  

Sue Ellson’s LinkedIn Advice

Sue Ellson is an Aussie author who has written five books about growing your career or business in a modern way – particularly using LinkedIn. Her latest book is called ‘LinkedIn for me and my career or business‘. So let’s learn something from the LinkedIn expert.

A fun fact — Sue joined LinkedIn on 21 December 2003… early days indeed!

Q. I see you have Top 10 LinkedIn Techniques for Authors (see below), could you name one technique you would not go without doing before a big launch, and why?

I can’t say only one! You could add the launch ‘news’ in your profile banner image, add the book to your list of Publications, and link to your purchase location in the ‘Featured section’, which will hopefully show a book image…

Making an Author banner

You might want a LinkedIn-ready author banner. For a quick and easy profile banner design, I recommend using Canva templates and professional photography of yourself. 

Sue has done an amazing presentation on LinkedIn for Authors – which is freely given at: https://sueellson.com/blog/linkedin-for-authors/

Q. The tip under Increase your Engagement Ratio is intriguing. For those who are not sure where to start out, what are two or three things they can do to engage better on LinkedIn? 

The first step is to react to other people’s posts. The second is to write lengthy and insightful comments on others’ posts. And thirdly, every time you find a VIP of interest, click the Notification Bell on target LinkedIn Profiles and Pages, when you want to be kept up-to-date with what they are doing. This could include your book contributors, booksellers, book publisher, book reviewers, book distributors, book supporters, book launch speakers etc. You may also like to join some Groups, although the activity there has declined since the focus moved to the Newsfeed.

To garner interesting tidbits for new updates, you may also like to follow certain hashtags. To build your distribution list, you can create a ‘LinkedIn newsletter’, so that all your Followers will be automatically invited to subscribe.

(Don’t worry, it’s easy to create! You just need to choose a newsletter name, and upload an eye-catching wide banner and a logo to start with, then write your draft).

New Offline Opportunity

Q. LinkedIn posting always seems like it is online activity only.  Is there a personal circumstance where this type of thing has led to more offline opportunities for you? 

I like to donate a book as a door prize when I am speaking at events or sometimes, even when I am simply attending. This can lead to collecting contact details, especially if you have a QR code on a presentation slide that people can scan for a special offer or to follow on social media or even to enable them to write a Google Review.

I try and ‘connect’ with everyone I meet and I can do this via the LinkedIn App when I am out and about in person. On your phone’s ‘LinkedIn App’, press in the Search box, press the squares on the top right and then ‘scan code’. You could also have the QR code on a banner or small sign at a book signing.

As a speaker, your details are normally sent to everyone on the enterprise’s mailing list before the event. Therefore, you can address everyone at the event and, if you have your process already set up, you have new leads to follow up on! So rather than saying “I need a fee to speak”, work out some other ways to get your message out there and reach people after the event. After all, if you appeared in the media, you wouldn’t be paid to be there.

Q. How about another Event Tip?

You can have some good quality photos taken with you and your book to say you were at the event. If you @ mention the other people in the photo, you then have the content for a social media post that will receive additional engagement.

You can also list all your presentations on your author website. I have often picked up consulting clients and additional speaking gigs by speaking at an event, but I do not ‘sell’ from the stage, rather I always add amazing value.

Thanks, Sue, for those great insights about using LinkedIn for Authors. The ebook version seems an incredible resource for just $9.99 if you’d like to understand more about using LinkedIn.

Connect with Sue: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueellson

Buy the eBook at: https://120ways.com/shop/