I have just completed a week of well, the only word for it is Bootcamp which forced me to re-evaluate how I use LinkedIn

It soon became clear I had only really been dabbling at it.

Yes, my profile was pretty up-to-date and yes, I was doing the odd post and ‘like’ and sharing other people’s stuff.

But not really getting any engagement to speak of.

The purpose of this article is to distil what I learned in the last week, what actions I have taken and how it made me feel.

And to give you some takeaways to encourage you to act yourself.

So, in 3:

Really think what your ideal client looks like – give them a name

This is quite a fun bit and you can really let your imagination go. The Tectona avatar ended up like this:

WHO – our ideal client is a Tony who lives in a detached house near Reading and owns a business based in the Thames Valley. His income has been north of £100k but that has taken a hit due covid in the last 12 months. He has children but due to the stress of the job he struggles to make enough time for his family; especially his 2 teenage daughters. He would have holidayed abroad; but right now, is actively looking/has booked in the UK – mainly to force himself to have family time blocked out. (And, btw, when he does go on holiday he certainly does not totally switch off).

He uses quality brands – drives a BMW or Mercedes and has an expensive watch. He has surplus disposable income and normaltimes would like to be seen out and about. He is confident enough to know that he is going to succeed – one way or another. Immediate challenge is feeling oppressed by the current covid Lockdown and actively finding (semi-) legit ways of not being tied to the house.

He will be on LinkedIn and possibly one other platform – but not FB.

He is not in control of the finances of the business and does not know what a best-in-class finance function looks like (how could he?). So Tony is probably wasting time trying to do it all himself and not realising that there is an opportunity cost. He is not aware of the Tectona proposition for businesses just like his – a high-quality part-time finance resource for little more than the cost of an intern.

He is time poor and just needs to be confident that his suppliers can deliver the outcomes he needs – cost effectively.

Finally, he lies awake at night worrying that the business is not run as well financially as it could be and that it is steadily going to run out of money (especially as Covid support is phased out). He knows that he needs to be more strategic in the business (and not too tactical) and he worries just how to price large contracts so as to be competitive but not to sacrifice his margins.

Update your LI headline to appeal to that person

(Your LI headline is hugely important as it follows you everywhere – every connection, every post, every comment – it is front and centre.)

Having identified who you want to work with, the next step is to convert into the perfect LinkedIn headline and update your profile.

The first step is to fill in the gaps:

I help {insert type of business}
I deliver these outcomes: {what outcome(s)}
This is how I do that: {how you go about it}
My keywords are: {a max of 5 Keywords}

This is how my Headline turned out:

Leads a team of 16 very experienced CFOs. Helping time poor CEOs and their management teams make informed strategic decisions by ensuring their finance function is best in class and that it tells them what they need to know, when they need to know it and in a language they will understand

Get Active – do lots of things on a regular basis – ideally daily and including weekends

This is where it gets a bit more challenging and I sense that about three quarters of my fellow delegates did not complete this task.

I think that is a shame because it is far and away the most important aspect – if you are serious about getting the max out of LinkedIn.

The crucial thing is to show up consistently – day in, day out – and do one or more of these things:

Proactively seek out new connections – use the LI search function to target roles and geographies and don’t (and this really grated with me!) send an introductory message. If your headline is doing its job, only those for whom it resonates will accept your invite.

Accept any connection requests you receive – the aim is to build your network.

Share the good things – proactively reach out to your connections and offer to give them positive LI recommendations. If you do, you will find that at least half will reciprocate and links nicely to …

Build your “Social Proof” – post screenshots of nice things people have said about you, recommendations, successes and wrap some words about how this made you feel around it.

Do lots of posting on LinkedIn –

A video post– this is serious outside comfort zone stuff
A story-based post
A Social Proof post

A CTA (call to action) post – this is being blatant about who you are, what you do, how you do it, what you sell and how much it costs. The Tectona one looked like this:

I am Mark Nicholls and I introduce the Tectona team of 16 CFOs to time-poor CEOs and MDs who need to get on top of their numbers and who want to be able to sleep at night. We offer a charge by the hour service at a cost of £160 per hour. You can dial up/dial down to suit your needs. Compare that to the £300+ per hour charged by accountancy practices. You get the benefits of a top-drawer finance resource for little more than the cost of an intern. Call me on 07818 407061 for a free and absolutely no commitment 20-minute chat.

I am pleased to say I completed all the tasks (and more); and over the course of a week saw my LI stats increase pretty convincingly.

Will it generate more interest in Tectona (or me) leading to more leads and clients – well, only time will tell!

Conclusion

I found it a challenging and invigorating experience which showed me how to use LI far more effectively than I had been.

The main thrust is to send out the right signals so that the right prospects come to you – they call it lighthouse marketing.

So, you will be seeing LI connection requests from me and, where appropriate I will be offering to write you recommendations and would love it if some of you felt able to reciprocate.

All this is fine and dandy and the proof of the pudding, bluntly, will be how committed I am to keeping up the momentum. I am quietly confident …

About Tectona

Tectona Partnership helps business owners sleep at night by embedding one of our 16 commercially minded finance directors in your management team. Very often, a part time solution is the most effective solution for small businesses.

We make sure you have the necessary management information and strategic insight to make informed decisions. We will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it.