Give Your Reps a LinkedIn Profile ‘Facelift’

(This is the second post in our series on sales organizations’ emerging use of social media as a channel for shaping demand.)

Social media is a key ingredient for reps to be able to get in earlier and help shape demand. Proactive engagement in digital communities can be effective in sales, but reps will be even more successful with support from their organization. Even without a full social media strategy you can still support individual reps entering the landscape. In the second of our social media blog series we look at some simple things your organization can do to start making your reps’ online presence more professional.

LinkedIn is becoming a prerequisite to online professional engagement. Your organization can use a basic checklist to ensure reps all have a minimum online presence in this forum.

There are two reasons why organizational involvement is a good thing:  1) Introducing your reps to the world of social media is a helpful start for those who don’t know how to get into it and 2) a central perspective will allow you some control to align your reps’ personal brand with your company brand.

So what does a good social media profile look like? It must be:

Complete

All basic information categories should be fully filled in with good content. Education, experience, contact details, groups, interests, connections and recommendations are the minimum requirements for a respectable profile. Organizations should also help reps  find groups and get recommendations which are often the two most difficult categories to populate.

Personal

Each rep must have a photo. Profiles that include a photo are seven times more likely to be checked than those without a photo. Photos should be professional, clear and a good representation of the person. There should be only one person in the shot, no pets, children or cartoons allowed.

Attention-Getting

A good headline goes beyond a current job description. You can include specialties or successes but make sure it is individual and personal. Bonus points for headlines that imply mentorship, a key ingredient for successful commercial teaching.

Professional

Just like with a resume there is no excuse for any spelling or grammatical errors. If a customer sees that you and your rep are not careful enough to correct than they will not trust you to provide the product or service they need.

And specifically, a good social LinkedIn profile should include:

Helpful Summary

This is the description of your reps’ personal brand but links directly to your organizations overall brand. Have a basic idea of what information you would like the summary to convey. When your reps go into the field what do you hope prospects and customers will think? What do you want your reps to be known for? Make sure each summary has similar language that demonstrates that idea while emphasizing their unique strengths.

Current Job Description

This is the part of the profile your customer will scrutinize so make sure it supports your overall goal. Make sure it fits your company profile and brand. Emphasize specific advantages your rep provided to previous customers and concrete accomplishments that they have achieved. President’s Club means less to clients than saving money, adding value or ROI.

Link to External Pages

Your rep is a reflection of you and viewers should be able to find your company through their profile. Include links to company websites or blogs, Facebook pages or other online spaces.

Using this basic criteria will help ensure that your reps put a professional digital face to your company, something increasingly important for ‘Social Selling’.

SEC Members, use our new LinkedIn Self-Quiz (pg. 3) to rate your (and your team’s) current LinkedIn profile. Also be sure to register for our upcoming webinar on Social Selling: Gaining Credibility and Influence in B2B Social Media Networks.