At a loss with social media? Our experts use actual posts from businesses to illustrate their best tips.

The Expert: Viveka von Rosen

• Author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Host of most-popular LinkedIn chat on Twitter
• linkedintobusiness.com

EFFECTIVE

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1. Peggy Scott has a great profile. To start with, she has her name, branding, company name, email address and phone number all at the top of her page.  
2. Upload a recent image of yourself.  When I started working with Peggy, her hair was long.  Her short hair now makes her look like a completely different person. You want to make sure that people recognize you from your LinkedIn profile at conferences, trade shows and business meetings.  
3. Customize your professional headline to make full use of the 120 characters. She uses it to describe who she is and what she does in more detail.
4. Customize your URL to get found on Google. You can use your name, your company name or your area of expertise as long as it’s available.
5. Add your Summary section to make full use of the 2,000 allotted characters. Peggy has focused on her prospects and why they should hire her.
6. Upload media to showcase your expertise. Peggy has uploaded her company brochure as a PDF and several before and after images of clients, as well as a few interviews.
7. Add your Experience section(s) to detail your company’s capabilities. She uses this section to go more in depth on what an image strategist does and what she can do for her clients.  
8. Add all the “building blocks” like education, skills, publications, languages, etc. This adds credibility to who you are and what you offer.

INEFFECTIVE

1. The only thing this person has right in his profile is a customized URL and a healthy number of connections.
2. There are numerous key elements missing, including a lack of a photo. Chances are he is a spammer. And if he isn’t, I bet everyone thinks he is!
3. Other things missing: header image, professional headline, summary, media, experience and education. All of this information is crucial to establishing your credibility as an expert.

PRO TIP! It should only take a few hours to really create a stunning profile. Not only will this keep you from losing business because you lack credibility on LinkedIn, but you might even drive more traffic to your websites, landing pages and inbox. A few hours is a pretty low time investment for a high ROI!