LinkedIn is an essential personal branding tool for both showcasing your online resume and providing easy access to your professional network. More and more, prospective clients have the expectation that not only should brands have a presence on LinkedIn, but also their C-Suite executives, influential team members, and subject-matter experts.

“The reality is, your brand has a higher likelihood of being top of mind during consideration lifecycles if both your brand and key stakeholders have an active presence on Linkedin,” says Eric Mally, Director of Content and Social Media at Airfoil.

“Sixty percent of users look to LinkedIn to gather industry insights. That screams opportunity for you to be front and center and position yourself as a thought leader, all by allocating time and resources to posting content and topics you live and breathe every day.”

In any industry, generating new leads will always be essential to business growth. Assuming your company is taking measures to attract new leads, you can also help in the effort at a personal level. Elevating your personal LinkedIn presence and strategy can result in deeper connections with leads and may assist your business in closing a sale.

Here are three quick tips to help enhance your personal LinkedIn presence.

1. Optimize your LinkedIn bio for SEO 

Your LinkedIn profile provides a holistic picture of your personal brand to your professional network, including experiences, interests, awards, and even philanthropic endeavors. 

However, one of the most important - and often overlooked - parts of your profile is the SEO value that your bio summary can provide because it’s typically one of the top results on a Google search of your name. 

Optimizing your bio for SEO based on your current job and industry will give business prospects a lasting first impression. For example, if you specialize in social media for the automotive industry, be sure to include the following keywords in your bio:

• Automotive industry

• Social media strategy

• Product launch

• Paid social media campaigns

• Auto show

• Autonomous vehicles

• Social media analytics

Researching keywords for your ideal audience and what your competition is using is a valuable strategy for any digital or social platform, but incorporating this into your own bio and LinkedIn posts will put you a step above the rest.

Remember, LinkedIn is not only an excellent way to discover prospects - it’s also a great way to be found by them, too.

2. Engaging, Inspiring, and Educational Content will Always Reign Supreme

Is there a time and place for entertaining memes? Sure. Is it on your LinkedIn feed for potential prospects to see when they hold the pens for signing multi-million dollar contracts? Probably not.

The key to any successful content strategy, let alone on LinkedIn, is to consistently post content that will resonate with your preferred audiences. In order to do so, put an emphasis on creating content to engage, inspire, and educate your communities.

Elevating your personal LinkedIn presence involves allocating the necessary time and focus needed for creating, publishing, and monitoring content on a consistent basis. Consistency is key, and your cadence depends on personal bandwidth, but starting off with 2-3 posts a week will be enough to track engagement.

Also, remember with LinkedIn, you’re not just limited to status updates and links to articles - try creating an engaging poll to keep your followers interested, write a long-form article and incorporate SEO keywords into it to get more exposure, or post a relevant video. You have tons of options to test and see what works best. 

And don’t be scared to put yourself out there – just because you know your skill set and expertise doesn't mean your community does. There’s nothing wrong with showing your professional network what you’re most knowledgeable about. After all, your expertise could be just what a prospective client needs help with.

3. Consider Upgrading to LinkedIn Premium 

If you’re really serious about enhancing your personal presence on LinkedIn, it might be a good idea to upgrade to LinkedIn Premium.

One of the major benefits of LinkedIn Premium is the ability to send InMail messages to anyone on the platform even if you’re not connected with them. This alone gives you more access to potential leads because you’re essentially allowed to email them directly without having their personal email address.

LinkedIn Premium also allows you to see who actually viewed your profile instead of the generic “someone viewed your profile” notification that we all love so much. This can give you a solid headstart in nurturing that lead because you already know they’re somewhat interested in you as an individual.

Of course, with any premium product, there’s a cost associated with it. You’ll have to weigh the benefits of that cost then decide whether or not the benefits justify the expense.

Following these three simple steps can help put you on the right path to enhancing your presence on LinkedIn. Like anything, give it some time - you might not see results instantly, but good things come to those who wait.