It’s important to make best use of what we are given on LinkedIn, I think that you’ll agree. The links through to our websites and blogs form another key part of the information we provide as it helps us get people thinking about our sites and also encouraging them to click through and visit them. After all, LinkedIn is really just a place to initiate the connection with people but then you’ll want them on your own site to further the relationship.
Anyway, to help encourage them to come through to your website, you need to make sure that you don’t simply retain the simple “Company Website” display name that is the default text that LinkedIn gives us. (They currently provide a choice of 5 in all that, while descriptive I guess, are always going to be generic.)
Instead, how about being able to customise them and so display the name that you would like to have there. It will attract the eye much more and show people what they are going to find when they click on the link – in all in all, creates an environment where people are much more likely to do so.
To do this, go to your “Edit Profile” page and scroll down to where the websites are listed – you’ll find a link marked “edit” next to each of them similar to the image below:
Click on any of these and you’ll be taken through to the edit section.
Once there, click on the pull down menu in the left hand column – this may currently be showing “Company Website” and you’ll be presented with a list of options. This time select “Other” which is right at the bottom. Now you’ll find that a third box is shown that you can type text directly into – this is the text that will appear on your profile as the link. I’ve put in Better Business Blogging in the example below and then added the URL as before.
Click on the “Save Changes” button and voilà, you now have a much more inviting link through to your website or blog.
Don’t forget though that they give you three spaces so you might as well use them. Don’t repeat the same on three times of course, instead how about linking through to a special promotion that you are running or directly to a document that contains your newsletter or a new product information datasheet that you are looking to highlight. Lots of options.
As an added bonus, these links also appear on your public profile, so it’s not just your LinkedIn visitors that you can better direct to your website, they’ll also be accessible for people who have simply found you on Google, giving you an additional place on the web to act as a doorway through to your site.
So what are you waiting for … getting your website links working for you. Simples! 🙂
