Recently a financial planner asked me to give him some feedback on his LinkedIn profile. As you may know, professionals in this highly-regulated industry have many restrictions on how they use social media in general, including what they can put in a LinkedIn profile.

That said, I took a look at his profile and made a few general suggestions for improvement. Then I reviewed the LinkedIn profiles of a few of the other financial planners I am connected with on LinkedIn.

I shared the LinkedIn URLs for these planners with the fellow who asked me to review his profile. Then I suggested that he look into how these folks and others in his field (with the same constraints and restrictions) are using LinkedIn.

To me, the best way to build a robust and powerful profile on LinkedIn (or any other social media site) is to begin by researching the profiles of your competition. The point is not to copy them, but to learn what works (and what doesn’t), what resonates with you, and the kinds of things you can add to your own profile.

There is a good chance that many of your competitors are within one connection of you on LinkedIn. That’s good news, as with a free account (which is what most LinkedIn users have), you can review the profiles of your second-degree connections.

What to Look for when Reviewing Your Competition’s LinkedIn Profiles:

• Use of professional designations – what format is used most often?
• Terminology in taglines and other short branding statements
• Key words in headlines and summaries
• Wording of their job duties and accomplishments in experience section
• Groups they belong to, especially the ones they are active in
• Companies they follow
• Influencers and news they follow
• Courses they have taken
• Projects they have completed
• Honors and awards they have received
• Charitable and volunteer involvement

For example, you might have earned a certificate but neglected to include it in your profile. Seeing the information about your competitor’s certificate will jog your memory of your own and remind you to add it, as well as any industry awards or commendations you’ve forgotten about.

Your competition might be active in some key LinkedIn groups that are specific to your industry. Joining and becoming active in those groups can help raise your profile, connect you to the movers and shakers in your field, and increase your credibility.

Who knows, maybe after you spend some time making cogent and engaging comments in a few groups, more people in your field will start connecting with you!

Using LinkedIn like this is a great way to do competitive analysis too. We know the importance of doing this regularly, but we often put it off as too time and/or money consuming. This way is interesting, educational, pretty quick, and requires no out-of-pocket expense.

Should you find researching your competition on social media (especially LinkedIn) beneficial, considering doing this kind of review on a regular basis. Every month is not too often, especially given the speed of life online.

To read more on this topic, check out this article by Danielle Prager, in which she shares valuable specifics about reviewing your competition’s activity on Facebook and Twitter: http://unbounce.com/social-media/research-your-competitors-social-media-strategy-and-then-borrow-their-best-ideas/

 

How About You?

How have you used social media (especially LinkedIn) to research your competition? What kinds of changes have you made to your LinkedIn profile or other cyber presence due to this research? It would be great to get ideas on this topic from our readers

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.