LinkedIn Tutorials: 12 Helpful Guides for Coaches

June 3, 2020

This is a collection of helpful LinkedIn tutorials for coaches.

In the guides below, you’ll learn how to:

Build a powerful LinkedIn presence.
Grow a big following on the platform.
Attract business partners and customers.
And more.

Feel free to skip around and check out the LinkedIn tutorials most relevant to your business.

Here we go!

1. Know What to Expect

Before you dive deep into LinkedIn, it’s a good idea to calibrate your expectations.

What are the pros and cons of the platform? How much time will you need to invest? What kind of results can you expect?

In this article, you’ll get answers to all of those questions (and more) from one of the most popular writers on LinkedIn.

Quote from the article:

There are positives and negatives to everything in life — it comes down to whether the positives outweigh the negatives.

When the value of your reputation starts to increase because of social media, you can use that value to get access to opportunities.

On the flip side, some people will be jealous of what you’re doing or not like what you’re sharing.

2. Create a Compelling Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is like a professional landing page where you can manage your personal brand.

As a coach, this is an excellent opportunity to explain why you are the best coach in the world for your ideal client.

If you need some help with that, use the “What for Whom” framework to find your unique specialization.

Then create a LinkedIn profile that is irresistible to the people you want to work with.

Quote from the article:

Think about it this way: you are presenting yourself to a potential employer, business partner, or client.

So, smile, dress nicely, use a neutral background and squinch a little (seriously!).

3. Optimize Your Profile Picture

Your profile picture is critical to your success on LinkedIn.

Members who include a profile photo get 21 times more profile views and up to 36 times more messages.

But it’s not sufficient to upload any old picture of yourself. Your profile picture needs to meet certain criteria to be effective on LinkedIn.

You’ll learn exactly what they are in this article.

Quote from the article:

In a series of experiments studying judgment from facial appearances, Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found it only takes 100 milliseconds to form an impression of someone just by looking at a photo of their face.

The good news is you can tilt the odds in your favor by mastering your LinkedIn profile photo.

4. Attract Your Ideal Followers

Once your LinkedIn profile and picture are in place, you want your ideal followers to see them.

The best way to do that is to write a compelling LinkedIn headline.

This is a brief text — 120 characters or less — that appears at the top of your profile. It also shows up next to your name in the search results.

By optimizing your headline, and then making sure many people see it, you’ll attract people interested in what you do.

Quote from the article:

The goal is to get people to connect with you. But before they can do that, they must want to. They can only want to when they know who you are.

They know who you are by your profile summary. But they don’t check your profile without you giving them a reason to.

5. Write Irresistible Posts

Much like any other social media platform, business content on LinkedIn is often dry.

If you’ve browsed the platform, you’ve probably seen endless graphs, stock images, and recycled advice.

Those kinds of posts are incredibly boring and, therefore, highly ineffective.

To stand out and get noticed, you have to stop thinking about what you want and focus on what your followers want.

Quote from the article:

When your goal is selfish attention-seeking, people switch off.

When your goal is to help others, people take note.

This is the subtle shift that allows you to make a positive impact and do something that you will look back on one day and be proud of.

6. Build a Huge Following

LinkedIn may be a business network, but it’s still made up of people. And people don’t connect with businesses — they connect with other people.

So, if you want to build a big following on LinkedIn, you need to connect on a human level.

Be supportive, courageous, and vulnerable. Let your personality shine through and make people feel something.

If you do, they will listen to what you have to say.

Quote from the article:

The bottom line is this: Be yourself, be helpful, use your life experiences as lessons people can learn from, display raw emotion, and don’t hide behind your computer.

7. Expand Your Reach with LinkedIn Videos

When I say “social media videos,” you probably think about Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram.

But did you know that LinkedIn is actually the third-most-popular social media platform for video marketing?

And since online videos are becoming increasingly popular, it’s a good idea to hit the “Record” button.

Not only will it help create a more personal connection with your followers, but it will also get you in front of a lot of new people.

Quote from the article:

In a world where it’s tough to get more than 30 views on a blog post, and more than 9 views on a YouTube video, posting on LinkedIn feels like cheating.

8. Turn Readers Into Followers and Clients

You’ve probably heard the phrase “content marketing.”

This is a strategic method of publishing content for a specific audience online.

One way you can do that is to write helpful articles for your ideal coaching clients.

At the end of the piece, you can then ask readers to connect with you on LinkedIn.

That way, you’ll build a highly targeted and engaged following.

Quote from the article:

People buy from people they like and people they trust. It just so happens that sending your audience over to LinkedIn expedites this process.

It makes it easier for them to learn about you. It makes it easier for you to learn about them. It makes it easier to sell to people. It helps you to add quality people to your email list.

9. Grow Your Following with Free Gifts

A “lead magnet” is a compelling incentive that you offer to potential clients.

Usually, you ask for the person’s email address or other contact information in exchange.

But there are many ways you can use this strategy.

In this article, you’ll learn how to grow your LinkedIn following with a brief invite and a free gift.

Quote from the article:

If you do this five days per week, you rake in 125–200 connections. If you take four weeks in a month, you get 500–800 connections. Extend this to a year, and you get 6,000–9,600 connections.

10. Get Creative to Attract More Customers

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your marketing is to get stuck in your old ways.

LinkedIn, just like any other social media platform, is continually evolving.

So, to be successful, you need to adapt to the ever-changing landscape.

In this article, you’ll get several great examples to help you think creatively and see more possibilities on the platform.

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A big part of any business is generating leads. No matter what you’re selling, you should always be on the lookout for new possibilities.

The longer you are doing business, the more things you’ve tried. But if you feel that your methods are no longer as effective as they once were, it is time to try something else — perhaps something a bit more “out of the box.”

11. Propel Your Business Success

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform.

It can help you pick up and refine new business skills. It can provide you with business partners and coaching clients.

And it can give you opportunities you can’t even imagine right now.

In this article, you’ll learn all the “do’s” and “dont’s” to make the most out of the platform.

Quote from the article:

In the world of your career, there is only one platform that matters: LinkedIn. For some reason, there are no competitors and nowhere else you need to be.

This makes life easy because you don’t need to be on ten platforms for your career and doing a handstand at the same time while feeling nauseous.

You can sit back, relax and go all in, in one place.

12. Learn From Your Mistakes

We all make mistakes. There’s no way around it. And LinkedIn is no exception.

As you make your way on the platform, you will occasionally make some blunders. That’s normal and to be expected.

What important is that you don’t get discouraged. Instead, learn from your mistakes, refine your approach, and keep going.

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The key to remember is LinkedIn is not about you and your ego.

Whether you get banned like I did or start by sharing success porn, what counts is that you start somewhere.

The best LinkedIn strategy is one you create yourself by making your own bad mistakes.