Social: Set up your LinkedIn personal profile

Complete this task

LinkedIn is the most powerful social network for MSPs and the number one audience to focus on building. Every possible prospect you could ever want to reach is there.

For the best results our advice is to always post from your personal profile, and not the company page. Because people buy from people, not companies.

If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile, it's about 20 mins to get signed up. Just go to LinkedIn.com and follow the prompts. For new and existing accounts, our LinkedIn bitesize course has in-depth advice about maximising your profile.

Here's how to set up your personal profile.

1) Choose a profile picture

Choose a recent, professional photo that shows your face clearly. Avoid using selfies or photos with other people. Make sure the photo is high-quality and well-lit.

It must reflect what you look like today. It's tempting to use an old photo from when you were younger, but that creates a jarring experience for a prospect jumping on a video call with you.

Consider investing in a proper professional headshot. There'll be a photographer near you who will do this for a reasonable price. Make sure to use the same photo across all marketing channels.

2) Write an attention grabbing headline

Your headline is the first thing people will see, so make sure it is relevant to business owners and managers and grabs their attention. Here are some examples to swipe:

I stop IT problems from holding back TownName business owners
I keep TownName business owners safe from cyber criminals
Leverage the number of users you support: 558 TownName people trust me with their business’s IT
TownName's leading strategic technology expert
😃 Making technology easy for TownName business owners 😃

Keep it short and sweet. No more than 120 characters.

3) Fill in other key info

These are the main sections to look at:

Summary

Your summary introduces and highlights what you can do for them
Use strong action verbs (achieved, created, developed, founded, improved) and specific examples to show off your accomplishments
Keep it concise. No more than 2,000 characters

Your work experience

List your MSP first and other relevant IT jobs
Be sure to include your job title, company name, dates of employment, and a summary of your responsibilities

Your skills

List your most relevant skills
Add badges and certifications to your skills section.

Recommendations

Recommendations from current and past clients are a great form of social proof
LinkedIn will help you ask for recommendations

Accomplishments and awards

List your most relevant and impressive accomplishments
Be sure to use numbers and metrics to quantify them
List any awards you've received

Contact details

Add your MSP’s website, email address and phone number
You can also link to other social media profiles

On top of this personal profile, you can also set up a business profile. This is nice to have for search results and branding... but your personal profile is what matters more. This is where you’ll build brand awareness and generate leads using our content.

Why should I use my personal profile rather than a business page?

You’ll get much better results. LinkedIn prioritises personal content over business content. Plus, people buy from people. Think of everything you do on LinkedIn as building your personal network.

Can my marketing or salesperson do this?

Yes, but don't let them do it with their own account... or when they leave, they will take years off hard work that you've paid for with them. Assuming you are the owner and the face of the business, someone else can use your account. It’s best practice to focus all LinkedIn effort on one account.

Who do I connect to?

The goal is to connect to people who are decision makers or influencers at the kinds of businesses you would love to work with. This is covered in the first step of our 3 step lead generation system.