LinkedIn is an awesome platform for business connections but you may be wondering what are the difference between a LinkedIn personal profile, business page and a showcase page – which one should you be setting up for your Virtual Assistant business.
So LinkedIn enables you to network and connect with people in any industry and is the perfect place to find your ideal clients. I recommend that all new VAs build and grow their new business and reputation by using the available online platforms, including setting up a LinkedIn personal profile.
But LinkedIn can be a little confusing, especially if you’re used to using other social media platforms! It gives you the ability to create a personal profile, business page (often referred to as a company page) and showcase page – but what’s the real difference between them all and which ones do you really need?
Your LinkedIn personal profile
Unlike Facebook, your personal profile on LinkedIn represents you as an individual and a digital representation of your brand. It’s the place to go for people to get to know you.
If you are your business brand or a solo entrepreneur, it’s encouraging to know you are actively encouraged to use your personal profile for your business! You get the most functionality with a personal profile, so use it to interact directly with other people on LinkedIn and form connections with your potential clients and fellow VAs.
Often when we are employed we use our personal profile as our online CV, it is the thing that we think will get us headhunted into that new awesomee well paid role… but when we are self employed we need to treat our personal profile as a brochure into you – and it’s totally worth taking the time to really highlight what you have done in the past. Those past work experiences are there to help demonstrate that you can do what you say you can do. It is the social proof that will help other Business Owners to decide if they want to work with you.
Remember to change the url into a vanity url – you don’t need to add VA or anything like that to it – use your name – your real name (including middle name if you have a common name on LinkedIn). Also make sure your headshot is of you – not of you in your wedding dress or hugging your dog but of you – the business you; so that when people you network with look at it they recognise you.
What is a LinkedIn Business Page?
A business page, however, is more about the collective organisation. People can follow it and find out about your company, whether you have jobs available etc. It’s the central hub for your business.
You can tell your story, post news and updates. Your company page is the ideal place to share your business blog, showcase your customers or share your latest industry updates. Other people can interact with your page, but you cannot send connection requests from your page – you can only invite them to follow it.
Unless you are a major organisation with hundreds of staff, I would encourage you to complete all of the fields – post content to it on a regular basis but not to get too hung up on followers, comments or interactions – this is about benefiting from the great domain authority and links that LinkedIn have with the search engines.
Showcase pages on LinkedIn
A showcase page is something you can have in addition to a business page. Whereas your business page is the natural hub for your business, a showcase page is where you can create a community around content on a specific subject. You can use it to raise awareness around an initiative or to promote something special within your company.
Use a showcase page for your new launches, case studies to help segment the different areas of your business. You can also create tailored messages and a different experience for each type of your ideal client. I would encourage you to have a showcase page for each of your services and offerings.
Do you need a LinkedIn personal profile and either a LinkedIn business page or a showcase page?
You need all 3!
So – people connect with people, and you cannot proactively connect and have conversations with people through your business page so this is why you have a personal profile. You should only have one personal profile – so be sure to update an existing profile with what you are doing now and get chatting to people from this profile.
Your Linkedin business / company page helps you to build a professional brand awareness for your business. It boosts your credibility and will show up if someone is searching for your business name. However, it does have limited functionality, so I would encourage you to post your blog content to it on a regular basis to benefit from the great reputation it has among the search engines.
If you have a niche or offer specific services, I would actively encourage you to have a showcase page too – use it in the same way as you use the business page.
Creating your LinkedIn profile doesn’t have to be confusing or stressful across our training courses we have training webinars and resources designed to help you create that kick awesome profile that describes you perfectly. In particular, as part of the VA Membership we are often sharing ways in which you can get in front of your ideal clients including how to create the best Linkedin profiles. We also have trainings on how to maximise this platform to raise the profile of your website!
The VA Membership is the only UK VA business accelerator that’s designed specifically to help you build and grow your VA business, to help you create recurring revenue and consistent growth through regular and consistent action. With over 100+ hours of courses, weekly co-working sessions, weekly group coaching calls, a private support group and the ability to pay as you go – when you’re ready to grow or scale your business online come and join us in the VA Membership.
The VA Membership has the option to upgrade to more one to one coaching and mentoring support – this is perfect if you are looking to really scale your business. If you would like to see / learn more about our one to one coaching and mentoring then you need to check out the new One to One Mentoring page.