Social Media Marketing

Using Instagram For Business in 2025: The Beginner's Guide

If you are new to Instagram or planning to convert your personal account to a business account, this is your complete beginner's guide for 2025.

A good Instagram marketing strategy for your business complements your content marketing strategy to generate high quality inbound leads.

Instagram has been around since 2010 and especially in the last couple of years, new features and functionalities have been sprouting up.

If you are a newbie, it will take a while to figure out the ins and outs of tapping into this social media tool.

Nonetheless, this back-to-basics beginner guide is a great resource to navigate you through the Instagram maze.

I'll be covering the basics like getting you familiar with the terminologies and how to use Instagram posts, Stories and Highlights to tap into the power of this visual social media network, attract qualified leads and turn them into paying customers.

Since I first published this article, Instagram (Business Account) has evolved with new features that includes Instagram Reels (short clips meant to compete with TikTok) and Guide. I will briefly cover them in this article as well.

Latest update 20 October 2021: Instagram TV (IGTV) - the vertical form video initiated by Instagram presumably didn't go down well with the crowds. As such, IGTV will be merged together with video posts and it will be called Instagram Video. Reels will also be allowed to upload to Stories.

Anatomy of an Instagram profile

On your Instagram profile page, users will see your profile photo, profile description, highlights, posts, videos posted on Instagram TV and the posts where other people have tagged you.

These are the main parts on your profile page that you would be updating on a regular basis.

Optimal size of your Insta profile picture

Upload a minimum image size of 110 x 110 pixels for your profile photo. If you want your photo to look sharp, the ideal photo size is 180 x 180 pixels.

Anytime you want to update the photo, click on "Edit Profile" on your profile page. You'll be able to change your profile photo, name, username, your profile description that includes a bio and a link, business information and private information.

Updating your profile description

When you click on "Edit Profile", a page pops up where you can update your bio. The character limit is 150 and you can include a mix of words, hashtags or emoticons.

In this bio, think about what keywords people will look for when they search for products or services you have.

If you put in emoticons, it injects a fun element to your brand.

On your Instagram profile bio, you are now allowed to add up to 5 links since early 2023!

It could be any 5 links ranging from your blog posts, videos or your website or the link to your e-commerce store.

Alternatively, if you want to spruce up your bio by having more than 5 links, there are services like Linktree where you can create a bio link that comprises of well over 5 links.

You can also set up one simple landing page on your website with link buttons to a number of pages you want to share with a profile visitor.

Personally, I don't encourage having more than 5 links. Thing is, when you give your audience too many options, it becomes difficult for them to follow your guided path to eventually buy your products or work with you.

Too many links can become very distracting, diluting the attention from your key products or services.

What you can include in your business information

There are three parts in this section namely Page, Category and Contact options.

Page

If you have an existing Facebook page, you can connect your Instagram account to that page. This will help you to create Instagram advertising campaigns through your Facebook ad account.

Also when you create Instagram stories, you can also share the same stories to your Facebook Stories.

Contact options

What you select in this section will determine how a prospect will contact you when they find you on Instagram. You can either add your email or your telephone number or both. If you have a physical store, you can key in your address too.

There is also the option of adding an action button where you connect your Instagram profile with other online services.

Example: you can connect and sync with your Acuity Scheduling software for someone to book an appointment or sync with your Eventbrite account if you are selling tickets for an event.

Your private information

What are Instagram Hashtags?

#hashtag was born in the 21st century.

At the beginning, it was mostly associated with Twitter and was meant to link buzz around the same topic on the platform so others can follow or join these conversations.

Fast forward to today, it has become so useful that it has been successfully adopted across other platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. (Unfortunately it didn't work so well on Facebook.)

Hashtag is akin to "google search engine" on the social media platforms.

If you are running a business, using the right hashtags on Instagram will help new people discover your content (provided you are ranking for them).

Side note: The same hashtags that works well on Twitter might not be your key to success on Instagram.

Following Hashtags on Instagram

There are well over 2 billion monthly active users on Instagram and over 500 million daily active Instagram Story users worldwide.

Apart from following individual accounts, these users are able to follow hashtags they are interested in. This means posts and stories with these hashtags will be shown to this group of followers.

This is how the "profile page" of the hashtag #mondaymantra look like. It is almost the same as the profile page of an user.

People who tag their posts with #mondaymantra, their posts will appear on this page. Similarly, these posts will also appear in the feed of the followers.

If a story is tagged with #mondaymantra, it will be added to the stories - indicated by a pink circle around the #mondaymantra "profile page".

Anyone who is following this specific hashtags will see those content shown in their home feed.

Hashtags help users to find things they care about or want to know more about.

Tagging your content with the right hashtags help these users to discover your brand and your content.

Hashtag Research

There are many tools that you can use to research for the right hashtags. If you don't have a budget for research, this is what you can do instead. First, launch your Instagram app.

For instance, I want to look for other related hashtags that I can use together with #mondaymantra. I go to the search page and key in the hashtag. Then I click to go to the "profile page" as seen below.

The Hashtag page is divided into three parts:

The "profile photo" and the follow button
Row of text beginning with "Related"
Two tabs : "Top" and "Recent". In the first tab, 9 posts with the highest engagement are displayed. While in the second tab, any posts that has the #mondaymantra hashtag is displayed in chronological order.

Right below the follow button, there is a row of text that starts with the word "Related:".

The hashtags right behind that word are other associated hashtags that people would use together when they use the hashtag "#mondaymantra".

This is a free method for your research but it requires some time commitment to unearth the associated hashtags.

Another method you can employ is to check out each of the (9) top posts under the tab "Top". Take a look at what other hashtags the owners has included as well.

In the screenshot below, in the first row, third column, let's take a look at what other hashtags the user has selected. The post has garnered 796 likes and 19 comments so far.

I click on the post to view the details. You can see the other hashtags used like #mondayquotes, #mondayvibes, #girlbossmonday etc.

For all relevant looking hashtags, save them in a notepad or better still, an excel sheet making it easier for you to organize the information better at a later stage.

When you have collected a list of related hashtags, search for each of these hashtags and learn what other users have been posting under the specific hashtag.

If the hashtags are used by other accounts that are not aligned with your brand theme or it has a different meaning from what you expect, eliminate it from your list.

Using the right hashtags

The other piece of information you ought to take note of is the number of posts that have been published under each of these hashtags. You want to use a combination of hashtags type that fall under these categories.

just over 1 million existing posts
between 500K to 1 million posts
between 100K to 500K posts
10K to 100K posts
1,000 to 10K posts

If a hashtag has 2 million or more posts, chances are many people are regularly using it. That means once you publish a new post, it will rapidly be buried under other new posts, making it difficult for others to discover your through this hashtag.

Conversely, if a hashtag has under 1000 posts, this suggests not many people are aware about this hashtag and not many people are using or following it.

So when you use this hashtag for a new post, the probability of someone discovering it is also low currently but if usage continues to grow, you could be dominating this space (in the future).

So, when does Instagram not work for you?

No hashtags

When you don't use any hashtags for your posts and stories, it's extremely challenging to grow any followers. Especially if you are new to this space, the number of accounts have reached saturation point.

It's a stiff competition to get your content in front of your followers.

If you recall back in the early days, it was easy to get followers for the Facebook page, today it's almost like climbing Mount Everest.

Without hashtags for your post, you might as well not post anything because it's a waste of your efforts. If not enough people like, comment or share your Instagram posts, then the algorithm wouldn't be triggered and your post will not be seen by other followers.

Including hashtags is one of the best way to grow new followers and extend your reach.

Wrong hashtags

What happens when you use the wrong hashtags? Your content will likely appear in front of the wrong audience and it will not be appreciated.

It will result in no likes, no comments and no potential prospects.

Similar to using no hashtags, using the wrong hashtags also becomes a waste of time for your business.

Too many hashtags

When your post has too many hashtags, it becomes challenging for Instagram to place your content under the right buckets and show it to the right people.

Previously, it was encouraged that Instagram content could have up to 30 hashtags and that would help with getting your content discovered more easily in the right categories.

That would result in higher discoverability in the Explore tab and attracting new users to find your content.

However, today only 3-5 hashtags are encouraged as this would less likely dilute the attention and boost the accuracy of content categorization.

Type of Industry you are in

For some instances, Instagram is a more suitable social media platform than others. Because this is a very visual platform, it's more suited for a business in the fashion, beauty, fitness or travel industry.

If you are selling consumer goods, this is also an awesome channel to showcase your products.

In some cases, you can even select and work with influencers to promote your products. It's like hiring a brand ambassador for your brand.

However, if you don't fall into any of those categories, don't panic.

This visual-focused platform is also useful for growing your personal brand when you share your day to day with your followers to cultivate trust.

Apart from Hashtags, now you can also rely on Keyword Search to be discovered on Instagram

So, Instagram has upgraded its Search Feature! This is another new capability rolled out towards the end of 2020.

Previously it was only possible to search by username, profile names, hashtags and location...but now,

you can search by specific keywords!

It's one additional way to search for content you love on the visual social media platform.

For example,

instead of #weekendvibes, you can now search for "weekend vibes".

That means you don't necessarily need to add every possible hashtag variation for your posts to get maximum visibility.

As long as you use the specific keywords in your caption, that should likely be enough to help people find your content.

📍 Note: Not every niche keyword and topic will be searchable in this way.

Currently it's "limited to general interest topics and keywords that are within Instagram’s community guidelines”.

Instagram has also said, to get a high ranking in the keyword search, they consider "a number of factors" that includes "type of content", "captions" and date posted to display the most relevant results for the users.

In my personal opinion, I'm guessing adding related "alt text" to your images could possibly increase your chances of showing up too. 😁

The next time you create that Instagram post, add related keywords as "alt text" for your visual and don't forget to add on as a caption to up your chances of discovery by potential new followers.

Can you add text on visuals?

Although users on Instagram is very much into visuals - like images and videos, quotes creation is also very popular.

People love quotes on Instagram (and Facebook too!). Motivational, inspirational, insightful and provocative quotes get high engagement on Instagram.

Users turn to this colour-infused platform to get an "encouragement boost" or "dopamine hit" to get them going.

Quotes are extremely well-received because people want to know they are not alone - in whatever they do and they enjoy tapping on the "like" button to indicate a "me too!".

Something new that has started trending - a "text" story or otherwise what I call a "mini-book". Essentially a person can share a mix of up to 10 photos or videos as a single carousel post that friends can swipe through.

Seth Godin - the marketing guru is doing that right now on his Instagram account. He keeps his captions short and sweet and distributes the text on multiple photos.

Create a consistent look and feel for your content

When you use Instagram to expand your audience's reach, one of the underlying success factors is to create a consistent look and feel.

In other words, it's about building a recognizable brand that fosters trust.

That's where templates come in. Especially on your main profile page, the colours and fonts and design have to be uniform - to a certain extent.

Let's say if you publish regular quotes, the quotes should have a consistent look and feel so anyone who is following you is able to spot it immediately.

Integrating your brand colours similar to what's on your website and other social media platforms is also crucial because you want your brand to pop up first in people's mind when they see those colours.

Tools to create your Instagram Brand Templates

If you are great in design, you can use tools like Canva or Affinity Photo or Photoshop to build your own brand templates. All three of them have apps you can download to edit photos on your mobile.

In particular, Canva also offers a library of handy photo collections to use in your design.

Instagram Template Marketplace

There is also the option of purchasing a set of template for a consistent Instagram branding look and feel.

Creative Market offers a wide selection of Instagram posts and Stories template you can select from and they also offer templates for Facebook, Pinterest, SnapChat and Twitter.

Design Shack is another option you can look into by industry type. Whether you run a fitness. charity, ecommerce or travel business etc, there is a wide array of options for you.

Publishing content on a regular rhythm

Publishing your content on a regular basis is also another success factor for growing your Instagram following. The lifespan of each Instagram post last about a couple of days so your content can easily RIP (rest in peace) without anyone noticing.

Instagram's algorithm works in such a way that when your follower likes or comments on your post, the relevance score of your content to them goes up.

So, the next time when you publish a post, the algorithm will mostly show your post to them again!

When you stop publishing, your relevance score declines and when you put out a new piece of content, it's less likely to be shown to them.

The more interaction your follower has with your content, the more familiar they are with your brand.

And this increasing familiarity breeds trust!

The difference between an Instagram Post and an Instagram Story

People new to Instagram scratch their head when I tell them about Instagram posts and Stories. They don't quite know when Stories fit in when they have already published posts on their main feed.

Stories is a channel for peeking behind the scenes - when things are in motion, when you are preparing for an event, your preparation before a big product launch etc.

Whereas posts are a way to showcase the end of an event or a momentous moment - like a big photo take to round up an occasion.

Let's say you have a big day out. Whereas you might share a number of interesting photos

In the past, Stories only last for 24 hours. However, Stories can now be viewed after 24 hours if you save them under Highlights - which you can see on your main profile page.

Stories that are more than 24 hours old and not saved in your Highlights will be archived.

A new function on the Instagram app now allows you to re-share a story you've created one year ago on the same day.

Creating Instagram Stories

It's very difficult to get in front of your audience if you are only scheduling normal posts. A good Instagram Story strategy complements and drives more eyeballs to discover your brand.

Instagram Stories are not limited to still photos and 15 second video clips. The photos and videos can be taken beforehand using your mobile phone camera and you can upload to Stories at a later time.

You can use standardized templates to create behind-the-scenes content and best part is, they don't need to be picture perfect.

Stories effect: Boomerang, Face Filters and Superzoom

Within the Instagram app itself, there is also the option of creating Stories made up of Boomerang, face filters and superzoom effects.

Within the Superzoom feature, Instagram offers 6 effects Paparazzi, TV Programme, Dramatic, Beats, Fire, Hearts, Nope, Bummer, Bounce and Surprise. They are used to illustrate the feeling through colours and sounds when a picture is zoomed in.

Sharing your Insta posts as Stories widen the reach to potential new audience especially when you use relevant hashtags for discovery purposes.

Within a single story, you can use up to 10 hashtags and one location while an individual post allows you to add up to 30 hashtags and one location.

Using Stickers In Instagram Stories

One of the prominent features in Stories are the Insta Stickers! These stickers aid in content discovery and boost audience engagement and interactions.

Location Sticker

The location sticker is most essential for a local business. If you take a photo at where your business is running, tag the exact location or the area of that location.

Someone living in that area who doesn't know about you but is following the location hashtag will help them discover you!

If you are a personal brand, it might not be such a good idea to tag your home location but rather widen the circle of your physical location for your personal safety.

If you are traveling from place to place, tagging the location will help people who are interested in those places to stumble onto your content.

Hashtag Sticker

As I mentioned earlier, the maximum number of hashtags to use with each story clip is 10. The main hashtag sticker could be formatted by colour - either transparent background, rainbow fonts with white background or pink fonts on white background.

After typing in the text for the hashtag, tap on it to look through the colour selections to make your final desired colour.

If you want to use up to 10 hashtags, insert text and type in "#" before you key in each name.

Tag Sticker

The tag sticker allows you to tag another user. If you are promoting a product, you can use this to type in their name and add them. Similar to the hashtag sticker, there are three colour options for you to choose from.

You can use as many tag stickers as you want - for example if you want to tag multiple friends in a photo.

GIF Sticker

I call the GIF sticker the fun sticker! GIF brings another dimension of life into your stories. It could be a simple animated call to action sticker or a dance GIF or sunset GIF - this Giphy integration with Instagram truly personalizes your stories!

If you want to promote your brand, you can also create your own in Giphy and upload them to Stories!

Interaction Stickers

Countdown sticker

This is the perfect sticker to share a product launch, a birthday giveaway, an upcoming event or a special anniversary. After selecting the countdown sticker, click on the color wheel to choose your desired colour and give this countdown a title.

Then choose the event date by scrolling the day, month and year option. If your event takes place at a specific time, there is the option to choose the specific hour and minute.

Let's say if you have an event in 2 weeks time, and you plan to promote it every few days on stories, adding this sticker to each helps to keep the date in their mind.

Also, your audience can "subscribe" to this countdown so they will be notified when the day arrives.

Question Sticker

The sticker that pulls your audience into a conversation. The question sticker is the perfect chance for them to ask you a question, or express their thoughts about an issue that you feel strongly about.

It's also great if you want your audience to share with you their favourite ice cream flavour or simply how they celebrate their birthday.

For any question that is open ended - use this sticker! You can choose to either share the answers publicly on stories or DM the folks individually within the next 24 hours - totally up to you.

Polling Sticker

Whether you want your audience to make a guess between two options or help you make a decision between a strawberry smoothie or a banana smoothie.

After 24 hours, you can share the results of this polling sticker as a new Story - whether it's a draw at 50-50 or 80-20 - this is a great opportunity to get your followers' opinion.

Emoji Slider Sticker

If you want to find out exactly how your audience feel about something - like how much they 💙 a city you are visiting right now or how much they 😍 your newly launched product.

The emoji you pick for your question layers on an additional element of emotional context.

When users see your story then drag the emoji to the left or right, it will animate and show them the average of how others have responded so far.

Quiz Sticker

Quizzing your followers can be used to hold a competition when they select the right answer you've pre-chosen in advance. Example, the first 10 people who get this right will get a special prize or discount.

It's another interaction opportunity and a chance for your audience to pay attention to the content you put out.

When someone answers a unique quiz question and review the answer options, it gets their attention, and makes them pause and think. By increasing the interaction time, it helps to cement your brand into their mind.

Chat Sticker

Group conversations are becoming a thing over the public commenting and replying threads. When you add a chat sticker to your story, you can approve respondents who tap on "Join" to add them into a direct messaging group.

It could be a special announcement meant for a specific group of people or creating an intimate circle for a one-time event, this group chat feature creates exclusivity and enables you to gather the engaged folks into a group chat.

Donation Sticker

If you have a vested interest in supporting your charity that forms part of your branding, this is the perfect chance to rally your audience. This donation sticker feature is currently only available in United States and United Kingdom.

After you select the charity and put it into your story, your followers have up to 24 hours to make a donation without leaving the Instagram app. It's pretty neat as the amount you help to raise goes directly to the charity.

Especially if your audience has a personal interest in the same charity as you, the common interest helps to forge a closer bond.

Music Sticker

This is a relatively cool feature that is unfortunately not available for everyone due to regional limitations and music copyrights.

However, if this feature is available for your Stories, you can select and add a song of your choice by searching through genre, mood, song title or artists names. Then you can further decide on the length of the music clip you want to repeat on your Story clip.

For some song selections, you have the 2 to 3 snippet options to select from or you can just go with the default snippet that has been selected for you.

How do you use Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Highlights are like categories to give your audience a glance into your business through Instagram Stories. For example, if you have ongoing events, stories of the events can be saved under a Highlight called Events.

Or if you share regular recipes, you can save all recipe stories under a new Highlight called Recipes.

If someone new follows you on Instagram, they can still check out your old stories and get you to know you better under the various Highlights categories.

Instagram Live

Livestreaming on Instagram is known as Instagram Live. People love live interactions. It's like going to watch your favourite singer perform live and soak in the atmosphere in real time.

Personally I find it more engaging when everyone is commenting at the same time and if the host of a live stream answers my question almost instantaneously.

The instant gratification narrows the physical distance between your audience and your brand. When you go live on Instagram, you can add filters and also allow your live audience to ask you questions in real-time.

At any one time, you can go live up to 60 minutes before it gets cut off. For a longer stream, you'd have to go live again.

Once your live video has ended, there is an option for you to share a replay of it to your Story. And of course, the live video will expire after 24 hours.

What is Instagram TV (IGTV)? And what has happened to it? (Updated: 20 October 2024)

Now you've learned about Instagram posts, Stories and Live, it's time to dive into IGTV- the video platform on Instagram.

The objective of IGTV is very much similar to Youtube. It allows you to showcase long-form videos without having to go live (i.e. Instagram Live).

The maximum length of a video post is 60 seconds while each Story clip lasts for 15 seconds. On IGTV you can upload videos up to 60 minutes long. The video can either be in landscape or vertical format.

Your videos' size should be between 1080px by 1920px (vertical) and 1920px by 1080px (landscape) else you won't be able to load them up.

You can choose to upload a thumbnail size of 1080 x 1680 pixels for your video else Instagram will just select the first frame as the preview image.

After you upload your video, you have the option to create a preview post of the first 60 seconds (of your IGTV video) so it shows up in your profile feed.

However, it might not have been very well-received and the popularity never exploded.

What is Instagram Video?

On October 5, 2021, Instagram made an official announcement to "retire" IGTV and combine it with the normal video posts.

This "new combined" feature is called Instagram Video or now better known as Instagram Reel.

It's a now a dedicated Instagram Reel section on your main profile page

When you upload any new videos, they will appear under a new Reel on your profile, making it easier for people to discover new video content.

The New Instagram Guide (Updated 27 October 2024)

(As of December 15th, 2023, Instagram Guides has been removed as a feature from Instagram due to likely low engagement and usage.)

This is a relatively new-ish feature that was pushed out to business accounts in late 2020.

Instagram Guide is akin to a special themed feature portfolio that you can create. You are not creating anything from scratch like what you would do for Posts, Stories and IGTV.

Rather you are simply stringing together a series of Instagram posts that forms part of a theme.

What you do is, first, decide on a theme relevant to your brand.

Then go back to review your existing posts on your profile and decide which posts will become a part of this theme.

After you create a guide, you select those posts and then fill in the gaps.

Mainly, you need to craft a title for your guide, relevant subheadings, and a title (and subtitles) for each post you've added.

Together those subheadings and subtitles should be telling a coherent story that explains what your guide is all about.

For clarity purposes on how Guides would look like on your profile, check out my screenshot below:

The New Instagram Reels

Reels is Instagram's answer to TikTok's (threat of) short-form videos. Similar to stories, Instagram Reels are meant to be viewed vertically, full-screen, and on mobile - that means a dimension of 9:16 is the best way to create your optimal video experience.

The length of a Reel has to be a minimum of three seconds, up to a maximum of 3 minutes. Uploading a Reel requires you to select a cover thumbnail that would double up to display as an Instagram preview Post.

Instagram is pushing strongly on Reels and have been prioritizing Reel content in the feed. I highly recommend you to mix up your content types and plan in Reels as part of your social media content strategy.

You can also promote your Reels by sharing them as a story to widen their reach.

Reviewing Instagram Insights

I've covered most of the ins and outs of using Instagram to promote your business.

In this last section, I'm diving into how to use Instagram insights to track your progress and your efforts towards using this visual platform. Within the Instagram app, there are two ways to view your posts' performance.

On the top right-hand corner, there is a three line icon. Tap on it and a navigation bar will slide out.

Look for "insights", then tap on it.

A full insights report will be loaded as seen below.

For the default selected date range of last 30 days, you'll see 4 sets of metrics: Views, Interactions, New Followers and Content You Shared.

When you clicked into the Views section, it shows how many accounts have "seen" your content broken down by Followers and Non-followers in percentage. It will also show you the total number of Accounts reached.

You'll also see the views split by percentage across the type of content you've shared: Posts, Reels, Stories and Videos.

There is also Views by top content and it will see number of views each content has.

There is also views split by Audience and details are given at town/cities level and also at country level.

The information is also given at age range and gender.

If you want to change the date range (instead of the default 30 days), click on Last 30 days on the top left hand corner. A dialogue box will pop up up and you can select "Last 7 days", "Last 14 days", "Previous month", "Last 90 days" or make your custom date selection.

For insights into individual posts, click on "view Insights" under each image.

A Insights panel slides out from the bottom (of the post), displaying the total number of likes, comments, shares, saves, profile visits and reach of this one post.

If you Swipe up the panel and you'll see details of two other report sections: Interactions and Discovery.

Under Discovery, you can view the breakdown of the total impressions: whether a user found your post through their home feed (if they are already following you), the hashtags you've used, directly from your profile or from other locations.

This is especially useful if your account is fairly new and you want to confirm if you are using the right hashtags to attract the right group of users.

External tools to review your Insta content performance

If you have a budget, consider subscribing to an Instagram scheduling tool to review your content performance. I'll be writing another blog post about the available tools on the market.

Look out for these Instagram Key Metrics

Purchases

In an ideal world, the revenue and volume of direct purchases from Instagram would be the best tangible benchmark to evaluate the payoff for these social media efforts.

However, unless you have an outstanding brand, an immediate purchase after viewing your Insta Stories and posts is a rarity.

Most people open the Instagram app to discover new brands and ideas and to follow their favourite brands on what's the latest. They don't think, "I want to buy something on Instagram".

Profile Views

Instead of purchases, the number of profile views is a good gauge to find out if people wanted to find out more about your brand and check out your other posts.

The more profile views you have, it means your content has successfully aroused attention and made someone want to know more about your products and services.

Clicks to your website

This is a significant step. It means you've stopped drawn out the user from their Instagram experience to exit the app and find out more information about your brand!

They are interested to learn beyond the visuals and captions you've put up. Exiting the app demonstrates a stronger interest and trust in your brand.

They could also be on their customer research journey to evaluate your products!

What about Likes, Comments and Shares?

The Instagram algorithm is dependent on the volume and speed of likes and comments. The faster you get them, it's triggering the algorithm to show your posts to more of your followers.

Also, each time your followers likes and comments on your story, it's more likely your future posts will also be prioritised in their feed.

Direct Messaging for your business

These are potentially prospects who are interested in your business. In some cases, this channel serves as a customer services platform to communicate with your existing customers.

If you get more messages about buying your products, this is for sure a good sign.

Even better, now you can manage your Instagram direct messages together with your Facebook inbox with your creator studio account. And if you have a standardized reply template for specific enquiries, you can craft them in advance and save them as a quick reply.

Bookmarks of your content

From insights, you can learn how many people bookmark your content. The more you have, it's a sign of relevance to your audience where they want to return to look at it again at a later date.

If you are selling products or services directly to your customers, this is the space is where you want to exert and expand your presence.

Do plan out your content calendar and publish intentional content with a purpose.

And similar to the return on investment (ROI) on a content strategy for your blog, measuring the ROI of your Instagram strategy is equally important.

Whether it is to get more people to know about your brand, interact and boost trust with your audience or convert them into paying customers, make sure there is a legit reason for spending time and effort on Instagram marketing.

Then be prepared to adapt it along the way.

As the saying goes,

Planning without action is futile yet action without planning is fatal.

If you require help with a clever Instagram strategy in the new year, drop me a note.

Articles / Instagram Marketing / Social Media Marketing - 09/30/2019

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LinkedIn Lead Generation in 2025: Organic vs Paid

Whether you are a small business owner or part of a big enterprise, get this: 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.

Before LinkedIn came into the picture, Facebook was regarded as the number one lead generation platform.

However, since 2018, this platform has been plagued with privacy issues since the Cambridge Analytica scandal and there is a growing dissent among the users.

In March 2020, there was a massive Facebook outage that lasted for a day.

It affected Messenger, Instagram and the FB apps. Businesses weren't able to run their ads and people experienced difficulties with the platforms.

If you've been totally reliant on Facebook, the LinkedIn platform is the best alternative to diversify risk of dependence on a single platform in 2025.

If you want to successfully generate leads on LinkedIn, this article is for you.

Why LinkedIn is a key lead generation platform
So, how do you actually generate leads from LinkedIn?
Communication etiquette on LinkedIn and what's the best way to nurture relationships?
Is there a real need for a LinkedIn content strategy?
How do I know if I'm making progress on LinkedIn?
What's next?

Why LinkedIn is a key lead generation platform

LinkedIn has undergone huge transformation since 2017 and is so much more than a resume repository.

Today, it is also a virtual professional platform where businesses generate leads and widen their business network.

Users on LinkedIn are strictly there for professional purposes (unlike on Facebook!).

And one of their objectives is to expand their network, identify prospects and eventually turn them into paying customers.

If you own a business-to-business (B2B) or work for a B2B company, it’s the place to be - for networking with other professionals and getting in touch with decision-makers to fill up your sales pipelines.

You can also refer to my other in-depth article on how to maximise your business & career opportunities on LinkedIn.

In this article, I'll be focusing solely on this network's business opportunities that host over 260 million monthly active users.

LinkedIn drives over 50% of all traffic to B2B websites and blogs.

More traffic means you'll get higher visibility and more people check out your business offerings.

This is the gateway of opportunity for potential collaboration and prospective clients!

Not only that, if you plan to partner up with huge enterprises and isn't connected with anyone in that space, keep in mind - 90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers.

And 63 million have decision-making power!

Up next, I'm diving into the process of extracting lead opportunities from this social network.

So, how do you actually generate leads from LinkedIn?

Similar to all social media channels, there are the paid and the organic approach.

LinkedIn paid channels include sponsored posts, text ads and sponsored messaging.

LinkedIn Text Ads

Text ads are on the right-hand side of the newsfeed and it usually looks like this.

At the top right hand corner of the ad, you'll see the word "Ad".

It's typically customized and you'll likely see the ad addressed to you personally.

LinkedIn Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are similar to boosted posts on Facebook pages.

Essentially you create a post and pay money to get the attention of a specific group of people you are not connected to.

If you are connected to them, LinkedIn will make sure your boosted post show up in the newsfeed.

You can spot them when you see the word "Promoted" in the post.

Be prepared to fork out at least $2 per click and be as descriptive and specific as possible when defining your target audience group.

For a sponsored post, you have the options of either using a single image (known as the Single Image Ad), multiple images (Carousel Ad), or a video (Video Ad).

Communication etiquette on LinkedIn and what's the best way to nurture relationships?

Put on your best behaviour. The rule of the thumb - never send a message or write a comment that you would never say to someone in the face.

If you don't know a person and you disagree with their opinion, don't be rude.

State your stand in a polite manner and if you can't come to an agreement, there is always the option to agree to disagree.

If you see a post that is absolutely ridiculous and doesn't make sense, scroll down and ignore those content.

Your purpose on LinkedIn is to generate leads, not to pick a fight.

Business communication on LinkedIn

There are mainly two ways for you to communicate on LinkedIn - either through your company page where you post updates or on your personal profile.

Using your personal profile to lead online conversations is the recommended method to create trust.

People love to know who they are talking to - unless you are a well-known household name, using your personal profile to grow your LinkedIn page is more effective than hiding behind your company name.

Initiating professional relationships

Initiating conversation is easy. Creating the rapport to further the conversation can be challenging. Creating your own content on LinkedIn is akin to the fire starter for a charcoal fire.

Let's say, you want to connect with HR professionals. Publishing content about the latest HR technology, the hottest HR challenge or a solution to improve the HR process would appeal to the HR audience.

In this case, the content piece becomes the conversation starter with HR professionals.

Rapport is built when there is a common understanding or when someone feels you are providing assistance.

Communication wise, tap into public channels like using your LinkedIn company page, your personal profile to publish and share high quality content and your opinion.

Nurturing : replying to comments on your own content, commenting on other people’s content and through private messaging to have more in-depth next level relationships

In terms of nurturing, after private messaging, you can initiate a (video) call or even meet face to face! I’ve nurtured many relationships through LinkedIn and have met many people in real life - when they come to London!

Here’s a video I created about “The best way to increase your LinkedIn connections”:

How can businesses make sure conversations doesn’t stop after the content is published?

Posting content on LinkedIn has become insufficient. Building relationships is a two way traffic.

When there is no interaction with your audience, the gap between you and them continues to exist.

To narrow the gap, these are the actions I recommend

Connect with new people who’ve liked your content or left a comment.
Ask them follow-up questions after they leave a comment
Drop them a private message to further the conversation
Make notes about what they are most interested in so you can tag them in your future related posts about the particular topic.

If you want to be serious about keeping up your relationships, note down the dates where you last spoke to them and set a regular interval to check in and catch up.

Here’s also a super lengthy post I wrote on how you can grow your LinkedIn network.

Is there a real need for a LinkedIn content strategy?

Absolutely.

A LinkedIn content strategy is the roadmap to unearth quality prospects that aligns with our ideal audience personas. This roadmap documents content topic ideas that align to the problems of the prospects.

A good content strategy shapes the rhythm of the publishing calendar and identifies resources needed to execute the plan.

Ideally, each identified topic or sub-topic should

1. Attract the ideal prospect with additional information or other frequently asked questions around this specific sub-topic.

2. Demonstrate your knowledge and authority in this subject matter by linking to valid sources.

3. Nurture the relationships from cold to warm or warm to hot and of course, push them to take the final step of buying you from you.

The non-negotiable call to action in each piece of LinkedIn content

Accompanying each piece of content is a non-negotiable call to action for the reader to take.

It could be an ask for an opinion, checking out a resource on your website, tagging one of their connections etc.

Each of these actions translates into an interaction opportunity.

In marketing terms, this is also called a micro-commitment.

And the purpose of every micro-commitment is to create trust.

And through the trust-building process, inspire a potentially strong relationship that will mature into a buy decision. from you.

Picture post update vs. link post update vs. video post update vs document post update

What are the advantages of alternating content types?

The LinkedIn algorithm is changing all the time.

(That's one of the drawbacks of purely relying on an external platform and not having your own email list. It's a topic for another day.)

In 2017, text update posts were favoured

Beginning of 2018, the algorithm prioritized video posts (to boost adoption) after LinkedIn upgraded their entire infrastructure to support videos.

Towards the end of 2018, document post updates (i.e. Word doc, PDF etc) were marked as a higher priority on the newsfeed.

LinkedIn live videos were a hit in the initial launch in 2019.

There are still people follow live streaming on LinkedIn especially for professionals who might have more time to spend online networking. Still, be prepared: if your network is not ready for live streaming, it's highly like people will start disconnecting from you.

Each time you go live, your connections and followers will receive a notification that you are live.

To do a LinkedIn Live video broad, you need to have more than 150 connections and/or followers, have abided by LinkedIn's Professional Community Policies and your account must have been created at least 30 days ago.

It might seem counterintuitive to alternate your content types.

Nonetheless, I still recommend to alternate your content types because some people have more time & prefer videos while a time-strapped professional prefers to read text.

But if you’ve limited time, focus on videos & text posts.

If you have more time on hand, add in pictures and create documents to share.

And from time to time, publish a long form article. Short form article works well as bite-sized content but a long article showcases your thought process in more details.

Moreover, most people do have a preferred way of learning, either listening to audio, watching videos or reading.

So when you focus to publish only in a single format, some groups of people will be left out!

I’ve also recorded a video about this topic and wrote a long article about the best LinkedIn content types.

Long form content on LinkedIn

There is also the option of creating longer form content on LinkedIn Pulse by combining your post updates into a more descriptive article beyond 1,300 characters.

Long form content offers the opportunity to combine your expertise into an authority piece and it's easier for others to find this article from your LinkedIn profile.

In comparison, if you publish a post update everyday, it's extremely difficult for someone to find a piece that you've put out two weeks ago. It takes a long time to load historical post updates unlike articles on LinkedIn Pulse.

In 2020, you can also become a newsletter author on LinkedIn and members can subscribe to your newsletter to receive updates when you publish something new. A newsletter is a set of regularly published articles on LinkedIn, typically about a specific topic.

Through a newsletter, you showcase your domain knowledge consistently such that subscribers would be excited to receive your next article.

You can leverage this feature to grow your email list by channelling readers to your website with more intriguing content after consuming your compelling weekly (or monthly) content.

Best part is, once you have set up your newsletters, it is discoverable through LinkedIn search and this feature is also discoverable on Google search. Make sure you optimize your title and meta description to enable Google search users to discover your content.

How do I know if I'm making progress on LinkedIn?

Setting your LinkedIn Objectives

Firstly, set your LinkedIn objectives - what do you want to achieve on this B2B platform?

Do you want to grow your network to nurture prospective clients' relationships?
Are you exploring alternative partnership opportunities?
Is growing your company LinkedIn page your top priority?

Write them down and be clear with your priorities.

Once your goals have been clearly defined, the next step is to outline the route to achieve them.

Identifying the ideal people you want in your LinkedIn network

Let's say, you want to grow a prospective ideal network that will get you referrals over time. First, identify the key attributes.

What is their job title or job role?
What is their industry or sector?
Which country or city do they live in?
Which companies have they worked for?
A specific company's employees etc
Company size of the individual

Once you've narrowed down your list of ideal people you want to connect with, this is the list which you will be using to grow your network.

How can a business measure their LinkedIn progress?

By setting quantifiable goals.

What do you want to achieve by the end of 12 months?

Then begin working backwards.

Set up a spreadsheet and against those objectives, set tangible metrics like

Number of daily connection requests you receive
Number of connection requests you sent and was accepted
Number of people you PM-ed/have a call/meet-up,
Number of likes/views/comments/shares for each piece of content you published
Number of profile views how many profile views you had,
Number of people who visited your website etc

It’s a rigorous process but if you are spending a lot of time on LinkedIn and really want to make sure your efforts see results, tracking becomes important.

If you can’t measure it properly and see your progress, then spending time on LinkedIn would naturally become less of a priority.

Here’s another article on how to use tangible metrics to measure and extend your success on LinkedIn.

What's next?

Now you have a complete picture of the lead generation options on LinkedIn, it's time for you to grab hold of this opportunity to diversify your lead sources.

I recommend you to check out two of my other articles: The New LinkedIn: How to Amplify Your Career and Business Opportunities and Most Underrated Strategy To Grow Your LinkedIn Network to level up your LinkedIn strategy that generates high-quality leads for your business.

If you require more personal guidance on either the paid or organic approach to minimize your spending and maximize your results, let's talk.

Articles / LinkedIn Marketing / Social Media Marketing - 04/10/2019

What's the best content type to post on LinkedIn

Content is the foundation of any B2B business

In this age of digital, everyone is hungry for more information. They look for information to enrich themselves, they research on products and services to ensure they are getting the "best buy".

And they want to know everything possible about the products before tapping on the purchase button.

And that's where content comes into play. Every business on LinkedIn should provide relevant advice, knowledge to their potential customers. Because they want to know MORE before making the final decision.

They want to make sound decisions whether it's through the media or directly on the website or from peer buyers.

The savvy consumers wants to make the most confident choice possible.

Everything possible that could swing from a "yes" to "no.

Why every business should learn to create content on LinkedIn.

Because YOU WANT

more people to know about your business
to convince your prospects to buy from you
existing customers to keeping returning to buy from you
to keep your business at the top of their minds.

And content is just the communication tool to initiate conversations and nurture relationships.

LinkedIn is more than a job seeker's platform

Summer 2017 was LinkedIn's tipping point. The early adopters jumped into the LinkedIn bandwagon and flooded the newsfeed with content. There were text post updates, Pulse articles, link sharing, native videos and pictures.

There were discussions about what was appropriate on LinkedIn, what LinkedIn features users wanted next, even Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO became active on the platform.

LinkedIn was buzzing with activities and communication (almost like Facebook!).

Published content on LinkedIn became the ignitor to begin conversations with strangers on LinkedIn. People we wouldn't normally connect with.

Content is the means to an end

How communication nurture relationships

It's just like friendships or relationships with your family or partner. You need to spend time with them, listen to them, talk to them and understand them better.

If you recall, the last catch-up coffee you had with your friend last weekend - catching up - it simply means you care.

Through each interaction, (hopefully) the bond is strengthened with these sharing of life experiences, challenges and achievements. And not forgetting, the more you know about the other person, the more you trust (or not 😉 ).

Each unit of trust and interaction forms the building blocks of relationship.

And that's what the consumer today is most excited about. They want to have a proper relationships with the products and services they buy. It's not merely a monetary transaction.

By using content as a communication tool, businesses get to know what their customers are most concerned about, what are their priorities, what they are most interested in and subsequently create events, products, services, giveaways to engage and bond. And resonate.

Broadcasting your content is insufficient!

Most people who started out might have this assumption that it's enough to post content on LinkedIn and go away. And somehow magically, the relationships will be formed. I can assure you, there is no magic.

If you check out the big guns like Marie Forleo and Gary Vaynerchuk, they both have teams to ensure the conversation doesn't stop after their content is published! Vaynerchunk has TeamGaryVee to ensure every question is picked up while Marie has Team Forleo answering to each comment on her blog and video posts.

You don't want the dialogue to be one-sided. You want an exchange of thoughts. You want your audience to know, you are listening to them.

If you want to know more about initiating dialogues and furthering a conversation, check out my LinkedIn commenting strategies on how best to engage and nurture relationships.

Five types of content on LinkedIn

Text post update/Pulse articles

This is the most basic format and leaves alot of imagination space to your readers. The words and phrases you use might mean one thing to you but visualized different by your readers based on their knowledge and experience.

Pros: It's easy for anyone to quickly scan through the text and read it. Especially for people who are tight with time.

Cons: The same sentences voiced aloud compared to just pure text could have an entirely different meaning dependent on the tone of voice and cultural beliefs. This could easily result in misunderstandings.

Picture post update

A picture is equivalent to a thousand words. Whether it's a picture of you grinning away, or your favourite drawing or a quote by someone you look up to, it gives a glimpse into your personality.

It reflects a small piece of you - what you stand for, what inspires you and what drives you every single day.

Pros: If you add in some descriptive text to accompany your words, this enhances the effect of your message and help others to understand from multiple perspectives.

Cons: If you only share a picture without any words, the interpretation of the message is left up to the reader. In this way, there is lower likelihood of the exchange of ideas because there is limited thought exchange.

Picture speaks a thousand words

Link post update

You could be sharing a link to someone's article. Regardless whether you are spreading the word around or a link to an share-worthy article, it showcases your interest and opinion.

Pros: This is a great opportunity to voice your thoughts about a particular topic, trend or an issue. Whether you support it, or disagree or you have an alternative viewpoint, it allows you to portray how you think and your values as an individual and professional.

Cons: Many people tend to just share the link to a post update on LinkedIn or an external article WITHOUT explaining why it resonated with them in the first place. It defeats the purpose of creating a communication channel because your readers don't quite know how to respond to what you are sharing.

Video post update

This format is much better than pure text or picture or link sharing update. It gives a tertiary dimension to the interpretation of a sentence or question. The tone, speed, pitch of the voice enhances the speech delivery and offers a stronger delivery to the audience.

And the video showing your expression solidifies the strength of your message. Your laughter, the twinkling of your eyes, twitch of your lips and even the gesturing of your hands and body speaks volumes - these non-verbal signals speak for themselves.

As far as possible, include accompanying text above the video and corresponding subtitles so people who can't load or play the video won't be left out.

Pros: This form of content sharing is the closest to meeting someone face to face. It is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate your energy level and your personality. It’s also more intimate & shows the authentic you!

Cons: There tends to be a inclination of sharing videos from external sources similar to what people does on Youtube. Unless it's a video reflecting your brand or a video of you or your team, it downplays the impact of connecting to your audience in comparison to sharing original content created by yourself or business.

Video content

Document post update

This is the latest content type rolled out by LinkedIn late 2018. It allows you to share your expertise via a document that can help you generate new opportunities for your brand or business.

The document you want to upload in a post update can be in PDF, Word document, or PowerPoint format. I highly recommend you to add your business logo on each page to make sure it can't be easily copyrighted and keep your brand name visible.

Check out my document post where I shared my #INBOUND19 event cliff notes in a 6 page PDF file and recorded over 7,000 views from 78 likes, 26 comments and 4 shares.

Pros: If you aren't ready to leap into video creation, documents is another way for you to showcase your knowledge and provide value. It doesn't have to be a 50-pager piece of work. It can simply be a one pager checklist or a repurposed blog post.

The key here is usefulness to your potential customer. Also, it's more likely to be shared by folks on LinkedIn.

Cons: You can't just post a document by itself, writing a good accompanying text to get the right people's attention is crucial. It requires a little more work compared to just writing some text.

And the layout and presentation (especially the cover) has to be attractive enough to catch the eye.

Live Video Post update

LinkedIn offers live video streaming options for the community. However, right now not everyone has the capability enabled. You have to apply to become a live video broadcaster and then wait to be notified.

To livestream on LinkedIn, you have to sign up to third-party tools and connect it to your LinkedIn account.

Right now, these are the available tools you can choose from: Socialive, Restream (that allows you to stream to Periscope, Youtube and even Facebook at the same time!), Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza Cloud, StreamYard, Brandlive, Easy Live, Live U and Terdek.

Pros: Live video is a great way to interact with your audience in real time and get your audience to know the real you in more than 10 minutes (limit of the video post). You can answer your audience's questions on the spot and allows you to showcase your domain expertise.

After your live stream has ended, the video will be saved like a normal video post in the feed.

Cons: Not everyone has time to hang out on LinkedIn to watch your live video (Keep in mind - this is after-all a professional platform.) You've to make sure you notify people in advance when you are going live, so they can log in at the right time. Note: you might also get people unfollowing your going live notifications keep popping up in the feed.

Advantages of alternating your content type

There are groups of people who prefer creating a certain type of content types. For copywriters or authors, publishing text only post does help to boost your authority as a creative writer and the flow of your ideas through words.

And indeed, most people do have a preferred way of learning, either listening to audio, watching videos or reading.
However, when you publish only a singular format only, some groups of people will be left out! 😣

Alternating between the five different delivery content types caters to various learning styles. All these help others to get to know you better!

Nonetheless, do bear in mind - videos take longer to load on the mobile or when the internet signal is weak. In certain countries, the bandwidth might be insufficient to load the videos.

And do make an effort to add in subtitles for those who are on the move and doesn't want to turn on the volume or those who have hearing problems.

Don't forget, there is also a group of people on LinkedIn who prefer reading text as it's much quicker to skim through than watch a video. So it's worthwhile to add in text to accompany your videos as an alternative.

All in all, I definitely advocate to mix up your content type regularly!

Measuring your LinkedIn progress

Once you are ready with your LinkedIn content types and key messages, do track your progress. On each post update and article, there are a couple of key metrics to watch out for. They are number of views, likes, comments and shares.

For each piece of content, record your numbers to get a clear picture of what content speaks more to your audience.

There's an assumption that keeping track of your post views is unnecessarily. In their words, views, likes, comments and shares are vanity metrics. We shouldn't be concerned about it at all.

I beg to differ. Measuring the performance of your content provide a clear picture of what works and what doesn't.

If what you are doing isn't working, stop doing it! If what you've been producing connects with your audience and get positive responses, do more of it!

It's that obvious!

Ready to amp up your LinkedIn presence?

If you are serious about LinkedIn marketing and want to craft out a content plan, I offer a personalized coaching plan to amp up your LinkedIn game and publish quality content on a regular basis.

Articles / LinkedIn Marketing / Social Media Marketing - 10/14/2018

Is the LinkedIn profile photo really that important?

A good first impression on LinkedIn matters. ALOT.

Putting up a good photo of yourself matters VERY MUCH on LinkedIn. And yes, the LinkedIn profile photo is the first impression that others have of you on the professional platform.

Judging a book by its cover — unfortunately, that’s how most of us operate.

The human brain is naturally resistant against expending much of its energy and processing capacity. Unless it’s absolutely needed.

The brain relies on shortcuts to complete an activity — rather than working overtime.

Why your LinkedIn profile photo is so important

The new LinkedIn is the prime spot to maximize your career and business opportunities.

The place where you find potential clients and customers, where you network with other professionals to grow your network, and where your next job opportunity lie.

On Linkedin, a person is judged by their picture, their profile, what they publish and their comments (interactions) with others.

Arthur Dobrin D.S.W wrote in Psychology Today:

“The sequence that we encounter matters in how we judge subsequent information.”

It’s related to the halo effect.

There exists the cognitive bias of a tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area.

In this case, the photo is the first visual impression, where most eyes would land immediately.

Not only that, your LinkedIn profile photo actually follows you around when you are actively interacting or messaging others on the platform.

It's like your "LinkedIn passport photo".

When you comment on articles or write other people a message, your profile photo appears next to your name. When you first write someone a direct message, the person replying to you would see your photo too!

Also, If you think someone is likeable (from a picture!), you’re more likely to be friendly, which raises the likelihood for positive interaction.

Similarly, if you deem someone to be unlikable or perhaps rude, you may be more careful and guarded, which can lead to a negative interaction.

The Connection-Acceptance Factor

If your profile photo fails expectations, your connection requests are more likely to be ignored (or rejected!)!

Credibility and trust are one of the criteria for accepting connection requests. Instances of fake profiles on LinkedIn have been associated with no photos or strange pictures.

Even if you have a fully filled up profile description, a nice headline and your career history looks credible, people would still have their doubts if they see a picture of a dodgy-looking person.

That image of you is the first thing anyone sees. Therefore the impression you make on others, whether consciously or unconsciously, starts with it.

Your photo should be synonymous with the word "trust"

Creating trust is not rocket science. Review your profile picture with these three basic questions.

a) Do you look approachable?

b) Do you look professional?

c) Are you recognisable from your picture?

Another major benefit: Find your dream job

LinkedIn mentioned this in one of their reports last year. “A photo could mean the difference between getting overlooked and getting the job.”

Here are the LinkedIn stats.

When you set a profile photo, you open up these three opportunities. It attracts up to

21x more profile views
36x more direct messages
9x more connection requests

When recruiters go on LinkedIn to search for suitable candidates, they typically search by skillset, job roles or titles or by relevant keyword search.

On the search results page, they are likely to see a long list of results. Their purpose is to shortlist the most suitable candidates and get them placed in the job vacancy as soon as possible.

With the long list of results, the recruiter wants to narrow them to the most suitable candidates that most likely fit the job profile and fit into the company culture.

A missing profile photo falls under the category of an incomplete profile as it makes it more difficult for the recruiter to determine whether you are the best match for the job. It's like a missing puzzle piece from your personal profile.

While an inappropriate photo gives a poor impression and hurts your chances to be shortlisted because it undermines your professionalism and work ethics.

So if you want recruiters to contact you, get a good professional LinkedIn profile photo. If you want to know how professional, likeable and influential you come across from a professional standpoint, check out PhotoFeeler to get some feedback.

Another benefit: build up your network of weak ties

Tanya Menon spoke about this in her Ted talk " The Secret to Great Opportunities is the Person We Haven't Met Yet". The next job, client or even speaking opportunity could lie beyond your current network.

LinkedIn offers the golden ticket to connect virtually to new people. People you wouldn't typically meet in your day-to-day, people who could be living far away.

Building up an online community is challenging because there is a growing mistrust with fake profiles and identities. It's led to an increasing importance on establishing a trustworthy online reputation.

When you put up a professional, friendly and clean LinkedIn profile photo, you reveal more information about yourself.

It's akin to your personal logo. The picture shows you are open and transparent and relating your profile picture to your description gives them more subtle reasons to trust you!

How to reverse a bad first impression

According to a Harvard university study, it takes 8 positive encounters to reverse the first wrong impression.

(And if you intend to generate leads on LinkedIn, whether organic or paid, the selection of the right photo could make a difference between a potential lead or NONE.)

When you start off on the wrong foot, it creates the fundamental attribution error. It's the assumption bias that the first impression is an essential trait of yours rather than a one-time off misunderstanding.

Initial impressions tend to stick. Especially if it was a horrible one and triggered an emotion.

It takes even more work to overwrite the first bad impression and recreate the right impression to establish trust in relationships. There is less work to form the right impression and proceed from there.

In other words, get a good professional headshot and use that on your LinkedIn profile.

Handshake trust

How to create a perfect LinkedIn profile photo

Choose a photo that looks like you.
Your photo should be brightly lit up.
Wear clothes that you would wear when you go networking or when you meet clients for the first time.
Have a pleasant expression that makes people want to talk to you.
Your face should take up at least 60% of the frame. So it’s in close proximity and your face is clearly visible.
Non-distracting background — ensure you are in the spotlight

To increase your opportunities to grow a valuable network on LinkedIn, invest in your profile picture to convey your friendliness, likability, and trustworthiness. These attributes are key in getting you prospects and opportunities on LinkedIn.

Keep in mind, you’ll never get a second chance to form the first impression.

good impression

The profile photo plays a bigger role on LinkedIn than you imagine. It symbolizes authenticity, conveys trust, and injects subconscious familiarity. When people can actually "SEE" you and associate a face with the name, you come across as a "real" person.

And if you convey warmth, approachability and competency, you've set the right tone for future opportunities.

LinkedIn Profile Video [now no longer available]

If you want to amp up your "trustworthiness factor", LinkedIn introduced the Profile Video in 2021. Initially known as the LinkedIn Cover Story, this feature acts as an introductory clip to give others a chance to hear your voice and see how you present yourself.

The length of the short vertical video needs to be a minimum of at least three seconds and up to 30 seconds long.

You can choose to either record it directly using the LinkedIn app or you can first record it on your phone and upload it to your profile.

Once you have successfully uploaded a video, an orange ring will appear around your profile photo.

This is the best opportunity to tell others who you are and what you do professionally - all within 30 seconds. So I highly recommend you to script out what you want to say before pressing on the record button to make sure it's punchy and to the point, creating the best first impression of someone meeting you for the first time.

Even though this feature is no longer available from 2024 onwards, you can still record a video and pin it under your featured section! Create a post introducing yourself and who you are and your professional achievements with a nice friendly introductory video to re-introduce yourself to your network.

And then pin this post to your profile.

That works as well - if anyone chance upon your profile, it's a great way for them to check you out.

Need help to power up your LinkedIn profile?

If you are ready to turbo-boost your LinkedIn presence and get more customers through LinkedIn, check out my Power Up Your LinkedIn presence package to learn more.

Articles / LinkedIn Marketing / Social Media Marketing - 08/12/2018