The Four Biggest Mistakes You're Making On LinkedIn

Lacey Abbacchi

LinkedIn should be an essential part of every business, especially as the world's largest professional networking platform with more than 690 million members. However, it can be tricky to navigate if you're not familiar with it, which means a lot of mistakes are made. Here are four mistakes that you're making on LinkedIn and how you can fix each one.

1. Treating Your Profile Like A Resume

Unless you're a job seeker, you don't want your profile to look like a resume. Of course, people need to know what you do and how you do it, but it's also important to show them the things that make you who you are.

On a platform of millions, why would someone stop and explore your profile? Take some time to think about this question.

People are much more likely to hear what you have to say if they feel like they know you. So when creating your profile, make sure to answer these questions:

• Why should others do business with you?

• How can you help?

• What makes you relatable?

• Who are you as a person?

Adding personal components to your profile position you to build more meaningful relationships and make it easier for people to approach you.

2. Sales Pitching Immediately Upon Connecting

It's happened to all of us at least once on LinkedIn. You receive a connection request, decide to accept and then bam! Five seconds later, here comes the dreaded sales pitch.

Would you go up to a random person without shaking their hand and say, "Hello, I'm Lacey, and this is what I do. Are you interested in buying my services?" Of course not. This also applies to LinkedIn. You must build rapport, trust and relationships. 

We are all on LinkedIn to promote ourselves and our businesses and the platform is full of so much opportunity. But, you must remember that before people buy from you, they want to know who you are and if they can trust you.

So instead, focus on building the "know, like, trust" factor and then thoughtfully plug in what you do, when appropriate. (Here's a hint: It's not 5 minutes after first connecting.)

See all 4 mistakes and the complete Forbes article