I’m a young woman in South Africa and, since COVID, I have been running my business with no help as the breadwinner of my family made of mom, dad and little sister. But this post is not one of those ‘woe is me, an African female’, stories, however.
This post is about how I used the business networking platform with over 810 million members to convince people to pay attention to me- to my business KatyCan– to a Small Business Owner making her mark on LinkedIn by having a profile that works.
Using my youthful, approachable personality and my ability to connect with people (a trait I learned from a dad who can sell ice to Eskimos- I’ve seen him do it too!), I learned that people don’t want to work with corporations when it comes to taking advice on personal things. Things like redoing their professional profiles, or updating their CVs, or even diving into the unknown realm of online platforms like LinkedIn are better handled by people.
As my ‘about section’ on LinkedIn reads, “I am:
- competitive,
- outgoing,
- charismatic,
- genuine,
- argumentative,
- passionate,
- enthusiastic,
- thoughtful,
- funny
I am also humble.”
I started KatyCan in 2019 to bring in some extra student income – which student ever has enough, right?- and my small business of editing and proofreading academic thesis and essays grew into a website offering CV updates, cover letter write-ups and LinkedIn modernisation services. I couldn’t have predicted how the need for these services would skyrocket during the pandemic. The way I marketed them, along with my go-get-em’ personality, perhaps, was the perfect mix of witch’s brew for KatyCan to shoot off.
Just as well because, as with so many others, my parent’s income dwindled because of the effects of the pandemic. For the first time in my 23 years, I found myself sitting on a boulder of finical responsibility which I had to help carry.
I quickly realised that I couldn’t sell LinkedIn profiles if I didn’t have an enviable one first, so researching how to create the perfect profile moved to the top of my list. I made my profile desirable. I spent hours condensing the information I had gathered through trial and error, through experience with my KatyCan clients and through researching the big names on the platform. Finally, I was able to work out just five ingredients for the most undeniable LinkedIn profile. With this recipe alone, I have grown KatyCan from 30 clients in 2019 to, on average, 16 clients a month in 2022. These clients request professional profile revamps from KatyCan. In the first four months of this year alone, KatyCan – a one woman circus – has revitalised and breathed life into about 31 LinkedIn profiles and counting.
And so here it is: The recipe for the undeniable LinkedIn Profile
Ingredients:
- 2-3 times weekly posting
- Show up: your audience won’t grow if you don’t grow
- Consistency is king
- First glance matters
- KatyCan says looks are everything on LinkedIn, and they are!
- Enthusiasm
- Ease of access
Method
- Your company page or personality will benefit from sharing 2-3 times a week rather than randomly throughout the month. Plan out your content with captions: consistency is king.
- Make sure your page is updated with the correct information. Show up and update your profile continuously.
- Looks are everything on this visual platform- you only get seconds to make a first impression, so make sure that you have an appealing banner and platform-suitable profile photo
- This is still a social platform so add enthusiasm and personality to help you stand out
- Don’t make people search too hard- be engaging but give people what they are looking for
