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LinkedIn Profile Tips - a Mini-Audit of Michelle Gilbert by Brenda Meller Ep 125

• Brenda Meller • Season 1 • Episode 125

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Are you a solopreneur, business professional, or solopreneur looking to get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn Pie? Listen to this LinkedIn profile mini-audit of Michelle Gilbert. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebgilbert/

LinkedIn Profile Tips from Brenda Meller

  • Headshot and Banner:
    • Update your headshot regularly.
    • Incorporate your logo into the banner for branding.
    • Keep the banner visually appealing and relevant to your target audience.
    • Consider changing the banner periodically to keep it fresh.
  • Headline:
    • Experiment with different wording to make your headline more engaging and optimized for search.
    • Use keywords that your target audience would search for.
  • About and Experience Sections:
    • Highlight your expertise and how you can help your clients.
    • Don't be afraid to repeat key information in both sections.
    • Include a call to action in your Experience section to encourage engagement.
  • Skills:
    • Use skills strategically in both sections to improve your profile's visibility.
    • Focus on the top five skills that are most relevant to your work.
    • Consider using fewer skills in your Experience section to avoid truncation.
  • Additional Tips:
    • Post regularly to maintain a strong online presence.
    • Consider adding a downloadable resource or email signup option to your profile.
    • Use a consistent tone and style throughout your profile.


Want a LinkedIn profile mini-audit? If you're a coach / consultant / solopreneur, download these 15 LinkedIn Profile tips, and follow the instructions in the final email: https://www.mellermarketing.com/list

Watch this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gJ1_-X-KuO8

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My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

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Speaker 1:

one. Hey, it's Brenda Meller. Back again for another LinkedIn profile mini audit, and I'm joined today by Michelle Gilbert. Hey, michelle, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, I'm looking forward to it. And Michelle and I in the pre-show, we were just talking about how we, as women, you know, sometimes we are, you know, getting ourselves ready for the camera, and other times we were a little bit more fresh-faced because, honestly, we're just rolling up our sleeves and getting to work, and that's one of those days for both of us. But we're going to jump right in here and give you some great tips on your profile here today, michelle, and I'm going to pull your profile up on screen. As I am doing that, I want to ask you if you could tell us your name. Who do you help and what do you help them with?

Speaker 2:

could tell us your name. Who do you help and what do you help them with? Sure, so my name is Michelle Gilbert. I am the Chief Engine Officer for Purple Engine Coaching and Consulting, and I empower young professionals and emerging leaders to navigate business challenges with strong communication and confidence so that they can achieve their professional aspirations.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful. Well, it sounds like you've got a great introduction there. As we lead into the profile mini audit here Now, do you have any specific questions you'd like me to cover, Michelle, or are you just open to some general feedback?

Speaker 2:

Let's go with the general feedback, brenda, okay, wonderful.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's start with. We've got two areas at the top of your profile. We've got your headshot photo and we've got your header image in the back. Now I know the name of your company is Purple Engine Coaching and Consulting. You've got a very vibrant purple banner in the background and then you've got a quote which currently reads confident is your birthright. I'm not going to try pronouncing the name, but in there, so I'm guessing the confidence is a part of what you help your clients with. Is that fair to say? It is yes, Okay, good.

Speaker 1:

So I always like to make sure that we're using the banner image very similar to like a billboard on the side of a highway, and we want to make sure that the message on there is intentional for our ideal target audience, both in the imagery, brand colors, brand fonts, things like that. Everything should be intentional for your ideal target audience, and what I always encourage my clients to do is think about changing out that banner periodically with different messages about your business, Because, similar to a billboard on the highway where you've got cars that are driving by and they're driving by every day the first day they might read the billboard. The second day they might kind of notice it the third day. They ignore it because they know what it says already. So periodically swapping that out with different messages, whether it is your business name and logo, or maybe a tagline about what it is that you do. You know the statement you just shared as a part of it, or something from a brand tagline, or these inspirational quotes on there. But what I do like about your banner, Michelle, is, in addition to using your brand color and using a quote, that's intentional.

Speaker 1:

If I were to pull this up on the LinkedIn mobile app, I would be able to read that, so I think that's an important distinction there. One suggestion I might have, if you keep the current quote on there, is make the person's name who said that quote. Is it Jellabakai Jones? Am I mispronouncing or how do you? How do you say that name? Do you know?

Speaker 2:

I actually don't know. It was a meditation that I listened to and she said that and it really stuck with me, and so, of course, I wanted to give her credit for the quote, but I wanted to share the quote with other people because I found it so meaningful.

Speaker 1:

So what I might do is take the person's name, jalaba Kai Jones, make that smaller and maybe make the point size of confidence is your birth rate. It could even be just a couple of like two to points larger and make the Jalaba Kai Jones. Maybe make that like 10 points smaller, because you really want the emphasis to be on the quote and I think your viewers will appreciate that you're giving credit to that person. You didn't say it, they said it. She said it instead, but let's make that the focal point. Does that make sense? It?

Speaker 2:

absolutely makes sense, and should I be incorporating my logo also into my banner?

Speaker 1:

You know, I think you could add some branding to the banner in the background. And what I might do is, you know, take that quote and do it like a right align inside the box and the person's name who said it underneath it and then, above your headshot photo, on the left, you could put your logo. Just make sure that obviously it's reversed out so that we can see it against the purple there, I'm sorry. Okay, reversed out. So meaning your logo right now is purple text on a white background, if I look lower. So if you're going to put it on a purple background, it would probably be white text instead, and you can do that within Canva. There's a way that you can adjust your PNG settings to do a reverse out version of your logo. So even if you created it yourself, there's a way that you can modify it inside Canva to get that reverse out logo.

Speaker 1:

Easiest thing, michelle, is just Google it. How do I do? How do I create a reverse logo in Canva? And we'll give you the step-by-step instructions to do that. Got it, thank you, all right. Next thing is your headshot photo, and I know that we met recently at an event, and I'm not sure if I remember the answer to this question, but is this a recent headshot photo or is this a photo that was taken during your corporate employees?

Speaker 2:

Well it is.

Speaker 1:

It was taken during corporate, but it was only about a year ago, so it is a recent photo Okay, good, and I always look for has it been taken in the past five years and you're right within that and it looks like you and I wanted to make sure that that was the case of it. But just some reminders and some things to think about. As you shift from moving from a corporate role into being self-employed, we just shed some of our corporate skin, if you will. I remember for me, I was wearing a lot of dark suits and darker colors and things that were more like appropriate within my corporate role, and when I became an entrepreneur, I started wearing more bright colors and pinks and yellows and and I have I think I have one black suit that's left inside my closet for funerals and the rest I kind of gave away. So we start to come into our own when we become self-employed and even you know we might wear blouses or sweaters or things like that that are more comfortable in the new, the new phase of life that we're in. So think about that moving forward.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes that new, a newer headshot photo in your your being self-employed phase of your business indicates that you're shifting direction and it's also something that, as you're evolving your business you know, launching or relaunching a website. You'll use that photo not just here, but you're going to be using in your website, your marketing materials, probably your social media posts, your campaigns, et cetera. I go to a photographer locally here in Metro Detroit, scott Lawrence, and when he does my headshot photo, we also get some I don't want to call them lifestyle photos, but just like casual photos me holding my phone, me holding a coffee mug, me holding my book or just posing in different ways that I can use. So that might be something to think about for the future down the line. What you have right now is a good looking photo on there, but just to touch on that, any questions there.

Speaker 2:

No, actually I recently went through a photo shoot so I have some coming in the next couple of weeks, so I'll I'll look at swapping it out to make it a little less corporate-y. I guess my only question is because I do work with so many people in business, I wouldn't go with too casual of a shot, but part of the reason I kept that photo is because of who part of my audience is.

Speaker 1:

Understood and you have to think about your audience. What's going to appeal to your audience and how it fits within your personality and even your persona as well. If you're trying to demonstrate knowledge, prestige, professionalism, you can certainly keep a more professional image with you, and there's no one size fits right with this approach. I guess my goal is just to make sure, when we work as corporate employees, we're in this framework of. This is how we need to look and feel and act and all of these. We can't show up on a Zoom call with a small phone, but now we're in the phase of life where we have, we give ourselves some grace and flexibility. We're real people, and that can spill over to what we're doing. Come end of the day, michelle, you have to be comfortable with your headshot photo and it has to appeal with your target audience there.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

All right, cool, all right. So let's see what else on here. You've got a great looking headline. What I always look at in the headline and I'll do a quick demonstration of this is I go down to your activity section and I want to make sure that the headline is written to appeal to your ideal target audience. It's not just job title, it accompanies something a little different. The other thing I look for is what appears in the first line in the previewable area. So the reason I just went down to your activity section is I can see when I click on posts, I can see your headshot photo, I can see your name and I see a portion of your headline. So I want to make sure that what's ever in that previewable area is interesting and compelling and it's going to get your ideal, your profile, where they can read more about you. And what I like is that you've got the first capitalizations, referred to as camel case or headline case young is capitalized, professionals is capitalized, et cetera, emerging leaders, et cetera. You go on from there If you were to make any modifications.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we can get creative with how we write things out, for example, using an ampersand instead of the word and will help us to get more characters in there. Another technique and this might be a little bit too casual for you, but I'll throw it out there anyways Instead of saying young professionals, you can say young pros and emerging leaders, and that might get a couple more characters in that previewable area. I'm not saying you need to change it, I'm just giving you some considerations if you were to want to try to get more of those important words in there, because right now I'm not saying you need to change it, I'm just giving you some considerations if you were to want to try to get more of those important words in there, because right now I'm reading young professionals and emerging leaders hire me to help them NA. And I don't know what the NA is. I can guess, because young professionals and emerging leaders are probably on a path to continue to move up, so I'm guessing what that is. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2:

Yes, it does, thank, so I'm guessing what that is. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I'll play around with that, yeah, and something kind of play around. After you modify your headline, go into your post section. Look at your comment section too. Sometimes we see a couple more characters, sometimes we see fewer characters, as we're seeing here in the comments as well. So just play with that a little bit. But you've got a solid headline. I'm going to read it out loud it says young professionals and emerging leaders hire me to help them navigate business challenges with confidence and influence.

Speaker 1:

Certified coach, speaker, consultant, relationship builder, communications expert, dog lover and the dog lover. You just pulled at my heart right there because I'm a dog lover while we're going at home. But you've got a lot of really great keywords in there that are going to help you to come up in search. I just want you to very carefully think about what are the first words and phrases, because the goal is to get them to click to come back to your profile with that headline Okay, yeah, all right.

Speaker 1:

Next thing I want to look at and you had asked some questions prior to and I want to just quickly address the difference between describing your company in your about statement versus describing your company in your experience section, and I'm going to expand both as I'm going through here. So what I like to do is I want you to think about some people are only going to read the about statement and they're not going to go to the experience section, and some people are only going to read experience and they're not going to go to the about section. So it is perfectly okay if we repeat some items in both places. What I like to think about is the about section. It's not really about you. It's about you as it relates to how you can help your ideal target audience. So I always like to start the about with what do you do, who do you help, and then ending the first four lines with how people can get a hold of you. So what I love about your about statement is you've started the statement with I empower young professionals and emerging leaders to navigate business challenges, et cetera. So right away you're speaking to who it is that you help and how you help them. You have how I'm different. I love the format that you've used on here and then you end with website and email address before the scene will break. So you've done everything I would recommend in there.

Speaker 1:

So the first paragraph is really about you. Who do you help? What do you help them with? How can people get ahold of you? Second paragraph is about your company, and then you can go on from there and add information, which you've really done a nice job Purple bullets in there as well. You got some good branding, whereas in the experience section I like to start with describing the company. So, whereas about it's about you, first paragraph, company is second. In the experience section I like to reverse it First paragraph is about your company and then second paragraph is about you. You know as the chief engine officer and consultant I work with, so maybe it's the same statement as you have in your about statement.

Speaker 1:

And it's okay to be repetitive, keeping in mind that the previewable area in both blocks is only going to be a few lines. So they may only read the previewable area in the about. They may only read the previewable area in the experience. If they expand and there's information that's repeated, that's a good thing because it's creating some brand consistency with your message. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so in your experience, I wouldn't change anything. The only thing I might suggest, rather, in your about, I wouldn't change anything. The only thing I might suggest, rather, in your about. I wouldn't change anything. The only thing I would suggest in your experience that you do different is add in a call to action. So let's assume somebody who's visiting your profile is not yet connected to you so they can't see your contact info, they haven't read the about and they're only reading the experience section. So I would include your website address and your email in here and you might feel well, gosh, brenda, that feels repetitive. That's okay, cause this is like marketing on a silver platter. We don't want to have people searching around, we want to make it super easy for them to find that information.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, yes, and then I do that in the first paragraph.

Speaker 1:

You could do that in the first paragraph. I you know, typically in the experience I usually put it at the end of the first paragraph or if you're doing the second paragraph with a statement about, you put it in there as well. I'm not as concerned about it trying to fit in the previewable space in the experience section as I am in the about at the top Got it Okay, that's super helpful, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're welcome. All right, a couple more things and then we'll wrap up here. So one thing that LinkedIn did recently is they used to allow us to have 50 total skills and now recently they've expanded. They allow us to have more than 50. We can have, I think, up to 100 skills on your profile, and they've also started sprinkling skills throughout our profile in different places. One place is in the About section at the top, and the Experience section has been here for a while, but they've expanded how many skills we can show in here as well, and this was a question that you said.

Speaker 1:

You know how many skills can I have and can we change the order around Now? My recommendation is that you do use all 50 skills in the Skills section. I'm not recommending people go up to 100, because I've not heard any data yet that says it's helping with SEO. If you want, you certainly can go more than 50. But in your about section, you really want to focus on what are the top five skills that are relevant to the work that I do. That's going to be appealing to my ideal target audience, and think about putting those five skills in here Now. Once you add them, you can't move the order around, but you can delete and re-add and I think the way that it works is first in is the first one listed is the way that it would go in there. So right now, your top skills are executive coaching, career development coaching, leadership development, presentation and public speaking training, communication training. Based on what we've described so far, I think those are great top skills for you to have. In your about statement. Did you have any question on that area?

Speaker 2:

um, no, I feel good. I feel good about them. I I think, because young professionals are executives too, so, and, and emerging leaders are executives, so it's more. It's more about that. Professional coaching yes, I feel good about it.

Speaker 1:

And I also feel like even like now that you said that I'm like young professionals who have aspirations to move into executive roles will be seeking leadership coaching, leadership development or executive coaching as well. So I that didn't stick out to me until you just mentioned it I'm like, oh, it doesn't bother me. Even then, I think it's an aspirational skill and it's something that you have to offer your audience. So I look at this as the top skill section in your about, as both an SEO element as well as a human element. The SEO meaning the more of these fields that we fill out on our LinkedIn profile, the more searches we will come up in for executive coaching, for leadership development, et cetera. And the human element is as a human being. As I'm scanning through your profile, I'm getting right away what it is that you're good at, what are the skills and expertise that you can offer to me for a client. So you've done a nice job there.

Speaker 1:

Now the difference within the experience section is, whereas in the about, you can only have a maximum of five I don't know that LinkedIn has a cap for the number of skills that you put in your experience section. I personally am recommending no more than five be listed there. Because you see what happens here, michelle. It says professional mentoring, mock training and 10 other skills.

Speaker 1:

Now most people are not going to click on and read through the list because and I'll say this with kindness people are lazy, they're not going to do it, they're not going to click on it. But if you were to have just a few skills listed, they might all appear in that list. It's like LinkedIn starts to truncate it when the list gets a little bit too long on there. So I want you to think about maybe shortening that list up and not listing all. If I come across any data that tells me differently, like meaning, if you put 15 skills in each experience, it helps with SEO I'll let you know. But I'm looking at this more from the human perspective. Like people just aren't gonna read it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes sense, and I guess my follow-up question for you, brenda, would be definitely for Purple Engine. I need to shorten those. The other experience that I have with the other companies. Should I only choose five for those also Because people may actually go deeper down?

Speaker 1:

And through? Yeah, and I like to think about focusing on the skills that maybe weren't the top skill for that position, but the skills that you gained that are most relevant to the work that you're doing now. So in my example, I use this. In my previous corporate career, public relations and media relations was a part of my job and a part of my role. Could I do it? Yes. Do I enjoy doing it? No, do I want to do it in my job at all now? No, absolutely not. So I'm not going to list that as one of my top skills. So I'm going to focus on the skills that I gained in that role that I'm using to help my clients today. Using to help my clients today. Does that make sense? Yes, perfect sense.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and I'm going to do one final scan, from top to bottom. I just want to see if anything else is jumping out at me, since this is a high level profile mini audit. Just want to see if there's anything else in your top header card. I see that you have communicate with confidence. When I click, it looks like it's taking me to your website. Do you have any downloadable checklists, resources, ways to opt in, to get on an email list. Do you have an email list yet?

Speaker 2:

No, so that is coming next. I have to work on creating something downloadable and I have to work on putting together that email list. We kind of talked about that on your last coaching call and I am motivated. It's just a matter of coming up with the idea and moving it forward down the field.

Speaker 1:

Totally get it, and I think what you have in here is great right now because it doesn't just say Purple Engine Coaching. It's not just the name of your business. You're speaking to your audience. If you're looking to communicate with confidence, that might intrigue you. Like, what is that? Is that a webinar? Is it a workshop? Oh, it's her website, and now I'm there and I can start to navigate through. So what you have is a great starting point right now. If, in the future, you do have a downloadable resource or even a way for them to opt in and subscribe to your list, you might want to consider changing that. But what you have in there, I don't want you to feel like it's not a good thing. It is a good thing, you're using it. It was intriguing to me to click on it, so that's a good thing, but over time you might think about changing that up. Okay, all right and.

Speaker 1:

I'm just scanning through to see you've added items into your featured section. You're posting regularly with a good cadence in there. In your education section you have the IPEC coaching at the top over Michigan State University and just so you know, because of that that's what's appearing at the top in your header card as well. I think it makes sense because the coaching is the direction your business is going. I think that's good in there. You could certainly change it, put the order of Michigan State and that Michigan State would be at the top of your profile. But I think what you have in there is fine. It's just something I observed.

Speaker 2:

I, yeah. So I thought that I recalled in when I was when I watched that video, that it talked about using the education that was most relevant to what you were doing now, versus my degree at Michigan State, which I'm very proud of. It's a journalism degree. It certainly shows what I do, but it really has less to do with coaching.

Speaker 1:

Agree, and I think you know you could argue either way. You could say well, michigan State University is a well-known, credentialed institution and it's kind of like what we have in our headshot photo where we're in corporate attire. It shows that we've been a part of this, the educational system, and earned our bachelor's degree. The other side is you could argue and say well, the coaching thing is more relevant to your business today. I think what you have at the top showing iPad coaching. It's a very reputable organization and it's a credential not many coaches hold, so I think it's something you should definitely be proud of.

Speaker 2:

I think it's perfect to put it up in there.

Speaker 1:

I think it's okay, and then you've also listed it in license and certifications, which I like in there. Other than that, you've got some good recommendations. Your profile is looking like it's in pretty good shape here, michelle, so I'll I'll just end and say, um, this is a great audit to work on, because you've already got a really great looking profile to start with. My goal is just to give you some, some tips to dial it up a little bit, and I hope you're walking away with a couple of those, those, those uh tips for you.

Speaker 2:

I am. So thank you so much. I did all the heavy lifting on the front end and then did the mini audit, thinking, okay, I'm not going to be able to give her much to give me, but I am walking away with some great tips to just finesse it even more. So thank you so much, brenda.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, it was my pleasure, and thank you again, michelle, for allowing us to spend the time to look through your profile today. All right, and with that said, I want to thank our audience, whether you're watching this on YouTube or listening to this in the podcast later. I actually forgot to mention your profile. So, michelle, are you open to accepting connection requests from people who are listening or viewing this?

Speaker 2:

I would love to, absolutely. I would love to connect with anybody. Absolutely I would love to connect with anybody, and you can reach me at Michelle at purpleenginecoachingcom, or just visit my website and there's a form there as well.

Speaker 1:

All right, wonderful. And if you're going on LinkedIn, you can go to linkedincom slash in slash. Michelle B Gilbert it's M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E, the letter B-G-I-L-B-E-R-T, and mentioned that. You heard her on the interview with Brenda Meller and she'll know where you came across us. And, with that said, if you're interested in getting a LinkedIn profile mini audit, go to my website mellermarketingcom slash list where you can download my checklist of 15 LinkedIn profile tips for coaches and consultants. You'll get a couple of emails from me and pay attention to the final email you get in that series because there'll be instructions on booking your call. With that said, thank you all so much for watching and for listening and have a great day.

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