Episode Details

In this episode we meet Ted Prodromou, America's #1 LinkedIn Coach, and talk about perception, connecting properly with purpose, and standing out online.

As you will pick up from this episode, Ted has bounced back from many setbacks, and offers up a number of immediately actionable tips for super-charging both your LinkedIn profile, but also your online presence and online etiquette in general. So get that pen and paper handy, log into your LinkedIn profile and be prepared to put your best foot forward!

A special thanks to Alex Mandossian for recommending Ted.

You can connect with Ted Prodromou on LinkedIn.

You can find Ted's books on Amazon.

Key Quotes from Ted

On the LinkedIn platform as a whole:

• The last three to six months, LinkedIn has been rolling out updates like crazy. And they really are pushing it as a content management platform, content distribution. So you post a video on there now, and it goes out to first, second and third-level networks. First-level is people who have accepted invitations with each other; so when we connected, your network became my second-level network. And then there's the third-level network behind that. So now, content you post isn't only seen by people you're directly connected with. It's seen by everybody, and it's pushed out to Google and Bing now, and all the different other search engines.
• 83% of people will look at your LinkedIn profile now before they take a meeting with you. I'm always harping on telling people, "You need to complete your profile to make a great first impression!" What impression does that make of your company if somebody comes to your website and it's like, horrible looking? Or like a third-grader put it together or something like that? Same with your LinkedIn profile.

Profile improvements: Profile picture:

• They've made the images fit better, but with your cameras today, you can take a great picture. Stand in front of a blank wall and have somebody take your picture. Don't crop out a photo of you at a wedding or something or with a busy background. This is your professional image, people are out there looking at you.
• Say you're going to a meeting, you're trying to sell a $20,000 coaching package to a client. And they just looked at your profile and it's you half-drunk in a wedding somewhere and you got somebody cropped out and it's all blurry. And then you come in and say, "My charge is $20,000." And they go think, "Who is this guy?"

Profile improvements: Professional Headline

• One of the things, the professional headline they call it, is right under your name. And by default, LinkedIn takes your current job title and sticks it in there, but you can edit it to make you stand out.
• If you search for an executive coach on LinkedIn, there are literally millions of people with executive coach in their title. And almost all of them will have their job title, like executive coach at XYZ Company. That doesn't make you stand out. People are scrolling on their phones now, most of the time, so you have one second to get their attention.
• So I always use the USP, unique selling proposition. What problem do you solve and who do you solve it for? Get that into your headline and they'll click on it and learn more about you. I have the keyword phrases in there.
• One of my cl