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8 KPIs for Business Professionals using LinkedIn

Are you measuring the right KPIs when you use ;LinkedIn as a business tool? Knowing what KPIs to measure and how to do so can propel your towards greater success using LinkedIn as a business tool.

Define KPIs – Key Performance Indicators; A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives.

Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at reaching targets.

Because LinkedIn is a business tool it’s important to know what KPIs are important when using LinkedIn. Otherwise, you don’t know where you are going or what you need to do in order to get there.

I’ve been measuring my Top 8 KPIs in LinkedIn since they became available and as others become available I consider how they apply to my business use of LinkedIn.

I use these KPIs focused on my primary purpose and goal of using LinkedIn. You too need to have clearly defined your purpose and goal(s) using LinkedIn.

My Purpose for using LinkedIn is to be discovered as an authority in my industry and to make meaningful connections that help me achieve my goal of getting into relevant conversations that creates business discussions which leads to closed business.

In order to move the right people through my funnel I have to pay attention to my KPIs using LinkedIn.

KPI #1 – LinkedIn Profile SEO

You should strive to have your LinkedIn Profile rank high on the search results pages of LinkedIn Search and Google Search for the keywords relevant to who you are and what you do in your region.

If you build your LinkedIn Profile correctly, keyword rich, focused on your Most Important Viewer (target audience), your ranking will improve over time.

You can test this KPI two different ways:

  1. Ask your connections across the globe to search for you in LinkedIn and Google based on your keywords and region.
  2. Test yourself using an Incognito Google Chrome window and Google Search.

This is a powerful KPI that takes lots of work to achieve. However the results are a well built LinkedIn Profile and potentially being found via searches.

Bonus KPI – does any of your other content show up when you search for your keywords? (YouTube Videos, blog posts, websites, social media content)

KPI #2 – LinkedIn Profile Views

LinkedIn Profile views is a the first place for you to tell your Most Important Viewer (target audience) who you are and what you do relevant to them. The more your LinkedIn Profile is viewed the more likely you’ll attract a connection and then a conversation with the right person.

Currently you can see the number of LinkedIn Profile Views from the home page of LinkedIn.

The number is from the past 90 days. If you are a paid subscriber for any of the premium LinkedIn products you can see all of the viewers in the last 90 days.

However, everyone can still see the last 5 LinkedIn Members who viewed their profiles.

For most people looking at your profiles views in the morning and afternoon can be enough for you to use this KPI effectively.

I will pay attention to who viewed my profile and where relevant I will engage with these viewers. 

There are lots of ways to drive up this KPI including, but not limited to:

  • View your Most Important Viewer’s Profiles
  • Sharing relevant and useful content
  • Engaging on your Most Important Viewer’s content
  • Messaging your Most Important Viewers.

Paying attention to this KPI is critical

KPI #3 – Content Engagement

Sharing and even engaging on other LinkedIn Member’s content is an important way to develop a powerful reputation on LinkedIn. Paying attention to who Likes, Comments and Shares the content you share on LinkedIn is an important KPI. You need to look for your Most Important Viewers in this KPI and where relevant engage with them directly, either publicly or privately, whichever is the most appropriate.

This KPI shows up in numerous places, home page left column (see above image), your Notifications and the Post Analytics.

From Notifications you can see the actual post, number of likes, comments and shares as well as the number of post views.

From this page you can continue to engage with those who engaged on your content.

You can also see who they are, view their LinkedIn Profile(s)  and move forward in the processes of  possibly connecting with them, calling or emailing them.

From this page you can access the full analytics page for this post.

Clicking on the ### views of your Post (video or image) opens the full analytics page

This is fully an analytics page with no real way to engage with those who viewed, commented, shared or liked your post. 

You can however click on the top company logo and go view the relevant LinkedIn Company Page.

You should pay attention to this KPI to measure the following:

What types of posts are getting the greatest views of your Most Important Viewers?

Are there repeat viewers from a specific company and/or region?

Are your target LinkedIn Member types seeing your content? 

Are the viewers 1st level connections or new potential connections?

Knowing who is seeing what content you share on LinkedIn is an important KPI to pay attention to regularly.

There are similar analytics on your LinkedIn Articles as well. These need to be paid attention to as well.

KPI #4 – LinkedIn Connections

Your LinkedIn Network can be one of your Most Important Assets in business as well as your career. Paying attention to this KPI can really influence the types of connections you make.

I recommend tracking the following aspects of this KPI:

  • What types of LinkedIn Members are sending you LinkedIn Invites?
  • Who is accepting (or not accepting) your LinkedIn Invites?
  • Who engages with you immediately upon connecting?
  • How does your growing LinkedIn Network influence the People You May Know suggestions from LinkedIn (this is significant)?
  • How many new connections are you making each day/week?
  • Which of your LinkedIn Connections can introduce you to your Most Important Viewers

Treating your LinkedIn Network as an important asset requires tracking and paying attention to this KPI.

KPI #5 – LinkedIn Social Selling Index

Your Social Selling Index (SSI) Score is a great way to further measure how you are using LinkedIn as a business tool.

Your SSI Score is broken down into 4 primary components:

#1 – Your Professional Brand is primarily based on how you present yourself through your LinkedIn Profile.

#2 – Finding the Right People is primarily based on who you say you are in your LinkedIn Profile and is your LinkedIn Network focused on that.

#3 – Engage with insights is primarily based on the types of content you share and engage on, as it relates to your LinkedIn Profile.

#4 – Build relationships is primarily based on how well you connect on LinkedIn. Are you connecting deep into organizations and broadly around your Most Important Viewer.

Viewing your SSI Score and hovering over these 4 components can give you even more insights into the importance of this KPI.

Bonus – Try not to get too carried away comparing your SSI score to anyone else on LinkedIn. This may be interesting but it’s really not a productive KPI. Focus on what you have the ability to effect, your own SSI Score.

KPI #6 – LinkedIn Member Engagement

There are many ways to engage directly with your Most Important Viewers. With LinkedIn this includes:

  • LinkedIn Messaging
  • Email Messaging
  • Twitter Messaging
  • Skype
  • Telephone call
  • Visiting face to face

LinkedIn messaging is useful, but not the most important business communications tool. I think too many LinkedIn Members rely on LinkedIn Messaging too much.

Email messaging is also changing in regards to importance and engagement. For many it’s an easy way to send out a message, even if the recipient may not think of emails as important to them. Another aspect of email messaging to pay attention to is many LinkedIn Members will use a ‘personal’ email address as their primary email on their LinkedIn Accounts. Many do this so they can ‘ignore’ the messages.

Many LinkedIn Members have a Twitter account and/or a Skype account connected to their LinkedIn Profiles, but don’t actually use Twitter or Skype for communicating with their followers.

The telephone is an important business communications tool, however this does not mean Voice Mail is. Too often LinkedIn Members don’t listen to their voice mail messages, or don’t follow up on them. It’s important to measure this aspect of LinkedIn Member engagement and not expect more than your connection will do. I encourage testing voice mail message responses and types to see what works best for different connections.

Visiting face to face with your Most Important Viewer can be a vital communications tool, however again there are many LinkedIn Members who do not want to spend the time engaging this way. This aspect of LinkedIn Member engagement must be measured as well regarding your Most Important Viewers.

Real B2B business opportunities come out of good conversations. It’s important to measure what communications styles and tools get you into the best conversations.

KPI #7 – Business Discussions

This KPI is designed to keep us focused on the most important step; creating business through our use of LinkedIn as a business tool.

I encourage tracking, maybe in your CRM system, the LinkedIn Profile URL and how you got connected to the person you got into a business discussion with. Hopefully this discussion will turn into a proposal, or better yet, into business. However we have to track the steps that lead to business so we know which connections, activities and engagements get us the best business.

I use a CRM tool for proposed business, but I track business conversations in my Google Suite Calendar. I can export the events and review the notes I put in the calendar entry. It works quite well for my small business. You may need a more feature rich CRM tool.

KPI #8 – Closed Business

This is the ultimate KPI. Closed business is how we sustain our business and all of the activities we enjoy doing in life. 

You should be tracking all of your clients in your accounting system (I use QuickBooks) and in your contact system (I use Google Suite). Being able to report new clients per quarter, recurring business and new business per client can help you to stay aware of which LinkedIn Connections turn into the best short term and long term clients. 

More importantly, tracking your client contacts associated with your business and where they are is important. Regularly your key contact at a business may move on to another business. Paying attention to these career changes can help you nurture the right connections in your client businesses, as well as uncover new business opportunities in new businesses.

Knowing what KPIs are important for you in your use of LinkedIn as a business tool is critical. Not having clearly thought out and actively monitored KPIs can limit your potential using LinkedIn as a business tool.

If I can help you develop and monitor these KPIs for you and your business, let’s talk.

Teddy Burriss

LinkedIn Coach & Trainer

Burriss Consulting, Inc.

336-283-6121

Info@BurrissConsulting.com

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