LinkedIn Best Practices: 6 Profile Tips for Rental Managers
Now that we covered the basic LinkedIn profile tips, it’s time to discuss general best practices. LinkedIn is a professional networking social site where millions of professionals come together to share success stories and news and motivate others. With that comes the freedom of posting; however, LinkedIn works differently from other social media sites. Read on for our LinkedIn best practices and profile tips.
LinkedIn Best Practices, Profile Tips for Rental Managers
Update Your Profile Regularly
Stay current and update your profile on a regular basis, especially if you experience successful business growth. For example, five years ago you may have managed one rental in one city, but now you manage 50 rentals in four cities. That’s a big difference. Showcase your strengths, share your success and enhance your credibility.
Connect, Connect, Connect
A quick search of industry-related terms produces dozens of results, including people, companies and groups. Start with a broad topic – such as vacation rental management – which yields about 47,000 results. Select users who you want to connect with and send an invitation. Many professionals add a short message with the invite. Others send a ‘thank you’ message once the invite is accepted. In addition, it’s OK to use caution when connecting, however the strongest profiles will have 500-plus connections.
Add Skills, Endorse Others
Skills help other users get a quick glance of your expertise. Start with adding skills you want to appear on your LinkedIn profile. Make a list of the top 20 and add those to your profile. Suggestions include: vacation rentals, vacation rental management, family vacations, property management, real estate, management, customer service, marketing, copy writing and photography.
Once you add skills, other LinkedIn connections can endorse you for those skills. Ideally, you want the top three to correlate to the vacation rental industry.
VR Pro Tip: Connect with colleagues and endorse them for skills they have listed. Not only is this a great way to gain exposure, but it helps build long-term relationships with professionals in the vacation rental industry.
Ask for Recommendations
Direct message a few contacts and ask for recommendations. Keep in mind that recommendations require more time than endorsements, and expect to write one in return. This section is highly personal, so make sure you request recommendations from people who worked directly with you and will write a professional, thoughtful review.
Join Groups and Participate
The vacation rental and travel industries have a strong presence on LinkedIn. Many of the industries’ top influencers are on LinkedIn, building their businesses and helping others do the same. At its core, LinkedIn is a networking site full of trends, tips, news and success.
One way to take advantage of this is to join groups. As of 2017, users can join a maximum of 100. Groups are considered private places where users share relevant information, discuss trends and topics, seek professional advice, stay current and share similar issues. Groups act as mini-communities within LinkedIn and should be treated with respect and professionalism.
VR Pro Tip: We recommend participating as well. Rental managers who plan to participate may only want to join 5 to 10 at first to ensure high participation.
Watch What You Like/Share
LinkedIn is not Facebook. Depending on your connections, you may also see users supporting this fact when something too personal or political is in the feed. Yes, it’s a social networking platform. However, it is the world’s largest professional networking site.
This is not the place to participate in heated offensive discussions or post inappropriate content. Your activity shows on your profile page at all times, so use LinkedIn best practices and keep it professional when sharing and posting content.
Enjoy these tips? Read about marketing vacation rentals and how to increase exposure.