Authenticity and Credibility
Two Key Factors Very Important to prospects and clients. Some people are weary of who they meet online and rightly so. It is therefore important that you show yourself as an authentic and professional Online in order to attract prospects and clients.
How do you do that?
Set up a LinkedIn Account. You want a presence on this professional platform.
1 – Photo. On your LinkedIn Profile put up a recent professional photo. I have seen creative photos or photos of people carrying their child or pet. These don’t work well on LinkedIn. Not having a photo does not work either.
People like to know who they are dealing with, they like to have a face behind the screen.  If you have a happy photo that shows you up as approachable and professional, put that up on your profile – that is the first thing anyone will see.
2 – Start Collecting Endorsement and Testimonials. When you have done a good job, do not be shy to reach out to your students or parents of the students or the manager of the organization you work with and ask for an endorsement or recommendations.

On LinkedIn this is powerful, because recommendations are given with the person’s real identity and it cannot be written or composed by the receiver – the way it is sometimes done on websites.
These comments are perceived to be more genuine and they are attached to a real person whose background you can check up on line.
How To Endorse Skills On LinkedIn?
A – The person would need to have a LinkedIn account.
B – She would need to be connected to you.
C – She needs to click on the yellow “Endorse” button for a skill that she wants to endorse you for (as shown in the diagram above). This pops up when your profile is viewed.
How To Recommend Someone On LinkedIn?
In order o Recommend you your student would need to scroll down toward the end of your profile and look for the Section with the world Recommendations (as shown in the diagram below).

She would need to write a sentence or two to describe what she is recommending you for, in what capacity she is giving that recommendation and so on. LinkedIn will guide her in writing the comment and once that is done, they can send that to you for “approval“. By approving this recommendation will show up on your profile. Otherwise it will not.
As you build your online authority and credibility, you will eventually be seen as the expert in your field and people will come to seek out your service.
In the next week or so I will be talking about other important things you must have and do if you were to start your own business. Watch this space.
What is your favorite way of building online credibility and authority? Leave us your comments below or get in touch if you have any additional questions.