LinkedIn
for coaches.

'Executive coach | Speaker | Author' tells nobody whether you're for them. 'I coach new engineering managers through their first year' does.

The About section should answer what a buyer wants to know before they'll talk: who you coach, on what, how a program runs, your training, and what to do next. Put your credential where it can be clicked, not just named.

People don't look for a coach because of a framework. They look because something changed: a promotion, a restructure, a stalled business, a return from leave. Write about those moments, in the words people use.

One useful post a week, every week, does more than a burst. Comments count as much as posts: a thoughtful comment puts your headline in front of the people reading that thread.

When an organisation pays, someone in HR or learning and development usually has to justify the choice. They look for things a personal client rarely asks about: a recognised credential, a code of ethics, insurance, and how you report progress to the sponsor without breaking the coachee's confidence.

Put those on your LinkedIn profile and your website, in plain words. A short 'how I work with organisations' section, with how goals are set, how progress is reviewed and what stays private, does more for executive coaching than another inspirational post.

And write some posts for the buyer, not the coachee: the organisational problem coaching helps with, like new managers who can't delegate or leaders stretched across a restructure. LinkedIn says it has about 15 million Australian members, and plenty of them work in HR.

For business and executive coaching, the person coached and the person paying are often different people, and they need different things. Pick the usual route for your clients.

Cold pitching on LinkedIn mostly fails, and it carries risk. The Spam Act covers commercial messages to email, messaging or 'similar' accounts, and no court has said LinkedIn inboxes are outside it. Treat a pitch as if the rules apply: consent, your name, a way to opt out.

The guide to getting leads from LinkedIn has a check you can run on a message before you send it.

LinkedIn ads can target by job title, seniority and company, which suits executive coaching sold to organisations. They're dearer per click than most platforms, so they make sense when a client is worth a lot.

LinkedIn's ad policy requires claims to have factual backing, and bans unrealistic health claims. See what LinkedIn ads cost before you start.