LinkedIn is a great platform for building relationships, demonstrating professional value, and building your brand. While it takes a bit of work to get right, the pay off of a great LinkedIn presence is worth it.
Follow these three strategies to ensure you are bringing value to your network and reaching a wide audience.
Engage with Your Network
If you want your network to engage with you and your content, you’ve got to engage with them. Aim to be active on LinkedIn regularly throughout the week and add the following steps to your daily routine:
- Stay on top of your notifications and always opt for a custom response to anniversaries, new positions, and birthdays
- Check incoming connection requests and make sure they are a good fit for your network before accepting
- Scroll your feed and “like” a handful of posts that interest you
- Provide thoughtful comments on a few posts that you enjoyed or found valuable (this will help your content get featured on their feed and encourage them to like or comment on your posts in return)
Provide Value
Much like blogging, posting on LinkedIn requires a balance of quality and quantity. Before posting, make sure your message is adding value, rather than just creating noise. This means writing posts that are inspiring, reflective, educational or thought-provoking.
When people comment on your post, make sure to “like” the comment and/or provide a thoughtful response. The more action there is in the comment section, the more likely people are to engage.
Lastly, providing value doesn’t only have to happen on your feed. Direct messaging is a great way to strengthen relationships in your network and keep up with former colleagues. The more substantial your connections are on LinkedIn, the better engagement you’ll be able to generate.
Optimize Your Posts
The last key to success on LinkedIn is to follow some standard best practices for posting.
1. Plain written posts without an image get the most views, followed by written posts with an image
- Your first two sentences need to be eye-catching
- Share a personal story or thought-provoking idea that stands out of the crowd
2. Videos that are uploaded directly to LinkedIn receive lower views but tend to get higher engagement than linked videos.
3. Articles are valuable assets for your brand and credibility, but you don’t want to over do it (me, me, me…). Experts suggest that articles should only make up 20% of your content strategy.
4. The more connections you have, the more eyeballs that you’ll have on your posts from the start. Aim to add new connections to your network each week.
