Blog Layout

5 Quick Tips for LinkedIn Success

I often get asked about LinkedIn and I'm amazed at how many business owners still aren't using it actively. In terms of my own use, I go in a couple of times a day via the mobile app and a few times a week via my laptop - and even then I feel I should do a lot more! So with this in mind, here's my summary to help you get more out of it and once you're doing this well, you'll definitely feel a remarkable difference.

Before We Begin: Set Yourself Goals

As with anything which is going to consume time or money (often both), it's vital to have an objective in mind for using LinkedIn - do you want to build your profile to get head-hunted, be asked to speak at events, attract new customers etc. Whatever your goals are, bear them in mind every day and focus your efforts towards achieving that goal.

There are now 500 million+ users on LinkedIn now so it's also a great place to hangout online and learn! You can pick-up lots of hints, tips and insights and more importantly, learn more about your contacts. More and more people are switching on to LinkedIn as a communication channel so there's more content being shared - which can help you develop understanding and relationships.

So with all this in mind, here are 5 easy to absorb tips to help make a difference...

5 Quick Tips

#1 - Use the App!
The app has developed well over recent years and is an easy way to keep up-to-date with your contacts as well as adding new ones. For so many reasons, get the app and go in to it daily!

#2 - You Need to Show Off
Ok before you get too carried away, there are boundaries about what this actually means, but I'll let you decide on those! The main point of this tip is to simply tell the world what you're doing more often. If you're not excited about what you're doing then why should anyone else care? You need to be proud of what you do and post with intent - what do you want people to feel about what you've posted and what should they do next? Here's a photo of myself, my wife and the Prime Minister at a recent Chamber of Commerce dinner and this very simple post generated 50 likes and thousands of views which then led to a marked increase in connection requests. It was a nice moment that a few years ago I'd have kept to myself but I decided to share it and it lead to great things and lots of conversations with people I met following this.

#3 - Support Others
The more you support others, the more support you'll receive in return. If you've ever had anyone 'Like' one of your posts you'll recognise the feeling it generates inside - it's good isn't it - that someone else likes what you've put out to the world! Be that person making others feel good about themselves and there's a high chance they'll reciprocate. If you actually go a step further and comment and engage then wow - who knows you might even get in to some sort of discussion and actually start building some rapport!! What's even better, someone else might see your comment and become interested in you...almost like your powers of invisibility are slowly wearing off.

Here's a simple post I put on LinkedIn a few weeks back. In the first 4 hours it had around 120 views and then I asked a few relevant contacts to 'like' the post - literally one click for them and that was it...as you can see here, 20 people then did which lead to 3,215 views! It's amazing what happens when other people like your post and it goes out to their network.

#4 - Connect, Connect, Connect
Imagine going in and seeing loads of connection requests and rejecting them all. It's like walking in to a event with your head down pushing people out of the way - what a waste of time and opportunity and yet I hear this so often "I don't bother with that LinkedIn rubbish it's just loads of people I don't know trying to connect with me!". WOW, how amazing is your business that you have enough contacts. Don't get me wrong, I know what it's like, I get connection requests all the time from people who blatantly just want to sell to me but I genuinely keep an open mind with each one. You soon get rid of those only interested in themselves.

Equally it's vital you add contacts you meet along the way as they can then see your future updates and learn just how amazing you are! You can connect with me here.

#5 - Be Professional
This is pretty broad as a tip but what I really mean is have a professional head-shot that stands out. I've opted for one we took on a recent shoot at our office with our logo in the background as I want to re-enforce the brand at every opportunity. Others prefer a white background or one that's more relaxed. Choose one you want thousands of people to see every week and one that people will recognise going forward - you need to stand out. Next, make sure what your adding to the public domain builds credibility - personally I don't care for people's holiday photos on LinkedIn, save that for facebook and being generally negative is unlikely to appeal to my character either. I look for people with positive energy who are out there making things happen and proud of the job they're doing.

Be that person and you'll attract more than just Likes going forward!

I hope you found this useful, we'll be publishing more content on using LinkedIn very soon and are going to be running some events around the topic. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more.

In the meantime, stop wasting time reading this and get posting on LinkedIn!

This blog post was written by:

chris • Jun 29, 2017

Join Our Mailing List

Find out more:

SEO Audit
Digital Marketing
Social Media Marketing Service
Share by: