LinkedIn for Dummies- How To Improve Your Profile, Reach & Engagement
A friend of mine who runs a property business got in touch & asked for help to improve his LinkedIn presence. He doesn't spend much time on LinkedIn, but recognised there were potential benefits to a more engaging presence.
So I jotted down the below.
Less 'LinkedIn for Dummies', more 'LinkedIn for those who don't use it much'. I hope this will be useful to some of you, your kids & junior team members as they enter the workplace. Feel free to share!
🗣 Profile
⏭ Add a decent profile pic - professional but approachable
⏭ Add a header image - logo plus eye catching pic
⏭ Clarify in your Bio what you'll post about = tell people if they follow you, they'll get X, Y & Z. Stick to your domain, be the knowledge leader in those topics = manage expectations and reward loyal followers
⏭ Ask clients and partners for skills endorsements & recommendations & add (up to 100) new skills to your profile
✍ Posts & Content
⏭ Aim to write minimum 3 posts per week - find trending stories in the news and share an opinion
⏭ Intriguing opening lines WORK! It's not click bait if you deliver on the promise
⏭ Try to end posts with a Call To Action to prompt comment & engagement (posts that get likes/ comments in first hour get magnified by the LI algo, then reach 2nd connections then 3rd)
⏭ Use Polls occasionally to ask questions about trending topics in your sector.
⏭ Videos do well - maybe once every 2 weeks do 1 minute vid to camera discussing your take on one of your XY or Z topics
⏭ Choose images to catch the eye & complement your posts - a fun way to explore Canva or AI design tools (I use Midjourney & Microsoft Designer)
⏭ LinkedIn Articles do badly for engagement but newsletters do v well. All followers get prompted to subscribe to your 1st newsletter, so maybe do a monthly news summary about your x,y,z topics (click Write Articles 👉 Manage 👉 Newsletters 👉 Create Newsletters to set one up in 2 mins = very intuitive)
⛓ Connections, Followers & Engagement
⏭ Follow and respectfully ask to connect with LOADS of industry power players, journos and PRs, comment on their posts intelligently & respectfully but don't be shy of holding a strong opinion & validating it = more engagement/ followers
⏭ Don't just 'Like' a post. A 1 line, well thought out comment will be seen by more followers of the original poster, so worth doing if you have a good point to make/ ask them a follow up question (even better as if they reply it'll boost your comment's reach)
🗞 PR & Socials
⏭ Offer to write for trade press, (not hard to do, as they won't/ can't pay for writers anymore!) then syndicate a link as a comment for your post or newsletter (LI hates taking people 'off platform', so never have an external link in a post. Just add it as a comment instead
⏭ Recycle LI content in your other socials = The 'Content Cyclone' strategy = create once, edit for purpose and reuse
Feel free to add more tips in the Comments
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