Advice and tips for getting to grips with LinkedIn
Introduction
The world of social networking can be a daunting place and knowing what content to share and what platform to use is vital to ensure you reach the correct audience. It is important to promote yourself as well as your work, and the information you post on social media can have a huge impact on your success. This leads us to one of the largest social networking platforms (and a great launchpad for promoting yourself and your work!): LinkedIn.
But what should you share on LinkedIn? What content will be the most effective to promote yourself to your connections?
The aim of this guide is to answer those questions and improve your understanding of what LinkedIn is, how it differs from other social networking platforms and how to use it effectively for promotion. To ensure you receive the best advice possible we reached out to Leo Bottary, author of “What Anyone Can Do”, and Deirdre Breakenridge, author of “Answers for Modern Communicators”, to provide you with helpful tips for using LinkedIn.
Understanding LinkedIn:
- About LinkedIn
- What Content Should You Share?
- The Do's and Don'ts
- How To Create Your LinkedIn Profile
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great platform for professionals to network and build relationships. With around 800 million business professionals on the site, you can stay up to date with industry news and trends, share information and updates with your connections. Additionally, you can create groups dedicated to your subject area and hold discussions with those that join. Many consider LinkedIn to simply be a place to upload your CV and find a job, however, it is much more than this. You can also connect with those within your field, make and receive recommendations for different skills, gather marketing intelligence from who has visited your profile and research people and their background to ensure you are connecting with relevant professionals.
What Content Should You Share
It’s important to remember that LinkedIn is a professional networking site so the content that you share should be relevant to your field of research, according to “What is important on a ‘professional’ social network is that quality trumps quantity” (Alan Charlesworth, An Introduction to Social Media Marketing, Routledge, 2015).
We asked Routledge Author, Leo Bottary a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, adjunct professor and thought leader, what type of content he shares with his LinkedIn connections:
"Blog posts, podcasts and other shares that are designed to provide professional value to my connections. I stick to content that is in my lane, so to speak. This helps reinforce the unique value proposition I bring to LinkedIn and allows me to learn from experts in other areas who actually know what they are talking about! I’m also active in reading, liking and commenting on others’ content. This is also very important."
Bottary has also provided some tips on how to use LinkedIn to promote your book:
"A combination of content and promotion, but leading with content. I’ve shared hundreds of articles and posts over the years and hope that in large part I’m regarded as someone who provides a value- add, so when I do post something that’s promotional, such as pre-ordering my book, there’s still a value-add component to it."
The more active you are on LinkedIn, the more your network will grow. Be sure to ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ your connections’ posts, which will increase the odds that your own shared content will receive the same attention.
It’s also a good idea to respond to any comments you receive on your articles or updates to improve engagement. LinkedIn’s newsfeed algorithm is automatically sorted by ‘Top’ posts, which sends updates with the most engagement to the top of your feed. You’re able to change this setting by clicking the dropdown arrow next to ‘Sort by’ in the upper right corner and selecting ‘Recent’. This changes the feed to list posts chronologically. However, most LinkedIn users use the default ‘Top’ setting, so rememberthat engagement is key to getting your posts seen by your network. You don’t want to get lost in the crowd!
The Do's and Don'ts
Routledge author, Deirdre Breakenridge has provided us with a list of do’s and don’ts she follows when sharing content on LinkedIn.
Do:
- Take the time to learn all of the features LinkedIn has to offer. For example, you can use the platform to see who is viewing your profile, and which of your posts are doing the best. This can help you learn about your network and potential audience.
- Get familiar with data analytics on LinkedIn engagement to spot industry trends and find out what is resonating with people on the platform. Also, look at your own analytics and see what content is performing the best with your audience. Uncovering this information will help you customise your content toward a specific audience and make the content you share more relevant to them.
Don't:
- Use LinkedIn as a substitute for real-world interactions. Social media can be used to connect and grow a relationship that you can hopefully move offline for an in-person meeting, but it shouldn’t be your sole networking choice.
- Focus so much on the numbers. While having an impressive number of contacts is important, content quality and networking are essential. Customise the way you’re reaching out to people instead of using the robotic default requests.
- Jump into any social community without understanding the culture. LinkedIn is not like any other social networking site. It has a specific culture that differs from Facebook or Twitter. Learn how your audience likes to engage and adopt the norms of the community.
Breakenridge also explains her thoughts on LinkedIn content with a sales-focused approach
“Although LinkedIn is a business community, people don’t like when you ‘sell’ or share ‘spammy’messages. This type of content generally doesn’t perform well. It’s much better to listen to your community and share your professional perspective to showcase your values and vision.”
How To Create Your LinkedIn Profile
Fill in your profile
Now that you know how to use LinkedIn and what to share with your connections, it’s time to set up your profile and ensure you’re presenting the best image of yourself. When you search for someone’s name, odds are that their LinkedIn profile pops up as one of the top five search results. This is where most people will get to know you and discover your recent work. The more time you put into your LinkedIn marketing efforts, the better the rewards.
Your profile should contain the basics of your CV, a summary of yourself, contact information, your website and any links to blogs, articles, books or other pieces you have written. Be sure to use a professional photo too — it’s the first image people will look at, so you need to make a good first impression. If you don’t have access to one, then make sure that the image you use is good quality and presents you in the best possible light.
Thankfully, LinkedIn encourages people to ‘Complete’ their profiles with a statistical number that shows how much information they’ve contributed. To ensure your profile is ranking high in searches and showing up for relevant colleagues and other professionals, aim to fill your profile until it reaches 100% completion. This will maximise your marketing opportunities.
Join LinkedIn groups
It might also be useful to join relevant groups to contribute to discussions on subjects within your field of research. By offering your expertise in discussions you will establish your reputation as an expert in your field. Leo Bottary finds groups a great way to engage with peers, “They are a way to connect with like-minded people and be introduced to really knowledgeable people across myriad subject areas.”
There’s also the option to create your own LinkedIn group for your title so that your contributors can hold discussions with their connections.
Connect with other professionals
Once you’re happy with the content of your profile page you can go ahead and start connecting with other professionals. LinkedIn will often suggest people you can request to connect with, which you can comb through by selecting ‘My Network’ on the top toolbar. This also leads you to connection requests from others who have seen your profile and want to ‘Connect’.
LinkedIn is a great tool to connect with those within your professional circle and then use their network to connect with further people relevant to your field of research. Remember, the more the merrier! You should aim to extend your network as much as possible to increase your audience. However, make sure that all of your connections are related to your field or interested in similar research.
Engage with other profiles
These connections can also endorse you for skills and provide you with recommendations. If you have colleagues that have worked or collaborated closely with you, it may be helpful to reach out and engage with their profiles, including endorsing their skills or providing a recommendation. This can help encourage them to do the same for your profile, which may improve your reach.
Final advice
Deirdre Breakenridge provides some great advice for making your profile successful:
“A successful profile is one that is accessed most often by the people who need to hear from, work with you or learn from you. You can create keywords in your page description and specialities to attract professionals who then use keyword searches and find you as a result. A successful profile also serves as an effective tool for your audience to get to know who you are professionally. Always use your social networks to drive to your main online hub, such as your website or blog, where you can interact more with your audience and they can find out more about you and your work. Finally, make sure your profile is interactive, share your thoughts on trends and news, engage with others in discussions and create posts that will help be helpful to your audience.”
For further advice, be sure to use the LinkedIn Help options.
Conclusion
Social media is one of the most effective ways to promote yourself nowadays so having a strong understanding of the platforms and how to best utilise them is crucial. LinkedIn is a great place to develop your network and connect with professionals within your field of research. It can be overwhelming if you aren’t that social media savvy already, but it’s definitely worth taking the time to understand how it can benefit you.
Acknowledgements
While researching this snapshot’s topic, we turned to Leo Bottary, author of “What Anyone Can Do”, and Deirdre Breakenridge, author of “Answers for Modern Communicators” for their advice based on their professional experience. We are grateful to these contributors and appreciate them for taking the time to share their knowledge with our audience.
References
An Introduction to Social Media Marketing
By Alan Charlesworth
ISBN: 9780415856171: Purchase Here
About LinkedIn: https://about.linkedin.com/
LinkedIn Help: www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin?lang=en
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