You might have noticed that when you use an external link on your LinkedIn post, you reach reduced tremendously. This is cause LinkedIn hates links that take you out of LinkedIn! But there is a workaround this, and I see a lot of people not using this workaround properly.
Learn more about optimizing your LinkedIn profile.
Step 1: Include the link you want people to go to in the first comment
Step 2: Include the link to the comment in your post.
A lot of people do step 1 but they miss out on step 2 and that’s the most important step to this hack!
How to be a LinkedIn Poweruser?
All of us who are serious about our careers are on LinkedIn, but I have heard a lot of your guys saying that LinkedIn as never worked out for you.
It didn’t initially for me as well! Then I got down to break this social network down.
I have previously broken down Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube, I thought why not try LinkedIn!
And I did!
I have broken down my findings and how to grow on LinkedIn below divided by neat sections.
What type of content works on LinkedIn?
1. Informational Content:
Discuss topics with a question at the end that would get your audience to engage with your posts.
Share articles and give your thoughts about it.
Share a trick from your domain that has helped you grow
Ask for opinions about topics you don’t understand.
2. Inspirational Content
Positive and Feel good stories. Such stories prompt instant sharing from your audience.
Share inspirational videos ( Ideally, upload them, don’t share links.)
3. Personal Experience
Share your personal journey and how it has been. What has helped you grow and what issues you faced while doing so.
What doesn’t work on LinkedIn?
- Articles with an external link
- Youtube links
- Blog links
The only reason why these don’t work out well on Linkedin is that these types of posts take you away from the platform and LinkedIn reduces the effectiveness of such links.
How to Optimize your profile?
- Display picture: Make sure your profile has a DP to it. This added to the authenticity of your overall profile and people can create an image of your persona based on your DP. Make sure it has only your face and no one else should be with you in your DP.
- Name: In this section, just put your name. Don’t make it fancy by trying to stuff in keywords. It is not going to help you get good projects.
- Description: This is something that is right below your name. Follow this format:
Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Keyword 3
Try not to stuff more than 3-4 keywords here. - Summary: The most important part of your profile. Mention everything that you have done so far and what you are doing right now and where you want to be in the future. This is where you get to tell your story, so make sure it’s a compelling one. Towards the end of the summary add a way for people to contact you directly, this could be an email id or a website form link.
- Experience: Do fill in your experience as much as possible. Include your roles and responsibility and a sample of your work at the company at the end of it. Try to mention your key takeaways as well.
- Publications: A lot of people think that you can only add publications that you have written for here. This is not true, you can add publications where you are featured in as well. Make sure you tag the author of the publication in that case.
- Organizations/Projects/Languages/Certifications/Courses: These are absolutely useless. But you can fill it up if you feel you need to showcase something that not many people will have.
How to network on LinkedIn?
This is what LinkedIn is famous for right? It helps you grow your professional network.
Before you start networking, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.
- Target Audience: You need to figure out that people with whom you want to connect. For example, I sell a solution that helps Sales folks increase their lead pipeline by x10, then I should be connecting to People who are working in Sales.
- Content Strategy: Once you have set your eye on the target audience, you need to create content that would attract the right set of people, in this case, Sales Folks. Prepare your strategy based on “What type of content works on LinkedIn?” given earlier.
- Networking:
Get LinkedIn premium on a trial basis, use the InMail feature to initially reach out to your target audience, create a list for them( you would need this once your trial expires).
If they don’t respond to your InMails, then start engaging with their posts daily, leave comments, share their content, and follow them. Once they recognize you as someone who has knowledge in a particular field, more often than not, they would accept your request.
- Handling Follow request:
I follow a very simple rule of thumb for requests.
| People who are above you in terms of designation | Send them a request with a note on why you are sending this request to them and what would you get if they accept your request. |
| People who are equal to you in terms of designation | If they send a request, accept if they don’t seem creepy, are your 2nd or 3rd connection. If you are sending them a request, make sure you are in their 2nd or 3rd connection |
| People who are strangers and don’t fall into your target audience. | Check their profile for Red flags: 1. No DP 2. Incomplete Profile 3. Experience is given as Business, Founder at Own business, or Business Entrepreneur If these red flags are matched, delete the request, most probably they are sending you a request to add you to an MLM scheme like Qnet. Also, if you get an InMail or message from someone you don’t know with the following template, just ignore or delete the request. I am running an e-commerce business which deals into micro Franchising. There is a huge demand for this in today’s circumstances and therefore I am looking out for a few associates who have an entrepreneurial mindset. Would you be open to explore this opportunity which can give you additional sources of income in these trying times and in this uncertainty of jobs? |
Strategies that helped me to grow
- Tag people and companies in your post and comments:
Tag relevant people in your posts and comments to either grab their attention or the attention of their network. This will help you get some initial traction when you are low on connections.
- Comment and engage with other people’s post:
Don’t think that engagement will come to you. Once you post something on LinkedIn, utilize the next half an hour to engage with relevant posts. This helps your profile get noticed and spark conversations around the posts that you made.
- Consistency:
As it is with every social network, the more consistent you are, the more exposure you are bound to get! Posting once a day or once every alternate day is a good way to start!
- Respond to comments on your posts:
Respond to every comment on your posts. This helps keep the post alive and increase your reach. Also time your comments, comment when you think your target audience would be on LinkedIn. Don’t respond to all comments at once, instead cherry-pick a few and respond to them once an hour.
Ahaan is a Digital Marketer with expertise in Customer Success, Community Building, SEO, and SMM. He has also worked with North American and European clients in the past 7 years of his career.