11 Tips to be followed on Linkedin
Five hundred million professionals use LinkedIn every day to grow their networks, find a new job, build careers and grow their business. If you are connecting business people and professionals, LinkedIn is a must for your social media strategy.
For experts wanting to connect with other experts and decision makers, there’s no better social media network than LinkedIn. Its’ the place were business men and women go to do business.
One of the quickest ways to start working on LinkedIn is by connecting and following. Connect, comment, like and share on LinkedIn and the spotlight will soon shine on you.
Here is a strategy to grow your followers fast.
Everyday make 100 new 2nd and/or 3rd connections.
This is what you do. Naturally, you need a LinkedIn account and write up your profile information.
Once that’s done, g♦o to your home page and type in keywords for your audience in the search bar.
Then, click on the Connections tab and tick the 2nd and 3rd connection boxes. You’ll see this just to the right of the “Home” icon along the right from the search bar.
You can see that I have clicked “connections” and the drop box with 1st, 2nd and 3rd is given. Click the 2nd and the 3rd boxes.
Connect with as many 2nd and 3rd people, up to 100 in a day. They won’t all connect back but expect 30-40%.
To help the number of connections set up an automatic message to introduce yourself and why you are connecting with them.
To add a message to an invitation:
- Navigate to the profile of the member you’d like to connect with.
- Click the Connect button located in the introduction card.
- Click Add a note.
- Add your personalized message in the text field.
- Click Send invitation.
If the recipient replies to your message, it will appear in your Linkedin messaging and from there your relationship begins.
There is an quicker way with “LinkedIn Helper“, you have to pay a fee for this time saving automated feature. If LinkedIn is your preferred social media platform because your audience hangs out here, it is worth following the LinkedIn Helper link for a close look.The “LinkedIn Helper” tool will help you to automate your connections and grow your followers faster. Don’t rush into LinkedIn Helper if you don’t have a online presence, you need to take your followers to you and a Blog is a good place to start.
If someone has told you that Blogs are for losers and is out dated don’t listen to them.
A Blog is the foundation upon which you can get voice and message out, grow your content and display your skills and knowledge. A Blog helps you to grow your business because you can add new income streams from affiliate and email marketing and even more strategies. With a Blog on a WordPress site, you own your information, unlike a social media platform where you can lose everything in a flash.It’s a “no brainer” really, a Blog gives you the best start online.
Go with what your gut tells you and ask yourself,
“Do I want to grow my online presence and get my message, products, services and information to the world?” Because if it is you owe it to yourself to grow a Blog and increase your LinkedIn footprint.
10 Tips for succeeding with Articles on LinkedIn
Quality always trumps the number of average articles and posts. Your reputation as a “go to” expert will grow when you share high value and relevant content.
Post articles and people will be looking at your profile and talking about you, and reaching out in no time.
Here are some tips for articles that get noticed on LinkedIn
BASIC LINKEDIN ARTICLE OR POST REQUIREMENTS
1. Title does not exceed 50 characters
2. “How To” titles do well.
3. Don’t write about you. For a great Linkedin article or post, keep in mind that people are interested in how you can help them, and not so much about you and even less about what you offer.
There is a rule of thumb I use in all content whether it is a Linkedin article or a Blog post and that is the 80:20 rule to provide really useful information to help with their struggles and 20% about you and how you can help
4. Search engines like longer posts on any platform so aim for over 1000 words and reach to 2000 if you can but don’t fill just to make up the word count as quality always wins.
5. Ensure your article has a Readability Score of 11. Learn more about this score here. If you are creating your Linkedin article in a word document, follow these instructions to find the Readability Score.
In a Word Doc, Click on File and then Options, Click Proofing, is also on the left. Scroll down and you’ll see the heading “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word” , make sure the Check grammar with spelling check box is selected and select “Show readability statistics”.
Even if you are writing for an “expert” group aim for readability of 11. You can learn more about this score here with the Flesch Reading Ease test or the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test.
LINKEDIN IMAGES
6. Have one image at the top of the article and 5-8 images following.
7. The article header image size for LinkedIn is 1584px x 396px. This is actually an awkward size. Don’t waste time trying to resize your image.
Head straight to Canva, in my opinion the best software for a non-designer. The free version is all you need and once you are in Canva, choose the LinkedIn Header design and fill in the detail.
Make the best header image you can, look at what others do and see what’s popular for inspiration.
YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE
8. Your LinkedIn profile is also important to gain likes and followers. Ensure your profile has a professional head-shot and you’ll get 14 times more profile reviews and be 36 times more likely to receive a message. Check out additional Linkedin statistics here.
BEST DAYS TO PUBLISH ON LINKEDIN
9. Publish as often as you can and Thursday is best followed by Sunday, Monday and Saturday.
FOR EXPERTS WHO SHY FROM BEING A SALESPERSON
10. There is no need to be salesy in your LinkedIn articles and Posts. Don’t try to promote you or your products or services. Nobody is really interested in you and what you do, unless you can demonstrate that you can be valuable to them.
Providing value is your first priority. Provide relevant and helpful information and you will attract your followers naturally.
This sounds so simple, it is only when you appreciate the theory of “Attraction Marketing”. Three steps are described here and in an excellent HubPost summary include: aligning your message with your audience….as you are already doing.
Next is to truly believe in your your ability to help your audience. This is a lot about confidence and finally, connect with your audience consistently.
If you learn more about “Attraction Marketing” there is no need to feel like a sales person. To get it right, you need to do the work to be very clear on your audience.
If you can answer these questions, you are well on your way to connect with your audience, provide value and relevance.
Audience Checklist:
- Why does your audience need your messages, products, courses or services?
- What is their pain? The causes and consequences of their pain?
- How do they feel when their pain is relieved and why?
- Who are they? Describe their demographics.
- Where do they hangout offline and online?
- Does your audience speak English?
CONNECT WITH THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS IN YOUR NICHE
11. Connect with your “Key Influencers” and share their articles and posts. Add thoughtful comments to their posts and discussions. Get their attention by providing interesting comments and they will connect and follow you and share your LinkedIn articles.
Learn more about LinkedIn from LinkedIn Learner for all of your LinkedIn questions.
Any questions, feel free to post them in the comments or contact me judy@savvyexpertsonline.com and we will get your questions answered..
