How to Use LinkedIn Effectively
If you’re looking to position yourself as an expert online, you need to be on LinkedIn. It’s become the number one place to grow your authority and these LinkedIn profile tips will help you be seen as an expert in your industry. First, let’s look at the data: There are 660 million users (and growing) on the platform and 40 million of those users are in key decision making positions. 80% of social media leads are generated on LinkedIn compared to 13% on Twitter and 7% on Facebook. LinkedIn completely smokes all other channels when it comes to business development.
Out of the 660 million users on LinkedIn today, ONLY 3 million are creating content. That means not even 1% of people on LinkedIn are creating content. That's a drop in the bucket—only a teeny tiny micro percentage of 660 million people are taking advantage of this platform. Yet there are 9 BILLION content impressions in the feed each week—not each month, each week. Take advantage of this opportunity to get your content seen by thousands of people organically.
Here’s how to use LinkedIn effectively in five easy steps.
#1 Understand the algorithm
LinkedIn’s algorithm isn’t like other social media algorithms. You have your first degree “connections” on LinkedIn and those connections have their own connections who are called your second degree connections. Then there's third degree connections and fourth degree connections and fifth degree connections and so on. If you only have 500 direct, first-degree connections on LinkedIn, by the virtue of the network alone, you can actually reach upwards of 700K people.
#2 Show up authentically
On LinkedIn, some people think that they have to present themselves as this flawless professional. And yes, that's in part why someone will hire you (or want to spend money on you, or refer you to the right professional, etc.), but people do business with people, not products or services.
LinkedIn is your opportunity to not only showcase your amazing work and experience, but also your humanity—who you are and the things you care about. Because at the end of the day, people want to work with people they like.
#3 Get clear on your strategy
If you're a thought leader in your space, you get hired more, you get more notoriety, you can serve more people, and you can make a bigger difference in the world. That's what thought leaders do. But to be a thought leader, you have to have thoughts. You have to create original ideas and share your thoughts in the form of podcasts, videos, blogs, etc. You can't just post on social media (unless the goal is to be an influencer, which isn’t really the same thing as a thought leader).
What form of content creation brings you the most joy? If it’s writing, try blogging and sharing it on LinkedIn. If it’s talking, try a video series and sharing it on LinkedIn. Pick three to four things that you could talk about endlessly (and they don’t all need to be work related). These three to four topics should pretty much be exclusively what you talk about. Then use LinkedIn to really disseminate and spread that thought leadership, create authority, and create connections with people.
#4 Take advantage of the feed
Use the feed. The feed is where you can share updates, articles, and insights to 660 million people. Remember, less than 1% of users are actually doing this. If you already have a blog, copy and paste that and reshare it on LinkedIn.
Upload it natively—don't share a link to your blog or YouTube or Vimeo. LinkedIn wants you to use its channel; it doesn't want you to send people away from its channel by linking to another platform and it won’t prioritize that kind of link in the algorithm. Upload your content onto LinkedIn, give it a great caption, and give it a call to action.
#5 Diversify your posts
There are five types of posts that perform really well on LinkedIn. When used strategically, these posts get the most engagement and hack the algorithm. The five types of posts are:
Storytelling - These posts are typically structured with a very catchy first line to hook the reader. You want to share a personal story with tangible examples and end it with a call to action or an “aha moment.” For example, a woman named Allison Fisher started her storytelling post with “I tried not to cry.” She then takes you through the story of how she had to tell her children that she got fired as a result of COVID. It was a vulnerable piece of content that she shared on LinkedIn…and she received thousands of likes and some job offers in return. Being “real” works. People want to work with people they like. Don’t be afraid to get real.
Appreciation - Write a post about how much you admire someone and thank them for an opportunity they gave you (such as speaking on a panel). Not only are you bringing attention to the fact that you spoke on a panel, but you are honoring the person that gave you the opportunity and getting your post in front of their network, too. It's a really strategic way of not only networking, but getting people to see your content and profile on their feed. LinkedIn loves it when you encourage people to stay on their channel by tagging other accounts.
Engagement - Ask people to engage with your post! For example, “Hi everyone! I'm launching a new product and I'd love to get a quick pulse check of your feedback. Please leave a comment below.” Pretty straightforward.
Education - This is when you share a piece of content that's educational to people, like a blog post or writing about a personal experience that lead you to learn something new.
Announcement - Maybe you have big news, or you're hiring someone, or you just got featured in a great article, or you moved offices, or you left your job…it’s the perfect time for an announcement post. Announcement posts are typically positive and receive high engagement.
Remember, there are content creators on LinkedIn and there are content consumers. Most people are content consumers. You have the opportunity to be a content creator, get seen, position yourself as an expert, grow your authority, grow your network, and as a result, grow your business by simply creating content on LinkedIn. Again most people are not doing this—and they’re missing out. I’ve seen tremendous results for my clients when they’ve advantage of LinkedIn.
I hope this post helped you understand how to use LinkedIn effectively. Get ahead of it! Be the ones that shine and I promise you will grow your business. If you need help perfecting you LinkedIn profile, check out this blog post. If you want to work with me one-on-one to develop your personal brand, contact me today!
