There was a time not too long ago when I didn’t have a big LinkedIn network or presence. But I didn’t give up. I worked harder to build my network and brand on the platform.
Here’s what I did to grow mine and turn it into a real business. It is not hard to do – it just requires a time commitment, courage and a little creativity. If I can do it, so can you!
- Focus only on the social channels where your clients/customers and prospects are rather than diving into all of the platforms
- I found my niche – don’t try to be everything to everyone
- I liked, commented and shared others’ posts (and they did same for me)
- I started writing about my speaking engagements and created takeaway posts from them
- I turned my PowerPoint slides into social posts
- I built an editorial calendar to plan out future posts (I organized mine by month and this helped me repurpose content)
- I shared only value-added content
- I created visuals for each post using my favorite tool Canva
- I made my content interactive and used video and infographics
- I gave away free content, tools and helpful information (branded of course!)
- I looked at others for inspiration and ideas
- I told personal stories and weaved in my personality into posts – I wasn’t afraid to share stories where I had failed – being vulnerable helps others connect with you
- I repurposed my content (using my editorial calendar)
- I developed a hashtag strategy to enhance the visibility of my posts
- I engaged with my followers
- I cultivated my network – adding new connections each day/week
- I recycled my greatest hits – reposting old content that did well
- I set up a LinkedIn “pod” where a group of five is us would share each other’s content
- I used analytics to refine my content efforts
- I posted at least 3X a week, and I didn’t get discouraged if no one liked my posts
- I never sold my services or did anything salesy – if your posts are substantive you won’t ever have to sell yourself as your work will sell itself
- I was above all helpful to others in everything I posted
I used to get upset and then delete posts when no one liked them or only a few people liked them. But it’s not that simple.
It takes time to build a following and LinkedIn’s algorithm makes it difficult to reach your network. So stay the course, believe in what you’re posting by always offering content of value, and you will be successful on LinkedIn!
Try it and let me know how it goes!
PS – I hope you will join me for this free Legal Value Network webinar this Thursday 11/19 at 12pm EDT on how legal professionals can use LinkedIn to build their brands and networks. It’s for in-house lawyers, law firm business professionals, business partners and anyone who wants to up their game on LinkedIn.
There have been a ton of updates to LinkedIn over the past year, and I will show you how to use them to your advantage – it’s never been more important to use LinkedIn for your brand, to become more of a thought leader in your industry and for networking than it is now with social distancing.