Many of you may be on LinkedIn regularly but you’re not seeing much success in terms of building your brand and business. I wonder if you are doing the same old same old every day? Are you really engaging on the platform as an active participant or are you scrolling in invisible-only mode and occasionally liking posts?
- Are you curating your feed (using the bell feature) to make sure you are seeing the posts of your VIP connections (referrals, clients and influencers)?
- Are you regularly posting helpful content to your network and building your brand as as thought leader? Does this content support your business and branding goals?
- Are you promoting the things you’re doing on LinkedIn such as writing and speaking opportunities in order to get maximum return on your investment?
- Are you actively cultivating your network by sending and responding to connection requests?
I’m sure you may do some of these – but I am also sure some of these activities have fallen by the wayside simply because you are busy and it’s a lot to manage with your work responsibilities. We have to make the time to market ourselves and today, Linkedn needs to be an essential part of our marketing strategy.
If you are ready to get serious about using LinkedIn, here are some ideas for how you can more effectively build relationships and your network, write posts and consistently provide value to your connections. Here’s how:
- Focus more on what you’re posting rather than how much you’re posting. Put quality over quantity every day.
- Post relevant and useful content consistently (find a cadence that works for you and no it doesn’t need to be every day!). Think about serving and helping others in each of your posts – NOT about promoting yourself. Here are some content prompts to help inspire you.
- The more people in your network, the more people will see your content. Make your goal to get to 500+ if you want to demonstrate that you’re valuable as a connection to a significant number of people and businesses. But again, it’s quality over quantity.
- Storytelling works. People connect with you more when you share stories. It makes your content personal and unique, and makes you stand out from the sea of sameness on LinkedIn. And yes, you can share elements of yourself while still being professional.
- Share career and business opportunities. LinkedIn is a great place to find candidates and referrals. Relationships are everything.
- Engage with your connections’ content. Your reactions, shares and comments can help them build their brand and audience, and strengthen your relationships too.
- Give away helpful free stuff, such as free webinars, free articles, free tip sheets, free infographics, etc. – think how can this content can showcase what differentiates you and your organization and how it supports your content pillars (the 3 to 5 areas in your wheelhouse for which you want to be known that support your branding and business goals). There’s no such thing as giving away too much free stuff. They will want more and they’ll need your expertise.
- Be a mentor. There’s always someone who can learn from you. Pay it forward.
- Be YOU. You can add value by simply being you!
What else would you add to this list?
And don’t forget to hit the bell on my LinkedIn profile if you want to make sure to see my posts!
Stefanie Marrone advises law firms of all sizes, professional service firms, B2B companies, recruiters and individuals on the full range of marketing and business development consulting services designed to enhance revenue, retain current clients and achieve greater brand recognition. She also serves as outsourced chief marketing officer/marketing department for small and mid-size law firms.
Over her 20-year legal marketing career, she has worked at and with a broad range of big law, mid-size and small firms, which has given her a valuable perspective of the legal industry. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, sign up for her email list and follow her latest writing on JD Supra.