LinkedIn is certainly not the darling of social media and never has been. But, I am asking you to take another look. Remember the movie, “She’s All That“? It’s ok if you don’t, but it is a cult classic movie and I may be aging myself. Anyway, I see LinkedIn as the girl no one notices until WHAM. Right now there are so many people on Linkedin, but not very many of those people are actually making themselves known. [Actually there are 303 million active users each month, with only 3 million creating weekly content] Instead of using the platform, most folks are just hanging out every day and peeping at what others are saying or doing.
And folks, THAT is fantastic for you! Why you ask, because the organic reach on LinkedIn is in favor of those you show up and create content directly on LinkedIn and actually participate. Showing up every day, puts you in front of people who can hire you or hire your business. And THAT my friend, is winning!
I did not give LinkedIn much credit until a little over 2 years ago. Based on everything I was reading, I decided to take a strategic approach on the platform.
- I started putting more thought into my profile page.
- I added images and portfolio work wherever the site allowed me to.
- I started reaching out to people I knew who were on Linkedin
- I started posting with a strategy on a regular basis.
And I am here to tell you today that I have seen the rewards for my strategy week after week. Total strangers who are looking for my services, finding a post of mine as soon as they hop on LinkedIn and they reach out to me immediately.
Today, I am sharing my 4 tips on how you can increase your value on LinkedIn and market yourself with a purpose and better yet, for results.
1. Keywords, Keywords, Keywords! – this right here is the jam! Keywords are essentially words that other people would use to search for people or services like you. So sit down and make a list of words that would be used to find you. Then, review your profile and see if your keywords are sprinkled throughout, starting with your headline area.
Tip – the LinkedIn search engine searches your headline first then your about section to find keywords that others are using to search.
Putting “father” or “mother” in your headline is not going to get you found unless people are searching for “father” or “dad”, etc. I appreciate that you are proud of this fact, but this right here is where people fail the purpose of LinkedIn.
2. Use Rich Media Content in for YOUR Profile – What is ‘rich media content’ you ask? It is photos, PDFs, anything that showcases you and your work that you have done. I add client photos, I had links to my podcasts, I add links to newspaper articles about me. You can do this in several areas within your personal profile. This gives people viewing your profile a much better view of you.
3. Connect with Other People on LinkedIn – This right here is where people stumble. I see and hear how many connections folks have, yet how many of those connections have you actually had a conversation with after the initial connection. Connecting on LinkedIn is about having conversations about industry topics, work topics, hobbies, news, and the list goes on. Start reaching out meaningfully to a number of connections each week to get to know them better and vice versa.
4. Create Content Directly on LinkedIn – I saved the easiest and yet the hardest for the last. Easiest because writing about what your job and industry is about should be easy, that is if you do not overthink it. Educating people about your job, industry and work ethic goes a long way to help people understand more about you. The biggest plus is it also is you showing up every week in the news feed for others to find you. Showing up to be discovered… now THAT is priceless.
I say it is the hardest because I hear time and time again from people that they are “scared”, they have “analysis paralysis”, they don’t know what to say, they hate seeing other people post a lot, they don’t want to appear cocky, etc. You are a product and in order to get found and hired, you must market yourself. How on earth will anyone find you or know about your services if you do not talk about them. Now, I am not talking salesy stuff, but instead talking about aspects of your job, or even educating people on your industry, sharing news articles with your additional comments and not just “read this”.
Want to learn more?
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Sandy Adams 