Table of Contents
Why bother with Linkedin?
Linkedin is like a big register of people will various job titles. It’s powerful in that way. You’re able to reach folks you may not be able to do so otherwise – Michelle shared a story of how she was able to contact senior folks at companies as big as Unilever on that mo
The mindset is about nurturing a community, rather than forming transactional relationships. Lea and Michelle pointed out that the two of them will regularly do things that people will never see such as dropping folks a DM or referring work behind the scenes. It’s rarely about you – it’s about the folks you help and the attitude of what goes around comes back around.
Mindset
The more you give, the more you get. And the thing you’re giving to is other people. Don’t think of Linkedin as just a place to post and comment – think of it as a place to nurture meaningful conversations and relationships with other people. Give with posts. Give with comments. Give with DMs.
Additionally, do what you want to do! Don’t feel like you have to post with the latest bandwagon things. Selfies, documents, carousel posts… do a bit of it all. Test and learn and see what you like both creating and consuming content!
Personal pages
Where do you get started?
If you’re not all that confident about posting in the first place, Lea recommended getting involved in the comments section. That’s a safer place where it doesn’t feel like you’re placing yourself front and centre of attention.
What works on posts?
But once you start to feel more comfortable, realise that posts have to strike the right balance between being for you, and being for the audience. It should be an obvious thing to say to a bunch of marketers but it’s not always put into practice. Asking yourself the simple question: ‘what’s in this for the people reading this update?’ is a good starting point.
Another element that feels important is to remember to bring proper personality to your activity. Whether it’s personal insights, memes, or anything in between – stale corporate is less likely to gain attention than something personable. It’s been said a billion times but even people in ‘boring’ companies are still people.
What do you need to get right on your profile?
Lea suggested there are some things you can do to make sure your profile is doing what you need it to:
- Set your profile photo to public. Not many people realise that your profile picture could be appearing as a grey circle right now to people you’re not connected with. Head to your profile, click your profile picture and choose the option you’re comfortable with.
- The first 45 characters of your headline are really important – they appear across Linkedin when you leave comments and interact with other people. For this reason – make sure these are optimised. Avoid the ‘helping people to do…’ headlines as this uses up too much space.
- Make your entire profile entirely customer focused. Update your banner and bio to speak to their pain points, and featured posts that help people truly understand what you’re about. It’s not about you – it’s about what they need to know about you to determine whether you’re the right person to do business with.
How can you convince your employees to post on Linkedin?
Make the argument that it’s there to benefit them! While them posting inevitably does benefit the company – really, this is an investment in their own career, their own brand, and themselves.
Once folks realise the primary beneficiary of posting is themselves, this leaves the door open for saying ‘and this is how you do it’.
On the ‘this is how you do it’ point – confidence is often an issue. So, provide folks with clear guidelines on what they can and can’t do. Rather than being authoritarian, folks appreciate the guidelines – there is nothing most intimidating than a blank sheet of paper, after all.
Something that also feels important for employees, specifically, is to have a single point of contact anxious or nervous people can turn to when they need someone to bounce ideas off or have encouragement that certain things are okay.
Know your boundaries and avoid Linkedin BS
Addressing the elephant in the room, there is a decent amount of BS on Linkedin with ‘faux-authenticity’ and oversharing. Something that Lea pointed out to avoid this is to stay true to yourself but also be aware of what your boundaries are. Are you prepared to share family pictures, for example? Lea suggested she is not. Asking yourself the question of what you’re genuinely comfortable with is important.
Also important here is realising that the reason you’re posting is to benefit other people. That means to say there are certain things that while they might be important to you, if there is nothing for other people to gain – there may be other avenues to explore this conversation. Authenticity does not have to be self-sacrificial, nor do you need to share everything to find traction on the platform.
Do you need to use hashtags on your post?
Place 3-5 hashtags at the end of your posts, but not in the body text for reasons of accessibility.
Additionally, make sure you use camel case for your hashtags (#LikeThis not #likethis) – again, so folks can read your hashtags easily.
Linkedin company pages
How can you optimise your business page?
There is a misconception that business pages are really different to personal pages – but Michelle says this isn’t true. Post-covid, even company pages are more personable and ‘human’.
Some things that you need to be looking out for:
- Do you have a banner that screams ‘I have a solution for the problem you have!’?
- Is your logo clear?
- Do you have a creative and instructive tagline? You have more characters on a personal profile but on a business page you have around 120, so you have to get creative. Make it count, even if it shows up in fewer places!
- Make your about section about your customers. No more ‘about’ sections that say how amazing you are – let people know how you help them! Kill words like customer-centric – what company isn’t?!
- Make it easy for folks to contact you. Utilise the ‘button’ on the page and set a call to action on your page.
- Linkedin tell you that fully filled-out profiles get up to 30% more impressions, so make sure your profile is complete!
- One big tip! Have a backup page admin. If someone leaves the business, you don’t want your admin rights leaving with them too! Have more than one person who is the admin on your pages just in case.
- Don’t click ‘share’ on posts!
What should you be posting to your company page?
The truth is your company page won’t get seen as much as your personal profile will (that’s an algorithm thing).
Instead, Michelle recommends treating a company page like your greatest hits. Think of it like buying a CD. Back in the day you would have three tracks on a CD you would like, and then the rest would be filler.
Then, after a while, the artist would release a CD with just the greatest hits on, and that would be the one you would want to listen to. Think of your Linkedin company page in the same way – do the greatest hits and don’t worry about the rest.
This means keeping your activity on your company page ticking over, but not feeling like you need to post daily. She recommends posting up to three times per week will be plenty for most companies looking to be serious about posting to their company page.
On the type of content to post
Corporate and stale is out, even if you work in a traditional company (a webinar for you here!). Use your posts to highlight your employees and customers. I.e. real humans! Tell human stories – that’s what people resonate with.
On Linkedin page SEO
Something worth mentioning is that Linkedin as a site is also SEO’ed up. This means to say if someone searches your brand name – they’re likely to be served up your Linkedin company page, too. Ask yourself the question – what would you like people to be served up when they find your company’s Linkedin page?
On getting other folks to comment on your posts
Struggling to get folks to comment on your posts? Encourage your employees to comment on your posts!
Think of a wedding dancefloor. No one wants to be the first person to get up on the dance floor, but feel better once someone else goes first. With this in mind – seed the comments section with a few people get the conversation started and get that dancefloor going.
How to get people to follow your company page
Make sure you’re using up all your credits! You get 250 invite credits per month from your company page admins. You can also rotate through your admins to take advantage of different people’s networks within your company.
Wrapping up
In conclusion, LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for building meaningful relationships and nurturing a community. It’s not just a platform for posting and commenting, but a place where you can give with posts, comments, and DMs. When it comes to personal pages, focus on what’s in it for your audience, bring your personality to your activity, and optimise your profile to speak to your customers’ pain points.
For business pages, treat them like your greatest hits, post up to three times a week, and highlight real human stories. Remember to encourage your employees to comment on your posts, and use all your invite credits to get people to follow your company page. With these tips, you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your brand, build your career, and nurture valuable relationships.