How do you grow your account on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the biggest social media platform for business professionals in the world. Nearly 645 million business professionals use LinkedIn to find jobs, keep up to date with the latest business news, grow their networks and establish themselves as thought leaders.¹

45% of LinkedIn users are in upper management, making it the perfect platform to reach your target demographic, i.e. key decision-makers and management in businesses.1 In fact, half of B2B buyers rely on it to make business decisions.²

Here are our top tips to help you grow your account on LinkedIn:

MAKE SURE YOUR PROFILE IS ON POINT

Think of your Linkedin page like a website. Before you drive traffic there, you want to make sure your profile is optimised to convert. E.g. if you want people to contact you for your services, make it really clear what you offer. 

Ensure your profile picture is high res and professional. Although LinkedIn is a social media platform, it’s still a platform targeted at business professionals, so anything that you might find on Tinder, avoid like the plague! You never know who is looking at your profile and making judgments on your personal brand. If you are also reaching out to people on LinkedIn, it helps if you have a clear photo of your face. People are more likely to accept your invitation to connect if they can see your face.

If you are part of a company or own your own business, make sure you have a banner which either your employer provides to you or one that represents your current business. This is free brand awareness for your business or place of employment so make the space count!

Make sure your headline clearly outlines your area of expertise and where relevant, includes a CTA. You can include what you do, where you do it and what you specialise in.

Make sure your bio not only shows your area of expertise, but it gives valuable information about what sets you or your business apart from other people.

GET POSTING 

The current reach and growth on LinkedIn is where Facebook was 5 to 7 years ago, so the time to be posting is now!

The factors that determine how LinkedIn ranks content include:

• Your account’s reputation
• How users have engaged with your content before
• What else is being posted

BE CONSISTENT

Don’t post once and then never again. Determine a realistic posting schedule then commit! Ideally, you should be posting a minimum of 2 to 3 times a week.

HAVE A CONTENT STRATEGY

As with other social media platforms, it’s important to have a strategy when creating your content. This will help your content perform better.

If you’re a specialist in a certain industry, it’s important to include content around your area of expertise to help establish yourself as a thought leader. However, it’s also important to include general business content as the reach for this type of content will generally be higher as it will apply to more people. If your content is too niche, while you may establish yourself as a thought leader quicker, your following will be slower to grow.

Video content performs well on LinkedIn. It’s 20 times more likely to be shared than other types of content and 5 times more likely to start a conversation.³ It also helps grow your personal profile quicker as people prefer to connect with people over brands, as business-related content that doesn’t include a person, can sometimes come across as sterile and impersonal. 

Where relevant, post articles natively on your LinkedIn profile. It helps establish thought leadership and is a great way to start a conversation. Given the current profile layout of LinkedIn, articles are in prime position, so it’s a great way to get your audience’s attention.

You can also use LinkedIn to share marketing collateral from your business. Whitepapers, blogs, examples of work can be shared on your profile. It’s a good way to add value, showcase your expertise and promote your product or services. If you are also providing this information at no cost, it may lead to people contacting you to assist them with their business.

EMPLOY INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICE

The algorithm is updating all the time so make sure you subscribe to resources, including following people on the platform who can help keep up to date.

Key things to consider include:

• Hashtag usage – 5 to 6 is considered best practice. It’s important you pick relevant ones as there is a chance to trend in a particular hashtag meaning your post will reach more people.
• LinkedIn prefers a more natural posting schedule so avoid posting at exactly the same time to the minute every day.
• Post content natively. LinkedIn rewards native content over shared content. There is still a place for sharing content, however, where possible post natively.
• Avoid big chunks of text. Break it up with line breaks or emojis to make it easier to digest

SHOWCASE YOUR SKILLS

LinkedIn has an inbuilt Skills Assessment function that allows you to test your skills in certain areas. If you pass these skills, you will receive a Verified Skills badge on your profile. If you are using LinkedIn to find a job, you are up to 30% more likely to find one if you complete these assessments and show proof of your skills.

Also make sure you list your relevant skills on your profile. Only select skills you are confident of. If you select skills you are not competent in and someone identifies this, it can cast doubt over your credibility.

SHARE CONTENT

If you find content that inspires or educates you, share it on LinkedIn. This can help give you content to post when you haven’t created your own, and also shows support for others in your network. Only share content that you believe will add value to your network and is authentic to your values.

JOIN GROUPS

Relevant Groups can be a good way to meet other people who share the same interests as you. It also can help establish you as a thought leader if you comment on people’s posts in the group.

KEEP YOUR PROFILE UP-TO-DATE

Your skills are changing all the time so make sure you keep your LinkedIn profile updated to reflect this. Also make sure your personal profile reflects your current job status or service/product offering. You never know who is looking for what you have to offer.

LEVERAGE YOUR EXISTING NETWORK

LinkedIn allows you to sync your LinkedIn profile with your email address book. This allows you to connect with people you know but haven’t connected with on LinkedIn.

ACTIVELY SEEK ENDORSEMENTS

Endorsements are a great way to promote you or your business. Actively seek them from relevant people who can support you and add credibility to your profile. This will help you stand out from other similar people on the platform. It also helps if you give endorsements too. People are likely to return the favour if you do this for them first.

REQUEST RECOMMENDATIONS

Request testimonials from your clients and colleagues. This is a step up from endorsements as it allows them to give specific detail of your expertise. There is a drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile which makes it easy to reach out to specific contacts and get them to complete a recommendation for you. Make sure you take the time to personalise your request for a recommendation. People are more likely to respond to this.

COMPLETE LINKEDIN LEARNING COURSES

You can use LinkedIn Learning to increase your skillset and show your network that you are an expert in a certain industry. The LinkedIn Learning platform has a plethora of great courses. As you complete them, you can share the courses with your network. Who knows, you might inspire someone else in your network to complete the same course!

ENGAGE WITH THE COMMUNITY

As well as posting, it’s important to not only like and respond to any people that take the time to leave a comment on your posts, but also engage with your wider community too. Make sure you are supporting others by liking and commenting on their posts. Where possible, make sure your comments are of substance as you never know who might be reading them or what conversation it might start.

Tag people in your posts where relevant. For example, if you hear something that resonates with you and you want to post it on LinkedIn, tag the person who said the quote and you never know, they may see it and engage with your post!

You can also collaborate with other people on LinkedIn to create content. This will give you access to their audience and them to your audience. You can do this through video or functions like LinkedIn lives.

If you want to learn more about growing your LinkedIn profile, make sure you check out our courses on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest business content.

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1  Hootsuite

2  LinkedIn and Falcon.io

3  Business2Community