Jonathan Norman is an expert when it comes to using social media but he recognises that for some people it still seems like a black art. His three simple rules below should help to demystify the world of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn, as with other social media platforms for professional networking, is essentially about three things:
- your profile;
- your connections and
- your activity.
Your profile
Networking is a social, human activity. Which means that people like to know with whom they are connecting. Add a profile photo and a description to say who you are, what you do and where your interests lie. Make sure that your profile is as full as it can be, use all of the resources at your disposal (for example, any videos you have created or published, as well as text) to express your identity.
Although the ‘Groups’ functionality is not as prominent a feature on LinkedIn as it used to be, it is nevertheless worth taking a moment to identify and join the five or 10 groups that most closely correlate with your activity. Other individuals will be looking for a reason to connect with and engage with you and shared membership of a group is an easy source of connection. You don’t need to post in the groups to benefit from this, at the same time, group membership will boost the content of your personal profile.
Your connections
Reach out and start connecting with people who may be interested in you or your business and may be advocates for both. When you are starting out, it is worth responding to each new connection (either requested by a third party or solicited by you) with a follow up message in LinkedIn, perhaps suggesting a shared action; something to move beyond simply being connected and towards an activity that would benefit your organization.
Your activity
Make use of the posting feature in LinkedIn to share news about what you are doing and articles about your business. Link back to them using Twitter, Facebook or any other social media. Keep an eye on who is engaging with your posts, with likes or comments and consider whether they may be worthy advocates to add to your connections.
Establish a rhythm but do experiment
Social media isn’t for everyone. You need to work out which bits of the activity you enjoy and which bits work for you and then to settle your activities around those … but do experiment, the media is changing all the time and your may find new platforms of new features that you can add to your repertoire.
Learn more about our work : read our case studies
Add new comment