How to Win with LinkedIn! Starting Out and Strategies for Success

How to Win with LinkedIn: Strategies for Starting Out and For Continued Success!

Are you just starting to develop a social media strategy for your business? Do you think you want to be a thought leader but not sure what that entails? Is LinkedIn on your radar but you are not sure if it is the right platform for you? Well, I am here to help. This post is aimed at helping you determine if LinkedIn is the right platform for you and give you tips on how to win with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. Especially those businesses looking to win over other businesses as clients. A successful LinkedIn strategy can really help increase the buzz around your business. LinkedIn can help you gain leads, recruit qualified candidates, network, and establish yourself as a leader in your field. If you are still not sure if LinkedIn is right for your business, check out this infographic from the team at coschedule.com. 

First Steps to Developing Your LinkedIn Strategy

Ok… you looked at those stats, and you said to yourself, yeah let’s do this, LinkedIn is the place for me. Great! Now, what is your first step?

Well, as is the case with any social media platform you need to decide what you want to get out of your efforts. To do this you first need to set goals. Then make sure that the goals you set for social align with business goals.

Common Goals

Some common goals for LinkedIn users include lead generation, recruitment, networking, collaborating, keeping your business informed, and establishing yourself as a thought leader. Many businesses will select a couple goals and focus their efforts on them. This is a smart starting point as I recommend only picking two goals to start out with and measure.

The Most Important Goal In My Opinion

I would argue that one goal for every business on LinkedIn should be establishing themselves as a thought leader. Here is why. Establishing yourself/brand/business as a thought leader is a smart goal for the long game. The long game is ever so important and ignored with social media. Establishing yourself as a leader, innovator, thinker, and smart business owner will naturally help you generate leads. It will help you increase your network, attract better candidates and engage followers on your social media platform.

I promise I will get into how you establish yourself as a leader a bit later.

Step 2 for Winning on LinkedIn

Step 2 is to determine who your audience is. One thing that I always need to remind businesses is that they need to find their niche. You can’t be everything to everyone, no matter how hard you try.

Figure out who your audience is, where they reside, what they like. Once you have figured that out then create and share content that they want. Your content should add value, solve a problem, or provide interesting and informative insight. This is one of the ways that a LinkedIn strategy does not differ from any other social media strategy. Your goal… EDUTAIN!

Step 3: Before We Discuss What to Share

So, Step 3 is important. It is more important than what you share, and often the step that is often forgotten. I am putting it before what you should share in hopes that you will read it. I fear that if it were step 4 after what to share it would be ignored.

What is Step 3 Already

Step 3: Be active. Post regularly. Comment regularly. Respond to People. Engage Followers. Engage Possible Collaborators. ADD VALUE. Get involved in groups and actively participate, don’t be afraid of sharing your ideas, your thoughts, but also be open to listening and learning. Others are trying to add value as well and you can learn a lot from the folks on LinkedIn.

Ask questions. Asking questions shows a willingness to learn. Asking questions shows followers you care about whats new and what matters to them.

Engagement and Value for the Win

Again, as with all social media engagement is key, but adding value to this engagement is essential. Provide solutions, give out tips and tricks. Let people in on your secrets. This builds a foundation of trust and allows you to become an asset to followers. Gary Vaynerchuk describes these as your “jabs” and smartly recommends to go all in on your jabs. Just simply provide useful information with no sales pitch. Not even a hidden one.

This added value, these jabs, are the basis of how you establish yourself as a thought leader. Your long-form content you are sharing will be based on providing this useful information, with no sales pitch. You will be providing content to inform and entertain your followers.

Step 4 What to Share…

So, the final step for you LinkedIn Strategy is figuring out how you actually become a thought leader. That involves sharing the right content, geared at the audience you have targeted. Making sure that the content you share is informative and that you are engaging with people on topics surrounding this content.

This step of your LinkedIn Strategy involves sharing long-form content that is engaging and interesting. Content that is innovative or provokes thought and conversation. Infographics, video blogs, written blogs, case studies etc are all perfect for sharing on LinkedIn. In my opinion, the content shared by an average business should consist of 1-2 original long form blogs or video-blogs per week, 1 infographic or video that solves a common problem and 1-2 shared pieces of content that you comment on. Now, I know that = only 3-5 posts per week what else will you do to fill the 7 days.

Turkey Sandwiches and Other Great Things About LinkedIn

Here are a few notes on LinkedIn content…

1. Unlike Instagram people are not logging in and checking your content multiple times a day so posting 5 times a week is okay.
2. Engage in several groups and share your content in groups to magnify your reach
3. Treat your original long-form content as a Thanksgiving Turkey and your LinkedIn posts as turkey sandwiches.
   1. Example: I could post this blog today and comment on the infographic I shared from www.coschedule.com in the first section of this post. Then on Friday I could post this same blog with another image and comment on Step 1 deciding on your social media goals, then the following Wednesday discuss my obsession with Gary Vee and his jab, jab, jab right hook theory, etc etc. Your captions to what you share and the followup engagement as well as conversations you start allow you to do this and win.

As with all social media, a plan is essential, goals are essential and being active and engaging followers is a must. That means that you need to be willing to dedicate time to being on LinkedIn. It is also essential to understand that all of social media is a long game, you will see your metrics rise by being active but you may not see leads rolling in right away. Have patience. Post consistently over a long period of time. Engage and provide valuable insight and the social media game will pay off. I promise.

Need help managing your social media check out some of my resources.

Help Planning Your Social Media Content 

Predictions for Social Media in 2018

Strategies to Expand Your Reach 

Or reach out directly and set up your Free 30 Minute Social Media Consultation