15 Minutes To a Powerful LinkedIn Network
A while ago, I wrote an article on how to improve your ranking on LinkedIn, and one of the most frequent questions I received was whether you should go for quantity or quality on LinkedIn. Should you connect with everybody who asks or should you only connect to a small group that you know personally and actively engage with.
In this article, I will try to outline a way to both get quantity and quality on LinkedIn, regardless of whether you are looking for leads, sales or job opportunities. The key is to change your mindset from short-term to long-term so that you no longer focus on getting outcomes and begin to focus on giving information that provides value.
Try these steps:
Table of Contents
Define your final career goal
Why are you on LinkedIn? Be really honest. Sadly, most people appear to be on LinkedIn for short-term goals like getting a job or getting work. Although LinkedIn can be a very powerful place, in order to tap into the network of “unpublished opportunities,” you might need to dig a little deeper into why you are on LinkedIn.
You should try to write one sentence which outlines your career goals and why you are on LinkedIn. Here are a few suggestions:
- To be the leading equity expert in Sydney.
- To be the leader in the international recruitment of freelancers.
- Actively help eCommerce business owners scale online.
Writing a one sentence career goal is not be easy but will help you focus on your purpose for being on LinkedIn. You may want to ask yourself the following questions to get started:
- What is the purpose behind what you do?
- Why does it matter to you?
- How does it relate to the rest of your life?
Keep working on it until you come up with a sentence which excites you.
Create a profile that captivates your ideal reader
Sadly, most profiles on LinkedIn focus on achievements and credentials without linking it to any benefits for the ideal reader. You should rewrite your profile to actively engage with the one person you want to be reading your profile right now. Identify who that person is and speak to him or her directly.
Use your profile to actively explain how you can help people achieve their goals. Add documents, pictures and video to support your case. Be enthusiastic if you can and make the reading experience different from reading a CV. And finally, have the patience to accept that your ideal outcome for doing this is not to land a sale, lead or job opportunity, but to start and build relationships.
Find your ideal way to help people
One of the simplest ways to prove you know your stuff on LinkedIn is to provide advice and good resources. You can automate content delivery through services like Buffer, Feedly or IFTTT; however, many people see through that. Therefore, make it your personal mission to use your core strength as a person to inform and help others.
You might decide to regularly contribute to a LinkedIn group that you have identified as a place where your ideal readers hang out, or if you like to write, you can create one blog post a week. Focus on finding one way because with life being hectic, focusing on just one thing consistently is all you need to keep your ideal reader engaged.
Your challenge for the next 15 minutes
Do the activity suggested under each header. You might discover that completing all three points will take more than 15 minutes. That is to be expected. However, you can get started, and if necessary, you might set aside the same time tomorrow. Repeat this until you get it right.
One final thought: A lot of people ask for attention on LinkedIn—try to become successful by not having to ask.
About the author: Bjarne Viken
Bjarne is a conversion optimisation strategist, who works with marketing managers and business owners to scale up their businesses by analysing how they can improve their online conversion rates.
He has worked extensively with many growing companies, helping them drive customer acquisition, push conversions and increase sales.”
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