Business networking can be great for your career, but the drawback of traditional networking is that it doesn’t scale. Online networking, however, does scale, and it can grow as large as you want. Here’s how to use LinkedIn to increase your influence and your network.
1. Regularly publish on LinkedIn
This is one of the best ways to engage your audience, get involved in your niche and show that you’re an expert in your field. At first, only journalists or people in management positions could publish on LinkedIn. Today, anyone can. Be educational in your posts so that your audience sees a benefit to the content you’re publishing. Make sure LinkedIn publishing is a part of your monthly content calendar.
2. Don’t make your advertising efforts super obvious
Don’t write articles that are clearly an advertisement for the services or products you offer. Limit how much money you spend on LinkedIn ads, too. You want your reach to grow organically. When people get to know your business as the one that always has those annoying ads, they’ll ignore you.
3. Create your company page
Whether you’re a local not-for-profit, a lifestyle blog or a company that sells web design services, you need a company page on LinkedIn. Then, make sure that you remain active on your company page. There’s nothing worse than a business that doesn’t seem to know how to use the social media it clearly signed up for.
When your LinkedIn business page is a ghost town, it looks like you don’t understand the value of networking and connecting with customers. Plus, it can be hard to actively recruit for new team members when your page is never updated. How will potential employees know they want to work for you? How will they reach out to you to show you that they’re the perfect fit for your company?
4. Take advantage of the “Keep In Touch” feature for networking
Similar to other social networks, LinkedIn is driven by community, conversations and connections. You have to keep in touch with the connections you make. Otherwise, how will you keep the professional door open? The “Keep In Touch” feature lets you look through updates from your network. If you make it a point to check this area out a few times a week, you’ll remain active on LinkedIn and you’ll stay connected to the people who are important to you and your career. You’ll also keep up with the careers of the people you admire, as well as that of your competitors. On the “Keep In Touch” feed, you’ll see your connections’ work milestones, including promotions and other types of accomplishments.
Stop wasting your time on ineffective business networking. Instead, accelerate your connections from the comfort of your own couch. Make sure to use LinkedIn’s built-in insights so that you can track which of your efforts are working and which ones need more fine-tuning.
