THE 3 THINGS YOU ARE PROBABLY NOT DOING ON LINKEDIN

With any social media platform, there are the basics, and there are the not-so-basics.

Everyone knows on LinkedIn you send connections, post content, and send messages to new people are the basic things to do.

But are you doing other things to differentiate yourself from everyone else?

As all social media platforms continue to grow in numbers, the harder it will become for you to stand out from the crowd, including LinkedIn. I have found that the more we are "salmon in a world of fish", the visibility, reach, and engagement you will receive with what you are doing on LinkedIn.

The time has come for us to move past the "normal things to do", and step into the leveled-up things to apply to how we are utilizing LinkedIn.

Here are 3 things you should be doing more of on LinkedIn:

1. Engaging and commenting on the content of your connections:

This by no means is implying to join a spammy engagement pod. They in dis-ingenuine, dishonest, and inauthentic. You don't want to be a part of something that is forced or you are paying to be involved with.

What I am suggesting is to scroll through your newsfeed each morning and find 1 or 2 pieces of content that have been created by your connections that you truly resonate with. Something that really hits home with your own core values or principles. Something that is so aligned with your mission and values, that it's hard for you not to engage with what was posted.

When you do find that content that you resonate with, simply "like, love, or support it", and add a "relevant comment" to its feed. Do not and I repeat, do not type something like, "great post", awesome content", or even just a "fire emoji".

You want to provide additional value to what was posted.

Here is an example:

If a connection of mine posted something relating to one of my core values, for instance, gratitude is a big core value of mine, and I notice they posted something along the lines of gratitude and the power of practicing it each day, that is something I would comment back to.

I wouldn't say, "great post", I would add a few sentences of value to the content, sharing my point of view, what I resonate most with, and relating my beliefs back to what the content creator has written. This automatically makes this comment a "relevant comment", which means it will be pushed to the top of this person's content.

That is a great thing because it gives you organic visibility to that individual's network and anyone who sees that post. This is a great way to pour value into your connections, and at the same time grow your network by adding value to what they have posted.

2. Use the daily push notifications to your advantage:

The push notifications are in my opinion the "unsung hero" of LinkedIn. I constantly tell people that no connection is ever dead on LinkedIn. If you have been following me for some time, you know my belief in sending someone a genuine message after becoming connected.

A good portion of people will respond to your message, but what about those who don't respond to your message? Simple....use the push notification messages to re-engage or start new conversations with your connections.

A simple "happy birthday" or "congrats on the work anniversary" message goes much further than you can imagine. This is a phenomenal way of staying in touch with those who may not be as active as other connections you have, but in addition, allows you to build the "know, like, and trust" by taking the time out of your day to recognize their milestone or achievement.

3. Host a LinkedIn Live Event 1x per month:

Once you create the event, you have the ability to carefully curate the audience that you feel would be best suited for the event you are putting on by specifically selecting an industry, company, or individual.

This allows you to better target those who would most likely accept the invitation to attend and actually show up. There has been a rise in low "show up" rates for online events, but that could be due to the wrong people being invited.

When you are more clear on your audience, this will allow you to invite the right people to build trust and rapport with.

The idea that all attendees and non-attendees can watch live and on the replay, gives the individual hosting the event incredible visibility as the event happens, and after it has ended. Outside of visibility, the event host's reach of potential views increases drastically. Since 2019, LinkedIn has been at the top of the social media chain when it comes to organic visibility, organic reach, and organic engagement.

The Live Event feature is just another ingenious way that LinkedIn allows us to better connect with our ideal audience whether they are an attendee or not.

As I have spoken about before, video is king for a number of reasons. First, video allows you to build the "know, like, and trust" faster than any other form of content that you can create. Second, video allows the viewer to put a face to the name for brand recognition. Third and final, video allows the viewer to hear how passionate you are about what you teach and how you help those around you.

With the "LinkedIn Live Event" feature, not only can you show up on camera to engage with your audience, you can speak directly to those who can and will benefit most from what you have to offer during your event.

Video can be a scary thing to step into, but I promise you, we all start in the same place, and you can grow your influence and credibility significantly when using this amazing new feature LinkedIn is providing us.

Which do you need to do more of on LinkedIn?