5 Easy Ways To Grow Your Business on LinkedIn in 2021!

I was sat up last night with a cup of tea (how very British), thinking to myself about how LinkedIn has steered the direction of my career, and how it has allowed myself and many others to make fantastic business connections that simply wouldn't have happened without it.

On top of that, it made me think about conversations I've had with professionals recently who've asked how they can use the platform more effectively, and utilise it's full potential.

As someone who has been using it for many years and has enjoyed learning the ins and outs of its utility in a professional industry, I decided to do what any 29 year old on limited sleep, in the middle of the night, would do... and wrote an article!

5 Easy Ways To Grow Your Business on LinkedIn in 2021!

I want to explain the truly massive opportunity LinkedIn provides to businesses and individuals moving forward.

For many, and just like for me a few years ago, you may be struggling with what to post and how to engage an audience to drive more leads and grow your brand.

In this article I'll be sharing some easy steps that will help grow your audience and following (both personal and business) on LinkedIn.

First things first.

You need to understand the opportunity at your fingertips right now!

LinkedIn now has more than 740 Million active users! Most of which are busy professionals like yourself, wanting to network and create mutually beneficial relationships.

None of this, "Hey Cindy, I love your back garden swing... we'll pop over later for some snacks" that you get on Facebook... Absolutely not! Those types of interactions don't produce income or networking opportunities. And let's face it, Cindy will probably make other plans and eat snacks somewhere else. No loyalty on Facebook.... Sorry, I've digressed.

My point is, for both B2B and B2C businesses, LinkedIn provides a special place on the internet that helps you make introductions with people you usually wouldn't have the opportunity to do so, and to connect and engage with your target audience in a professional and authentic way.

Long gone are the days of LinkedIn being a place to store your CV in the hope of starting your next career move. It's turned into a full blown social media platform with most of the features we're used to seeing on other sites such as Facebook and Instagram, yet with the audience reach most could only dream of!

A simple post from your profile can be seen by hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of industry professionals. That is incredible and shouldn't be understated.

Businesses pay ￡￡￡￡'s for that type of audience reach, yet you can do it from your phone or laptop in a few minutes.

So Jacob, what are the 5 Easy Ways To Grow Your Business on LinkedIn in 2021?

Number one: Connections, connections, connections.

Rather than other platforms such as Instagram, where absolute strangers can follow you and there is no true 'connection' made. On LinkedIn you can send 'connection requests' to others with a nice little note attached.

This means, not only can you accept or decline connection requests from others if they don't suit your desired customer base, you can also be very targeted and clever when trying to build your customer base.

Sending a friendly, short message to your target audience establishes that initial introduction, and will hopefully encourage them to accept and respond.

Now, most of you will be well aware of the above but did you know you can also invite connections to your business page?

This suddenly makes your personal connections far more important because you can only invite those that are connected with you. And it's much better to have your desired customer type following your business page than someone who would have no interest in what you're selling, wouldn't it?

Whilst this is limited to just 100 invites per month, you will receive an invite back for every connection that accepts. So, if you've targeted well and are sending your business invites to an engaged and receptive audience, this can quickly turn into a fast method of growing your business following and audience reach.

Now we've discussed connections and inviting your desired customer type (avatar) to your business page, you need to post content.

Number two: How to get more people viewing your business page content.

It's important to understand that it's far easier to engage with people via your personal profile than your business page. People simply prefer to feel like they're engaging with the real person rather than a faceless business. That's why the content you produce is so important.

Put your hand up if you've ever been guilty of this - Posting content with the intention of marketing your product or service (selling)?

You're not alone, don't worry!

This is what most businesses do wrong when marketing online, even the BIG companies fail at this from time to time.

The thing is, when was the last time you saw a post from a business online that was clearly trying to push its product / service at you and thought, "wow, great piece of valuable content... I'm going to buy from them right now!".

The chances are it doesn't go like that at all. In fact, you probably get put off by the sell-y nature of the post and avoid them like the plague!

But why is this?

Well, you don't come on social media with the intention of being sold to. You go on there to make connections, build relationships, or even catch up with the latest news from friends and family.

This is what, as a business, you have to contend with. So, it's fairly obvious that trying to push your product / service in front of this person whilst they're doing the above isn't going to work.

"But what should we post about then Jacob?!"

Well, this takes a small mentality shift. Start viewing LinkedIn as a place to bring value and build your brand name. Not sell your product. That will come naturally if your audience wants what you're selling.

Your post should focus purely around becoming an authority in your space, and to do this you need to bring more value than your competitor, with ZERO expectation in return.

Don't post something valuable and think, "this better bring me some leads". Instead think, "I hope that my audience finds this useful and informative, and engages with my content".

Because of step one, your audience will already be the type of people that you'd like to sell to, and probably in the same industry or an industry that your content is focused on.

For example: You sell vans to businesses in your local area who need a large fleet operating around the clock. Instead of posting about the best offers you have on at the moment (everyone's got a best offer), focus on something that they would find valuable such as, 'Did you know contract hire rates are changing in June 2021? Here's how you could save money on your next van purchase'.

This is both informative, because they may not know about this rates change, and beneficial for you as they now see you as the go-to person for the latest news around that subject.

WIN-WIN!

This example can be adapted to pretty much any industry and any situation, so I'd advise writing down the top 10 most common questions you get asked and some latest news that would benefit your customer, and create value based content around those things, directed at helping rather than selling.

Number 3: 30 - 60 minutes.

Social media is a fickle mistress, and she doesn't like to give you as much attention as you'd like. Which is why, if your post gets no engagement within the first 30 - 60 minutes, you can say bye bye to further reach.

Why is this and what can you do to beat the algorithm?

As said above, this is an algorithm thing. LinkedIn, much like other platforms, wants its users to be engaged and entertained. That way they'll stay on the site for longer and LinkedIn has more opportunity to sell them something.

So, if nobody engages with your post in the first 30 - 60 minutes, the algorithms will deem that piece of content as poor, and reduce its reach to virtually nothing.

However, an easy way to beat this is to - get your team involved!

Make a schedule that you plan to post content, say every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:30am. Your team will know that at 10:30am on those days, they should log into LinkedIn, find the post and engage. (By engage, I mean comment, like and share.)

This way the algorithm sees your post as very interesting to others on the platform and it will then boost it out further into your network! This is without mentioning the more complex nature of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd connections that may then see it.

The more engagement you can get within that first hour, the more eyeballs it will be thrown in front of. Which when you consider that it takes your team as little as 30 seconds to click the like button, click the share button and write a little comment (more than 4 words), it can be easily planned, and can form part of your strategy immediately.

Number 4: Use white space and emojis in your posts.

We all know what emojis are by now, but what do I mean by 'white space'?

Have you ever seen what could have been an interesting post but it looked something like this:

"Hi, thank you for clicking on my post and engaging, I really appreciate it. Did you know that LinkedIn has helped me grow my business by 10x in the last 12 months? Thanks to my amazing connections and a few tricks I learnt from Jacob and his Digital Masterclass I was able to utilise this amazing platform to reach more people and share my story. The best part is, I did it all whilst training to become an astronaut and flying around the moon 3 times! I know, who'd believe it ay?! Anyways, if you'd like to learn more about my story just click the link below and sign up to my free e-book."

Where did you start to lose interest? Before the astronaut training or after?

The problem is, there's no breaks or personality in this post. It feels like you're reading a never ending robots speech.

I'll now give you the same example using white space and emojis.

"Hi, thank you for clicking on my post and engaging, I really appreciate it. ??

Did you know that LinkedIn has helped me grow my business by 10x in the last 12 months? ??

Thanks to my amazing connections and a few tricks I learnt from Jacob and his Digital Masterclass I was able to utilise this amazing platform to reach more people and share my story.

The best part is, I did it all whilst training to become an astronaut and flying around the moon 3 times! ?????

I know, who'd believe it ay?!

Anyways, if you'd like to learn more about my story just click the link below and sign up to my free e-book. ?? "

Which do you prefer? Which was easier on the eye? Which had more personality?

Funny isn't it! After all, it's the exact same post! Just a few emojis to bring the personality and using white space between the sentences to break it up and let the viewer have a break.

Whilst this seems obvious now we've been through it, most businesses (and individuals) are still posting in the first way. Losing the audience early on before they can get into the story or reach the 'call to action'.

So next time you post on LinkedIn, consider how it looks to read and engage with. Does it feel too bulky? (insert white space) Does it feel too serious? (insert emojis).

Number 5: Don't put links in your post!

Finally, and the most common problem I see on LinkedIn is people sharing their website or external links in the main post.

"How else would I take people to my website Jacob?"

Firstly, remember those algorithms that are hell-bent on keeping your audience on the platform? Well, they hate links in the main post for one simple reason....

If somebody clicks that link, they are immediately taken OFF of the platform!

The algorithm wants people to stay as long as possible, so if it sees you trying to remove them from the platform, they will kill that post faster than you can say, "I'm sorry algorithm, please don't hur....."

Yes, you may want or need people to view your external link / website, but you need to be a little less obvious about it is all.

It's like walking into enemy territory with the opposing flag shouting, "LOOK AT ME, I'M THE ENEMY, WHAT YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!" We all know how that'll end.

Instead, of putting the link in the main body of your post, put it in the comments section and mention what you've done.

For example, let's say you have a new website that you know will bring in more business to your connections and want to tell everyone about it.

At the end of your post about it, say something like, "I've left the link to our amazing new website in the comments section below, and I'd love for you to check it out!" Then insert the URL for the website in the comments.

You've still given a call to action and offered easy access to your website, and the algorithm army won't have checked the comments, therefore won't have noticed you sending people elsewhere.

To summerise:

1. Connections are everything on LinkedIn. If you accept the right ones and invite your desired audience, you'll be able to build a solid foundation on both your personal page and business page for future business opportunities.
2. Bring value with your posts. Whether it's from your personal profile or business page, don't view LinkedIn as an opportunity to sell something, view it as a platform to bring value and share your expertise, in-turn making you an authority in your space.
3. 30 - 60 minutes. Focus on getting as much engagement from your team within the first 30 - 60 minutes of posting. This way the algorithms will see it as valuable and interesting, and will boost it further into your network. More eyeballs = more opportunities.
4. White space and emojis ?? If you want people to read your content to the end, you need to make it easy on the eye. By introducing white space between sentences you're able to break up the bulk of your content and take people on a more engaging journey. And using emojis is NOT unprofessional, I don't care what you say. It's the voice of this generation and should be embraced. If you send me an emoji in a message, I will reply with excitement. It shows people that you're human and also a bit fun.
5. Don't let the algorithm kill your content. Put links to external pages / websites in the comments section and direct people to it in the main post copy. If you put the link in the main bulk of the post, those algorithm monsters are going to kill that post in minutes.

Simple tricks like this can drastically improve your businesses growth on LinkedIn in 2021 and beyond, and I hope you've taken away some valuable tips from this article.

If you did take something away from this, please consider sharing it with your network!

And if you're in the automotive industry, which many of my connections are, we have a full section on social media within the Digital Masterclass course! Covering strategies for LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram in your business. Send me a DM if you'd like to find out more!