5 visibility milestones for your LinkedIn success
"How do I know I’m doing the right things on LinkedIn?"
"What kind of results should I expect from being visible on this platform?"
If you’ve asked yourself either of these questions at any point on your LinkedIn journey, this article is for you.
Finding success on LinkedIn isn’t guess work.
Whether your aim is to raise your profile, build your brand or grow your business, you can find the success you’re looking for when you start being visible.
Being visible (in my definition) means for you to be seen, heard and remembered by the right people for the right reasons.
To do this successfully on LinkedIn, you need to pay attention to what I call ‘The 4 Pillars of LinkedIn Success’ – your Profile, Content, Engagement and Audience
Once you get these 4 Pillars in motion and you start to improve your visibility on LinkedIn, you’re going to hit five key milestones that will let you know you’re moving in the right direction.
5 LinkedIn visibility milestones you can look forward to
Milestone #1: Your first meaningful comment
When you initially start posting on LinkedIn, it might be ghost town for a while with little to no engagement on your posts. If you can persevere through this period, you’ll eventually get to the place where you receive your first meaningful comment.
This isn’t a courtesy comment from your former colleague, a throwaway generic “nice post” feedback from a random stranger, or a sympathy encouragement comment from someone in your network who remembers what it was like in their early days of ghost town…
No, your first meaningful comment is a comment from someone in your target audience who gives you genuine feedback as to how much your post has helped them or enlightened them in some way. When this happens, you know you’re on the right track with your visibility strategy.
Milestone #2: Your first 1,000 connections
How many people do you actually need in your LinkedIn network? Well, the answer is, it depends. It depends on what your goals are for being on this platform.
If you were to tell me that you’re here to raise your profile, build your brand or grow your business, then I’d tell you that you need at least 1,000 connections to do this effectively.
The main reason for this is that your network size affects your reach.
Each time you post, the LinkedIn algorithm first distributes your posts to an initial test group of just 8-10% of your network (thanks for the up-to-date stats on this, Richard van der Blom). Based on their early engagement with your content (and a few other factors), the post can then go slightly wider than that – but never to 100% of your network, not even close.
If you want to have a decent reach on LinkedIn, you need to aim for at least 1,000 connections . Once you hit this milestone, you’ll know then that you’ve?really?started to use LinkedIn.
Milestone #3: Your first publicity opportunity
One of my favourite aspects of LinkedIn is the unexpected publicity opportunities that come your way when you start being visible on this platform.
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As a former journalist and PR head, I can’t tell you enough just how much of a difference publicity makes to your goals to advance your business or personal brand.
The right magazine, newspaper, podcast or even TV interview can massively elevate your brand perception and have your target audience seeking?you?out – instead of the other way round.
I can vouch for this many times over in my own business, as can my coaching clients.
As you start being visible on LinkedIn – and you’re intentional in your message and in the way you show up – you will soon start to attract interest from your network and it won’t be long before someone approaches you for your first publicity opportunity.
And just like buses in the UK, when one opportunity arrives after a long time of waiting, it’s usually not long before the next one follows. Publicity breeds more publicity.
Milestone #4: Your first DM enquiry
When you’ve correctly identified your target audience on LinkedIn and you consistently show up with valuable content that solves their problems, eases their pain points, speaks to their aspirations – and you do this in your own “authentic” way – you’ll start to develop a personal brand that people get to know, like and trust.
And when your target audience get to know, like and trust you, they “buy” into you and from there, it’s much easier for them to buy from you.
Somewhere around this point, you’ll receive your first direct message (DM) enquiry from someone who wants to know more about the services you provide. That right there, is a major milestone to celebrate.
Milestone #5: Your first client
And once you hit Milestone #4 consistently enough and you have direct messages from your target audience coming your way on a regular basis, it won’t be long before you hit the golden cow of milestones that every business owner hopes to get from LinkedIn – your first client.
Before you get too caught up on this though, I want to drop in some reality check and let you know that it’s going to take commitment, consistency and patience from you before this happens.
It took me a few months of buckling down on LinkedIn before I landed my first client for my LinkedIn coaching business (full disclosure – I was previously active on LinkedIn with a previous business, so I had some idea what I was doing already).
I know some people who now regularly generate good business income from LinkedIn but only arrived at this point after months and months of commitment and consistency, without seeing any real results initially.
If you’re starting from scratch, I want you to budget to arrive at this milestone after 6-12 months. This way, you’ll avoid the disappointment that comes from unrealistic expectations and set yourself up for the potential unexpected joy of hitting this milestone earlier than you prepared for.
? ??How many of these LinkedIn visibility milestones can you check off?
Let me know in the comments...
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