Be Effective on LinkedIn by NOT Doing These Things

#TheLinkedInGuru Gazette LinkedIn Tip of the Week: Be Effective on LinkedIn by NOT Doing These Things

Hello again everyone and welcome to the 23rd edition of #TheLinkedInGuru Gazette! I never thought when I started in August 2020 that I would be doing this for almost two years!

Do me a great favor and when/if you see this in your Email, please open it on LinkedIn?and react or comment. It will give me a much better idea of who is actually reading this!?Thank you!

A ??felt thank you to the 25,000+ newsletter subscribers for coming along on this journey!

Please click?"Subscribe"?if you would like to see more LinkedIn Tips!

FYI, if you click "Subscribe" to a LinkedIn Newsletter it does not mean that you are giving anyone your Email address. All it means is that you want to receive a notification and/or Email message the next time the author publishes a Newsletter.

Please understand that I will never see your Email address and there is no chance that you will receive any SPAM when you subscribe!

Introduction

There's been a lot of talk lately on LinkedIn about bad habits. Of course, "bad" like "beauty" is in the eye of the beholder and some folks might disagree with what I say in this month's Newsletter and that's OKAY.

They have different reasons for doing what they do and in the end it is up to each of us to decide. There are over 815 million people on LinkedIn and there are bound to be some who will disagree with what I have said here.

However, since I have been doing and teaching this for over 14 years now I wanted to give my version of "What NOT to do on LinkedIn". Take it for what it is worth and make your own decisions.

I can promise you one thing... every one of these things has helped make me more effective in building a strong network and many of the people I know, like, and trust approach LinkedIn in a very similar manner.

So here goes with... drum roll... what NOT to do on LinkedIn!

Thing Number 1 - Don't Post Too Often

I started with this one because everyone places such weight on CONTENT. There are many folks in my network that DO post every day. My advice has always been QUALITY and VALUE over QUANTITY wins every time.

IMHO there is no ONE answer to this. All of what follows WORKS great for me. Will it work for you? I have no idea. It is up to each of us to find our "tribe" and find our sweet spot.

Some say to post once a day.

That might work, but not for me. First of all, I doubt most folks have time to see my stuff every day in the first place. Since my goal is to provide the best tips I can, I publish regularly twice a week. Quality and consistency are the keys. Provide that and people will come LOOKING for your content!

Some say post every five hours.

Ridiculous. You can't do that without automation and I hate BOTS!

Some say to post early in the morning or only on certain days.

Due to the "global" nature of this platform I don't really think that time of day has a huge effect and I publish on Monday and Friday (two notoriously bad days), but it works for me. It is more important to post when you have time to TAKE CARE of your post for the next few hours to make sure you engage with comments and reactions as soon as possible.

Is it purely about quality content?

Not "purely". It is about quality, but engaging with others and commenting probably starts more conversations than publishing a post. So I spend far more time commenting than I do posting.

Thing Number 2 - Don't Join an "Engagement POD"

There are certain groups of people out on LinkedIn who promise to regularly like and comment on each others posts. In some instances I have even heard that the "pod" of people even PAY for the "privilege" of belonging to one of these groups.

The intent is to fool the Algorithm into thinking a post is extremely popular and therefore will get an increase in reach.

First of all, this is a very short-sighted strategy. It might gain you some reach for a while, but it doesn't help you find your real audience because it is arbitrary and not REAL engagement.

Secondly, the LinkedIn Algorithm has caught on to this tactic and has changed over time to monitor comments such as "great post" or any short automated response and ignore them. In addition a reaction (like, support, etc.) is given far less weight than a real comment (some say a valid comment is worth 5 times more than just a reaction).

Thirdly, your content's quality and usefulness should be good enough to stand on its own merit. If you add value people will gravitate to your content and (more importantly) tell OTHERS how good it is!

And finally, personally whenever I see this I am reminded of the "POD people" from a certain 1956 movie... and we all know how that turned out... ??

Thing Number 3 - Don't Resort to a "Tag Wall"

Mentioning someone is a great way to say thank you or give someone else credit for an idea or quote. And, I don't mind being mentioned in a group of people if the author has asked if it is okay. I almost always tag the original author in a comment so there is a chance that they will be notified that I joined the conversation.

However, in a post, if you create a "wall" of people that you mention without asking their permission you are just "gaming the system" (the Almighty Algorithm) to increase the reach of your post. At a minimum you might annoy the other person, which I doubt you had in mind. Worst case, if you annoy them often enough they might unfollow you or even disconnect (or even block) you in the future.

So a "Tag Wall" might have a short term win, but in the long run it could have the exact opposite effect.

Thing Number 4 - Don't Use Automation That is Against LinkedIn's Terms of Service

There are many automation tools out there. I will not EVEN list them or send you to a list of them because I am totally against them and I don't want to show anyone what or where they can be found. They are not REAL engagement they are FAKE engagement.

Now don't get me wrong. I am all for being time effective with a browser and saving time with such tools as a "text expander" (look that one up if you really want to save some time on LinkedIn).

As a matter of fact, some of my good friends know that I was actually put in LinkedIn Jail for using my browser as a time effective tool because the LinkedIn AI (Artificial Intelligence) saw my actions as a BOT. LinkedIn finally got that one right after much "discussion" and support of my reputation from my network of friends and I have not been restricted again.

My point here is that there is NO substitute for showing up and really engaging as yourself by posting and engaging on other's content. THAT is the "WHAT" you should do... NOT be a BOT!

Thing Number 5 - Don't Post and Ghost

Don't ghost someone when they reply to YOUR comment. I find it very annoying when I take the time to reply (and even mention a person so they will see it) and nothing happens... no reaction, no more engagement.

Makes me think that they don't care if I reply or not. Makes me think all they wanted to do was say something themselves, but they aren't interested in what I have to say... ??

Also, Don't ignore your notifications because if you do, you are ignoring your network audience.

As a matter of fact, one "best practice" I have on my activity feed is to check on my last 4 - 5 posts to see if there are any new (Most recent) comments because LinkedIn "forgets" to notify me sometimes. I have replied to comments that are from one week up to over a month old..

So... be a "Ghostbuster" instead... you will be glad you did!

Summary

So there you have it. I hope you can understand where I am coming from with this advice. In some instances I have learned these from my network. In other instances I have learned these by experience.

But in ALL instances, I recommend these things because they have worked over time for me and I am passing them on in the spirit of teaching (NOT preaching) because I want to make everyone aware of these practices and the ramifications of using them.

Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions and what you have found that works best for you.

And as always, please subscribe to this Newsletter and go to my Profile and click the “Follow” button to see more tips in your feed. If you would like access to a whole lot more of my content, do a Google search for?#TheLinkedInGuru

Namaste ???? and thank you!

#SocialMedia?#TrustYourTribe?#LinkedInTraining?#Networking?#CareerDevelopment