Have You Gotten Lazy on LinkedIn?

I will be the first to admit that updating my LinkedIn audience is not always near the top of my list. I enjoy sharing my thoughts in a longer form with you all, but the short updates and post interactions can get overlooked – and I think it is an issue we all run into from time to time.

So, I sought out our Communications team for an honest assessment and some time-saving tips that will allow me to keep up with and build my LinkedIn community while faced with the time-crunch that is the busy work week.

First things first, we looked at my profile and whether all my basics had been completed and were up-to-date. If you want to do your own self-assessment, here’s a quick checklist:

• Profile photo – Choose a high-quality, well-lit headshot that is at least 400x400 pixels in size.
• Cover photo – An image that speaks to your profession or accomplishments (sized 1584x396 pixels) works here.
• Headline – Many people use their current title and employer, while others choose to speak to their skills and experience.
• Summary – Your summary is where you get to introduce yourself, both professionally and personally. I love these tips from Grammarly for how-to craft a good one.
• Experience – Don’t just list your job—explain what you do. Titles aren’t always universal, and a small explanation paragraph or bulleted list will help your connections better identify your talents and help you all speak a common lingo.
• Education – Collegiate alumni organizations are some of the most fruitful sources for relationships and engagement, and, by listing your alma mater(s), you’ll have a big pool of potential connections from which to pick.
• Volunteer Experience – This section not only provides likely sources for connections, but it also gives your audience greater insight into your interests outside of work.
• Skills/Endorsements – Again, job titles aren’t always universal. Filling out this part lets everyone know what you do and what you do well.
• Recommendations – Recommendation letters are a thing of the past for many job-seekers, but getting co-workers, partners, and others to write a recommendation for you on LinkedIn can go a long way for growing your network and laying the groundwork for future partnerships.
• Accomplishments – Never be hesitant to tout your professional achievements. You earned all those accolades through hard work, and they deserve to be listed.

Once your profile is filled out, your focus should shift towards community-building. The simple task list we developed for me was to interact with 2-3 posts by my connections each week, share a status update about once a week, and to post one article a month.

Have you ever attended a tradeshow or networking event, gathered business cards from people you meet, and then… well, then nothing. You’ve both forgotten to send a follow-up email, and you forgot to connect with them on LinkedIn.

In many ways, sending a connection invitation can knock out two birds with one stone. You can personalize your invite message so that it serves a dual purpose with that of a follow-up email.

Another tactic is reaching out and responding through messaging. We get so many messages a day via email, text, phone calls, etc. that it can all get a little overwhelming. But, unless you have your email visible to your connections, LinkedIn messaging is one of the only ways for them to contact you. So, take 10 minutes a week to spend on replies – even if the reply is just to share your not-so-public email address.

Same goes for your notifications. Be sure to keep up with those every day or two. If people are taking the time to interact with your posts and content, you should take the time to interact with them. The notifications regarding work anniversaries and birthdays are also useful for when you’re looking for a quick way to hit that “2-3 interactions with your connections a week” mark.

For some people, keeping up with the same-old-same-old online can get redundant quick. If you find yourself burning out while talking about events you’ve attended, sharing links to industry news or are just trying to find a new, engaging way to tout something you’ve accomplished, here are some ideas:

• Add Hashtags – Yes, hashtags are here to stay on LinkedIn. Adding a few to your posts will help them get seen, and you can also get creative with them as well.
• Write Articles – Like this one! I am a big fan of long-form communication. I feel I am best able to express my thoughts and make it as engaging as possible.
• Old-School Long Form – Did you know your status updates can be up to 1,300 characters long? I only recently found that out myself. I also found out that these long-winded posts you see from people tend to perform exceptionally well – which is why they keep popping up atop your newsfeed.
• Share Presentations – There are two ways to share a presentation on LinkedIn. You can either utilize the native SlideShare app or directly upload a PowerPoint deck. It’s a fun, alternative way to tell your story.
• Get in Front of the Lens – Shoot and upload a video. That helps put a face with your words and provides even greater opportunity for the inclusion of visual elements. Plus, I hear from our Comms people that live video is rolling out to the platform sometime soon – definitely a medium worth exploring!

With all this new insight and information from the team, I’m excited to start upping my game!