HOW TO MAKE LINKEDIN WORK FOR SMEs!

I put a fair amount of time into LinkedIn, and people sometimes ask if it’s worth it.

In particular, is it worth publishing articles? And if you're really making it work ... how? What does success on LinkedIn look like?

I claim no special expertise, just a few years of experience using the platform for business purposes. So, here’s my answer.

I own two niche businesses and write about niche issues - sign installation and maintenance, 3D laser scanning, construction health and safety, mental health in the construction industry, plus a few other topics.

With those topics, I don't expect vast audiences, because it’s not fashion, celebrities, music, or gaming. I don't even want vast audienes, because if I had them, I'd waste a lot of time dealing with people who had no commercial interest in our brands, and no interest in health and safety or mental health.

Succes is definitely not dictated by the number of readers for an article. A few of my articles get under 150 readers.?Some get around the 1,000 mark. The average is a little over 300. My posts, however, generate higher averages than that. Easier to read, no click required.

I get a lot of ‘engagement’ (likes, comments, direct messages sent out of the view of other readers), and engagement is more important than numbers.

I tend not to re-post, which regular bloggers are advised to do; perhaps I should; but I’m wary of being repetetive and fairly happy with my stats.?If you do want to check out my other articles, however, you can do so?here.?

The figures are slowly growing. I’ve a little under 6,000 connections; the LinkedIn maximum is 30,000 but if you operate in niche market areas it's unlikely you'll have a meaningful relationship with 30,000 connections (perhaps different, with an FMCG business model).

I'm pretty confident that most of my 6,000 are in some way important to me. Most have some kind of genuine link to one or more of the topics I discuss (mental health is the one with the widest interest levels).

I can’t see the point of connecting with people on LinkedIn if you've nothing in common (that's more Facebook). You could argue that mental health affects everyone, but managing mental health in the workplace, which is my focus, narrows the field a lot.

I don’t chase readers, but?I analyse the figures, so I know what will do well in terms of total readership and average reader figures per article this year are higher than those quoted above.

Some topics stand out; and some always generate lower figures.?

I could restrict articles to popular topics - and just ignore the those which I know will generate lower figures.?I won't, though, because the sub-150 readers who'll check less popular articles are usually really important people to me, or to one of my companies.

It’s not 150 random people; it’s 150 self-selected people who are actually interested in the topic, and likely to be decision makers or influencers, budget holders, and thought leaders.?I’m concerned more about quality than quantity.?

I don’t tend to generate work directly from articles (occasionally I can trace a good order back to one article, but that’s rare, and I don’t expect it).?You have to be more sophisticated than that, and respect your readers more than that.?

The majority of my articles aren’t “selling copy”.?They’ll often have a relationship to the commercial activities of one of my companies, but the link may be slender.?Only a handful directly sell.

So ... does LinkedIn ‘work’, given the time I put into it??

For me the answer is ‘yes’, because my business is about relationships.?I don’t sell fast-moving, cheap, consumer items, to lots of people; I sell business-to-business services, to informed customers.??

Nothing I sell is bought on a whim, and there's a limit to the number of people in the UK who buy signs for retail or forecourt chains, hotel chains and brands.

I have no expectation that anything I write will directly generate revenue (if it does, good, but it’s na?ve to expect that). This particular article, for example, definitely won't.

However, I hope that over time, people will understand our brands more, and come to trust us more, because we give depth to the brands; we're more than the sum of the services we sell. And whilst achieving that outcome demands more than just publishing LinkedIn articles, they have a role.

I hope - more than anything - that my writing enhances our business relationships.?

I try to share information which is useful, even if it isn’t of immediate commercial value.?

I invest my time in LinkedIn, just as I invest in (say) technology, real estate, equipment, and (most important of all) people.??

You have to be clear about the outcome you want.?

The outcome I want is for my companies to be seen as “net contributors” to the industries in which they do business, not just for reasons of altruism (though I like to think there’s some of that), but because, ultimately, net contributors reap long-term rewards.

Sadly, through the horrendous business environment which we’ve been fighting for well over a year, we’ve all had a tough time.

As we come out of it there’ll be more casualties – typically, companies gleefully taking on big orders, using-up slender financial resources buying-in materials, then experiencing contract delays and delayed payment … and going out of business, because they have to pay suppliers right now, but can’t get paid by customers in time.

Historically, there’ve been many recessions in which more companies fail as the economy recovers, than in the depths of the crisis.?It's a familiar pattern.

I’m not complacent, and I’m not stupid enough to think ‘it’s over’, or arrogant enough to think we’ve ‘survived’, and everything will be roses from now on. I’ve been around the block a few times, and I know that economic recovery can be lethal for the unwary.

But here’s where LinkedIn plays its part.?

The business relationships that both SpectisGB and Xmo Strata have forged, over years in the case of the latter, have been a factor in our survival, and LinkedIn helps us reinforce existing relationships and forge new ones, outside of a purely ‘selling’ environment.

If all you do on LinkedIn, or any other platform, is ‘sell’, then you aren’t listening, and you haven't 'got it'.

Selling is important, but sometimes you need to shut up, and listen. It's a lot easier to sell to someone where there is mutual trust and understanding, built on a long-term relationship.

Hopefully, we’ll overcome the foreign variants of Covid 19.?

Hopefully, the Government has got it right when it comes to the July 19 decision.

Hopefully.?

None of us can really know, because none of us have done this before.

But when I look back, across the last 18 months, at the value I’ve got out of my business relationships from LinkedIn, it’s huge.?It’s been instrumental in managing the damage to my companies, and getting us to this stage.

Still there, still doing business, still ready for whatever comes next.

LinkedIn doesn’t bring-in a major new project with every article, that’s for sure.?But I’m equally sure it’s worth the investment of time I put into it.??

If you’re a short-term player, there are more direct and effective methods of delivering crude sales messages than LinkedIn.

That's not me. I set out to explain our brands, and our brand values; to listen, engage, and be net contributors.

This only works if you're going to be round for the long term, but if you are, it's how you'll make LinkedIn work for you.

Just as it works for me.

Let's keep in touch through this very tough period!

Xmo?Strata's LinkedIn page (sign installation and maintenance) is?here.

The?SpectisGB?LinkedIn page (scanning and digital reconstruction) is?here.

You can check out my other articles?here.?

Please visit?my?profile?and send me a connection request if we have things in common ... and stay safe!