?? I reached 23,000 LinkedIn followers... open up for tips on how I did it.

I was really excited to hit a big milestone recently, 23,000 followers on my LinkedIn account. For me, LinkedIn is my biggest and best platform and generates direct leads and sales on a regular basis.

I thought this was a good chance to take a peak behind the curtain and share some of my top insights on how I got there... and you can as well.

Optimise your profile

How long has it been since you updated your profile? If you're like most LinkedIn users, it may have been a minute - particularly if you haven't changed jobs recently. Consider this your reminder to get in and have a look what you're showing. Update jobs, volunteer positions, qualifications, details about what you do currently, your industry and a fresh new pic.

If you're planning to use your personal profile to build your brand, I'd also suggest switching to 'Creator' mode. This small change optimises how your content is displayed and shared. While LinkedIn have just announced they are phasing this out, it's a good idea to get the features while they're still around!

The power of a newsletter

Creating a regular LinkedIn newsletter had a huge impact for growing my audience.?I have around 7,000 people who get my weekly linkedIn newsletter and it grows fairly organically. While more of these are around than when I started, they still have great potential.?

It was only the other day I gave some advice about LinkedIn newsletters to a colleague, and he gained more than 500 subscribers in the first 24 hours.?

Consistency is key

Having a content plan in place and posting at least three times a week, as well as distributing my newsletter regularly, ensures my profile stayed top of mind. You can use a third party scheduling tool to create content at the same time you do your other social channels OR use the relatively new LinkedIn scheduling option to write and plan content in advance.

Valuable, engaging content

I focused on creating discussion-worthy posts that provided real value to my connections, rather than superficial shares.?I like to share facts and training that really help my audience, but I'm also not afraid to share some personal stories into the mix. I want my community to get to know me and what I am about.?

Start with simple questions. How can I give you value? How can I have a discussion about something that's happening in our issue and our industry? What matters to my audience now and what would help them??

This makes?a big difference with the algorithm and gets me found by new people. I'm being found organically in searches and recommended dozens of times a day.

Contributing to?LinkedIn Articles

Contributing to LinkedIn articles has also been huge for me. Unfortunately, at the moment, you still have to be invited by LinkedIn?before you can get this feature. I contribute to articles where multiple people can?share their content to a particular topic or theme. But my tip is if you do get an invitation, take it up. It's part of why I've been included as now one of the top voices on LinkedIn, I rank both in digital marketing and nonprofit leadership.?

Engage with others

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, is engage with others on LinkedIn. Don't just post and ghost. Don't just show up, throw a post out there, leave the platform thinking that is your job done.?

You need to actively be someone who's engaging adding value to other people's posts, commenting, interacting, maybe joining groups, whatever is your kind of thing. But I always make sure every day I'm responding to people's comments, I'm engaging with other posts of interest, I'm re sharing other people's content, that kind of interaction builds community, it increases your network, it gets you seen by friends of friends.

I hope you find some of these strategies helpful for meaningfully developing your own presence on LinkedIn. Let me know if any other questions come up!

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