Is LinkedIn Dead?
Back in the dark days of 2020 and 2021 I would probably have given a resounding "yes" to the question Is LinkedIn dead?
With lockdowns in place and limited ability to meet people face to face, LinkedIn became saturated. In theory, it would be easy to have meetings and do workshops online, but the reality was actually quite different.
Before Covid, my conversion rate was about 1 in 3 - for every 3 prospects I spoke to face to face, I managed to convince at least one of them to do business with me and my company!
When Covid started and we all turned to Zoom, Teams and Google Meetings, my conversion rate dropped to 1 in 16 - yes you did read that right!
Same services, same proposal, same prices - same everything really!
So what changed? Other than the fact that LinkedIn was completely saturated with more and more people trying to do business online, the big problem was trust!
I love Simon Sinek's trust vs performance video , where he talks about Seal Team 6 and how they are more likely to pick somebody they can trust over somebody else with more skills and better performance all round.
Trust - this is what we all need before we will work with anybody and this is what we need to gain if we want to work with anybody!
How Do You Gain Trust On LinkedIn?
In short, you don't! Well not fully anyway...
You need to be able to meet face to face and prove yourself trustworthy before somebody will trust you enough to work with you?
BUT - here are a few ways you can start to engage prospects to start the trust journey!
ONE: Nice picture on your profile
It's really important to ensure that you get a good photo on your LinkedIn profile. Why? Because people buy into your photo!
That's right! They subconsciously decide whether or not they like you. And if they like you, they feel like they can trust you...
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And if they can trust you, they MAY be open to working with you!
TWO: Educational content on your profile
The Featured Section is a great place to add your content:
Make sure you add content that is targeted towards your prospects and helpful to them.
Why is this important? Because it helps to build trust! Trust that you are the real deal and trust that you would be able to solve their problem if they asked for your help.
THREE: A genuine call to action
A few examples:
POST-COVID update
As we are now able to meet face to face (hooray!), I decided to restart my face to face LinkedIn workshops after a 2 year break. I'm pleased to say my last workshop was sold out and my next workshop is looking good at the moment!
If you would like to learn more about gaining trust on LinkedIn and a lot of other strategies to get in front of your prospects on LinkedIn, you may want to book a place on one of my upcoming workshops: