LinkedIn Lead Generation

LinkedIn, like any social platform, is all about making connections.

In order to make it work for your business, it also needs to be about showing how you can help people.

It is the platform of choice for a lot of tutors, as users are very open to connecting with new people, and less open to sharing what they're having for dinner, or their holiday snaps.

In a word, it is more 'professional' networking.

As with anything, in order to improve your chances of success, it is important to know what that success is.

Set yourself some goals for LinkedIn up front, and decide what you will measure.

Goals make it easier to focus your activities, and measurement allows you to see what's working.

In the long run, it means less time wasted and more progress.

Setting LinkedIn Goals

Before spending lots of time on LinkedIn just because I've told you to, you need to work out why it is important to you.

• Who do you want to connect with on LinkedIn?
• What are you hoping to get back from it?
• How will you know if it is working?
• What will that do for you?

Your goals are most likely related to finding and connecting with your ideal clients on LinkedIn, and showing them how you can help them.

Your goals might be anything from:

• 2 weekly enquiries
• 100 weekly visitors to my website
• 1000 LinkedIn connections
• 50 weekly profile views

You need a goal that you can measure, in order to know whether what you're doing is working.

Metrics are available on your LinkedIn profile, and working with one of these makes the job easy.

You can also track new enquiries and ask where they found you to see how many came through LinkedIn.

Primp your Profile

Make sure you've spent some time setting up your profile so that people can clearly see who you are and what you do to make the most of your efforts on LinkedIn. It should be easy for someone visiting your profile to see in seconds that you are a tutor and what you are offering them.

Headline

This is a very valuable bit of text that appears on each of your interactions on LinkedIn. Every time you leave a comment, members can see your name, and the headline against it, in your feed.

Make sure the headline clearly states:

• What you do (e.g. GCSE maths tuition online)
• Who is it for (UK students)
• How to get started (DM me, click this link, join group, etc.)
• Any extra characters can be used to share your credentials (STEM Ambassador, Qualified Tutor, etc.)

It helps to also have a clear profile image of your own, lovely, smiling face.

People connect with people, and a smiling face is a selling point in itself.

This is no time to be shy!

Connect with People

Users on LinkedIn are (generally) more open to connecting than on other platforms. So don't be shy about sending connection requests.

Don't go wild with it, as you will get a note from LinkedIn pop up to tell you to slow down.

The easiest start point is to add your offline connections first. You will start to see suggestions of 'people were also interested in' as soon as you start building your network, so it gets easier once you start.

Look for relevant content in your feed and have conversations with people. You'll grow your network with likeminded people and soon your feed will become more and more relevant to your industry, which also means that you are in front of people with an interest in this.

Share weekly content

Make sure you are sharing content each week to start conversations and share your expertise.

It doesn't have to be complex, highly intellectual, or with fancy graphics. You can share snippets from conversations you've had, interesting things you've found, tips you've shared with other clients, success stories from existing clients, testimonials, or interesting adventures you've been on.

Don't be disheartened if your content doesn't 'blow up'. As long as people are seeing it, keep going with it. The effect of content marketing builds over time, and there are many people looking at your feed who aren't engaging but are getting more comfortable with who you are and what you do.

Would you like to share what has worked for you on LinkedIn too?