Looking to Get More Out of LinkedIn Connections? Here’s How.

If you’re looking to grow your personal brand or enhance your company presence, look no further than LinkedIn.?With over?756 million?users and two new professionals joining?every second, LinkedIn is a platform worthy of your time and resources. ??

LinkedIn provides marketers a wealth of benefits, helping to build brand awareness, increase website traffic and increase engagement. ?One of the major perks of LinkedIn is that it provides the opportunity to showcase your profile and highlight your credibility and expertise within your industry.?

Despite the many possibilities LinkedIn offers, many professionals consider it an after thought.?Too many people simply post bits and pieces from their resumes onto their profile, don’t share content, fail to login regularly and monitor their page, or simply put it to the side.

It’s time for marketing leaders to get serious about social media, especially LinkedIn. ?As I’ve written before, social media should be every marketer’s best friend. ?While building your profile, audience and engagement takes time and thought, it’s well worth the effort.?Here are a few strategies you can leverage to stand out on LinkedIn and expand your network (and horizons):

Optimize Your Profile with SEO Keywords

One of the first things you can do is optimize your profile to make an impression and gain more connections.?LinkedIn profile pages are searchable within LinkedIn as well as the keywords you place within your profile.?

LinkedIn is one of the top 5 sites that Google indexes regularly (the others being YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter), which makes it critical that you apply SEO to your profile if you want better search visibility.

Think about ways to include keywords within your summary, headline, job experiences that people may type into the LinkedIn search bar if they’re looking for you or someone with your expertise.?

Make Your Profile Page Visually Compelling

The importance of visual content has been continually underscored in recent years, and chances are, you’ve already noticed some terrific examples of visual content on LinkedIn.?It’s important to realize that professionals scrolling through LinkedIn want to feel like they’re getting something out of it: namely that they’re learning or bettering themselves.?Educational and how-to videos and images play great in this space.

One of the easiest ways to stand out is to include a professional headshot as well as a background image.?If possible, use a branded profile picture and banner. ?When consumers see your company image and color scheme in the search results, they are more likely to recognize your brand in the future. ?In fact, studies show people remember 65% of visual content, even three days after they see it. ?If you want potential followers to take the next step and connect or visit your website, eye-catching visuals are a must.

Share Great Content

Many people use LinkedIn to find information and education relevant to their industry.?If your posts are able to teach an industry-specific skill, include compelling statistics or a relevant solution, you will be much better positioned to engage with your audience.

Another engagement-building strategy is sharing rich visual content, including infographics and videos.?In fact, research shows that video content is 50x more likely to drive users to a website when compared to text-only posts.

Join Industry-Specific Communities

Getting involved with various industry-specific communities can help grow your LinkedIn presence.?LinkedIn groups are a great way for business leaders and marketers from the same industry to collaborate within a group forum. ?Spend time on sharing helpful content, engaging with other members and getting involved within the community to build your relationships.

It doesn’t take long for members to recognize when you’re sharing a new post or commenting on someone else’s content. Spending even 5-10 minutes a day doing this can result in increased searches for your profile, which in turn, can yield more valuable connections.

The time to harness the power of LinkedIn for personal brand- and company brand-building is now.?All it takes is some advance planning and dedicated time each day to enhance your presence and stand out from the competition.?Trust me, once you start seeing the results, you will wish you started sooner.?