A Round Table with Richard de Veer | Q&A's about LinkedIn

Last week we had an amazing round table to discuss the do's and don'ts of LinkedIn, inspired by LinkedIn expert, Richard De Veer.

Thank you all very much for making this event great and insightful!

I am happy to share the learnings of this evening by summarizing the Q&A's about LinkedIn. Enjoy!

What are the most important personal profile KPI's and how to read them?

In LinkedIn premium Sales Navigator, LinkedIn shares your SSI: Social Selling Index, which is based on these 4 indicators:

1. Profile Completeness: headline, about, summary.
2. Find the right people: finding the right people and getting accepted.
3. Engage with insights: responses to posts, engagement (=comments) with posts and create content: Posts, Articles and shares.
4. Build relationships: finding and building trust with decision-makers.

Which questions do you ask at a networking event? 

Avoid going straight for business. Try to connect with the topic at the main event/organizer and ask about the opinion of others. Use open questions to hear what the other person thought was important/remarkable. Networking is building relations.

What are undiscovered Functionalities that are not optimally used by everyone?

In your Sales Navigator, you can check who changed jobs in the last 90 days. When people are available or interested in a new job, this is a mutually beneficial reason the get in touch with each other.

For Dutch people, we’ve got a lot of Dutch/English speaking connections, which language would you advise to use on a profile?

For me, as I have a personal interest in international companies my profile is in English and therefor I post 99% of the time in English. My network is predominantly US/English. It simply widens the search pool.

What does your acquisition look like as a freelancer? Recruiters, job boards, LinkedIn, own network? What is your balance?

So far, all my jobs and projects are from my own network. Sometimes I see a job on LinkedIn and then I find out which connections can introduce me. LinkedIn helps to get more connections. Meeting in person is always the next step in growing your professional network.

What about structuring / dosing your interaction of likes, posts and views. etc.?

Currently, I am testing the different types of likes (insightful, celebrate). I don't post enough personally, so I would be highly interested in getting support with my branding activities. On the other hand, if you don't post that much, your posts do stand out more. Make sure you don't view in private mode because 'who viewed your profile' is a very effective networking strategy as well.

How do you see the future of professional networking?

Online: LinkedIn is continuously improving 'Groups'. Groups will be more and more important for networking professionally. Next to that, we see that offline networking becomes more popular. That means building relationships on a more qualitative basis through personal interaction. Also, social selling is an essential strategy. You will get much more if you are able to award others as well.

Thank you, Richard, for your inspiring answers and great learnings!

If you have any more questions about how to optimize your LinkedIn strategy, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Happy Linking!