What do your Future Clients really want on LinkedIn?

Have you ever wondered what your Future Clients really want when they visit LinkedIn? In other words, what exactly are their Jobs-to-be-done on the world's professional network?

Having worked with more than 1,300 clients on LinkedIn over the past twelve years, we have come to learn that what B2B clients are really looking for on LinkedIn, are your insights that will enable them to accelerate their career and their business.

While a quirky quote or a feel good video might earn you a smile or two, it will not help towards positioning you as a leader in your industry. And most likely even take away from your professional brand ...

How NOT to attract Clients on LinkedIn

In fact, here are the DONT's you need to consider in order to stay congruent on LinkedIn and not to confuse your target audience:

• Don't post your Personal Heroics: Remember your future clients are not paying you to become their hero but rather to be the guide who enables their Hero's Journey (this is possibly the biggest mistake marketers make on LinkedIn). It is very hard to impress others into liking you and constantly posting about you, yourself and your own achievements does not help to position yourself as client centric

• Don't create a Pod Bubble: In other words, don't join an engagement pod that requires you to either pay or reciprocate to other members of the pod to solicit likes and comments and trigger the LinkedIn algorithm artificially (which does not work anymore)

• Don't Tag & Spam: Too often, LinkedIn members are trying to game the LinkedIn algorithm by tagging a multitude of connections in their post (aka The Blue Wall), not knowing that their post will be demoted if less than 50% of the people tagged do respond. Even if you do place your Tag's in the comments section (to avoid the Algo penalty), it still looks clumsy and might annoy the people tagged in that they feel almost coerced to respond

So, what exactly do your Future Clients really want?

Research has shown that up to 50% of active LinkedIn members visit the professional network on a daily basis.

The BIG question is - what exactly are they looking for? To answer this question, LinkedIn and TNS conducted a joint research study that revealed the real drivers of engagement on the Professional Network.

So what should you be posting about?

In an nutshell, you should be posting about the Jobs your Clients need to get done - a concept first popularized by the late Prof Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School who found that clients need to get 4 different types of jobs done - these being the functional jobs, emotional ones, social and supporting jobs

Next time, we will be delving deep into the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) by your clients and how you can construct your Content Marketing Plan accordingly.

But before we go there, one word of caution - doing the wrong things on LinkedIn can not only upset your audience but also get you into trouble with LinkedIn's terms & conditions.

Have you ever wondered what might happen if you lost your LinkedIn account?

A well known recruiter recently got shut down by LinkedIn for infringing on the T&C's of the world's biggest professional network -

and as result she lost more then 17,000 business contacts and a network that had taken her years to build up (not to mention all the conversations she had on LinkedIn)

Not only has engagement doubled on LinkedIn over the past twelve months, but so has the amount of spamming and other behavior that violates LinkedIn's terms & conditions

As a result, the NEW LinkedIn Algorithm is cracking down hard on violations and shutting down many an account without warning nor appeal.

Did you know that the following is outlawed on Planet LinkedIn?

- Swearing / Cussing

- Sending out Connection Requests to the Wrong People (even if you do it manually)

- Plagiarizing other peoples' content

- Outsourcing your Account (i.e. allowing somebody else to manage your LinkedIn Profile)

- Outsourcing Your Lead Generation (or any other LinkedIn activity for that matter)

Not long ago, LinkedIn did make room for a Jail-Free-Card, if you asked nicely and promised to never do it again -

NO longer - the latest data show that once you get into LinkedIn Jail, chances of coming out are slim, at best

Imagine having to start all over on LinkedIn - and losing your entire network due to behavior you didn't even know was outlawed

Unfortunately, ignorance is no longer an excuse on LinkedIn and feigning IDNK won't get you out of trouble on the NEW LinkedIn

Join Yathin Soni and myself

• on Thursday 31st March 2022
• at 15h00 SAST (GMT+2)
• Online (register here )

to learn how to

- make sure your connection requests stay above the minimum acceptance rate

- to stay within the maximum number of connection requests and messages allowed per day

- to engage decision makers on LinkedIn through Inbound Marketing rather than the traditional Outbound