Be Your Own Boss Friday: Five Key Tips To Maximize LinkedIn

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Every Friday is BYOB (Be Your Own Boss Fridays). I recognize that being an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, business owner, or freelancer is also a part of The Future of Work and there are plenty of readers who fall into that category (myself included!) and many who want to be in that category. So each Friday will be devoted to that audience but the things I share should also be applicable to those with more traditional employment options as well.

LinkedIn is an extremely valuable tool for entrepreneurs. It is by far one of our favorite social media platforms to use for our businesses. It has allowed us to generate leads, create a huge network, and get our content out to hundreds of thousands of people.

When you know how to utilize LinkedIn it can help you grow your business quickly. But there are some key things you need to take into consideration when using it.

You can watch the video of our full discussion below or just listen to the audio version as a podcast. If you want more content like this you can subscribe to our Youtube channel.

Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Today we are sharing five tips you can use to maximize LinkedIn for your business. This is what we have learned from our 14+ years using this platform.

Make sure you have a nice storefront.

Your LinkedIn profile is the storefront for your business, so you want to make sure it looks nice. Everything you have on your profile should be thoughtful and purposeful. Have a nice clear photo that shows you are approachable and happy. Make sure your headline is clear and concise. Be results-oriented when you describe your past work experiences. You want to present the best version of yourself to the world. Have other people you know take a look at your profile and provide feedback.

Post regularly

To get the best results from LinkedIn you really need to post content frequently. We both post almost everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. Be sure to mix up the content — it’s good to have a variety of things like images, quotes, videos, articles, etc…So post a variety of things, but keep them focused on your area of expertise. Pick a lane and stay with it.

This episode is sponsored by iOFFICE

iOFFICE is a leading workplace technology company that makes the office more productive and engaging by connecting data, people, and things. Its solutions help business owners make smarter decisions, protect, and empower employees, and improve asset performance. Learn more at iofficecorp.com/byob

Create thoughtful relationships

It’s surprising how many people send a connection request without a message, or if they send a message it is vague and without personalization. When networking and reaching out to people, make sure you are personalizing your messages. When writing a message think about how it would come across if you were on the receiving end. It doesn’t take that much time to do this, but it makes a huge difference.

Learn how to use all the LinkedIn features

LinkedIn has a lot of great features and they are always adding new things. Be sure to take advantage of them. We use things like LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn newsletters. Any time LinkedIn releases a new feature you want to be an early adopter of it, because you won’t have as much competition using it in the beginning.

Now more than ever, people are moving from full-time employment to entrepreneurship. We are collectively realizing that the only job security that exists is the one that you create for yourself, but how? My wife Blake and I are successful entrepreneurs who both made the transition while we had full-time jobs. You can learn how here.

Engage with people

Just as much as you are promoting your own stuff, you should be engaging with other people’s content. Write thoughtful comments, ask questions, add value to the conversations. LinkedIn is like being at a party or a networking event — when you walk up to a new group of people at an event you don’t just want to walk up to them talking. Take a moment, see what is being said, and add something intelligent and engaging to the discussion. When people comment on your content engage with them as well. Not responding to people who are adding value to your content can be a huge missed opportunity.

Implementing these five things will help your LinkedIn presence grow and develop and in turn can have a huge impact on your business. We focus on these five things in our own businesses and it has allowed us to grow our networks, increase viewership of our content, and it has brought business opportunities our way.

You can hear more of our stories and strategies in this episode of the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast. Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The BYOB Podcast Newsletter to get notified when a new episode comes out (once a week).
2. Listen to episode 49 of the podcast where we talk about these things in much more detail including sharing our personal stories.
3. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin.
4. If you’re interested in sponsoring or have suggestions for the show, you can send us an email at [email protected].