Be Your Own Boss Friday: Five LinkedIn Mistakes To Always Avoid

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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.

One of the biggest resources we have used to help grow our businesses is LinkedIn. It is by far one of our favorite platforms because it has allowed up to build a huge following and promote our content--for free.

In our last episode, we talked about five key tips to maximize LinkedIn for your business. If you haven’t heard that one yet, definitely go and check that out first. This week we are going to talk about five mistakes to always avoid on LinkedIn. 

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.

We both have been using LinkedIn for 14+ years and learning how to utilize the platform to the fullest takes time. We have made mistakes along the way and we have seen others make mistakes as well. So today we are sharing what we have learned not to do so that you can avoid them. 

1.Don’t use automation--Some people try to take the easy way out when it comes to networking on LinkedIn. But it pays to take some extra time to personalize your outreach and connections. If you are going to comment on someone’s content make sure it adds value, that’s not the place to put your sales pitch. If you want to reach out to some people take the time to get to know some information about them and personalize your messages. It is obvious when people are just copying and pasting one message hundreds of times, and it’s not effective. 

2. Don’t steal people’s content--If you want to share content from someone else’s profile you have to give them credit. Don’t try to steal it and pass it off as your own. First of all, it’s not right as someone went through a lot of time and effort to create that content. But they could find out about it and report you for it and your reputation could be damaged because of it. Just create your own content, or if you want to share something just be sure to give the creator the credit. 

3. Don’t be overly promotional--No one enjoys following someone who sells their items 24/7 and that’s all their profile is about. You have to have a mixture of selling along with valuable content. If all you do on LinkedIn is promote your products and services, most likely you aren’t going to gain a large following. People want something of value--they want to learn something from you or engage with you. You can promote your stuff on occasion, but the majority of your channel should be things like articles, videos, interviews, images--things that are engaging, exciting, and informative.

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.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for endorsements--Having endorsements is an amazing way to add credibility to what you do, and they are crucial for entrepreneurs. Endorsements you get on LinkedIn can be used on your website, your media kit, your other social channels, etc...So don’t be afraid to ask for them. Reach out to past employers, or past co-workers, or even vendors you’ve worked with. But it is important that you are being endorsed for the right things, they should be relevant to where you want your business to go and the space you want to focus on. 

5. Treat people how you would like to be treated--Whenever you go to send a message or post a comment or engage in a conversation, think about what you are planning to write from the other person’s perspective. Would you want to read what you are planning to write? Would you find the message annoying? Or would it be something you would enjoy and engage with? Think about the experience you would want to have when engaging with others and then go out, build and curate that experience.  

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 50 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].