You're doing LinkedIn all wrong

I hiked Mount LinkedInmanjaro this week looking for three credible people with a combined mass force of one hundred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and twenty-three followers.

Dunno why I typed the number like that, I once read somewhere that it's a cool?copywriting thing to do from time to time. Reads a lil bit silly to me. Oh well.

Anyhow... let's get into the nature of this newsletter. I'm assuming you started out here like me and many others, just winging it.

You don't get a personalised step-by-step guide for mastering this platform right from the start. So a lot of mistakes are made along the way, and many people are still making them now.?

This week, I asked 3 LinkedIn legends:

What?are some of the most common mistakes you see people making on LinkedIn?

You might find their answers helpful. Let's see.

Firstly, Chris Williams, the founder of Proper LinkedIn Marketing, Mentoring and Training.

Chris is a little different from a lot of LinkedIn gurus because he actually knows about marketing.

Plus, he drives in his own lane and doesn't follow crowds. I reckon many of the Facebook police questions his content, however, I know most of his posts serve some kind of purpose. He's a pretty switched on guy!

Check out what he said:

"How the heck do I just mention one thing?

I could mention the toxic positivity or the fake engagement, or even using the platform as a dating site, but, if I had to whittle it down to just one thing, that I see people doing wrong, it would be this.

Not commenting.

Regardless of if you post your own content or just sit in the shadows like some sort of lurker, if you don't engage with other people's content, you really may as well just delete your profile.

Imagine going to a networking event and just sitting in the corner, behind the coat rack?

Or worse, walking in, shouting from the doorway about who you are and what you do, then buggering off.

That's what you're doing if you post and don't engage, or just hide away, lurking.

LinkedIn is like a piggy bank, you want to get something out of it one day, start putting in a few coins a day.

*If I have to explain that the coin is a metaphor for you engaging, then I'd suggest sticking to Facebook."

Our next guest is Rebecca Pay, founder of Pay for Precision. She's a kick-ass CV and LinkedIn coach, proofreader, copywriter, editor and pole dancer.

She also talks about autism and ADHD, which are both close topics to me.

She had the following to say:

"One of the most common mistakes I see people making on LinkedIn is copying other people.

Obviously, the extreme example is people who quite literally cut and paste things and claim it as their own, then you have the ones that do add a credit but it's so small at the end that most people don't notice it.

Lots of people will also copy a theme or idea as they see it working well for others.

Originality will always do the best, and whilst those copied posts may do well on the face of it, ultimately if you are there to sell either a product, service or yourself, being yourself and writing your own content is the best way to do that.

You don't need to be flamboyant or whacky or funny if you're naturally not those things. It will come across so much better if you're just you! That'll always be good enough for the right people. ????"

Last but not least, we have Luke Matthews, the founder of Wizard of Odd Marketing.

It's rumoured that this dude can type a post in 3 minutes. He's also an expert in building communities. You'll often hear him talk about memes, pizza, bacon, and controversial stuff.

He says:

"Mistake #1 ft Misplaced time.?

When you are first starting out on LinkedIn or any platform your content really doesn't matter that much.?

??

Here's the thing, you don't have many followers, you don't have relevant connections and nobody knows who you are.?

Nobody knows or cares about what you write yet.?

Your job is to make them care.?

The easiest way to do that is to focus 95% of your time connecting and networking on LinkedIn.?

Treat every comment like you would your own post.?

Do that for 3 months.?

You'll build a community of people that recognize your profile picture, and they'll want to know more.?

THEN, you can start caring about your content.?

But until you start commenting and connecting, your content creation efforts are really a big waste of time.?

How did I start??

30 minutes a day.?

25 minutes commenting on people's posts and sending connection requests to active users(people who use the platform every day).?

5 Minutes writing simple content.?

Cheers peeps"

How about that? 3 different answers from people who have mastered LinkedIn.

As per I'll add to this as well.?

"People fall into the habit of posting off the cuff when they don't follow some form of strategy.

Sometimes, this leads to lazy, boring, and ineffective content.

You wanna mix things up a little bit, and how you do that is up to you.

I have 3 elements in my strategy. Business, community and personal. This works great for me."

Having said that... Glad you stopped by.?

Yours,

DT

P.S. What would you add to the list?