Tag Archives: Being Active on LinkedIn

10 ways to optimize your LinkedIn engagement in 2019

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Having a strong LinkedIn profile is essential to being found by other LinkedIn members and employers, but your job isn’t complete unless you’re communicating with your LinkedIn community on a consistent basis. This will contribute to optimizing your LinkedIn engagement.

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I tell my LinkedIn workshop attendees that I spend approximately an hour a day (it’s probably more) on LinkedIn. Their faces register surprise, and I’m sure some of them wonder if I have a life.

But networking is about communication. If you’re going to use LinkedIn to its full potential as a networking tool, you need to communicate with your connections on a more consistent basis. So far you have optimized your profile and network of connections. Now it’s time to complete the circle; optimize your whole LinkedIn campaign.

Here are 10 ways to do just that:

1. Direct messages

The most obvious way to optimize your LinkedIn engagement is to communicate with your connections directly. LinkedIn’s “Messaging” feature allows you to have running chats with all your first-degree connections. At first this was disconcerting, however; LinkedIn members got used to it.

In addition, the “Messaging” feature follows you around the site. You can read and send messages no matter what page you’re on — an obvious sign that LinkedIn wants you to communicate with your connections.

2. Share updates often

Another great way to optimize your engagement with your connections is by is posting updates. How many you post is up to you, but I suggest at least one a day. Some people tell me they don’t even have time to update once a week. I tell these people that they need to stay top of mind. When you’re not seen, you’re forgotten.

You’ll notice that LinkedIn has given its members the ability to create and post video updates. It’s a nice feature, but few people are using it. This could be an option to consider in order to make your updates stand out.

3. Like and comment on your connections’ updates

Another way to communicate with your connections is to “like” their updates. Simply liking their updates is not enough, in my opinion. I would go as far as saying that this is lazy.

To optimize your LinkedIn engagement, you should get a little more creative by commenting on the update. This shows that you read and thought about what they wrote. Additionally this can generate valuable discussion.

Note: Let people know you commented on their post by tagging them. Use the @ symbol before they name, such as @Adrienne Tom, Executive Resumes. They’ll see you tagged them by going to Notifications on LinkedIn, as well as choosing to be notified via email.

4. Don’t hide yourself when you visit your connections’ profiles

Some people adjust their privacy settings so that they only show up as “Anonymous LinkedIn User” or “Someone from the (particular) Industry” when they visit other people’s profiles. Not me! I visit my connections’ profiles — with full disclosure — many times a day. My connections will visit my profile many times as well.

When people visit my profile under the veil of secrecy, I do nothing. When people drop in announced, however, I’ll show my appreciation by writing to them, “Thanks for visiting my profile.” This will also lead to a discussion.

5. Endorse your connections

You’ve probably read many opinions from people on the topic of endorsements. Add me to the list of people who prefer both receiving and writing thoughtful recommendations to simply clicking the “Endorse” button.

In fairness, endorsements do have a greater purpose than showing appreciation for someone’s skills and expertise: They are a way to touch base with connections. This is another way to optimize your engagement. As they say, “Spread the love.”

6. Participate in discussions regularly

This is a great way to share ideas with established and potential connections. I have gained many new connections by actively participating in discussions on LinkedIn.

Believe it or not, I don’t find groups to be the best places for discussions. Instead, it’s better to start them via updates you post from your homepage. There are people who do a great job of optimizing their engagement because they add comments that generate more communication.

7. Be a curator 

If your connections blog, take the effort to read their posts and comment on their writing. This is an effective way to create synergy in the blogging community, and also a great way to get material for your daily updates.

One of the easiest ways to optimize your engagement is to share posts from other sources you read on a regular basis. There are plenty of online publications which provide relevant information for your network. Sharing knowledge is part of your networking campaign.

Take It a Step Further

An online connections will not become a fully thriving relationships until you’ve communicated with them in a more personal way. While LinkedIn offers many powerful ways to communicate with your network, there will come a time when you’ll need to move off LinkedIn in order to take your networking relationships to the next level.

8. Send an Email

Email doesn’t require a lot of effort, but it’s an important step in developing a more personal relationship with a connection. You should have access to the email addresses of all your first-degree connections on LinkedIn, so use that information when you’re ready.

9. Call Your Connections

This is a daunting step to many, but it’s a necessary one.

That said, don’t just call your connection out of the blue. Email them first to let them know you’d like to call. Write the reason for your call; if it’s your first call, you’ll probably want to talk about who you are and what your professional goals are. You don’t want to put your connection in an awkward situation or catch them off guard, so be clear about the purpose of your call.

10. Meet Your Connections Over Coffee

Finally comes the face-to-face meeting at a place that is convenient for both of you. If your connection lives in a distant location, you may suggest getting together when you’ll be in their city or town.

When you meet in person with a connection, that person becomes a bona fide member of your personal professional network. This is the ultimate way to communicate with a LinkedIn connection. It may not happen often, particularly if a connection lives far from you, but when such meetings do occur, they present great possibilities.

Having a great LinkedIn profile is only the start. To really make the most of the site, you must communicate with your connections. It’s your activity on LinkedIn that makes the difference between standing still in your career and realizing professional success.

If you want to learn more about LinkedIn, visit this compilation of LinkedIn posts.

7 ways to brand yourself on LinkedIn by being active: part 3

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Now that you have a profile that brands you and you’ve started connecting with the right people, you’re two-thirds of the way to your LinkedIn goal. To wrap up your LinkedIn campaign and solidify your powerful brand, all you need to do is engage with your connections.

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In this three-part series we have been looking at the components of a LinkedIn campaign that will brand you, which include:

  1. Creating a powerful profile
  2. Connecting with the right people
  3. Engaging with your connections

I’m often asked by my clients how regularly they should use LinkedIn. My inclination is to tell them, like me, use it at least two hours every day—but I know that is unreasonable for them. In fact, it borders on insanity.

So I suggest at least half an hour, four days a week. Still, their eyes glaze over and I hear some groans of protests. But I stay firm on this requirement.

Why is it important to be on LinkedIn often? Because if you want to be top of mind, you need to be present. In other words, you must consistently communicate with your connections to brand yourself successfully.

Here are six very simple ways to communicate with your connections.

1. Share Updates

Sharing Updates

This is the easiest way to communicate with your connections and brand yourself as a thought leader in the LinkedIn community. However, what you write must be carefully thought out and must add value to people’s lives.

I’m not talking about tweet-like updates (although you can share updates to Twitter) every day stating you’re looking for work. I’m talking about illuminating updates that prompt participation.

I recently shared an update about how nine out of 10 people prefer extraversion over introversion. The response was tremendous, and I continued to brand myself as an authority on introverts.

Your updates might be about what’s going on in your industry. You can provide important tips (remember, you’re still an expert in your occupation). Maybe inspirational quotes are your thing.

The new LinkedIn profile combines articles, photos, and updates into one field (see below). This is in line with LinkedIn efforts to streamline its user interface (UI) as much as possible.

2. Publish Posts (Write an article)

Writing an article

By using LinkedIn’s “Write an article” feature to share your writing with the appropriate audience, you are gaining visibility and, therefore, enhancing your brand.

Again, it’s important that your writing adds value to your connections. If it doesn’t, you’re wasting your connections’ time.

Another great way to educate your connections is by acting as a curator. A curator is a selfless LinkedIn member who shares the writing of other LinkedIn members. In addition to educating others, you are building strong relationships with your fellow writers by sharing their work.

Don’t forget to “like,” “comment,” or “share” your connections’ updates. This shows you appreciate the efforts they’ve made to contribute on LinkedIn. In my mind, it is far better to provide an intelligent comment; rather than only “liking” an article.

Even if you’re unemployed, you should take advantage of this feature. You can demonstrate your expertise of your occupation/industry, thus strengthening your brand.

3. Participate in Groups

Groups went through an overhaul more than a year ago. Some believe that this feature may have suffered from LinkedIn’s attempts to enhance it. (Not sure what I’m talking about? Read this article for an explanation of the enhancements.)

Nonetheless, it’s important to participate in conversations that are going on in your particular groups. When you participate in a group discussion, your connections will see your input streaming on their home pages.

To brand yourself effectively, be certain that the conversations you start or contribute to add value. Don’t indulge in the silly arguments that can pop up in groups.

Many recruiters are members of groups that you may also be in. They may read your contributions to the group, so make certain you write intelligent, non-negative comments. Remember, it’s about branding yourself as a capable, positive job candidate.

4. Send Direct Messages to Your Connections

LinkedIn recently made another change in the way you communicate with your connections. Now, instead of sending individual InMails, all your correspondences are grouped together in an endless stream. It takes some getting used to, but it has proven to be an effective change.

Every once in a while, you should ping your connections, letting them know how you’re doing in your job search. This is another way to stay top of mind.

Keep in mind that your messages don’t have to always be about the job search. Sometimes, it’s nice to send an informal message, commenting on something like your connection’s daughter’s soccer game, or sending a link to an article you think your connection might appreciate.

Doing the aforementioned  will brand you as a concerned connection, not one who thinks only of themselves.

5. Endorse Your Connections for Their Skills

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You’ve probably read many opinions from people on the topic of endorsements – here we go again! Add me to the list of people who prefer receiving or writing thoughtful recommendations to simply clicking a button. And I’m not alone.

But in all fairness, endorsements have a purpose greater than simply showing appreciation for someone’s skills; they act as a way to touch base. In other words, they’re another way to communicate with your connections.

Don’t get click-happy when endorsing your connections. This will make you appear disingenuous and damage your brand.

6. Use the ‘Companies’ Feature

Search Groups

I saved one of the best features for last. The “companies” feature epitomizes networking on LinkedIn. It allows you to find people who are in a position to help you. It encourages you to be proactive.

In my LinkedIn, workshop I explain that the attendees should have a list of companies for which they’d like to work. It’s important to set foundations before applying for jobs at these companies. This means building a network of valuable people.

Once you’ve located the person with whom you’d like to connect, you manually connect with said person by going to their profile, clicking “connect,” and writing a personalized invite. Failing to send a personalized invite will hurt your brand; you’ll be seen as lazy.

7. Use the Jobs feature to network

Using LinkedIn’s Jobs feature to apply for jobs exclusively is not your best way to land a job because, after all, it’s a job board. (A very low percentage of job seekers are successful using job boards.) But I wouldn’t discount LinkedIn Jobs. Use it in conjunction with your networking efforts.

In many cases the person who posted the position is revealed, providing you with the option of contacting said person. You can also “meet the team,” whom you might want to reach out to. Perhaps my favorite feature of Jobs is the ability to see which of your alumni work at the companies of interest.

Engaging with your connections is the only way to stay top of mind on LinkedIn. You may have the best profile ever and 5,000 connections, but if you are not active on LinkedIn, your results will not be rewarding.

If you want to learn more about LinkedIn, visit this compilation of LinkedIn posts.

The third of 3 steps for a successful LinkedIn campaign: being active

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Previously we looked at connecting with others on LinkedIn, the second step for a successful LinkedIn campaign. Now we’ll look at being active on LinkedIn.

I tell my LinkedIn workshop attendees that one of my colleagues jokes that I need an intervention. Not for use of an illegal substance; no, an intervention for use of… LinkedIn. Too much use.

This little joke elicits laughter from my attendees, but I secretly wonder if there’s truth to his words. If using LinkedIn 365 days a year, including holidays, is considered abnormal; then I might benefit from an intervention.

This post is not about refraining from using LinkedIn often. To the contrary, this post is about the necessity of being active on LinkedIn. How many hours should they dedicate to LinkedIn many of my workshop attendees asks me.

There’s not a set number of hours or minutes you must dedicate to LinkedIn; but to be be productive on LinkedIn, you can’t sit idle. Here’s what you must do:

1. An obvious way to be active is to communicate with your connections by posting Updates. How many you post is up to you, but I suggest at least one a day. This is when I get remarks from my attendees about not having time to make one update a week.

To prove this is not a tall order, I show my attendees how I update providing tidbits of job-search advice, asking a question, or sharing an article I find educational. I tell them it’s important to share relevant information with their connections; that’s what good connections do.

2. Another way to be active is to “Like” what your connections update; or, better yet, comment on your connections’ updates. Liking their updates is great, but it takes very little effort to simply click the link. Be more creative and add a comment which can generate discussion, or reply to your connections privately.

3. I’ll visit my connection’s profiles–with full disclosure–many times a day. My connections will visit my profile many times, as well. When they “drop in” and have disclosed themselves (not Anonymous LinkedIn User or Someone from the Entertainment Industry), I’ll show my appreciation by writing, “Thanks for visiting my profile.” This will also lead to a discussion.

4. You’ve probably read many opinions from people on the topic of Endorsements–here we go again. Add me to the list of people who prefer receiving or writing thoughtful recommendations as opposed to simply clicking a button. And I’m not alone.

But, in fairness, Endorsements have a purpose greater than showing appreciation for someone’s Skills and Expertise; they act as a way to touch base. In other words, they’re another way to communicate with your connections.

5. Let us not forget your groups which give you another, significant way to be active. Participating in discussions regularly is a great way to share ideas with established and potential connections. I’ve gained connections because of the interests we shared revealed by discussions.

Did you know you can communicate directly with anyone in your group? That’s right, you don’t have to be a first degree in order to communicate directly with even a third-degree member. Trying to get the ear of someone out of your network? You may want to join a group that person is in.

6. If your connections blog and share their posts on LinkedIn, take the effort to read their blog posts and comment on their thoughts. This is an effective way of creating synergy in the blogging community. Now you can express your thoughts using LinkedIn’s Publishing feature. Take advantage of this if you have the ability to write and enjoy sharing your ideas.

Sharing blog posts on LinkedIn and making thoughtful comments in your groups can promote you as a thought leader in your occupation and industry. Don’t be shy about sharing your expertise. Employed or unemployed, you have important information to share. LinkedIn is not only about connecting; it’s also about information capital.

7. Pulse is one of the best ways to stay abreast of news in your selected industries (or channels), influencers, and publishers. LinkedIn delivers news to your homepage every day. And you choose which news you want to receive. When my workshop attendees wonder what they should update, I tell them sharing articles of common interest is a great way to start.

8. Companies feature. I saved one of the best features for last. Companies epitomizes networking on LinkedIn. It allows you to find people who are in a position to help you. It encourages you to be proactive. In my workshops I show people how to find people who have the authority to hire them by:

  1. Selecting a company for which you’d like to work;
  2. choosing second degree connections;
  3. typing keywords in Advanced Search;
  4. choosing “current” for currently working there;
  5. typing the person’s title, and;
  6. indicating the company’s geographic location.

Once you’ve located the person with whom you’d like to communicate, you can ask for an introduction from one of your first degree connections who is connected to said person.

These are some ways you can be active on LinkedIn. The first step is to create a presence with your profile, followed by connecting with others on LinkedIn, and finally being active. Combining all three will lead to a successful LinkedIn campaign.