LinkedIn is like any social platform – it’s only as good as the effort you put into it. If you only visit when posting a job or sharing a job update, you’re missing out on opportunities to grow your LinkedIn presence and foster professional relationships. Luckily, there’s always a chance to turn things around.
Here are five tips for setting yourself up for success on LinkedIn this year:
1. Engage Regularly
Try to dedicate time solely to engaging with content on LinkedIn so you can build your LinkedIn presence and grow your network. Building your presence requires time, attention, and effort. You can engage with posts by commenting, reacting or reposting.
See something, but not prepared to engage? Save it! You can save posts by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of the post and selecting “save”. Saved posts are cataloged in date order on your profile under “My Items”.
Not sure who to engage with? Do a hashtag search. If you like learning about female founders search #femalefounder or #femalefounders. Interested in the latest on climate change? Search #climatechange.
2. Create and Share Amazing Content
Balance out updates about you and your business with informative content. LinkedIn users come to the platform to find useful, helpful, and entertaining information. The content you create and share doesn’t need to check all the boxes every time, but consider your audience before posting.
3. Newsjacking
Newsjacking is an old PR term that describes taking an event in the current news cycle and using it to promote your brand, cause, or platform. On LinkedIn and other forms of social media, newsjacking is a way to join a popular conversation and offer your unique perspective.
Remember when “quiet quitting” dominated the news cycle in 2022? Leaders and employees who offered a unique perspective or firsthand data on this topic rose to the top of the feed. Lean in when you have a unique or authoritative perspective to offer to a trending topic.
4. Follow up an In-Person Meeting with a Virtual Connect
Many of us are returning to in-person events and conferences. Making connections in-person is great, but chances are you won’t always be able to nurture those connections in-person long-term. Follow up that IRL connect with a LinkedIn invitation to continue to build your network.
5. Win the Algorithm
LinkedIn, like any social media platform, has an ever-changing algorithm that determines how wide your posts are shown and to whom. To “win the algorithm” in 2023, keep in mind these three key tactics.
- Keep outbound links to a minimum. LinkedIn doesn’t like it when you take people off the platform.
- Be mindful of the “golden hour”. The golden hour is the first hour your post is live on the platform. Your engagement within this first hour signals to LinkedIn how interesting your post is and helps determine how far and wide that post is shown. Aim to have maximum engagement within this first hour. Get everyone involved by sharing your editorial calendar with employees so they can engage.
- Find the best time to post. This can vary widely, but a good practice is to begin with high traffic times – weekday mornings. Analyze your results monthly and test different times to find when your audience is the most engaged.
LinkedIn is a growing business marketplace and an opportunity for you and your business to shine. Using these five tips will get you started, but consistency will allow you to build LinkedIn success that lasts.
Andrea J. Sok
Andrea J. Sok is the Founder and CEO of Sok Influencer PR. She brings more than 15 years of experience in marketing and communications from a career that has taken her around the world seeking great stories and sharing them in new and different ways. Andrea’s foundation is in journalism- storytelling across print and broadcast media before eventually transitioning to the nonprofit sector designing national and global campaigns. In her work at Sok Influencer PR, Andrea embraces new mediums to reach untapped audiences and deliver the most value to her clients. The media landscape has drastically changed in the last decade which is why Andrea developed the Influencer PR™ method to help small businesses, startups, and nonprofits craft their message and find the best voices and vehicles to deliver it authentically.
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