I will tell you the five secrets for better visibility on LinkedIn, but you should also know a few other important points about LinkedIn.
Is LinkedIn a place to Sell?
Don’t people send us a long sales pitch on Direct Messenger/Chat immediately after we accept their connection request? Don’t people comment on others’ posts with their sales page links?
Don’t you think these spammy methods only convey their desperation to sell something to anyone, than forming connections, learning, and communicating one’s authority on their chosen field?
I still remember the first advice I was given upon taking up Sales as a career, almost a decade-and-a-half back, by my then GM.
He said customers will buy from you only if they think you are Professional.
LinkedIn offers opportunities to establish our professionalism, thought leadership and domain authority in front of many people spread across the globe.
So why waste it?
On LinkedIn, Focus on User Reactions, Not on Keywords
If you are familiar with the SEO industry, you’d know how marketers write for the search engines (keywords) rather than the people who are going to read it.
Fortunately, on LinkedIn, the emphasis is on user reactions than keywords. So content marketers can finally focus on what educates, inspires, and engages people!
Like other networks, consistency of posting, using relevant & popular hashtags, etc. increases the chances of our content reaching more people on LinkedIn too.
5 Secret ways to increase the reach of LinkedIn posts:
- If your post gets maximum engagements (likes, comments, shares) in a short period after it is posted, LinkedIn amplifies its reach. In fact, there are editors who handpick and amplify popular posts on several verticals daily!
- Try to keep your conversations within LinkedIn. Avoid the temptation to give that salesly link back to your website for better reach.
- You could tag influential people, whom you personally know, and feel would add value to the conversation, to get more visibility for your posts. However, don’t do it with every post, and don’t bug them too much – that’s the easiest way to get ignored.
- Respond to all comments (this you might know) and add relevant comments on other’s posts (this too you know but do you do it?).
- Instead of publishing a post, publish a LinkedIn Article. These are indexable by search engines and allow for embedding of different types of media like video, slides, etc. You can also publish images/media where you want, and do basic formatting. Besides, LinkedIn Articles stay for a longer time on your profile, maximizing reach.
Would LinkedIn Premium Help get more Reach?
LinkedIn offers paid premium subscription plans with a few additional features. These premium plans provide Better Analytics (like who has seen our profile), InMail (Few Direct Messages every month to people outside our network), LinkedIn Learning (Curated short courses for professional & skill development) and more.
While having a premium account doesn’t directly help get more reach for our posts/articles, it helps us better identify and engage with people who are interested in our products/services.
How to Monitor the Progress of your Activities on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn publishes a Social Selling Index score (SSI Score) for all profiles. You can find yours at the following link – https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi
This score is calculated based on your ability to establish your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with their posts and insights & building relationships to grow your network.
LinkedIn publishes your relative score on the above factors compared to peers in your network and your industry.
Monitoring your SSI score will give you an idea of how your posts and activities are faring and in which areas you need to do better.