At Social Media Marketing World in San Diego last year, one of the clear messages coming out of that conference from the digital marketers present in the audience and on the stages was the power of LinkedIn.
People like Guy Kawasaki and Mark Schaefer were all talking about what a great platform it is to grow your profile, to connect with likeminded people and to grow your business.
I came back from the conference convinced and inspired that 2018 would be the year of LinkedIn, not just for me as a digital marketer, but as the platform that I believe my clients will finally feel more comfortable embracing and using to their benefit.
And it was a great year for the platform.
So many leading marketers started getting active on the platform again, sharing valuable content and engaging with their followers in a very real way. It was like LinkedIn remembered that it was actually a social platform and not just a recruitment site or merely a collection of random connections, like a pile of business cards on your desk.
LinkedIn has changed a lot since 2003 when it launched, no longer should you see it as simply a way to enhance a corporate career or view it as an online resume.
For many of us Digital Immigrants, it could very well be the platform of choice for you to build your personal brand and your business brand message in the way Digital Natives have been embracing Instagram for business for some time now.
LinkedIn Myths and Mistakes
So what are some of the mistakes that I see small business owners making with LinkedIn and what are some of the myths that they might continue to hold with the state of play of LinkedIn right now
You shouldn’t connect to people you don’t personally know.
Wrong!
This is entirely the point of a social platform, to build connections, to grow a network or community around you, your business and your values. I have been having plenty of conversations with client’s recently about this very myth. Of course we want to connect with people we know, but the beauty of social media, particularly LinkedIn allows us opportunities to identify and reach out to ideal clients, our business idols or mentors and within our communities.
Try and not be afraid to reach out and up within your network. That mentor who you have been reading about for years, they will usually gladly connect with you from a connection request, especially with a little note about why you want to connect.
Forgetting to connect with your customers
This is particularly important if you are in the B2B space.
Connect with the people that you already serve. This is a great way to grow your network, particularly if you are a little shy in the sending connection requests department. Many professional services firms I work with only connect with their peers, not clients. This is an untapped method of understanding your market, staying in contact with clients and being more across what is within their world, outside your office environment.
Lack of Engagement
It’s not all about you.
Whilst you might want to tell and sell, good social media, regardless of platform is all about Engagement. So spend time each time you are within LinkedIn engaging with your community. By engaging I don’t just mean liking a series of your contact’s posts (although yes, please do that) I mean take the time to comment on posts.
Plus it is a great way to build relationships with mentors within your field.
Forgetting to make the most of your profile
LinkedIn is not an online resume tool.
So don’t present yourself as if you are applying for a job. Old LinkedIn did kind of operate like that, but not any more.
Treat your profile area as an opportunity to speak more to the heart of what drives you in business, what motivates you and what interests you. Make the most of this headline area. Think about what it is that you actually bring to the table and post that. Think about what your ideal clients are looking for, what connections might want to see and post some of that.
Use Hashtags
Yes, Hashtags are also a thing inside LinkedIn.
If you have experience with Instagram, you would already have come across hashtags to grow your reach and visibility with your target audience. It’s the content you are most interested in, right in front of you plus it will also put your content, thoughts, recommendations in front of the people that it also matters too.
LinkedIn also very helpfully ‘reads’ your content and might suggest appropriate hashtags for you to use with your post.
It might be time for you to revisit some of your old school thinking around LinkedIn and more fully embrace ‘the’ business social media platform.
It’s a lot more fun over here now.
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