Whether you’re a college student or a business professional, LinkedIn is a great place to grow your brand be it personal or professional and steer your career in an upwards direction. Studies show that though marketing your content on other social media platforms is great, the real ROI happens through LinkedIn. It allows you to get in touch with authentic and genuine experts and talk to the best people in the industry. As it is a business-oriented social media platform, LinkedIn enables you to showcase your skills and expertise, upgrade your job profile and even get clients for your business from around the world. 

However, Growth takes time! 

Don’t get fooled by the glossy picture of going viral overnight. Instead of chasing futile numbers who won’t serve your long-term visions, invest your time and energy into building a strong and worthwhile community. Remember slow progress is better than no progress at all! Here’s a few hacks to help streamline your marketing strategy on LinkedIn.
 

1. Build connections that matter

I still remember the first time I launched my profile on LinkedIn and went over a few accounts of my friends, I was astonished to see their connection numbers! None of them had connections below 500 and here I was with 0. It was pretty overwhelming! But over time I realised that 10 genuine connections>500 bogus connections. 

Build connections which are related to your business or industry niche. Spend at least 10-15 minutes of your day sending connection requests to people who you think will help you in any way possible be it upscaling your skills or improving your job profile. Join groups that interest you and start sending requests to its members. You can also filter your search tabs and streamline your connections. 

Pro-tip: if you feel intimidated by thinking they won’t approve your connection requests because you don’t have that PERFECT PROFILE, then fret not! Send a personalised note that speaks “YOU” along with the connection request. Remember whosoever you admire or look upto was once in the same spot as you’re! Be honest to who you are and you can achieve anything. 

2. Analyse your post metrics 

While numbers may be scary or discouraging, it is important that you analyse your post metrics regularly. 

A few metrics you should keep a regular tab on:

- Followers’ demographics (where do my followers come from?)

- Number of followers (how well is my account doing?)

- Impressions & Reach (how many profiles are viewing my content?)

- Engagement Rate (Are people able to relate and engage with my content?)

- Viewer information (who is viewing my profile and content?)

- Clicks and engagement (is my content doing well on LinkedIn?) 

Analysing the metrics will help you understand what works best for you and what doesn’t. Accordingly, you can improve your strategy and content marketing. There are no shortcuts to success and the best way to achieve growth is by hit and trial method. Soon enough you’ll get a hang of your niche and the relevant content that serves you right. It’s only upwards and onwards from there!

3. Study other content creators in your niche 

Now that you’ve figured out your niche, make sure you study other content creators in your niche inside-out and apply those learnings to improve your brand. Make a list of at-least 10 creators and focus on what type of content they are creating, how well it is doing, what kind of comments people are leaving in the comment sections (most often than not you can get great content ideas from these comments. Thank me later!) and how they’ve managed to grow their accounts over time. 

A splendid piece of advice I’d like to share with you is to engage with such creators as well. Drop genuine and honest comments on their content and who knows they might approve your request and become your connection!

4. Prepare a content calendar and keep templates for posts handy

Failing to be consistent is one of the major pitfalls of success. The only way to combat this habit is by preparing a content calendar in advance. Begin by penning down your ideas and then scheduling specific days for content creation and posting. Planning your content in advance allows you to stay ahead in the game, worry less and channel your energy and efforts into growing your brand more.

Apart from planning your content in advance, you can also create templates for your content for both written and visual beforehand. This will save your time in brainstorming new ideas every time you need to create content and avoid last minute scribbling which often brings disappointment! 

A few template ideas 

- Personalised messages for connection requests

- How-To post

- Hacks post 

- List-Based post 

- Comment structure 

- “What is?” Post

- Call-To-Action statements 

- Infographics posts so on and so forth 

5. Don’t slack off on your content 

Content is KING! If you’ve read our previous blogs routinely, then you must know that I’m a big advocate of creating quality content. It goes without saying that If your content is not at par then you’ll fail to stand out amidst 822 million users and counting. 

Best advice to curate a great piece of content is by creating strong hooks. If you’ve noticed only the first two lines are visible on every LinkedIn post, which means if you don’t have a captivating hook people will most likely scroll up from your content. To avoid this, make sure the first two sentences of your post are compelling enough to make your followers stay glued to their screens while going through your content. 

There are 5 examples of great hooks:

- Statistic Hook

- Quotation Hook

- Anecdotal Hook

- Question Hook

- Statement Hook

Once you’re done with the written part of your post, create visually appealing graphics to accompany it. Pictures and illustrations add a creative touch to your post and encourage the audience to stay for some more minutes and go through the entire piece of content. 

If you’ve been struggling to plan out and execute a growth-oriented LinkedIn strategy, then Contact us today to find out more!

UpfluencingYou will help nurture your vision by providing appropriate professional guidance in framing the perfect marketing strategy for your business