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Tags – how to use linkedin for networking
LinkedIn is a social networking site developed for the business community.
It allows professionals to connect, and even post job openings.
In general, social media has grown immensely over the last decade and LinkedIn is no exception.
Since 2003, LinkedIn has gained over 300 million active users, a number that is still growing- To put it into perspective, if LinkedIn was a country, it would be rubbing shoulders with the 4th largest populated country – USA.
The Negative Side of LinkedIn
It is important to keep in mind that LinkedIn is not all Rosy Daisies for businesses.
There are quite a few hurdles to climb too.
In essence, it may be easy and simple to set up a LinkedIn account. But nevertheless, there are a few annoying issues with LinkedIn:
- Too Time Consuming – to gain a large amount of following or to get others to feedback/comment can be a mission. With the amount of users on Linked it is quite frustrating as you can message a 100 people but only receive a message back from 2.
- Too sales focused – LinkedIn was designed to allow professional and businesses to connect. Sadly, most users are too sales focused and jump in to selling mode as soon as they connect. (especially forex traders – they are annoying)
- Not actively engaging groups – I joined the Accounting Professionals UK LinkedIn group in November 2018 – which has over 700 members. But, rarely anyone posts, comments, likes or shares content.
Let’s Turn it Around
But, LinkedIn is not just about making a profile, hoping to get attention.
Therefore, although, despite the negatives, there are many successful businesses on LinkedIn. But, what is the secret to gaining followers and connections on LinkedIn?
I’ve listed a few key points I’ve noticed from successful LinkedIn accounts:
1. Show your personality
With there being over 300 million LinkedIn accounts, you must ensure you stand out and are different.
For instance, people buy not only based on the quality of a product or service. But, the ethical background of the company is equally important.
An example here is the Four Seasons Hotel with over 572,000 followers on LinkedIn. Although, they never share a post about their hotels, their post on achievements, team and work culture gain considerable attraction.
The important thing to remember is, you should stick to one personality type. Each personality type attracts a certain audience and you can adapt as per requirements.
If you try to be everything, you will end up being nothing.
2. Engaging with your audience
What is the point of owning a platform if you are not going to do anything with it.
A company that understands this principle well is Evernote.
Evernote has over 52,000 LinkedIn followers.
This is because they are always engaging with their audience, finding out how they stay organised using their products as well as sharing useful tips and ideas to improve their customers experiences.
It’s simple to share interesting posts/images/articles. However, it’s more important to engage with your followers and build a relationship in the long term.
3. Innovation
Sharing the same type of content consistently can bore your followers.
Thus, it is important to always try to be innovative and share new ideas and inventions.
By doing this, you can hook and gain new insights from followers. A good example of this is HP.
HP has over 2 million followers. And, almost all their posts are about innovation.
Concluding Remarks
So, here you go. LinkedIn engagement seems to be going down with time. But in reality, with the right push forward, your business and brand can still be time-worthy.
All you need to do is spend effort in the right direction.
At Axies Digital, we help businesses set-up and run their digital presence, including LinkedIn, and run it effectively.
To find out how we will help your business, please feel free to get in touch.
In addition, we have also made a video on this topic, that you can check here:
https://youtu.be/emNsPIZdVhM[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
