- Are you a LinkedIn Power User?
- Do you intend to become one?
- Do you want to use the power of LinkedIn to create your own business brand?
- Do you want to establish yourself as a one-man brand?
If your answer to any of the above question is yes, then this post will show you how you can do this in few simple and effective steps.
Entrepreneurs use countless tools which help them in promoting their brand, business and business values. Among these tools is a whole family of Social Networking Channels, including the LinkedIn.
Though these social channels/tools have a lot of potential to elevate your business, but by themselves, these tools cannot do anything for you. A tool whether physical or digital is simply a device which you can use as per your convenience but when you don’t, it simply does nothing for you.
If you are also fascinated by the great stories of entrepreneurs who harnessed the power of LinkedIn to elevate and promote their business then this post is for you.
In order to harness the power of LinkedIn, it is important that you use the tool on daily basis and make it a part of who you are and how you want your audience to see you, your business and its values.
Below are the 10 steps which you can start taking now to harness the power of LinkedIn and to become its power user.
Start with the recommendations
LinkedIn is the only social brand which allows you to create a social proof for your personal brand. Your connections can leave recommendations regarding your skills and capabilities which serve as a powerful social proof when it comes to establishing your brand and trust.
These recommendations will help in closing the deals, growing your business and expanding your network.
But, the truth is that most people won’t leave recommendations on your profile until you ask them. So, don’t be shy in asking your connections (with whom you have worked in the past) to leave recommendations on your profile.
Don’t just ask also let them know that you will be happy to do the same for them better yet, leave recommendation first and then ask your connections to do the same for you.
Profile promotion
As you begin to grow your LinkedIn profile to support your business brand, you want to make sure that people are paying attention to it. This way they will pay attention to the recommendations, content and achievements on your profile.
Start promoting your LinkedIn profile everywhere namely in:
- Email signatures
- Author boxes
- Cross promotion on other social networks
- When connecting with new leads
- Business card
In short, make your LinkedIn profile the primary means to contact you.
Importance of schedule
The sure way to gain attention on social media is to create a schedule and then stick to it. Remain active on a social network by consistently posting content, engaging with people and replying to the comments.
It is important to have a schedule but is even more important that you stick to the schedule you have decided.
If you have decided to post content on every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday then stick to the same schedule by making it a weekly ritual.
Bring in the value
You cannot ask your network to give you without you giving them something in return. Providing maximum value to your network is the core of every strategy you use to promote your brand on LinkedIn.
You can provide the value by sharing the content, solving problems, providing the insights and encouraging people through your content.
People more than remembering you, remember how you made them feel.
Publish the fresh content
It is very easy to share the blog post from your blog on the LinkedIn but professionals know the power of posting that which is original. It is important that you show your audience that you believe in creating original content and not in content syndication.
Instead of re-posting the content from your blog, publish it directly on LinkedIn.
This will not only notify your connections about the new content but your audience will also appreciate the original posts which will help you in establishing your authority in your domain.
Repurpose the content for SlideShare
Apart from posting the original content on LinkedIn, another valuable strategy is to repurpose the content and in case of LinkedIn, it is all about repurposing for the another awesome platform called SlideShare.
It is another awesome platform to share the content. You can easily setup SlideShare from your LinkedIn profile.
Connect people
This is more of a good deed. Since your primary goal on LinkedIn is to provide value you should look for the opportunities where you can connect two people.
If two people can benefit from knowing each other then help them in connecting with each other. They sure will remember and appreciate your effort.
Start your own community
Find the groups related to your industry, connect with them and engage with them but if you really are interested in setting yourself as an authority and bringing maximum potentialto your brand then it is best that you start your own community.
It doesn’t matter if such a group already exists, create a community and work towards making it a valuable place for finding the best content and news on the niche and encourage people in the community to help each other.
Mention people
When you post new content, don’t just post it and forget it. Think about the people who can benefit from the content and used the mention feature of the LinkedIn to mention them in the content.This will not only make the content pop up on the top in their news feed but will also notify their (people you mentioned using the mention feature) connections thereby promoting your content beyond your own network.
This also shows that you are thinking about them and loves to help them.
