Each year our team attends Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Success Summit. Today we’re sharing LinkedIn expert, Melonie Dodaro‘s, insights on How to Build Authority on LinkedIn and Stay Top of Mind. Here are some of the key parts any LinkedIn user who is serious about becoming an authority should know.
Content is Key
If there’s one thing you should take away from this article, it’s this very important concept: Content creation is key. High-quality content should be specific to your target audience; it should be focused on things that they find value in. Ask yourself, “What are their problems?” Then be ready to create content with the solution. Some other tips for creating high-quality content are making sure that whatever you’re posting is thought-provoking and original.
I bet you didn’t know that 94% of business-to-business marketers are using LinkedIn to distribute their content (wait, seriously?). So with that kind of competition, you’ve got to learn to do it better than everyone else in order to stay top of mind. Let’s look at some of the ways you can share your content (and do it well) using LinkedIn:
- Share Status Updates – Think daily updates, originality, and relevant content.
- Create Engagement Opportunities – Think about asking thought-provoking questions to get your readers talking and providing feedback.
- Increase Engagement – Think links, videos, and pictures to grab people’s attention. Tag connections when appropriate.
- Give Perspective – Think of sharing your perspective on posts you share and why your followers should read it.
- Keep It Short – Think 1 to 2 sentences for status updates since LinkedIn doesn’t allow formatting.
- Take Advantage of Groups – Consider joining and contributing to groups that are specific to your industry and interests.
- Reach Out to New Connections – Consider sending a welcome message to people you connect to in an attempt to get to know them better.
- Stay Connected – Think of sending them useful articles and relevant content. Really cater to their interests!
- Be a Business Matchmaker – Consider introducing your contacts to others with similar interests to increase your value.
So you’ve got your content, and you’ve shared it. Well, what’s next? Melonie stressed the importance of keeping in touch with your potential and existing prospects and here’s how –
Get Personal
- Share Articles – Send articles to specific individuals or groups that you think they’d value. And really focus on personalizing what you send (because nobody likes a Spammy Tammy).
- Set Reminders – LinkedIn also allows you to set daily or weekly reminders to keep you from getting complacent when it comes to networking among your connections.
- Use Tags – You can also use tags to put people in certain categories as well as adding notes to people’s profiles.
By utilizing all of these tools, you can stay on top of maintaining relationships and ensure that you stay top of mind. Because if you’re not actively following up and building relationships with people, “business isn’t going to just magically find you”.
Experts Are In Demand
So we’ve talked about the importance of creating original content. Did you know that 82% of consumers reported feeling more positive about a company upon reading that company’s custom, original content? Content that you’ve curated from others is great, too, (we can’t all be experts on everything) but if you really want to establish yourself as an authority or that go-to person in your field, originality is the way to go. Once you’ve spent time creating original content, you obviously want to be sharing it and getting feedback on it. LinkedIn Publisher is a great tool for this since it’s perfect for long-form content, similar to a blog post.
Here are a few reasons why you definitely want to be using LinkedIn Publisher:
- Your articles published with LinkedIn Publisher are showcased at the top of your profile, increasing value to prospects who view your profile. They can easily click and view your recent posts and discover what you’re about and how you can help them.
- Your connections are notified each time you post. But if a lot of people are getting random notifications, you still need to make sure your posts have strong titles to draw them in.
- Your network is able to share your posts which opens you up to a much larger audience. This gives you the opportunity to be seen among your second and third-degree networks.
To increase the sharing of your Publisher posts, you should add a picture and address a specific problem or topic. You should also be posting regularly; once a month isn’t going to cut it if you’re serious about becoming an authority on LinkedIn! Additionally, posting one to two status updates a day and one LinkedIn Publisher post once a week is the best ways to see results. Most importantly, the key is to be consistent in what you do. If you can only post two articles a month, then be consistent in actually posting twice a month. Another cool tool to check out is LinkedIn Pulse! It’s basically LinkedIn’s news section, and it will actually email your connections weekly updates on articles they may be interested in. Your articles are usually shown to your connections, so that’s going to help with staying top of mind, which is the ultimate goal here.
Last Minute Tip
One last thing worth mentioning is company pages versus personal pages. It’s great to have a company page, but the real results are going to come mainly from your personal page. Since LinkedIn limits the capabilities of a company page, you’re going to need to use your personal account for sending messages and building relationships with your connections. You should absolutely still be using your company page to post status updates and drive more traffic to your blog posts. Happy Linking!
Are you currently using LinkedIn to build your authority on a specific topic or in a specific industry? We’d love to know your tips in the comments below!
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