Using LinkedIn to grow your business 📈
You can score new clients and extra revenue by posting on LinkedIn. But only when you use it properly. Here’s how I earned £10k by posting twice a week…
A huge portion of my revenue comes from LinkedIn — after doing a little bit of maths, I attributed roughly £10k of revenue toward my posting efforts last year.
That’s not including the podcasts and live stream invites I got (great for boosting brand awareness and growing your following) and all the cool new people I met.
If you want more proof as to whether or not LinkedIn is worth the effort, you can check out this collaboration I filmed with 15 Minute Freelancer podcats host Louisde Shanahan last year…
Let’s start with a quick business disclaimer!
Although I don’t do social media as part of my freelance offering, I’ve had long-term clients hire me to help them up their LinkedIn game. That means I won’t be giving away all my best gems in this post. That’d be pretty unfair to those who have paid for the priveledge of my knowledge.
So, you’re getting a brief overview, not the whole shebang. Soz.
How I aced my LinkedIn game
First up, I want to point you towards LinkedIn for Humans by Sophie Cross* which truly turned my LinkedIn game around. It taught me how to approach the platform in a way that works for me and the kinds of behaviours LinkedIn likes to reward.
I combined it with Eddie Shleyner’s free micro course on fascinations and my engagement skyrocketed.
If you’re looking for more tips and inspiration on how to smash it, check out Dave Harland and Lea Turner. You won’t regret it!
The golden rule of LinkedIn
Before I can coach you through writing a winning post, we need to talk about the kind of foundational behaviour you need to nail before you can post.
It’s the golden rule for getting on LinkedIn’s good side, building meaningful connections, and getting great engagement…
✨Reciprocity✨
As Cialdini says in his Seven Principles of Persuasion, reciprocity is an excellent conversion tool.
When you give something to someone in the spirit of unprompted generosity, they’ll automatically want to do the same for you. It’s just how humans work.
It’s also how social media works. Especially LinkedIn.
This sounds fucking obvious but I don’t see nearly enough people doing it (so perhaps it’s not as obvious as I think it is), but you need to give as well as take.
Don’t just log on to post your brilliantly written sales pitch, then leave.
Make time each day to go through your timeline and interact with the things you see there. Congratulate friends on their successes, weigh in on a debate, leave your own tips and thoughts.
You get the picture.
People will remember your name, your face, and that you show up consistently to support them. It won’t be long before they do the same for you.
Aside from building great bonds and connections, regular engagement causes your name to pop up in countless timelines. If you’re as insightful and cool as I think you are, other people may take a moment to check you out, engage with your stuff, and connect with you.
Writing posts
Let me start with two massive caveats…
Not all engagement is created equal. Reactions are nice, but if you’re posting about a serious topic and starting to start a conversation, getting more reactions than comments isn’t good. You’ve failed at your objective — to have a conversation.
When I see people in the timeline posting polls about what a bread roll is called in your local area or whether interns should be paid (heart for yes, thumbs up for no), I see an exercise in futility.
Sure, it looks like they’re getting great engagement, but what is that post actually doing? Nothing. It’s banal.
So, here are some basic guidelines for writing posts:
Start with a strong hook that’ll make people stand up and be like “wtf?”
Space out the post so it’s easy to skim read
Always have an important lesson or takeaway at the end
Add pictures, gifs, clips, or slideshows wherever possible — visuals make your post stand out in the timeline
Ask a question or invite opinions towards the end of the post
End with a call to action
And that’s it.
Know what you want to achieve with your post before you write it.
Post as only you can — everything’s been done before, so think about how can you do it in your own way.
Leave self-consciousness at the door. Engagement isn’t everything; someone could convert on a low-engagement post, so you never know!
Reply and engage
Okay, so you’ve written an amazing post and you’re feeling sassy with yourself. If you’ve done your job properly, people will be leaving comments for you.
Don’t ignore them. If anything, it’s better to keep your browser window open for an hour or so after you’ve posted so you can see who’s interacting with you.
My advice is to jump on that shit as soon as possible. Answer your comments, leave reactions to them! Your comments are counted in the overall tally under the post, you can immediately double the engagement you get by simply replying.
Let’s not forget — every reply or interaction pushes your post into that person’s timeline, expanding your reach and increasing the number of people who see it.
It’s worth your while to maximise that engagement!
Come and find me on LinkedIn and let’s get you off on the right foot, yeah?
*This is an affiliate link, so if you end up booking the course, I’ll get a small cut of the fee. No extra cost to you, just a schweet cut from Sophie for shilling her wares!