LinkedIn Like A Pro

My friend recently got a job as an HR saddled to recruit individuals for various roles both locally and Internationally. Which requires her to be on LinkedIn almost every minute. But how does she get to reach more people whenever she posts an opening, How will she increase her audience on LinkedIn?

I know LinkedIn can look too serious or too professional, probably the reason why most people don’t find it interesting. But it is of great advantage if you understand how it works. I will be showing you some steps on how to make your LinkedIn stand out and increase your audience.

Optimizing your LinkedIn Profile

To Optimize? To make as perfect, Effective or Functional as Possible. Notice that it mustn’t necessarily be perfect at first, while optimizing your profile, you should see yourself as a brand. People should be able to look at your profile and know what you’re about. Some profile features you should focus on include;

• Profile Picture — Choose a profile picture that stands out, that focuses on you. Make sure the picture is recent and looks like you, your face should take up 60–70% of the space( I Strongly advise against pictures that gives more attention to the environment)
• Background Image — This is also important, it should capture your drive, motivation or what you hold dear, It could be your family, your favourite quote.
• Headline — People see your headline when your share a post, drop a comment on someone else’s post and when you send an invitation to connect. Make sure your headline shows what you do and also your current position. your headline further tells people what kind of content to expect from you. People want to follow people they can gain or learn from. “People follow value.”
• About — This is your chance to tell a story, don’t just list your skills or job titles you’ve held but rather bring to life why does skills matter and it’s important to any organisation or person. Take your time in writing this.
• Take a skills assessment — LinkedIn has an online test that enables you to demonstrate the level of your skill and displays a verified skill badge on your profile. Displaying proof of your abilities, which further strengthens your profile.
• Request Recommendations — A feature you can use to your advantage is recommendations, these are endorsements that give people viewing your profile a certain level of confidence in your work. Recommendations are personal testimonials written by others to illustrate the experience of working with. There is a handy drop-down menu in the recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy for you to reach out to specific contacts and request a recommendation from them, you can also ask your colleagues or friends to drop a recommendation on your profile while you repay the favour(A personal cheat code😊).
• List your relevant skills — “Relevant”, some skills are presently not relevant to your current position, remove those skills, and keep your profile organise, clean and focused.
• Creator Mode — Helps you highlight contents on your profile, show topics you talk about on your profile and also, follow will be the primary action shown on your profile and your follower count will be displayed. You can either turn the creator mode “ON” or “OFF”.
• My Items — LinkedIn helps you to keep track of jobs you applied for or posted, articles and courses. You can use this feature to your advantage

When you learn a new skill or earn new certifications, you should always come back to add it to your profile. Your profile shouldn't be outdated.

Content

After setting up your profile, the buck of the works lies in dropping relevant content to keep your audience engage and to attract new ones. So how do you achieve this?

• Content Strategy — In growing your LinkedIn audience, you have to be deliberate. Create a content calendar for yourself for topics to talk about in your field at a particular time. I know this looks like hard work but trust me it will pay. Personally, you’ll see evident growth. It could be once a week or once in two weeks, it all depends on you. choose what best works for you and be CONSISTENT.
• Tell a story — After creating a content calendar, you need to approach each topic like a story, people relate more with contents that have a slice of emotion. People want to know how this topic has saved you and how it will help them. Also include data were necessary.
• Unbiased Questions — Is JavaScript the best programming language?😍 Investing in Crypto, is it a financial advice? These are open-ended questions that drive comments from people. You can follow their comments up with other questions.
• Share positive Content — posts with positive sentiment do well on LinkedIn and other platforms, you can share encouraging words that your audience can connect to
• Dispel common Myth — There are myths in your profession that you can research on and dispel from time to time, it will drive engagement and also increase your knowledge.
• Images and Videos — Instead of posting plan text, add images and videos to your content but be careful not to overdo it.
• KISS — Keep it straight and simple, people get bored easily, so try not to choke your audience with really lengthy contents they might not read. If possible, divide that long topic into different parts like a series.
• Hashtags — Take advantage of hashtags, It gives your post more publicity. you can do a quick search on the hashtags to see their engagement before using them. create your own hashtag if you want, to keep track of your posts.

Don’t ever feel something is too small to talk about or share, share your thoughts about books you read, a new trick you learnt, a new habit you picked up and how it has helped you, something you’re currently working on etc.

Comments

Engage the post of experts in your field, people you admire and people that are connections already, give your two cents, ask questions in their comment sections. Conversations in the comments section can easily turn into connections. People who find your comments interesting will naturally what to connect with you.

Reply to comments on your post too, don’t ignore others comments, if you don’t know what to say drop an emoji. expect if the comment is abusive and malicious in this case I’ll advise you to ignore it.

Bonus Tips

For someone who just became active on LinkedIn with zero or few connections, you can also add these tactics;

• Connect with people directly, these connections will become followers, increasing your engagements.
• Connect with people who engage your posts and also those who regularly engage the post of others you admire.
• Seek out people in your field and connect with them.
• You can also send customized messages when sending an invitation to connect.
• As stated earlier, pick your niche and optimize your profile accordingly and also share relevant content as discussed above.

Finally, HR, Recruiters and job seekers can take advantage of LinkedIn products and Business Services to post job openings, find talents, find jobs, and also be notified when jobs related to your field are posted. these features are all available in the Products and Services section.

Recruiters are constantly searching for a perfect fit for various companies on LinkedIn, if you are actively searching for a Job, it will be in your best interest to update your profile regularly( If in the past few days you’ve worked on something new, gained a new certification), and also stay active.

My friend inspired this post, send her a connection on LinkedIn👉 here👈. She’s an HR person, she can help you land your dream job😉.

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