Voted the most trusted social network of 2020 in the US, LinkedIn is evolving to become THE platform for educational content and professional collaboration. In 2020, content creation and engagement increased by over 60%, with big industry leaders such as Bill Gates, turning to LinkedIn to share topical content and host live streams.
“In the two years I have been active on the platform, my connections have increased dramatically, I have had several articles go viral, I have been offered international speaking opportunities, I signed new clients and I have received some of the most beautiful notes telling me that my articles or posts have helped in some way.”
Personal Branding Coach and International Speaker Carlii Lyon
So, if your LinkedIn profile is circa 2015, below is a list of 5 hacks that we live by at Women Love Tech to elevate your profile to thought leadership status.
The next step is to build your bio. You can increase your connection requests fivefold just by including your current position and listing at least five relevant skills. Your bio should answer the questions: who you are, who you represent and what you offer. Resist using your ‘About’ section as a resume. Write in the first person and keep it simple by offering a flavour of who you are with a few career highlights.
1. Build your profile
It’s important to remember LinkedIn is a business platform, not a social platform and your profile must reflect this. Put your best face forward, with a clear photo against a plain background. Avoid using photos that include other people (or animals!).
With the new banner feature, LinkedIn is offering you further real estate to elevate your profile. Think of this as an evolving canvas for expressing your personality and/or personal brand.
The next step is to build your bio. You can increase your connection requests fivefold just by including your current position and listing at least five relevant skills. Your bio should answer the questions: who you are, who you represent and what you offer. Resist using your ‘About’ section as a resume. Write in the first person and keep it simple by offering a flavour of who you are with a few career highlights.
2. Become a thought leader:
Build your sphere of influence and make an impact on your industry with content that stands out. Start by discovering who your target audience is, your content should resonate with that audience. The next step is to build a content plan that includes a variety of content including short-form and long-form posts, video and articles.
Posts:
When writing your posts, ensure you use hashtags to increase your reach.
Build your profile:
It’s important to remember LinkedIn is a business platform, not a social platform and your profile must reflect this. Put your best face forward, with a clear photo against a plain background. Avoid using photos that include other people (or animals!). With the new banner feature, LinkedIn is offering you further real estate to elevate your profile. Think of this as an evolving canvas for expressing your personality and/or personal brand.
Videos:
Videos should be less than 1 minute and ideally uploaded directly as a “Native video”. Unlike embedded videos, LinkedIn native video autoplay in-feed, which is more likely to grab attention.
Articles:
Hosting articles on LinkedIn is a great way to take advantage of powerful google indexing. It’s a great way of sharing your professional knowledge with your connections and gaining followers on the platform.
3. Hack the algorithm
LinkedIn will determine whether your content is spam, low quality or high quality. Avoid the spam filter by using good grammar, limit links and posting at least 3 hours apart.
High quality is:
- No more than 3 to 9 hashtags
- Formatted and easy to read
- Niche rather than broad
- Free of outbound links
- Strong keywords
4. Be active, not passive
Only 3 million users out of 740 million share content on a weekly basis. This means only 1% of LinkedIn’s monthly users share posts. That means 3 million users net the 9 billion available impressions. So, be one of them.
DO:
- Post when your followers are online.
- Ask a question
- Interact with other posts
- Respond to everyone who engages.
DON’T:
- Just post and forget.
- forget to tag people
- Go back and edit your post.
Top tip: maximise the top 3 lines of the post as it’s what everybody sees.
5. Learn from the best:
Robyn Foyster, CEO of the thought leadership agency InProfile, says: “with LinkedIn still in a growth period for content creation, now is a great time to watch, learn and model off those industry leaders making a big impact with their content.”
Here are our top 5 follows to get you started:
- Bill Gates – responsible for 50% of the 10 most engaging LinkedIn articles in November 2020
- Richard Branson – a veteran of LinkedIn, check out his new ‘ask me anything’ segment where he answers one question from his followers each month in his LinkedIn newsletter.
- Sallie Krawcheck – voted one of LinkedIn’s top voices of 2019, her honest take on entrepreneurship is refreshing and resonates with her nearly 3M followers.
- Arianna Huffington – boasting nearly 10M followers, Arianna uses a personable approach to speak about topics that matter to her.
- Dania Khawaja – celebrated by LinkedIn Spotlights as one of the 12 most viewed and engaged Australian profiles.
One final thought on content, strive for consistency over perfection.
“Your content is like a steel ball in a pinball machine, your fans operate the flippers at the start of the game and every person who subsequently engages is like a pop bumper making your post bounce again (via likes, mentions, comments re-shares) to someone else, via notifications.”
LinkedIn expert Andy Foote
About Robyn Foyster:
Robyn Foyster is an entrepreneur, experienced executive and board director. She has successfully led multiple companies including her own media and tech businesses. Her thought leadership agency InProfile helps clients craft their message into compelling multi-media content.
Robyn’s websites include the award-winning tech site for women WomenLoveTech, Lifestyle site TheCarousel and business site GameChangers. She is the only person to edit and publish Australia’s three biggest flagship magazines – The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and New Idea. Voted one of B&T’s 30 Most Powerful Women In Media at the Women in Media Awards, and winner of the prestigious Magazine Publisher Association’s Editor of the Year Award.
Robyn is a regular speaker and has been a judge for the Telstra Business Awards and Telstra Business Women’s Awards for five consecutive years”.
