Although your marketing plan would be focusing on Facebook and Twitter marketing, which undoubtedly are the two most used social networking platforms and with the help of them you would be achieving a substantial amount of leads. However, there is another platform that you most probably be ignored despite its significance, and that is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is perhaps the biggest social networking platform for professionals with a major focus on B2B marketing. However, partly due to the greater importance of Facebook and Twitter, and partly due to the formal nature of LinkedIn, businesses find it hard to utilize this platform for marketing, hence the number of connections on LinkedIn is always very low compared to Facebook and Twitter fans and followers. Let me tell you 7 excellent ways by using which you can double your LinkedIn connections in just spending 7 minutes a day on the platform.
Remain Active:
It might seem funny to you, but the fact is that only one-third of the LinkedIn members remain active. Therefore, regardless of whether you want to double your LinkedIn connections or want to take it slow, still you need to remain active on LinkedIn and keep on updating your status, keep on following the companies you follow and share posts with your existing connections.
Be Personal:
Although it is a platform for professionals, however, it is a social platform and social interactions happen on personal levels. Therefore, be personal in all your descriptions whether it is explaining your likes and interests, following others or recommending and endorsing your connections. This way the communication will increase and the connections will start increasing.
Reach Out:
Stating the obvious – your connections won’t grow until and unless you reach out to other people. Find the alumni groups that you can join, go for other groups related to your niche, and start finding people who are related to your business and start sending them the request of connection one by one. Therefore, the 7minutes you spend on the platform, try finding people and try reaching out to them.
Work On Engagement:
You can waste your 7 minutes on the platform by sharing content that is either irrelevant to your niche, or produces no engagement as it is not directed towards the audience. Thus, to make use of your 7 minutes wisely, you need to share content that is relevant to your niche and that results in increasing the engagement of the connections. When they engage, the ultimate result is the discussion spreading and new connection requests coming to your profile.
Endorse:
Although it is a comparatively new thing pertaining to LinkedIn, however, the benefits of it are long-lasting. In simple terms, it is like you scratch my back I scratch yours, which helps you improve your profile, and when your profile improves, the chances of connecting with others increase substantially. However, pertaining to the endorsement, you need to keep in mind a few things. First is that you should endorse others without expecting an endorsement in return. If you follow the trend of endorsing on the condition of others endorsing you in return, then the chances of your connections increasing will become limited. Secondly, appreciate people and endorse them for the skills you know they possess and when they endorse you, be grateful to them in return. This way endorsement will show its effect and your connections will increase.
Profile Promotion:
You must spend at least 7 minutes a week on promoting your profile as well. The better your profile is promoted, the more visible and reputable it gets, and when it achieves these two statuses, the ultimate result is people trying to connect with you and accepting your connection request. Therefore, promote your profile by sharing its URL in your email signature, integrating it with other social networks, and using it on your website to bring traffic from it.
Be Consistent:
Above everything, regardless of how much time you spend on LinkedIn, you need to be consistent in your approach. As I have discussed, you need to spend only 7minutes every day, just make sure that you need to spend 7minutes on consistent bases and the result will be ultimately the minutes paying off in the form of connections.
Are we connected on Linkedin?
If not, feel free to add me as a connection by clicking here.
Now it’s Your Turn!
Do you use LinkedIn? How frequently do you use it? What do you do to increase the number of connections? As always please share your feedback in the comments section below!
P.S. Want to make money online?
great tips. since linkedin is an important professional networking tool thanks for sharing your idea to gain more connects.
LinkedIn is definitely the social media outlet that gets the least amount of love from me. I’m really going to have to start working it more for my web development business! So much potential there!
I have trouble learning LinkIn. I’m trying to learn one platform at a time and then adding a new one. I think for now I’m going to concentrate on Google+ and then learn IN. Thanks for sharing invaluable information 🙂
These are great tips Nate! I guess I should start spending my 7 minutes for it 🙂 I am going to schedule this to post today on my social media platforms 🙂
Nate, I must admit I’ve put Linkedin on the back burner. The only time I use it is when we share in groups. I know there’s a lot of work to be done and it’s on my list. Thanks for all the great info.
I don’t use linked in because I don’t have a career to promote. Maybe I should use it to promote my blog though. Something to think about 🙂
Be active and personal Nate to stand out on LinkedIn. Smart! if you’ll show up daily, make inroads, chat, help, assist, and make an impact you can expand your net, in a good way. Being helpful and asking questions opens many doors on LI. Be a daily presence. No flash in the pan stuff here, because folks need to know you, and see you, before they get to trust you.
Thanks Nate!
Thank you for sharing, Nate! I am guilty of not having to update my Linkedin Profile but I am active, at least twice a week and daily posting. Hope to increase more time in it as suggested. 🙂
I just invited you to connect on LinkedIn Nate. See you over there! 😉
I think LinkedIn is an often overlooked and under used tool. I know I’m guilty of that as well! Great tips, definitely going to put some of them into practice!
Wonderful tips for using and growing LinkedIn engagement Nate. I have to admit that I don’t tend to it as often as I do some of the other platforms. But I do get involved in some of the groups and forums related to Interior Design
I have used some of these tactics and i gained allot of followers..
I share my blogs and other items of interest via Buffer and Hootsuite on LinkedIn. I receive some notifications via email and try to respond to those but do miss some. I’m not real active but somewhat active. I do not have the upgraded membership… not sure it is worth it. What’s your opinion? BTW I did send you a request.
I’m not active at linkedin as I’m at facebook or twitter. These tips are really helpful.
I honestly have not been active on LinkedIn. But you’ve given me something viable to think about. Seven minutes a day is possible, and I’m willing to try this as an experiment. Thanks for the idea!.
I have not thought that this would take seven minutes per day. Thanks for telling me that. Because of this article I am definitely going to put on my skills to learn Linkedin as one of my top priorities!
Lawrence Bergfeld
Hey Nate! Great post and I connected with you on LinkedIn. I have pros and cons about endorsements.
I get some that are way off the chart and I have no idea how people endorsed me for that skill. So as much as I appreciate it….
On the flip side I love recognizing people as I get to know them for the skills they have. So the ability to acknowledge people’s skill is awesome!
Valuable post and I appreciate learning more about LinkedIn.
I love all the tips, but I especially love the one to be personal. Even though this is more “business” based people want to interact with people. The way you break it down into 7 minutes a week also makes it very manageable. I do need to focus on this platform a bit more. Great post. Now I’m off to fins you on LinkedIn.
Nice article Nate! Thank you for sharing.
Kirk