Is there a secret formula to posting on LinkedIn, a format that is guaranteed to give success under all circumstances? Well, I think I’ve found the answer! No. Sorry about that. The fact is that with the variety of audiences, topics, formats, marketing options, networks & individual preferences we all have, there can never be one format that fits all. We all have different tastes and we certainly have different reasons for being on LinkedIn which makes a one size fits all approach to be almost impossible. Indepth posts, business topics, personal successes / challenges, motivational posts ..read more

“A picture is worth 1000 words” – ring a bell? Well, we all have a piece of prime real estate at the top of our Personal Profile that is the ideal place to make the most of exactly that. You may recognise the grey / green looking image that I’ve added below as the default background or banner that still introduces so many profiles …. what a waste! What does your say about you or what you offer? With a little bit of work (or a visit to somewhere like canva.com), we have the opportunity to create something that gives a very powerful visual message to introduce the rest of your profile. In fact t ..read more

There are so many ways we can use LinkedIn, so many parts to the site and outcomes we want to achieve. Trying to do them all at once – trying to be everything to everyone – is doomed to failure. The first key decision you should make on LinkedIn is who you want to talk to – who is YOUR audience? And what do you want to achieve from your engagement with them. That underpins everything else you do – if you are talking to the right people then you have half a chance of your message getting across. From that, you can decide: What to include in your profile to attract their attention – that’s not ..read more

Don’t try to create a LinkedIn Profile that speaks to everyone. You can’t. As Lincoln is famously quoted as saying “You can’t please all of the people all of the time”. The same most certainly rings true when it comes to your Profile as well – write it to try to talk to everyone and you’ll end up talking to no-one. So, it’s really important to decide who is your target audience when writing it. Looking for a job? Then we need to appeal to people who might be interested in employing us – perhaps hiring managers or HR or specialist recruiters (did you say Talent Acquisition Managers?) in a comp ..read more

As part of the LinkedIn for Business course and the Social Selling training, we talk about creating visibility through posting. We also talk about how engagement – our real aim – can come from lots of other areas as well. Don’t get me wrong, Posts are important for visibility but there’s much more you can tap into. I usually encourage people to start by focussing on commenting instead, getting involved in conversations before starting them themselves. So for me, commenting is in many ways just as important as Posting – maybe more so! Finding relevant topics using LinkedIn’s own Content search ..read more

Hi, I’m Mark, I’m on LinkedIn and I’m worried. Using LinkedIn comes with a set of challenges & concerns. More so than ever at the moment when things have changed so much over the past 18 months. For many, one is still “What’s the etiquette here?” or “How should I act?” or “What should I post about?”. There’s been lots written on this but most vastly overcomplicates things. Don’t get me wrong, I understand people’s misgivings – I have them too, particularly about the trend to more personal posting. But I feel most of us have an innate understanding of how to do things, because it should be ..read more

“LinkedIn is only about conversations!” announced one of the attendees on my training session yesterday – they’d been on a course and that’s what the trainer had told them. “That’s all there is to it!” Well, sort of. The trouble with talking about conversations up front is that it’s jumping the gun a little. It’s like talking about how it feels to win an Olympic medal before you’ve decided which sport to take up. There are some additional steps to take first. Such as: Who do you want to have that conversation with? How do you find them? How do you make them aware that you exist? How do you ..read more

I’m getting a little fed up of the blame culture here on LinkedIn and, to be honest, it’s getting me down. The algorithm did this, the algorithm did that … and all because you’re getting rubbish in your LinkedIn newsfeed. Well, IT’S NOT MY FAULT! (Sorry about the capitals but I feel reallllllly strongly about this) Well, when I say it’s not my fault, it is sort of … but it’s yours too! “How can we help?” I hear you ask? Well for starters if you think something you see is good and it’s something you’d like to see more of, then LET ME KNOW! I’m not a mind reader after all. Just ‘Like’ it or ‘Lov ..read more

UPDATED – There have been a lot of questions recently regarding the functional elements of adding new emails into your account and also how to set up or change the principal address where LinkedIn will send all of the correspondence and updates. All of this information is controlled from your “Settings & Privacy page” which you can access by hovering over your name in the top right hand corner of the screen when you’re logged into LinkedIn and then choosing it from the menu below. You then need to head to the ‘Sign In & Security’ menu item on the left hand side of the page – this gives ..read more

The equivalent of 5 Gold Rings, I give you 5 Christmassy C’s! Consider these when you are on LinkedIn, not just at the end of this weird year, but anytime. CONVERSATION Think about talking to people rather than trying to sell to them. That will come. The ‘Know – Like – Trust’ idea still rings true. Humanising content on LinkedIn has been a feature of 2020 & it creates conversations that develop relationships. CUSTOMISATION Create something that is personalised & individual. In your profile, your invites to connect or your follow up, we notice when you make an effort. Throw a generic ..read more