Tag Archives: LinkedIn strategy

A is for Audience: A to Z of LinkedIn

Ato Z of LInkedIn - AudienceThere 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 just the information itself, but the language you use and the visuals you include to attract and influence
(more…)

Article Categories: A to Z of LinkedIn
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Treat people right – LinkedIn Advent Calendar (Day 2)

Participating on LinkedIn – or any online environment – comes with its own particular set of challenges & concerns. One of those concerns is often “What is the etiquette of using it?”

In response, people have written a whole range of pieces of advice and there are there are massive tomes advising on how to go about it. While they have their place, I honestly feel they vastly over complicate the whole thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand people’s misgivings. However, for LinkedIn, I feel most of us have an inbuilt understanding of how to do things, because it’s exactly what we do naturally face to face or over the phone every day. We meet new people, we introduce ourselves and ask about them … essentially, we talk to them!

However, on LinkedIn, either we disregard all of this accumulated knowledge (more…)

Article Categories: LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips, Using LinkedIn
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5 Steps to Success on LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn: 5 steps to successThere has been much written about LinkedIn over the years and how it can work for you in business. Given that I have spent the last 10 years training companies and individuals on it, you are likely to expect that I’m going to be positive about what it offers. You’d be right, I’m a fan.

Having said that, I also recognise there is no single way to benefit from it – from job seeking to recruiting, networking to online training, business development to inbound marketing, the potential uses are many and very varied.

There are, however, some key underlying elements that we can all tap into – key steps to success if you like – and what we are going to look at below are some that will prove beneficial to using LinkedIn effectively, whatever your motives are for being on the site.

1. Decide what your current objectives are

LinkedIn is such a potentially wide-ranging tool, that you can use for a whole host of different reasons. Indeed, during your career as you enter different phases, your use will be radically different according to your current needs, situation and role.

Therefore, our first challenge is (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips, LinkedIn Training
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Getting the most from LinkedIn in 2019

While it is the start of the year, it’s true – oh, and Happy New Year by the way! – checking and confirming that we are using LinkedIn in a focused and targeted way is something that we should ideally be doing on a continual basis.

Sounds all a bit harsh, but if we are doing to get the best return on the time that we put into our time on LinkedIn, then it’s important that we have all of the elements working together for us.

So, almost without further ado, here’s a few things to bear in mind as you do so:

1) Be clear what you want to achieve on LinkedIn

This, for me, underpins everything else. I consider LinkedIn to be a tool to achieve a goal, not a “place to hang out” – though there are clearly benefits in interacting with your target audience on here.

Nevertheless, most of us are using LinkedIn to achieve something and have our “day jobs” to fit in as well – therefore, we need to clear in our own minds what are our goals for being on LinkedIn – effectively, why are we spending time on there in the first place?

It might be to develop new business, recruit new staff, market your company or services, find a new role or simply network and use it as a personal branding opportunity. Whatever it is, make sure that you are clear about your aims and focus your efforts behind that – without an objective, you will in all probability be wasting your time on LinkedIn. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, Content Marketing, LinkedIn Strategy, Using LinkedIn
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Getting the most from Who’s Viewed Your Profile page

Whenever I’m running training sessions, one of the areas we talk about that always gets a big thumbs up from the attendees is the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” page on LinkedIn.

In almost all cases, when I ask if people check out who’s been looking at their Profile Page, I get a resounding “Yes!” from the majority of those in the room. That’s great! However, their reasons tend to be more personal interest than anything else and any solid action that they take afterwards, using the information they find there, is much less clear cut.

For me, I’d encourage you to make it as practical as possible. It’s a source of potentially very valuable information and if you are already using it as such, then congratulations! For me, that more how it should be used, something which is much more useful than a simple area of interest as the information it contains can lead to both new potential contacts and opportunities. (more…)

Article Categories: Business Development on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Marketing, Networking supercharged
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Why having a LinkedIn strategy is important

LinkedIn Strategy & PlanningI think that most people will agree that it’s important to have goals, both in terms of your business and indeed your personal life. Without them, it can be all too easy just to meander along without any clear direction or impetus – as the old adage goes, “if you don’t know where you’re going , any road will take you there”. [Aside: we had a slightly different turn of phrase for that where I grew up in Suffolk, but I’ll save that for another day!]

Certainly in business, planning is important if you want it to be as successful as it should be, particularly given the effort that you are putting into it. This doesn’t have to be a strategic 12 month or 3 year plan (though they do help … allegedly!), it can simply be setting a few key targets at the start of each month or year. Likewise, I feel that any marketing or business development actions that I take should also be designed with their specific goals in mind.

Does this apply to LinkedIn?

For me, planning your participation on LinkedIn falls fairly and squarely into this category. Particularly within a B2B environment, it is likely to be a key component of your online marketing strategy. It is therefore necessary to ensure (more…)

Article Categories: LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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