Increase LinkedIn ROI With 1 Simple Change To Your Strategy

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful organic platforms for business when used correctly. However, there are many who are using LinkedIn regularly, but are not getting much from it – does this sound like you?

In this article, I’m going to outline how you can use LinkedIn for maximum impact by making a small change to your strategy.

First up, let’s discuss what your purpose for being on LinkedIn is. 

Perhaps you’re looking for a job, or maybe you’re planning to drum up clients for your service-based business, or just want to meet new business connections. Whichever it is, you need to have a purpose outlined. 

Next, who is your target market?

Chances are, you are sending connection requests – but are these to the right people?

Who is it you want to connect with? It could be business owners in a certain industry who match the market for the product you’re trying to sell, or recruiters who cover the industry you’re looking for work in. Once you have nailed who your target market on LinkedIn (those you are going to connect with), we can then move on to how we should start a relationship with your market. 

Finally, how do you want to be seen by others? 

LinkedIn is a competitive market place, and you must be showcasing your best self on your profile and in your communications with other members. This means filling out your profile as much as you can, having a good headshot as a profile picture and including a personal write-up to allow other LinkedIn members to get to know you. 

How you portray yourself online is tied in to the above points, it must match your purpose and be aimed at your target market.

Now let’s get onto what you can put into action!

When you’re connecting with new people on LinkedIn, how often are you writing a personal connect message – if at all? 

If your answer is anything less than ALL OF THEM – we need to have a talk. 

Admittedly, I have been guilty of this too on my own profile – however, there is a significant increase in real conversations when each connection has a personal message. This is the first impression that someone gets from you when you connect and quite often it’s the make-or-break of a LinkedIn connection. It’s what will open up a conversation instead of just being another notch on your LinkedIn bedpost so to speak. 

So, my quick and easy tip for you is – write a personal connection message to everyperson you connect with. It doesn’t have to be witty or clever (let’s face it, many are borrowed/stolen from someone else!), it just has to be personal. The aim is to open up a conversation. 

• Go onto their profile, find out something about them and ask them about it – we naturally love to talk about ourselves and this can get the conversation going. 
• Read their articles and make a comment on it, showing you have read it and absorbed what they have said. Ask a question about it, or perhaps some further reading. 

This also goes the other way too, if someone makes an effort to speak to you and learn more about them – don’t ignore them. 

It’s not about how many people you connect with, it is about the value of the connection and the relationship you can build. You can have 1,500 connections and have never spoken to any of them, that’s not useful. But if you have 500 connections but you’ve at least had a conversation with each of them – that is much more valuable. 

You never know where a conversation can lead.