Have you ever asked yourself what you can do to easily expand your network and bypass the LinkedIn algorithm? What do you have to do to make the best use of LinkedIn in your professional life and how do you score higher on LinkedIn?
It is of great importance to have an active presence on LinkedIn. Knowing that in Belgium alone there are +/- 3,500,000 members of which about half are daily active users of the social media channel. So as a professional, you had better be part of it!
Your LinkedIn profile
Let's start by taking a closer look at your LinkedIn profile. People like personal interaction. When they visit your profile and can find out who you are, what you do and what you look like at a glance, that's perfect. So attach great importance to your header, profile picture and headline.
In a good header you will learn more about the person or for which company this person works. In the headline you tell more about your current role within the company. You can also add a nice quote that typifies you professionally. This headline will also always appear under your name when you write a comment somewhere. With your work experience you can then tell more about the company and what your specific tasks are within the company. So make sure it is always up to date.
Everyone likes to know who they are communicating with. Many people therefore look up the person in question via LinkedIn. So make sure you have a professional photo of yourself. Below we have some tips for you so that you can use the perfect photo:
- Use a high resolution photo
- It goes without saying that only you can be seen on the photo
- Ask someone to take a professional photo of you
- You should be the eye-catcher, not the colourful background
- Wear clothes that you would also wear to the office in everyday life
- Smile! This will make you look sympathetic and more approachable to strangers
Other small adjustments that can make a big difference are , adding contact details so you can be easily reached and translating your profileinto, for example, French or English if you work in an international company.
Score higher in the newsfeed with your post
First of all, you will have the greatest reach if you post on your personal profile. You will reach more people on your profile than your company page. It is also immediately more personal, which means that people are more likely to leave a comment or a like. There are some key points that you should keep in mind when posting on LinkedIn. We would like to explain these below:
Strong opening sentence: Always start with a triggering opening sentence. You want to arouse the reader's interest so that he or she reads your entire post, likes it, responds and possibly clicks through to the link. Using storytelling, for example, is a good idea.
Tagging: You can easily expand your network. The connections of the tagged person will also see your post and can therefore easily connect with you. The best effect is when the tagged person also leaves a comment on your post within 24 hours.
Avoid external links: Do not put these in the post itself but leave them in the comments. LinkedIn does not like to send people away from its platform.
Hashtags: Ideally, you should use three hashtags per post. They should be content related to what you are saying in your post. They are used as keywords so checking the reach of a particular hashtag is recommended.
Timing: There are two distinctions here, namely "dwell time" and "two golden hours". "Dwell time" is the time a person looks at your post. The longer he looks and reads, the better. Adding a slideshow to your post is therefore ideal. "Two golden hours" refers to the two magic hours after the appearance of your post. The more interaction there is on your post during these two hours, the longer it will appear in your followers' newsfeeds.
Do NOT share a post: You are better off not sharing someone else's post directly. Making the post "your own" is a better idea. You can mention why you find this post so interesting. Liking the original post and responding to it is always a plus. That way, your post will rank higher in the newsfeed of your connections.
Contacting other persons
An ideal opportunity to contact a person is, for example, when they have a new position or have a birthday. In this case, do not use pre-programmed buttons, but make the message you want to convey personal.
The message usually begins with a short intro about who you are followed by a concrete text such as "I just saw that you got a promotion in company x. I would like to congratulate you on your new job". To conclude, you can then propose a concrete action such as scheduling a meeting or call with that person.
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