Where Have They Gone?

Have you noticed what’s disappeared from your LinkedIn profile?

There’s something that this platform is shifting away from and it’s something that previously helped to highlight your expertise and help you get discovered.  What’s been removed from your profile, you can still use in posts but will it still have any impact now or in the future?  Well…

It looks like the answer is “probably not”

Goodbye hashtags.

So what CAN you do to ensure that you get in front of your target audience?

Hashtags in posts can still be helpful for now, but keeping them to two or three very relevant ones is best.  Not only does it make sure your post is well targeted but a paragraph of hashtags just comes over as desperate and salesy anyway.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT …

Think about what you are posting …

Make sure your posts are what people not only want to read, but what they want to comment on.  Take off your corporate hat.  Read your content aloud before posting.  Would you say it in that tone of voice face to face? 

Is your post useful, educational, entertaining, or inspirational?  Is it something YOU would want to read? 

Write LinkedIn Articles

These are a great way to increase awareness of your expertise and reach more people.  They are indexed by search engines which extends your content’s reach beyond LinkedIn.

Go and take another look at your profile

Is it clear WHO you help and HOW you help them?  Can you prove it with recommendations and testimonials? Have you made your phone number and email address easy to find? 

Grow your network and engage strategically.

Social media has turned marketing into a two way conversation.  Don’t ignore comments on your posts, respond to them.  If you can’t think of anything – at least give the comment a ‘like’.  Besides, LinkedIn are now taking your replies into consideration in their algorithm.

Comment on posts by other people, particularly those in your target audience or who have the attention of your target audience. 

Build relationships.  Don’t miss their content – invest in Sales Navigator to save them in searches or at least click the bell on their profile so that you get notified when they post.

Consider a LinkedIn Newsletter

When you start one, all your connections are invited to subscribe and it goes directly to the featured section of your profile.  After starting mine, overnight I gained a couple of thousand followers and my profile was viewed over 60 times in the following few hours.

Many of those were beyond my 1st degree connections.

You don’t have to be Tolstoy and write lengthy tomes – but go back to my first point about WHAT you are posting.  Make sure it’s useful, and engaging – the stuff people WANT to read.  Have a look at my featured section and see what I’m doing with mine.

Which of these do you do, and which will you consider…

·        Posts?

·        Articles?

·        Newsletters?