“When I post things that I believe are worthwhile for my target audience nothing happens. Feels like throwing things into a black hole.” This is one of the responses to my survey asking people how they feel about LinkedIn. Feels like throwing things into a black hole doesn’t sound motivating to continue your efforts, does it? I understand though, I’ve been there.
The first few years that I was active on LinkedIn I didn’t have a plan. Even more so, I didn’t know there was more to it than sharing all my wildly valuable knowledge with the world! At least I got that bit right, that LinkedIn is all about adding value to your network and beyond.
I got some likes, even the odd comment. Not much else. No new connection requests, no real conversation in the comments. Definitely no new clients.
To a point though, posting on LinkedIn is throwing it into a black hole and hoping for the best. A client of mine once went to a party at her old company. She texted me excitedly the next day. People came up to her starting conversations with her LinkedIn posts as a starting point. She had no idea these past colleagues were reading her posts, as they never liked or commented.
This situation is not unique. This is happening to all of us all the time. If you want to get even more eyeballs on your content, you will need engagement. When I read an interesting article in the paper, I am glad the paper drops on my mat each morning. I don’t bother to write to the editor to show my appreciation.
Online it is a lot easier to engage with the author (you) of interesting content though. It takes one click to like and less than 30 seconds to type and send a comment. This is where it becomes interesting. When someone comments on your post a few wheels are set in motion:
- People you are not connected with are shown your content on their timeline as (mutual connection) commented.
- You can share more expertise. Always respond to comments on your posts. At the bare minimum, say thank you. Ideally, though you use the opportunity to share another small nugget of your expertise. I can’t say it enough: “Always Add Value”.
- If your posts are focused on your main area of expertise and just 2-3 related (sub) topics, people will soon start to associate you with your expertise and mention you when a question is posted elsewhere.
Key to be noticed, mentioned & remembered on LinkedIn is engagement. A lot depends on the structure of your post. There are different formats and most of them work. It all depends on what you want to achieve as to which format works best for you.
? How do you feel about spending time on LinkedIn? ?