John had considered signing up to LinkedIn before but had never got around to it until he attended a talk I recently gave at his alumni networking group. At the end of my talk John asked me if I would be interested in coaching him to set up his account and get productive on LinkedIn.
The following week we started working on his profile, building his network and drawing up a strategy for consistent activity and engagement….John was a great student so I was not surprised to hear that he quickly gained success but even I was shocked by the following results. Within 3 weeks he had;
- Increased his profile views to 300 a week
- Without inviting anyone else to connect his network (1st tier) had increased by 40%
- His first published post achieved over 1000 views, 32 comments and 54 likes.
Within 8 weeks he had;
- 500 profile views per week
- Over 3000 connections
- Averaged 500 views, 50 likes and 15 comments per status update.
- A published post had achieved over 500,000 views, 800 likes and 80 comments.
- Won 5 new clients directly from his LinkedIn activity and had another 10 firm enquiries that were currently being discussed.
Wow!
So how did he do it?
Let me tell you a bit more about John first.
John’s full name is John Doe…….i.e. he is not real and the above success didn’t happen at all!
You see the truth is that this kind of overnight success simply doesn’t happen on LinkedIn.
For sure you can build a large network quickly and that will allow you to gain plenty of profile views.
You can also carry out various other high volume activities to falsely ‘buy’ profile views but what are they really worth to you?
People have written one post on LinkedIn that has achieved incredible views but they are unable to repeat it (unless they are an INfluencer) and have no idea why it went viral.
Some status updates also unexpectedly go viral but they rarely, if ever result in winning new business.
The truth is that the only way to succeed with LinkedIn is to implement a regime of consistent activity and engagement over a significant period of time (months/years not days/weeks).
The steps are simple;
- Create a great profile that is authentic, credible and appealing
- Build a strong network by connecting to relevant, interesting people
- Aim to build real relationships with a minimum of 20% of your new connections
- Read and share relevant, high quality content every day.
- Create your own content
- Comment on other users updates at least once a week (ideally more)
- Post 1 status update every working day
- Contribute to a minimum of one discussion in one high quality group every week.
- Publish min 1 post on LinkedIn each month
- Ensure that 75% of your activity is non promotional and aimed at helping others
Then repeat steps 2-9 again……and again…..and again
Observe what is happening, measure response rates and adjust your activities accordingly.
Keep at it….most people don’t but persistence is the key to success.
And enjoy the rewards of being an ‘overnight’ LinkedIn success story!
Good luck and let me know if you need any help.