How to Achieve Success on LinkedIn as Seen in the Yorkshire Business Review

The Yorkshire Business Review kindly featured my article on How to Achieve Success on LinkedIn on page 41 of their Spring 2020 issue. Here I reveal the LinkedIn tips I shared in the Yorkshire Business Review to help make LinkedIn work for you.

Have you got a LinkedIn profile? Most of us do, in fact, over 25 million people in the UK have one. But how many of us truly benefit from it?

Let’s start with purpose. What’s the point or rather, what’s YOUR point for being on LinkedIn?

In my experience, the main reason professionals are unsuccessful on LinkedIn is because their expectations are too high too soon or they are measuring ‘success’ in the wrong way.

Allow me to explain.

We all want sales. The lifeblood of business success is arguably securing new clients. However, on LinkedIn, the primary aim should be to build relationships through offering continuous value to your network. This value should be in consistent engagement – sharing insights, sparking discussion by commenting on posts, and original thought-leadership content underpinned by a strategy, shared as Posts, Articles, Documents or Videos.

Over time, you’ll find yourself becoming the ‘go-to’ expert in your field, encouraging people to reach out. When properly nurtured, these relationships can develop into positive business opportunities that will result in sales later. There are few quick wins on LinkedIn. The ‘secret’ is having a consistent long-term thought-leadership and engagement strategy.

Patience and consistency are key!

There are some best practice tactics that I find increase your chances of building beneficial relationships. When you receive a ‘someone’s viewed your profile’ notification, don’t be daunted by them ‘stalking’ you. Instead, visit their Profile back. If you think you can be of value to each other send a Connection request. Always – I can’t stress this enough – personalise your Connection request with a friendly message. Avoid launching into a sales pitch. There isn’t a ‘Buy Now’ button on LinkedIn for a reason – you should NEVER sell on LinkedIn!

“There isn’t a ‘Buy Now’ button on LinkedIn for a reason – you should NEVER sell on LinkedIn!”

I’d also recommend engaging with other people’s content more often than publishing your own. LinkedIn is a community, so add value with every comment, leaving the generic ‘That’s great’ comments for Facebook. Make a habit of interacting with content on the subject you want to be known for. This will increase the chances of LinkedIn’s algorithms showing content related to that subject in your feed, making it easier to find content in your field of expertise to engage with.

Lastly, it’s not about you on LinkedIn. It’s all about adding value to your growing audience, building trust in your personal brand. When your audience wants what you have, they’ll come to you.