How to win business on LinkedIn
Running your own business? Here are our top tips for generating business on LinkedIn.
If you’re a freelancer, starting your own business, or hustling hard on that career ladder - LinkedIn is the place to focus your personal marketing efforts on. A platform built around networking, lead generation and career advice - it’s not something you can afford to sleep on.
Like all platforms, it takes a bit of work, but don’t let this put you off. If you’re looking to get going but aren’t sure where to start, here are our top tips.
1. Start slow
Don’t feel you need to jump in head first by posting daily. Firstly because you simply won’t have time, and secondly because it’ll feel like a huge daunting task, which only leads to one place - procrastination. We know it because we’ve been there too!
Instead, ease yourself in by reading and engaging with posts on your feed. Don’t be a ghost! This will then start pushing content you’re interested in onto your follower’s feeds, allowing you to share your thoughts and opinions more subtly.
Similarly, if you see anyone in your feed you find yourself consistently agreeing with, ensure you’re following them. Then you’ll get more like-minded content on your feed too.
Once you’ve done this for a while, you’ll start to build up a picture of what works on Linkedin in terms of formats, imagery, etc. You can then use this intel when you start posting yourself.
2. Be consistent
The word ‘consistency’ is now more overused in social than ‘authenticity’, but if you want to build an audience, they need something to keep coming back to. Once your posting confidence builds, your schedule should too. As well as engaging with content on your own feed, aim to post around 3 times a week.
Sounds too time-consuming? Bulk batching content and scheduling is your friend. Set aside an afternoon to write as many LinkedIn posts as possible, and schedule them in Linkedin to be published over the course of a few weeks. Just remember to note in your calendar when they’re going live so you can check in and reply to any comments!
3. Serve
Remember: your audience is here for your expertise. If you’re a freelancer or you’ve set up a business… you have to have some wizardry in your field. Don’t gatekeep, show off your knowledge, and remember that all those years of expertise are invaluable to others just starting out. What information would your younger self have loved to know? Can you share any valuable tidbits people can paraphrase in their next meeting?
Provide value to your audience, help them be better at their jobs, and improve their careers through you.
4. Show off
We’ve all read Stefanie Sword-Williams’ ‘F*ck Being Humble’ (or if you haven’t yet - you should) so… stop being humble, show off! Talk about your work, your experience, your expertise. Not only will this inspire your audience and help you build authority in your field, the positive self talk will do wonders for your self-esteem and give you lots of talking points for the next time you meet someone you want to impress. Win-win.
5. Jazz hands
Remember to show off what it is that makes YOU great. At the end of the day, people do business with people, so while an impressive portfolio might catch someone’s eye, sprinkling in your own personality is what will get that piece of work over the line.
Being yourself also helps to weed out people who you wouldn’t necessarily work well with in the long run too, as we all get to see exactly who you are and how you do things up front, instead of discovering once the stereotypical business facade drops.
5. Cover the basics
Obvious but important: make sure your profile is in tip-top shape. Ensure your headline clearly reflects your professional expertise and goals, use a high-quality profile photo, write a compelling summary that highlights your skills, achievements, and career aspirations, and incorporate relevant keywords to improve searchability.
And remember point 5 - imbue all of this with your own personality so your profile stands out.
6. Review and optimise
Once you’ve been consistently posting for a month, get stuck into the analytics. Review what content landed, what performed less well. Look at formats, days/times of posting, topics and more to start building up a clear view of the type of content your audience is looking for. Then take those findings and action them when you create your next batch of content!
Whether you’re just getting started or looking to refine your approach, remember that success on LinkedIn is all about consistency, authenticity, and showing off the skills and personality that make you unique.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Let’s get started…