14 LinkedIn Hacks That Will Triple the Size of Your Network in Two Weeks

LinkedIn is amazing.

When it comes to networking with professionals, there is simply no better place to hang out.

Not Snapchat. Not Facebook. Not Instagram.

LinkedIn is the professional’s jam.

LinkedIn is a great place to attract business users who are serious about their stuff.

Nearly every professional on the planet has a LinkedIn profile.

This large user base makes LinkedIn an ideal platform for marketing B2B products and services.

But here’s the thing. You need to grow your network for these marketing efforts to be effective.

In this article, I’ll discuss LinkedIn hacks that will triple the size of your network, which in turn will lead to more engagement, conversions, and revenue.

This article, in other words, is about you making more money.

Growing your LinkedIn network is how it happens.

1. Include Images in Posts

This might sound like a simple thing, but it’s really important on LinkedIn specifically.

It’s no secret that images increase engagement on social media posts. On LinkedIn, research shows that including a photo increases views 11x.



This means you need a header pic, profile pic, and pictures on all posts you publish to maximize your profile’s viewability.

You can’t just post any images, however. They need to be relevant to your target audience, in which case you’ll need to understand who that audience is.

Let’s deal with that point.

2. Cater to Your Audience

 

Do you know what your LinkedIn audience wants, likes, needs, and will benefit from?

Everyone’s network is different, but you can make a few assumptions based on the data.

For example, comScore broke down the demographic composition of each social media network. Although LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks among adults aged 30 and older, younger Millennials tend to avoid it.



What this means is you don’t have to worry about being trendy like BuzzFeed on this network. A traditional approach should work just fine on these professionals.

Generate quality leads on LinkedIn by posting unique and sensible content that encourages clicks.

A premium or paid membership on LinkedIn gives you a robust set of data on who’s viewing your profile, reading your posts, and interacting with you. It makes sense to analyze these metrics from time to time.

Whether you look at the data or not, there is one thing you should be doing — getting to know your network.

Interact, message, like, follow, post, and comment around. It will pay off as you get to know your network on a more personal basis.

7. Track Your LinkedIn Analytics

Data analytics are the only way to truly know how any online campaign is doing, and LinkedIn is no different.

Though you can’t track LinkedIn views through Google Analytics or SEMrush, you can track them through the site’s internal analytics.



The Next Web already has a great article detailing which LinkedIn analytics are available and how to access them, so I won’t delve too deeply into it here.

What I will tell you is it’s a great idea to export these metrics into your own spreadsheet or database and track them offline in conjunction with other social networking and web traffic.

Read all 14 hacks and the compete article

The 7 Deadly LinkedIn Sins

Stephen Key

LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds. No surprise -- it’s a perfect place for people to connect and do business online. Though along with the platform’s growth, there seems like an ever-growing divide between users who see huge returns on their investment and those who swear that LinkedIn just “doesn’t work.”

I get it. It’s easy to access people you want to connect and do business with, but doesn’t mean you’ll be successful, especially if you approach using the platform incorrectly. This may sound harsh, but someone has to say it: It’s not other people. It’s you. Hopefully, the below advice can help. Here are the seven deadly sins that will cause your LinkedIn outreach to go unanswered.

5. Being needy.

Have a little confidence. Act like you belong at the table. Don’t immediately reach out to someone after they accept your connection request. Don’t message them a second time after just 24 hours have passed without a response. This is another way of being respectful of other people’s time and space. I promise you, it’s a more effective way of building a foundation for a productive business relationship.

6. Getting too personal. 

It’s okay to get personal at times, but remember, this is a place for business. You’re trying to connect with people professionally. LinkedIn content, especially video, has had amazing reach over the last few years, but just because you can post something doesn’t mean you should. LinkedIn is a tool for branding. What does your lunch or the fact that you have time to post about it say about your professional brand? There are plenty of other platforms to share your political beliefs, vacation shots and breakfast choices. 

See all 7 Deadly Sins and the complete Entrepreneur article

6 LinkedIn tips to make your profile pop

By Matt Kapko

Most professionals are aware of the business-oriented social network, LinkedIn, and many of them use it. However, a large percentage of businesspeople struggle with making the most of the world's largest professional social network. 

"LinkedIn is probably the most underutilized platform on the face of the planet," according B. Bonin Bough, vice president of Global Media and Consumer Engagement, Mondelez International, a global snack foods conglomerate. Bough spoke last week in Las Vegas at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show.

We asked LinkedIn for advice for CIOs, IT executives and other businesspeople who want to stand out on LinkedIn. Here are six tips to help you achieve business value from the platform.

1) Make Your LinkedIn Profile Shine

It all begins with your profile, the default starting point where LinkedIn gives you the chance to make the right first impression and attract the most meaningful and relevant opportunities.

A scattered and poorly developed profile means you may not be showing up in relevant searches. You may also be missing out on volunteer opportunities, speaking engagements and business networking, according to LinkedIn. 

You don't have to tackle the entire job at once. LinkedIn encourages you to break up you profile makeover into a set of smaller jobs. "Adding a profile photo, a compelling headline, a summary of 40 words or more, filling out your experience section and adding your skills, are great places to start," the company says.

You can make changes to your profiles using LinkedIn's mobile app or via a new, guided experience that was recently introduced along with a series of new desktop features for profiles. 

You can also increase your exposure by adding rich media, a background photo and details about volunteer work, certifications or organizations you support. 

Each action you take helps to make you more discoverable to the hundreds of millions of professionals on and off of LinkedIn," according to the company.

2) Don't Be Shy on LinkedIn

A professional social network is no place to be shy. "Networking is crucial for your career, but people tend to transform from social butterflies in their personal worlds to flies on the wall in their professional spheres," according to LinkedIn.

Don't worry about pestering other business professionals or hesitate to contact people you haven't spoken with in a while. LinkedIn says its Connected app can help you find appropriate moments to connect. Job changes, a mention in the news, work anniversaries and recent meetings are all opportune times to reach out, according to the company. 

6) Find Your Voice on LinkedIn

"Your professional identity isn't just about what you've done," according to LinkedIn. "It's also how you think and what you know."

LinkedIn's self-publishing platform gives members a platform to share lessons learned or comment on industry trends.

You're not only encouraged to showcase your areas of expertise but to also take the time to craft an authentic voice. While your voice may not develop naturally overnight, it's important to stay true to who you are and how you want to present yourself, according to LinkedIn.

"Publishing posts is a great way to showcase your professional knowledge, position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and even highlight some of the interesting things your company is doing," LinkedIn says.

Read all 6 tips and the complete CIO article

REVEALED: The simple keywords to use on your LinkedIn profile that will have employers coming to YOU with job offers

Dawn Graham

If you’re in a job search or plan to be soon, you know that the stakes are high in this competitive market. A major part of the process where many job seekers routinely underprepare is the interview. In fact, I often see candidates spend more time planning their outfit than their content.

While what you wear certainly has an impact, what you share earns an offer. And just when you thought the interview couldn’t get any more stressful, the current pandemic has changed up the game in new ways, so there are a few additional things you need to be ready for if you want to stand out and secure a great next step in your career.

Although you’ll no longer need to worry about the grip of your handshake (perhaps ever again), here are three new aspects that will be important to focus on in your next job interview:

1) You’ll need to set up the environment. While video teleconferencing has become more popular over the last several years, use of this medium for job interviews has dominated in the past few months due to social distancing, which means expectations for a near flawless execution have also skyrocketed. Fumbling through the process while experiencing distractions and technical difficulties isn’t an option, so it’s up to you to master the platforms being used and practice beforehand so you appear confident in troubleshooting any unexpected challenges. 

And now, instead of showing up to a building where you meet in a conference room or office, you are required to set the stage for the interview environment, which takes some additional preparation and can have a major impact on the outcome. As the host of at least one side of the interview space, you’ll need to consider lighting, connectivity, audio quality, ambient noise, background visuals and video angles just to name a few. 

Everything counts and will be a part of the evaluation since it’s likely you’ll be using video technology regularly to communicate in the new role, perhaps with customers, so the interview has become an audition of sorts. 

Interviews are inherently anxiety-provoking and there’s a lot you won’t be able to control, so it’s in your best interest to control as much as you can regarding the environment. The ball for much of this is now in the job seeker’s court.

2) You’ll be asked how you’re handling the pandemic --  Read how to address this, #3 of the changes and more interview tips at the complete Forbes article

11 LinkedIn experts weigh in on how to start your LinkedIn job search campaign

Working for a One-Stop career center, I’m often confronted by job seekers who haven’t used LinkedIn but know they must in order to shorten their job search. Some of them believe they should begin by writing a compelling profile which makes good sense. But is a profile alone enough?

Put yourself in my clients’ shoes; you’re starting with nothing. Of course you need to have a profile, and the best you might accomplish is copying and pasting your resume to your profile for the time being. First and foremost 

1) Sarah Johnston advises to create a strong headline:

The first thing a job seeker should do is to consider their headline to make sure that it delivers the most value. LinkedIn only gives you 120 characters for the headline. Make sure that you are maximizing those characters to the fullest with search terms.  No recruiter is searching for #ONO or people open to new opportunities UNLESS they need a temp or contract worker for an immediate fill role. Use words that a recruiter would actually search for to find someone like you.

So where do you go from there? Perhaps just as important is inviting people to the party. In other words, building a targeted network of the most important tier of connections and expanding from there.

And equally important would be communicating with your network. After all, if you don’t engage, your out of sight out of mind. I know it sounds like a cliché but any LinkedIn expert will agree that engagement is key to your campaign.

I wanted to know what great LinkedIn minds think about how one should start and maintain their LinkedIn campaign. Here’s what they wrote:

A strong profile is necessary to start:

 

2) Andy Foote says be deliberate when writing your profile. Do your research by looking at what others write.

Before you do anything with your own LinkedIn page, look around. Peruse a few career blogs, search on “LinkedIn” within them. Then spend half a day browsing LinkedIn, search on relevant hashtags like #linkedin and #linkedintips and #andydoeslinkedin (that last one is mine).

Look at as many profiles as you can and take notes, what do you think makes a “strong profile” and why? What elements do you need? What impresses you? What should you avoid doing? After you’ve thoroughly researched and made notes, roll your sleeves up and get to work on creating your new and refreshed LinkedIn presence.

Once you’ve finished, pick 5 people you trust and ask them for their honest opinion of your new profile page, take before and after screenshots if you really want to show them the transformation that has taken place. If they suggest changes, implement those if it makes sense to you to do so. Thank them for their feedback.

Understand that the LinkedIn profile is a living and breathing document, it needs to change as you change, so get into the habit of updating and tweaking it regularly. It is also a powerful networking device. Thousands of people will look at it over the course of your life!

Take it further with targeted network and engagement

5) Kevin Turner writes that creating a targeted audience and engaging with them is also important. 

As much has been written about LinkedIn profile best practices, I’m not going to spend our time on that.
To really accelerate your momentum on LinkedIn focus on Targeting your Audience & Engaging with Knowledge to build your Brand and Demand.
Targeting Your Audience on LinkedIn:

• Research, Find, and [Follow] at least 25 to 100 Target Companies
• Research, Find, and [Follow] all Leadership of your Target Companies
• Set up Job Search Alerts for those Companies and Select [Notify recruiters]
• Visit each company [Page] and [Follow] their #HashTags, so they appear in your Feed
• Set up Google Alerts for each Target Company and their Leadership

Engaging Your Audience:

• Know each company’s and leader’s pain points and how you may be able to solve them
• Watch your Feed for Post Opportunities from your Targets that you can intelligently contribute too by [Like], [Comment], & [Reshare]
• If a conversation sparks, be ready to nurture the process, and if this becomes a repeatable pattern send a personalized invite to [Connect]
• At the right time, reach out to your new Connection with a request for their advice in the form of an informational interview

Follow these steps, and your LinkedIn experience can be transformed into a powerful campaign focused on creating your dream opportunity.nce can be transformed into a powerful campaign focused on creating your dream opportunity.

 See what all 11 experts have to say and the complete Things Career Related article

**  My bonus tips:  
1) When you send a connection request tell them why you want to connect with them.  
2) Don't ask " Can you look at my resume and tell me if you have a job that might be a fit"  If someone isn't going to put in the effort to see if the company has a job posted that might be a fit how much effort will they put into doing the job...  One caveat.. If it is a small company they might not post their jobs.

8 Simple Steps To Get Your LinkedIn Profile Noticed

Bianca Miller Cole

The pandemic has disrupted everything but with most people working from home I think it might be the perfect opportunity to finally brush up on those LinkedIn profiles. I know, you have been planning to do it for ages but now is a great time to finally sit down and look over your LinkedIn profile and question whether is it good enough. Does it represent your personal brand, does it illustrate the value you bring to your organisation, does it showcase your skillset. Ultimately you want to ensure that your online profile is attractive to potential employers or clients whilst telling a story about yourself and what you can offer. You never know, you might get that dream job or client you have always had your eye on!

Now, I am a massive fan of LinkedIn, so much so that in 2015 I was awarded a Top 10 “Power Profile” out of 20 million members in the U.K. alongside Richard Branson (Yes, I know, I am chuffed too!) so I may be a little biased. But I do believe that LinkedIn is an excellent professional networking site, it ranks beautifully for SEO and it is a great way to connect with others globally.

So why not take advantage of what is available to you at your finger tips?

Believe me, I could talk about profile optimization all day and often I do when I deliver training for my clients, so here are a 8 simple tips to get your LinkedIn profile noticed:

 3.   Don’t make your headline boring

One of the most visible parts of your LinkedIn profile is the headline. This is the first piece of information employers see about you, so you want it to be interesting but also reflect directly who you are as a person.

There are ways for you to be creative including:

-      Include brands, any famous companies you work for or are well known you want to make sure they are added in at the beginning.

-      Adding in the titles of who you are at your current place of work. So, if you are a founder or investor you want to make sure you add these words as they showcase your leadership roles.

-      You also want to highlight your expertise, if you are an expert in a niche area of your job then make sure to highlight it. Another great way to have your profile noticed is for you to include in your headline that you are actively seeking opportunities for a role. An example could be “seeking for a UX/UI internship role.”

To capture that information you could try a series of keywords or a sentence to illustrate who you are. Here is an example of mine:

"Personal Brand Expert |Speaker |Author |Entrepreneur |Forbes 30Under30 |LinkedIn 'Power Profile'​| TV Business Mentor"

Important note: A simple job title isn't often sufficient as it doesn't explain your value or experience and the title may mean different things to different industries.

6.   Be socially active!

Make sure you are active and interact with others on your LinkedIn profiles! You can do this by liking, commenting and sharing other people’s content that appear on your LinkedIn feed. You might also want to consider producing and publishing your own content, on a topic you may be passionate about. You could write an article, create a video or produce a series of images explaining an idea and sharing it with others in your network. This will show potential employers or clients your passion and will also get you more noticed through searches and shares of your work.

8.   Get those recommendations!

Employers (and clients alike) will notice if you have recommendations under each position you have had. This will show you are a valuable asset and will provide evidence that others had a great opinion about you too. You want to ask those that provide recommendations to ensure they are short and informative, saying what you contributed to the workplace, project and the role/s you had.  

These are just a few tips to get you started in getting your LinkedIn profile noticed. Enjoy the experience of creatively putting your profile together as it is a chance to really show who you are and what you can offer to the next job you work at or client your support. Although job opportunities may not be flooding in at this uncertain period of time, it is a fantastic opportunity to tailor profile and build relationships so that when normality resumes you have a kick start!

See all 8 steps and the complete Forbes article

20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile

Jane Fleming

The LinkedIn profile page is the foundation for your personal branding. And we regularly add features to increase its capabilities as a personal marketing platform and give you new ways to signal your skills and motivations. If you haven’t checked your profile page recently, you might well find new ways to build your personal brand.

Here are 20 profile features you should check and update for 2020. Some of them are very quick wins, some of them may take a little bit of time – but all of them are very worthwhile. They will help to give you the LinkedIn profile and personal brand that you deserve.

3. Make your headline more than just a job title

There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title. Use the headline field to say a bit more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick. If you’ve got sales reps at your company who are on the ball with social selling, then take a quick look at their profile page headlines for inspiration. They will almost certainly have more than their job titles in there.

4. Turn your summary into your story

The first thing to say about your LinkedIn summary is – make sure you have one! It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Try to bring to life why those skills matter – and the difference they can make to the people you work with. Don’t be afraid to invest some time, try a few drafts, and run your summary past people you know. This is your most personal piece of content marketing – and it’s worth the effort.

16. Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed

It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn – it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds value for them. Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways of doing this. You can make a start by keeping a close eye on your LinkedIn feed, and sharing content that you find genuinely interesting – and that aligns with your point of view.

17. Add comments

Sharing is great – but it’s just the starting point. When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters. Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content. It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting, for example. A comment that can express that viewpoint starts to establish your opinion and thought-leadership. It’s also more likely to draw additional comments, which then raise your profile across LinkedIn. Bear this mind when you’re writing your comment – and make sure you’re saying something you’re happy for people to associate with you.

Read all 20 steps and the complete article

Six ways to make your LinkedIn company page stand out

Dayna Steele

As business gears back up, search activity is doing the same on LinkedIn as companies look at personal profiles and company pages for hiring, contract work, leads, and more. Don’t wait – this would be a great time to get to work updating and refining your online information.  

Viveka von Rosen, Chief Visibility Officer & Co-founder at Vengreso and LinkedIn author, has six great tips on what companies should be doing right now to update your company presence on LinkedIn. 

ONE: Create a new banner 

Create a banner that speaks to your audience’s points of pain or needs right now! Especially if they have been adversely affected by Covid-19.  Use your banner to let them know you can help solve any issues your clients have due to furloughs, decreased budgets, remote working, Illness, fear, etc.  You can get the dimensions at www.VengresoBanner.com.  Check out what it might look like at www.LinkedIn.com/company/Vengreso. 

TWO: Create relevant content 

Create relevant content on your LinkedIn company page every day.  Stop the heavy-duty sales pitches and job postings.  Find content that is useful to your audience, either your own or curate relevant content from partners or clients. Use the description or “what do you want to talk about” section to describe the asset you are sharing, why they should read it, and what they’ll get out of it.  And, if you are sharing a partner or client’s post, make sure to @Mention the person or company in the post.   

THREE: Employee advocacy 

If you have employees, share the link to the post with them (in an email, or through your employee advocacy tools or a project management tool like Asana, Slack or Teams).  Then they can share it with their networks, which will significantly increase the views on your posts and may get you new followers as well. You will have to be an ADMIN to post the content, but employees don’t need to be an admin to share it. 

** I'm a big fan of number 3 **

See all six ways and the complete Microsoft.com article

LinkedIn’s AI gives job candidates feedback on their interview answers

KYLE WIGGERS@KYLE_L_WIGGERS

LinkedIn announced a new AI-powered feedback tool for people practicing answers to job interview questions. The Microsoft-owned company claims that in early tests, it resulted in a “significant increase” in LinkedIn members rehearsing their answers.

The tool taps into technology Microsoft developed for Presenter Coach, a PowerPoint feature designed to provide guidance with respect to pacing, tone, and attention, and it could be of use to the more than 50% of people who say they lack confidence during interviews. Candidates have reason to be nervous — content agency Come Recommended reports that 33% of interviewers claim they know if they’ll hire someone within the first 90 seconds.

With the new AI practice feature, once LinkedIn members record and upload their answers, they get a detailed assessment of their answer delivery within seconds. This includes a report with metrics like filler words used and their frequency, words per minute, and speed over time, as well as feedback on cadence, profanity, and phrases that might be considered culturally insensitive.

For instance, the LinkedIn tool detects the pace of speech and recommends changes that might help interviewees better understand facts and figures. If a user inserts a disfluency like “um,” “ah,” “like,” “actually,” or “basically” or makes a potentially gender-charged reference like “you guys” or “the best man for the job,” it will recommend alternatives.

“This [new tool] provides an interactive way to practice answers to the most common interview questions in private,” wrote LinkedIn senior director of product Blake Barnes in a blog post. “Interview prep also gives you the ability to request personal feedback on your practice responses from your connections.”

LinkedIn also launched a feature in preview called video introductions, which allows employers to request that candidates submit recordings or written snippets as a part of the hiring process. The aim is to enable hiring managers to assess a would-be employee’s communication skills prior to the first live interview; LinkedIn says that 92% of talent professionals consider soft skills (e.g., people and social skills) equally or more important for hire than hard skills (teachable and measurable abilities).

Read the rest of the VentureBeat article for more information and examples.