By Rita Perez, CTA, VTA, MCC, Founder, Take the Helm, LLC and member of The Travel Institute’s Professional Educators Program (PEP).
Tired of chasing all the new trends on traditional social media platforms? That’s kinda why I prefer LinkedIn–there’s so much value in authenticity and your authority as an expert, as opposed to lip synching and dancing on video.
(Though, I do love a good lip sync!)
So if you’ve never utilized LinkedIn before, or just need a refresh, let’s take a mini-dive into some of the strategies that work on this professional social media channel.
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Connect! Above all else, make connections on this platform. Connect with people in the industry (suppliers, agencies, support partners), people you think would be dream clients, professionals who are local to you, and business owners who might provide complementary services, to give you a few ideas.
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Engage with your connections: You cannot simply make posts on any social platform, but especially on LinkedIn. You have to connect with your connections (go figure!), by engaging on their content, as well. And this is not just a rinky dink comment; comments you add should be providing value, as if you were having an in-person conversation.
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Take the relationship off-platform: If you’ve started connecting with people you really jive with, reach out to them on LinkedIn to see if they’d be open to meeting. If close enough, you can set up an in-person coffee chat, but if not, a virtual coffee chat through Zoom or Google Meet will work just as well.
The more connected you are, the higher the likelihood for opportunities to arise. And opportunities come in all shapes and sizes.
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Sales are not the only types of results: Yes, sales lead to the livelihood of your business, but there are other opportunities that can lead to sales. Relationships with LinkedIn connections can lead to warm referrals and potential collaboration opportunities that may get you in front of your ideal clients.
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Always add a Call to Action to your posts: Speaking of sales, make sure you are asking for them, or at least leading your connections in that direction. Some examples include asking a question for comments, asking to be connected with a certain type of person, asking if someone can relate or has ever experienced a story you are sharing, or asking to set up a call with you for more information.
And a little bonus for you–LinkedIn now allows you to natively schedule posts within the app. While there’s still a few kinks to work out, they do prefer you scheduling natively in the app/site, as opposed to utilizing a scheduler.
I mention this because I would hate for you to end up in LinkedIn’s virtual jail because the algorithm got mad.
So there you have it–5 strategies to keep in mind when using LinkedIn in your overall marketing strategy.
Want some more LinkedIn guidance? Download my FREE LinkedIn Roadmap to map out some of the first steps you should take when deep-diving into using the platform on a regular basis. Happy Connecting!
