Okay, you’re on LinkedIn. You’ve invited people to connect. Now what?
The reason to be on any social network is to engage with your audience. And each social network provides a variety of ways to engage with your audience. From the simple “like” button to more creative and unique ways to engage, you can soon develop a strategy for engaging with your audience that will help you reach your business goals.
Here are seven strategies, beyond the “like” button, that you can implement to improve your engagement with your LinkedIn Connections.
- When you see a connection has posted an update that interests you, make a comment on it. Posting a status update is their way to engage with you. Take the opportunity to make a quick connection with them. A simple comment takes just seconds, but let’s them know that you “heard” what they had to say.
- Bring your offline networking online. When you attend a live, face-to-face networking event, make note of two or three people you would like to follow-up with. Perhaps, someone made a comment in a discussion that you would like to elaborate on. Or, someone was looking for a referral or resource. If these folks are also on LinkedIn, you can easily follow-up with them after the event and off your help or insight.
- Utilize the Reading List by Amazon application. The cool thing here is that you can see what your network is reading. Click on Network Updates and you’ll see recent additions to the reading lists of others using the application. If you’ve read the book or heard something interesting about it, send them a message asking how they liked it or what other books they’d recommend.
- Make use of the Events application. When you click on your Events application it will show you a list of events you may be interested in and who has indicated that they are attending the events. The power here is that you can connect with people who are going to the event before and after the actual event. This is perfect for identifying a few individuals that you may want to check in with in-person. It also allows you to build your network with others attending the event that you may want to add to your network. A simple message saying “Hey, looking forward to seeing you at _____. Let’s try to connect during the break.”
- Participate in your Group discussions. Even though LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups, it’s hard to remain engaged with that many groups at one time. Select three or four groups that match your current goals and start discussing. Comment on posts from others, start your own discussions, and even find others in the group that you’d like to connect directly with.
- When you see that a connection has updated their profile (position, skills, photo, etc), comment on their update. Congratulate them on the new position, inquire about their skills, “like” their new photo. Your connection thought it important enough to put out there, so acknowledge that you saw the change.
- Share quality content with your connections. The beauty of quality content is that it can go viral; and who wouldn’t love their message to be shared with hundreds…thousands more. If you read an interesting update, share it with your network and add a comment as to what you found appealing about it.
There is a multitude of ways to engage with your LinkedIn network. The key is to find a few techniques that fit your style and business goals. Within minutes a day, you can reach out to and foster your relationship with more people than you could with any other form of communication. Grasp the power of LinkedIn and start engaging today.