LinkedIn Profile Views.
One of the most important ways to develop business is to attract people to your LinkedIn profile and your personal brand. When you know who is viewing your LinkedIn profile, it can lead to new business, meetings with prospects and an opportunity to reengage with people whom you have not connected with for a while. Yes, looking at profiles can seem a bit like cyberstalking, but it is a feature that LinkedIn offers and we need to take advantage of it. It is no secret that this feature exists, so why hide the fact that you know that people are viewing your profile or you are viewing theirs?
The following are a few strategies to get more profile views:
LinkedIn Publishing
LinkedIn’s publishing platform is basically a blog. You need to use it to show your expertise, knowledge and personality. To get more profile views, post often (at least once a week). This platform, which has been available for over a year (February 2014) offers a perfect opportunity for creating a blog, especially if you do not have one. Once the blog is published, share the content in your own news feed and in your LinkedIn groups as well as on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
I started to use the platform and it is driving profile views. The platform has surpassed the 1 million mark in LinkedIn users who are publishing. This is not really a large percentage of users when you consider the total number of LinkedIn users is over 330 million. The fact that you are among those using the platform is a differentiator that will attract people to you and your brand.
LinkedIn Profile Views graph.
As I have stated previously, LinkedIn is where your brand lives and your blog is where your brand can come to life. Now both can happen in the same place – on LinkedIn.
Top of Mind – Actively Posting on LinkedIn
We must stay “top of mind” with contacts, friends, family and prospects. LinkedIn users typically go through the effort of creating a profile and then expect people to find them and view their profile just because they are there. The Field of Dreams model of “If you build it, they will come,” will not work. You may get some visitors but you need to be active to get a larger number of real profile viewers who are interested in you and your brand. Remember, you can’t just “set it and forget it”; you have to be active and engaged.
For posting on LinkedIn, consider how much time you can spend to accomplish your goals. Create a time budget for collecting or creating content that you will share in your news feed. You want to be active and try to post every day. I like to see people post daily (yes, even on weekends). Some other suggestions: share your own content (blogs or articles), write long-form posts about a topic or a subject of interest to you, like other people’s comments and comment on posts. When you share your content, be sure to use an image or video whenever possible. Images and videos will enhance posts, spark interest and will attract three to eight times more engagements (comments, likes or shares). Also, test the content that you post to see what gets attention. Keep in mind that content needs to be consistent with your brand and point of view.
News Feed and Group Engagement
Engagement comes by interacting with people on their posts, but it is also about being active and listening. You should post questions and provide commentary that leads to open-ended questions. Use true and false questions in your feed or in groups. If you see other people asking questions, answer them as well.
These actions will assist in getting views from current contacts but you can also engage with people in groups with whom you are not directly connected. When people in groups find you interesting, they are going to check out your profile and potentially connect with you. When they like your posts in groups this is also a great opportunity to ask a question or connect. Remember, in addition to profile views, making connections and building relationships (not selling) is what LinkedIn is all about.
Using the LinkedIn InMail capability to communicate with people whom you are connected with will strengthen relationships and your ability to share information, whether it is a link on your publishing platforms or simply saying hello.
LinkedIn “Keep In Touch.”
LinkedIn’s “Keep in Touch” feature is a valuable feature where birthdays, changes in positions and new jobs among your connections are highlighted and can help give you a reason to reach out and communicate with someone who is a potential source of business, a prospect, an influencer or a thought leader. Ask questions and tell people proactively what you are up to.
LinkedIn is by far the best platform for business-to-business relationship building. In terms of lead development, it is 277 times more effective than Twitter or Facebook in the B2B space. These strategies are critical for driving your business relationship and business relationship success on LinkedIn.
Connect with me on LinkedIn today and check out my profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billcorbettjr
By Bill Corbett
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