Ever since I wrote the article, How I am Using LinkedIn To Establish Myself As A Writer three months ago (and the subsequent article Lesson Learned During 30 Day LinkedIn Sprint), I have been repeatedly told by readers that they want to write on LinkedIn but don’t know how to start.
Besides, many people don’t see LinkedIn as a writing platform and have no idea of its reach.
I have decided to write a series of articles to get you started and help you understand the platform a bit more.
I am not a LinkedIn Guru, but someone who took part in Tom Kueglar’s LinkedIn 30 Days Sprint and benefited a lot from it.
As a writer, you can’t ignore LinkedIn. If Medium is the place to practice your writing, then Linked is the place to market yourself as a writer. Without a market, you won’t be able to become a professional writer.
Before I give you the first lesson to get started on LinkedIn, let me bust a few myths.
Myth #1 LinkedIn is only for professionals.
That might have been the case a couple of years ago, but not anymore. Although it may still not be like Facebook, where you can post pictures of your cat and the patio flowers.
As per LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a platform for anyone who is looking to advance their career. This can include people from various professional backgrounds, such as small business owners, students, and job seekers.
You can use it to:
- Enhance your professional reputation
- Get spotted by headhunters and CEOs
- Build connections in your industry
- Stay up to date with industry news
- Increase the visibility of your brand
- Stay in touch with colleagues
- Find work as a freelancer
- Do job searches
- Sell your courses.
What LinkedIn provides you is a unique opportunity to showcase your expertise, whether it is as a writer, coach, business builder, stay-at-home mum, money manager, or fitness instructor.
If you want to sell your services, LinkedIn is the place where you can do it. Previously, you would build a website and have content there to establish yourself as an expert.
Well, we all know that nobody goes to websites anymore. There are far too many of them around for you to stand out.
On LinkedIn, you get noticed.
With over 660 million registered users worldwide (compared to 60 million on Medium), of which 303 million are active on a monthly basis, you can’t afford to ignore the platform.
Besides, 90 million of these users are senior-level influencers, and 63 million are in decision-making positions (Source: LinkedIn Statistics for 2022).
Myth #2 LinkedIn is only useful if you are looking for work.
The real purpose of being active on LinkedIn is to share your knowledge and expertise so that people see you as an expert in your field.
Where do you think the world’s best minds are active at? Two places – Twitter and LinkedIn.
“LinkedIn isn’t just a tool that’s used to search for a new job or connect with your employees. It’s a place for users to show off their expertise around a subject and grow relationships with like-minded people.” — Krystal Wu, HubSpot.
Even if you are not looking for work, startup CEOs and headhunters might be looking for you. You might find opportunities to collaborate which might not have crossed your mind before.
Myth #3 You should only post work-related content on LinkedIn
Surprisingly, the content that does well on LinkedIn is:
- personal stories
- life lessons
- how-to information
- industry news
- quick tips
All this should be succinct and helpful. Topics that encourage productivity, leadership, and professional success also do well on LinkedIn. Information presented in the listicle format that is easily digestible also does well.
Here are a few examples:
5 Easy Step To Get You Started
Okay, I am going to give you 5 step easy start. This week, just concentrate on these five things (four if you already have a LinkedIn account).
- Create a LinkedIn account, if you haven’t got one already. Fill in as much information as you can to get started. (I will write a post about how to create a good LinkedIn profile a little later. At this point, keep your focus on getting started on the platform.
- Each day spend 15 -20 minutes reading the posts you come across. As soon as you find one that you like, stop, read, and either ‘like or leave a comment. The LinkedIn algorithm will take notice of that and send you more posts like that.
- Search the people whose work you like. Go to their profile and follow them. When you like any of their posts, take a moment and leave them a comment.
- Write at least 10–20 comments a day on other people’s posts. Interacting with others on their posts is more important than writing on the platform.
- Familiarise yourself with the platform before writing on it. Each platform has its own subtleties and nuances. You should get familiar with them.
In my next post, I will show you how to write posts on LinkedIn.
If you like, you can follow me on LinkedIn by clicking here.
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