So once you understand that and embrace how to treat people like humans, how to treat people decently, how to communicate, engage with people, then LinkedIn becomes a beautiful platform to play in. If you can tap into the human connection, you can blow up your business, meeting your all agency owners, for the most part, are marketers, and so your ideal clients are on LinkedIn.
7 Types of Requests
Generally there are 7 types of requests you generally see from people on LinkedIn, with most of them being some type of spam.
- Tenuous Link - I noticed we have blue shirts in common
- Brain Picker - Do you have 15 minutes to talk with a total stranger?
- Buzzword Artist - Interested in #agile #digital #diruptive #blockchain?
- Lead Generation - I run a team t hat can help whatever it is that you do
- Spray & Pray - I'm so busy networking, I don't have time to write a note
- Sneak Attack - If you accept, I'll thank you with a nonstop sales pitch
- Someone You Actually Know
We're going to start out with a tip on how to send an effective connection request.
Sending Personalized Invite Requests
Send a request with a personalize invite; tell the person why you want to connect. Joshua was able to connect with Gary Vaynerchuk on Linkedin because he sent a note about their connection that they both spoke at an event, and passed each other again at SXSW.
Always send an connect request with a personalized message. Nobody likes receiving spam request, especially when they see the same copy and paste message from multiple people.
Social Selling
Build Your Network and Influence
It's not only your network, but multiple networks of the people that you are connected to. No longer is it just you 1-on-1 with a prospect, but through the grapevine by sharing multiple connections and building your social selling army, it then becomes much easier for your prospect to get to know, like, and trust you. This is a great way as well if you hate cold calling or cold emailing.
Why LinkedIn?
There are over 673 million members on the platform in over 200 countries and regions worldwide. 2 people are joining LinkedIn every second, along with 58% of unique LinkedIn visitors access the platform via their mobile devices. It's also good to know that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, whereas only 13% come from Twitter, and only 7% on Facebook. If your ideal client has high-end products and services, it's likely that they are on LinkedIn, as well as their ideal clients. You need to understand your audience, and if it makes sense that your ideal client is active on LinkedIn, it could be your most ideal platform to be active on. LinkedIn is the largest global community of business professionals.
LinkedIn Algorithm
LinkedIn right now is like Facebook circa 2008. The organic reach is working incredible right now, and you don't have to pay to play. It also favors those with higher Social Selling Index (SSI) Scores. You can check your existing SSI Score via Linked In or Standout Authority. You can increase your SSI score by establishing your personal brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and by building relationships. You want to aim to get a score above 46 to be considered and engaged user, but you ideally want to reach 70+ to become a leader and take more advantage of the LinkedIn algorithm.
LinkedIn Engagement
Additionally, the more that you like, comment, and share, the more will help increase your SSI score. Of course, comment are the fuel and make the 100% impact. Next, likes come in second with 50% impact, and finally shares with 25% impact. Linked in wants interaction with your network, simply having a profile is not enough. With this information, also know that you should stop asking your network to share news, and rather ask them to give a relevant comment.
Sharing and Posting
If you've ever wondered how often you should be posting on LinkedIn, you should aim for once per day. In fact, if you actually share more than once per day it could have a negative impact of the views of your posts you shared that day. The algorithm want to ensure the content is shown by more members, instead of the content from 2 or 3 "heavy-users" unless you're a big player thats verified.
Generally, if you share a 2nd post within 2 hours of your first post, it will need 3x more engagement to garner the same amount of views. Similarly, if you share 3 pieces of content in a day, one is bound to get "slapped" and have stunted reach and engagement. If you do share multiple things in a day, wait (or schedule it) more than 3 hours apart so the algorithm will almost treat it like the first. The first after posing is crucial for reach and engagement and the goal should be to get 20 engagement in the first hour. This will help result in 10k+ views.
Quality Engagement > Mass Content
This is your way to attract and influence your network. Great content lets your and your company connect to your audience. Those that post content perform greater, as well as they can more easily attract top-tier talent, and market & sell their products better. 40% of member visit LinkedIn each day, with an average of 17 minutes per week. That means that people are only spending just a few minutes each day on the platform.
LinkedIn Articles
There are over 130K articles published on LinkedIn each week. You can use this feature to write editorial blog style posts, or similarly if you have a podcast, you can embed your podcast as well as paste the transcription within the article. You could even repurpose your old blog and post them on the platform without hurting your website SEO. This is a very powerful way to share content native to the platform with your network.
Content Checklist
- Storytelling - Be authentic and add the human-element by personalizing every post
- Trust - User accurate, trustworthy content and provide proof. Quality vs Quantity
- Added Value - Communicate why the content is relevant for THEM. Thought leadership, industry insights
- Product promotion - Content that supports business. Use stories to add value and not sell
Using Hashtags
Joshua said that within his team there are a few findings that they have discovered when it comes to the use of hashtags in your posts.
- Hashtags influence the algorithm
- Without hashtags, you have 50% less impact on your feed.
- Three hashtags seems to be the magic number
- Spamming with hashtags has a negative effect on your views, and in turn engagement.
- It's better not to use any hashtags at all, rather than to use more than 6
Some other practices when it comes to using hashtags is to use one that is branded to you. Additionally, if you use an hashtag with a large amount of followers. Lastly, you want to use an industry or niche specific hashtag. Another good rule of thumb, is don't just use a hashtag because it has a large number of followers, ensure that it is relevant to the content in your post.
Top Performing Headlines
If you're going to create content on LinkedIn, these are some ot the top performing headlines that end up getting the most engagement. After examining over 10 million posts, these are the formulas for some of the top performing headlines.
Top Two Word Phrases
- How To
Top Thee Word Phrases
- X Ways To
Top Number
- #5
Top Ending Words
- ... In the World
Optimal Headline Length
- 10 Words
When to Post
LinkedIn is a business platform, so of course you want to post generally between Monday and Friday. The best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Mondays and Fridays actually have very low engagement, but those are good days to post along the lines of have a great week/weekend. Then the best times to post are generally between 7-8am, 12pm, and between 5-6pm, as these times correlate with before/after work day, or at lunch time.
How To Increase your SSI Score
By being authentic and active daily, this can help to increase your SSI to above 70 within 30 days and should take you less than 5-10 minutes a day.
Daily Actions
Make your own post and share a tip or trick that will give value to your audience you seek
Comment on someone else's post
Like someone else's post
Share another influencers post that aligns with your values
Weekly Actions
Post one article each Tuesday
Share across all platforms with appropriate hashtags and different quotes
Post to LinkedIn up to 3 times a day
Post to Facebook once a day
Post to Twitter up to 5 times a day
Conclusion
So this was one of our longer Happy Hour sessions, as well as turned into a lengthy article, but it was jam packed with value. Joshua B. Lee shared so much invaluable information with us on LinkedIn strategies to connect with humans on a deeper level. How we can leverage the platform by sending personalized invites, using social selling strategies, what type of content to post, when, and where. Joshua B. also gave us amazing insights to increase your SSI score in a short amount of time.
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