Top 5 ways to be visible on LinkedIn

If you want to effortlessly promote your brand and easily attract your ideal clients through LinkedIn, you need to be visible.

What does it mean to be visible?

Simply this – to be seen, heard and remembered by your target audience so that you’re the first (and possibly only) person they think of when they actually need the service you offer.

Sounds like a dream scenario, doesn’t it?

Here’s the thing – it’s very possible to achieve this! LinkedIn has over 660 million registered users on the platform but only around 40% of them are active on a regular basis.

That means there’s a real opportunity for you to rise above your peers in your field and claim that top space – and all the benefits that come along with it – by being visible.

Here are 5 top ways to start your journey to being visible on LinkedIn:

1) Be on LinkedIn

It sounds pretty obvious but if you want to be visible on LinkedIn, the first place to start is by actually being on LinkedIn! This means you actually need to show up, and show up every day if you’re serious. Weekends are optional.

2) Post your own content

Content is a major thing on LinkedIn. You can’t truly experience all the benefits of building an engaged community of your target audience on LinkedIn if you don’t create and post your own content.

3) Engage with other people’s content

Post your own content, yes, but then also take the time to engage with other people’s content. If you see something you like on your feed, like it; if something makes you want to voice your opinion, leave a comment; if it’s so good you need to let others know about it, share it!

Engaging with other people’s content is a great way to build relationships and, on a more selfish note, it raises your visibility by bringing more eyeballs to your own profile, so a win-win situation!

4) Use video

When it comes to being visible, there are few things better for this than posting a video. I’m not talking about sharing cute cat videos here (unless that’s your business), I’m talking about sharing content in video form that demonstrates your expertise and showcases your personality. This is a great way for your target audience to get to know you, like you and trust you.

5) Utilise other people’s platforms

The more visible you get, the more opportunities will come your way. Welcome these opportunities to utilise other people’s platforms as a way to expose yourself to a new audience.

If you’ve been on LinkedIn for any length of time, you’ll know that engagement is a pretty big deal.

What do I mean by engagement?

Simply this – building relationships with people in your network by engaging (liking, commenting and/or sharing) with their content.

This sounds easy enough on paper but in reality, finding something to engage with when you have zillions of posts in your feed can be a challenge.

But engage you must.

The good news is, there is a way around this.

Here are 10 engagement strategies you can employ today to improve the quality of content on your feed and take your LinkedIn engagement from chore to joy:

1.     Engage with content that already interests you by liking, commenting and/or sharing the comment. This trains LinkedIn algorithms to show you more of the same.
2.     Follow major influencers and thought leaders in your field. These are people who have an established track record and actively put out valuable content around the subject matter. These people are likely to share views that will interest you enough to follow through on #1.
3.     Unfollow anyone’s content you don’t find interesting. I don’t mean remove them as a connection – just unfollow them so they no longer show up in your feed.
4.     Hide boring or irrelevant posts from your feed by using LinkedIn’s “hide this post” option. This also stops LinkedIn algorithms showing you those kinds of posts.
5.     Pick a handful of people whose content you like and make a note to check their posts regularly for opportunities to comment. You can diversify this list every so often so you don’t get into a rut.
6.     Follow hashtags that are interesting to you and/or relevant to your business. For example, some of mine include #linkedinmarketing, #personalbranding, #womenentrepreneurs, #visibility.
7.     Follow hashtags linked to themes you want to explore in your own content.
8.     Follow interesting companies and organisations. Most company pages are graveyards, to be honest, but a few manage to promote good engagement on their page. Find ones like that and follow them.
9.     Engage with LinkedIn’s recommended content. This could be content they’re showing you that are trending, popular, or specifically recommended for you based on your activities and interactions.
10.     Interact in and with the active LinkedIn groups you’re a part of. What you like/comment on in groups also influences the content LinkedIn shows you on your own feed outside of these groups.

Your overall activity on LinkedIn will determine what LinkedIn shows you on your feed. If you follow through on as many of these engagement strategies as possible, and give it a little while to kick in, you’ll soon see an improvement in the quality of content on your feed.

If you want to be visible you need a strong personal brand.

Your personal brand matters because it’s what people remember about you and, if you’re in business, it’s why they decide to work with you – or not.

This is *especially* important if you have a service business – people don’t just buy into what you do (newsflash – you’re not the only one doing it!), they buy into who you are and your particular way of doing what you do.

That’s why marketing your personal brand is important.

Here are 7 top ways you can start doing that on LinkedIn today:

1. Complete your profile
2. Build quality connections with your target audience
3. Create and share original content
4. Showcase your achievements
5. Engage with your network
6. Get endorsed / recommended
7. Be consistent with showing up on LinkedIn

This is an extract from a 45-minute keynote presentation I deliver on LinkedIn marketing strategies. Send me a message if you’d like to book me to speak at your next virtual (or live) event.

If you want to start being visible on LinkedIn so you can promote your brand and easily attract your ideal clients, you need to have a magnetic profile.

A magnetic profile is one that tells your brand story, speaks directly to your target audience, and *pulls* them towards you and your service offering with minimal ‘sales’ effort on your part.

Not got one of those?

Don’t worry, here are five quick profile fixes you can carry out today to take you in that direction.

1) Show your face

Yes, that’s right – none of this hiding your picture stuff or using a company logo as your profile picture. In the service business, people generally buy from people they “know, like and trust”.

A picture is an easy way to start building trust and likability, so polish those pearly whites of yours and get to snapping a professional photo if you don’t already have one.

2) Get a personalised banner

Nobody wants to see that boring blue LinkedIn default background on your profile. Stand out and be visible by personalising your banner to match your brand and message.

3) Tell people how you help them in your headline

Your headline needs to instantly tell people how you help them so they are in no doubt of your service provision. It needs to speak more about the results you achieve and less about you and your qualifications.

And since you ask, no, that doesn’t mean you have to start with the now somewhat clichéd phrase of “I help XXX do XXX…”

4) Lose the ‘I’ focus from your About section

I hate to break it to you, but your audience don’t actually care about you that much. They care more about themselves and what you can do for them (see fix #3) so be sure to address that in your write-up in a language they’ll easily understand.

Less “I” and more “you” in your write-up.

5) Include a clear call to action

What do you want your audience to do after viewing your profile? Do you want them to book a call with you? Buy your book? Join your mailing list…? Whatever it is, take out the guesswork by telling them directly with a clear call to action (CTA).

Oh, and if your CTA is for them to visit your website, please make sure that the URL actually works (you’ll be surprised at how many people are driving away potential clients by marketing dead website links).

So there you have it – implement these five quick profile fixes today and you’ll soon have your ideal clients beating down your doors to work with you!