by Caroline Leach | Jul 3, 2017 | Social Media
What content do people engage with the most on LinkedIn?
For me, it was a surprise.
As I began to analyze the analytics for my activity feed, posts on major holidays were among the content that rose to the top.
This seemed counterintuitive because all I had done was share a leadership quote relevant to the holiday along with a beautiful photo.
This is why analytics are so powerful – you can see what type of content is engaging your network the most. Then you can build on it and improve what you’re doing.
As part of your social media savvy strategy, here’s a 3-step process for posting holiday-related content:
1. Find a leadership quote relevant to the holiday.
Align your holiday quotes with leadership and business themes you frequently post on. Search Google for leadership articles related to the holiday. See which of your favorite sources pop up as well as new sources. Be sure to appropriately evaluate and vet your sources.
- Choose less-well-known quotes. Look for quotes you’ve never heard or seen before. Keep searching until you find one. That way, you’re more likely to surprise and delight your network with something fresh.
Here’s one I chose for Memorial Day. The quote was new to me, I learned more about citizens who serve in the Seabees, and it focused on tenacity and persistence – qualities that are helpful to all of us.
- Provide a diversity of perspectives. Broaden your lens. Keep an eye out for compelling quotes by both women and men as well as people of different ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.
For Thanksgiving, this quote by author Alex Haley caught my eye. It works equally well for professional and personal purposes. Not to mention that it powerfully sums up Thanksgiving in just 6 words.
2. Pair it with an eye-catching image. I swear by my subscription to iStockphoto, which is the source of the images in the LinkedIn posts featured here. Canva is another good resource for photos and design.
And there are great ideas about “awesome free images” in a detailed post by blogger Marko Saric.
3. Add hashtags. Make your post more discoverable by adding one or two hashtags. Search LinkedIn and Google for the obvious hashtag for the holiday – e.g., #FourthofJuly – and see what other hashtags people are using in their posts.
Lastly, keep an eye on comments and respond in a timely manner to further engage with people in your network. Holiday posts elicit the most “hi, how are you doing?” types of comments. That makes them a fantastic way to keep in touch with people.
How do you make the most of major holidays on LinkedIn?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 29, 2017 | Social Media
An interesting thing happened when I posted to LinkedIn every weekday for a month.
I also tweeted a few of my shorter posts. One of them was about knowing when someone has true leadership skills.
This was one of my learnings: tweet every LinkedIn post and article. But a bigger learning was still to come.
In sharing this particular post, I expressed thanks for the great bosses and leaders I’ve had to far in my career. And I asked “what leaders have inspired you and why?”
While I follow the best practice of asking a question in posts and tweets, I must confess they don’t usually generate much engagement.
But this time was different. To my surprise and delight, a colleague responded by singing the praises of one of our other colleagues. She did it in wonderful detail, mentioning specific leadership traits in an enthusiastic and engaging way.
Soon, the other colleague joined the dialogue, with thanks and good humor. All in all, it was a pleasant way to connect with people who are in my network but separated by busy work schedules and a 3-hour plane ride.
The even better part? I had an upcoming meeting with the colleague getting the accolades. I knew the conversation might be difficult due to the sensitivity of the subject. And our LinkedIn-inspired conversation in Twitter added a more upbeat tone to our working relationship.
(This is where I remind readers that opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
And it was in a positive and pure way, because my intention was simply to share valuable leadership content with my network.
This underscores the importance of giving in social media – without the expectation of getting. Because you never know how others in your network will respond and what good outcomes may happen.
But what if you want to be a little more strategic and focused in creating a stronger business relationship through LinkedIn?
Who are the important people in navigating your career – now and in the future?
And how can social media add to your efforts to build a positive, long-term relationship?
Once you’ve identified a few people to build stronger relationships with, here’s how you can use LinkedIn to add to your efforts.
If you’re not already connected on LinkedIn, send a personalized request. Remember, always personalize your request. Remind the person of how you know each other and why you’d like to connect.
- If it’s your boss, say you’d like to connect because of your reporting relationship.
- If it’s a peer, mention a common goal or project you’re working on.
- If it’s someone in a function beyond yours, share your interest in learning more about what they do.
- If it’s someone on a project team, share your enthusiasm for your work together.
- If it’s someone more senior to you, talk about a key project they’re working on that you’re following in the news.
See what connections you have in common. Which connections intrigued and surprised you? Can you come up with a hypothesis as to how they know each other? This might be important later when you’re engaging with content.
Is there anyone you expected to see, but didn’t? Is there anyone in your network who might be valuable for this person to know? Consider making an introduction at the appropriate time.
Observe their articles and posts. View their current content and look at past content for the last 3 to 6 months.
What topics are they posting on? How do those relate to your current work or your future interest? What kind of reach and engagement are their posts generating?
Like, comment on and share their content. Once a week, like a post or an article and leave a substantive comment. Mention the person by name so they’ll receive a notification of your comment.
Thinking back to who it might be helpful for this person to know, see if you can mention and weave that person into the comment, if the subject matter lends itself to it.
Here’s where you can help augment the reach of your connection’s content. Share it with your network, if it’s aligned with the types of content you share. Mention the person by name so they’re notified of the share, and add your perspective to the content. End with a question to invite more engagement.
See what groups they belong to. Do you have any groups in common? If so, engaging with content in that group could help build your relationship.
Do they belong to any groups you’d like to learn more about? If so, you could message your connection and ask them for their thoughts on the the group and their advice on engaging with it.
Focus on giving and keep it light. Be generous. Think more about how you can give and how you can help your connection.
In doing that, keep it light. Your interactions should be just frequent enough – no more than once a week or every few weeks – so they’ll appreciate hearing from you.
Don’t stalk your connection by interacting with them too often. Keep your interactions interesting and insightful.
What are ways you build a stronger business relationship on LinkedIn?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 18, 2017 | Social Media
How do you prepare when you have an upcoming business meeting with someone you’ll be meeting for the first time?
Sure, you’ll set objectives for the meeting. You’ll create an agenda. And you’ll think about the information you want to share. These are all best practices for effective meetings.
But don’t stop there.
Social media gives you valuable opportunities to learn more in advance about the person, or people, you’ll be meeting. It opens a new window on what’s important to someone and how they think.
It’s all part of making a great first impression, as Rebecca Knight covers well in a Harvard Business Review article. It’s packed with tips from thought leaders Whitney Johnson and Dorie Clark.
With social media, you can take 15 to 30 minutes to get to know someone’s career, their professional interests and their potential commonalities with you.
Here are 6 ways to do that, as part of your social media savvy strategy.
Visit their LinkedIn profile. Focus on their current role and the problems that person is solving in their work. Consider how that connects with your meeting objectives.
See what other jobs they’ve held, what groups they’re part of and where they went to school. Read recommendations to get a better sense of who they are. See if you have any connections in common.
Look at their other social media activity. Are they active on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook? Visit those sites to round out your view of what’s important to this person.
Read their blog. If they have a blog, read the most recent 3 posts. Scan previous posts for topics that might be relevant to your upcoming meeting.
If they don’t have their own blog, see if they’ve posted articles in LinkedIn that would give you similar insight.
Search Google. No research is complete without a Google search. You can search on the person’s name, as well as the person’s name along with their current employer or other keywords related to your meeting topic.
See what pops up on the first 3 screens of your search. Visit a few of the links to learn more.
Send a personalized LinkedIn connection request. Once you have a sense of what you might have in common, or what’s especially interesting to you about this person, send a LinkedIn connection request.
In your personalized request (always personalize!), you can mention your upcoming meeting and that you’d like to connect in advance. This helps better establish the relationship, and it may prompt the person to view your profile and learn more about you.
Make sure you’ve put your best foot forward in your profile. Any recent content you’ve posted should further – or at least not detract from – your meeting agenda and objectives.
Comment on their content. In your research, what content stood out to you as especially salient to your upcoming meeting? You can like and comment on a recent piece of content that is aligned with your meeting topic. And if it would be valuable to your own network, consider sharing it more broadly.
These actions will enable you to know your audience much better and help foster a positive working relationship from the very beginning. (A reminder that opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
Just remember to keep it light in both your virtual and real-life interactions. Don’t like or comment on too much content and don’t bring up subjects that your new business acquaintance might consider too personal or intrusive.
What are ways you connect with people in social media before an initial meeting?
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