Getting connected to people online is essential these days. LinkedIn, a social networking site designed for business professionals, helps companies and individuals connect to audiences worldwide. If properly used and maintained, it creates significant opportunities for organizations or people who want to be known globally. So let’s talk about how to get more followers on LinkedIn. Here are some helpful LinkedIn optimization and growth tips.
Part 1. Build and Optimize a Powerful LinkedIn Profile that Attracts Followers
Keep in mind that the purpose of having a LinkedIn account is to advertise yourself, your company, or your services. So, the first thing you should do is build a LinkedIn profile that is interesting to your intended audience and that sets the stage for gaining more LinkedIn followers both for your personal and company pages. This may seem basic, but too many don’t take full advantage of all the keyword-rich fields that are available for you to build your LinkedIn profile. Take advantage of all the essential elements available to you, such as a profile photo, banner image, and brief and fill in longer descriptions of you and your company.
Optimize Your Profile for Search
Your account can come up in Google and LinkedIn search results (if you chose to make it searchable, in the privacy and security settings of your account). Do some research into what your audiences may be searching for and pepper these key phrases throughout your profile. LinkedIn has an article that should help you with search optimization, so give it a read.
Build a Network by Connecting with Everyone, from Friends to Coworkers and Every Day Contacts You Interact With
Connect with your network of family, friends, classmates, and colleagues. Use the LinkedIn features to import your contacts from your phone or address book.
After you meet someone in person -or virtually at a conference or seminar- search for them on LinkedIn and send them an invitation to connect. This should be part of the process of building a network. These people can help and support you as your network grows. You may also add on your list the people you know in conferences and seminars. You’ll be surprised to discover that you have already multiplied the number of people you have connected with within a short period.
Write or Share Articles at Least Once a Week
LinkedIn has its own distinctive publishing platform where you can write news feed posts as well as articles. Write about what you’re passionate about or what sets your business apart. Writing and sharing high-quality content will help you become a thought leader and get discovered by prospects. Dare to express a point of view.
Share Images & Inspirational Quotes
Most people are visual. They would rather look at pictures first before the text, so make sure to capture these kinds of audiences too. Try sharing personal images with inspirational quotes to encourage engagement with your audience. Preparing a consistent schedule of inspirational quote images allows more people to follow you for inspiration. Generally, people easily relate to them, and these quotes tend to get more likes and shares than targeted content.
Create and Post Videos
This feature is also beneficial in attracting followers. The LinkedIn algorithm rewards video uploaded natively onto the platform. Create and publish videos that answer audience questions or even short tutorials. There are easy-to-use video tools for tutorials, such as Loom or Dubb. Or play with Stories, the new LinkedIn app feature similar to Instagram or Facebook’s stories.
Add Hashtags (but not too many!)
Hashtags make your content discoverable by people who aren’t following you. By using hashtags, you can connect with more people based on interests and content. You can also search for relevant hashtags to your industry and find new people to add as connections.
Tag Connections and Companies
@Tagging is a great way to get the attention of your prospects on LinkedIn. Use the “@” key to tag a person or organization in a post. Hopefully, they notice and leave a comment or share your post so you can start building a relationship.
Stay Active
Post regularly. Share your expertise. Like, comment, and share posts from other thought leaders. All of these daily activities increase your chance of exposure to new people.
Interact and Reply to Comments
Always take time to reply to comments and make your people feel valued. Make your connections feel important, so they will help your network grow. Engage with posts published by different companies, decision-makers, and influencers – get your reactions/comments noticed by their followers too!
Dare to make a statement or share something controversial
Go big or go home. Be bold enough to go viral by quickly getting lots of reactions to your posts. If LinkedIn notices engagement on your posts, it will expand their reach until your posts gain extended reach.
Join and Connect with Groups
Groups are another tool to connect with new audiences. You can share something in a group and then ask people to follow you if they want to discuss it further.
If you can’t find a relevant group to join, consider creating your own!
Consider hosting an event.
Collaborate with someone you admire and cross-promote the event to both of your audiences.
Share Your Profile on Other Platforms
Add a link to your LinkedIn profile on your website, in your email signature, and on other social media platforms.
Add A “Follow” Button on Your Profile
Change the default button from “Connect” to “Follow” to avoid spam. This will filter people that you only want to connect with, a potential customer or a client.
- Go to “Settings & Privacy.”
- Click “Visibility of your LinkedIn activity.”
- Click “Followers.”
- Enable “Make follow primary.”
Part 2. Grow Your Followers
Since you have already established your profile, it’s now time to grow your followers. Learn these simple guidelines to expand your business and community on LinkedIn. You can start by inviting your followers to follow and share your page. How? Follow these easy steps:
- Sign in to your LinkedIn account
- Go to your Company Page
- Click on “Admin Tools”
- Select “Invite Connections”
- Choose connections you want to invite to follow your company page
Engage Your Team Members
Your employees are powerful partners to grow your following. Tag them in your posts and encourage them to promote your content to their network too. In this way, your story can reach more people in the community. Inspire your colleagues to share your interests and the benefits of following you or your page. LinkedIn groups are helpful too in promoting your content – encourage the team to participate and build awareness to different groups about your brand.
Create An Advertising Campaign
Running a paid advertising campaign is an advanced approach that you can use to increase your followers. You can start by creating your first ad campaign to learn the basics and once you have succeeded, you can now create and run dynamic ad campaigns.
Get support from leaders and executives
Executives and well-known leaders in line with your business are great influencers and have a broad professional network. You may ask support from these people to @mention your LinkedIn page in order to entice followers and create traffic. I know, it’s a bold move, but it’s worth a try.
Also, watch their content conversations and interact with those who comment. After a few interactions, send a connection request. When they connect back, that will also count as a follower.
Get support from members/connections
Now that you have members on your LinkedIn page encourage them to participate actively in your posts. Get them to react or comment on your content. This way, your content will have a chance to be exposed to a broader audience and can create a positive ripple effect. Always remember to be active as well by commenting back and making sure that your comments are substantial and worth reading to make them viral.
Keep an eye on your competitors
Another way of improving your page and strategy is by looking at the page of your competitors. It is important to conduct a competitive analysis to identify and come up with content that resonates or content your competitors cannot give.
Get help from influencers
Influencers are your friends in digital marketing. You can benefit from them by their promotions and advertisements of your products or services. They have lots of followers who pay attention to their posts and views, so collaborate with them. In return, they will also benefit by getting recognition which is very important in social media.
Post job offers on your page
This is a smart idea that many miss! Many people in LinkedIn are not just companies or businessmen but are individuals looking for great job opportunities. By posting job offers, you entice these individuals to go to your page and check out what’s in there for them. It is essential to make your page look good all the time by creating a welcoming space for every interested audience.
There’s a lot of potential on LinkedIn. It will help you or your organization in so many ways. Just follow these guidelines, and surely you will hit success in a matter of time. Try these steps now and let us know what you think in the comments below. If you have more questions, you can always reach us, and we will be here to help you. You can also download LinkedIn Daily Workouts to help you learn and practice how to use LinkedIn effectively.
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