Free Linkedin marketing tips for 2020
If you're not marketing on LinkedIn, you're missing out on massive growth potential.
When it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn has the highest conversion rate compared to other social platforms.
Source - neilpatel.com
This may come at a surprise because, lets face it, we never really use our LinkedIn do we?
If it wasn’t for the insincere, obviously scripted, birthday messages, we’d probably forget we even signed up to the platform!
Though it may seem like the platform has been abandoned, it’s actually growing quite extensively.
Between 2016 and 2018 alone, the platform grew by 123 million users!
That’s a lot of birthday messages!
But who is actually using the platform?
Take a look at this fascinating infographic by LinkedIn:
Source - linkedin.com
So, in other words, whether you're trying to build up your brand or your customer base, your audience is currenlty using LinkedIn!
As you dust off your LinkedIn login details and reacquaint yourself with your old friend, make sure you follow our 4 FREE tips on how to effectively do LinkedIn marketing.
1. Pimp up your profile
After many years of neglect your profile is going to need a good shower and some fresh new clothes.
Before you attempt any of our suggested marketing efforts you need a totally pimped up profile
Here is a really helpful infographic outlining all of the essential elements of a super buff Linkedin profile
2. Start a LinkedIn Group
In order for you LinkedIn marketing efforts to be as effective as possible, you need to start thinking of yourself as an authoritative figure in your niche.
A leader in your industry.
You want people to think of you, or your company, whenever they encounter a problem you are capable of solving.
This is what's known as building your personal brand.
The best way to establish yourself as a leader is by acting like one.
How do you do that?
If you want to be known as a software engineering whiz, start to do things that a software engineering whizzes would do.
What would a prominent software engineer do?
Give advice to other engineers
Speak at events encourage
Give insights on the latest trends.
In other words build a community.
LinkedIn has an inbuilt feature that makes building a community super easy.
On LinkedIn, communities congregate in what’s known as “groups”
When it comes cultaving engagement in groups, LinkedIn does everything it can to help you.
LinkedIn actively sends out emails to members to summarise all of the latest activity, thereby encouraging members to frequent the group and participate.
Here is how to create a group on LinkedIn that’s laser focused on your brand identity.
Step 1: Choose a name related to your brand
When thinking of a name for your group, settle on one that will entice members of your community to join.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What types of conversations are you capable of initiating?
What topics are members of your community interested in?
Is this a topic members can engage with long term?
Step 2: Create your group
To create your group click
hereThe process of creating your groups is a very intuitive. Upload a logo, header image, input your group name, etc.
It’s a good idea to have a really impactful logo as your profile picture to give your group a prestigious feel.
There are a couple of tips we’d like to give you that will make managing your group as seamless as possible.
Group rules
Don’t skip this step. Make sure you write out some group rules.
One thing we highly encourage you stipulate is the prohibition of any promotional material or any links to promotional material.
The last thing you want is for your group to be filled with spammy ads to other companies and services.
Here is a template you can use and modify if need be:
The purpose of this group is to encourage collaboration and growth within the [YOUR NICHE] by sharing insights and tips on personal progression.
As such, any promotional content will be immediately deleted and its immediately publisher band.
When prospects see this rule, they will highly appreciate your efforts in establishing a nourishing community and, as a result, be very likely to join.
Custom message templates
To make sure all new members see your group rules, you can create an email that is automatically sent out to all new members.
In this email you can customise your message to include links to your group rules as well as any other information you think it is necessary for them to know.
Here is an example of a customized welcome email:
LinkedIn Group Email example - buffer.com
You can also create an application form for prospective members who are interested in joining the group.
By including an application form, you're highly likely to deter any spammers from joining.
LinkedIn group application form - buffer.com
Step 3: Create a welcome post
If your group is fresh, you want new members to appreciate its potential.
The best way to achieve this is by creating a welcome post before inviting others to join your group.
In your welcome post you can even initiate discussion by including a topical question for members to start discussing.
To use Answer The Public, just enter a keyword related to your topic and the platform will populate a bunch of questions people are asking about it.
Step 4: Invite connections to join.
The final step is to actually get members join your group.
You can only invite your connections to join your groups but there are some sneaky tactics you can implement to help you group grow organically (we’ll mention them in the next tip).
To invite your connections to join your group, on the homepage click: Manage > Invite users
3. Grow your LinkedIn group
Since you can only invite your connections to join your group, the only options you have in terms of growing it is by encouraging current members to invite their connections.
If you're focusing on providing value to your members, current members will be highly likely to recommend the group to their connections.
Besides wholesome discussions, a sneaky way to encourage members to share your content is to post highly viral content.
By viral, we mean content that is highly likely to be shared.
But it needs to be actually beneficial to your group members, so don’t post nonsensical memes that provide little to no value to your members.
Here are some great viral content ideas:
Infographics
They are fun to look at and compress copious amounts of information in a single graphic.
Instead of sharing an existing infographic you can create one yourself and brand it.
Allocate a few hours each week to summarise the latest trends or stats and compile all that information in an infographic.
A great free online infographic tool you can use is Canva.
Here is a tutorial on how to create an infographic on Canva:
Videos
As a result, you absolutely must post videos, both in your LinkedIn groups as well as on your
LinkedIn profile.You can either share videos that are currently popular in your niche and include your commentary, or you could record a video of yourself discussing an interesting topic or fact
Competitions
Even though LinkedIn has a reputation of being a serious place of business, that doesn’t mean its members don’t enjoy a bit of fun.
A fun way to encourage your LinkedIn group to grow is by hosting a competition.
You could create a post every week asking members to invite their connections in order to be in the draw to receive a free prize each month.
Just be cautious because you only want members that are actually interested in your topic to join,
Create a Meetup Community.
Meetup is an online platform that encourages a community engagement beyond the computer screen. Yes, actual face-to-face interaction!
If you really wanted to take things to the next level, you could create a meetup community that is a face-to-face version of your LinkedIn Group.
The sky's the limit in terms of growth.
You could invite guest speakers to your meetup, host bootcamps, exhibitions, course etc.
You would then encourage each member of your meetup to join your online community.
If you do this well, you'll supercharge your recognition as an authoritative figure in your niche.
4. Publish LinkedIn posts and tag key people
You shouldn't only be active on in your group, you should also be very active on your LinkedIn profile.
A LinkedIn post is the equivalent of a status update on Facebook.
But what many people don’t realise is that you can tag people in your post.
Not only that, but you can tag people you are NOT connected with!
What a great way to leverage attention from key industry influencers
Here's how to post an update on LinkedIn:
When you log into LinkedIn on the home page, simply click on “Create a post”.
To mention someone in your post type “@” followed by the name of the person you want to tag,
A drop down menu will populate showing all of the possible name options and their corresponding job titles, so you should have no issues tagging the right person
LinkedIn posting is your opportunity to craft very shareable short-form content. You can even upload images in your posts.
5. Publish articles ... REALLY good articles
If you want to create long form content on LinkedIn’s
article feature was created just for that.
But in order to get the highest ROI for your efforts, make sure you create articles that:
People in your niche will want to read, and
People in your niche will want to share.
There are various strategies you could use to find niche related topic of interested.
You could use
Answer the Public, or you could ask your community what they would like you to write about.
This is where you can tap into your LinkedIn group for ideas.
Start by creating a post in your group asking members what they would like to learn. It could be a new skill or a certain industry insights.
Then turn this idea into the best darn article EVER!
If you're teaching a skill, include step-by-step instructions, videos, graphics, etc.
If you are compiling an article about industry trends, make infographics, include links to resources and include future projections people will want to share with others.
After your article is published on LinkedIn, post a link to it in your LinkedIn group.
See how it all works together?
Your group members will LOVE you for this, especially if you're freely teaching them a skill they requested to learn.
Because you'll be injecting so much value in these posts, members will be highly likely to share them.
Which means your group is highly likely to grow, as well as your LinkedIn following.
If you become really good at curating lessons you could even expand your efforts into the online learning space and start creating
Udemy courses.
With industry relevant lessons on LinkedIn AND Udemy you'll very quickly become known as the undisputed authoritative figure in your niche!
Conclusion
The secret to hacking the LinkedIn game is by establishing yourself as the go-to leader of your industry.
Pretend like you're the teacher and your LinkedIn followers are you students, hungry to learn and hungry to better themselves.
Like anything in life, if you focus on building up others before yourself, you'll always be respected.