5 Ways to help others using LinkedIn

I listened to a 30 minute YouTube video from Simon Sinek today. He got me thinking about what I am doing to grow my business.

He must have used the word “ME” a few dozen times in his speech as he worked to drive home a few important points to me. I feel I heard him loud and clear.

One of the points I took from Simon’s message is not really new. I’ve heard it many different times in different ways. Simon has even given this ‘message’ to me before in his other talks.

I won’t distract from the video anymore. I encourage you to go watch it yourself – Simon Sinek: If you don’t Understand People, you don’t Understand Business.

The point I took from Simon’s message that I will share here is basically; ‘How are you helping others?’

My philosophy behind LinkedIn is based on 4 areas:

1. Presence
2. Network
3. Reputation
4. Prospecting

Two of these areas of LinkedIn, as well as in life, are directly impacted by how we help others. One of the problems with our fast-paced world is we don’t allow enough time to stop and do something for others. I suffer from this challenge myself.

Here are 5 ways to help others on LinkedIn that can be quick and easy, yet very impactful for the other person:

#1 – Endorsements – We can acknowledge someone for their specific skills and experiences by simply clicking on the “+” symbol in the skills section of the LinkedIn Member. Fortunately, LinkedIn also gives us the ability to show how serious we are by asking us for a level of skill and our relationship with the LinkedIn Member when we Endorse them. This is optional for those who don’t want to click three more times.

#2 – Recommendations – If we really want to show someone how much we think of their skills, experiences, and/or business value we can write a LinkedIn Recommendation for them. This way of helping allows us creativity in our recommendation with personalized words.

#3 – Introductions – A powerful feature of LinkedIn is the ability to get introduced to people who can help us in our business or career journey. To help others, we could accept a request to get introduced or be proactive and consider, ‘Who should I introduce to each other today?’ This is a powerful way to help other people on LinkedIn.

#4 – Like/Comment/Share – LinkedIn Members who write and share their own content on LinkedIn are appreciative when other LinkedIn Members engage on their content in meaningful and relevant ways. A Like is one click, a Comment takes a few clicks and words and a Share may cost us 15-30 seconds. This is another powerful way to help another person on LinkedIn.

#5 – Public Accolades – LinkedIn has a feature called #Kudos built into the LinkedIn Post function. If someone did something fabulous, kind, friendly, nice, useful, etc, we can consider publicly acknowledging them with a #Kudos Post. Public acknowledgment is a great way to help others on LinkedIn.

Bonus – A few more simple ways to help others on LinkedIn using kind and friendly words include:

• @Mention them in a relevant post or comment
• Public acknowledgment of their birthday, career anniversary or new job/role.
• Send them a private message when you can thanking them, encouraging them or just to say hello.
• Call them or visit them when you are in their town and have a few moments to say hello.
• Consider them for their skills, experiences or business services.
• Refer or better yet, recommend them (when you can) to others who could benefit from their skills/services/products

As I wrote in my first book, “Networking for Mutual Benefit”, there are two caveats to helping others:

1. You must Give with no Expectations. What you get from giving cannot be defined or required.
2. Give sincerely thinking of only the other person.

As I listened to Simon’s speech I was reminded we must understand people and care for others in order to be truly successful in our businesses and lives. The rewards from giving can not be measured by dollars or a P&L.

Do you have any other ways to help others using LinkedIn? Please share with us in the comments.

Teddy