Do the work and LinkedIn will work for you

Last week I wrote the article It’s a Journey, not a race. I hope you had a chance to read it.

As with any journey, you have to keep moving, otherwise, you’ll get nowhere.

I hear people say; “this LinkedIn thing does not work.” Usually, this is because they have not done any work using LinkedIn. You can’t just have a LinkedIn Profile and a LinkedIn Network. You have to work with them.

Another issue I hear from some people; “I don’t have time to use LinkedIn.” Again, LinkedIn will not work if you treat it as a ’sideline tool’ that you never get around to using.

Put one foot in front of the other, over and over and over again, this is how we successfully move through a journey. 

Consistently using LinkedIn, especially within other relevant business processes, is how you’ll get LinkedIn to work for you.

In order to do this using LinkedIn, you need to know what tasks you should consider doing. 

Look at this partial list of tasks:

1. Edit your LinkedIn Profile (example my LinkedIn Profile)
2. Send out new LinkedIn Invites (example from a 2nd/3rd level connection’s LinkedIn Profile)
3. Accept new LinkedIn Invites
4. Ask a LinkedIn Connection for an introduction to another (from LinkedIn Search)
5. Withdraw old invites
6. Send an initial message to new connections from their LinkedIn Profile (example my LinkedIn Profile)
7. Search for relevant/interesting content (basic content search)
8. Like, comment or share relevant content (from newsfeed)
9. Post an article/video you found that may be relevant to your network (from newsfeed)
10. Visit LinkedIn Groups or via Group Search (basic Group search)
11. Research relevant LinkedIn Company Pages
12. Research LinkedIn Members (search) (basic member search)
13. Review latest Saved Search results (right side of Search Window)
14. Respond to comments on your posts (from Notifications)
15. Send out a few happy birthday/career anniversary/new job messages (from Notifications)
16. Request a LinkedIn Recommendation (my recommend link)
17. Write a LinkedIn Recommendation (my recommend link)
18. Review who viewed your LinkedIn Profile
19. Review LinkedIn Connection recommendations from LinkedIn
20. Read followed #Hashtags
21. Catch up on LinkedIn Messages
22. Review/update your LinkedIn Company Page (my company page)
23. Research new people in roles/industries/regions (search) (basic member search)
24. Write a LinkedIn Article
25. Check your LinkedIn Contact information (example my link)
26. Review the LinkedIn Settings and Privacy (at least twice a year)
27. Peruse the search results you showed up in and why
28. Call a LinkedIn connection and invite them to a conversation (example my contact information)
29. Email a LinkedIn connection and share an idea or invite them to a conversation (example my contact information)
30. Review your list of Influencers, Followed Companies, Groups and Schools (my Interest Section)
31. Review your LinkedIn Connections for people you should engage with

These tasks are just a few of those you could do to support your Purpose & Goal(s) using LinkedIn as a business tool.

Remember, if what you are about to do does not support building your brand, building your relevant network and/or building your professional reputation, don’t do it. 

There are plenty of actions you could take to achieve these steps. Consider what you should do each day. They don’t all have to happen today. (Journey)

One idea I used to recommend is to schedule these tasks across the week or month. I don’t do this so much anymore because there are so many unique tasks you could consider and we all have different purposes and goals of using LinkedIn. You can find that 2018 article here – Schedule time on LinkedIn

What I recommend is getting familiar with all of the different tasks you could do within LinkedIn. Then ask yourself every day, what needs to be done? Should I work on my Presence, Network or Reputation?

If you don’t commit to doing the work, LinkedIn won’t work for you.

Let me know if you need my help for yourself and/or your business development team.
Teddy