Today’s topic is about a social network, and that is LinkedIn. If you weren’t aware, LinkedIn is the biggest social network for business in the Western world.

It’s approaching 870 million members globally, which will increase before the end of the year.

Most recruiters have a paid membership, but for many people, this is a great free platform to use to get in front of your market.

Now, what’s been happening recently, and to allay anybody’s fears, this happens with every social network. For some reason, our reach on LinkedIn—and I’m saying our reach as members of LinkedIn—our engagement, number of comments, shares, and impressions are down at this point in the year compared to the end of 2023.

Is that disappointing? Yes.

However, it’s not a reason not to use LinkedIn because, for some of us, we’ve got 25- 30% less reach on our posts, and maybe fewer people view from an impression point of view.

It’s not the end of the world, though you would think it, reading some of the posts on LinkedIn

As I mentioned in the intro, you must remember that some of the people talking about this are big LinkedIn “influencers”.

Their business is LinkedIn. They sell programs around LinkedIn and teach people about LinkedIn. They want to be ahead of their market.

They are not small business owners like you and I who want to get in front of our clients and candidates on LinkedIn so people can see we’re there.

Several people have asked us if it’s still worth posting on LinkedIn.

The answer is YES!

Why? Because there are so many advantages to posting on LinkedIn, particularly now, because you’re going to get some people thinking, “Oh, well, it’s not worth marketing on LinkedIn,” and they’ll stop, which means it’s better for you.

So here are eight reasons why posting on LinkedIn is useful and how you can get your mindset around this.

1. Most People Don’t Post On LinkedIn

Let’s start with number one: posting on LinkedIn more than once a week. It’s interesting because when we have our demo calls for Superfast Circle and talk to business owners, we have a discovery call with them to see if we can help them understand their goals.

I am fascinated by the number of people who rarely post on LinkedIn. If they do post, it might be a job, or once a week or a couple of times a month.

Data shows that only about 3% or 4% of the LinkedIn population posts more than once a week.

If you look at that as an opportunity, how can you stand out on LinkedIn? Simply posting consistently makes a huge difference because, remember, you want to work with candidates and clients, and people can’t work with you if they don’t know who you are.

Social media is huge, and over 4.6 million people have social media accounts. Social media is key for connecting with people, and with LinkedIn, you’ve got 850 million people plus who have accounts you can get in front of.

2. You Can Be Present In Front of Past Clients

Now, number two, posting will get you back in front of past clients again. Interestingly, one of our Superfast Circle members, the lovely Rachel, got an additional CTO role because she had been posting regularly on LinkedIn.

One of her past clients was one of those out-of-the-blue requests that said to her, “Look, I’ve got a CTO role. Can you help me with it?”

Rachel was delighted about this, and logically, as we teach people, she asked, “What was the reason you reached out to me? How did this happen?” She said, “I can’t miss you. You’re all over LinkedIn, and I’d forgotten about you. I thought, oh, Rachel would be the person to contact about this role.”

This is key to remember. We are human beings who live in a very distracted world. Our brains get full, and we forget about things. We forget about people. Have you ever had that experience where you just thought, “God, I’ve not heard from such a body in ages.”

You’ve gone on to Facebook, and you’ve Googled the name. “God, they’re still there. I don’t see a lot from them anymore. I wonder how they’re doing.”

It’s the same in business.

We forget about suppliers that we used to work with. “Oh, they were really good. I should get back in contact. I wonder if they could help me. I wonder if they know somebody.”

It’s the same on a platform like LinkedIn. You start getting out in front of your market again because, remember, we’ll come on to people you’re not connected to in a second, but if you are connected to these people, your first-degree connections, they will see your content again.

3. You Can Be Present In Front of Past Candidates

This brings me onto, logically, and I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, number three, and posting gets you back in front of past candidates again. We have another Superfast Circle member, the lovely Steve, who has been with us for several years. One of the first things that he noticed as he was posting more on LinkedIn was that he was getting more connection requests, but also, he was back out in front of his candidates again, who were reaching out to him saying, “Steve, you helped me get a job X number of years ago. I noticed you’re on LinkedIn again. Can we have a conversation?”

How could that work for you?

It’s one of the things that lots of people forget about. For those of you who have attended different webinars, we have one particular webinar called the Lead Generation Triad. We talk about how you can work leads. I think one of the things that a lot of people forget is you have a database, and there are people on your database you are not speaking to, and connecting with and posting on social media helps to get you back in front of these people.

Imagine all the followers and connections. I know that some recruiters have thousands of people to whom they are connected on LinkedIn. Suppose you can start to get your content in front of them, which, because they’re a connection, you will do. Then what a difference that can make because it will raise their awareness level about you. That is just purely posting on LinkedIn.

4. Branding Yourself as an Expert In Front of New Connections

Next, let’s discuss how posting gets your content in front of new connections. We always recommend maxing out the number of connection requests you can make on LinkedIn, and I’m sure you’re doing this anyway.

You want to bring new people into your sphere of influence. You want to be connected to new people. Have you ever noticed that people view your profile when you make several connection requests?

Imagine if they go and view your profile, they see that you’ve not posted in months; they don’t see any content on your profile at all. They’re not seeing much of you. That is possibly a reason not to connect with you, but when they accept your connection requests, they will suddenly start seeing your quality content.

They will validate why it’s important to be connected to you. They will experience your knowledge and expertise in the market they’re dealing with, yet another reason why it’s important to post.

5. Short Videos Will Help You Stand Out

The next one I want to talk about is videos. We have noticed that some of our views on posts have dropped. However, there’s one modality: I love my technical words.

One modality it hasn’t done that with is video. Interestingly, we post some of what are known as short-form videos.

Generally, videos are about a minute long. Sometimes, they’re a little bit less. That way, we can upload them to YouTube and other places. Videos engage people because they give you a visual experience. They’re hearing you and listening to what you’re saying.

The way LinkedIn works, you don’t have to hear the sound because you can see the text across their screen. Videos will help you because not many people do them, and they help you stand out and be recognised.

It’s interesting when we talk to people, and they have a conversation with us, many will say, “Oh, yes, I’ve seen your videos on LinkedIn. I find them useful. They’re just little snippets that get me focused. I like them. That’s one of the reasons why I’m having a conversation with you.”

For recruiters, it’s so important to get your brand out there. If you are considering video, and I hope you are, get them out onto LinkedIn and do it consistently because that will help you.

6. Share Value-Based Content That Answers Questions

The next one is content. It is not any content but what I like to call value-added content. Some of you may have seen I posted a version of this podcast as a short post on LinkedIn. It adds value. Many people—and I say people, sometimes other marketers—love to bamboozle and confuse people.

We like to keep things simple. That was one of the reasons for writing this post and recording this podcast: to stop people from worrying and think, “Okay, I know things are changing, but what can I do?”

Here, I am giving you eight things you can do that will help. I think the thing about it is you can write really short content snippets that will help your market.

Be that candidates or clients, give them some value bombs.

You have so much value to share; you will not give away the crown jewels. You are giving away information that will support and help people. So, who do you think that person will go to when they’re ready to move roles or when they want to bring on board a new recruiter to help them?

Content makes a huge difference because it profiles you as the expert.

7. Posting on LinkedIn Leverages Your Time

Relating to something I’ve just said, I wrote a short post and posted it on LinkedIn. I appreciate I am a writer. I have many ideas and am very used to doing them, but this post took me less than 10 minutes to write and post using the LinkedIn scheduling tool.

The whole process probably took me 12 minutes. What if it took you 15 minutes? Imagine doing that, even if you did it three times a week, and what a difference that would make.

People consistently use time as an excuse. We all have the same number of hours in a day, but if you focus and plan your activities, you will achieve more.

Here’s a tip.

If you post something like this on LinkedIn, nothing stops you from posting it again in a few months because people ‘ll have seen other posts and forgotten about it.

Potentially, you could connect with over a few hundred new people each month in your LinkedIn feed who haven’t seen your content. If you post it at a different time of day, a different person will see it.

Posting More Leads To Connections and Business

There are many reasons to post on LinkedIn. It’s interesting that I decided I’d write the post for LinkedIn when I wrote this very short version of this podcast. I needed to do more on this because many people are concerned about what they do next.

It is not about overcomplicating things; it’s about posting more, and you’ll still get views on your content.

I posted a picture of Gabi Preston-Phypers. Many of you will know her from Tooled Up Raccoons, a good connection of ours. I came across Gabi because of a post that she’d made on LinkedIn. I contacted her and asked if she would come on our podcast.

Gabi then presented at our client event last year and did a great presentation. On the back of it, good for Gabi, she sold several people in our membership her Tooled Up Raccoons process and software. I was very pleased because she made a great offer, and clients used it to help with sourcing.

She added huge value, and that came because I saw her post on LinkedIn. Imagine if that was the same for you. Imagine if someone sees you on LinkedIn and decides to reach out to you, and maybe it’s one of those people.

When we start working with people, we often ask them, “How much contact have you made with your first-degree connections?” Often, there’s a blank look, and the question is, “Not a lot. I could do a lot more.”

I hope that’s been useful. Multiple ways and multiple reasons to post on LinkedIn and the benefits it will give you.

Thanks

Denise

How We Can Help You

As members of Superfast Circle, Sharon and I are your outsourced marketing directors. We help you plan your marketing and determine what will work for you, and we also provide marketing collateral you can use.

If you want to learn more, book a quick call with us here.