Authenticity is the key to success on LinkedIn — the world’s largest social media platform for professionals.
With bland AI-generated content now saturating users’ feeds and 75% of the global workforce comprising millennials, meaningful and quality content is the way to cut through the noise.
“We need to talk to our audience the way they want to be spoken to — and millennials love authenticity,” LinkedIn expert Lucy Bingle said at a recent Australian Industry Group webinar.
Engagement from employees — including leaders — is also essential for LinkedIn success.
When it comes to social media platforms for professionals, nothing compares to LinkedIn, Ms Bingle said.
It's the largest of its kind, with 1.2 billion global users, including more than 17 million in Australia.
Being an active user can help professionals:
“Given this, you need to implement a LinkedIn strategy for your business and really fire up your people to be active on the platform,” Ms Bingle said.
With the onslaught of bland AI-generated content, it’s never been more important to optimise, personalise and socialise on LinkedIn.
You need to optimise your LinkedIn presence, personalise your individual strategy to connect with the right people and make an effort to socialise on the platform.
This advice also applies to those who manage a company’s LinkedIn page.
It’s crucial that everyone in your business has a fully optimised LinkedIn profile page.
“When you put someone’s name into Google, their LinkedIn profile page is often the first result to appear,” Ms Bingle said.
“It’s the first digital touchpoint about you and what you and your people do and what outcomes you help achieve for the business.
“Not only that, but when someone lands on your LinkedIn profile page, they can also double-click on the employer you’re representing, leading them to your LinkedIn company page.
“So, if your people aren't set up for success on LinkedIn, or if you're a consultant and you aren’t, you're missing an important opportunity.”
Use the pencil icons throughout your profile page to edit sections.
These elements are a must:
A decent headshot of your head and shoulders with a friendly and approachable expression, looking into the camera.
“Your headshot matters, because when you meet someone face-to-face, they need to know what you look like, so they know which person in the room they're trying to connect with,” Ms Bingle said.
A branded background banner image to accompany your headshot.
A personalised headline. Your headline defaults to your job title on LinkedIn. You can overwrite that with a bespoke description to make yourself stand out.
Abour section. “This is the No.1 piece of real estate on your LinkedIn page,” Ms Bingle said.
“More than 80% of people look at LinkedIn on their devices, so make this section ‘snackable’ and easy to read with short, sharp paragraphs that clearly articulate what you do.”
Include a clear call to action such as your email address, website URL or phone number.
Featured section. Here, you can add videos, articles and press releases to bring your profile page to life.
The quickest way to build your network is to connect with current colleagues and clients, ex-colleagues, professional peers and alumni.
“Then you need to strategically grow your network with others — getting clear on who your ‘customer avatar’ is,” Ms Bingle said.
“Who is the person you need to be getting in front of to make key decisions about using your services and products? What are their job titles? What are their industry verticals?
“Even if you need to be talking to the CFO of a company, there may be other people who influence the CFO’s decisions when it comes to using your products or services.”
To connect with someone on LinkedIn, visit their profile page and click the Connect button.
Personalise your request by clicking Add a note before sending it, explaining why you want to connect or how you know them.
Once you're connected, you can then message that person directly.
“Engage in a way that's not pushy or ‘salesy’,” Ms Bingle said.
“You’ve gone from being completely off the radar to now being known to that person.”
After optimising your profile page and personalising your network, you’ve then got to socialise on LinkedIn.
Engage actively and strategically. Start by following your company page and engage with that page: react to, comment on and share posts.
“Employees are vital to LinkedIn success,” Ms Bingle said.
“If you manage your company’s LinkedIn page, empower your people by training them up on what you expect them to do on LinkedIn to amplify key messages in a warm and authentic and real way.
“Leaders also need to support the company’s LinkedIn strategy. They need to engage with company posts, celebrate the moments and share their insights.
“You can't just expect a marketing team to create content and not get behind it.”
Follow the company pages of your clients and prospects for valuable insights, too.
Ms Bingle recommends dedicating 30 minutes, three to four times a week on LinkedIn.
“If you do it consistently and well, you’ll really start to increase brand visibility around yourself,” Ms Bingle said.
“If you’re the author of a blog post that’s been shared on the company page, reshare that post. Pull out the nuggets of gold that are meaningful to you from that article.
“If you’re the new hiring manager of Jenny who joined the team last week, don’t just ‘like’ the company page post that welcomes Jenny to the team.
“Leave a comment saying how excited you are that Jenny’s on board. Not only does that make Jenny feel awesome that she's made the right choice, it shows your clients and prospects you're an employer of choice.
“Creating content on LinkedIn will always be king, but commenting on posts is the new queen. Thoughtful and insightful comments define you as an expert.”
If you don’t have time or courage to leave comments, you can react to a post by choosing from a series of six emojis.
Resist the temptation to choose the thumbs up emoji every time.
“Using the other emojis ‘tells’ the algorithm you're a purposeful user of LinkedIn,” Ms Bingle said.
“It shows you’re taking time to think how posts resonate with you, resulting in more of your content appearing on people’s feeds so you’re seen more regularly.”
Only 1% of LinkedIn members globally are content creators — that is, they create posts and share knowledge, stories and moments on LinkedIn.
“You need to join that club, because it’s those people who dominate our feeds — whether you like their posts or not,” Ms Bingle said.
“They are taking up that really important real estate housed right there in front of you: on your phone, desktop or laptop, wherever it might be.
“You need to push your way into that One Per Cent Club. It's a huge opportunity, especially when used well.
“Creating compelling content regularly and consistently builds trust and integrity and is more likely to motivate the people who engage with or follow you to take the conversation offline.
“That, for me, is the holy grail. You're not going to close a deal on LinkedIn; the magic, or closing the deal, will happen offline — whether it’s by meeting in person or through a follow-up email or call.
“I'm always saying to people that LinkedIn is part of a holistic marketing strategy, but it is an absolute business-critical tool.”
“With over 75% of the global workforce being millennials, we need to shift the way we develop ourselves and our marketing strategies,” Ms Bingle said.
“We need to talk to our audience the way they want to be spoken to — and millennials love authenticity.
“They love vibrancy. They want video; they want you to tell them in video format why you're different, who you are, what your leadership is like, what makes your brand special and what makes your offering unique and more innovative than competitors.
“So, you need to integrate video into the way you market and sell your products, and you need to make sure you're marketing to your audience, being mindful you have a vast majority of millennials and younger people coming through.
“Talk in their language and talk the way they want to be heard.”
Storytelling is a powerful form of content.
“It engages people so they want to find out more about your brand, services, products, people and the outcomes you can help achieve,” Ms Bingle said.
“There's a lot of rubbish content on LinkedIn, and people are fed up with having to plough through it. Compelling storytelling will set you apart.”
If you use artificial intelligence (AI), “it’s important to create meaningful, authentic and quality content and not just a sea of ‘blah’ content like we're seeing now,” Ms Bingle said.
“I'm a big believer in human-first and AI-enhanced.
“I know AI is time saving and can be an effective tool in all different capacities, including marketing — but I’m seeing a huge amount of boring, boring content.
“Be clear on humanising that content, making sure it's in line with your brand and offering and uses your tone of voice.
“By all means, use it for content ideation, but double-check everything it suggests.”
A LinkedIn company page should be like visiting the headquarters of your business.
People should be able to easily see the products or services you provide and the industries you serve.
The company page should feature quality content that's curated, on message and on brand.
Consider adding client case studies, the outcomes you've helped achieve, events you're hosting or attending and job opportunities.
Articles about your USP or area of expertise, as well as videos that encapsulate your products, services or even leadership are ideal.
“The company page becomes a rich place to find out more about your business,” Ms Bingle said.
“Once we establish the organic strategy — that is, ensuring your people's profile pages are effective and aligned to the business and you’re sharing regular engaging and authentic posts — you can serve up some paid campaigns to your target audience.
“These could highlight what makes you different, innovative products, an event you’re hosting or an educational article.
“All of this combined will lead to amazing outcomes that build brand awareness and validate what you do.
“It gives you a chance to showcase the problems you solve and gives the business the opportunity to nurture relationships they're building online.
“This keeps you front and centre of clients and prospects. It also starts to attract top talent to the business.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity that I want you to harness on LinkedIn.”
The average engagement rate on LinkedIn is 3.85%, which broadly covers both personal and company pages — but aim for 8%, Ms Bingle said.
Personal pages tend to fare far better as people prefer to engage with people, rather than ‘faceless’ company pages.
Look at analytics from your profile page to determine which posts are working and which aren't.
You’ll get the best results by posting weekdays, 7am-7pm.
“LinkedIn is like any other social platform — you need to give love to get love, so make sure you're going in strategically,” Ms Bingle said.
“With your LinkedIn strategy, constantly ask yourself: ‘How can I make our people look better?'
“’How can I tell their stories in a more engaging way, and how can I make our business stand out and be noticed and be seen for exactly what it is — which is the best in the industry.
“The power will always come from individuals. Therefore, you need to ensure your people are sharing and commenting on the company page posts with regularity and consistency.”
LinkedIn QR code
Grab your phone, pull up the LinkedIn app, tap the search bar, then click on the QR code that appears on the right-hand side. It will bring up a QR code of your profile that people at networking events can scan using their phone camera to easily connect with you.
Name pronunciation
With your profile page open, use the pencil icon to the right of your headshot to edit your basic information.
Scroll down to Name Pronunciation. This feature gives you 30 seconds to record a short message to not only correctly pronounce your name but to also share an elevator pitch.
“It gives you a chance to say who you are and what you do — setting you apart from everybody else on the platform,” Ms Bingle said.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at Australian Industry Group.
A former journalist for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK, she is passionate about giving businesses a voice.
