5 Ways to Grow Your Network and Land Clients With LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn is often overlooked in social media marketing. It’s considered a place of business – not for making things go viral, running contests, or sharing hilarious cat videos.

But LinkedIn marketing shouldn’t be ignored.

And while LinkedIn may primarily help B2B businesses, there are some benefits to B2C people as well. So let’s explore how you can gain those benefits.

Step #1: Use your personal profile

According to Melonie Dodaro, a LinkedIn marketing expert and best-selling author, a personal profile is the way to go.

While it may be tempting to post updates through your company account, it’s much harder to connect with people through a logo. People go on LinkedIn to network with other people, not faceless companies.

Posting from your personal account has other advantages as well, such as a boost in LinkedIn’s algorithm, the ability to join, create, and post in groups, and the ability to privately message almost anyone.

That said, you should still create (and update) a company profile so you can run Sponsored Updates and show up in search engine results when people Google your company.

Easy enough – moving on.

Step #2: Post frequently (even if it’s not ground-breaking)

The purpose of LinkedIn marketing is simply to be top of mind.

This is due to the mere-exposure effect in psychology: we tend to like things (and people) who we’re familiar with, simply because we’re familiar with them.

For example, I spoke with an old manager of mine from eight years ago. Turns out he opened his own Verizon store, and he called me because he kept seeing me on LinkedIn. The engagement led to a few leads for my business and a renewed relationship with someone who had connections.

Another example – I was approached to be a trainer at a local business event on social media marketing and SEO. This all came about simply because a local startup investor saw my frequent high-quality statuses on LinkedIn.

So what should you post about?

Just share your knowledge. I post frequently about SEO, content marketing, and general entrepreneurship. I share what I’ve learned that day, what I’m excited about, or just a random tip.

Here are some things you can post about:

• Share relevant news or blog content that pertains to your industry
• Ask questions (like what books people are reading or what people do for productivity)
• Engage with industry influencers. Tag them and ask them something about their craft
• Share something new you learned today
• Share a struggle you’re currently dealing with, and ask people to comment with their own struggles

To give you an example, here was a status update that did particularly well:

Let’s break down why it did so well:

First, it played on people’s fear. “You’re going to lose 96% of your website visitors today… Poof – gone!” That captures people’s attention and arouses curiosity for them to click “read more” and read the whole status.

Second, I shared someone else’s content and tagged them. This is perfectly okay because it gives them a notification and prompts them to like/comment on/share it, which increases the post’s (and my face’s) reach.

Third, I played on a little LinkedIn algorithm hack. LinkedIn loves these status updates that have single lines. This is because people need to click “read more” to read the full status and because people have to scroll down to read it all. These engagement signals tell LinkedIn to show the status to more people, which increases its reach.

Finally, it had a clear call to action. It literally says to read the article and “Click here”. When people click on a link in your status, that also boosts who LI shows the post to.

Step #3: Become a copywriter

Going back to the status above that did well. Notice how I wrote the opening:

It creates curiosity. But you have to click “…see more” to read the rest of it.

By writing an enticing opening to your statuses that evokes curiosity, fear, or humor, you will get more engagement on your content.

I like to use two sentences just like I did in the format above.

Something that gets people to read the next line…

Something that makes people want to read more!

Here are a few more examples:

I think you get the idea. You don’t need to become a master copywriter for this to work – you just need to put a little more thought behind your words.

Some other ideas include asking a question, sharing shocking statistics, telling stories, and making bold claims (like making money while you sleep, for example!).

Remember: the purpose of every sentence is simply to entice people to read the next sentence.

Step #4: Use video content

Videos are more shared and engaged with than any other type of content – and LinkedIn marketing is no exception.

My own experience backs up the stats – my videos are viewed, liked, and commented on more than my text posts.

See the difference? Pretty amazing, right?

Here are some video post tips:

1. Don’t worry too much about quality. Your smartphone should be just fine, as long as you put it on a stand so it doesn’t move while filming.
2. Invest $20-$30 in a microphone for better audio quality. This matters more than video quality. I use this Audio Technica microphone which runs $29.
3. If you’re camera shy, do screen share videos showing how you do something, or use a slideshow. I use this $20 clear chat microphone and Loom for recording screenshares.
4. Add closed captions to your videos. That way, people can watch them with the volume off if they’re at work or somewhere they can’t listen in. I used to use Fiverr to find people to help with small tasks like this, but now I have a virtual assistant who handles it all.
5. If you’re going to use your video across multiple platforms (like YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn), upload it individually to each platform. LinkedIn and Facebook’s algorithms give priority to native videos over YouTube linked videos.

You can use Windows Movie Maker to edit your recordings for free. Personally, I use Filmora for all my editing because it’s beginner friendly and has lots of awesome features (like effects and the ability to upload straight to YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn).

As for what to record about – it could be a behind the scenes look of your workspace, sharing some advice on how to do something, or even just sharing how you’re feeling and what you’re struggling with. Go back to Step #2 for more ideas.

Step #5: Engage, engage, engage

This one is easy, but often overlooked – engage with your audience!

If people take the time to comment on or share a post of yours, comment back.

If people reach out to you via a LinkedIn message, respond to their message.

If people tag you in a post, comment on that post.

LinkedIn marketing is all about making connections with people. It’s not about spamming your blog content or making hard sells. Go there to connect with your peers and make new friendships – that’s the only way you’ll get the most out of this platform.

Unlike Facebook marketing, which is about finding the right audience that’s as large as possible, LinkedIn marketing is more about making deeper connections on a smaller scale. In fact, it’s about doing the things that don’t scale (like reaching out to people one at a time to connect with them).

That said, shoot to get 500 connections as quickly as possible. After you reach 500 connections, LinkedIn only shows that you have “500+” connections. So this makes you look bigger and better connected than you really might be.

Check it out:

Strategic emoji use tends to get higher engagement. Plus, it’s a lot of fun thinking up ways to weave in emojis.

There you have it! Five steps to effective LinkedIn marketing.

Now it’s over to you – have you used LinkedIn as part of your social media marketing mix? What strategies have you found to work the best? Let us know in the comments!

By Bill Widmer