Don’t Procrastinate – 5 Ways to be Active on LinkedIn Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 10 minutes or less, improve your activity level on LinkedIn

LinkedIn “rewards” people for activity on LinkedIn – moving you up in search rankings for one thing and making you more visible to your valuable connections – business and job leads.

So many people I coach tell me they just don’t do much on LinkedIn because it just takes up too much time.   They take a quick look and before they know it they’ve spent an hour on LinkedIn.   They can’t afford that loss of work time so they decide they won’t go on LinkedIn again at all the rest of the week. You don’t need to take such extreme action.   Just set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes (maybe a few minutes more today so you can read this blog and take the recommended actions) each day.

For today – Open up another tab on your computer – also open to LinkedIn

On one of the tabs you’ll have this blog open and as you go through, just hop over to your other open LinkedIn tab to take action. (Yes, you could print this blog out and use it to check off actions, but if I ask you to do that you’re unlikely to do so and besides – let’s be green and not waste paper.)

1) Endorsements (thoughtfully done)

On that second tab open to LinkedIn look go to the page belonging to someone you respect and would like to stay in touch with for professional reasons.

Go down to their list of skills and then endorse them (click the + sign next to the skill) You could just accept the list of suggested skills that LinkedIn sometimes pops open in front of you but I’d like you to do this more thoughtfully. When you receive endorsements from someone for skills you don’t think you have or that you know that person doesn’t even know about (“project management”? Really? From a person you talked to for 2 minutes at a networking event?) How does that make you feel?   But “LinkedIn” and “Speaking Skills” from someone who was in my presentation this past week? Wow! Thank you!

So you’ve returned to my blog – thanks and welcome back

But you won’t be here long.

This time I want you to go to your “home” page on LinkedIn on your other tab. Promise me you’ll return after you’ve take 3 actions – just 3 and no more (you want to limit the time spent on LinkedIn – remember?)

2) “Like” someone’s post

On that LI home page, scroll down until you see something simple you can “like”,

3) Comment

Comment on someone’s post. Preferably something more meaningful than “So true” or “I agree” but for the purpose of this exercise that’s okay for now.

4) Take some simple action

Congratulate someone on a new job. Say happy birthday! Click on the notifications tab on the top of your page on LI for suggestions including congratulating people for new jobs, job anniversaries, and birthdays. Like your home page it also has a variety of items you can comment on (but we’ll leave that for another day.)

5) Add a connection (just one!)

LinkedIn will constantly suggest people it thinks you may know. Please ignore those suggestions (at least right now!) Think of someone you met this week and look them up on LinkedIn. Click on “connect” and then click on “add a note” to write a personal message as part of your invitation to connect on LinkedIn.   Please don’t use the default message “I want to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”   Did you have an interesting conversation with them?   Did you debate whether the “right” team won the Superbowl?   Did you say you’d follow up with them with some useful information? Write a quick note with your invitation. One meaningful connection is worth a dozen “blind” connections.

Okay, you’re done.   This activity should only have taken about 10 minutes (plus a few extra minutes to read this.)   Please close LinkedIn and go and do something else now.   See you back on LinkedIn tomorrow for another 10 minutes!

(From the series “Do Just One Thing” dedicated to helping you complete and utilize your LinkedIn profile in just a few minutes a day.)

I would love to talk with you about how a great profile on LinkedIn could help you with your professional goals. Please see the online scheduler on my website to see up a free 30-minute consultation to see how I might be able to help you.