The more you engage on your LinkedIn homepage, the more you’ll be top of mind for opportunities that are ideal for you. When you are consistently active on LinkedIn, you’ll show up in more LinkedIn searches, too. In this month’s article, I share some strategic principles to power your online engagement.

1. Consistently engaging online is key to becoming top of mind.Develop a cadence that you can keep (daily is best, but if you can manage only once a week, start there). Because it is easier to comment on what others post than it is to initiate a post yourself, ramp up your practice of engaging on LinkedIn by responding to posts that you find particularly interesting or thought-provoking.
2. Use tagging whenever you mention a person or company. When you do so, LinkedIn notifies the person or company you’ve tagged via email. This ensures that your efforts will be noticed. To form a tag on LinkedIn, use the “@” symbol followed by the name you want to mention. Start typing the name and finish by selecting the correct name from the drop-down options that will appear.
3. Pay attention to what your customers, clients, and colleagues post. Everyone enjoys attention. Responding to a person’s posts is a way to nurture a relationship. Amplify the posts that come from your company’s communications department. Find people whose posts consistently are thought provoking and worthy. Every response you make creates insight for others into your personal brand. When you start paying attention to specific people consistently, LinkedIn will reward you by making sure that their posts show up more often in your LinkedIn feed and notifications.
4. When you respond to a post, you add value three ways. You add value to the original person who posted, value to other people that read your comment, and value to yourself. Your LIKE and COMMENT should be thoughtful; it should be the beginning of a conversation between you and the original poster and potentially other readers as well. It takes some time to craft a worthy response, but since every response is a reflection of your personal brand, it’s worth it.
5. But know that not all responses are created equal. A LIKE by itself is a very small token of appreciation and will generally not get a response from the person who posted. (This includes all “flavors” of LIKE: celebration, support, love, insightful, curious.) In contrast, a LIKE and a COMMENT are more likely to get you noticed. But, comments of fewer than five words are not acknowledged by the LinkedIn algorithm. That means that comments such as “Great article!”, “You go girl!”, and “Congratulations” will NOT result in the post lasting any longer on the homepage feed than if the post had not received those comments.
6. Never respond on the homepage to material that makes you uncomfortable in any way (i.e., material that is sexist, racist, etc., etc.) If you do respond, you will be sharing that material and uncomfortable feeling with others. Take action instead: click the three dots in the upper right corner to report the post to LinkedIn.
7. When you have mastered the art of responding thoughtfully to others’ posts, you’re ready to craft your own posts, too. You might curate an article written by someone else or share your own thoughts (in 1,300 characters or fewer). Looking to share at length? Write an article on LinkedIn – but please, only do this if you write well. Everything you post and write online represents your brand and is retrievable into the future.

When you consistently and thoughtfully engage on LinkedIn, people will notice. You will begin to create a network of existing and new friends on LinkedIn. And since every response you make on LinkedIn represents your personal brand, people will begin to associate you with what you do – and recall your name when right-for-you opportunities arise. Being active consistently is a practice I recommend to all my clients.

 

Named one of six top branding experts in 2022 by The American Reporter, over the past ten years, I’ve helped countless C-level clients use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress suitors and customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place. If you are a C-suite executive or senior leader, I can make this easy for you. Based on my knowledge of how LinkedIn works and how people respond to what they see there, I can ensure everything is ready and your profile conveys exactly the message and impression you’re aiming for. Let me help you attract the talent you want to hire, increase your visibility and influence, and steer your career.

 

By Carol Kaemmerer

Your Most Powerful 220 Characters: If You Haven’t Customized Your LinkedIn Headline, You’re Missing Out

Your Most Powerful 220 Characters:

If You Haven’t Customized Your LinkedIn Headline, You’re Missing Out

By Carol Kaemmerer

What Can a Sales Conversation Teach You About How to Write Your LinkedIn ABOUT Section?

What Can a Sales Conversation Teach You About How to Write Your LinkedIn ABOUT Section?

The image that leads this article was part of Mimi Brown’s presentation at the National Speakers Association INFLUENCE conference in July 2022 on ways for speakers to increase their sales. The point Brown made is that so many sales conversations start right off with the details of our products and services. That, says Brown, is a fatal flaw that dooms most sales conversations from the beginning. What she says the customer wants to know first is who you are and whether they can know, like and trust you enough to want to buy anything from you. Only when they “buy YOU” will they be interested in knowing about your products and services.

Brown is onto something here. Her point is consistent with how I coach, speak and teach about writing your narrative on LinkedIn: your LinkedIn ABOUT section should be about YOU – not about your company or its products and services. Of course your company and its products or services are important, but the place for that is in your Experience section under your current position. The ABOUT section should be all about YOU because you need to establish your personal credibility and the know, like and trust factors that are critical to all sales.

“I’m not IN sales,” you say? The principle still applies. Whether you’d like to be deemed worthy of promotion, you’re looking for other businesses to partner with, or you’re searching for a new job, people need to know more about you before they are interested in taking the next step with you.

So how do you go about writing a great ABOUT section that is actually about YOU? This section is a maximum of 2,600 characters and spaces, equivalent to around 4 to 5 paragraphs – and the most compelling ABOUT sections will be approximately this long. When we write about ourselves we will naturally use our keywords in context, and that helps LI’s search algorithm find us. People are interested in more than surface information about you; they can see in other areas of your profile your job titles, companies you’ve worked for, and education, so a chronological bio is not necessary. They want to know what makes you tick. Because you will do best by communicating as though you are speaking to a new business acquaintance, I recommend that you write this section in the first person. Yes, you get to use “I” here.

For your ABOUT section to be powerful, start with introspection and planning. Begin your personal brainstorming with these questions:

• What is my PURPOSE (my WHY)?
• What is my business passion?
• What are my principles?
• What are my differentiators?
• What three things do I want to be known for in the business world?
• Is there a thread that unifies my career that might not be apparent to others that I should point out?

Now consider how you will use each of your paragraphs to address these items. Write an outline, then begin filling it in.

If all this sounds beyond you, and you are a candidate for executive branding services, I can help. But, if you will be writing for yourself, remember these basics:

1. Your ABOUT section should focus on YOU
2. You have 2,600 characters to work with

Tell us something more about yourself that we can’t intuit by looking at the rest of your profile so that we can know, like and trust you
To your success!
Named one of six top branding experts in 2022 by The American Reporter, over the past ten years, I’ve helped countless C-level clients use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress suitors and customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place. If you are a C-suite executive or senior leader, I can make this easy for you. Based on my knowledge of how LinkedIn works and how people respond to what they see there, I can ensure everything is ready and your profile conveys exactly the message and impression you’re aiming for. Let me help you attract the talent you want to hire, increase your visibility and influence, and steer your career.

Contact me through my website https://carolkaemmerer.com for:

• Executive one-on-one assistance with your online brand
• Professional speaking engagements on personal brand and LinkedIn
• An autographed copy of my book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2^ndEdition
• My self-paced, online course
• To receive my articles in your email mailbox monthly

My award-winning book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2^nd Edition received Book Authority’s “Best LinkedIn Books of All Time” award, and was named one of the “Top 100+ Best Business Books” by The C-Suite Network, and is an International Book Awards winner.

For your author-inscribed and signed book or for quantity discounts, order at: https://carolkaemmerer.com/books

Other Articles by Carol Kaemmerer

Your Most Powerful 220 Characters: If You Haven’t Customized Your LinkedIn Headline, You’re Missing Out

Strategic Engagement on LinkedIn: How to Become Top of Mind for Right-for-You Opportunities

Three Misconceptions About LinkedIn that Could Be Hurting You

What is a Personal Branding Expert? …And Do You Need One?

Why Senior Leaders Need a Strong Brand NOW — And Why It’s In their Company’s Best Interest to See That They Get One

7 Ways to Elevate Your Online Brand So You Can Love Your LinkedIn Profile

What is a Personal Brand – And How Can You Take Charge of Yours?

Twelve Changes You Can Make in About an Hour to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

Why Is My LinkedIn Profile Getting So Few Views?

How Can LinkedIn Be Part of Your Company’s Strategy for Responding to the Great Resignation?

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Missing the Mark?

Comfortable in Your Job? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish: Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams on LinkedIn:

A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn

“Tell Me More…” — On LinkedIn

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?

C-Suite Executives: Stop Hiding Online