Knowing how to standout on LinkedIn will make the difference between being an invisible profile in a sea of endless profiles and getting on top of your competition. There are over 100 million registered profiles on LinkedIn with the smallest percentage of consistently active members. What this means is that while your competition may have a LinkedIn page with a lot of contacts, their contacts may just sit there without being noticed after the initial acceptance of the connection request. With a minimal amount of time to engage your network and grow your connections you can utilize your LinkedIn profile as a major marketing source for your business.
Imagine going to a huge dinner party and the only thing you do is say “Hi” to everyone that is there. Chances are you will leave the dinner party with no more new contacts or potential customers than you had when you came in. Now imagine going to the dinner party with interesting conversation starters, you reach out to everyone there by asking questions and creating a memorable impression. That is exactly what is happening on LinkedIn every day. People send connection requests with no personal messages and accept them the same way. That is saying “Hi”. No one is going to remember you that way.
Always include personal messages when sending or accepting a request for a connection. Have something memorable to say about the person/business you are connecting with. Remember this is not a marketing venue this is a social network media. Stay social 80% of the time, market 20% of the time and keep the marketing subtle.
Chances are that your personal messages have created short two way conversations between you and your new connection. If not, rethink what you are messaging and make sure you ask intelligent questions or create a compelling reason for your new contact to respond back to your messages. This is the start of a great new relationship.
Continue to keep your new connections engaged by commenting on their updates if they are significant. You can also make use of the group mailing feature that LinkedIn offers. This is not the time to send mass marketing mails, but by the way announcements, holiday greetings and news that would be of particular interest to your contacts should all be welcome messages from you. Make sure you hide other’s emails before you send the message. That is basic email etiquette.
It takes a minimal amount of time to remember how to stand out on LinkedIn. Just keep the interactions going, keep them relevant, compelling and interesting. If you have other LinkedIn success tips, let us know what they are. We love to hear new ideas!
