Why does your LinkedIn game suck?
Yes, your LinkedIn game sucks. Of course it does or you wouldn’t be reading this article. Or maybe it doesn’t suck, and you just wanted to confirm in your own mind that it does indeed… Not suck.
Either way, here are the three biggest reasons your LinkedIn game isn’t delivering you the results you crave, despite all your effort and hard work.
Your LinkedIn profile
If I had a pound for every time I look at a LinkedIn profile and see it written like a CV… Well, I’d have enough money to buy the Avengers Tower from Lego for starters.
Let’s think about the mindset people are in when they view your profile for the first time. They’ve been driven there by one of three things:
- Your content – Because it caught their attention for several reasons. Not all of them are good.
- Your engagement – Because you have been supporting your network like a good little LinkedIn worker bee.
- The search function – Because someone searched for your industry and you came up somewhere in the results (probably not at the top).
For someone taking the millisecond required to stop what they are doing and visit your page, this is a big deal. Their intent level just went from ‘zero, because I’m only on LinkedIn to lurk whilst making my 18th coffee of the day’…
To, somewhere just north of zero with a ‘this person might actually be of interest to me’ mindset.
You’ve nailed the first job on LinkedIn. Drive people to your profile.
But then it all goes wrong. As quickly as they land on your page, they are off again because you will insist on making it all about you.
“I’m a driven CEO with all this experience blah, blah, blah.
No one cares. Well, maybe except for you and your mum.
Your LinkedIn profile is a landing page, exactly as if it were a high-converting lander on a website. You wouldn’t run a Google ad and then waste the traffic not telling people the benefits of being there, would you?
I really hope not.
From your banner, all the way down to your bio and everything in between, this page is about your target audience and how you can improve their lives. Plain and simple.
Take a look at yours now and when you’ve finished this article, head over and read this.
The stuff you write about
Writing for LinkedIn is unlike any other skill. It isn’t a blog, a website, a book or a proposal. It’s something that must factor in the stage people are at in their buying journey.
Which is nowhere. They are very low intent, just looking to be entertained and engaged.
The way you write on LinkedIn is one of the reasons people
- Read the content in the first place
- Remember you when their intent level rises above zero
If I had a pound for every time a new creator comes to LinkedIn and treats it like any other writing forum… Well, I could add the Lego Ferrari Daytona to that collection as well.
Think this through for a second.
Your audience doesn’t know you, like you, care about you or believe you can add any value to their world. Basically, you are a nobody who is now coming to the stage like Billy or Barbara big balls expecting them to bow at your feet because you once got a positive review from the employee you had just said hello to.
No. One. Cares.
Treat LinkedIn content in the early days like you have arrived on stage as a stand-up comedian and everyone is just waiting to be entertained. What are you going to do to get their attention and change their mind about you in the very first sketch?
Otherwise, that stage starts to get very lonely.
For a deeper dive into what and how to write for LinkedIn, finish this article and then jump over and read this.
Thinking it’s all about you
The most important element in succeeding on LinkedIn if you are starting today, is remembering it’s not just about you and your content.
There is a whole world of opportunity out there that lies in the hands of the people you are so desperate to capture. But to do that, first, you need to show them some love so that eventually, if they appreciate the love, they will show it back.
This is not a one-way street. Unless you are Gary V or Steven Bartlett who have been doing this since the birth of the platform, you cannot rely on your content, no matter how good, doing all the work for you.
Your target audience is actively creating, so show those posts some love and plant yourself well and truly in the memory banks so that when they one day come across a post from you… They may actually stop scrolling and have a read.
The easiest way I can put this would be… LinkedIn is a digital version of ‘You scratch my back, I’ll tickle yours”.
For a closer look into how to build a connected network on LinkedIn, head over and read this.
I hope this reality check helped put you on a slightly less frustrating path. I’m off to build some Lego.
See you next time.
Stay Unconventionall.