Looking for a new morning routine to help you become more productive? Here is why I recommend a daily dose of ten minutes of LinkedIn, preferably accompanied by freshly brewed coffee, and followed by exercise. Let’s start with the LinkedIn part of this routine.
Whether you are starting a new venture (like me), a long-tenured employee at a large company (like I used to be) or a fresh-out-of-college new hire (like I was a long time ago), here are six reasons why LinkedIn is great at helping your career:
Connections
Let’s face it, while technology has changed, in the end, most of your business success will come from networking. It is an old cliché but “who you know can be as important as what you know” in every profession. LinkedIn is fantastic at helping you keep connections throughout your career and it does so in a professional manner with no concerns about colleagues seeing your family Facebook pics. Need to find out where someone is working now? LinkedIn is a great place to start with 562 million usersacross 200 countries.
Messaging
One of the best ways to leverage LinkedIn is to use the private messaging capability to share articles directly with your connections. Did you read an article about AI in banking that you know your former colleague will find useful at her new company? Share it using the private message option. I am surprised at how many people don’t use this capability. If you haven’t tried it yourself, it is very simple. At the bottom of each post is a Share button. Instead of selecting “Share as Feed”, choose “Send as Message” and then start typing in the name of your connection which will autofill. Then you can add a personal comment.
Privacy
LinkedIn requires people to send you a connection request that you must accept before they can see your entire profile or send you a private message. Another important privacy feature is that if you are following a company (for example your employer or a competitor) they can’t “follow you back”. That is not an option for a company on LinkedIn. They can only see if you Like or Comment on a company post, not if you have viewed it. Companies can’t even see the names of their followers only general, combined statistics such as their followers’ countries, levels of seniority and regions.
Great Content
If you are a serious professional, hoping to advance in your career (and I am guessing if you are reading this article, you are) there are articles every day that can inspire you on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to productivity to new technology. Key business publications like Inc., Forbes and Harvard Business Review publish stories on LinkedIn regularly. There is a select group of LinkedIn Influencers that you can follow. If you are a marketer, you will want to subscribe to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog. It is packed with free resources and guides to digital marketing strategies, most targeted at B2B marketing.
Sharing content that you think is genuinely useful and will be of interest to your connections helps you stay current and is easy to do. Just select the Share button at the bottom of the article and add a relevant comment. If you make a mistake or change your mind, you can delete or edit a post at any time, right from your mobile phone. LinkedIn now offers hashtags so if you add #mobilepayments to the end of your post, anyone searching for that topic will find it. And if you tag a person or a company using @firstnamelastname or @companyname that person or company will be notified, which can increase visibility of your post.
Your Next Job or Your Next Employee
LinkedIn started life as an HR tool and it is still a great place to start if you are looking for a new job or a new hire. You can research people and companies here to find out basic information on experience, size and number of employees. While other online job tools like Indeed may have the most job postings, on LinkedIn your connections can share direct links to jobs at their companies. Sending a private message to get more details on the job posting could help give you the inside edge on winning that job or at least getting an interview.
Sales
The number one reason to spend ten minutes per day on LinkedIn is simple: increased sales. Not only does it help you stay knowledgeable on key topics in your industry, by following your clients, you can stay current on their announcements and have a great conversation starter. If you are a consultant, LinkedIn is a great sales tool to connect with clients as well as find freelancers to help on specific projects.
Don’t Forget the Healthy Part
As for the exercise part of your morning, countless studies have shown that regular exercise helps your brain and your body stay young, ward off illness, avoid obesity and reduce stress. Unfortunately, adults spend more time than ever on their screens, 11 hours per day on average of watching, reading, listening to or interacting with media. So spend your 10 minutes on LinkedIn but then find another 30 minutes or more to get active every day. Your body and mind will thank you!
Need a bit more help to make LinkedIn work for you or your business? Please contact me, I would be pleased to put together a proposal for you. Email me at [email protected].
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