LinkedIn may sometimes make you feel like you are running in a marathon but the way to ensure you cross the winning line is to compete in 20-minute bursts.
In our previous article, we discussed how LinkedIn is like a gym and we considered the traits that lead to success on the platform; Our main assertions are that you don’t have to use every piece of the equipment but that you must regularly attend and ‘workout’ if you want to get the rewards.
Make no mistake, finding potential prospects, clients, generating more referrals and cultivating ‘go-to’ expert status is a long distance race, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be victories along the way. It is key to ensure that you pace yourself.
“Having a plan and tracking your progress will lead to success.”
Often LinkedIn newbies, excited by the opportunities presented by the platform, go at it hard and start connecting with everybody, posting loads of content, in effect using every piece of equipment in the gym – however, this scattergun approach soon leads to disappointment and exhaustion.
While teaching the LinkedIn Success Blueprint, we have found that people who have a plan and who track their ‘workouts’, are those who seem to get more out of LinkedIn.
Having a workout plan
If we continue the gym analogy, it is easy to see that new starts are often given specific workout plans by their fitness instructors. This ensures that they have a manageable workload, achieve even development and this is all tailored to meet their specific goals.
So, taking this back to LinkedIn, we see that we must first have a clear idea about what we are trying to achieve, then select the equipment best suited to deliver on the plan and have a regime that fits in with our schedule.
Who do you want to communicate with and why? What are you trying to achieve? Is it more important to promote your skills, people or products? Find new clients? Generate expert positioning?
Perhaps it is all of these goals? Defining what ‘success looks like’, will greatly improve your chances of remaining focussed and on track.
20-minutes is all you need
The next stage is to break down the marathon into 20-minute stages.
We map out plans for our clients that are tailored to meet their goals and that they can actually achieve within the time constraints of their busy lives.
This is key is to devise a plan of activity daily and weekly tasks, such as content sharing, commenting in groups, making connections, thought leadership blogging, etc that is tailored to meet your business development goals.
We believe that it is possible to make massive progress on LinkedIn with a daily workout regime of just 20 mins. Consistency and daily attendance is vital to helping you spot trends and opportunities.
Track your progress
In the LinkedIn Success Blueprint we provide tracking tools to enable our clients to chart their progress. Keeping a record of how many connections you make, comments, sharing, blog views etc – is a great way of ensure that you will go the distance. It provides a visual record of your progress and keeps you accountable.
To recap with the ‘take homes’ from this article;
LinkedIn is a long distance race that can be run in stages
Create a plan that is tailored to meet your needs
Ensure that it achievable within your workflow
Turn up everyday
Track your progress
