In 2020, I created two lists from LinkedIn for its content creators: China Spotlight and Singapore Top Voices. It was an ideal honor to have my LinkedIn work recognized for resulting in thoughtful and skilled conversations.
I’m sometimes asked to share my secrets about how I increased my follower count on LinkedIn, which is now over two million. My first advice is that the standard of your followers is more essential than the amount. And the standard of your content is the muse for constructing your follower base.
But when you deal with producing quality content, you may as well do other things that may allow you to get more followers on LinkedIn. Here are my seven suggestions.
1. Comment on other people’s posts
When I come across an interesting LinkedIn post, I try to depart an insightful comment, which regularly prompts the creator to get in contact with me. With engagement comes more visibility. If your comments provide readers with value, they may follow you. Commenting only takes a couple of minutes, making it an efficient strategy to provide readers with value.
2. Expose failure
Most social media posts only show the positive side of life, but everyone knows that life has its ups and downs. When you post something that exposes your weaknesses, you make it easier for people to discover with you and share their very own flaws. They help take the pressure off people to at all times be perfect. Revealing failures makes the stories you tell on LinkedIn more interesting (remember, if there isn’t a conflict, there isn’t a story) and makes you more likeable. This phenomenon is often known as the pratfall effect. It was discovered in 1966 by social psychologist Elliot Aronson, who showed that highly competent persons are perceived as more likeable after they make a standard mistake.
3. Be attentive
To gain followers on LinkedIn, it’s good to usually provide you with interesting and fresh ideas. Some people ask me how I can develop such a wide selection of topics to write down about and still stay inside the general theme of careers and life skills. The answer: I observe my surroundings and the people I meet. When I find a possible topic for a LinkedIn article, I immediately jot it down on my phone.
My article ideas often come from on a regular basis people, including my tailor in Hong Kong, a tour guide in London, and gardeners tending lotus plants at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Sometimes I just go to my very own garden and learn from nature.
As you interact with people and people around you, you possibly can learn from them and translate those lessons into engaging content that gives value to your followers.
4. Speak at events
I’m invited to talk at events almost every month. On the last slide of my presentations, I share my social media handles in case participants would really like to follow me. I also post a summary of my speech on LinkedIn. I often
I see a rise in my variety of followers after every talk.
If you haven’t got the chance to talk at events yet, try arranging speaking sessions at your university or workplace to showcase your hobbies, expertise, or topics that interest you.
5. search engine marketing on your LinkedIn profile
Before each speaking event, the organizers often ask me for my bio to post on their website and I make sure that to incorporate my bio LinkedIn URL in bio. Over the years, my LinkedIn profile page has been linked this manner on many organizations’ web sites, including top universities whose web sites typically have high domain authority. Search engine algorithms recognize that these links all point to my LinkedIn, and this helps with SEO (search engine marketing) of my profile in order that it appears higher on the outcomes page when people seek for my name.
6. Network offline
It’s a very good idea to network so as to add value beyond just posting content. This will make your followers pleased and allow you to gain recent ones. For example, I organize online and offline networking events for a few of my followers who usually engage with my posts. I’m curious to know who they’re and why they like my content. Shakiru, a London-based crude oil trading analyst, liked my very first LinkedIn article: “I failed my math exam.” At the time, I only had a couple of hundred connections. Whenever I visit London, I at all times invite Shakiru to attend my networking events and introduce him to my other London-based friends and acquaintances. A private meeting strengthens our relationship.
7. Be like bamboo
A journalist writing for a tech magazine asked me whether the rise in my LinkedIn followers resembled a linear or exponential pattern. It was the latter. At first, I made slow progress in gaining followers, but I still enjoyed writing my articles. Users like Shakiru have helped me construct a follower base, improve my writing, and expand my pondering by interacting with my posts. This is how bamboo grows. When I planted some bamboo in my garden, not much happened the primary 12 months, then suddenly inside a couple of weeks the brand new bamboo shot up several meters.
A blog with one million followers starts with a single connection.
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