Reid Hoffman – “Your network is the people who want to help you, and you want to help them, and that’s really powerful”
LinkedIn made a couple of big announcements this week, the first being that LinkedIn UK hit the 20 million user milestone. An incredible achievement and hats off to them. The second part was the introduction of LinkedIn Power Profiles, and I was fortunate enough to be listed as one for the category of HR.
What is a LinkedIn Power Profile? Well in this instance it’s a list of the “Most Viewed Human Resources Professionals on LinkedIn in the UK for 2015”. It seems then that views is the metric to focus on here.
When I was told by LinkedIn that I will be recognised as a Power Profile, my Profile Views in the Last 90 Days was sitting at around 6,000. I’m the most viewed profile in my company and in the top 1% for views within my connections. So, what I will cover in this blog post is how I drive views to my LinkedIn profile.
ACTIVITY
Let’s start with the obvious. I’m a Recruiter which means I spend all day, everyday on LinkedIn. But just sitting there logged in doesn’t drive views though, activity does. I post relevant articles about my industry, blogs and the odd witty business meme. And not just to my update feed, but also to the groups I’m in.
Interactions are key too. I start conversations with people by either connecting then messaging, or by sending InMails. More often it’s me reaching out to talented professionals discussing job opportunities at Hudl. But also I’m speaking to other Recruiters for advice or requesting to be introduced to others i.e. what LinkedIn is for.
INTEGRATE OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS
Most of my LinkedIn traffic comes from Twitter. Now it may shock you to hear, but I do have an automated direct message in place that, once you’ve followed me, will ask you to connect professionally on LinkedIn too.
This has been a fantastic way to expand my network, but more importantly I can engage with my Twitter followers on a professional level (through LinkedIn).
My blog also has a link to my LinkedIn page (along with Instagram, Google+ and Twitter) right at the top. The idea is that if I drive views to either Twitter or my blog, it will also lead to views on my LinkedIn profile.
IN PERSON CONNECTION REQUESTS
Ask people in person to connect with you on LinkedIn. Did you have an interesting conversation with a professional at a conference? Request to connect. Perhaps you had a successful client meeting? Request to connect. Or you’ve joined a new company? Connect with everyone in that company, so that you’re recognisable when you eventually meet them face to face. Make your in-person network compliment your digital network, and vice versa.
Joe Burridge 