7 Ways To Increase Your LinkedIn Engagement

Undoubtedly. LinkedIn is the largest professional social network and it can boost your business if used right. Unfortunately, too many people fall for the hype and invest in cold emailing services and bots that miss one thing: human interaction. This post will cover the time-tested methods that will get you not only more connections, but also more engagement from your target audience. 

1. Check Your SSI Score

No matter what some marketing experts tell you about LinkedIn marketing, and how much LinkedIn is trying to encourage you to join their Premium service, you need clarity before you act. Not many people know about the social selling index (SSI) freely available for all LinkedIn users. What this tool does is tell you how powerful your profile is. It’s good to check it regularly, probably every 3 months. Here’s how it will look like. 

The index compares your profile with people in your network and industry, and even gives you recommendations on improving it. So before you work on your outreach and engagement, please make sure that your profile passes with stellar colours. 

2. Follow Your Competitors

You can absolutely follow your competitors, especially if they are doing better on social media than you. Remember we didn’t say copy them. Just see what they are doing, who they target, and figure out what you can do better than them. You might also comment on their posts; a friendly approach never hurts. If they start being nasty, you can still leave. But offering an olive branch is better than trying to act like a troll. Plus you can find out more about their followers and their interests. (By the way, this is completely legal).

3. Follow Your Suppliers 

If you are in the eCommerce business space, you absolutely must follow your suppliers. You need to know how the big companies engage with your target customer. Remember that they have much more experience and budget behind than you, so why not learn from their approach? You can even tag them in some posts, and could get a mention on LinkedIn, which is gold dust if they have tens of thousands of followers. 

If you are bold enough, you might even reach out to find out if there is an opportunity for collaboration. For example, you can offer to turn their blog posts into an infographic and give them rights to publish it mentioning you. 

4. Engage In Conversations on Others’ Posts

Many people think that social media marketing is all about shouting at your audience louder than others. Sometimes listening and having a conversation works much more. In fact, most of the time, if you are looking to build a sustainable marketing plan. Take 10-15 minutes a day to browse the posts of other people and engage with them. 

Commenting on other people’s posts is a good idea, but only if you have something meaningful and useful to add. Just saying “great post” will not get you followers and engagement. You need to really join in the conversation, reply to comments, and be helpful. That’s how you build a good relationship with your market. This is your chance to establish yourself as an expert at any field. You should check the LinkedIn post strategy of experts.

5. Create Polls

One of the surefire ways of getting a lot of engagement on LinkedIn is creating polls. They are super easy to do and fun, too. People love the option to vote and they appreciate being asked for their opinion. There are a few things to remember, though. 

First, you should always steer away from controversial topics that can lose you fans and followers. Don’t talk about politics or big debates, such as abortion rights or euthanasia. However, you can link to recent news about your industry and you are likely to get even more engagement. The other thing you will have to remember is to pick a topic your ideal client is interested in and is engaged in. I have seen polls getting tens of thousands of votes, and they were not from large companies or celebrity speakers. 

Taking part in community discussions as well can help you raise your profile. Engage in LinkedIn groups that will help you become more visible. LinkedIn communities vary; some of them are promotional and serve the group owner’s interest, but others can be very useful. Check out the posts before you join and commit to contributing regularly. 

6. Upload Presentations

A surefire hack of LinkedIn growth is sharing documents. Now, not many people know about this, but big companies are using it with success. If you have just written a blog post, why not turn it into a presentation of a pdf? If you do, you will reach more people than with a regular post, guaranteed. Plus, you will be able to add your website links and contact details on the document. By standard, people are allowed to download your documents, so the more useful they are the better chance you will have to reach even more people in the company. As presentations, infographics, and pdf documents are easy to share, you have a chance to get them across to decision makers, too. 

7. Get Recommendations and Endorsements

Raising your profile is not all about talking, though. You need social proof, as well. If you don’t have it on your LinkedIn profile, you are surely missing out. If your current customers tag you in posts, that’s great. But you need to go further than that. 

Add skills to your profile and ask your current or past colleagues, employers, and customers to give you endorsements. If they are really happy, you can also ask them to provide you with a recommendation. A recommendation is visible on your profile and is free for anyone to read. It gives you instant credibility and an expert status. It works like a Google or Facebook review, but – in some ways – it is even more powerful.

Here is where you find them on your profile: 

Now you have seven different ways of increasing your engagement on LinkedIn. Do you have a favourite we haven’t mentioned? Share it below.