Linkedin can be a great place for coaches to hang out and get more clients and increasingly it's a platform where you can attract both individual and organisational clients. The question is how do you utilise it in a way that works for you effectively rather than having the famous spray (post) and pray approach?
Latest Linkedin advice
This is advice taken from Linkedin training and Hootsuite as well as comments on posts from Linkedin. The simple answer is to be consistent and to spend time on the platform finding the right people to follow and connect with, creating content that is relevant and ensuring that your profile is up to date.
Remember to track your stats on Linkedin and to assess what is and isn't working: it's key to ask new clients how they found you so you can see what platforms are working most effectively.
Key things to consider:
- Your profile : where do you work / what is your job title? what skills do you have? who are you connected to?
Things you can do:
- Ensure you have an up to date profile and you have identified your skills
- Look at your connections: who are they connected to? this is about building the right audience
- Connect with people who are your ideal client : you can do this by job title and people are more likely to accept if they're 2nd or 3rd connections: you might want to test if you add a welcome message or not (look at your stats)
- Update your about you section and include relevant links to what you do
Your content: how many times have people viewed your content? how many times have they engaged? what is the content about? what language is it? how recent is it?
Things you can do:
- Post regularly : 3-5 times a week don't post more than once in a 3 hour period
- Look at trending topics to create things which are relevant
- Ensure you only tag people who you know will reply and avoid spamming lots of people (max 5 - source Hootsuite)
- Keep hashtags to a minimum
- Post links in the comments section
- Post when you know you're prospective clients are online
- Include questions in your posts to help engagement
- Use images - they usually get twice as much engagement (source Hootsuite)
Your engagement : this looks at who and what you're engaging with, where you're spending your time, topics you're interested in and people / topics / hashtags you follow
Things you can do:
- Engage with others and engage on posts that you find interesting
- Consider who you're engaging with: have an intentional plan as well as spending time on your feed
- Join groups which are relevant to your interests
- Reply and engage with people who comment on your posts
I would recommend spending 3 x 30 minute sessions over a week engaging and building connections on Linkedin and scheduling posts 3-5 times a week ideally at a time when you can engage as well.