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- The Big Secret of LinkedIn Networking
Today I want to show you the big secret of networking on LinkedIn. Very few people know this.
I don’t believe LinkedIn is a place to grow an audience or followers or anything like that. If that is your main aim, you are wasting your time. LinkedIn is for professional networking.
You want to connect with people who are useful to you and people you will be useful to.
Before going too deep, you should read this piece about how to get people to accept your LinkedIn connections request.
That is the first step.
LinkedIn Latest Tips
Before delving deep into the networking strategies, let’s talk about LinkedIn tips that are currently working. Always remember that these platforms change their algorithms often and they owe no one an explanation.
Today’s tip is about reposting.
If you don’t repost, I want to suggest that you do. It is one of those very high-ranking engagement activity. But there is a way to do it that won’t hurt your traction.
Before my first viral post several weeks back, I reposted someone. And I believed that it played a huge role in my post going viral.
So, here are the rules:
1: Do not repost with your thoughts
LinkedIn has two options for reposting – repost with your thoughts or without. The trouble is that if you repost with your thoughts, it is counted as your post.
That way, it is no longer engagement. It is just your own post. And you want to avoid that. It is better for your post to be totally yours. And make your reposts count as engagement. Therefore, only use the repost without your own words or thoughts.
2: Only repost someone in your niche
Repost someone who makes a post that could have been written by you. If it is not in your niche, no matter how good it is, don’t repost it. LinkedIn somehow uses the audience of that post to judge your future audience.
Furthermore, if you deviate from your core message or niche on LinkedIn, it takes about a week (depending on other factors) for your LinkedIn reach to bounce back. Let me explain.
Immediately you publish a post, the LinkedIn algorithm shows the post to the people who have engaged on your previous posts who are online at that moment. If the post does not appeal to them (and they don’t engage), the LinkedIn algorithm gradually abandons the post.
Meanwhile, if the first set of people who see it are happy to engage in many different ways, the LinkedIn algorithm is encouraged to show to more people (with the same content preferences, judged by their recent behavior when on the platform).
This is why it is important to stay in your niche. Every step you take out of your niche further confuses the LinkedIn algorithm. It also confuses the strangers who see your content on LinkedIn. People who know you in real life will understand, but the majority of people who only know you through the internet won’t get it.
LinkedIn is not social media. If you want to use it as social media, that’s fine. But you may not get any business or productive thing from it.
3: Don’t repost more than 3X a week
Don’t overdo it. I repost mostly twice a week. And I often do on weekends. My posts are reserved for weekdays.
Anything between once and thrice a week is good. Anything more than that is a gray area.
4: Repost a post by someone you follow
If you don’t yet follow the account that made the post, be sure to do before you repost. Remember that you are doing this so that LinkedIn will match your reach.
The people that were reached by the post (you reposted) will be a prime target of LinkedIn algorithm when you make your next post. So, think about that. Do you want your next post to reach people like those who engaged on the post you are reposting? Think about that
5: Engage on the post before reposting
You can “like” and comment. In fact, it is better when you like and comment before reposting. This is why it is even more important that you only repost what is in your niche.
It also helps if the post is viral already. I have a benchmark of a certain number of reactions I have to see on the post before reposting.
That’s it about reposting. More LinkedIn tips next week. Now, let’s go to the meat of the matter – networking.
You’ve probably heard me say it before – networking is not done in the DMs. Rather, it is done in the comments. But comments make little or no sense if you don’t have a niche. So, if you have never read it or you need a refresher – here is that article on niche again.
I will be showing you two examples of networking from comments from my own personal account. We will be using that as a kind of case study. I will actually show you the screenshots and explain where the conversation eventually led to.
Let’s get into it
