5 WAYS TO GROW ON LINKEDIN

LinkedIn serves as the melting pot for professionals from all sectors to connect and learn from one another. It also acts as an avenue for individuals to show their area of expertise and build  a personal brand for themselves . Beyond just sending and accepting connection requests however, here a few activities that can help you grow your LinkedIn page.

1. Create value to show credibility: create content on lessons you found valuable or topics you are an expert in. This is a better way to demonstrate your competencies as opposed to just posting your latest certificate. Value could be in form of tips, advice, sharing a success story, or a lesson learnt from failure, and so on.
2. Connect with experts in interested industries: connect with individuals in industries that you are interested in and build relationships by offering value. Offering value could be done by interacting with the content put out by these individuals, sharing their posts, buying their products or services ,or even offering them your product,service or money, in exchange for their time when you need it and so on
3. Write-ups and articles: put a lot of effort into writing engaging pieces because it stimulates deeper engagement and connections. The tone of the post should come across as professional when writing a piece on LinkedIn.
4. Engagement: Actively interact  with the content put out by your connections especially when it relates with your field. Share your thoughts and opinions as opposed to the random “thank you” and “nice piece” responses.  Not only will this get the attention of the creator of the post, but it could make others view you as a thought leader in that field.
5. Profile Picture: Your LinkedIn profile picture should be crisp,clear and attractive as it serves as your “passport” on LinkedIn and can make or mar people’s decision to connect with you. An ideal LinkedIn Profile picture, should be a professional headshot.

LinkedIn is a platform that offers immense opportunities for individuals to build their personal brand, interact with experts and build a great network. To learn more about how to optimize LinkedIn, keep an eye on all our upcoming announcements by following us on LinkedIn @Competence Africa