LinkedIn is not only the business network worldwide, but also extremely popular in this country: Over 6 million Germans log in every month, a growth of 9 percent since October 2023. It is worth being active yourself: reach, awareness and visibility not only bring a lot to the self-employed, but can also help employees find a new job.
With these 5 tips you can increase your visibility and build a network that will advance your career or business.
Profile optimization is the basis
The first step should always be to get your profile in shape. After all, it is the first point of contact when a potential customer, employer or contact comes across you. Make sure you have an attractive profile picture that shows you as easily recognizable and professional and personable. A face and at most part of the upper body are enough to make you easily recognizable even in the smallest format.
Your profile slogan is particularly important. This mini-text is not only displayed in your profile, but also in each of your comments and in various other places. Say in clear words what you do, what you offer or why people should contact you.
No quotes from outsiders (no matter how inspiring they are for you), no complicated phrases, no “secret terms” that an outsider cannot understand. The profile slogan decides whether someone continues to look at your profile or leaves it straight away. Be unambiguous, professional and clear here.
The information text is also an important part of your profile. Where the slogan is very limited in length, you can let your imagination run wild here. In the information text, tell us in more detail who you are, what motivates you and what you can do for the potential contact. Feel free to support your expertise here with references.
But it's important not to use long blocks of text. Insert a blank line after two or three lines. Nobody likes to read a desert of text.
Comments as a secret miracle weapon
Writing lots of posts is by no means the only way to gain visibility and reach on LinkedIn. Especially at the beginning, when you have few or no contacts and followers, another measure is more promising: commenting.
Get involved in the conversations under the posts on other profiles. Not just with a simple “Great post,” but with a meaningful, useful comment. You can treat this just like a “mini post”: add a perspective to the post, contradict the author, add your experience, or ask useful questions. Good comments often lead to a longer discussion and can even generate more likes than the original post. And in doing so, they also ensure visibility, contact requests, and new followers.
Persistence is rewarded
LinkedIn is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to expect to be regularly active on the platform from now on, over a long period of time. It can be tough, especially at the beginning, when the desired reactions aren't forthcoming. You have to keep at it.
Set up a structure that works for you. For example, by resolving to publish two posts every week. It's better to post two posts every week for a year than to post one post a day for three weeks and then take a break for weeks due to a lack of energy and ideas. Consistency beats frequency.
The perfect post
There probably isn't such a thing as “THE” perfect post. But there are a lot of things you can consider to make your post work.
A visual element is important. This can be one or more images, a video or a PDF document. Pure text posts usually don't work well, as do link posts that link away from LinkedIn to an external website.
By the way: Experience has shown that selfies get an above-average response. So if you're not camera shy, perfect – sprinkle selfies into your content mix every now and then.
The first one or two lines of the text are particularly important. This area, known as the “hook,” acts like a lure that draws the reader deeper into your article. So start with a strong thesis, an interesting question, or a controversial statement. This forces readers to click on “More.” The algorithm will thank you with more reach.
And then make sure that your post is easy to read. That means no long text deserts, but rather short sentences, lots of paragraphs, perhaps a list instead of a long block of text. The text must be immediately and easily understood even when scrolling past, then it will spread better.
Networking for professionals
In addition to your activities in the form of comments and posts, you should also actively expand your network yourself. It is best to start with everyone you know in real life: colleagues, college friends, employees, customers, suppliers and from now on everyone you meet at conferences, trade fairs, events or other business meetings and who you have identified as an interesting contact.
The next step is networking directly on LinkedIn. For example, you can contact people with whom you have exchanged comments or who have liked your posts. This also gives you a good starting point for an initial conversation.
But stay away from the unfortunately widespread clumsy cold calling emails. Nobody wants to have such standard mass messages with the same old phrases in their inbox. If you are acting in a sales capacity, come up with a suitable hook that is as individual as possible. Referring to a LinkedIn comment or a current post can be perfect for this.
With these five tips, you are well equipped to get started on LinkedIn.
