The one and only Tim Brown recently recorded this video to show us all how he has leveraged LinkedIn to get more referrals. That’s right, LinkedIn works for more than just finding that great new job. You can also use it to grow the current business you’re working with.
If you don’t want to read through this blog post, feel free to watch the video below. Let’s dive in!
Before you’re able to start getting referrals out of LinkedIn, you’ll need to build an audience. The process we’re working through today will show you how to develop an audience and then get that audience to help you in return for all the great information you’ve shared with them.
How to Come Up with Post Topics
First on the list of things to do, is coming up with some solid post topics. Without posting somewhat regularly on LinkedIn, you’ll never be able to build up an audience the way that you’re going to need to. So here are some of the best ways to come up with quality topics.
Copy Posts That Have Done Well in the Past
We’re not talking about actually copying word for word the content that you’ve already created and released. What I’m referring to is looking at your analytics and finding posts that have performed well. Find a post that you’ve put out that has lots of comments and interactions. All you have to do is try to mimic that same post and put a different spin on it.
Maybe you haven’t written many posts or done much on LinkedIn yet. Try this next strategy out!
Answer Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re involved in your sales process, you probably know that many questions are asked throughout that process. Customers have so many things they want to know about you, your company, and how your product/service will benefit them more than another company might. You can offer your LinkedIn audience answers to these questions, and in turn, you’ll begin to endear potential customers before they even start to consider you for their needs.
Keyword Research (AREFS)
You can use keyword research tools to find out what your website is ranking for and what your competitor’s websites are ranking for this. Doing this can give you some insight and understanding into the world of SEO and into the minds of those searching for services like yours.
The kicker among all these different strategies is that your post will ideally answer the questions and inform your ideal customers and prospects as they vet you and your company.
Scrappy Tools for Video
There are many different affordable options out there for being able to edit video in professional and high-quality ways quickly. At Hook, we’ve been using Premier-Pro from Adobe for quite a while now. This program is pretty intense and can seem expensive. If you’re looking for something super beginner and free (if you have a mac), consider iMovie.
Another program we use is called Kapwing. This program helps us add captions to our videos so that we can share them on Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn, where users don’t have to have their audio on, and they’ll still be able to follow along. The captions or subtitles that we add are imported from Descript.
Quantity and Connecting
It all boils down to how often should I post, and how should I go about connecting with other LinkedIn users? The organic reach for LinkedIn is said to have gone down a bit from where it was last summer. Although it’s down a bit, it is still pretty good compared to other sites like Instagram or Facebook.
Connecting and reaching out to people is one of the biggest kickers for ensuring that you’re able to continue to grow your reach on LinkedIn. When you’re connecting, consider these types of companies.
- People within your industry that might refer you business.
- Companies that you consider to be prospects.
- Companies outside your industry or related to it that could become referral partners.
When you find companies and people like this, go ahead and connect with everyone on their staff that you’d like to be able to work with or talk to. After they accept your invitation to connect they’re going to start seeing your posts, and thus you’ll be in front of them all day, every day (as long as you’re posting)!
Connect with Competitors
Connecting with your competitors is never going to hurt! There’s so much you can gain from communicating with and engaging with your competition. Collaborate on projects or even refer them business that doesn’t seem to be the right fit for you and your company. Creating healthy relationships with other local businesses is going to go a long way!
Referral Centric Content
After you’ve gotten into a good rhythm with your content and connections, it’s time to start moving your content towards referrals. You can do that slowly but surely through the following strategies.
Influencers
While you’re likely not an influencer within your niche yet, you might be someday! Until then, try to collaborate with influencers that have a say within your industry. Influencers are people that have a large following on any social platform and that speak directly to your audience regularly.
Collaborate with Content Creators
Content creators or influencers are great opportunities to collaborate with. You can work with them to create guides or be on each other’s podcasts. Doing this will allow you to share their insights with your audience and be involved with their audience. Be sure to take advantage of doubling down on this content that you create. You’ll want to be turning it into social posts, blog posts, infographics, and resharing it a few months later if you can. Make the most of it!
Brand Your Content for Collaborators
IF you take a video or create a podcast with a collaborator, don’t just share it on your own platform. Instead, brand it for the company or person that was on the podcast or video with you. That way, they’ll share it on their platform as well, and it will match all the content they already have.
Be Scrappy with Video
If you’re going to record a podcast, record it as a video too! There are so many ways to be scrappy and create a simple video. Tim had his wife record the above video for him, and it turned out great! Don’t worry about making a video that looks like a movie; just flip your iPhone to the side and get to the recording. You never know how that video might impact one of your customers’ decisions.
Guardians
There’s a certain group that we consider to be guardians of their industry. These people protect the industry’s patrons from scams and companies that might be seeking to take advantage of them instead of providing value. In our service niche, we want to become guardians and offer value without always charging. We also want to earn current guardians’ trust to ensure that we can collaborate and work together. This concept goes back to the simple idea of wanting everyone to win all the time! We want the companies we work with and those that we don’t to win! We want our competitors to win! We want YOU to win!
Know What You’re Good At
If you’re going to begin regularly sharing content on LinkedIn or any platform, ensure that you know what you’re talking about and what you’re good at. While you might know a thing or two about roofing, if you’re not in that industry and working on it every day, then it might not make sense to talk about it. On the other hand, you can share insights from industry leaders that you may have connected with. The goal here is to stay in your lane and stay smart about the things that you share!
Build Community
Ultimately social media was designed to help build community, and that’s what you want to try to do by creating content and posting regularly. But don’t just make it about you and your content. Comment on other people’s content and engage in the dialog where you can. There are many opportunities and places that you can engage and build relationships with other people on the platform.
Remember, it’s about everybody winning because there will always be enough to go around.
