By Sara Grillo
If you aren’t getting the results on LinkedIn that you want and you have no idea why, read this article. I’m going to discuss who LinkedIn likes and dislikes and how to get on their good side.
Treat LinkedIn like your client
Imagine you get a new client, and during the initial risk assessment they say, “I hate international stocks. I don’t want volatility and I can’t stand losing money.”
You then proceed to invest the portfolio in emerging market equities and bitcoin.
Would you ever do that?
No, because you want to keep your client and you recognize that in order to do that, you have to do what she/he wants you to. Guess what! It’s the same thing as LinkedIn.
Understand that LinkedIn is a business, and even though they don’t charge you directly to be on the platform (unless you upgrade), in exchange you are trading your intellectual capital for their views. To get the most out of this transaction, to sell your capital at the highest price to LinkedIn, you have to understand their business needs.
Almost as if they are your client.
Know this. LinkedIn only makes money when a ton of people engage with the platform. Either you cause people to spend more time on there reading and engaging with your content, or you don’t. It’s binary. Those who draw people’s attention to them and hence cause more people to invest more of their day on LinkedIn are the ones LinkedIn rewards.
Do what LinkedIn needs and get people to focus on your content, and you get rewarded by higher views. Ignore their business needs, and like any provider who doesn’t understand what their client needs, you get minimal if even anything in return.
Five ways to make LinkedIn love you
Here are five ways to give LinkedIn what it needs – more people spending time on it – by making simple changes that improve your engagement.
#1 Use healthy tension
Tension.
What makes the difference between a good post and a bad post?
But not in a bad way. Do you ever notice that with some things there is a healthy tension that compels you to complete an action, and you just don’t feel satisfied until you do?
For example, if I sent you with the subject line, “This rocked”, you’d feel a ton of tension. Questions such as:
· What rocked?
· Why did it rock?
· How can I get it to rock for me?
Mystery creates curiosity and the desire to know the secret info can almost make you thirsty.
What else creates tension?
· Surprise
· Shock
· Irony
· Intrigue
Read this post about LinkedIn for financial advisors to learn more ways to incorporate tension into your posts.
#2 Call people to interact
You financial advisors love to drop info and then bolt. What do you expect, a standing ovation?
The point of a posting isn’t to impress or show everyone how smart you are. It is to entertain. The person who entertains the best gets the most views.
Use humor, creativity, all the elements discussed in #1 to get people going, and then prompt them to do something at the end that LinkedIn will love. The best thing to do is ask a question that is easy to answer (no Fed trivia) as the last line of the post, and tell people to comment below with their answer.
#3 No links in the body of the post
Try not to link away to your website or other third party platforms outside of LinkedIn. Remember LinkedIn wants all the traffic it can get. When you link away, it’s like showing up to LinkedIn’s taco fiesta and saying, “Hey everyone, I’m having a barbecue two doors down. Why don’t you all pile into my bus and I’ll drive you there!”
LinkedIn will HATE you.
#4 Get a killer first line
The first line of the post should be the focus on most of your attention because that it what is going to create the tension mentioned in #1. If it fails to do that, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of them reading past it to the second one.
Examples of first lines that worked for me:
According to the Form 990, the CEO of the #FPA made over $400k in 2019.
This was a controversial post that spurred a lot of discussion with many people getting fired up over it. This is what LinkedIn wants!
If anyone else posts on here about their kids’ soccer team winning the divisional title, I’m unfollowing you.
Direct as heck, and right to that point. This had great shock value.
Is anyone creating financial plans that are ACTUALLY different from what the next advisor offers?
This post was an attack on the industry that prompted many people to think through what their value as a financial planner really is. It may seem like a basic question, but the way it was asked, it led people to question a facet of their daily regimen as financial planners.
Here are six ideas for how to start an RIA firm today without living in poverty and having to eat cat food.
This was an informational post that could have been boring but the use of humor drew people in, coupled with a graphic of two cats eating (they are rescues we got from the alley next door, Sunshine and Moonshine). Pets are great for social media if you want to get people’s attention, by the way.
#5 Post at high engagement times
I designed the perfect post for one of my clients and then I could have put my fist through the screen when I saw him post it at 6:30 that night.
The day when the world is falling down because the Fed hiked rates, the crack of dawn, the middle of the night, all of these are bad times to post. Don’t post when you feel like it. Make sure you are putting content out at a time when you believe your audience is going to be most open to receiving it.
Sara’s upshot
If you want to learn how to put our content that LinkedIn will love, join my membership.
Or if not, at least drop by and say hello to me on LinkedIn…I’d love you to join my party and participate in my fun posts. Here’s my page.
Sara Grillo – CFA is a financial author, podcast host, and keynote speaker – is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms.
https://saragrillo.com/