LinkedIn has 722 million members and while it’s smaller than Facebook and Instagram, its business focus makes it an audience worth noticing. Close to 44% of all Internet users in Canada have a LinkedIn account and 27.1% use it every month1. LinkedIn reports a total of 17 million users in Canada2. On a global scale, 40 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs each week and 59.9% of users are between 25 and 34 years old.3

Given all of this information, LinkedIn is an important tool to help attract prospects and build credibility.

It’s also a good idea to check with your firm and follow their guidance when it comes to social media. Your presence on LinkedIn starts with a personal profile.

The best place to start is defining your brand that will set you apart from other advisors on LinkedIn. It answers:

  • Who you serve and what problems you address
  • What unique value you bring
  • The outcomes you can offer to your Clients

Your brand will guide your decisions about what information to put on your profile and the type of content to post.

Your personal profile is an opportunity to share who you are, how you help your Clients, and how you got to where you are today.

Personalize the different sections of your profile to support your brand, by including:

  • Cover photo and headshot
  • Headline
  • Contact information
  • About summary
  • Experience
  • Education

Your company page can act as a micro-site for your business. Include some of your marketing collateral and a clear call to action to redirect visitors to your main website. Link your company page to your personal profile.

Build your credibility by posting on LinkedIn

Once you’ve created your profile, put it to work! Any public thing you do on LinkedIn, such as commenting or liking a post, will be visible to your connections in their newsfeed. Based on how you engage, you can position yourself as a credible source if information on a given topic. You can engage through both your personal or company page.

Posting includes writing posts of your own or sharing posts from your network. You can share news, observations, opinions and experiences. When deciding what to post about, keep your brand and target audience in mind. What adds value and supports your brand? Include hashtags in your post to get it in front of an audience interested in the topic. Use @ mentions to connect your post to someone else’s profile when sharing their content or talking about them. This shows the breadth of your network.

When commenting, offer information, an opinion or ask a question to provide additional value. Comments are public, so it demonstrates how you engage with others. Liking a post is a way to show appreciation. Your network will also see what you like, so it’s a quick way to reinforce your brand. Like posts that are relevant to your network and the work you do. You can also react with icons to celebrate, support, love, insightful and curious.

Getting the most out of your time spent on LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers great tools to measure the success of your activity. Take full advantage by reviewing your metrics. If you aren’t seeing the results you want, adapt your strategy. Review your:

  • Views
  • Likes
  • Comments
  • Shares

Take a look at the total numbers but also at who is engaging with your content. Are you reaching the right target audience? Are your Clients seeing your posts? Are your centers of influence seeing your content?

If your Clients are engaging with your posts, their networks are seeing your posts as well. Including a call to action in your post to encourage engagement is a common strategy for increasing views.

If you find a need to change your approach, continue to do what’s working well and change up what isn’t.

  • Time of day: Keep track of the time of day you’re posting. Do your morning or afternoon posts perform better?
  • Day of the week: Which day of the week do you find your network is most engaged?
  • Hashtags: Is your content getting in front of the right people? Try using different hashtags or posting about different topics if not.
  • Post type: Do your plain posts, links, images or videos get the most engagement?
  1. eMarketer: Internet users in Canada who have an account on select social media platforms, 2017 and 2020.
  2. LinkedIn Pressroom Statistics.
  3. Hootsuite and We Are Social.

 

Information contained in this article is for information purposes only. It is not intended to provide or be a substitute for professional financial, tax, insurance, investment, legal or accounting advice and should not be relied upon in that regard. It also does not constitute a specific offer to buy and/or sell securities. You should always consult your financial, tax and estate advisors before undertaking any of the strategies contained in this article to ensure that all elements and your personal circumstances are taken into consideration in developing your individual financial plan. Information contained in this article has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made with respect to its timeliness or accuracy and SLGI Asset Management Inc. disclaims any responsibility for any loss that may arise as a result of the use of strategies discussed.