Enhance your LinkedIn experience by using these five ways to engage with your LinkedIn Connections. Too often we connect with people on LinkedIn and then simply ignore them.

When you engage with your LinkedIn connections in a sincere, natural way, you are staying top of mind with them. They will appreciate you paying attention to their posts and business milestones, such as new jobs or work anniversaries.

 

Five Ways to Engage with Your LinkedIn Connections

  • Congratulate them for their achievements

Take time at least once a week to review your notifications section. When you see that a LinkedIn connection has a new job or work anniversary, tell them congrats. Click on the “Say Congrats” button to send a private message through LinkedIn with a personal note. Alternatively, if you want to praise them publicly, click on the entire notification.

  • Give them kudos

To do this, click on Home, click on “Start a post,” and click on the three dots. Then select “Celebrate an occasion,” and then click on “Give kudos.” Type the person’s name into the box at the top of the screen. Select the box with the name, photo and headline, and click on the “Next” button. Then select the type of kudo you want to give them. Examples include “Thank you,” “Going above and beyond,” and “Amazing mentor.” There will be a standardized text that has their name, #kudos, and the words “I just want to say – and then the name of the kudo.” You can expand on this verbiage before you click on Post.

  • Comment on their posts

As you may know, the more comments a post gets, the greater the reach of the post. Also, when you comment on a post, other commenters might be intrigued by what you have to say. Therefore, by engaging with others on LinkedIn in this way, you will reach a wider audience. You can find their posts by going to the Activity section of their profile and then clicking on the word “Posts” at the top of the screen.

  • Honor your connections through skill endorsements and recommendations

Periodically, look over the names of your key clients, referral partners and other business associates. Reflect on their positive attributes and contributions. Then, go to their LinkedIn profile and endorse them for the skills associated with these characteristics. Also, write a heartfelt recommendation for one or more of their positions in their Experience section.

  • Include their names in your posts

One of the simplest ways to engage with connections is to include their names in the posts you share. On LinkedIn, this process is called “mentioning” them. The process is called “tagging” on other social media platforms. Mention them when they help you land a speaking engagement or if they speak at your group. Maybe they introduced you to a wonderful new organization or business partner. There are countless reasons to publicly thank your LinkedIn connections in a post.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up to be more effective using social media, with a special focus on LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com