Many of my clients have asked me for tips on how to be efficient with their time on LinkedIn. I assure them that spending as little as 10 minutes once or twice a week is enough for most people.

 

Five Things to Do at Least Once a Week

  • Review your pending invites and either accept or ignore them. A potential client or referral source could be inviting you to connect. If you aren’t sure if you want to connect with someone, click on “Manage.” Or if you have more than one pending invite, you will see “See all” and then the number of invites. Just below the person’s name and headline, you will see the word “Message.” Type a short note asking why they reached out to you and see if they respond. If you resonate with their response, accept their invite, and if not, ignore the invite.
  • Respond to your LinkedIn messages. People may lose your email address or your phone number. But if the two of you are connected on LinkedIn, they can always reach you there. By staying on top of my messages, I’ve booked speaking engagements, paid trainings, and client appointments.
  • Take action on selected LinkedIn notifications. If you see that a client or referral partner has a work anniversary, send a quick message of congratulations. Use notifications to check for job changes as well. Maybe a connection is now working at a company you want to do business with and can open a door for you. Also, if people comment on a post you’ve created, these comments will display in the notifications section. It’s important to acknowledge a person’s comment with a short reply.
  • Share some information of interest via a short post. Examples include information about a trend in your industry or a “how-to” tip. I like to write a post, including a photo, if possible, when I give a talk or training on LinkedIn. You can also reference an article by someone else – just be sure to include a link to it.  Another idea is to write a post honoring the work of a client or referral partner.
  • Skim through the activities of some of your closest clients and referral partners for things to comment on or share. Be sure to mention the original poster by using the @ symbol followed by their name to notify them that you have shared their post.

One more suggestion relates to sending LinkedIn invites to selected folks you meet when you are doing business networking. This activity is sporadic rather than something I suggest doing once or twice a week.

 

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. 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