Do you use LinkedIn to strengthen your relationships with others?

Too many people think of social media as one-way communication. The point of LinkedIn is to help people in the business world connect with each other. Therefore, you should spend at least some of your time liking, commenting on and sharing the information that others post.

It’s important to find a good balance between sharing information posted by others and writing your own posts.

 

React to, Comment on and Share the Activity of Others on LinkedIn

  • At least a couple times a week, skim your LinkedIn newsfeed looking for pieces that you believe would be of interest to your LinkedIn connections.
  • Another option is to identify a handful of key clients, referral partners and influencers. These folks could be in your field or in related fields. Regularly go to their LinkedIn profiles and review their recent activity on LinkedIn. The activity could be posts they created or shared, or it could be something they liked, reacted to or commented on.
  • Rather than simply clicking “like,” select one of the other reaction options, such as celebrate, support, love, insightful, or curious. Doing that will mean more to the person than simply liking the post.
  • Then comment on their activity. Share your opinion or perspective to add value to the reader in some way. Please note that commenting on a post will lead to more people seeing the post than just reacting to the post.
  • Another option is to share the piece that the person has written themselves or has shared from another source. To do this, click on the word “Share.” Provide some introductory remarks about why you think this piece would be of interest to your connections. One advantage of using this approach is that you can feature this post with your commentary in the Featured section of your profile.
  • Whether you comment on a post or share it, tag the person by typing the @ symbol before their name. Click on the box that comes up with their photo and name in it.

One of the benefits of sharing information in these ways is that your LinkedIn connection is honored that you noticed this item and took the time to share it. Another benefit is that you didn’t have to come up with something to share when you might have been having writer’s block.

Please note that you don’t have to be connected with someone to react to, comment on or share their activity. Depending on their settings, you often can tag these people even if you aren’t their connection.

 

Ways to Engage with Your LinkedIn Connections

  • There are several other ways that you can engage with your LinkedIn connections, such as sending them a personal note via LinkedIn’s internal messaging.
  • Your notifications section will alert you when a LinkedIn connection gets a new job or has a work anniversary. You can congratulate them in one of two ways. The first way is publicly – by clicking on the notification and writing a note of congrats. The second way is to write a private note via LinkedIn messaging by clicking on the “Say congrats” button.
  • Finally, you can endorse your connection for a skill in the Skills and Endorsements part of their profile. You can also write a recommendation for one of the positions in their Experience section.

 

About Joyce

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