The Freelancer’s Guide to Leveraging LinkedIn
It wasn’t too long ago that LinkedIn was viewed and used as the world’s fanciest digital résumé.
Today, LinkedIn is a bonafide social media network, with a robust app and user base to boot. And as you already know, LinkedIn is by far the number-one network for doing business, with Twitter coming in a far second.
If only you were doing business with LinkedIn.
Here are a handful of ways to proactively market yourself, develop your personal brand and grow your freelance business using one of my favorite social media networks:
Use LinkedIn more than once in a blue moon.
The sad truth is that most people who have a LinkedIn profile don’t actually use it like they do Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
When I say “use it,” I mean actively posting content and engaging with people in your network on a daily basis, or whatever frequency tickles your fancy.
Connect with everyone in your personal and professional networks.
Literally, everyone. Family, friends, former coworkers, acquaintances, current and prospective clients, industry leaders, role models. Eh-very-one.
While you’re at it, I also recommend connecting with other freelancers and service providers for this reason:
Whenever I meet someone— both online and offline — I automatically find and connect with them on LinkedIn. It’s my modern-day business card.
Not to mention, if there’s a specific company or organization that you’d like to pursue, do some research into their key decision-makers, and then connect with them on LinkedIn. This way, you’ll establish relevance in their before they’re willing, ready and able to hire you — which promptly brings us to the next item.
Leverage LinkedIn Publishing.
LinkedIn Publishing is a built-in blogging platform, and there are two primary ways to utilize it:
- Republish long-form content that you publish elsewhere (e.g. on your blog), and
- Publish original long-form content.
Either way, when you publish content via LinkedIn Publishing, everyone in your network who’s following you will get a notification. Here’s what I mean:
In addition to relying on this notification system, I also share the link from each of my LinkedIn Publishing posts in the news feed for reinforcement.
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Join relevant groups.
While groups can be hit or miss, I’ve found great success in attracting followers and even a few clients by posting my LinkedIn Pulse posts in various groups.
LinkedIn also has a separate, dedicated app for its groups called … Groups.
In addition to increasing your content’s exposure, LinkedIn’s groups are also great for getting a feel about what people are saying and feeling about social media, and then turning those sentiments into content that addresses them for LinkedIn Pulse and other online publications.
LinkedIn ProFinder
Modeled after popular “freelancer-for-hire” marketplaces such as Fiverr and Upwork, LinkedIn’s ProFinder matches prospective clients with a freelancer who fits their needs.
I personally don’t believe in using “freelancer-for-hire” marketplaces because the scale of supply (of freelancers) and demand (of gigs) disfavors freelancers — ultimately diminishing the rate a client is willing to pay — but it’s still worth mentioning.
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