Lessons From 20K on LinkedIn (+ Workshop Replay)

 I hit 20K on LinkedIn this week.

That's a crazy number of humans. It's more than most NBA or NHL arenas can hold. I'm so freaking grateful for every single one of these people as it's likely that I'd still be stuck in a draining office job if I hadn't started regularly posting content on LinkedIn in 2019.

I've seen hundreds of people come and go on the platform in the last four years.

They post regularly for a while, create some momentum, but don't sustain their presence in the long-haul. Why? Because it's hard to keep it up, especially if you're not enjoying the ride.

Here's how you can sustainably grow on LinkedIn....

1. Add the Right Kind of New People

The only place you'll find people being more open to connecting with strangers than LinkedIn is on dating sites. If you're not doing this on a regular basis, you're missing out on one of the biggest benefits of this platform. But who are the right kind of people to be connecting with?

I break it down into three groups.

• People who you share values + vibe with. Any time you come across someone's profile, comment, or content that you really jive with, send them a connection request. These are the folks who'll make your time on the platform fun.
• Folks who have a community + audience that's made up of your potential Dream Clients. These are people to get to know, learn from, and ideally collaborate with.
• Anyone who could be a Dream Client based on something factual: their title, their role, where they work, etc. It might seem obvious, but I've met many that don't send connection requests to this group. And I'm saying "could be a Dream Client" because it can be hard to tell if you'll click with someone based on their profile, especially if they're not publishing content. For example, I have clients that help physicians, coach people in manager roles, and support real estate agents. Each one of those provides a very searchable criteria.

With some practice, you can get responses like these from total strangers:

How do you make this happen?

By including a personalized message with your connection request that makes it clear that an individual human sent this to another individual human. This is your first point of contact with this person, make it intentional. LinkedIn lets you send connection requests to 100 people a week.

However, LinkedIn is catching on to how valuable the feature is.

They've recently started capping the number of personal messages you can send with connection requests each month unless you pay for one of their premium accounts. In my opinion, it's more than worth the price. Someone you don't know is way more likely to accept a connection request with a personalized message.

And with a strategy, you can start to get answers like these (both of them became clients). 

2. Create Content You Enjoy

Once people are connected to you, they're in your orbit. That means your content will start showing up in their feed. I share plenty about creating content that attracts Dream Clients.

That's important.

Because it's hard to stay consistent if you're not feeling the time you're spending on the platform is creating any momentum. But do you know what makes it equally hard? Not feeling proud of the stuff you're publishing. 

If you're doing it all for others and not enjoying what you're putting out, you'll burn out. 

What's unique about you? What do you enjoy? And do you have any creative talents you can leverage?

Do you like writing?
Have storytelling skills?
A great sense of humour?
A knack for taking pictures?
The ability to make analogies?

Tap into those. It'll feel less like work, more like play.

3. Forget an Audience, Build a Community

You're almost there. When you're intentionally adding the right kind of people to your network and creating content you enjoy, the last piece that will fuel your sustainable growth on LinkedIn is deliberately fostering a community. It will make your time on the platform more enjoyable and help your message get in front of way more people. 

Instead of thinking of it as a cold online website full of strangers, see your profile as a storefront on a downtown street.

If you wanted your store to thrive would you ignore your neighbours? Or would you frequent the coffee shop next door, donate a prize to the local BIA's raffle, celebrate others when they have success, and become friends with the other business owners on the strip? I'm thinking you'd take the second approach.  

In the last four years I've had Zoom conversations with hundreds of folks who I connected with on the platform. I've met up in-person with people from LinkedIn in Denver, Toronto, and Paris. Many have become friends, some have mailed me gifts, and several have sent me referrals.

It's been awesome.

Now go intentionally connect with the right people, create content that you enjoy, and treat LinkedIn as an actual community so that you can sustainably grow on LinkedIn and help more people.

-Robb

P.S. Want to learn Content That Creates Clients? Watch the free 40 minute workshop here.