With over 5000 connections and a top 2% industry SSI (Social Selling Index) ranking, Markus is particularly skilled at using the platform. He starts the lecture by sharing some of the benefits his LinkedIn usage has resulted in, including: keeping in touch with alumni, organising guest lecturers for his courses, generating meet-ups with industry experts, and even writing a book review.
What he does
Markus explains that he primarily posts his own summaries from articles on LinkedIn. He also tends to share unique and ignored angles, often related to news and happenings, but sometimes just from interactions from his day-to-day life. Tagging and mentioning people by name is a great way to create and strengthen connections, he claims. Excellent ways to get ideas are to follow news, media, and what other people are posting.
Lessons learnt
Over the years, Markus has learnt some valuable lessons regarding LinkedIn, including:
- Original content is appreciated. Share a picture of something you find thought-provoking from your day-to-day life and explain why.
- When sharing content from other people or websites, always add your thoughts. What triggered you to share this article? What makes this post interesting? What are your own perspectives?
- Posting frequently reminds people of your presence, which Markus compares to marketing. He suggests posting at least once a week.
- Keep your profile up to date by sharing your achievements and maintaining an updated profile picture of yourself that reflects your current appearance.
- Vary your posts. By only uploading one type of post, e.g., only achievements or only updates about yourself, the audience might grow to lose interest.
- Add a personalised invitational note when sending a connection request. Not only is it polite, but it also increases the chances to connect.
The future of LinkedIn
Putting LinkedIn posts in an AI perspective, Markus wonders what the future of LinkedIn will bring. How will generative language models change how we view and interact with LinkedIn? Will there be flooding and pollution of information due to the usage of these AI-tools when anyone can “write” an insightful post?
Markus wonders if upload quality will be more important than upload quantity and that we might have more of a local fan club to tend to, which he doesn’t necessarily see as negative. He encourages listeners to work with what they have in terms of connections and following.
Takeaways
In conclusion, Markus encourages all listeners to create a LinkedIn profile, observe the activities of people they identify with, and remain authentic. Additionally, he suggests viewing LinkedIn as a conversation and engaging with others in that manner.