When I started my career in digital marketing 4 years ago, LinkedIn was a completely different place.
It still had a very corporate tone and was used heavily for job seeking and recruitment.
Over the last few years, LinkedIn has evolved into a place for people to create strong relationships, spread their message, and build their personal brands.
While some people are still daydreaming about the old days of LinkedIn – you know the ones, the ‘this isn’t Facebook’ brigade – there’s no denying that LinkedIn now provides a huge opportunity to build an audience and promote your brand that it didn’t before!
So how do you build an audience on LinkedIn?
Well, I’ve picked the brains of Damteq’s founder, Adam, on how he built up an audience of over 5,200 followers on his personal profile, and I’ve broken down a few ways to grow your LinkedIn audience!
Connect with the right people
Don’t just focus on building an audience; focus on building the right audience.
A lot of the time, LinkedIn will suggest connecting with people in similar roles/industries to you via the ‘My Network’ tab.
While this is a great way of getting content inspiration and learning from people in your space, the last thing you want is an audience entirely made up of competitors!
Keep in mind the type of people you’re trying to reach.
Take some time to research people that match your ideal customers, and pop them a connection request. (remember to personalise your connection requests too!)
To find the right people, you should look at the following:
- Job Titles – What positions and level of seniority are the people you’re trying to reach?
- Industry – Are they in one specific sector or several?
- Location – Are you trying to reach people in your local area, or are you looking further afield?
- Companies – Are there any specific companies that you want to interact with?
Engage with your audience
Engagement is a two-way street.
If someone leaves a comment on your post, always reply to it.
Responding to engagement on your posts will help build relationships with the people that follow you, and that’s what you’re aiming for.
Not to mention, LinkedIn’s algorithm loves it, too, so responding to comments will boost the visibility of your posts!
But remember that it’s not just about your posts; it’s about theirs too.
You should be reacting to, commenting on, and starting discussions on your audiences’ posts, just as they engage with yours.
That’s how you build a stronger connection with your audience, by supporting their content where possible and showing that you’re focused on more than just posting for views or leads.
If you’re leaving insightful comments or starting discussions on other people’s posts, their audience will see it too, which means more reach and growth.
Always provide value
There’s a lot of corporate, promotional waffle on LinkedIn that has no real value.
So don’t create content that just adds to the pile!
Always aim to provide value with your content because that’s what will make you memorable.
Think about your audience’s needs, and create your content to satisfy those needs – whether it’s with advice, sharing experiences, or providing solutions to their problems.
You should remain adaptable, though, because sometimes what you think your audience wants to see and what they actually want to see are entirely different. Audience research is vital!
Also, remember that value can take different forms, and your posts don’t always have to be business related.
Sometimes the best way to build a connection with people is through funny and entertaining posts, sharing personal stories, and getting involved in off-topic conversations.
Build consistency
Building your audience is one thing, but keeping them engaged is another!
To grow your audience and retain their interest, you need to be consistent with your posting.
The more people see your valuable content; the more brand awareness will grow!
The best way to get into the habit is by creating a schedule for posting and keeping to it as much as possible.
As a lot of LinkedIn content creators will tell you, posting once a day is the best way to keep your brand fresh in your audience’s mind and scale your audience quickly.
But it doesn’t matter if you’re posting two days per week, three days per week, or every single day; building consistency is vital for keeping your audience engaged.
And, If you really nail your content, people will look forward to your posts and notice when you’re not as active.
Always be human!
Don’t be a LinkedIn robot!
If you want to connect with your audience, just being yourself and injecting personality into your content will help to make you more relatable.
Your personality, experiences, opinions, and knowledge are the fuel that’ll drive your audience’s growth and engagement, so use them!
That’s the key to establishing a solid personal brand that you can nurture over the long term.
You’ll see more success in growing your audience by being human and being yourself.
Outsourcing can lighten the load
Right now, you’re probably looking at all these tips and thinking, “How the hell am I going to find the time to do all of this?”
It’s true; building a LinkedIn audience doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes months of consistently showing up, posting valuable content, and engaging with your audience.
That’s hard to do if you’re a business owner and your schedule is jam-packed already.
If you’re determined to build your LinkedIn audience, you can go to a digital marketing agency for help, whether it’s just for advice, helping with content planning, or full ghostwriting and content creation.
Even if you outsource, you still need to be active in the process. Your experiences, knowledge, and insight into your industry are invaluable for content creation, so regularly sharing this with your agency will ensure that your content is accurate and valuable to your audience.
Also, establishing an accurate tone of voice and personality on your socials will help to keep things consistent on social media and in person.
