LinkedIn in 15 Minutes a Day

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LinkedIn in 15 Minutes a Day
You know LinkedIn is essential for modern
business networking.You’ve heard it’s the
best way to get your dream job, recruit top
employees, find new prospects, and stay
top of mind with your customers. So you’ve
created a profile.You’ve covered the basics,
like uploading a professional profile picture,
connecting with your existing contacts and
filling out your work history.You have even
joined a few groups and followed some key
companies. Now you need to learn how to
use LinkedIn to maximize its potential. We’re
here to help.
LinkedIn is a social network designed for
busy professionals.That means you can get a
lot out of it without investing too much time.
In about 15 minutes a day, you can build a
strong presence on LinkedIn and establish
expertise in your industry. Here’s how to do it in three simple steps:
1) Scroll Strategically
2) Contribute Consistently
3) Keep Connecting
We’ll go through these steps in detail, but first, here’s the most important point to understand: Engagement is
key to your success on LinkedIn—not time.

1) Scroll Strategically
At the top right of your screen there are
suggested engagements. It will show you
who among your contacts are having a work
anniversary, a new job, a birthday, etc. Here
you can quickly “like” or create a “custom
comment.” You can also “skip,” so don’t
feel obligated to like or comment on all of
them. Next LinkedIn will suggest people you
may know. If you haven’t made any new
connections in a while, look through.You
might be surprised by who you thought you
were connected to and aren’t or who has
recently joined LinkedIn.
LinkedIn will show you the the number of
people who viewed your profile in the past
7 days. Click on the link to see the following
three tabs:
Who’s viewed your profile.This number is directly correlated with how engaged you are on LinkedIn.There are
many things you can do to engage and get people to notice you. LinkedIn will even tell you all your actions
for the week. Use this to grade yourself: Are you engaging or not so much?
Here are things you can do to engage:
• Endorse people (LinkedIn will prompt you to do this but you can also use it as part of your strategy to stay
in touch or top of mind with specific contacts)
• Share updates
• Publish an article
• Comment on an article
• Join groups

• Connect with more people
When looking at who has viewed your profile you can look at your trends but just below that LinkedIn will
suggest actions for you. If it’s appropriate, take these steps, if not, move to the next tab.
Who’s viewed your posts. As you review this section, be clear about who you want to view and engage with your
post by industry, job title and location. If you are looking for a job, prospects, or to stay top of mind with
customers and referral sources—are they here? If not, you need to revisit your content and start writing about
the things they care about.
Look at each post for a few seconds to make sure you are attracting the right readers. Be sure to click “see
more” to learn the following about who your viewers are and where they come from:
• Top Industry
• Top JobTitles
• Locations
• Traffic Source
How you rank. This only includes your personal connections. However, it allows you to see which of those
contacts are the most viewed, so you can learn from what they are doing to engage their audience. LinkedIn
will also provide you with more tips to engage as you navigate the platform.
Your LinkedIn home screen contains a stream of updates from your connections, as well as companies and
influencers you follow. As your scroll through your home feed, be on the lookout for prospects, affiliates and
referral sources, as well as influencers and customers.
You want to make these people look good, add value to them and be relevant yourself. Don’t forget that
these actions will now show up in all of your connections’ home feeds. So your connections will see what you
liked, commented or shared.

2) Contribute Consistently
Your first step to rocking LinkedIn is engaging
with your network.Your second step is to
contribute content so your network can
engage with you.That makes perfect sense,
right? When you contribute a piece of content
on LinkedIn, you accomplish these things
with a single action:
• You give people a reason to interact with
you
• You establish yourself as a thoughtful,
forward-thinking member of your industry
• You give people a sense of your
personality
• You stay top of mind
The content you share helps shape your presence on LinkedIn—and by extension, the business world. Here’s
how you can contribute:
Built-In Content
One of the easiest ways to contribute is to share LinkedIn’s built-in content. LinkedIn offers content from
“Influencers,” such as Meg Whitman and Guy Kawasaki, “Publishers,” such as Mashable and Forbes, and
“Channels,” like “Entrepreneurs and Small Business,” or “Social Media.”
Follow a selection of industry-related sources and share your favorite stories. Note that LinkedIn gives you
the option to share with everyone, post to groups, and/or email individuals.This is another great feature that
helps you engage on LinkedIn and target specific connections.You can rotate who you share information with
on a daily basis—which allows you to reach everyone but avoid “oversharing.”

Groups
Look at one group a day, and when appropriate, like posts, answer a question or comment, or ask your own
question. Rotate through your groups, visiting one a day. You may find that you don’t like a group. If that’s
the case, then leave it. Just make sure you replace it with another one. Don’t join groups only from your
industry. Join groups where your prospects, referral sources and customers are. You may never comment on
anything, but you’ll learn a lot.
Original Content
In addition to sharing other people’s content, you should contribute your own. Here’s a list of original content
that’s quick and easy to share, either to your whole network or to specific groups and individuals. Don’t
forget you are talking to people. So as you write, ask yourself: Why do they care? Why do they want to know this?
Original Content Ideas:
• Events you’re hosting or attending
• Community news and events
• New projects or accomplishments
• Industry news and reports
• Questions or solutions for industry-related problems
• Your latest blog post
Anything that you and your team are doing or creating at work can potentially be shared on LinkedIn. Don’t
worry about being overly self-promotional—with our strategy, you’re sharing plenty of other people’s content
and accomplishments as well.
If you really want to wow your network, you can go beyond the usual status update and choose to “Create a
post.”This feature allows you to share longer, blog-style posts with your connections and the general public.
You can even add images and video to increase visibility.You can also cross-promote your posts on different
social networks. (This option may keep you on LinkedIn for longer than 15 minutes, but a weekly or monthly
post can do a lot to boost your authority on LinkedIn.)

Slideshare. If you have recently created a PowerPoint for a discussion, class, training, etc., be sure to upload it
to Slideshare.Then you can take the link, write up a quick post, and share it as an update on your page.
3) Keep Connecting
Even when you pass the milestone of 500+ connections on LinkedIn, it’s important to continue to grow your
network and expand your influence.Take a few minutes each day to connect with new people.Your strategy
may differ based on your goals, but as a
baseline, you should connect with:
• Anyone you meet at events or conferences
• Vendors, reps and other associates
• New prospects, clients and affiliates
• Group members (Both your LinkedIn
groups and real life groups)
Did you get an email from a new business
associate? Look up that person on LinkedIn!
Send an invitation to connect.
Advanced Search
It’s great to connect with people you know
and work with on LinkedIn. But it’s even
better to use LinkedIn to expand your
universe. LinkedIn does have some restrictions on connecting with people outside your network. However,
LinkedIn allows you to directly connect with your 2nd-degree Connections.This gives you access to tens of
thousands of potential prospects and affiliates. Access them using Advanced Search. (You can find it next to
the LinkedIn search bar at the top of the page.)
On the Advanced Search screen, check the box marked “2nd Connections” and enter a keyword, company
name or industry. As a result, you will see a targeted list of people that you can invite to connect. Now you

have a targeted list of prospective customers or partners to help your business grow! Note that you can save
your search and even set up email alerts.
Personalized Messages
LinkedIn provides a default message for connection requests. But as a best practice, you should always
personalize your invitations when asking someone to connect.This will go a long way toward helping you
stand out from the crowd.
A lot of people struggle with what to write in their invitations, but it’s actually a simple formula. Just establish
context, such as where you met or who you know in common, sprinkle in a little flattery or rapport, and finish
up with a call to action, such as “Let’s connect.”
Here are some invitation templates that you can use to connect on LinkedIn:
It was great to meet you at the _________ event last night. Let’s stay in touch.
I’m so glad our companies are doing business! Let’s connect here as well.
I just read your blog post / article / op-ed / column on __________. Great insights! I’d love to follow you
here as well.
I’m a fellow member of the __________LinkedIn group. I always enjoy your comments. Let’s connect!
We have a lot in common.You are in charge of _______ at ________, and I do _________ at ___________.
Let’s connect and share stories.
I loved your presentation on _________ and am already implementing your advice. I’d like to stay
connected!
It’s been a while since we talked. Glad to see you’re doing so well! Let’s catch up.
I saw you connected with _______ and couldn’t wait to say hello! Hope all is well. Let’s stay in touch.

I’m a local / fellow / aspiring _________and an admirer of your work. I’d love to follow you here as well.
Try to send out at least one custom invitation per day to grow your network.
Warning: Do not connect with people you don’t know. Who you are connected to influences the story of who you
are—and who you aren’t. When you receive requests to connect with people you don’t know, consider using
this reply:
“Thank you for reaching out to me on LinkedIn. I reserve my connections for those that I know well. I would be happy to jump on a
call to “meet” you virtually and then would be comfortable connecting on LinkedIn.”
This gives you both an opportunity to learn more about each other’s business and to deepen the relationship
and understanding of what the other person does. You never know what type of lead or referral source can
come out of a 15 minute phone chat.
Jumping In
Now it’s time to take what you learned and jump in! Just follow these three steps:

1. Scroll Strategically
2. Contribute Consistently
3. Keep Connecting
Here’s an example of what a typical 15-minute daily
session may look like using this strategy:
9:00 am – Review the top right of your
screen (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) and
engage with your contacts by “liking” and
commenting on their content.
9:03 am – Peruse LinkedIn’s built-in content,
read a story by an influencer, and share it
with your network, your network, a group, or
a specific individual.
9:08 am – Check out who’s viewed your
profile and schedule time to connect on a
deeper level with customers, prospects and
affiliates.
9:13 am – Scroll through one group, comment
as appropriate.
And you’re done!
It’s that easy to build a presence on LinkedIn. And the impact it will have on your personal brand, and by
extension your business, is limitless. Soon you will be seen as an authority in your field, your company will
be top of mind to a growing network, and you will have built trust and rapport that makes you and your
business the go-to choice for your target buyers.
All those 15-minute sessions will really add up. So what are you waiting for? Now’s the time to start!

You’re Not Alone
19 Oaks offers LinkedIn support for individuals and groups, including:
• LinkedIn Profile Optimization
• LinkedIn Company Page Optimization
• LinkedIn Content & Posting
• LinkedIn SalesTraining
• LinkedIn in 15 Minutes a Day(in-depth, custom strategy and training)
When you’re ready to get connected on the world’s most powerful business networking platfrom,
call us at (207) 619-7155.

LinkedIn in 15 Minutes a Day

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