Before discussing LinkedIn, let us discuss “Community”. It is something all thought leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs need to be investing in. Without community, you\u2019re an island \u2014 isolated in your effort to build wealth and influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That fact has been pretty well established by this point. What\u2019s less<\/em> well-known is the fact that there are many resources you can utilize in building a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most important? LinkedIn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn is a powerful mechanism for community growth because it helps you foster an intellectual authority<\/a> presence. Readers look naturally at LinkedIn community leaders as power players \u2014 people who know what they\u2019re talking about and have earned certain respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn can also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these things are critical. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not exactly clear \u2014 at least to folks new to the platform \u2014 how <\/em>exactly to use LinkedIn to accomplish any of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re better off directing your connections to a Facebook group if you want to utilize the more private group structure for communication and content sharing. That\u2019s how bad LinkedIn\u2019s version of groups are \u2014 yet they\u2019re what we gravitate to first when we think of building community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, the best ways to build community on LinkedIn are\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0exactly intuitive. So here are the\u00a0most\u00a0<\/em>valuable strategies you should focus on instead.<\/p>\n\n\n Most of us think of LinkedIn status updates as purely a means of engaging connections with content \u2014 which they are. But they can also be used to encourage action among your followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, that should be your eminent goal. Your followers should be commenting on your posts, sharing them, and discussing within them how genuinely they relate to what you\u2019re saying. That\u2019s why updates which ask a simple question \u2014 “Hey everyone, how do you motivate yourself on Monday? Tag someone you know who always comes ready to bring it at the beginning of the week\u201d \u2014 work really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider how you operate inside of groups on Facebook. How you engage with other members inside the group, asking for advice and communicating with folks directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do that in your status updates on LinkedIn, and you\u2019ll generate the sort of energy and engagement around both your content and your presence that will elevate your reputation in the eyes of community members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This second piece may seem surprising: most people on LinkedIn think of their connections as a list strictly to be grown <\/em>as opposed to curated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The amount of connections you have is evidence of your influence \u2014 right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wrong. It\u2019s a mistake to try and connect with as many people as possible. Instead, be purposeful with the people you forge online relationships with. Only seek out new connections whom you can learn from, or whom you think might benefit from the content you have to share \u2014 people whom you think might be interested in your clear, specific value-add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, operating in this way might lose you followers. But it will gain<\/em> you customers and colleagues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn messaging or engagement pods are groups you create on Slack or Facebook consisting of LinkedIn contacts. You can use them to give your posts or articles an immediate boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what you do: Immediately after publishing something new on LinkedIn, share it in your messaging pod, and ask everyone to go engage with it or share it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This is a remarkably effective way to bolster your posts and updates to ensure they don\u2019t fade to irrelevance, getting buried beneath everyone else\u2019s articles. But it only<\/em> works if your group is purposeful about what folks are allowed to share. In the various pods that I run with my teams and clients at BAMF<\/a>, we impose strict barriers to entry to ensure all the content we promote is something we\u2019re comfortable co-signing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It helps, to this end \u2014 do you notice a theme here? \u2014 to focus eminently on adding value<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Always, always, always \u2014 in your pods, through your status updates, in engaging with your connections \u2014 seek to provide unique value.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s <\/em>what will cement your reputation as someone people need to know on LinkedIn \u2014 which will, of course, help you build a more formidable community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that, for most of us, is the ultimate goal of using LinkedIn, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it\u2019s not yet\u2026 well, consider this your call to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1) Using status updates as a way to connect your followers.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2) Keeping a very curated list of who you connect with.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3) Creating a LinkedIn messaging pod where people can connect directly and privately to strategize.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n