3 Tips From A LinkedIn Expert that Got Me Half A Million Views in 24 Hours
Sharing the behind-the-scenes of my first viral post on LinkedIn.
Sharing the behind-the-scenes of my first viral post on LinkedIn.
If you still think about LinkedIn as that strange old platform where random people from work endorse you for Microsoft Word skills, you’re missing out on a world of amazing opportunities.
LinkedIn has 740 million members and almost half of its users earn upwards of $75,000 a year. This translates to double the buying power of a typical web audience, making LinkedIn filled with huge potential, especially for writers and online entrepreneurs.
I’ve only started being active on LinkedIn since January 2021 after watching the brilliant talk by Tara Fitness ⭐️at Momentum 2021. But in the nine months since, I’ve met some amazing people, bagged opportunities worth thousands of dollars, and grown my reach to more than 10x compared to when I started.
In spite of all these, I hadn’t really tasted “virality” on LinkedIn. Sure, my posts got a decent number of likes and views, and I attracted quite a few valuable leads, but nothing was truly groundbreaking.
Then, I consulted Linkedin Personal Branding Expert, Harsh Tripathy, who shared some amazing tips that helped me get 500,000+ views, 10,000+ reactions, and 1000+ comments on a single post in 24 hours.
Since then, I’ve got 1000+ connections requests, 500+ messages, and several leads that could turn into potentially high-paying opportunities. It’s still a little too early to estimate how much of this traction will translate to money, but with the expert’s advice, I’m fairly certain I can convert this attention into long-term writing gigs.
In this post, I’ve compiled the three tips that resonated with me the most, how you can apply them to optimize your profile and expand your reach, and what I plan to do to keep this traction going. If you’re looking for new clients or want to build your personal brand on LinkedIn, read on for some truly valuable insights from an expert.
1. One Tip to Connect Better With Your Readers
Every day, 2 million posts, articles, and videos are published on LinkedIn. How do you make yours stand out?
Simple. Connect with your readers as you’d do on any other platform.
And the best way to connect with your readers is —
Tell stories. Don’t share information.
No one likes to read about boring numbers or tips on how to achieve what they’re looking for. I mean, yes, everyone’s on the lookout for tips to succeed, but there are thousands of people posting similar content every day. You can make your posts stand out by speaking to the hearts of your readers, not their minds.
Tell stories. Hook them in from the first sentence. Leave enough white space between lines to let them pause for breath and reflect on what you wrote. Play with their emotions. Make them feel something, and they won’t be able to tear their eyes away from the screen.
Even if your idea for a post is on the most boring topic, think of a way to turn it into a story instead of simply sharing information.
2. One Tip to Leave A Mark On The Readers’ Minds
People on the internet consume gazillion bytes of information each day in the form of posts, Tweets, articles, YouTube videos, and so much more. But research shows that within one hour, people will have forgotten an average of 50 percent of the information they consumed. Within 24 hours, they have forgotten an average of 70 percent of new information, and within a week, 90 percent of the information is lost forever.
But if you make sure they remember your posts, they will remember you.
And in time, when they have a writing assignment, they’ll think of you before they approach anyone else.
So how do you leave a mark on the reader’s mind?
Write about surprising and/or contrarian opinions.
Even if the story you’re telling is the same as many others on the internet, think of a way to present it uniquely. Some examples are:
- Life at <some famous educational institute> is not as rosy as you think.
- You don’t have to be organized to be productive.
- I wrote the least number of articles on my highest-earning month on Medium.
The fact that contrary opinions work is validated by research as well. A good post is one that attempts to formulate viewpoints based on an objective analysis of happenings and presents conflicting or contrary opinions.
3. Some Tips to Improve Your Reach
Aside from these unique and interesting tips to make my posts engaging, Harsh also gave me a few personal branding tips to keep in mind while using LinkedIn.
These have helped improve my reach, increase my engagement, and double my follower count in less than a week. Some of the most helpful ones are:
- Post everyday at least once.
- Reply to all comments.
- Use hashtags with huge following. Some of the hashtags relevant to my feed are: #contentwriting #contentmarketing #writing #storytelling #marketing #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing, etc.
- Follow BIG accounts and comment on their posts.
- At the same time, show your support by commenting on posts of budding writers as well.
Closing Thoughts: How to Convert Leads into Clients
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for getting new clients. Every message you get might potentially land you high-paying gigs. But every person who connects with you might not be on your wavelength. No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to satisfy some people’s demands.
My inbox has been overflowing in the days since my first viral post, but I’ve only talked to a few people beyond the initial “Hi, how are you?” This might sound like a low conversion rate but remember that you don’t need 100 clients who pay you $100. You need just one client who pays you $10,000, and you’ll be sorted.
No matter what gig the client signs you up for, it’s important that you talk to them for a while to understand what exactly their expectations are from the project. When you overdeliver on your first assignment, you’ll have a better chance of landing a long-term deal with them.
LinkedIn can be a very powerful networking and job search platform, especially if you know how to use it well. The tips from Harsh helped me improve my performance and showed the platform to me in a very promising light.
What about you? Have you been using LinkedIn to find writing jobs? Are you going to use any of the tips mentioned here? Let me know in the comments.