How to grow your presence on LinkedIn

Jim Louderback

With every Twitter dumpster fire that ignites, many speculate that LinkedIn is the next platform for journalists to migrate to.

The professional networking site has become important for content creators to build their social presence. But it is not a Twitter replacement, according to Jim Louderback speaking at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia last week.

Louderback went through the LinkedIn Creator accelerator last October and is a "Top voice" on the platform (LinkedIn's official equivalent of influencer, but invite-only). He has 25k followers on the platform, which is critical for building up and monetising his newsletter Inside the Creator Economy.

In Perugia, he provided best practices and first-hand tips on how to grow your profile.

Optimise your profile

Make people want to connect or follow you with an attractive profile.

• Turn on creator mode. This means anyone you do not accept as a connection can still follow you. It displays your follower count and hashtag topics you post about

• Have a great picture and do not change it often

• Be concise and direct with the career experience in your 'about section'

• Be selective with the services and features that you display

• Perfect your LinkedIn Headline by selling yourself in a few words. Use keywords that summarise your chosen industry, top skills and job description. Include stand-out numbers or data for plus points

• Include a clear call-to-action, such as 'subscribe to my newsletter'

Jim Louderbeck's profile: headline, topics and services

Build followers, not connections

Be picky with people you accept as connections. And be picky with the connection invites you send. A smaller but relevant community is preferable. Try to connect with:

• Other Top Voices in your field or locally.

• Hiring managers at companies you admire

• Thought leaders and experts in their field: Sara Fischer of Axios is a must.

• Active posters and LinkedIn recommendations

Bonus tip:

Rather than sending a connection invite off the bat, follow people and enable notifications to see their posts. Comment on their posts a few times before sending the invite.

Look at the top commentators and repeat the process for them.

Posting strategy

LinkedIn favours slower posting frequency in tighter detail.

• Post once a day, three times a week. A rough guide: 10 am (local time) Monday to Thursday, 1 pm Friday to Sunday.

• Avoid external links in the post, especially for paywalled articles.

• Tag people carefully — only one or two people who will likely reply.

• Keep it up. If you are dormant for more than a month, the algorithm will reset. You will need to start over.

• Post in your own voice - avoid pasting from ChatGPT or a hired pro.

• Make the post about the audience. Delete the word "I" in the first paragraph.

• Focus on content that either helps other people do their jobs better or further their careers. Share your wisdom, i.e. what contributed to your success (milestones, opportunities, relationships), what junior professionals should know, helpful resources or productivity tips.

• Offer your two cents: innovation to pay attention to, what clients keep asking you, or how curious things work.

• Write about takeaways from conferences. Read more: our list of must-attend journalism conferences in 2023.

• Leverage trending news and share with your take: be timely and concise, encourage conversation and include hashtags. #litrendingnews is a must, but also have three to six hashtags consisting of one or two broad topics and two to four more specific ones.

• Leverage different features on the platform, such as photos, carousels, newsletters or video.

• On video: use a square video of one to two minutes, with captions, that puts your personality front and centre. Edit well.

• On newsletters: have a clear title, post on a regular schedule, and make your first newsletter amazing. Thumbnails are key for attention, so vary them. And make sure you sound like an expert.

Post-posting

• Remain engaged and comment on there or four other posts

• Avoid editing for the first 10-20 mins unless you make a typo.

• Avoid being the first to comment.

• Respond to comments within an hour and continue to respond over the next eight to 12 hours.

Join us at Newsrewired on 23 May for a discussion on the future of social platforms and what recent changes mean for your publication. Tickets are available here - get yours today!

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