5 Common LinkedIn Marketing Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

LinkedIn is a social network for finding and maintaining business contacts. LinkedIn boasts over 660 million users in more than 200 countries and territories. So you can bet that your ideal audience is on there. You just have to find them, connect with them and interact with them. That is easier said than done, however.

LinkedIn is increasingly been recognized as the premier Business-to-business lead generation platform on the planet. With the right strategy, you will find the company of your dreams, whether you are looking for partners for collaboration, clients or employment. Unfortunately, for many LinkedIn … “does not work.” However, it is fixable!

This post highlights five errors that lead to frustration as users struggle to get the outcomes they want from their LinkedIn marketing efforts. By the end of the post, you will know the big mistakes and how to avoid them in your LinkedIn marketing. Let’s dive into the mistakes:

1. You have no purpose/objectives.
2. You have a weak, incomplete profile or several identical profiles.
3. You do not know how to use LinkedIn’s settings.
4. You do not know how to look for people, vacancies, or companies.
5. You are too salesy in your connection request and follow up messages.

Let’s look at each mistake in detail and suggestions to get the results you want.

1. You have no purpose/objectives

It is a common joke (perhaps more of a fact) that if you are not on social networks, then you do not exist, and LinkedIn is a social network for professional connections and relationships. Being there as an active user does not mean that you are necessarily actively looking for work. Active LinkedIn users consciously approach others with a clear goal in mind. Most users have professional goals (both your personal and in the context of the company); you know what you are striving for and what results in you want to achieve before you start making connections on LinkedIn.

Therefore, before creating a profile, formulate your professional and business goals, and separately write down what you need to achieve them. I am sure that on LinkedIn you will find some of the answers to this question by looking at other people’s profiles.

Many people ignore the importance of specifying the target people they want to connect with on LinkedIn – ignore this at your peril. Being clear about your target audience is the prerequisite for your LinkedIn marketing because it sets the tone of your profile, the criteria you search for, your messaging and your interactions.

2. You have a weak, incomplete profile or several identical profiles

The goal is set. You know why you are on LinkedIn and what you want to do there. Therefore, it is time to clean up the profile. Any user who visits your LinkedIn page (and this may be a colleague, potential employer, future partner, or client) should understand who you are, what you can offer and how you can help them.

To make your profile clear and structured, be sure to take the time to complete the main blocks. It will take you roughly an hour, but then you can always strengthen it and add new information over time.

It happens that you might accidentally register twice with LinkedIn using different email addresses. Check it out and leave only one profile. Do not confuse yourself and other people. Adding a professional photo to your profile is a must. While it can be tempting to remain anonymous, the risk is that people you are asking to connect with you could doubt whether they can trust you and thus want to do business with you.

After all, if you are hiding your identity, what else could you be hiding?

If an anonymous participant views my profile, I do not have the opportunity to get to know this person; such a LinkedIn user will not have an optimized profile and thus is less likely to be found in search results. Therefore, I do not see any advantages of being invisible (anonymous) if you decide to be on LinkedIn.

3. You do not know how to use all network settings

Take the time and experiment with the settings to understand what works best for you. Therefore, you can turn off notification messages to e-mails if they distract you, or want to disable the “Display profile outside LinkedIn” option if this is part of your plans. Understanding the settings options will also enable you to understand some of the restrictions/permissions on other people’s profiles.

4. You do not know how to look for people, vacancies or companies

Most LinkedIn users are disappointed in finding key people or jobs, especially when they run out of profile limits. However, in the free version, there are many ways to find the person or vacancy that you need: through the search bar, through the news feed, through the functions “People You Might Know” and “Other Members Also Viewed”

LinkedIn uses its search and ranking algorithms. So, if we enter the same search query, the search results with us can be displayed in different ways. This is partially determined by the profile, activity, and connections of the person. Put simply, you should be able to connect with people who are 3 steps removed from you (3^rd level connections – these are friends/connections of friends – known as 2^nd level connections of people you know or are connected with – 1^st level connections.

5. You are too salesy in your connection request message and follow-up messages

Sending the right messages to your target audience is crucial to getting the response you want because they will better understand why you want to connect with them, and thus make a more informed choice as to whether to connect with you.

Connection request message

Your connection request message is often the first thing people see about you on LinkedIn. Failing to include a personalized message typically leads to recipients ignoring your connection request as the will be unsure of who you are or your motives. Briefly say why you want to connect with the person and who you are (name, role, business at least), then politely invite them to accept your connection request.

Follow up message

Many people miss out on turning connections into professional relationships because they do not follow up with new connections. Think about how many connection requests you receive daily on LinkedIn. What do you do when you connect with someone and never hear anything back? Most people move on with their lives.

Creating a follow-up message is the ideal opportunity to tell me who you are in more detail (compared to the brief connection request message), how you can help me and what you want me to do next. Messaging new connections is done through the Messaging tab.

Some people use indirect methods such as offering new connections free stuff (diagnostics, ebooks or vouchers for example); others are more direct and invite you to a meeting or phone call. Personally, I want to meet my connections if at all possible. I will settle for a phone call or face time call if a meeting is impractical.

Bear in mind that some people will want to know more about you before they accept your connection request or agree to build a relationship with you. So you must be prepared to engage in conversation with new connections on LinkedIn, through Direct Messaging.

 

Bringing it all together

LinkedIn is the most effective marketing strategy to connect with people in business. Making the right connections and building relationships requires doing the right things and avoiding the big pitfalls that can damage your LinkedIn marketing campaign. If you have the right LinkedIn strategy, you are literarily going to turn on your tap to decision-makers in business anywhere in the world.

Wnt help to make LinkedIn work for your business? You can contact the LinkedIn Lead Generation specialists at Global.Media for expert advice and services to get maximum returns from your LinkedIn marketing campaign. Check out our LinkedIn Lead Generation services for businesses.

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