LinkedIn Can Be Fun and Productive

This is a guest post by Bob Sager, the Founder of SpearPoint Solutions, LLC

What if promoting yourself isn’t the best way to promote yourself?

I’ve seen much advice and training about how to use LinkedIn that, in my experience, is ineffective. Like advice about how to do in-person business networking (or online networking, given our current circumstances), most of it centers around having your pitch ready, ‘targeting’ the right people, and strategies for ‘engagement’. But, most of what is recommended for engagement is insincere and comes across as phony.

When I first started on LinkedIn I tried some of these strategies. To say they were a failure is an extreme understatement. I crashed and burned!

When the first set of ‘strategies’ didn’t work, I tried others. I had read that posting content was a way to gain engagement and connections. So, I started posting. My average post got less than 50 views, no likes, no comments and no shares. Very few connection requests were forthcoming. I couldn’t believe nobody was interested in learning more about my work. Wasn’t I offering something useful and valuable?

I was frustrated! I decided this LinkedIn thing was just a pointless waste of time. Why isn’t this working?!

After thinking about it and analyzing the situation, I decided what was needed was a better approach to networking.

As stated above, ineffective networking is when you are ready to give your pitch to anyone whose attention you can capture. Effective networking is when you stop aiming at selling first and start aiming to add value to others first. In other words, it starts by giving.

An important caveat to this; you must give to others without a quid-pro-quo mindset. You’re not collecting markers to be redeemed at a future date. You’re starting the cycle of value creation.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with receiving either. It’s a part of the cycle of value; the complement to giving. Think about it. If someone wants to give to you and you are not willing to receive, you stop the cycle of value. It’s like only breathing out and refusing to breathe in. Try that and see how well that works! Certainly, you do need to willingly accept value when it comes to you.

But, if you want people to add value to you, add value to others first at every opportunity.

Do this first, and all the value you put out will come back to you – plus a little more. Here’s the fascinating part. Often, the value that comes to you will come in unexpected ways and not directly from the people you helped.

In the great book The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, this concept of giving first is referred to as ‘Enlightened Self-Interest’.

In my effort to do better, I began applying an excellent principle from the book How to Win Friends and Influence People:

Become genuinely interested in other people.

I began asking people about themselves and their work first. I also offered to help them in any way I could – sincerely. I put thought into who would make a good connection or referral for this person. When someone came to mind, I’d personally introduce them to one another. If someone seemed to need encouragement, I would offer an encouraging word. Was there a book or other resource that would help them? I’d recommend it.

The content I was posting changed as well. I evaluated the previous content and realized it was all about me and what I offered.

It made me recall another principle I had learned:

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

So, I began applying an innovative thinking method to my posts – Go Opposite. Applying this method, I switched the focus of my posts 180 degrees, to being about adding valuable information without a sales pitch or boosting others.

The change in my experience on LinkedIn was transformed quickly and dramatically. The amount of views, likes, comments and shares on my posts skyrocketed. Lots of people sent me connection requests. Coffee, lunch and phone meetings began to happen regularly. I started to build lots of great relationships.

Since making the shift in mindset to adding value to others first, my experience on LinkedIn has gone from frustrated to fun (and productive). Would you like to make a similar transformation? Try the approach I’ve described. It will help!

About Bob Sager

The Founder of SpearPoint Solutions, LLC, Bob’s professional background includes experience in financial planning and residential real estate. He is a Consultant and Trainer on Personal Achievement and Practical Innovative Thinking. Among other accomplishments, Bob is the creator and trainer of How to REALLY Win on LinkedIn, inventor of the innovative/creative ideas game What’s the BIG Idea?™, Author of the personal achievement book, Discovering Your Greatness: A Higher Level Thinking and Action Guide and Curator of Content for and Contributing Author to the book, Living a Wealthy Life: Stories of Gaining an Abundance in All Five Forms of Wealth.

Find Bob on LinkedIn at www.LinkedIn.com/in/bobsager