LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world, with over 600M users already on the platform. But still, most people don’t know the power of the platform and treat it only as a job portal where they apply for jobs and wait for HR’s reply! Vaibhav Sisinty is a well known Growth Hacker who has built an audience of over 200k on Linkedin in just two years. He currently Heads Marketing for Klook India and ME as well as teaches people how to leverage LinkedIn to generate 1000s of leads and get jobs the right way. When asked about how he grew so fast, Vaibhav shared his Top five secrets with us:
1. *Find your Objective and Target Audience*: Vaibhav says, "This is the first and foremost step of the puzzle." What is your objective? Is it generating leads or building a personal brand or getting a job? Here are some questions you should ask yourself to know your target audience: To generate leads you must think about what your objective is, for whom, how you can achieve it. To get a job you must know what do you do, what your dream companies are and who could get you a job interview call/offer. His pro tip is to focus on one objective at a time and work upon them.
2. *Optimise your LinkedIn Profile:* After working with so many clients over the years, Vaibhav has come up with a great analogy. “Make your profile Searchable, Clickable and Approachable.” To be searchable use industry specific keywords (Eg. Financial Analyst, Content Writer) on your profile Headline, About Section, Providing Services, Experiences, Licenses, Skills and Endorsements section so that LinkedIn gets an indication about who you are and when people search for that keyword, your profile features up on the top! To be more clickable and approachable, use a clear profile picture and cover picture, making it attractive for people to click. And finally, add your email or phone number on your profile so that it induces your prospects to get in touch with you. His pro tip is to use the Featured Section to add a Video Resume or Carousel sharing what your experiences are or add your portfolio so that people can easily see what you are up to!
3. *Build a Network of Relevant Audience:* Most people believe in adding anyone to their network. But Vaibhav feels it dilutes the objective. He recommends adding people who are in your target audience or are in your niche. First of all, analyze the connections you already have and remove all irrelevant connections either not in your niche or are not active. Then start adding new connections to your network. But how to go about it? Vaibhav recommends 30-40% of connections to be your target audience and the rest who can engage with your content. Other than people who fit your target audience definition, you can add people you admire, people who admire you and your juniors.His pro tip is to send a Personalized Note to Increase the acceptance rate from people.
4. *Create Amazing Content:* Vaibhav analyzed his posts for 20 days, each of which had 15000+ engagement. He found out only 20% of engagement came from his connections or followers. Remaning 80% of engagement originated from audience who were neither his connections nor followers.But why is it important? He said content is not only a great way to express your thoughts or perspective, but is also an effective way to drive traffic to your profile and in turn feature in front of relevant people to generate leads and get job opportunities. According to him, some tips to follow are to Avoid Bulky paragraphs (Break them into smaller lines), Keep the posts short and easy to read, Don’t share links in your posts (Share them in the comments), Always have a Hook (Encourage people to click on your post) and a CTA in your posts
5. *Understand the Outbound Game:* Outbound is you reaching out to people. The key for this to work is a multi-touch points system. Vaibhav couldn’t stress enough how vital personalization is! He recommends sending a personalized note while sending an invite and have a pleasant conversation before talking about yourself. If they don’t reply at first, follow up with them. Like and comment on their posts. Do this continuously and even after all this, if they don’t respond, then go and endorse their top 3 skills, so they get a notification about you again, encouraging them to have a chat with you.
Vaibhav opines, Only when you apply all the steps consistently “The Power of Execution” becomes visible and tangible results follow!