Our first webinar kicking off Hethel Innovation’s schedule of online events is ‘how to humanise your LinkedIn presence’! With the Coronavirus pandemic causing home working to become the norm for most businesses and their employees, building meaningful connections remotely has never been so important. 

But with social media platforms becoming ever more clogged up with spam posts, adverts and an abundance of banal self-promotion, how can you cut through the noise? How do you market your business on LinkedIn without sounding like an automated robot?

To help us answer these questions, we asked expert Charlotte Travers, Business Development Manager at SocialB. Working with clients from across the globe, the Norwich based digital marketing agency knows a thing or two about how to communicate with a personal touch!

Charlotte Travers of SocialB

Tip #1 Use LinkedIn for 2020, not 2003

When LinkedIn was launched in 2003, it was predominately used as an online centre for job hunting. Employers posted their available jobs, job hunters posted their CVs and recruiters zipped around to make matches. 

But 17 years later, the platform has evolved. While LinkedIn is still used for job recruitment purposes, it is now also a space for finding new customers, plus meeting like-minded businesses and future collaborators. 

As Charlotte explains ‘growing the amount of connections is one thing, but we are now seeing people growing actual connection with each other. Human to human.’

#2 Post a mix of different content styles

For some people, deciding what to post on their business’ LinkedIn account is a major barrier to using the platform consistently. And with any social media marketing strategy, consistency is key.

For ideas of what to post and how to make your business’s messages personal and unique, Charlotte suggests varying content as much as possible. ‘Profiles should be in line with your company website, a showcase of your amazing products or services and who it works best for. Businesses should share valuable information for their customers, insights from behind the scenes, industry news and success stories’. 

# 3 Know your ideal customers to find the right connections

While it may be tempting to connect with every single person who pops up on your recommended connections feed, the result will be quite the opposite of making your Linked In presence more human! With so many connections, the barrage of notifications can feel overwhelming and sifting through the mess to make meaningful contact can become that much harder. 

‘Knowing your ideal customers is important- what kind of organisation can you help, do you normally speak to their MD or their Finance Manager? There are handy things like saved searches that you can set up, but also remember, if you are creating the right content for your target audience, they will find you through your posts’. 

#4 Get Your Team Involved

To spread the reach of your LinkedIn posts, involve your colleagues by asking them to share the key messages on their personal profiles. But make sure each post is different and unique by asking the individual posting the content on their account to rewrite it with a personal touch.

Using phrases like ‘My colleague has just published this interesting article on…’, or ‘It’s been a busy week at work, but lots of fun getting involved with exciting projects such as…’, makes much more interesting reading than the usual generic share with no personal message. 

#5 Let Your Personality Shine Through!

With so much going in the world at present, now is the time to move away from what you think a business should be like or how you think a business person should act. Do your own thing and listen to your instincts.

‘Empathy is key right now so be candid and be helpful. Whether you are bubbly or sarcastic, it should match what you are like in a real life meeting. And remember that people buy from people, so be yourself!’

Hethel Innovation’s Arthur Allen showing his funny side!

To learn more about humanising your LinkedIn presence, join Charlotte on Tuesday the 31st of March from 10:00 to 11:00 for her FREE webinar, hosted by Hethel Innovation. 

To register your place, sign up today at: https://humanising-linkedin.eventbrite.co.uk