April
13, 2021
8 min learn
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
LinkedIn has advanced rather a lot over time, and at present with greater than 700 million customers, it’s the high social media platform for professionals.But most individuals aren’t utilizing it wherever close to as successfully or effectively as they might be. That’s a disgrace, too, as a result of I do know firsthand the optimistic impression it will possibly create when used correctly. I’ve used LinkedIn to rent workers, uncover enterprise partnerships and land offers. And I would like to assist you get extra out of your efforts on the platform. I’m placing the ending touches on my e book devoted to mastering LinkedIn and wished to share some perception on how to leverage digital assistants so you’ll be able to deal with the high-level actions that solely you are able to do and take the lower-level duties utterly off of your plate.This is essential as a result of it permits you to take advantage of your beneficial time whereas nonetheless getting phenomenal outcomes on LinkedIn.Related: Hiring Virtual Assistants is the ‘New Normal’Start along with your techniqueYour technique contains branding and positioning, messaging model, your target market and the way you develop and nurture relationships. The most vital query you want to reply at this level is that this, why are you doing this? What’s the purpose of even being on LinkedIn?Once you realize that, you’ll have the ability to craft a plan and map out the small print. From there, you’ll be able to resolve what elements of your LinkedIn efforts you need to deal with your self and which you need to hand off to a digital assistant to take advantage of your time.Process is criticalA lot of individuals like to wing it with social media. That can work once you’re dealing with each facet of it your self, however that’s not a very good use of your time. On the flip facet, you’ll be able to’t merely hand it off to an assistant and say, “deal with LinkedIn for me.” Without a documented course of, a guidelines of duties and a proof of your technique, handing even simply sure elements of your LinkedIn advertising off to a digital assistant is sure to fail. But it doesn’t have to. I’ve taken each approaches — from dealing with each facet of LinkedIn myself to turning a majority of it over to digital assistants. What I’ve discovered was that whereas digital assistants saved me a variety of time, I had to lay out an in depth roadmap for them first. Robert Nickell, the founding father of the 800+ particular person digital assistant company Rocket Station, explains why that’s important. “You can’t give a job to somebody who doesn’t have your expertise and anticipate them to do it the identical manner you’d except you lay out the precise course of for them to observe,” Nickell says.It’s too simple to assume anybody you assign to deal with your social media will simply get it, however that’s unrealistic. Nickell continues, “There are so many items of information in your head that you simply take with no consideration, so that you usually gained’t even understand how a lot the typical particular person doesn’t learn about how to do what you do.”Nickell’s firm takes the identical strategy I do. They doc the method for his or her purchasers. In my case, I file my display screen as I work via a job and I clarify what I’m doing and why. Nickell’s firm hops on a display screen share and watches the shopper carry out each single step. “We’ll even have them clarify their considering out loud all through the method so we will perceive precisely how and why they do the issues they do,” he says.When you doc your course of to this stage, you’re enabling your digital assistants to persistently carry out the duties you give them on the requirements you anticipate.Related: Why Most Entrepreneurs Aren’t Delegating EffectivelyOptimize your profileA lot of individuals overlook this essential facet of their LinkedIn advertising efforts as a result of it’s extra thrilling to deal with creating content material and fascinating with individuals. This hurts them greater than they understand.Think of your profile such as you would your first assembly with a prospect. That first impression is essential, so that you want to get it proper. Your profile wants to be full and fascinating, however it additionally wants to be up to date frequently.The preliminary optimization ought to most likely be dealt with by you or somebody who makes a speciality of LinkedIn profile optimization, however the ongoing updates are an ideal job to hand off to a digital assistant — supplied you might have a course of for that.Some of those updates embody:Updating your contact informationUpdating your bioUpdating your profile photograph and bannerAdding new abilitiesUpdating/including featured gadgets (LinkedIn permits you to characteristic posts, articles, hyperlinks, and media)Adding accomplishments (LinkedIn permits you to publish publications, patents, awards, and different issues in a particular part of your profile)Nickell explains that a great way to hand this lower-level work off to a digital assistant is to define the precise steps they’re to observe, after which assign the duties via a challenge administration system like Teamwork, Monday or Basecamp to guarantee nothing falls via the cracks.Posting your content materialYou might want to preserve management of making your content material, however you don’t want to really submit it — anybody can do this.Because it’s considerably simpler to write your posts in batches, you will get forward by creating up to a month’s price of posts at a time after which have your digital assistant submit them on LinkedIn for you.There are some good scheduling instruments on the market, however I desire to have a human do the posting. If your digital assistant manually logs into LinkedIn and posts your content material natively, you gained’t run afoul of any detection mechanisms LinkedIn places in place to devalue content material posted via a device, and if there occurs to be an error of some form, your assistant will see it instantly and may repair it earlier than it makes a foul impression.Related: Ignoring These 4 Marketing Trends Could Cost You within the Long RunEngagement has dangersYou could choose to have your digital assistant deal with some and even your whole engagement, like responding to feedback and DMs. This can work, however you want to strategy it with warning as a result of something they are saying as you’ll be perceived as being instantly from you. If they mess up and say the incorrect factor, or worse but, say one thing offensive, the outcomes might be disastrous. I like to be closely concerned in my very own engagement, however I do let my digital assistants deal with a few of it. For instance, if somebody sends me a DM asking a couple of free information I provided on a podcast, I may need my assistant reply and ship it to them. I don’t want to be personally concerned in that dialog. But if somebody sends a DM asking a couple of three way partnership alternative, that’s one thing I’d desire to deal with myself. One of probably the most beneficial issues your digital assistant can do for you is delete these annoying spam messages from individuals you don’t know providing you irrelevant providers.Nickell says, “The key in instances like that is to begin small with very particular guidelines on what sort of feedback and DMs your digital assistants ought to reply to. As they show that they’ll deal with that, transfer on to extra complicated conditions.”He says it’s additionally vital to have a listing of individuals you particularly don’t need your digital assistants to have interaction with, which may embody shut buddies or individuals you frequently do enterprise with. This is vital as a result of there shall be nuances to these relationships and the way you talk with them that an outsider will most likely by no means have the ability to replicate.These are just some small methods you’ll be able to enhance your LinkedIn outcomes through the use of a digital assistant to deal with simpler duties. Have you had any expertise, good or dangerous, utilizing a digital assistant to handle your LinkedIn profile? I’d love to hear about it. Connect with me via LinkedIn.
