How do you REALLY make an impact on #LinkedIn?

It’s a noisy world out there in social media land. And in the business sector, we are bombarded with way-too-many “5 tips on doing this” and “15 hacks for doing that.”

So my friends, rise above the rabble.

Spend the time to write about your rich experience in hopes that you can affect others positively.

Pay it forward. Write a long-form LinkedIn Post, as I counseled 2 other experienced biz pros last week.

Tell others, perhaps with less time in the business game, or others who need to gain insight from your recent success, how and why something worked for you.What you learned, how you helped turn around a hard situation.

Only about 25% of LinkedIn members actually Post. Right there, you have a competitive advantage.

So a few tips to make you stand out in Posts:

• Give it a catchy eye-ball-worthy  title, so the casual reader will stop and at least read paragraph 1.
• Use an equally rich graphic at the top.
• Post an essay that speaks in real language to others you may never meet or connect with. Make them want to “follow” you on LinkedIn, which is in fact a middle ground between not connecting and connecting with you, so that all you subsequent Posts find their way to the followers’ screens. I have followers all over the world as a result; big deal, you might say, but I know I am making a difference from my little podium since I know they are sharing my observations elsewhere.
• One person in Iran wrote a nice comment in Farsi on LinkedIn to me to tell me just that!
• Post about a client case study, a success, a failure that you turned around, an observation that all biz pros can identify with. 300-500 words. Be informative. Be influential.
• Use attributed quotes and weblinks to send the reader to another trusted sources for more information.
• And end with your brief bio, your website, email address and/or LinkedIn URL so they can contact you.
• Post it. A few days later, look at the analytics to see how many people liked it, or shared it.
• Then use the URL for the Post in a LinkedIn status update and ask your connections to share it with their connections, JIC they missed it. (These colleagues are more apt to share your Post than anyone else as they admire and believe in you already.)

Become a thought leader, a sharer, an admired intelligent and balanced opinionator.

And Post as often as you have something beneficial to say, but don’t just do this once and expect the world to find its way to your door.

Be an originator of consistent quality.

I do this and you can too. Invest in yourself.