SOS Media Queries for July 03, 2024 emailed that they needed opinions so I was happy to provide mine.

I’m interested in hearing from LinkedIn experts, influencers, and thought leaders who have established a strong LinkedIn presence about their top tips and best practices for others to follow that go “beyond the basics.” What’s changed on LinkedIn that users should be aware of? What works? What doesn’t? What unique strategies and best practices would you recommend others use? What other tools or apps have you found to be useful to support/enhance your LinkedIn presence/activities?

Even if I am not published or quoted in Information Today by the inquiring writer, the answer I offered was:

I have found the best way to get optimal engagement with others you respect and nurture on LinkedIn, to appeal to them as a respected thought leader, is to use one or more of 4 levels, in each post.

This is an additive process of affirming you are worth following, then learning from, worthy of connecting, and earn referral to others:

  • what do I know that others need to know but don’t know yet:

includes sharing reliable material, networking among those you admire and trust, offering your study and research, seeking others’ contributions to add to yours, evaluating newest developments in your field

  • what do I feel that others need to feel but don’t feel yet:

includes emotional curiosity, cerebral appeal, appreciating my contribution, making my work a part of theirs, confidence in relying on me as a source and thought leader

  • what do I believe that others need to believe but don’t believe yet:

includes my fresh viewpoint, experiential and experimental conclusions, business research, adapting old beliefs to meet today’s current fast-changing environment

  • what do I want others to do, the all-important call to action:

includes sharing my content with the right people, commenting on my posts, opining professionally even if they disagree, engaging with me to converse, referring me to others, what I call “networking up” to each other to grow together, inquiring how we can help each other.

In sum, deliberate action is the key to intelligent engagement on LinkedIn, not emojis, or marginal comments like “Nice post, Marc.” But you have to earn it.

Happy to discuss further with you to expound on these effective strategies.

To you, blog reader, I am equally happy to help you further in this regard.