Succeed and create sales opportunities with Linkedin

Networking is one of the most effective formats for creating sales opportunities. Therefore, it is important that you use your personal Linkedin to activate your current network. Here you can share some of the successes you have experienced during the week, customer experiences, challenges, knowledge sharing etc.

This way, your network gets close to you, your skills and the company you represent. Then your network will think of you when they (or someone they know in their network) need exactly what you offer.

When you make new connections on Linkedin, it's good practice to send them a personal message. This is especially important for the first impression and for the future relationship.

Whether it's a potential future client, colleague or competitor, it's always a good idea to start by acknowledging and showing interest in their profile and any content on Linkedin.

'Give & Take' is good karma on Linkedin. Make sure to acknowledge when people in your network have shared some interesting content. And here I don't mean you can just give a like. Give a sincere pat on the back in the form of a comment.

You might want to pick someone from your network who might be interested in this post. Also feel free to ask a follow-up question, or give a "well done" comment.

That way, your network will also notice your presence more - and will probably be more likely to engage with your content.

Before you start posting a lot of content on your linkedin, it's important to define the themes and direction of your profile.

Find out what content benefits your followers so you stay relevant and interesting. If you have knowledge that your followers will benefit from, or experience you want to share, Linkedin is the place to do it.

For example, at Webamp we have defined our President and CEO, Nicolai Vittrup's direction on Linkedin. The themes are leadership and entrepreneurship, and on Linkedin he shares his own thoughts and advice on leadership and entrepreneurship as well as highlights from Webamp.

When creating your content, there are a number of considerations you should make. Will you use video or images? Or should your post be all text? Should you share, and where should you put your link?

It's all something we've tested at Webamp - and are still testing.

For example, we can see that organic reach is extremely low when the webamp team shares posts from Webamp's Linkedin page on their personal page. Therefore, we usually prioritise making the post with text and image on the personal profiles rather than sharing.

So, as far as possible, try not to share content that you can make yourself. However, sharing can be good to use if you come across some content on your Linkedin that you just MUST share with your network.

We've also found that links directly in the listing have poor organic reach. Several talk about Linkedin not prioritizing posts that lead users away from their media. One way to get around this is by putting the link in the comments section.

One of the clear results we've seen over time is that organic reach is significantly improved by using images on ads. In particular, images of people are a sure winner. A photo or video can help create eye-catching content and convey the message you want to get across with your post. 

Video is a great creative if you can create a storytelling that keeps the user interested. The organic reach on video may be a bit lower than image - but can in turn create greater engagement.