In my last blog posts, I talked a lot about what is good to do on LinkedIn as a business in order to create great content or gain an audience. But I never really mentioned mistakes that one can do on the B2B networking platform. So here it is, a list of common mistakes to avoid.
Not engaging with people who watched your profile
If you realize that someone viewed your profile, don’t do nothing about it. By looking at your account, the other person shows an interest in your company. So, be proactive and take it as a chance to create engagement and a new connection. Start by searching why this person could be interested in your business. For that, go check its profile and try to figure out what could interest this person and how he/she could potentially be interesting for you. And even simpler, start a conversation that will help you better understand the situation. And once you do that, you’ll know what is the appropriate reaction you should have and go the next step in your engagement with this person (source here).
Mention irrelevant people or organizations in your posts
While mentioning companies or people in your posts can be a great way to gain more visibility, I would be careful when mentioning them in the situations where they are not your direct connections. And if you do so, only mention them if they are really relevant for the content of your post. Also, don’t mention too many people/businesses in one single post, as by tagging them, you want to catch their attention and to build a stronger relationship. But imagine, what will they think if they see that you tagged many others? You want them to feel special, not just someone among many others.
The only case I’m thinking of in which I recommend to tag many individuals is when you post a group picture. In this particular situation, you should mention all the people present on the picture, for the obvious reason that if you don’t, they’ll think you don’t consider them enough important and their ego or whatever it is may not like that.
Have an almost non-existent LinkedIn profile
If you never post anything on your account or never update your information, people may think that your company doesn’t exist anymore. So, even if you don’t have a huge amount of time to post on LinkedIn, try at least to have your information updated according to the current situation of your business and have a few posts published once in a while. If you’re out of inspiration on what to post, check the video I made in a previous blog article here and find new ideas.
Send spammy messages
When sending a message to someone, especially new contacts, make sure it doesn’t look spammy. That’s why I don’t recommend using the Sponsored InMails, as people will see that they are paid messages, and as they too often just look like spam, people won’t even read them. You can find out more about InMails in my previous blog post here.
But it’s not only with those types of messages that you have to be careful. When writing regular messages, pay attention as well. Don’t send ones that are sales-driven to people you’re not enough acquainted with. To build a good professional relationship, you don’t want your contacts to feel pushed and that the only reason you write them is to sale your product. A relationship is built step-by-step and on trust, so don’t go to fast and try to build trust more than directly make sales (source here).
Never answer comments or messages
Whenever someone writes you whether it’s as a comment on one of your posts or via a private message, always answer. By writing to you, these people show an interest of engaging, so even if you wouldn’t always see the point to answer them, you should. First, because you don’t want to disappoint them and second, because you never know how this start of engagement is going to end. If you don’t know what to say, just like their message or thank them for writing it. And don’t forget to add a call-to-action whenever possible. It can be something really simple as asking a question or redirect them to a page of your website where they could get more information regarding what you posted. Be creative and for that, think simple. Your answer don’t have to be a very long message, but just enough to show them that you care.
Talking to too many different audiences on your company page
You want your company page to feel coherent for users who read it. If you talk to too many types of audience, the risk is that they won’t follow you as they will think your profile don’t have enough content relevant to them. If this case happens to you, I definitely recommend using showcases pages so that you can talk to your different target groups separately. Those pages are perfect if you have very specific niches or offer completely different types of products and services to different types of clients.
While some of these mistakes might seem obvious, they still happen a lot and it’s better to avoid them in order to use LinkedIn the most effective way possible.
Did you already made one of these mistakes? How did you deal with it? Or do you see any other errors that companies and startups should avoid? Let me know in the comments below, I’m very curious to know what you think.
In the meantime, don’t hesitate to check my previous blog posts and share them if you liked them!
- 6 Reasons Why You Should Use LinkedIn for Your Small Business
- Everything You Need to Know About LinkedIn Posts
- 10 Free Ways to Gain Visibility on LinkedIn
- Best Practices of Small Companies and Startups on LinkedIn
- Pros and Cons of Using LinkedIn Paid Ads for Small Companies and Start-ups
- 4 Life-Changing Tools To Become A LinkedIn Expert
Take care!
