LinkedIn is a powerful tool when it comes to getting noticed in your career. However, it’s not enough just to have an account. You need to work it on a regular basis. But, you’re a busy engineer and you have a lot of other things to do besides “play” on social media.
That’s why we’re providing our top 6 tips to keeping your account active in just 5 minutes per day.
Check and Respond to Notifications
- How Often: Daily
- Estimated Time: One to two minutes
LinkedIn gives you some useful networking opportunities every day through the notifications list. When someone has a work anniversary or new job, click the “Say congrats” button. Take a few extra seconds to customize the message instead of using the standard “Congrats on your work anniversary!” message that LinkedIn provides. All you need to do is add something personal like “I hope you’re doing well, Josh!” (if the person’s name is Josh, of course) or “Wow, 15 years is impressive. Must be a great company!” Personalizing the message is the start of a brief conversation that will strengthen your connection.
You’ll also see birthday notifications. I rarely say happy birthday on LinkedIn. If I’m close enough to them to say happy birthday, I have their number in my phone and I just text them. Except for my mom – always call your mom on her birthday!
Do this step every single day. Even with a couple thousand connections, this just takes a few minutes. This is also a great filler activity when you discover that “I’m the first one at the meeting, where the hell is everyone else?”
Browse Your Feed
- How Often: Twice a week
- Estimated Time: One to two minutes
Scroll through your feed. Like, comment, or share a few things. I have a couple of friends who are prolific content sharers and creators. If you give them a boost with the content they share, they might do the same with yours.
This is also an easy way to keep up with what’s on the minds of people in your industry. For better or worse, I nearly always find a shared article or LinkedIn publication worth reading. So, yeah, this can take a little longer than the estimated couple of minutes. But you need to be reading anyway. It’s good for you.
Do this a couple of times a week. You can always save those articles to be read later during your personal development time. You are making time for personal development, right?
Make a Connection
- How Often: Twice a week
- Estimated Time: One to two minutes
Find a co-worker (past or present,) a former classmate, or a friend and add them. If you just met someone at a meeting or a conference, look them up and add them.
When you send a connection request, be sure to include a short personal note that explains how you know the person:
- “Hello Naveen, we met last week at the PMI workshop in Dayton.”
- “Hi Ashley, I hope I see you at our upcoming 10-year class reunion.”
Do this a couple of times a week until you can’t think of anyone else. I’ve been on for years and I keep adding people every week.
Review Your Groups
- How Often: Once a week
- Estimated Time: A couple of minutes
This could be a company, your school, or a regular LinkedIn group. I rotate through my groups somewhat randomly but I do favor a few active groups which I check more often than the others.
You don’t have to read the whole group. Just scroll down until you see something that interests you. Like it or comment if you have something to add. Maybe remark on a comment that someone else left and begin a conversation with someone you don’t know.
Share Something
- How Often: Once a week
- Estimated Time: A couple of minutes
You’re reading articles on industry trends, leadership, and other personal development topics. Right? If not, see this professional development article again.
When you see something of value, share it. I recently saw a news story about police officers in Florida recovering a Krispy Kreme donut truck. I used to work in law enforcement and still have contacts there so I shared it on my newsfeed. A local news outlet profiled a friend of mine and I shared that link, too.
Sometimes the content you share could be yours (see below) or it could be about you. Every time I speak to an audience – whether it’s on leadership, communication, agile business practices, or blogging – I share a post about the event. It helps me build my personal brand as an expert in my field. And you never know where your next speaking gig is might come from.
Bonus Round: Publish Something
- How Often: As often as you want
- Estimated Time: Quite a bit
Do you really want to stand out? Whether you’re publishing papers or blog posts, be sure to share your content on LinkedIn. More than anything, this will help you solidify yourself as an expert.
Write 300 words on leadership. Or the future of concrete. Or 5 tips for staying active on LinkedIn. 😊 Once you’ve published it to your blog, share it on LinkedIn. You don’t have to have a blog to do this. LinkedIn provides its own publishing system. In fact, you can publish the content on both sites.
There are some theories that this is a bad practice due to search engines trying to prevent spammers from flooding multiple websites with content, but for two posts (one on LinkedIn and on your personal blog,) there’s not going to be any significant blowback.
Final Takeaway
In as few as 5 minutes a day, you can stay active on LinkedIn and attract the eye of talent recruiters and your industry peers. Plus, you can stay up to date on current trends. It’s a great use of your time.
If you don’t have 5 minutes a day (you know you do,) make it 5 minutes a week. That’s better than a stagnant profile.
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash