Okay first up, why not? LinkedIn is awesome. And if you don’t agree then you are obviously missing the magic.

I have noticed an increase of people on LinkedIn in the past two weeks. People that have been telling me for years that they would never get LinkedIn, didn’t see the point.

I have noticed an increase in engagement from people who have left their LinkedIn’s sitting idle for years.

Right now, a lot of us are operating in fear and uncertainty. There have been a lot of posts telling people to ‘seize the day’ and ‘those who work hard now will survive’ – while that might be true for some it isn’t going to be true for everyone and we must be mindful of that.

I have a lot of people in my professional and personal network, that right now are suddenly unemployed. These people are fantastic, and it certainly isn’t because they haven’t seized the day or worked hard that they are in this situation.

Governments around the world are stepping up (in most countries, some better than others) to support their people and while I have no idea how long this will last and have no way of offering these people employment or security at the moment – I do believe that there is power in taking control of what you can, however small it might feel.

One way to do that is to position yourself for when this is all over. Take this time to align yourself as best you can for the next era.

And here’s why I think LinkedIn is the best place to start…

1.      Organic Reach

The organic reach of LinkedIn right now is incredible. It is like Facebook pre 2012 where nearly everything you posted was seen by your audience.

As long as you are putting out high quality, relevant content the likely hood of it being seen right now is pretty high.

I’m not sure how much longer I am going to be able to say that for.

2.      Less Distraction

LinkedIn AKA the professional Facebook. 

LinkedIn is for business so generally speaking there are less distractions.

You don’t scroll through to see what your best friend from grade one had for dinner last night or looking for funny cat videos. And if that is what you are seeing on your feed then you really need to clean up your connections and check what the heck you are following.

If you want to get lost in a rabbit hole right now, TikTok. If you can log in and out of TikTok in less than 30 mins without it feeling like literally 2 mins has past – then you are a better personal than I!

That’s why I try to keep to LinkedIn during working hours.

3.      Platform to Build your Personal Brand

I was hardly going to write an article that didn’t point to personal branding, was I?

But it is true, there is no better place (in my opinion) to build your personal brand professionally.

That doesn’t mean you don’t need (or can’t have) other platforms. There is a tonne of value to be had there too. It is just different and if we pop back up to point one – it is much harder to have that organic reach on other platforms that you can attain right NOW on LinkedIn.

What is your thing? What are you an expert in? What do you want to be known for?

Once you know the answer to that make sure that all the content you create points back to that, so it is very clear what your niche is.

Don’t be scared to have a niche. You might offer other services, but people will still come to you for them but to make a real dent you have to be consistent. Become a thought leader in your industry and/or sector.

Why – because that is how our brains are wired. We are drawn to the familiar. The more consistent you are the more familiar you become. The more familiar you are, the more trust you build.

Let’s hear it – People buy from People. People buy from People they trust!

This is true for most things. We buy, sell and offer jobs and contracts to people we connect with. People we trust.

4.      LinkedIn Database

It you haven’t already had a play around with the LinkedIn database – have a go, it’s at the very top of the page.

If you are on the free version of LinkedIn your searches will dry up quite quickly but you can find so much on there – people, companies, groups – and you can find connections between them too.

This is fast becoming, if not already, the largest and most inclusive and accurate database in the business world.

Use the follow function on LinkedIn to follow people (you don’t know) who inspire, motivate or offer value and education through their content.

5.      Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

Okay – we all grew up being told this but as humans we are a judgey bunch.

Right now we are limited to networking online for the foreseeable future, so if you don’t already have a recent and relevant head-shot then now is the time to do it.

There is absolutely no excuse not to have a half decent head-shot on your LinkedIn, most of us are carrying around a pretty decent camera on our phones.

If you have an iPhone, set it to portrait mode and for those sensible people out there with a Samsung, flick it over to live focus for a pretty awesome snap.

Hopefully you can enlist the help of someone you are quarantined with. Perhaps even incorporate photography into the new home-schooling curriculum. 

Because we are limited to online networking for now, your LinkedIn profile picture might be the first impression your new contacts have of you. You want to make a great first impression.

Remember, your face is your personal brand’s logo. 

I hope my five reasons why I think LinkedIn is relevant right now helps you to focus on the purpose of your LinkedIn and create some strategy around it that will hopefully help serve you now and once COVID-19 is a thing of the past.

Please feel free to follow me if you want regular personal branding and LinkedIn updates and tips in your feed. Remember you have control over the content you consume so make sure it is positive. Just like we are encouraged to rid toxic people from our lives, I would encourage you to rid toxic content form your feeds (on all platforms).