“They can’t have much work on if they spend so much time on LinkedIn”
I’ve heard this a couple of times in conversation recently, and I’d put money on the fact that people have said it about me at some point.
But appearing to ‘be on LinkedIn all day’ doesn’t necessarily mean that I am.
Here’s how I’m ‘everywhere on LinkedIn’ without it taking up very much time at all.
📝I Batch Write Posts
If I have an idea for a post, I either email it to myself or stick it in a WordPad file. Then, when I have some time, usually on a Sunday night, I write 3 or 4 posts that I can use across social media. If I am feeling creative, I’ll create images to go with them, from the templates that the amazing Thomas Pawley set up for me in Canva.
⌚I Schedule Posts
I always have posts sitting in drafts or schedule – and thanks to LinkedIn now letting me move things around, I can move them if there’s something more important I want to say. I scheduled this post on Monday. At the same time, I moved the scheduled post for Tuesday to another day.
👩🦰I Have A VA Who Also Schedules Posts
The fabulous Erin Buck schedules my old blog posts as weekend posts, as well as posting a lot of my Instagram and Facebook posts. We’ve settled into a routine where we don’t (often) clash and post things at the same time (and if we do, it’s always my fault), and if I’m busy, I know that posts will still go out.
♻️I Recycle Old Posts
Just because a certain amount of people saw a post from 3/6/12 months ago, doesn’t mean everyone saw it. And newer followers or connections may not have seen it either. So I regularly download my data from LinkedIn to see if there’s something I can re-use.
😧I Don’t Stress About It
If I miss a day, it’s not the end of the world. If I don’t have heaps to say, a 3 line post with a thought or a question will do. If my posts don’t get a ton of engagement, I try (!) not to worry about it. I’ve shown up, I’m here, and the odd day when I don’t have time to boost the algorithm by popping comments everywhere isn’t going to do me any harm.
🧑🏻🤝👩🏽I Tell Other People To Mention Me
I mean, not in so many words. It’s not an order or anything. But I do encourage others to tag me in things – whether they’ve read something I wrote, are on the non-wanky SEO course, have been at an event I’m at, or have just had a conversation with me. It’s easy content for them, and it means people who wouldn’t ordinarily see my content get to see my name at the very least.
So it might seem as if I have no time to do actual client work, but the only time I spend on LinkedIn regularly is with my morning coffee and 5 minutes here and there throughout the day to comment or reply to comments on my posts.
Don’t presume that people who seem to be around on social media a lot have no work to do, they might just be a little bit organised, and have others to help.
(Also, don’t stress if everyone else seems to be being ‘better’ at LinkedIn than you – most of us really are winging it.)
Oh, and follow me on LinkedIn!
