How engaging on LinkedIn opens up career & job opportunities

If you are an executive or professional seeking a new role, unemployed or changing careers this this  blog is for you.  Many people ask how engaging on LinkedIn opens up career and job opportunities. This article will dive into one of the most effective strategies to do so. .

CAREER MARKETING MINDSET 

Firstly, career and job search success on and off LinkedIn is about embracing a career marketing mindset. This means taking business control of your career brand and future as a marketer would.

It’s being both Proactive & Reactive.   More information about marketing mindset principles HERE

The purpose of taking a marketing mindset is to drive outcomes with Confidence, Visibility and Influence:

There are many reasons and objectives for being on LinkedIn.  Networking, sales, marketing, career building and job seeking are part of that mix. 

For career executive and professionals, whether on the hunt or happy little vegemite’s in their current role, LinkedIn must be viewed as an insurance policy also.  

Circumstances can change in a nanosecond (think recent redundancies of big digital brands) and so being visible is as important at any stage of the career journey. 

I’m going to focus below on one of top LinkedIn career marketing strategies when looking for a new job (overtly or covertly).  

POWER OF COMMENTING (ENGAGING)

Ok, buckle up because this is the gold of bringing eyeballs to your expertise and profile. 

If you are a quiet LinkedIn lurker (or just give an occasional reaction) get off the fence of lurking darkness.  Lurking doesn’t do your job search and career any favours.  Even with a brilliant inspiring profile and recruiter alerts on, you are losing opportunities to be seen and known.

Everyone knows that content is king and queen of social media.  But many of you will not be content creators (except from sharing an article occasionally) nor intend to be.

And drum roll, that’s ok…..as there is many ways to skin the career opportunity cat with a strategic clever commenting strategy

This is one of the most powerful strategies you can do on LinkedIn to raise personal and career brand value. Aim is to talk to more hiring companies, managers and potential colleagues.

We cannot know who we cannot see and the best way to elevate your visibility is to showcase and demonstrate your values, expertise and personality.  And commenting on posts is one of the smartest things you can do to enhance your prospects and networks.

There is a bounty of valuable content here on every subject, professional and industry. Ok and yes there is also a lot of crap too. But so much gold for relevance.  The goal of meaningful content is to broadly educate, enlighten, entertain, inspire, and convert.

And the goal of meaningful comments and engagement are exactly the same.

They will be seen not just by the author but their network also – double dip of opportunity!

I have many enquiries over the years from people who saw a comment I made that really resonated with them.  Most of those people were not connections.

My clients who embrace an engagement strategy reap great results with new connections, conversations and potential opportunities and networks in the immediate to long term.   

LOW TO NO RISK

A concern for many people looking for a new role when currently employed is to not flag they are job hunting. 

Engaging on relevant content is a low to no risk activity as it will be aligned to your expertise and values anyhow. But of course it may not be always be a great idea to effusively comment on a direct competitors post.

And whilst on this concern, many are fearful of updating their profile will draw attention. Every employees profile benefits their current employers brand by association. Without a strong and compelling  profile you may draw attention and lose it quickly.

PROACTIVE & REACTIVE ENGAGEMENT

Your Newsfeed is a result of a range of factors – your connections, who you follow and the interplay of a range of other trigger points (i.e. direct message and previous engagement to flick AI).

Commenting on relevant content and posts in your Newsfeed is what I call “Reactive engagement’.  It gives opportunities that fall into your view. 

Remember that you will only see circa 10% of your networks posts in your Newsfeed.  So be mindful to write and keep a list of the top people you don’t want to miss (ring their Bell etc)

Whereas Proactive engagement is search based activities and this is where magic can happen.

GENERAL TOP TIPS

DO – use keyword and hashtag search filters on your topics, interests and skills to show new content

DO – search the management and stakeholders in organisations you wish to work for. Find relevant content from them to engage with. I promise this is GOLD..

DO – demonstrate your personality, values or knowledge in your comments. Hold true to your general tone, and sense of fun and conversation style.

DO – accept that everyone generally feels some level of fear when engaging. Its normal ok

DO – occasionally tag people who you know for sure will be keen to see the post.

DO – pose a relevant question to learn and open the topic further.

DO – be generous and genuine. Demonstrate you have read a post by referring to it directly.  Nothing is nicer than a genuine compliment based on time given to someone’s content

DO – have a comment and then connect focus. People are more inclined to connect after aligned engagement.

DON’T – give lazy short 3 or 4 word comments like ‘great post, thanks for sharing’. Not only do you look like you may be part of dodgy engagement pods it shows nothing of value about you or your capabilities or personality. 

DON’T Be a smart ass or nasty. Seriously if you have steam coming out of your nose when reading a post, consider just scrolling by.  But if you do want to comment to a challenging or divisive one, do it with respect and professionalism.

Make sure comments won’t bite you in the proverbial down the track.   Vitriol and hateful language can and does screw up reputations and careers. Opinions are fine but its HOW they are communicated that matters.

TOUGH LOVE TIPS

Please DON’T whinge in comments about your situation facing ageism or been treated like shit by recruiters and companies.

I totally get and empathise with these situations.

Hey I use my voice on these issues in my media articles to shine a light on ageism and HR nonsense.

I want to empower you differently to stomp on beliefs to shine your value in an inspiring way. Nothing turns people off than complaints without solutions and confidence.

But I see far too many people comment negatively on posts and complaining regularly about their current issues of ageism and recruiters. When I look through their activity there is a often a range of negative comment on a other topics also. If your looking for a job just please don’t be tempted to do this on LinkedIn. Message me or others who champion change.

Instead, focus energies to the strategies above to engage on posts where you can really contribute and be noticed positively for your skills and personality etc. After all you want to land a new role.

GET CRACKING

Get cracking on embracing an engagement focus.  You will find that new connections and conversations will lead down new opportunities and networks not anticipated.  Engaging on LinkedIn can open up career and job opportunities so dive in and commit to daily practice and searches.

And even if you are in a great job right now, don’t forget an insurance policy mindset to keep remaining visible.

More articles on Career Strategies and Career Job Search Services HERE 

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