Stop focusing on impressions and followers on LinkedIn!

You’re putting in the effort to grow your LinkedIn presence. You've likely done some of these activities:

• Tweaked your profile

• Posted interesting content

• Engaged with others

• Grown your network

• Sent direct messages

  
  

To track whether these efforts are working, you're observing your numbers: likes, comments, impressions, connections, and followers. 

You feel great when your posts get a lot of engagement, and discouraged when they don't. Nonetheless, it's hard to spot patterns and extremely time-consuming.

You wonder why others in your industry have more followers and engagement than you. And despite all your effort, your inbox isn’t filled with potential clients. 

In this post, I'll dive into why carefully tracking these traditional LinkedIn metrics is a critical mistake that prevents you from getting the results you want on LinkedIn, and what to do instead.

Your LinkedIn marketing should serve your goals as a consultant, rather than feeding the algorithm.

Tracking LinkedIn metrics may feel productive, and many LinkedIn gurus recommend doing so to understand how your account is performing over time. It's easy to fall into this trap.

However, you’re on LinkedIn because you want clients. You are not on LinkedIn because you want to get famous or go viral. 

As a consultant, you are not looking for big-time sponsorship deals, low-ticket course sales, or significant book deals. If you were, then you likely wouldn't be reading this post, and my advice to you would be different!

In other words, you don't need a lot of impressions to achieve your goals. Instead, you need to get in front of the right people, and to convert those people into clients.

Tracking followers and impressions causes three specific problems. Here's what they are, and what to do instead.

Problem 1) When you're pursuing traditional LinkedIn metrics, you write posts for the masses, not for your ideal client. If your posts don't resonate with your ideal clients, they won’t take the next step to work with you.

Solution 1) Instead of writing for the masses, write for your ideal client. Pretend you're writing to one specific prospect (picture them as you write!), and share a recent insight or address a common question that you know would benefit them. Posting consistently builds trust and keeps you at the top of potential clients' minds.

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Problem 2) When you’re constantly worried about how well a post will perform, you might not post at all, or you'll feel stressed every time you post. And in the process, you'll miss out on the consistency that builds trust with your audience.

Solution 2) Instead of worrying about engagement, focus on writing high-quality posts that you're proud of and create a consistent posting schedule (e.g. twice a week). When you do that, you'll naturally attract interest in your work.

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Problem 3) You're neglecting direct outreach because you're focused on your metrics. While posting is a critical element of an effective LinkedIn strategy, so is direct outreach. That's because when you send messages to your ideal clients, you take lead generation into your own hands.

Solution 3) Instead of directing so much energy toward your LinkedIn metrics, focus on a different metric: number of leads! You can track this by creating a lead list and noting how many conversations you started in one week.

(Sending direct messages can feel intimidating to many business owners. That's why I wrote this short blog to dive into why you dread sending direct messages on LinkedIn and what to do about it.)

In my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn, my clients fill out a weekly progress report to share how they're doing for the week. They don't share metrics such as likes, impressions, and follows. Instead, they share how many posts they published, how many messages they sent, and the number of leads in their lead list.

You can see a snapshot of what they report here:

“But if my posts get more reach, doesn't that result in more clients?"

Not necessarily! If you’re attracting people who aren’t your ideal clients, your visibility won't translate into more business. Instead of trying to reach the masses, focus on delivering value to your niche audience (solution 1), write consistent, high-quality posts (solution 2), and track the direct outreach you do (solution 3).

You don't have to figure out LinkedIn on your own

I want you to get leads on LinkedIn without spending inordinate amounts of time on the platform or focusing on metrics that don't move the needle.

Here's how I can help you with that:

Step 1: When I start working with a small business owner, we always start with a Profile Optimization so that you clearly explain your credibility, who you serve, how you serve them, and what action the profile viewer should take.

This process takes about three weeks from start to finish, and provides you a profile that captures the attention of your ideal clients and gets them to take action.

Step 2: Once your profile is optimized, we then create your LinkedIn strategy so you can get visible to the right audience and attract more interest in your offerings through my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn.

This program takes two months. We focus on two main skills - LinkedIn posting and direct messaging. These skills bring the right clients into your orbit so you can consistently grow your business without relying on time-consuming strategies like video and expensive strategies like ads. 

Within just a month, you'll have identified and contacted 30 prospects for your business. You'll have the skills and systems to do it again whenever you want an influx of leads. And, this rinse-and-repeat process gets more effective every time you do it!

Step 3: After, we create a habit of LinkedIn marketing through my coaching program so that you can count on ongoing leads for your business. We integrate LinkedIn with your other marketing strategies (e.g. email and in-person networking) to prevent duplicate work and create a marketing ecosystem that gets you leads and clients.

Learn more about my services and get started working with me here