If you’re looking to make social selling work or become a thought leader on LinkedIn your end goal is probably defined by the numbers. How many connections you have or how much engagement your last post achieved it’s all defined as your online following. So, how do you increase this following and achieve the results you’re looking for? 

Increase Your Output 

To build any audience you need something that draws people in. Whether that’s a person, a long-running series of content or a product. To keep the audience engaged and growing you need to be continuously offering to them. Giving them a reason to follow you through showcasing your value. If you’re creative, and your output is creating art, writing a piece of content or creating a video over time you can keep your audience’s attention through updates. If not there are plenty of tools you can use, such as polls and document uploads. Then you can release your work to a warm audience eager to see what you’ve been working on. This method can also work with new ventures, rebranding and small businesses can use this to document their journey. It adds an extra level of authenticity and the realisation that the journey matters when it comes to your audience. 

Breakthrough Your comfort zone

If you’re going to get started with your following you’ll need to break through your comfort zone and start reaching people. This could mean reaching out to build up your connections or engaging with content and discussions. It’s almost impossible to gain real traction on LinkedIn without a little give-and-take engagement. Unless you’ve achieved some form of notability elsewhere you’re not going to immediately see thousands of views on every post. A few one-hit wonders may make you feel on top of the world for a moment, but that’s not a following. That’s one glimmer of what a real following can achieve. 

The Strength of Compound Action 

A simple action over time can yield some amazing results, and that’s how you should view your presence online. There are methods and strategies to achieve some great results from day one, but for a real highly engaged following you need a lot of time to build yourself up. If you post every day, engage with everyone and put yourself in your audiences lives every day you will fall into their lives effortlessly. As long as some value is there in the relationship, no matter if it’s at a distance, those simple actions over time will achieve results. 

Do Not Take People for Granted

This is where most of us can go wrong when it comes to LinkedIn. We’ve networked, we’ve posted and engaged and unfortunately begun coasting. If your content becomes stale or you post-sales posts every day the engagement will fall and your audience will soon drop off. Posting every day for months can be tiring and inspiration can waiver. It’s inevitable. When those slumps hit you have to own them. Let people know how you’re feeling and move forwards. The worst thing you can do is continuously take the low-effort path. When you accept what’s happened, and battle through it you will increase your following instead of witnessing the death of your profile. 

The best way to increase your following on LinkedIn is by offering continuous value to your target audience. Getting started can be tough, but with a little bit of motivation and some training, anyone can establish and build a strong following online.