Simple LinkedIn Strategy for Beginners

Simple, yet winning.

Six years ago, before I even knew Medium existed, I wrote an article on LinkedIn to share my experience as a freelance writer. 

I didn’t do it to achieve anything. It was more of a response to the largely fake stories I was annoyed with. You know the ones, I’m a solopreneur, and I’m driving a Porsche. Buy my course. 

In my story, I mentioned exactly how much I was making, and how; I talked about what I loved & hated about freelancing.

The article became semi-viral, getting about 100K views. 

It got me three clients, but it also got me a few confusing messages. 

My LinkedIn profile was a mess back then. I had entered completely unrelated jobs under “Experience,” and I’d gotten recommendations for completely different things. From entertainer in a hotel to sales executive, to dating coach, and more.

I guess that’s why a guy asked me if I really had copywriting expertise or if I was “one of those online hustlers who call themselves whatever they want: coaches, writers, etc.” 

That’s when I deleted my LinkedIn account. It was too much for me to deal with at the time. I wasn’t ready to put myself out there in a real way: to answer the jerks with confidence, to fix my profile a little, and use my accidental success to build a following. 

That’s why mindset is more important than strategy. 

Fast-forward to 2022, and I was done hiding. My copywriting business had generated over $300K in revenue at the time, and I had invested a decent portion of that in courses, learning from some of the best in the industry. 

I was ready to call myself a writer. If only I could reply to that mean message now. 

The point is this: less than a year ago, I started on LinkedIn from scratch. I’m not one of those experts with 100K followers or anything. 

But, as I like to say, the best role models are just a few steps ahead of you, not miles ahead of you. 

If you’re just starting on LinkedIn, here are the first steps to focus on.

The Profile Basics.

A good image, good cover image (I’m still working on mine), and the one-liner below your name are essential.

Some LinkedIn creators say people don’t follow you because of your profile; they follow you because of the content you create—but your profile is the foundation.

For these three profile essentials, you can look for top LinkedIn influencers in your industry and get inspired by how they’ve done things.

Creator Mode.

I still haven’t taken advantage of all the features in LinkedIn Creator Mode. In fact, I’ve barely scratched the surface.

However, turning on Creator Mode allows you to choose 5 topics you want to talk about on the platform. They are featured at the top of your profile, right below the aforementioned one-liner that describes who you are.

These tell people what you’re about so it’s good to have them.

Connections & Followers.

Nothing adds credibility to your LinkedIn profile like the number of Connections & Followers.

Goal #1 here is to reach the 500+ connections status. If you’re active on the platform, it will become easy to find people in your field. Simply go on their profile, follow them, and ask them to connect. Most will accept your invitation and follow you back.

What to do on the platform.

Honestly, I’m having more fun than I thought I would just browsing the wall. To boost my exposure, I post short-form content (posts) and add comments on posts of more powerful influencers.

It’s not a chore, either. The community is very active, and I find it easy to enter the conversation.

Here’s a comment that got me some attention and a few followers. It’s an answer to a post by Tim Denning about how office gossip is the death of careers.

If you share posts 3 times a week, and comment on 1-2 posts per day, that should be enough to get you a good amount of views & potential opportunities.

Why even try on LinkedIn.

For me, the answer is credibility. LinkedIn is where professionals go to see who you are. I’ve already told you the story of how I submitted a story to a Forbes editor and later saw she’d checked out my LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is also the social media where work gets done—opportunities are everywhere.

Just look at this random post I found from Steven Bartlett, an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Investor, Author, BBC Dragon, and the host of one of Europe's biggest podcasts, 'The Diary of a CEO'.

In short, if you’re going to make an effort on any social media, I’d start with LinkedIn for sure.

What if you want advice from someone who knows more?

If you want to dive deep and you’re a beginner, I recommend following Jasmin Alic. He makes things super simple and will teach you how to post good stuff & get initial traction.

Happy LinkedIn-ing,

Maya

PS. Are you working on growing a following on any social media right now? How is it going?