Why I had to change my relationship with LinkedIn and how I did it

That is the most erratic blood pressure I’ve had in a while

“Every time I go on LinkedIn to check my messages, all I bloody see is yet another post from you Faris. Do you actually ever do any work!”, said one of my friends on a networking group call today.

Funnily enough, I do have a bit of a belief that there is somewhat of an inverse correlation between amount of time spent on social media and how well your business is doing.

In my case, that was certainly true, as in the early days of Shiageto I would often spend about half my day either creating content for social media, posting and sending messages on social media, or reading articles and replying to other people’s posts — largely because I had the time.

However, in the last year that has changed immensely, my business has taken off so I don’t have the time and I now spend a maximum 30–60 mins a day doing the above. [That may seem a lot to you but for me and my business it is a worthwhile investment and I’ll explain why below].

For me, LinkedIn is my social media of choice.

You may love it or hate it but I view LinkedIn as absolutely vital.

As the founder and CEO of a small business, it is perfect primarily in five ways:

• to market the business
• to stay up-to-date with what is happening in the business world
• to create and maintain connections
• to find tools, techniques and people to help deliver work
• to sharpen my thinking and hold myself accountable

What changed this year?

Because of the change to my levels of free time though I had to change my relationship to it and learn to spend less time on the platform, whilst still getting value from it.

So out went the hours spent reading lengthy posts, scrolling all the way down to find obscure articles, celebrating every single milestone for every single connection I had.

Instead I challenged myself to post regularly something that not only was meaningful, positioned me and my company as experts but also interested readers and drew them into our world.

It didn’t matter what the post was:

• some days it would be an update on a key milestone for the business;
• other times I would share a blog, vlog or article I had written or a podcast I had been in;
• sometimes I would summarise a fantastic article that I had read to share some wisdom;
• other days I might create a poll to gain some insight;
• I would often wish others well or celebrate their success;
• and occasionally I might share my views on a topic or start a debate.

How regularly did I post and how successful was it?

Now I must admit that my definition of posting regularly changed throughout the year but certainly not a week went by without me posting and, in the last 3 months of the year, I managed to get in the habit of posting every day.

The net result (as you can see from the picture above) is that I managed over 430,000 engagements in the year from my posts. Yep, a couple of posts got 50k views whilst others got only 10 but I definitely feel vindicated by my change of approach

What did I learn?

As with many of the things I undertake, the value is not just in the output but in the reflection afterwards. So, for my and your benefit, here are 5 key takeaways I had from this new approach:

1. At first it seemed really daunting — challenging myself to come up with something new each day seems a stretch and so in the early days I would often delay doing it, would procrastinate a lot and would worry immensely about it.
2. You definitely get a lot quicker and more creative — I love creativity and wholeheartedly believe it is an under-developed muscle; as such I found my ability to generate posts became so much quicker, literally being able to turn any part of my day into a post. Follow the 2 outputs from 1 input rule and you’ll do just fine.
3. Don’t get too attached to one particular post — it is very hard to predict which posts will do amazingly and which will sink faster than a poo with no gaseous bacteria. If you love all your posts equally and stay consistent with your posting then it doesn’t matter which are the golden ones; just like with blogs you may get one that surprises you.
4. Enjoy the process — I went from dreading having to do a post to getting excited about what to post next; so much so that I had to start carrying round a notebook to jot down all my ideas as they literally overflowed.
5. Be a smart poster — there are endless guides on how to “win at LinkedIn”; I’ve read many of them and some I believe whilst others I don’t. From my experience though I definitely believe the following to be true: post at a time when more people will be using LinkedIn as traction in the first hour is vital; choose to create a fresh post over reposting other people’s content; don’t put in too many hashtags; try not to edit a post after you’ve posted it; get some friendly connections to interact with the post sooner rather than later.

Right, that’s about it. Hopefully this has been yet another interesting read and I look forward to seeing some amazing LinkedIn posts as a result ;)

Just remember, if you ever need a helping hand then give me a shout!

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ