LinkedIn notes allow you to share longer-form content on your profile beyond just status updates. Writing an effective note requires understanding your goal and audience. Are you aiming to establish yourself as a thought leader? Strengthen connections? Share career advice? Promote your business? Notes can serve many purposes, but keeping the reader in mind is key.
Connecting with your network
One of the most common uses of LinkedIn notes is to nurture your professional relationships. Thoughtful notes to your connections demonstrate you value those relationships. When reaching out, consider:
- Congratulating connections on work anniversaries, promotions, new jobs, major projects, or other milestones.
- Checking in after meeting someone at an event, conference, etc. Follow up on any conversations and mention shared interests.
- Tagging connections in relevant industry news or articles. Share your perspective and ask their thoughts.
- Recommending connections you think would benefit from knowing each other. Make warm introductions explaining why you connected them.
The goal is to add value for your connections. By actively supporting their career growth and interests, they’re more likely to reciprocate. This strengthens your professional network over time.
Establishing thought leadership
LinkedIn notes also present a platform to share your expertise. Positioning yourself as a thought leader can enhance your professional brand and influence. Useful approaches include:
- Sharing insights from research, white papers, presentations, etc. that demonstrate your capabilities.
- Weighing in on latest trends, innovations, or news within your industry. Offer informed analysis.
- Providing tips, tactics, and best practices related to your field. Teach readers something useful.
- Responding to or building on content posted by others. Engage in thoughtful discussion.
The goal is to provide value and perspective vs. just promoting yourself. Consider broadening beyond your immediate job scope as well. Discussing leadership, management, communications, etc. can further establish your authority.
Career and professional development advice
Many professionals turn to LinkedIn for career guidance. Sharing your own experiences can help others while positioning you as an advisor. Ideas include:
- Detailing how you navigated career changes, obstacles, promotions, etc. Provide real examples.
- Advising on skills to develop or projects to undertake to advance professionally. Tie to your experience.
- Discussing workplace challenges like imposter syndrome, difficult bosses, feeling “stuck,” etc. Offer constructive tips.
- Outlining best practices for networking, interviewing, salary negotiation, and other aspects of career management.
Tap into what you wish you knew earlier in your own career. Your insights will be appreciated, especially by those just starting out. Be encouraging and constructive in your advice.
Promoting your business
You can use LinkedIn notes to increase awareness and interest in your business, products, or services. However, avoid overt self-promotion. Better approaches include:
- Educating on the needs/challenges your business addresses in its industry or for its target customers.
- Discussing the inspiration behind launching your business – your “origin story.” Make it personal.
- Sharing the latest developments at your company, like new products, services, milestones, etc. Focus on value.
- Republishing content from your blog, particularly evergreen thought leadership content. Increase reach.
Keep self-promotion secondary to providing audience value. Let your expertise and passion for your work shine through. This establishes credibility better than direct pitches.
Recognizing employees and team members
LinkedIn notes also present a chance to publicly recognize your team. Consider shouting out:
- Standout employee contributions, like launching a successful campaign, driving product innovation, exemplary customer service, etc.
- Work anniversaries and milestone years of service. Share fun facts about long-tenured employees.
- Promotions and examples of employees advancing their careers within your company.
- Awards, media features, speaking engagements, volunteer work, and other external recognition.
Public employee recognition reinforces cultural values, boosts engagement, and helps attract talent. Just be sure to only share positive news that employees would welcome being posted publicly.
Other networking note ideas
LinkedIn notes offer lots of flexibility. Other networking approaches include:
- Asking thoughtful questions to spark insightful discussion within your industry.
- Sharing links to Must Read articles, books, podcasts, and other useful resources.
- Compiling lists of top influencers, emerging trends, career tips, and other domain expertise.
- Cross-promoting colleagues, partners, charities, local businesses, and other entities you support.
- Embedding SlideShare presentations to share conference talks, webinars, etc.
Experiment to see what resonates best with your connections. You can also repurpose content from other channels like blog posts and enewsletters. The most important factor is providing value vs. self-promotion.
Best practices for LinkedIn notes
To maximize the impact of your LinkedIn notes, keep these best practices in mind:
- Have a clear goal. Notes that ramble without a focused intent get ignored. Define the reader value you aim to provide.
- Know your audience. Tailor your tone, depth, examples, etc. to the target readers. Speaking to their needs drives engagement.
- Craft compelling headlines. Hook readers with succinct, descriptive titles that signal the value within your note.
- Open strong. Lead with the most useful, engaging information. Don’t bury key points deep in your note.
- Write concisely. Notes with scannable formatting and clear paragraphing are more readable. Avoid dense blocks of text.
- Include visuals. Relevant photos, charts, quotes, video links, etc. help reinforce key points and add visual interest.
- Promote your notes. Share links in your profile, activity feed, and through other channels. Make them easy to discover.
- Monitor engagement. Review likes, comments, and shares to see what content resonates. Let that guide future posts.
With a thoughtful, audience-focused approach, LinkedIn notes offer an opportunity to build connections, demonstrate expertise, and add value for your network. Define your goals and metrics of success to maximize the impact.