So, you've been to a 'make me a LinkedIn guru' training session, you've been on LinkedIn for sometime, and as a result of the half day course your all pumped up, and you've decided its time to start to build out your personal and company brand.

You want to be seen as someone with knowledge and authority within your field of expertise, "once I get this right my network will grow and the amount of leads I get will more than make up for the effort".

We see lots of people who think its just about pumping out post, blogs, Vlogs, and then wondering why it isn't working so they give up. As with anything, if you want to get results and be seen as someone serious at what you do requires focus, dedication, direction, and consistency wrapped up in an agreed strategic framework.

So, why do you think one afternoon out of the office with a personal trainer can help you to get fit to run that marathon, lose weight, or become a really great Chess player, singer, actor or whatever. Anyone whose ever done anything worthwhile will tell you they got there with lots of self discipline, hard training, support and mentoring from people who know there stuff and stick with you through the learning stages, and provide ongoing support thereafter.

In the link below is an info-graphic which gives you a few ideas around some of the 'tactics' to deploy on LinkedIn, but tactics without strategy is simply a waste of time.

One of the biggest bloopers we see is people who don't have an audience in mind, they think that because there's 615 million on LinkedIn the algorithm will get your content noticed by someone - serendipity right? 

Well, from experience if you get the strategy, focus and intended audience right, that 'serendipity' will get you connected to people from all over the world who can relate to your stories, and if you get it wrong can disconnect you from them very quickly.

It's vital that you connect 'with purpose', random connections are fine, but they won't really help to get people involved in the conversations you would like to be part of. You need to think of the types of businesses that might be interested in your stories, they might be able to learn something, they might want to share it with colleagues and peer groups, but it starts with having a focused 'connection' plan.

The last tip I have on this blog, is that having an 'opinion' on something is fine, we all have them and if your an expert in your field then it will carry some weight, but adding value to people, e.g. a bit of help and education is more likely to get 'engagement' and move the conversation along.

And for me, this is all still work in progress.