By Charu Mitra Dubey

It was 2015, and I was in my first year of college when I learned about LinkedIn. Like any normal first-year, I rushed into the platform to create my account to enter the corporate world. 

Four years passed, and my account was still sitting brand new with just my name and four or five connections. 

Then, per my career objective to become a well-known writer at that time, I had to send my resume and a link to my LinkedIn profile for a gig at a very popular online magazine. 

That’s when I had to return to that platform and revamp my account. But I knew it wouldn’t work as it was. I would have to do something with my account to become a credible writer and get selected. So, I started consuming content on LinkedIn. I followed some well-known writers and marketers to keep consuming content related to my industry regularly.

After a few days, I gathered the courage to write my first post on the platform, and to my surprise, I even got five likes on my first post. Ultimately, I was posting, commenting, engaging, and networking in a few weeks. The best part is that I even got the gig by cold-pitching the editor-in-chief of that publication on LinkedIn. 

And since then, I have never stopped using LinkedIn. Today, I have over 42k followers, got two full-time opportunities, worked with over 50 clients worldwide, and built a newsletter with 20k subscribers, all thanks to LinkedIn. 

In this article, I will share all the key strategies that have helped me get here and how you can apply them to your LinkedIn. 

Set up a proper foundation for your LinkedIn

First things first, you need to be intentional about who your target audience is. You don’t need to go after random people following you. You need to grow your follower base and achieve your goals, like finding a job or growing your business. And this can only be done when you know about your target audience. 

Create an audience persona that doesn’t need to be very specific – just a basic one to get you started. Your persona might include factors such as industry, job roles, interests, and pain points. 

For instance, if you're in the marketing industry, your audience persona could include professionals in marketing, advertising, or related fields. You can narrow it down further by specifying the level of expertise you're targeting: entry-level marketers, mid-level managers, or senior executives.

Once you’ve set up the foundation, here are a few strategies that could you grow on LinkedIn.

Follow the 80-20 rule

People love to read content that they can relate to. This means “generic content,” like celebrating a new job or birthday or anything that feels human. 

However, there’s also a downside to such posts— while they might get you thousands of likes and comments, they won’t help you build a network of like-minded people and will hardly help you grow your business. 

But isn’t getting followers the goal here? The goal is to grow your audience alongside your business. 

This is …read more

Source:: Buffer Blog

Author: Aaron