How to Use Social Media for Networking as a Coach

He wasn’t convinced that being active on LinkedIn would be helpful. 30 days later? Strategic LinkedIn networking brought in 2 new clients (estimated to be worth more than $100k in legal fees). The backstory: ⇒ Litigation partner in a mid-sized law firm. ⇒ Skeptical that LinkedIn could be used to network for business. ⇒ No time for writing or doing traditional “thought leadership”. Despite his doubts, he was willing to give LinkedIn a try. We put a simple strategic LI networking plan together that felt doable for him. Here it is: 1️⃣Identify (& then connect with/follow) 6-10 relevant people. These folks must: ✓ Be active on LinkedIn. ✓ Post about issues relevant to your ideal clients. And no, they don’t need to be competitors or attorneys (but they CAN be - don’t be afraid to follow and engage with those folks!). 2️⃣Set aside 15 minutes per day to review their posts and strategically comment (on any that are relevant to your audience). When commenting, don’t say “great post” or “thanks for sharing”. Instead, add value by: >>> Validating their point with specifics. >>> Adding a new perspective or insight. >>> Asking a question to deepen the discussion. 3️⃣Connect with people you engage with. LinkedIn is a networking tool. Use it that way! Any time someone you aren’t already connected to likes one of your comments or (even better) engages with it, reach out to them to connect. And then, DM them to say “hello” and take the discussion (already started in the comments) further. Yes, that's it. Here’s why this simple formula is so effective: ⏩ It's an easy way to showcase your point of view (and way of lawyering/thinking), which attracts better-fit people into your LI universe. ⏩ It shows your credibility and expertise (in a service-based, non-salesy way). By doing something that takes little time. ⏩ It builds authentic relationships. With people you probably wouldn’t meet in person. Stop thinking of LinkedIn purely as social media. Use it as the networking tool (it actually is). Now, the elephant in the room…Posting your own content. Yes, this will help. But it’s not necessary. If you don’t have the time right now (or are a bit shy about putting your own posts/articles out there), this is a great strategy to lead with. Ready to get started (now)? Do this: 1. Find 1 thought leader in your niche. 2. Make a thoughtful, strategic comment to one of their recent posts. 3. Connect with anyone who likes or engages with your comment. XO, Heather ~~~ P.S. Season 5 of Life & Law podcast is BACK. And this is exactly what we’re covering today. Dive deeper into how to use LinkedIn for networking by listening to Episode 204 (see my Featured Section at Heather Moulder to go directly to the podcast).

Daily & weekly actions I would take on LinkedIn depending on my follower count ⬇️ (for coaches, consultants & service-based businesses looking to get clients) 1. 0 - 500 -> It’s not *impossible* to start getting traction at this stage but it will take a considerable amount of work to catch up to where most accounts already are. -> Non-negotiable maxing out of 100 connection requests per week -> Spend time daily (15-20mins) engaging on both bigger accounts (think Mel Robbins, Jade Bonacolta) and peers w/in your industry until people know who you are. -> You can post content but have the right expectations. Likely won’t get tons of traction / engagement but if you’re in it for the long game keep going, everyone started here. 2. 500 - 1,000 -> Same ^ non-negotiable maxing out of 100 requests per week. -> Focus on making your content mega valuable. You’ve got an ok baseline of followers & some of your posts could get real traction if your audience finds them useful & reshares. -> Focus on making strategic connections w/ creators w/ bigger audiences - relevant enough to what you do. Find the right collab partner to do a LinkedIn live w/ co-write a post w/, or have them consistently engage w/ your content (your content has to be good for them to care about it) is the difference between staying at 500 followers forever & steadily adding 30-50 people each week. 3. 1,000 - 5,000 -> At this stage my focus would be to deepen & nurture your online relationships. You’re in a good spot & want to continue your growth & that means having a good reputation for being helpful & generous where people continue to share about your work & engage no matter what on your content. Spend time each week engaging on the content w/ your core people & staying in touch in the DM’s. -> Also focus on finding the right collaborators ^^^ -> You. can ease up on the adding of connections ~ 50 per week. 4. 5,000 + -> You may have naturally gotten here bc of your prior career or connection adding habits of the past. You need to evaluate your follower to engagement ratio. Do you have a healthy & engaged 5,000+ followers? Or does your content fall flat? Do you have real relationships you’ve invested in? If no, follow all the steps for 500-5,000 (skip the connection adding). -> This is a high potential place to be w/ a LinkedIn account. You’ll get taken more seriously (over someone w/ 412 followers) so it would be wise to have a real strategy in place w/ both your content & platform messaging. You should get decent traction w/out having to think too much about it so focus on being useful & really understanding your audience to make the best kinds of content for them. -> Continue to nurture your relationships as well. ——- So much I can say on this topic but out of space! for those of you that have been on LinkedIn for 1-3 years, what’s helped you get traction & business the most?

Consistency on LinkedIn can look like many things. Some post daily. Others weekly. Don't forget comments and DMs. Here's what I do (and it's working): 1. Start by commenting on the feed LinkedIn gives you. LinkedIn is pretty smart. Your default feed should be relatively useful. Find posts that invoke a feeling or thought, and then share it in the comments. > My secret - Just write how it applies to you or reminded you of something personal. Don't worry about it sounding self-centered. It will certainly not be mistaken for AI! Hint: Most content creators are literally desparate for any comments. Aside from inbound leads, a comment is the next best thing. 2. Update your feed. Search for creators posting about the topics you've commented on. Find bigger creators and like and comment on their posts. You can find them from the people who already liked and commented on the posts in point 1. Or use LinkedIn search (DM me if you need help with this). 3. Figure out which topics and posts styles resonate with you. Make your own posts about that. Notice who LinkedIn sends these to. Steps: From your own profile, click Post Impressions, then find a post, then click View Analytics, find Post Viewers Demographics, and click Show All. Tons of great data there! 4. DM with everyone mentioned in 1-3. You may need to connect with them first. Just hit connect. Don't send a note. You already engaged with their content or content they also engaged with. LinkedIn will show them that. > My secret - If your profile is a little better than decent and you're doing outreach to like-minded souls, most will connect with NO note (I call these naked connection requests, because well, why not? Naked Juice can do it, so can I). 5. No, you are not wasting your time or others' time. Last month, following this strategy, I: - Met a founder who is now promoting my content. He introduced me to a coach who is interested in licensing my networking materials. - Met a different founder who invited me to a career tech community and is interested in my product advisory services - Landed multiple networking coaching clients (even though I hadn't been posting much) Recap: I don't even post every week. Because I struggle with that. But I comment and interact here every day. And then I have DMs and calls and then business materializes. You can do this too. Whether it is networking for a new role or trying to land business. What does LinkedIn consistency look like to you?