Your Personal Guide to LinkedIn Business Etiquette

In this article you will learn about LinkedIn business etiquette and better understand how to navigate your interactions on LinkedIn using the messaging and personalised invitation to connect features.

There are some general rules of engagement on LinkedIn, which I refer to as LinkedIn etiquette because my approach to LinkedIn is not the same as some of the more salesy approaches you may have heard about or been on the receiving end of.

When I refer to your etiquette on LinkedIn, I’m talking about how to engage with other LinkedIn members who may be referrers, collaborators, suppliers, clients and potential clients. Importantly, whether your focus is business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C), in both cases you are interacting with humans (H2H) and so need to remember to treat people with respect when you engage with them on LinkedIn.

The Foundations of Building Business Relationships

While I don’t believe you can live on a digital diet alone, I do believe you can start (and continue) many conversations on LinkedIn with the people who matter to your business. This may be long lost colleagues, suppliers, and potential clients and collaborators.

I encourage you to imagine LinkedIn is just like a virtual room and your profile is you. Focus on what you can give, rather than what you can get. Be personable and helpful, because at the heart of being an effective networker is focusing on the relationship first, and serving your goals second. People can smell a salesperson or personal agenda and often hate this transactional approach on LinkedIn.  You know the type!

Focus on Key Topics of Expertise or Business Interest

I recommend you take a strategic approach to how you present yourself and engage with others on LinkedIn and consider LinkedIn’s role as part of an overall content marketing strategy.  This involves deciding the specifics of who you want to influence on LinkedIn and clearly positioning yourself as a specialist in your area of expertise.

If you choose to use Creator Mode or the LinkedIn Newsletter or published article feature you can demonstrate the problems you solve with case studies or insights from experiences you have with clients.  It is also useful to decide the core topics that are relevant to the connections you wish to influence.

These topics can:

• form your focus areas for LinkedIn
• help guide the types of articles you share
• help guide the updates you re-post, like and comment on

Take some time to think about the 3 key topics that are relevant to both your services and your client’s needs.  When you have done this I recommend you also clean up your newsfeed to improve your LinkedIn user experience. Here’s how.

Contribute Thoughtfully and Strategically

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where you can influence current and potential stakeholders. Be considered and strategic with your topic choices and apply some intellectual rigour. Once you’ve developed a clear understanding of your online voice, you can tell your story via your professional profile and leverage the thinking you have done around your LinkedIn strategy to help position yourself as an expert in your field.

You can provide thought leadership in your areas of expertise and contribute in groups or share insightful posts, a regular newsletter with case studies and LinkedIn articles, creating opportunities to network with your connections and group members.

How to Start More Conversations on LinkedIn 

To start more conversations and build stronger business relationships on LinkedIn I encourage you to:

• respond to invitations to connect with a conversational follow up message
• follow up face to face conversations with new contacts by inviting them to connect on LinkedIn
• react (e.g like, etc) to relevant posts and updates shared by colleagues
• comment when you can genuinely add value to the discussion
• share relevant and insightful content (e.g. useful articles you have read) and remember to stay focussed on your chosen topic areas

I encourage you take the time to consider your plan for LinkedIn and I look forward to hearing about the results you achieve for your business as a result.