Are You Keeping Your Connections Relevant?

Atlas Katari is the owner of Katari Creative, a B2B organic content marketing agency focused primarily on LinkedIn marketing with some SEO and content creation.

Atlas is a self-described “LinkedIn nerd” and walks us through the latest LinkedIn offerings and how to best use LinkedIn for our businesses. They say that LinkedIn has an incredible organic reach you can use to promote your content.

So many people have only posted their profile on LinkedIn (ages ago) and haven’t looked at it much since. LinkedIn has changed a lot in recent years and offers a lot of new services.

LinkedIn is focusing heavily on creators these days so it’s a great way to show and practice your writing chops, talking about what you know and what you love.

In 2021, LinkedIn rolled out several new services that are a part of its free tier. LinkedIn introduced newsletters for users to create and now has “creator mode,” which allows you to highlight on your profile that you are a creator, choose topics to display in your profile as hashtags, and highlight your original content.

Last year, LinkedIn also fully launched Service Marketplace, which allows people to advertise for short-term projects geared toward freelancers.

If the thought of being more active on another social media platform feels overwhelming, Atlas recommends at least updating your profile — before you comment or create content. Look at fellow freelancers in your industry to get inspiration for your profile style and format.

In your profile, update your headline. Focus on your title; don’t use phrases like “I help this person do this.” LinkedIn is a search engine, so think about keywords. And think about what keywords potential clients are looking for, such as “freelance tech writer.”

Add a strong profile photo (consider a brightly colored, solid background) and focus on your banner image. The banner image should have a purpose and not just be a plain stock image. You can brand it with your photo, business name, a short URL (not clickable) and a call to action.

The About section (previously called the Summary) is also prime space to tell your clients what your services are. And leave a call to action, even if it’s just “email me at XXX.”

Beyond your profile, if you plan to be active on LinkedIn, it’s important to be consistent, rather than perfect. Atlas recommends reviewing your LinkedIn profile quarterly, maybe making small tweaks in your headline or switching to a new URL you want to promote. This could be a good time to add pieces to your portfolio or update your call to action.

Atlas puts their Calendly call scheduling link in their “Featured” section, providing another way people can easily contact them.

Asking for a LinkedIn recommendation can be part of your client offboarding process.

Atlas uses LinkedIn only through the free tier, but they walked us through the paid premium tiers and what each one offers (tiers: Career, Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter).

Atlas believes LinkedIn Groups will improve and become more popular. Right now, group posts don’t show up in your feed and you don’t get notifications.

LinkedIn Live is a live video option, but you have to apply to be able to use it. Atlas says the criteria are fairly easy though.

Melanie shared how she culled her LinkedIn a few months ago from about 900 connections to 400. Atlas supports these type of “purges” (at least every year) to keep your feed relevant and you focused on your goals. 

To also keep your feed relevant, you can follow hashtags and influencers in an industry you want to connect more with. Comment strategically—and provide value through your comment—on popular posts.

Biz Bite: Create a strict boundary for daily time spent on each social media platform.

Resources:

Katari Creative

Linked Into Freelancing course and Substack newsletter subscription

Atlas Katari on LinkedIn

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