LinkedIn has shut down… so, what happens next?

Relax… it’s only a hypothetical.

But, imagine for a second that LinkedIn shut up shop overnight.

How would you feel?
How would you react?
More importantly, what would it do to your business?

 

In reality, making use of social media is like building on Crown land

You don’t own the space.

And you have no control over what happens there.

Social media platforms are notorious for making monstrous algorithm changes overnight, without warning. (Because they don’t owe us anything.)

 

It’s the stuff of nightmares.

In the blink of an eye, your reach drops by 90%, your engagement dries up, and you realise it’s transformed into a “pay to play” platform.

Worst case, it could spell the end of your leads – and your business.

But we live in a digital world.

And most, if not all of us rely on social media to help market our businesses.

So, how can you get the most out of a social platform like LinkedIn without their stealthy games causing the collapse of your entire marketing plan?

Well, after my own run-in with LinkedIn recently, I’ve got plenty of pro tips to share.

 

Here’s what happened.

A month ago, LinkedIn started hating on me.

I had no idea what I did to deserve the cold shoulder.

Were my selfie posts not peppy enough?
Was it because I wasn’t posting about X/Twitter like everyone else?
Or did having my black cat in the room while I posted have something to do with it?

Either way, LinkedIn was being rather passive-aggressive.

I had no official block or ban, yet my posts were disappearing into a digital abyss before they’d barely reached 13 people.

Has the same thing happened to you?

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not one for vanity metrics (anymore).

But I imagined it felt a lot like being in high school, where one day, everyone (yep, even the teachers) turned their back on me.

I felt suddenly invisible.

The trouble was, LinkedIn is a significant part of my content strategy.

And if my content wasn’t being seen, what was the point of spending time on the platform or creating more content?

I needed to rise above the grudge LinkedIn was holding with me.

So, I turned to other ways of leveraging the platform.

 

8 ways you can use LinkedIn to attract leads OTHER THAN posting content

→  Tidy up your profile and featured section

→  Ask past clients for LinkedIn recommendations

→  Reply to all the “unread” DMs in your LinkedIn inbox

→  Search for and join active LinkedIn groups in your industry

→  Send connection requests to people who’d make ideal clients

→  Reach out to ideal leads by striking up a conversation in the DMs

→  Identify and engage with people who’d make great referral partners

→  Comment on your network’s posts with thoughtful insights and questions

 

However, this is only part of the story.

Because LinkedIn isn’t my entire marketing strategy.

It’s just one branch.

Like everyone else, I can’t control when social media platforms choose to play nice. So it’s a no-brainer that I have other ways to grow, nurture, and connect with my online audience.

(To be frank, I would’ve been in a right pickle that month if LinkedIn was my ONLY source of business!)

This is why having a solid marketing strategy is crucial for ANY business – particularly solo operators who don’t have the same financial buffer as the big brands.

While LinkedIn was in a huff, my strategy came to the rescue.

 

8 things you can do to generate leads WITHOUT relying on social media

→  Reach out to your past clients for testimonials

→  Review and refresh the messaging on your website

→  Create a new resource for people who join your email list

→  Add a useful ‘super signature’ to your regular marketing emails

→  Reach out to your referral partners about new collaborative projects

→  Follow up on any email threads you’ve had going with interested leads

→  Send out ‘power notes’ to key people you’ve identified within your network

→  Go through your past content to see what can be reused, repurposed, or repolished

 

The moral of the story?

Never put all your eggs in LinkedIn’s basket (or any other social media).

Instead, make sure your marketing strategy offers multiple channels and methods to attract and nurture your leads.

Trust me.

When the next algorithm hits, you’ll be seriously glad you did!

While everyone else is frantically posting about the “latest awful changes” and grouching about “how hard it is to find new clients these days”, you’ll be ahead of the game and chuffed with all the bookings in your calendar.

 

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