Do you ever wonder which people to mention in your LinkedIn posts to increase engagement through likes, comments and shares?
Here’s how to go beyond mentioning people who might be interested in your content, being more targeted in who may be most engaged.
Start by making a list of the people you’ve included in your article or your post.
(And if you haven’t included others, see how you can weave in a few people and credit their ideas. Why? That will broaden the group of people who may be interested in your content. Those who are included may want to share your content with their networks, extending its reach and impact.)
Next, look at your mutual connections. These display in the mobile app, in the Highlights section right under the person’s Summary. Choose some or all of your mutual connections to mention in your post, the area on the Home feed where you “share an article, photo, video or idea.”
This is a serendipitous discovery I made recently in my series of profiles on how professionals are boosting their careers through social media. The series began with photographer Jessica Sterling and will continue in the months ahead.
The mentions feature is currently available for posts, but not for articles on the LinkedIn publishing platform. So after I’ve published an article and shared a post about it, the next day I do a post on the article that mentions people. This calls attention to the article to people who might be interested in it and who might engage with it.
As I was doing this for a profile on YouTuber Angelica Kelly, I looked at our mutual connections. We had 78. The people we both know would logically seem to be the ones who might have the most interest in the profile. So I mentioned about half of our mutual connections, based on my assessment of each one.
And of that number, about 50% liked the article and 25% wrote a comment. All of the comments except for one came from people who were mentioned. It was exciting to see a community take shape in the comments.
This is something I look forward to experimenting with over time. As I do, I’ll share upcoming posts about trends and patterns in engagement with mutual connections. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
Speaking of mutual connections, here’s another article I wrote about how to make the most of them. You can understand the broader social network, get to know a new colleague or client, and discover opportunities for collaboration.
And since social media is all about reciprocity, I’m making an effort to engage in the content of the people I’m mentioning. When I see their content in my home feed, I’m more likely to like, comment on or share it.
One caution is to not mention people too often and wear out your welcome. Once a week is probably the max, making sure the content is relevant and likely to be welcomed by the people you’re mentioning.
How have you tapped into mutual connections to engage people with your content?
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