Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.
So far this week on the 7 day Lift program you have got your LinkedIn profile looking fantastic and connected with people who you want to build relationships with. Today it is all about getting active on LinkedIn, so lets get out and out today on the Answers section of LinkedIn.
First up to get to the Answers section of LinkedIn: click on MORE (in the top bar) then choose ANSWERS from the drop down menu
It will take you to a page of questions, it sounds backwards, but the questions that people on LinkedIn ask of each other are called Answers. The first questions that you see are the ones that people in your network, ie 1st connections have asked, then on the right hand side you will see a box with all the question categories in it (see screen shot on the left).
Why Answers?
The reason you should be answering questions on LinkedIn is so that you look like an expert, ie in answering a question in your area of expertise you are demonstrating your expertise. Also the more active you are on LinkedIn the more you will show up in your connections activity feeds, and therefore you look more active. Plus each person who asks a question can award best answer to one of the people who answer the question, people viewing your profile can see how many best answers you have, and once again it increases the perception of your expertise!
What to Answer?
You should click on the categories that you feel that you have some expertise in, in my case I choose to answer the sales and marketing questions, and will often also go into the small business category. These are the two areas where I want people to see me as an expert, hence why I answer the questions in those categories.
How to Answer?
Remember that your answer isn’t just seen by the person who asks the question, but also by other people who answer it, and potentially any of the 70 million people on LinkedIn. You need to make sure that you are putting your best foot forward and looking professional. Other users of LinkedIn are NOT stupid, so don’t write things such as “sorry can’t answer this one” as your answer, we know that you are just doing it to a) make it look like you have answered more questions and b) to show up as more active with the people you are connected to. This makes this person look like an idiot (and yes I have really seen people do this), if you have nothing of value to add you are better off keeping your mouth shut!
Ok, so you have have found a question you can answer, make sure that you are not just self promoting in your answer, if it is relevant then it’s fine, but you don’t need to put a link to your website with each answer, if people are interested in you they will check out your profile and get to your website from there. LinkedIn is all about adding value, helping others and sharing information by doing all this you ARE promoting yourself and your business, you don’t need to sell people onto your services. An example from a question I recently answered (which I won best answer for) – the question was around how you use YouTube for business, do you measure the traffic, what types of videos do you put up etc. I answered the question and put a link to the Social Rabbit YouTube channel – it was relevant, I was discussing it and by putting the link in there people could see what I was talking about.
There is not right and wrong as to how long your answer should be to a question, add as much as you feel you need to address the question.
Should I ask a Question?
Yes, if you want to know something. Sounds blindingly obvious, but don’t just ask something for the sake of asking a question, use the questions as a way to find out information, understand what people’s thoughts are on an idea, get help on a topic you are weak on, ask for case studies etc. By asking a question again you are putting your reputation in the spotlight, so don’t ask something dumb like “check out my great new product, would you want to buy it?” You can still ask this question, but rephrase it to “If you were looking to buy x product what would be the 3 key attributes you would look for in it?” Here I have turned it into a question that is going to get a much better response, it much less sales focused and you might get new ideas on how to position your product.
Your homework for today is to go and answer 5 questions, remember you don’t need to write war and peace, but instead try to add value. If you get a “best answer” come back and tell me!
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