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Sports and LinkedIn: Must be Participatory to Win

There my daughter stood. Standing there with a beautiful Colorado background and a large smile on her face, holding a daisy in her hand. A majestic picture that every parents would like to capture to savor on their office wall to admire as she grew older and less kid-like. It would have been, if it wasn’t during the middle of an organized soccer game where she was tasked with being the final defender. This was a true story of my daughter 27 years ago, who is now 32 and is a thriving nurse with a great career.

Playing sports, much like many things in life and in business are the same. Being “present” to win may be good enough in lotteries and auctions, but in business and sports, being “participatory” is even more important.

“Being participatory is even more important”

Just like kids’ sports, having a solid plan on how you are going to engage in business is critical. One of the most important and effective tools of our generation is the use of LinkedIn as a professional networking and connection mechanism. However, being present on LinkedIn will not be enough. You will have to practice and instill in your employee’s engagement tactics to become an influencer with clients, prospects and centers of influence that will help drive your business.

Because the platform has become so dynamic and user-friendly, there are some very simple steps you can take to become more participatory on LinkedIn. Here are a few to get you started:

Make sure your company has a strong LinkedIn profile page. Your employees will want to be able to connect their experience to your page. If you see an employee that shows their employer and the employer has the default LinkedIn blue box, your employees will be less likely to follow and present content that the company creates.

Create content on a regular basis to remain relevant and gain followers. Very few of us wake up on a daily basis and say “I wonder what Acme company is doing today, let me look at their LinkedIn page”. We scroll effortlessly through our social media streams and see what other connections and companies are presenting to us. Having content on your LinkedIn page reminds your clients and prospects you are still there and what you are in business to do.

Actively connect with other people and companies that will promote your page. Creating strong relationships with companies and entities that are complimentary to your business is good practice and may result in increased exposure for your company. For example, a wealth company following the NYSE and NASDAQ is good practice. The company can follow and like content from these entities, giving their followers more information without having to follow the entities themselves. And, if your company likes enough content, at some point the NYSE and NASDAQ may like one of your pieces of content, exposing you to their 305,000 and 480,000 followers, respectively.

Encourage your employees to connect with others in their network. The platform was initially built with the sole purpose of connecting individuals that otherwise may not have been able to connect (in person or digitally). Becoming more intentional about who your employees connect with and how they engage will be an important part of your companies future success.

We all like to daisies and most of us like LinkedIn. Being strategically mindful of how, when and where we are present and participatory will result in a lot more business, and hopefully a lot less soccer goals being scored on us.

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