I’ve been on LinkedIn™ for a long time, and I always just watched. I never really started posting until probably three years ago.
As the Director of Operations at Epcon Franchising, the reason I chose LinkedIn™ over any other platform is because of business relationships. However, it wasn’t until recently I realized I wasn’t utilizing the platform to its fullest potential for those relationships.
One day, I was scrolling through LinkedIn™ and saw Melanie Borden and The Borden Group advertising a LinkedIn™ Bootcamp. I was like, “If I’m actually going to be doing this, I should probably learn how to do it because I still was not using it to its fullest advantage.”
My role connections me with so many different types of people, from home builders and home building experts to leadership development and event planning professionals. The only efficient way to stay connected with so many people and topics is by having an active LinkedIn™ presence.
So, I signed up and eventually joined the Human to Brand Community.
Since then, I have started going through the courses and added updates to my profile, but I know that there’s plenty more in there that I need to do.
The courses:
When I did the first few Branding courses, I noticed how much intention should go into each piece of content. From the colors to the fonts that you use, and how you use those fonts, the course breaks it down so you can see why better-end products have turned out better because all of those pieces have been more intentional. So, to get better-looking designs, you know if you follow these steps, you can get there the way others have, too.
Melanie has designed the course assignments so that you have to post the end product in the community. Honestly, if that weren’t part of the assignment, I would never post them. I would be a lurker and would not have posted anything unless it was like, “Now you have to go post this.”
So that part works!
What I learned so far:
Storytelling and having more personal posts.
Having a more thoughtful posting process than just presenting, here is something that happened, not really talking about why or how it happened. So, I learned to be more specific in writing something that someone will want to read.
The active community:
My favorite part of the community is the active comments that people provide. So, like when we’ve done the homework assignments, and post them, and then people give you feedback. The feedback is most helpful.
That’s probably the best part.
A lot of Dan Manning’s feedback has been helpful. He has been super active and commenting. And he even connected me with somebody based on a mutual, non-business interest!
It blew me away when Dan made that connection. I was like, literally, nobody has ever done that for me.
Since joining the Human to Brand Community, my LinkedIn™ is definitely growing. People have invited me to connect both inside and outside of my industry. I received very few connection requests before, so it’s definitely working.
It was very rare that people I would meet through work would then connect with me on LinkedIn™, so having a much more active inbox has been different. It also drives confidence to reach out to others much more proactively.
I will be using the end of this year to create a content calendar and plan my posts more strategically for the beginning of the year.
My role connections me with so many different types of people, from home builders and home building experts to leadership development and event planning professionals. The only efficient way to stay connected with so many people and topics is by having an active LinkedIn™ presence.
Want to learn more about this topic? Make sure to follow Rita Ramey on LinkedIn™.
