Blitzing Our LinkedIn Presence with a Collaborative Project

I was feeling some self-imposed pressure recently because I knew I should be doing more with my LinkedIn presence and engagement – at which I’m supposed to be a bit of an expert – but it seemed other things kept getting in the way.

“Aha!” sez I to myself “What if I committed to a range of specific,daily actions on LinkedIn for a 30 day period?”

Then I thought how much more interesting that would be if I found a few colleagues who were also in that “I really must do something about my LinkedIn activity” mode and we could support one another?

That sounded like a plan.

An inchoate, not very much thought-through kind of plan, but a plan nevertheless.

Thus was born the 30 Day Linking Blitz and a corresponding LinkedIn Group.

The aim of the project would be for each of the participants to:

• amplify our social presence
• enhance our network reach and level of influence
• improve our network engagement
• be more readily findable, for the products and/or services we offer

So what would be a likely number, I wondered, of people who would be prepared to make the commitment and join me.

10? Maybe.

20? A bit of a stretch. People are busy etc etc.

So I launched on Sunday last, first with a message to my direct connections on LinkedIn.

It’s taken off!

As of this writing, there are 193 members of the LinkedIn Group and I expect a few more before the start date for the project, Monday November 5. I’m running to keep up!

What are we committing to?

Each of us is committing to spending a minimum 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week on:

a) some general tasks, including optimizing our Professional Profile on LinkedIn and setting up or expanding a Company Page on the platform

b) specific daily tasks, from a smorgasbord of activities including regular updates, making connections and interacting on LinkedIn Groups.

We also have some well-defined group rules to ensure we can all focus on our project and not be distracted by spammers.

It’s a members-only group, but any member of LinkedIn can apply, up until November 5 – although that may change if the group decides to have a cut-off number of members. Twitter hashtag is #30dlb

On this coming Tuesday November 6, I’ll be presenting a webinar on the 30 Day Linking Blitz, with Jonathan Senior of Sharp End Training. The times work better for Europe and Australia and region, but there will be a recording available to those who register but can’t manage the time for the live event.

In that webinar I’ll be explaining how, even if you have not signed up for the project, you can take practical steps, perhaps with a few friends or colleagues, to boost your own LinkedIn presence and effectiveness.

If you can’t manage the November commitment, never fear. I’m committed to doing this again in the new year and have set up a system where you can register your interest (form is at the bottom of the page), be kept in the loop and have an early alert when we are ready to roll with next iteration.

(UPDATE November 6, 2012: membership of the 30 Day Linking Blitz project and LinkedIn Group is now closed for this round. People who missed out or could not commit the time at this stage are already registering interest for the next round, which I plan to run early in the New Year. If you want to be kept in the information loop about that, just provide your name and email address in the form at the end of the 30 Day Linking Blitz page.)

LinkedIn is becoming increasingly a key element of social media strategy for individual professionals and for firms. What are you doing to get better value from your LinkedIn membership?

Des Walsh

Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.