Time to Read: 2 Minutes. “How much time do I need to devote to LinkedIn per day?” Stop. Behind this question is a lie that is preventing your success. LinkedIn is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It is a better, faster way to get hired or create a sale—not something to react to, feel compelled to start using out of fear or lack. LinkedIn is making a difference to your competitors because they see time as being abundant. They see LinkedIn as a time-saver, not a time suck. And you can too.
“How much time do I need to devote to LinkedIn per day?” is a valid question. But when you ask it you’re invested in lack—what you do not have. Time. But you do have time to invest in saving time, right? That’s what LinkedIn is, after all. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s start by changing your question to…
“How can I determine what LinkedIn’s purpose is for me, how I can best use it to achieve that goal in shorter time?”
See the difference? What if your purpose was to find a faster way to net a sales lead—rather than seeking out a silver bullet amount of time? What if your purpose was to meet the right prospect and pitch them in less time, get hired faster, have your manuscript discovered by a publisher sooner, speed up the conversion to sale process… whatever. This is how I approach it in running my publishing and professional speaking business.
I don’t read trendy “_________ (insert social media platform) An Hour A Day” books. I approach social media with a focus on abundance, not lack. I have all the time in the world to save time! This way the time question works itself out effortlessly.
Put as much time into LinkedIn as is needed to complete the task and generate a better outcome. Period.
For instance, I’m constantly targeting people within a company based on current position, experience background. I’m finding faster ways to increase the relevancy of my entire sales approach by monitoring what my targets are saying or asking for in discussions in groups or on Twitter. I combine this with tools like JigSaw.com (securing contact information) and Google (getting around LinkedIn’s paywall). I invest as much time as I need to achieve my goal.
“It all goes back to attaching value to the time you spend on LinkedIn,” says J.D. Gershbein, one of the top LinkedIn strategists in the world and a pioneer in LinkedIn educational programs.
“Once that trade-off leads to a positive outcome—however that is defined—it makes the difficult pill of logging the minutes or hours easier to swallow.”
Take the stance that LinkedIn ROI is qualitative—that results can be traced to activity, as opposed to actual time on the site—and you have a nice framework within which to work.
Photo credit: Jason A. Samfield
