3 Tips to Crush LinkedIn as a Procurement Pro
How to use LinkedIn to Further Your Procurement Career
Hey Procurement Legend,
I’ll be honest, I’m taking a couple of weeks out at the moment to enjoy the last week of the school holiday before a trip to Dublin for a few days next week.
I’m working on the State of Procurement Tech for August, but this might have a slight delay…because I’m chilling 😂.
I’m also taking a break from LinkedIn. Man, that platform can be all-consuming, and part of me loathes the need to be there. I hope, over time, that the community we are building here will be far superior and more powerful for everyone involved than LinkedIn. However, part of me adores it, and I have some practical tips below for you to follow.
On that note, if you haven’t introduced yourself to the community, please do so here.
Last week, I climbed the 3 peaks. Didn’t quite manage it in the 24 hours (25:45), but I can safely say it was incredible amounts of fun, and I’d definitely climb each one again.
And whilst I was on a sleeper train to Fort William I was notified that the World of Procurement YouTube Channel hit 1000 subscribers. Thanks to any of you who have subscribed recently.
3 Insights for You on How to Use LinkedIn Properly.
I know I’m taking a break, but here’s what you can get from LinkedIn. New job offers, a kick-ass community of people who align (with critical thinking) to your ideas, invites to conferences, speaker opportunities, and more. In short, LinkedIn can be a way to make more money and create better opportunities for you.
I still see people making massive mistakes when it comes to utilising LinkedIn for any reason.
Here are three ideas I’d never ignore.
1 - Understand why you’re on there.
Is it leads for your consultancy business? Leads for your procurement tech company? Are you trying to become the big name in a certain area? Be super clear on this, and don’t deviate from this aim.
2 - Views are important, but not everything.
Seriously, I get posts that do anywhere from hundreds of views to hundreds of thousands of views. And typically, it is usually the lower viewed posts that get leads; the middle ground gets interested in my work here, on YouTube, or elsewhere, and then the big hitters do wonders for new followers.
I have a healthy LinkedIn viewership, but it’s not wild. However, you can see that I’ve greatly improved this year on viewership of my Procurement content. Consistency really is a superpower. I don’t care for the spikes, I aim to have 10k people see my content daily. On average, I’m pretty much there, although my extended break will impact that somewhat, but who cares?
One problem people have getting their content seen is that it is too busy.
It’s poorly formatted.
It’s asking more than one question.
It doesn’t take a position.
It puts all the work on the reader to decipher it.
It’s full of jargon.
It’s full of on-the-fence thinking that no one cares for.
It’s rushed and shows.
It tags a million people out of context.
And perhaps the worst thing is that it doesn’t align with why you’re on the platform in the first place. No one cares about GCSE results if you are on the platform to share Procurement advice of any kind. Stick to your niche here.
3 - Build a second brain always to have ideas following.
A lot of people struggle with ideas. I don’t. I can tap into my Notion Second Brain I’ve set up at any moment, anywhere in the world, and I have hundreds, probably thousands of ideas and points ready to craft into a LinkedIn post, a new newsletter like this, an article, a podcast topic, a conference speech and more.
Ideas are powerful. A system to store them and work on them is more powerful.