How to Engage with Relevant LinkedIn Content

Anyone using social media cannot deny the power of a simple ‘like’ on a post. Many of us log in multiple times a day just to check the number of likes on our recently uploaded post. This is pretty much true for any social media platform, including LinkedIn. Since employers lookout for potential candidates on LinkedIn, job seekers use it to create content, build an online presence, and develop relationships with potential employers, strengthening their candidature for target jobs.   Thus, any kind of engagement on their posts reflects the support and is beneficial to them. In this article, let’s look at why engagement with LinkedIn content is important for job seekers and how it can help them.

Why should you engage with LinkedIn content? 

LinkedIn is considered to be a great platform to develop professional relationships.  However, building relationships does not happen overnight. It requires consistency, effort, and dedication. This is where content comes into play. Content creation on LinkedIn is considered one of the most efficient ways to build strong relationships with your target audience.

For instance, if you are a job seeker looking for a role in the marketing industry, you could engage with content posted by marketing professionals and experts. It will allow you to connect with the author and develop a relationship with them, helping you in the long run. Additionally, you will also get a chance to outshine the competition by demonstrating your marketing knowledge. In fact, this will also increase the chances of recruiters and hiring managers spotting you.

Engaging with the right LinkedIn content

Identifying relevant content is essential for engagement. It is aligned with your target industry, role, and interests. In this section, let’s see how you can identify the right content to engage with.

1) Engaging with the target audience’s content

As a job seeker, it is essential to engage with the content posted by key people who can support your job search. This could include recruiters, hiring managers, industry experts, and professionals working in your target company. You can simply use the LinkedIn search option to look for them. Continuous engagement with their content helps them remember you and create a good first impression when you reach out to them. If you already have some of these people added to your network, make sure to engage with their content on a regular basis. Since you are a part of their network, it will be easier for you to develop a rapport with them.

Another great way of finding relevant people is by exploring your target professional’s network and identifying people who have the same interests as you. An optimal way of doing this is by checking out the people who engage with posts related to your industry. For instance, if you follow a content writing specialist who posts regularly on LinkedIn, check out the people who engage with their content. You will find that a large number of these people are working in the content industry. Explore their profiles, follow the ones that align with your interests, and start engaging with their content regularly. This will gradually develop your relationship with them. It will also help you in building your personal brand and creating a strong network in the long run.

2) Engaging with relevant topic content

Another great way is to directly look for content on LinkedIn. You can do this by using relevant hashtags and keywords. For example, if you are looking for a job in the content marketing industry, you should look for content marketing posts and articles. This will also connect you with additional people who can support your job hunt. To do this, you can search for content marketing or #contentmarketing. These two will give you completely different results, exposing you to different kinds of content and people. Let’s see each in detail below.

a) Content marketing

Once you search for content marketing, choose the ‘post’ or ‘people’ tab (as shown below) to see all related content and people.

After choosing one of the tabs, you can set more filters to view the content that suits your needs best. You can sort by date of posting, industry, and company among others. If you choose people, you will have the option to use filters like connection type, location, and company to identify professionals.

b) #contentmarketing

If you type #contentmarketing, it will take you to a page with all the posts and articles that have #contentmarketing added as a tag. Hence, narrowing down the content for you. Moreover, it will give you an option to follow the hashtag (as shown below). This will ensure that you are kept up-to-date with all content posted with the hashtag content marketing.

Furthermore, you can explore more content and related hashtags to follow by choosing the ‘Discover new hashtags’ option (as shown below). When you click on this option, you will be able to view different people, pages, and companies recommended to you based on your interests.

How to engage with relevant content effectively?

Different ways of engaging with content on LinkedIn include liking, sharing, and commenting. While liking a post is the easiest way to engage, commenting and sharing can take you a long way in developing key relationships to support your job search. Let’s have a look at how you can engage with relevant content effectively.

a) Reacting to content

Reacting to content is probably the easiest way to engage with someone’s post. In the past, LinkedIn only offered the ‘like’ button to react to posts. However, due to the demand to ‘express more’, it launched new reactions in 2019. These include Like, Celebrate, Support, Love, Insightful, and Curious (as shown below).

According to LinkedIn, celebrate is to celebrate an announcement, congratulate, or praise someone for an accomplishment. Support demonstrates empathy, so empathizing with someone going through a challenging phase, say adjusting to parenthood while being employed in a full-time job. Love shows affection, demonstrating the post resonates with you. Insightful expresses the appreciation towards a new idea or helpful insights. Lastly, curiosity reflects the intriguing feeling of learning more about something.

However, reacting to a post is not enough to develop long-lasting relationships. While this could be the first stage, it should be followed by commenting or sharing. This is what will help people remember you. So let’s see in the next part how you can do that.

b) Commenting on content

One of the best ways to gain your target audience’s attention is by commenting on their posts. This shows interest, effort, and knowledge. However, it is essential to add valuable comments rather than posting generalized stuff like “I agree”, “Well said”, or “This makes sense”. Some ideas to help you write effective comments are:

• Talk more about the topic or sub-topics mentioned in the post.
• Mention some tips and tricks or best practices related to the topic.
• Add links to external studies or articles.
• Ask a question.
• Add a personal experience.
• Offer constructive feedback.

Some tips to keep in mind while posting comments are:

• Tag the author and other relevant people to gain visibility.
• Avoid grammatical errors; run it through Grammarly if you are unsure.
• Don’t insult or criticize; mention your thoughts in a polite manner.
• Don’t sell or promote your business.

c) Curating and sharing content

Curating and sharing your target audience’s content is a great way to engage and develop a relationship with them. However, you should make sure you only share relevant content from your profile. Remember, you have a network too and nobody likes spam. So share a post only when you are genuinely interested in it and believe it will add value to your network. You can curate content based on your interests and then share it with your network.  This can be done by searching for relevant posts, organizing content, adding your viewpoints, and then sharing it on social media. It will demonstrate a genuine interest in their content, helping you build a rapport. Some tips to help you are:

• Let your audience know what you think by adding a caption to the post. Don’t share posts without captions.
• Add relevant hashtags to your post to enhance its reach and visibility.
• If you can’t think of adding any relevant caption, quote a line or two from the actual piece. Don’t forget to put it in quotation marks!
• Tag the author and other relevant people. 
• Let the audience know that you are open to a discussion by adding a call to action, like “What do you think” or “Do you agree”.

Engaging with content on LinkedIn is a great way to build a personal brand and develop relationships. However, if you are new to this, it may take some time for you to gain confidence. We suggest going through the above tips and tricks to engage effectively with LinkedIn content. The more you practice, the better you will get. If you need any support with LinkedIn content and engagement, feel free to reach out to us.