Connection is Currency: How to Build Trust on LinkedIn
Linkedin is useful in many ways - for finding jobs, staying in touch with colleagues, keeping up with industry trends, and building a personal brand. LinkedIn can also be an incredible resource for building professional relationships. This is good news because, according to LinkedIn, 83% of CMOs reported they are likely to hire this year and 9 in 10 said that building relationships is important to success.
Just like with any relationship, trust is central.
In this article, we’ll explore the building blocks of trust and how to apply them to improve our efforts on LinkedIn.
The Building Blocks of Trust
According to TED speaker and Harvard Business School professor, Frances Frei, “trusting relationships are built based on time spent together where three elements are present and exchanged: Empathy, Authenticity and Logic. Notice that Frei first emphasizes time spent together. Since we’re applying trust-building to our LinkedIn relationships, we’ll want to include Consistency as a factor. Here are some key definitions to get us started:
Empathy - Ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
Authenticity - The courage to share honestly and be yourself.
Logic - The offering up of valuable insights.
Consistency - Showing up often enough for people to get to know you.
Roadblocks to Trust on LinkedIn
Before we explore ways to use LinkedIn to express empathy, authenticity, logic and consistency, let’s consider what types of activities can impede trust. As a platform, LinkedIn allows for some practices that, if pursued, can be detrimental to your reputation, both on and off the channel. Things like:
Spamming other people’s inboxes
Using AI to automate your posts and comments
Coming from a negative and argumentative perspective
Not crediting sources or passing others’ insights off as your own
Being dishonest in your profile and communications
Each of these diminishes trust. Why would someone value you as a connection or consider you as someone they might want to work with, if for example, you’re being dishonest?
It’s a mistake to use LinkedIn simply to rack up connections and likes, indiscriminate of the impact on the people you are connecting with. Instead, we must be intentional about who we connect with, how we support other professionals and what we share.
Take it from Billy Dexter and Melissa G. Wilson, authors of ‘Making Your Net Work: The Art and Science of Career and Business Networking:’ “People do business with those they feel good about and are connected with. Being a connector is currency in the business world. While networking is reciprocal, being a connector is selfless and can lead to opportunities.”
Having covered some of the worst practices on LinkedIn, let’s turn our attention to some best practices for building Trust on LinkedIn:
Trust Factor #1: Empathy
In her bestselling book, Writing a Must-Read, editor and publishing strategist, AJ Harper points out that the best way to approach writing is to “write for someone, not about something.”
When you are empathetic in your posting, you first take time to listen and understand your audience, then show them that you care about their challenges —you’re not preaching, but helping because you see their challenge as something you can relate to. Outside of your own updates, this applies most strongly to the comments you leave on others’ posts.
According to research by Richard Bliss of BlissPoint Consulting, the reach of any LinkedIn post is determined by a number of factors, the greatest of which is how many comments are made in response to a post. “LinkedIn’s goal is for professionals to spend time having conversations on the platform, therefore comments are highly rewarded.” In fact, comments have greater reach on LinkedIn than posts. While posts can be shown to up to 10% of our connections, our comments are shown to nearly all of our connections plus those individuals participating in the discussion and their connections.
This is an opportunity to display empathy and align with others in a way that draws more people to view your profile and content.
Trust Factor #2: Authenticity
Sharing yourself and your values in the form of personal stories, photos, and videos is helpful and allows your audience to get to know you and feel more connected. In her bestselling book, 'Conversations that Connect,' Brooke Sellas reminds us that "We fail to connect in part because we communicate in cliches and facts versus feelings and opinions." The point is that bonds are based in the unique, emotional, human parts of us.
But, a word of caution. There is a balance to be struck here. When some hear the term “authenticity”, they take it as a license to share their deepest insecurities, fears and negative emotions with the world. That is not necessarily what LinkedIn is for. LinkedIn is a professional network. Just as it’s important to bring your best self to work, that is also how you should approach LinkedIn. As a general rule, consider what information would be appropriate to share with friends and colleagues in a work setting.
Trust Factor #3: Logic
As an experienced professional, you likely have insights and stories to share that can help others. Offer up your unique contribution and what can edify your audience. These can be expressed through:
Insightful Posts and Comments
Instructive Images, Videos and .PDFs
Professional Recommendations
Thoughtful Surveys
Carefully Crafted Articles and Newsletters
It’s clear from recent studies, like Ed Keller’s research on influence, that we seek answers from credible people with specific expertise. Our friends, family, peers and online Creators (including those on LinkedIn) are more trusted today than brands, advertising, politicians and the press.
As a founder, turned 18-year marketing leader for emerging B2B brands, I have specific insight on how to succeed in high-pressure startup environments where you are faced with little time and fewer resources. Offering up my experience in the form of newsletter articles and posts like the one I wrote entitled, ‘Extreme Marketing: Setting the Stage for Imminent Growth’ is a natural way for me to share knowledge with other marketing leaders and founders who find themselves in a similar situation.
Trust Factor #4: Consistency
The LinkedIn feed does exactly what it is supposed to do—feed us an endless stream of information. As with any social media platform, your presence can easily be forgotten and your reach reduced if you fail to post consistently. By showing up for your audience on a regular basis, you add value to their lives and prove your reliability.
Your consistency is expressed through daily (or at least 3x per week) posts, newsletters that follow a specific cadence, and showing up in the comments of others’ posts. Best selling author of ‘KNOWN’ and Personal Branding expert, Mark Schaefer recommends that anyone looking to build a Personal Brand be prepared to publish consistently for at least 18 months so they can evaluate whether or not their approach is working.
Of course, we’re all busy, so posting on LinkedIn regularly is sometimes difficult. In this case, there is an option to utilize LinkedIn’s “Schedule for Later” feature on days when you don’t have the time to craft a thoughtful post. However, you’ll want to be careful when utilizing this feature. Remember that LinkedIn is a conversation platform, so being present on the channel at the time your post goes live is essential to connecting and encouraging conversation.
Finally, LinkedIn offers an easy way to set up and publish weekly (or daily, monthly, etc.) newsletters that are then emailed out to all of your subscribers. This is a great tool for developing your ideas and building consistency with your audience. My own newsletter, Business with Humans, which you are reading now is published weekly.
In Conclusion
My efforts on LinkedIn are a labor of love. I value your trust and so painstakenly craft every message in the hopes that it will resonate with you. It is my intention that you find this and my previous contributions to be authentic, empathetic, consistent, and competent.