Today’s topic is how to become a thought leader on LinkedIn. This is something I work with many of my mid- and upper-level clients on and I wanted to share some of that work with you in this episode.  Let’s start with the obvious: If you want to become a thought leader on LinkedIn, you need a complete, professional, and optimized profile. If this is something you want help with, reach out for a consult and I can give you the specifics of what I can do for you and the associated investment.   Why do I want to become a thought leader on LinkedIn?If you want to become a thought leader, LI is the place to do it. There are numerous reasons to make this a goal, including: -Increased visibility for your personal brand-To move up within your current organization-To increase awareness for potential employers -Increased visibility for your company and/or industry -Increased visibility for your profession -To showcase your side business   What should I be doing? Let’s start with some basics. These are the things I do every time I sit down at my computer for LI:  -Respond to your messages -Respond to connection requests -Begin cultivating relationships with those you’ve already connected with -Engage with posts/birthdays/anniversaries/new jobs in the Notifications section (5-word minimum)  Now that we’ve covered the bare minimum, let’s take things to the next level: -Original content (think of LI as your blog) -Sharing others’ content, with a question that will elicit engagement -Content in the Featured section of your profile – these can be videos, posts, newsletters, articles, links) -Join groups appropriate for your job function and/or industry and participate -If you are also trying to grow your audience, set a weekly goal for how many connection requests you will send out and who you want to connect with. Then CULTIVATE – don’t try to sell right away.  -Once you begin contributing, you may be asked to be a contributor to collaborative articles on LinkedIn. A lot of people have found me through these contributions. Here’s how it happens: “LinkedIn identifies members who are likely to be experts in a certain topic based on their work experience, skills proficiency, and prior engagement on the platform. They must also meet high trust and quality standards by adhering to LinkedIn’s User Agreement and Professional Community Policies, and their contributions must remain relevant, original, and additive.”  How much time will this take? The biggest pushback I get from clients is “this will take too much time.” I’m going to break this down into bite-sized chunks, all of which can be managed much like a buffet – take what you want and leave the rest. It’s not all-or-nothing here.  -Make this a priority, or it won’t happen-Calendar in time, along with the specific deliverables you want to achieve -I spend 15 minutes, twice a week, on the basics:           -Messages           -Requests           -Initial greetings           -Notifications -It was recently recommended to me that I might try spending 1 hour a day commenting on posts – this would be on LI as well as my other platforms. I don’t have that much time, but I plan to expand what I’m currently doing now.  -Original content will take additional time, of course – but you may have “recyclable” content you can use, at least to start with. Is there an article you’ve written that could be broken up into several posts? -You’ll need some artwork to help attract eyes to your posts. If you haven’t learned Canva yet, I recommend either doing so or soliciting help from someone who knows how to use it. You may be able to create a template for your posts that would then require a minimum of changes each time you use it – this would also help with branding.  -If you want more eyes on your thought leadership, you may also want to add to your connections/followers. My goal is 50 new connections per week – people who are in jobs and at the seniority level of my ideal client. This takes me about 1 hour/week