Understanding the basics

The people you find on LinkedIn will be different to the people you find on social media platforms, or at least they will have their work clothes on.  LinkedIn gives you the unique opportunity to connect with people that you cannot get to through other means.   For example: executives in larger companies, buyers for national chains, investors, and mentors.  All the people you might try to reach by phone or email and never get past the gatekeepers – your best shot at finding and connecting with them is on LinkedIn.  The more high-quality people you are connected to on LinkedIn, the more the network lets you connect with others.  If you have just joined LinkedIn then you are not going to have the option to connect with the head buyer at Sainsbury’s unless they send you a request first.  But you can work your way up.  First connect with other people in the same company, connect with people who are already linked to the head buyer and people at a similar seniority in other organisations and soon the option to connect direct, and exchange messages, will become available.

You will also find that people you cannot get to respond on other platforms do respond on LinkedIn.  This might be because the vast majority of comments and messages they get through social media is from fans and the general public, or perhaps their Instagram page is actually run by an assistant.  Whereas on LinkedIn, most people use the platform personally – the person that gets the alert that you liked their post is usually the person in the profile picture.

LinkedIn has recently embraced hashtags like Twitter and Instagram, meaning that your posts can be discovered by a far wider audience than just those people you are connected with.  I just searched for posts tagged with #plantbased as I was writing this, and stumbled upon a conversation someone was having in the comments section of a post with the CEO of one of the UK’s largest food producers.  Just like walking into the coffee room at a business conference.  If you’re not there, then these conversations are still happening but just without you.  Like social media platforms, I’m not going to describe what buttons to press and what links to click on (again, go find a good tutorial) but there are some essential basic starting points when first setting up your profile.

First, make sure that your profile is visible on LinkedIn, but not annoyingly so.  Make sure that your profile’s public visibility is set to on (a rookie mistake!) but that sharing changes to your profile is set to off – unless you want your connections being notified every time you update your description.  After this, make sure you have a good clear profile photo.  You might be about to digitally shake hands with your dream contact, so that photo of you and your mates in Ibiza probably isn’t going to give a good first impression.  That said, because of this wonderful vegan sector we work in it’s OK to have a bit of personality in your photo – even preferable.  We’re not accountants (or if you are, you’re a VEGAN accountant) so pick something that stands out for the right reasons – eg because it has bright colours or you are using a prop.  And before you jump into those water-cooler conversations with these movers and shakers, make sure you complete your profile in full first.  When you initially encounter someone new on LinkedIn, you see their photo, their name and a headline.  Some people use this headline to show their job title but others describe exactly what it is they do and why you should talk to them.  After someone has read this headline, the next thing they do is click on your profile to read more about you, which is why you want to make sure you have completed it in full first.