Many introverted leaders are observers on LinkedIn, rather than active partakers. And this is fine if that is what you want to do, but you could be missing a trick. LinkedIn is a powerful platform for leaders who want to raise their visibility and profile both within their organisation and beyond. It is a tool you can use to enhance your leadership presence and improve your influence and impact.
Last Autumn LinkedIn introduced LinkedIn Stories here in the UK and LinkedIn stories could be a great way to raise your visibility and be seen, be heard, and stand out.
You may be feeling a bit sceptical about using LinkedIn stories, and wondering what benefits you could possibly get from it. When I first heard that LinkedIn was introducing the stories feature, I was a bit apprehensive. I am not much one for Instagram and Facebook stories and thought LinkedIn would probably be the same. However, having given it a try myself, I can see ways I can be creative with it and will continue to give it a go.
The way people communicate and consume information is constantly changing, and the use of social media stories is increasing. They are particularly popular with Gen Z and millennials.
Stories give insight to the person or brand telling the story, helping people to connect emotionally with them. They give an overview of what is happening at that moment in time and are gone after 24 hours.
LinkedIn Stories enable members and organizations to share images and short videos of their everyday professional moments.
Sharing Stories is an easy way to share your experiences and insights, and to build meaningful relationships with your professional community. - LinkedIn
If you are wondering how you can utilise LinkedIn Stories to enhance your leadership presence, here are 4 suggestions: -
A look behind the scenes
A photo or video clip giving people insight as to what goes on behind the scenes for you will help to give them a better understanding of you and what you do. It also helps with employee engagement.
This could be before going into a meeting with a comment about what the meeting is about. Or it could be after a meeting and you share something good that came out of it. An example of how I have shared a behind the scenes story is short video clips of me writing this article.
Giving people insight as to what goes on behind the scenes enables them to see a part of your work they might not ordinarily get to see.
Promote your thought leadership
If you have written an article that has been published, or even if you have published an article on LinkedIn, you can promote it in your stories. Do a post with the link to the article, and later take a snapshot of the article and share it in your story with a comment that the link is in your profile.
Below is an example of one that I did.
Share snapshots from your company’s LinkedIn page, or where people have commented on articles or posts, take a snapshot of a comment that stands out and share it in your story.
Give a glimpse of the real you
Leaders need to be relational. In the current climate, this is probably more important now than ever before. Letting people see something personal about you helps you to appear more relational.
I once had a colleague who could be quite cold and impersonal. She never talked about her personal life and people found it hard to connect with her.
One day when she was on annual leave, she had to come into the office for something, and she brought her 2 year old granddaughter with her. I didn’t even know she had children let alone grandchildren. The way she doted on this little girl you could see the love they had for each other. This shifted my perspective of her, and I saw a warm, caring woman. This helped me to connect with her and it changed our relationship.
Giving a glimpse of the real you doesn’t mean you have to put all your personal business out there for the world to see. But occasionally let people see who you are when you are not at work.
Share your thoughts
Whether it is your perspective about what is going on in your industry, something that has been in the media, or changes that your organisation is going through, share your thoughts as a story. You can use stories to offer tips and advice, to start a conversation on a topic of interest, or to ask questions and engage a discussion.
Given that in just 3 years of introducing stories, Instagram had over 500 million daily users using the feature, it is likely that the use of stories across all social media platforms will continue to grow. So why not embrace it and give it a try. The good thing is, if you decide you don’t like what you have posted, it will disappear after 24 hours.
What are your thoughts about LinkedIn stories? Is it something you will try, or do you think it should be left to the likes of Instagram and Facebook? Please share below and let me know.
First published on LinkedIn.
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