Is LinkedIn Good for Freelancers?
This question came in for the livestream and it's a good one! How can freelance writers use LinkedIn effectively, and what are the most effective uses for the platform? What posts should you comment on and how should you use your likes? Who should you follow and who should you connect to? Who are the people to reach out to for work? And what the heck is going on with hashtags?
Because there are A TON of uses for LinkedIn and several best practices for freelance writers to follow to grow their network, get clients, and monitor potential clients, this week's topic is going over all the good stuff about LinkedIn for freelance writers.
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Is LinkedIn Good for Freelancers?
is LinkedIn good for freelancers and more specifically Lance writers. That's what we're talking about today. And if you know anything, if you've hung out on this live stream before, you know, I am a big, big fan of LinkedIn. So we are gonna talk about all the good stuff about LinkedIn today. And this anonymous question came in.
So thank you so much for submitting this question. And if you ever have a question like this, like this is one of those topics. We have a lot of topics, um, on my channel about, uh, things that you like, people in the community or people who subscribe have asked for. So if you ever have a question or. Um, a topic that you want me to cover, go to mandela.com/question.
And you can be like this person who submitted their question anonymously, or you can have your name on it, whatever you like. Uh, but if you ever have a topic or something that you want me to answer, or like a question, like I have another set of questions that someone asks that I'm gonna do, um, in a little bit, you can go to Mandela dot com's slash question and submit it.
So let's talk about is LinkedIn good for freelancers and more specifically, Lance? so there are lots of different ways to use LinkedIn. I have talked about it before, like how to set up your profile, like how to, um, answer specific questions to put in your LinkedIn about sections and then also your experience sections.
So I link to those videos below this one. Um, and I also talk a lot about InMails. Like one of the things that, um, My freelance writer, wealth lab students go through in my course is how to effectively do like use LinkedIn, not only as creating your profile, but how to do marketing on LinkedIn, how to find prospects, uh, how to find potential clients, right.
Prospects. Uh, how to send their emails, how to grow their networks, smart places to find different groups, all this different stuff that you can do on LinkedIn. And I'm just kind of doing like a little taster, basically like a tasting menu today of things about LinkedIn to answer this question, but, um, the in depth part of LinkedIn is that yes, it's super, super good, super, super amazing for freelancers, especially Lance writers.
It's a wonderful way to grow your network. Get referrals, make friends like other freelance. To find potential clients to find details about clients, to do your Lois, your letters of introduction, uh, to put up all of your stuff on LinkedIn, your clips, your experience. And it it's really a wonderful place where it's like business focus.
It's not like Instagram where you're like, how do I do a real and how do I figure this out? And there's so many people on here it's way different than Facebook. It's way different than TikTok. It's way different than all the other platforms. It's very business focused. I have found that it has been a huge strength of my freelance writing business.
1) How Can Freelance Writers Use LinkedIn Effectively, and What are the Most Effective Uses for LinkedIn’s Platform?
So the first thing that we're gonna talk about, and this is number one, so super important. Hold on. Do do, do do. There we go. Let's put the number one up. So number one, number one here is how can we actually use it effectively? So this person who submitted this question actually submitted multiple different questions in here that all pertain to LinkedIn.
So we're gonna go through those one by. How can freelance writers use LinkedIn effectively and what are the most effective uses of the platform? So here's the deal. LinkedIn is really good for marketing. It's really good for growing your network. It's really good for referrals. It's really good for making friends.
It's really good for getting into different groups. It's really good for following people like companies that aren't ready to hire you yet because they don't have the right money. Um, like that a startup doesn't have that, you know, three to 10 million that you wanna see, or a regular company doesn't have five to 50 million, or they don't have a, the right number of employees or whatever it is, it's good to follow them.
So you can kind of track their progress and be ready to reach out. It's really good for, um, doing all your marketing activities. Like there's, when I talk about marketing, it's not just straight sending those cold Lois, those letters of introduction. It's also about growing your network. It's also about learning what your potential clients need, right?
What types of services they need, what types of content right in there. Um, it's about learning how they function, what are their pain points? What are the things that they really struggle with? It's really creating this nice ecosystem for your marketing pipeline and for your learning. So there's a lot of different ways that we can use it.
I also recommend students go in and follow, like when they follow people to comment and like on their posts. Like I do that. Um, I think it's really useful to kind of stay front of mind, but also you learn a lot about people about what they post, right? You learn a lot about, um, how their business is doing and whether they're not, they got funding, um, or how they're supporting other businesses or what they talk about with their current content.
Sometimes people make a lot of content and they're just not ready to ramp up yet. And by following them and liking and commenting, you get a lot of data and information from that and you kind of stay in their sphere. Like they start to get to know you. Um, and they, they get to a feel for like, basically your vibe about how you comment and stuff.
And you wanna use thoughtful comments. Don't just be like, I like this. You wanna actually say something to add to the conversation. That's really important. Hey, Getty. Welcome in. That's really important. You wanna add to the conversation? So as you're kind of going through LinkedIn, you might be sending your, um, your Lois, your letters of introduction.
You might be sending those out. And I like to send those through InMails and the, in the, um, the InMail, the LinkedIn premium plan that I have right now. Hey, Getty, before I forget Getty, I hope your concert went well. I know you had a concert a little while ago, so I hope it went well. I hope it was super fun, like a coral concert.
so, as you're kind of going through this, I like my LinkedIn premium plan is like one of the old, old lady plans. I have like 15 InMails a month and it's like, uh, business pro or I don't know, it's some kind of old lady plan, but I now recommend that people get LinkedIn, uh, sales navigator, cuz they've changed it a ton and a bunch of my students, my freelance writer, wealth lab students have.
Um, and it is just the best for marketing, for following people, for making lists of companies to reach out, to, to find revenue, to find what they're posting, to figure out how their company's doing to figure out the right person to contact LinkedIn sales navigator right now is, um, 99 bucks a month. So it's a little pricey, right?
It's about 1200 bucks a year. Uh, you can do annual to save money. When I was starting out, I couldn't even afford LinkedIn premium at any rate, even if it was like five bucks a month. Well, probably five bucks a month, but it's not the plan that I have that gives me 15 InMails a month is 15 bucks a or, um, $65 a month.
Um, so I always recommend to get sales navigator. If you can afford that extra a hundred bucks a month, if you can't, you at least need some form of LinkedIn. I think they have a, um, I forget what it's called, but some of my students have the smaller plan that I think is $35 a. And it gives you five emails, but that at least allows you to search through companies and see like search by title and search by a whole bunch of things, which you really need.
They have cut down a lot of the LinkedIn free, uh, features over the years. So I think at least at the very minimum, having a paid LinkedIn plan is really important if you can afford it. Uh, oh, I know. I know he's wiggling. He's all, he's getting wiggly over there. He's moving around. Uh, he's disturbed the blanket taco.
Barry Barry, you disturbed the blanket taco. She's all upset now. So having that LinkedIn premium plan really helps. It helps you send more emails. When you have that, uh, sales navigator, you get 50 InMails a month. And I usually recommend that you send 50 to 75 Lois a month. So that InMail is perfect for that.
Um, when you run out emails, all you do is move to email, but we're talking about LinkedIn. So I think the value of the 50 emails a month with sales navigator at a hundred bucks a month. Crazy. Oh, now you wanna take her bed. So I definitely recommend that LinkedIn is good for so many different things.
InMails is just like my favorite feature. And I think being able to search through companies or being able to, I know peanut, I know he kicked you out. Um, being able to search through companies by title, being able to do a bunch of different stuff through sales navigator is really helpful. Um, and being able to see the analytics.
So when you go to company pages, when you have LinkedIn premium, you can see, are they hiring or are they firing? Have they been getting more money over time? How have things been going for them? Uh, what types of titles have they been hiring for? There's a lot of really, really, uh, data rich stuff in those company pages that you only get to see when you have LinkedIn premium.
So all of that stuff is really important. I know. Woo. Can you go back to your Haba hole and I'll wrap you up in your blankie. All right. Ready? There we go. All right, let's wrap you up now. You look like a beautiful taco Perry. Why don't you lay down? And you could be a beautiful taco. Here you go. Lay down, buddy.
He's like, I want something, Marie. Are you welcome in here? Go.
All right. Why don't you lay down? Be lay down Mary. So that's really important. So when you're kind of effectively using LinkedIn, you're doing a lot of different activities here. So beyond the InMails and LinkedIn premium and beyond, um, you know, sussing out company data information like revenue or titles of people there, or how the company is growing, um, you also wanna make sure that you are.
Growing your network with smart choices. So like that's other writers, other Lance writers or other freelancers, like, let's say you're a graphic designer. You would wanna connect with other graphic designers because that really helps you, um, make more friends, which is really nice for support when things are tough or to celebrate with, but it also helps you learn.
Greetings it also helps you learn what kinds of companies they're working for and what types of things maybe you wanna do based on their activity. It's a lot of learning opportunities. Uh, they can also refer work to you or they can connect you with other people. That's really important. Um, and I always like to think of LinkedIn as like there's outbound and inbound there.
So you outbound with your Lois and your InMails. Um, and then you inbound with like your profile. And all the good stuff on there. And then you can also outbound with comments and with likes and following companies, and you can inbound by people like referring work to you. So I feel like that kind of really nice ecosystem is, is wonderful for LinkedIn.
So that's the first thing we're going over. And then the next thing that we're gonna do, so number two, and now that I got them settled, we'll do, we'll like do this later, but I finally got them to lay down, settle down, but I can never get them both on camera. They never both like, they, they both wanna be like awkwardly off camera all the time.
2) What LinkedIn Posts Should You Comment on and How Should You Use Your Likes?
Um so here's the deal. Number two that we're gonna talk about is what posts should you comment on and how should you use your like, And then that also connects with who should you follow and who should you connect to? Right. So the post that you should comment on, that's second tier effort to who should you follow and who should you connect to?
So there's a difference between following and connecting. There are people who want to be thought leaders, so you can turn on creator mode in LinkedIn. And basically what creator mode does is it shows your follower count and it shows the topics that you talk about and it makes it more Instagramy ish.
So. Uh, you're more of like trying to get a thought lead, like trying to become someone of, of thought leadership value rather than growing a network of clients like reaching out to you. So the people that I follow are always like people that I care about in the business world who give me a lot of business ideas, I follow potential clients.
I follow people who are leading the industries, like my different industries that I work in my different niche. Um, I follow like people that, uh, won't let me like that won't allow you to connect with them, but they PR bring up a lot of important points. That's who I would follow and who I'd connect to is like, um, anyone who I feel like.
Is a freelance writer. I wanna, you know, learn more about them or be in their network or build relationships with them. Or I would connect to companies who aren't ready yet. So let's say that there's a founder or a Mar marketing person at a startup or some kind of company that I'm interested in. They just don't have the money yet.
Or they just don't have. Like I'm looking at their stuff and they're just not ready for content strategy or content marketing efforts. So I will connect with them and just, you know, be a freelance writer in their network for a long time. And then like, if I see them get funding or I see some kind of change in their content or they hire someone, then I will reach out.
Um, and I feel like those connections and being in their network is, uh, similar to following. But following a lot of time is reserved for like the Sarah Blakelys or like. Simon CX or, um, the big, bigger people in, you know, in LinkedIn who would definitely wanna have followings of millions of people. Like a lot of times startup founders aren't really like doing the follow part.
So that's where you wanna connect. Um, and the connection points is like, who do you want, excuse me. Who do you wanna send messages to? Who do you wanna be able to. uh, learn more about, or potentially work with them. Like, it would be pretty rare that someone who has like millions of followers on LinkedIn, who you could just like send them a message and be like, Hey, we should work together or be able to connect with them.
So those are kind of different things. I think following is, is an opportunity to pay attention to people's posts that you actually want. Uh, and then the other part is like, who do you wanna work with? Or be able to send messages to them or cheer them on or. You know, connect with them in some way, that's beyond just a follow and that leads into what posts should you comment on and how should you use your likes?
It's an interesting thing that says, how should you use your likes? This isn't like, that's the difference? Kind of between Instagram and like LinkedIn, this is a different beast. Like you don't just like, choose like, okay, well I'll save this, but not like it. Right? Like you went on Instagram. Um, on LinkedIn saving things is like a different algorithm than, than Instagram, as far as I understand.
So like saving a post on Instagram and liking it does stuff to the algorithm on Instagram, but on LinkedIn, like is your thing. And then you have to go click a down, you know, the three dots and find the save button. And that does something else. So it's not that you use your likes in a certain way, it's that you like what you like?
I think you should like things that you like. I, I don't think that there should be. Weird strategy about likes. So for me, when I think about LinkedIn, how you use your likes is like that. You like something that's it. So the like part is just, if you like it, like it, now comments need to be furthering the conversation or cheering someone on.
So the post that you comment on should be cheering on clients that you might wanna work with in the future. The post that you comment on should be something where it's really interesting to you, and you can add to the convers. Uh, the post that you comment on should be things where, um, it's obviously related to your industry, or you can talk more about that.
You wanna be adding to the conversation. That's how someone ends up hiring you or ends up noticing you. It's not that you're just like, this is cool. I like this. Like, it needs to be actual, multiple different sentences. so for me, commenting on things really depends on what my focus is. I don't comment on everything.
I don't like everything because I, you know, I'm a regular person. I don't like everything. Um, but I do like things and I will leave comments that are like longer, um, or deep in the conversation or whatever. Um, I haven't done it as much recently, but with posts, like you wanna be commenting on those things where those potential clients are doing cool stuff that, you know, you wanna.
Ask questions about or congratulate them or, um, you know, be curious about their content. It's not about like posting on everything. It's about picking a handful, maybe like 10 to 20 companies that you wanna like follow up on their content. And if that's too much pick five companies, um, and you don't even have to go through your feed, you can just go to that company page and see all the posts that they've put up and comment and like on those all at once, if you.
I just feel like knowing what they're talking about and knowing what things are important to them and paying attention to what types of things they're talking about or bringing up thoughtful comments, make a big difference. I need some water. Hold on. So when
you're thinking about commenting on something, it shouldn't always be about like furthering all your marketing efforts or. It shouldn't always be, be about like how to get the sale. it should be about thoughtful conversations and building relationships, because that's really how you get the most out of LinkedIn is that you are being careful.
You're not careful you're being, uh, thoughtful about what you say and how you help that conversation continue or how you get to know someone or. Uh, the things that are interesting in your industry that you have, you know, are curious about or interested in, that's how you keep things going. It's not about having all of this like maximized strategy of like, yeah, your, your comments should be two sentences and you should only like every fourth post, like it's not like that.
Uh, it's more about like being genuine. I think for me, one of the things that has been most successful about LinkedIn is just being genuine. Like it's, it's being, um, They know that the, when they read my comments, that if we were to have a call together, that would be the person they talk to. I wouldn't be a totally different person than my comments.
Right. I wouldn't be, um, like, let's say my comments are like this exaggerated version of myself, and then they get on a call with me and they're like, oh, I don't know you at all. And that's really off putting you wanna be your genuine, regular self on the internet. Right. And, and when you make these comments so that when people, you know, get to know you, you're building actual.
You know, relationships based on truth, based on who you really are. And I think that's important. So that was our second point. Second question, actually, with a clump of questions, but now we're gonna go under our third one and I'll do like a quick update to see if they're interested. They're always interested.
Oh, oh my gosh. We've got an active, we got an active taco. Can you go back to your ha a hole? Go back to ha a hole. Good job. All agree here. Go. I thought. Good job. Other one. Good job. How you guys doing today? You having a great day. Oh, you're drooling all over the place you go. Like I know you want another, oh, hold on.
I'm not ready yet. Good job. Other one. Good job. Other one other one gentle other one other one. There you go. My God fun. But good job. I know you just love that. You're just like, let me break the air with my paw and see if you'll give me so. She still has that big scratch on her head that we're hoping will heal soon.
She got this big giant you know, this big, giant mark on her head. Now I'm hoping this scar will go away soon, but she's doing fine. She's a little, she's a little tough hamster. Yeah, she's a tough hamster. All right, let's go to 0.3. So in 0.3 here on these question. Um, who are the people that you reach out to for work.
3) Who Do You Reach Out to on LinkedIn for Freelance Writing Work?
And then this also says what the heck is going on with hashtags. So we'll get it to hashtags as our fourth point. But our third point here is who are the people to reach out to for work? So these are your potential clients, right? These are the people that you have created a list for. And this is something that I go over in super in depth with my freelance writer, wealth lab, students of like how to create all these lists.
Um, so, or, well, actually it's well, it's lists kind of by niche. Um, the people that you reach out to for work, it's not, this is one of the things that I think is most backwards about Lance writing, like freelancing in general. A lot of times when people start freelancing and this is really important. So if you're just starting freelancing, Stick with me here.
this is a really backwards, weird thing that people do. They treat freelancing. Like it's a regular job. So they're like, who will hire me? Who's looking to hire me. That's wrong. Okay. That's not how it works. You don't go into freelancing or Lance writing with the intention of like, how do I find people who are hiring?
That's not how this works at all. That's not how you get your best clients. That is basically. Only funneling you into the cattle call of like being in the group with hundreds or thousands of other writers and getting paid very little. You wanna be the person that either gets an inbound lead and the inbound lead is like, Hey, we saw your portfolio.
We love your stuff. We wanna work with you. That's ideal. Your second one is when you're reaching out, you're sending these letters of introduction, these Lois to people, and you're reaching out strategically to people who are in your niche, who you think you can help by looking at their website. Um, and you don't really know cuz you don't work there, right?
You don't work at that company. So you ask if they need help. This is why I have those templates. Let me pop that up here. If you go to mandela.com/bundle, these are all of my LinkedIn templates, the LinkedIn things, the Lois that I send, the marketing things that I send, um, the, uh, LinkedIn connection request that I send that's all in mandela.com/bundle.
So if you go there, you get all of the things I currently use on LinkedIn to get clients. As you go along, you're not, you're creating opportunities for yourself by asking if people need help. Right. There are lots of companies, millions of companies who need help, who do not ask for it. And they do not know how to find someone to help them.
When you go to LinkedIn with the idea of like, who should I reach out to for work? Because I can't find, you know, I I've had coaching students do this. I've had one-on-one coaching students come to me and say like, how do I find who's looking for work? Like, how do I find the people who are looking to hire freelance writers?
Like where are they? It's like, that's the whole that's backwards. The whole concept is backwards. The idea. That you go and create a list of 50 to a hundred companies. And those companies are either startups that make 3 million to 10 million in revenue, or they're regular companies that make 5 million to 50 million in revenue.
And if they make more than that, a plus. Um, but you make these lists based on your niches and you can just Google like list of FinTech companies or list of FinTech startups, or, uh, hospitality, tech companies that are coming up or list of hospitality, blah, blah, blah. Uh, you can always search by niche and you make these lists, you make lists of companies, and then you cut that list down by revenue.
So there you're gonna get tons and tons of lists just by Googling. And then you cut them down by saying like, all right, this company only has a million and they're a startup. That's not a fit for me, cuz I know they need three to 10 million. All right. This company has 10 million in revenue, but it looks like their company is super small and they don't have a marketing person.
Um, and that just seems like not a fit because even though this regular company has 10 million, they don't seem to be doing very well with putting all their marketing efforts together. So that's not a. So then you narrow down this list and as you get smarter and as you learn more about your niches, and as you learn more about being a freelance writer, it's a lot easier to go through lists or, or go to crunch base or go to tech crunch or read niche publications, or sign up for niche newsletters and pick your clients and say, no, no, no.
Yes, yes. Yes. You become a lot more familiar with who you should reach out to over. But when you're starting out, you gotta just create lists. You gotta learn who's available in that industry. You gotta learn about websites that have collections or lists of companies, or like, um, tech crunch is always publishing like 10 unicorns to watch or, uh, 10 SAS companies to pay attention to like there's all these lists all the time.
So you start learning like, oh, I noticed that, um, Sorry. I noticed that nation's restaurant news always talks about this. I need to pay more attention to them. So I'll sign up for their newsletter or you end up finding a, um, a mortgage tech, you know, uh, website that talks a lot about who's coming up or who's getting funding or how the trends are in the industry.
So you sign up for that over time. You kind of learn that. So as you kind of make this list, when you're starting out and you narrow down by revenue, then you start looking at the companies on LinkedIn. You find out who I need to talk to. I need to talk to the content person, the content marketing person, the marketing person, the market, the VP of marketing, the, any of those people.
Um, I send my LOI to high Wael high Wael um, and you send your LOI to them. Like you are trying to create opportunities by reaching out to people to see if they need help. And this is why I set up my LOI template. The way I did is cuz you're not going in there for the hard sell. Ready, buddy. Can you catch it?
We'll see if you can catch. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dogs. So close buddy. So close. Can you go back to your Hoba hole? You mean high five? Good job. All right, buddy, can you catch ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Yeah. Good job buddy. You did it. Alright. You high? All. Okay. Good job. Good job. You guys are doing. So when you're reaching out to people on LinkedIn, it's creating these opportunities for work.
You ask them, do you need help with your content strategy or your content marketing efforts or whatever. That's all you have to do. If you go in there assuming that, you know, everything that they need help with, oh, you need help with blog posts because HubSpot says, blah, blah, blah. You know nothing about their business.
So you're going in there with the assumption that the fact that they're not doing a blog or they're not making case studies or they're. Um, creating a bunch of downloadable eBooks is like they're failing, but they may not feel that way. So what you wanna do is just ask them if they need help with broad, broad things, right?
Content marketing, content strategy, if you do content strategy, um, I think that that's way more effective. And then you create these relationships over time where people are like, Hey, not right now. Try. And then you just collect people over the years. Right? You collect people of like, Hey, they're like, Hey, not right now.
Try again. And you're like, okay. And you follow up with them in three to six months. But as you're kind of going through this, you're reaching out to more and more people and then you have more people to follow up with. And it kind of all works together to create a bunch of opportunities that kind of just flow into each other.
So when you're reaching out to people, it should be from this strategic place of that, you understand, they have the revenue, they have money to pay for outside contractors, right. For Lance. Um, then they also are able to, or they're also in your niche, right? They you've looked through their website, you've looked through their content, you see what they're doing?
I will. And you're like, Hey, I can help them. And here are some ways I can help them. And then you send 'em an LOI. And if you get on a call, you can tell them how you can help them. Um, but it's a lot of it is just being smart about just consistently filling the pipeline and reaching out to those content or marketing people on LinkedIn.
All right, buddy. You ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. So close. So close. Barry, you tried. All right. Can you go to your Hava hole? She just loves to sit over here and like bug me back up. Good job. High five high, five other, one other one gentle. Good girl. All. All right. So that leads me to the last one. So this is our last thing that we're gonna talk about for all of these questions, which I think are great questions by the way.
So I'm glad that these were, these were asked. No, you don't wanna eat that tissue around right now. so, uh, if you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about building a hiring freelance writing business subscribe. Um, the last thing is what the heck is going on with hashtags.
4) What’s the Deal with LinkedIn Hashtags?
So hashtags on LinkedIn are a different beast than Instagram. Like this is something that I think a lot of people wanna port Instagram over everything else, like Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and LinkedIn and all Twitter and all these other platforms, they all operate very differently. So people are like, oh, I should just use hashtags.
Like I do on, on Instagram for LinkedIn. That's not how it works. And a lot of times you need to remember that LinkedIn is like a little bit like Instagram is constantly kind of like ahead, right? They're not always, but most of the time Instagram is trying to innovate ahead of other platforms. And LinkedIn is like a business platform.
So it's, they tried stories for a while. Then they got rid of it cuz people hated it. Um, they have hashtags, which kind of work kind of, you know, it, it just depends. So with hashtags, I follow a bunch of them because then it helps me get niche in, in, um, niche information. So I would follow all the hashtags that are in your niche, like hashtag travel or hashtag hospitality, tech, or hashtag, uh, SAS or hashtag, um, , I don't know, whatever kinds of things that you write about.
So that's first, and then I would follow different things about topics that you care about. So like I have, um, different ones for freelance writing. So following them is one thing to fill your feed with information that helps you learn more. The other thing is just putting them in your posts so that P potentially people will connect with you or reach out or.
So the hashtag thing is kind of similar to Instagram in that you can follow hashtags and yes, you should put hashtags in your post, but the way hashtags work on LinkedIn is very different than Instagram, as far as I understand. And I'm sure there's put somebody who knows way more about LinkedIn hashtags, you have to go back to your habit hole Lou, more than about in, um, LinkedIn hashtags than I do.
But the way that I use. is basically like following for information in my industry and my niche. Like all the niches in industries. I work in, I follow those. Sometimes I unfollow them because, uh, there's a bunch of things that I don't care about. but, um, there's a lot of things that we can use with these hashtags where like people will get your stuff.
So hashtags aren't like, kind of, it's not the, oh my goodness. What a SAS. It's not the end of a post. Okay. It's not the end of a post. If you don't use hashtags on LinkedIn. I just think for starting out, if you don't wanna get overwhelmed with LinkedIn. Oh my goodness. Um, you just wanna follow hashtags in your industries on LinkedIn.
You have to eat it. Weirdo. Ready? Oh, hold on, Barry. It's up here? I didn't throw it at 1, 2, 3 dogs. So close. So. There you go. um, yeah. So number one, just follow the ones in your industry. Like you can see all the hashtags, you can do a bunch of hashtag research. You can look through them on LinkedIn. Um, they're still kind of like, you know, figuring like it's still kind of in its figure out stage.
Um, so a lot of people will use hashtags in LinkedIn and it won't be very pertinent. Like they'll just tag everything cause they have no idea how it works. Um, which leads to very messy feeds for those hashtags. So be careful about that, but start with your niches, then move on to topics or other things like that.
So if you do post, uh, on LinkedIn, I always think that what really helps is to post about clients that you got or post about wins that you got with your clients or sharing clips, and then you wanna hashtag all of those things. So that, that way that. Um, your work is showing up in those hashtags so people can see your work rather than, you know, random stuff.
You can also share a bunch of articles. Like I, you know, I, I like to share my friend's stuff or I like to share things and then add hashtags to theirs. So like they add, you know, two or three or four hashtags. I add some hashtags. So it shows up on different feeds. I feel like that helps too. Marie says that I learned from a friend in advertising to hashtag my company, Marie writer.
that's interesting because for me, when I've seen that, it's like people have to follow that. So like, they don't really know what that is. So from what I've seen, that is you can hashtag your company, but what ends up happening is you have to connect the fact that people know that's like a company or, or a thing.
So it's harder to like, get people on board for that, because like, if you do hashtag marketing or hashtag. Um, SAS marketing, like people know what that is, but they don't always know, like if I did hashtag Mandy Ellis or whatever, or hashtag whatever. Um, for me I've found that that can ha be like a weird, you know, it can be not super effective or it can be effective.
It just depends on like, How people know you. So for me, this is like a, it ju it depends. Um, I don't know if, if it's how it's working for you, Marie, but I know for me that the company hashtag is some something that people have to, like in order to follow it, they have to understand it or know what it is.
Um, and in order for people to like, be on board with it or start using it, they have to know what it is. And then if it seems random to them, they just like, forget it and don't use it. So I think that, um, that one depends. I think that one really depends, but yeah, hashtags, it's not the same as Instagram.
And even on Instagram, you don't have to like hashtag your life away. um, I think it's more important to just pay attention to what's going on in your niche. That's always like the first thing as a freelance writer, especially on LinkedIn. Understanding what's going on the plat on, in the platform what's going on in your niches and then taking action from there.
Yes. Woo. Woo. You have to go back to your HAA hole. Go back to your HAA hole with your little blanket Sherpa. Okay. you're like over here, SAS. She is running the SAS factory today. Ready buddy. 1, 2, 3 dogs. So close buddy. So close. All right, bye. Hi, bye out, gentle, gentle other. Gentle. Good girl. Good girl. You gotta make MI work for it.
You gotta make Barry. So Barry so old that, you know, he can catch it sometimes, but mini's ready for one to three dog. Oh, buddy. So close mini's uh, mini's gotta go through the steps to get, to get it. She's gotta work for it. All right. So Marie says, what did you say? You said, he explained that when. you hashtag your company and, and other hashtags when you're in a generic hashtag people then look you up and your company.
Okay. Um, I haven't seen that, but I also don't know a ton. Like I'm not a super expert on that. Oh, go back to your ho hole. You SAS. Um, so yeah, I don't know if people are that curious though, when it comes with hashtags on LinkedIn, Instagram, I think is a different. Then that, um, I don't know. Well, I guess we'll have to test it and see how it works out, I guess, you know, let us know how that works.
Um, oops, hold on.
Yeah, I guess it just depends. I think it depends. So we'll have to see how that works. Um, I think that's asking people to take a lot of steps sometimes. So what ends up happening is. Like, it's kind of like the same thing as web design where it's like, don't make me think. So like, you would have to assume that a lot of people are gonna click, click, click, and they just don't like they, they live a scroll life.
So what they would be more interested in in is like clicking on the photo of you or the name of you on the post rather than the hashtag. So that's an interesting thing. We'll have to see how that works out, but I think that's all of our stuff. I think we covered all the questions. So I'm glad that we went over this cause I.
Um, this is really important to talk about why LinkedIn is so helpful for freelancers and especially Lance writers. And I think that it's helpful in understanding how LinkedIn is different than other things like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, um, uh, or TikTok, or like other platforms. Marie says she got a one off that way.
Oh, cool. Okay. So yeah, I guess it does, it works. It just depends on like how you use it. Yeah. So we'll have to see, maybe I'll try testing that too, Marie and see how it. And we'll like compare and see how it goes. Um, so yeah, I think when we're kind of putting LinkedIn together, remember that LinkedIn is about marketing, building relationships, growing your network, be you can become known for something on LinkedIn.
You can become a thought leader. Uh, but LinkedIn is this really nice ecosystem that works a lot differently than other platforms. And it works really well for freelancers, especially Lance writers. Um, yeah, you have to kind of learn the platform, but that's, you know, you would have to learn any platform.
Uh, I just love LinkedIn because I think it's the most effective for so many different parts of our businesses and it helps us be professional, but fun. And it helps you kind of express yourself in a bunch of different ways throughout the platform that I think help you attract the right clients. Um, end up getting people who are a really good fit for you, or you end up getting a bunch of data and analytics and good stuff that helps you find the right work and find the right clients.
So, um, if you have a question too, like I said, um, this was a question that was submit th these were like multiple questions that were submitted by the same person anonymously, but you can always submit a question at mandela.com/question, and, um, you can submit it anonymously, or you can submit it with your name and I will do it here on livestream.
Um, if you were going through there and you're like, okay, I'm already on LinkedIn. And I need to figure out how to like actually price projects, cuz I'm getting some traction go to mans.com/pricing guide. I just did a big update on my free pricing guide. So if you go to Mandela's dot com slash pricing guide, hello, you can get my free pricing guide.
Um, and it'll help you price all your projects. It'll help you, um, you know, figure out what you wanna charge and how to actually do. cool. Okay. So if you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about building a hiring freelance writing business subscribe.
We have P dates usually where everybody kind of participates, but today we don't feel like participating out. go back to your ha hole. You SAS, go back to your ha hole. All right, SAS. Ready? We're gonna fluff you. You've been fluffed. All right. Ready? Oh, my gosh. I like your gentleman. Cross. Pause, bear. You have some nice gentlemen's cross pause.
Hi. Hi. Hi. Charlie. You look like made Marion. You're having a made Marion day. All right. So I hope this has been helpful. We're here every Friday at noon. So all three of us, me and my dogs are all here. Um, every Friday at noon, central time, you can always come and hang out. You can ask question. And, um, I hope this has been useful and helpful, and I will see you next Friday. Bye.
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