LinkedIn is a hugely underutilized platform in Tanzania. No wonder it wasn’t blocked during the election. Yet it is a great place for professionals to grow.
With platforms like Instagram and YouTube being saturated with content, making it hard to grow, LinkedIn remains untapped for growth. Organic growth is still a possibility here.
For job seekers, it can be a digital way of moving their khaki envelopes around offices. For entrepreneurs and business executives, it is a perfect place to build thought leadership and generating leads for their business.
As of September 2020, there were 812,300 Linkedin users in Tanzania which accounts for 1.3% of the entire population. What can you do if you have access to 1.3% of Tanzania’s population? This may not look like a big number but mind you, it is not just a random population. It is a population of top decision-makers, your future employers, collaborators, and knowledgeable people who can help you with the information you need.
So how do you make the most of Linkedin?
With over 27,000 followers and good engagement on my profile, I figured I could offer some advice. I use LinkedIn to generate leads for my business and grow my personal brand. Most of the people I work with found me on this platform and reached out. As a writer, I find this a perfect platform for my writing output. Most importantly I learn from my connections.
What I noticed from my fellow Tanzanians joining this platform is that they are looking for a job. Which is understandable. But they don’t do much about it apart from creating an account. Unfortunately, Linkedin is not a job searching platform. At least not exclusively for that purpose.
Best Practices for Linkedin Success
Have a complete profile: The best way to set up your Linkedin profile is to think of it as your CV. Which is exactly what it is. From your image, job titles, work experience, and a list of your skills – make sure they compellingly sell you. Remember, a poorly prepared profile will turn off potential prospects and cost you opportunities. See this post for more about profiles.
Create content: The goal is to get noticed. You can’t get noticed if your profile is just sleeping there. You need to be active by sharing posts. Here are some quick ideas for what you might post:
- Career or business questions (or answers) you have
- Stories about challenges you’ve overcome
- Links to articles and books you’ve read and enjoy
- Links to podcasts you’ve listened
- Also, share posts from others that you find compelling
Observe others: Another way to get familiar with how Linkedin works is by observing what others are doing. Follow some engaging accounts and take inspiration from how they create content and engage with their audience.
Leave thoughtful comments to get noticed: If you are one of those people who use short words like ‘Well said, Very interesting, Bravo‘ -then you are missing an opportunity to get noticed. Those short-form comments don’t show any value in you. But if you leave an insightful comment, it will tell the post author that you have read the post and they might visit your profile. Commenting on a connection’s post gives you access to their connections.
Conclusion
If you think of Linkedin as a place to find a job, then you are probably not going to get the most out of it. LinkedIn is a powerful place to position and promote yourself to audiences that can find you relevant and compelling. You need to drop the direct approach of saying you are looking for a job and be strategic about it. This means every activity you do, be it commenting or posting, make sure it syncs with your values.
What kind of profile photo should we use on LinkedIn?
Not necessarily a professional photo but here is what you should avoid; a blurry photo, poorly cropped, shot from too far away, looking overly serious, not a logo, a faded photo.
It’s highly appreciated the work you do and I thus see the essence of reading intensively to different brochures