Invite Them In

Being invited to a special event has always made me feel good—the fact that someone thought about me and took the time to extend a personal invitation makes me feel included, cared about and important. If you’re not with me, you’re kidding yourself.

It’s that stamped envelope with a handwritten address and your name on it. It’s that text and voice message that someone wants your presence at a specific time and a specific place.

Perhaps it’s not as special to you now, a serious grown-up who doesn’t need “that kind” of affirmation, but you were a kid once. You remember that birthday party invitation from your classmate: What kind of cake would there be? What presents would they receive? What would be in the party favor goodie bag?

We like being invited.

Did you know you can invite your first degree connections to your LinkedIn company page?

If you missed how critical it is to give them a reason to follow you, check out this article.

Once that recipient receives an invitation from you, they can (and should) immediately go view your page. Just as quickly as they accepted your invitation, don’t give them the excuse to do an about-face by unfollowing your page because you gave them no reason to stay.

You must have interesting content already posted on your page. Your new followers will take a quick “scan of the room” to see what intrigues them and likely, engage with something you have already posted or dive in deeper to a piece of content by reading further.

The concept is simple:

• Create the space = Company page

• Give them a reason to show up = Post content

• Ask them to join = Send the page invitation

• Keep them interested = Continue to post content and engage

LinkedIn finally brought back the ability to see who is following our pages (I know, I can’t believe they took it away either; it was like a having a party with the lights off—you couldn’t see who showed up!).

Our team has plans to take it one step further by reaching out directly to our followers to thank them for joining the party. We may actually build a new professional relationship or two in the process...Imagine that?

If you aren’t the administrator of your company page, maybe you should be if this concept intrigues you. If you aren’t in a position to be the page administrator, how are you leveraging your company’s page to bring value to your network?

Just like the company page must be interesting to follow, so must your LinkedIn profile be up-to-date and intriguing—Give them a reason to accept your personalized invitation, to follow you or to send you an invitation.

Looking for a few specific steps to get you moving? Get access to our Top 10 Ways to Stand Out: A Guide to Enhancing Your LinkedIn Visibility. These quick tips are easy to implement and will give you a healthy sense of accomplishment as you chip away.