LinkedIn can feel a lot like you are practicing an endless cycle of cold outreach to professionals and connections. Directly messaging a connection’s profile for questions, guidance, or an ask, and hoping for a reply back. Well there’s a tool that can help make this effort more personal that you may not know about…LinkedIn Voice Messaging!
What is LinkedIn Voice Messaging?
LinkedIn launched this nifty tool back in 2018. From my hours on LinkedIn, I have gathered that it is still an under-utilized tool at our disposal. The tool can be accessed through the LinkedIn mobile app and you must be a 1st connection to a person to use the feature. You are limited to a 60 second audio message for each individual message, but that is more than enough to have a virtual audio conversation. For those job/internship seekers it is more than enough time for your 30 second Elevator Pitch! From using the tool for months now I have come up with a few tips when utilizing the tool.
Top 5 Tips on Using LinkedIn Audio Messaging
Infuse Your Personality
This is the time to let your personality come out! The best part of an audio message is you can demonstrate career competencies like communication, professionalism and technology all within a 60 second message. Your words come to life!
Don’t Over Do It
Are you excited to use this feature? Of course you are! Should you message everyone? No. Be strategic with your messages and sending one audio message, then following up with another after two weeks is the best approach.
Remove False Connections
Let’s say you’ve done step 1 and 2, but the person has still not replied. What should you do? Remove your connection to them on LinkedIn. They are clearly not open to helping you, providing insight, advice or the like. These types of LinkedIn users are what I call False Connections. Either amassing a huge following for their own gain or straight up just don’t want/care to help. Think about how hard it is to reply and say, “Wish I could help, but I am super busy.” I have heard from many people that they get so many messages and they simply cannot reply to everyone. It’s called Copy+Paste.
Don’t Be an “Asker”
Now, the key to building your LinkedIn network is to not be the “Asker”. An “Asker” is a person who only reaches out or asks for something and who never provides value to the other connection. Remember the person you are messaging is another person with goals, interests and a job to do as well. Ask how you can help them, check in on them, share a new insight. You’ll go from being an “Asker” to a “Helper”.
Practice
The cool thing about the audio messaging tool is that you can record and re-record to get that perfect message that summarizes what you are wanting to chat with them about; you can also communicate the value you would like to bring to them.
Full instructions on accessing the tool can be found here. If you’re looking to optimize your LinkedIn, find diverse connections for informational interviews or just want to understand the platform more contact us at info@awesomelyauthentic.com for more information!