How you can Become a LinkedIn Guru in 18 Steps

How to become a LinkedIn Guru
I’m known as an international LinkedIn expert, the LinkedIn Demystifier, and some even call me a LinkedIn guru, but what does this mean? What is a LinkedIn Guru and how can YOU become a LinkedIn guru?  
Having up to date knowledge and expertise around LinkedIn and social media strategy makes me a specialist and even a LinkedIn expert, but you won’t hear me calling myself a guru, but when others use the term I see it for the compliment that it is.

How can you become a LinkedIn Guru too?

I found the secret formula to becoming a social media guru – 20 Steps on how you too can become a Master Guru of Social Media, and  have adapted Ian Anderson Gray’s process to help YOU become a LinkedIn Guru. Let’s begin…..

How to Become a LinkedIn Guru

  1. Learn How to Automate Everything on LinkedIn

A true Guru will learn to automate every social media task, including automating posts to LinkedIn from another Network. Create one post to rule all platforms.

  1. All Social Networks are the same – cross-post everything!

Impress your followers and connections with all the latest techniques, even if they don’t work on LinkedIn

  1. LinkedIn – Twitter Power Tip: Automatic Direct Messages

Use your Guru powers to thank your new Twitter followers straight away in a vague way and of course instruct them to connect with you on LinkedIn.

  1. You are the Centre of the LinkedIn Universe

Be sure to talk about yourself all the time on every platform.  Your LinkedIn Profile is all about you (and here I was thinking it was all about your target audience!).  Also be sure to reference yourself in the third person using as many titles as possible such as  “Social Media Guru”, “Global Expert”, “Number 1 LinkedIn Expert” and “Global Power Influencer” and on LinkedIn you must be a “LION with 16,000,000+ Connections”.

  1. Numbers are EVERYTHING on LinkedIn!

You must be a statistic addict – LinkedIn IS all about the numbers!  Don’t worry about qualified leads, go for quantity over quality and tell everyone how many connections you have, how many recommendations you have and ask everyone to connect. Do what you can do gain more Connections.

  1. Your SSI Score is The Ultimate LinkedIn Guru Score

Know and use your Social Selling Index – check it daily!  Mention it in your LinkedIn headline – show it off!

  1. Power Tip: Buy Your LinkedIn Reputation

This is gold so we are mentioning it again – it IS about the numbers.  We want followers, fans, and connections by the truckload. Don’t earn your reputation, buy it, by buying your audience. It doesn’t matter if the profiles are fake.

  1. Don’t Worry about Design on LinkedIn

A real guru doesn’t care about looks. It doesn’t matter if the design clashes. We have no time for consistency in branding, much better to have our audience confused and overwhelmed by fonts and busy graphics.   Shame we can’t use Comic Sans on or LinkedIn profile, but we can use lots of special characters… the more the merrier.

  1. Don’t Worry about LinkedIn Content Originality

Content is King. Go for quantity over quality, and stuff in as many keywords as possible. Grab a few, string them together and Bob’s your uncle. Don’t create your own content – it’s very eco-friendly to borrow from others.  Find a Profile and recycle the text and save time and energy by taking images from Google – isn’t that your stock image library?

  1. Use ALL the Social Platforms

Use as many social media accounts as possible to be a true Guru. It’s easy when you just syndicate your content across every platform. Automate your message to every man and his dog to achieve world domination! In fact have 2 profiles on LinkedIn, or even 3.  Dominate!

  1. Become a  LinkedIn Share Master

Get your shares out of the way in one hit and do a batch.  Blast the LinkedIn feed with your posts – the more the merrier. Your connections will love it!

  1. Roar Like a LION on LinkedIn

Another strategy we have to mention again – become a king of the LinkedIn jungle by letting your inner LION* out.  LinkedIn may not encourage you to connect with people you don’t know, but go connect with as many complete strangers as you can. Having things in common is over-rated. Don’t worry about terms and conditions – aren’t they there to be broken! A networking Guru will add LION to their name field and headline and proudly state their number of connections.  Forget quality and relevance… go for quantity every time!

*LION = LinkedIn Open Networker

  1. It’s all about Selling on LinkedIn

You may have heard it is all about relationships….  people don’t have time for small talk, they are super busy.  A true guru writes their Profile all about what they have to sell. Social Selling is selling on social. That’s it. No social selling books required. Just sell, sell, sell.

  1. Hide Behind your Business

Do people really want to connect with people on LinkedIn?  We don’t need to see your face, so don’t add your photo. Use the default image, or your company logo, a cartoon or even a photo of a celebrity that you share the same name or hair colour with. You could be Jennifer Aniston, Wonder Woman or Sean Bean. Better still, just wear a bag over your head.

  1. Never Admit Mistakes – A LinkedIn Guru Knows Everything!

To gain trust never let up that you don’t know everything about social media.  Be sure to display ooodles of confidence and drop lots of tech terms and acronyms into your Profile. Dazzle your audience with as many of the latest buzzwords as possible.  Be sure to use ‘Sky Rocket’, ‘Hustle’, and ‘Turbo Charge’.

  1. Learn the Art of One-Way LinkedIn Communication

Once again we are all too busy to have conversations on LinkedIn. Blast and move past is the motto of the guru. Best to have a clear message in capitals, shout it once and repeat it often – you are the most important person on LinkedIn, so blast out your message. Everyone deserves to hear it.

  1. Respond with Default Message on LinkedIn

Don’t waste time with personalised messages. That’s just fluff and nonsense. Just use the one or two words, otherwise you will get yourself into a conversation. Save time and get to the point. It is all about you and what you have to sell. A guru aims to “Sell, Sell, Sell” in every message.

  1. Keep Your Cards Close

Never share your secrets – always leave your audience guessing. Confuse your audience with a hint of vagueness. The more acronyms the better.  Never collaborate and risk other wanna-be gurus stealing your stuff.  How on earth will you achieve world domination if you have to share and converse with other people?

So there you have it, the 18 steps to becoming a LinkedIn Guru.  How did you go?  Are you almost there?

Become a Social Media Guru

To read the full expert tips as they pertain to the Social Media Guru, you must read this article – but be sure not to share.  Keep them all to yourself!  Ian Anderson Gray shares with you the 20 Steps on how you too can become a Master Guru of Social Media, not just LinkedIn. Go for social media domination!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

I trust that you realise that this article is not to be taken seriously. Learning with a bit of humour can work well.  Clearly this is a backwards article and every point is to be reversed. Think Alice Through the Looking Glass. (I love that when this was published a few good friends called me to ask what on earth I was doing!  I asked them, “did you actually read until the end?”)
Aim to be helpful and provide value. Expect to put in the hard yards, and the hours of research and practice, and be prepared to walk the talk.  Find a niche and go deep.  You will end up being referred to as a Guru organically, as a compliment.  
If you enjoyed this article, please share, tweet or email to all your guru friends. Get closer to being a Guru in your own office, by bringing me in to train your team, or working with me. 🙂

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