Keep connected during the COVID-19 pandemic using LinkedIn

Author
Greg Cooper
LinkedIn Coach and Consultant | Front of Mind Coaching
18th March 2020

In the face of the current emergency I believe it is important to focus on what we can do, the things we can control. Although we may be prevented from meeting face to face, the fact is that we are more connected than ever, and we can use that to help us through.

One of our biggest assets is our LinkedIn network. In Bristol alone there are 320,000 members. Right now, staying close to your network is vital. The people in your network who know and trust you could be your business’s survival ticket. Perhaps your business is fast tracking new products or services - LinkedIn can help you to find new customers for your redesigned product set.  

They say that great adversity leads to great creativity. I am currently converting my in-person courses into online formats with, I have to say, some success.

LinkedIn offers several features which might help your business move more activities online:

Online events

The LinkedIn events feature launched late last year is an efficient way to promote and manage online events. In fact, right now it works better for online than real life events for reasons I won’t go into here. 

Confusingly when you create an event you must put a physical location in the location field, but you can then add Online Event in the Venue as in the screenshot.

 Fig 1: Creating an online event with LinkedIn Event feature

LinkedIn has also now made its event feature available to ALL company page admins. This is still a beta version. The feature is accessed from your personal page via the original events menu, when creating an event, the organiser can be switched between individual and admin. 

LinkedIn Live

By now you have probably seen at least one of the LinkedIn live events pop up in your feed. This is a live broadcast like Facebook Live. It is available to individuals and companies by application. Although not quite as simple as the Facebook version of live streaming, LinkedIn Live has great potential. It could be an ideal platform for businesses to communicate more personally with their customers, providing reassurance and updates during the current crisis. 

If you are not familiar with LinkedIn Live here is an example of one by Guy Kawasaki about the art of podcasting: http://bit.ly/3b5KzPH

And here is the link to apply for access to LinkedIn Live: http://bit.ly/33rHEhK

LinkedIn Learning

With the current shift to remote working LinkedIn has decided to give free access to their paid online courses about this topic. This learning module includes over 16 hours of content about remote working from individual productivity tips to how to manage a remote team.

Here is the link:  http://bit.ly/3b0Gso2

LinkedIn Learning has thousands of short online business courses. If things are quiet in your business, you might even consider taking out a subscription to LinkedIn Learning to upskill yourself and your team.

Keep connected

Finally, I would encourage all businesses to maintain their LinkedIn activity and visibility. This sends a reassuring message to your customers and network that despite the huge challenges we all face that you are still open for business.

Bio

Greg Cooper is an independent LinkedIn Coach and Trainer based in Bristol. He works with businesses throughout the South West and South Wales. For more information about Greg visit his website:  www.frontofmindcoaching.co.uk

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