It’s so important to not be tone-deaf or insensitive right now...

Are you also feeling uncomfortable posting on LinkedIn given what’s happening in Ukraine? I do. It’s so important to not be tone-deaf or insensitive right now. Many of your social media posts can wait while this crisis unfolds.

You could spend some time reading articles on how to be more effective on LinkedIn and grow your network during this time as well as polish up your profile.

Here are 10 productive things to do on LinkedIn that are just as useful to your content creation, and relationship and brand building efforts.

1. Use the Notifications section to update your CRM or email database with your contacts’ work anniversary and new job information (today, most people don’t send an email or a vCard when they change jobs – it’s up to you to do the due diligence). Make sure to congratulate your connections on these milestones to proactively start conversations which can reignite relationships.
2. Comment on others’ posts with insights of your own or compliments to the author. This is a great way to build your personal brand and relationships.
3. Get a head start creating content in advance. Try coming up with posts about people you admire in your industry. (When you post it later, tag them in the post so they get an alert.)
4. Research and then join LinkedIn groups. The right groups can help you spread awareness about your value-added content and make new strategic connections (just don’t post anything salesy or self-congratulatory).
5. By clicking on the new bell next to people’s names on their LinkedIn profile you will receive notifications whenever they share a new post. Spend 30 minutes following some of your favorite content creators as well as your clients/prospects.
6. Create evergreen content. These are timeless posts that you can reuse over and over. Go through past content and your LinkedIn data archive as well as old blog posts and articles for ideas. These posts are gifts that keep giving and can help boost your SEO.
7. Follow LinkedIn hashtags in your niche or are within your content pillars. Look at the popular content created under them for inspiration for your own posts and to build relationships with others on LinkedIn. Research the right hashtags for your own posts (based on your content pillars) and keep a running list of them for future use.
8. Develop your content calendar for the next month – look at industry trends, client pain points, current news, events and upcoming holidays (like March’s Women’s History Month) for ideas. And if you don’t have a content calendar, this is a great time to create one. You can start by requesting your full LinkedIn data archive, which includes past posts – a great place from which to repurpose content.
9. Recycle your greatest hits. Many people post content once – a missed opportunity for maximizing what you already have spent time and effort creating. Review your analytics to see which posts did the best (and worst) and use that as a starting point. Remember no one will remember what you posted a few weeks or months ago – the LinkedIn algorithm and user habits ensure that.
10. And finally, it’s okay to skip posting if you’re just not feeling inspired or comfortable right now. LinkedIn will still be there.

There’s no absolute rule with any of this – do what feels right to you and your organization but if you can postpone posting a piece of content especially if the post seems self-congratulatory or isn’t super timely, hold off on it. When in doubt ask someone. I am happy to help.

Stefanie Marrone advises law firms of all sizes, professional service firms, B2B companies, recruiters and individuals on the full range of marketing and business development consulting services designed to enhance revenue, retain current clients and achieve greater brand recognition. She also serves as outsourced chief marketing officer/marketing department for small and mid-size law firms. Over her nearly 20-year legal marketing career, she has worked at and with a broad range of big law, mid-size and small firms, which has given her a valuable perspective of the legal industry. Connect with her on LinkedIn, sign up for her email list and follow her latest writing on JD Supra.