For decades, business professionals have been repeating the mantra, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” While skills and expertise go a long way, a strong professional network can go even further in helping you build your dream career.

Luckily, professionals today don’t have to build their networks all on their own. Business people can use LinkedIn to make connections, build a network, and advance their careers. Sadly, many people don’t know how to use this platform to their advantage.

Some people assume a large network of connections will be the key to their success, however, if you want to see your career take off, it’s essential to make high-quality connections. When you connect with the right people on LinkedIn, you’ll start to see how valuable your professional network can be.

1. Find your niche

When you’re new to LinkedIn, you may want to post content that appeals to a broad range of people in order to grow your network. But you should resist that urge. There are already thousands of people sharing vague content on LinkedIn trying to appeal to everybody.

If you want to stand out, post content that’s highly valuable to a specific group of people. While many people will look past your posts and forget them, the people who really matter will remember and engage. Those are the types of people who are likely to become your high-quality connections.

BlackRock, an investment firm, proved that niche content works when they posted content about advanced topics that would appeal to only a certain audience that was familiar with the financial planning and investment industry. The company generated $17 to 18 million in revenue with LinkedIn activity alone by using this content strategy.

The strategy BlackRock used to generate revenue is easily transferable to individual users hoping to drive higher quality connections. Determine who you’re trying to reach and create content just for them. You’ll see your connections become much more engaged as you do this.

Related: 5 Steps You Can Use to Find Your Niche

2. Take advantage of creator mode

Creator mode is fairly new, so many people are unaware of how to use it and how much it can benefit you in reaching a wider audience. When you enable creator mode, LinkedIn more prominently displays your content. After about two months of using creator mode, your reach and engagement will grow.

One of the main benefits of creator mode is that your community of followers should grow five times more quickly. When you’re in creator mode, the “Connect” button on your profile changes to “Follow.” This signals to people that you’re a thought leader with important ideas to share. Creator mode will also increase your reach by 15% if you use hashtags in your content and in your profile.

The button to enable “Creator Mode” is found on your dashboard, which can be found by visiting your profile. After enabling this feature, you’ll also want to select five topics or hashtags you post about most frequently. Be sure to highlight these topics in your profile, so people know what you have to offer.

3. Add a few hashtags to every post

Hashtags are a perfect way to get your content in front of the right people. Hashtags allow you to categorize your content and link it to other relevant content. According to Richard van der Blom’s annual roundup of LinkedIn algorithm updates, three to five hashtags are the perfect amount. Make sure each of your hashtags is relevant to your content, though.

One of the best ways to use hashtags effectively is to connect yourself to current trending news. This is called “newsjacking.” When a news story is trending and all the people you want to be connected to are discussing it, use a hashtag to piggyback on those trends, and get some great traffic to your content.

It’s also a good idea to link your content with hashtags when you’re posting a series. For example, if you’re posting daily tips for content marketers, try using a relevant hashtag to connect each of those related posts.

Related: How to Get to the Top of LinkedIn’s Search Results

4. Create unique content that provides real value

You want your LinkedIn connections to remember your unique qualities. When they see your name, they should be able to instantly remember what sets you apart from all the other people out there. To do this, you have to create unique content. Posting fluff won’t build you strong LinkedIn connections. Your content should provide real value that no one else out there is providing.

Some people think they should keep their secrets to success to themselves, but it’s exactly this type of content that will bring you the best type of connections. Provide your followers and connections with all of your formulas and methods, completely free. It may seem like you’re getting nothing in return, but when you start seeing the quality of your connections increase, you’ll notice it’s more than a fair trade.

You’ll notice the quality of your connections increasing as you post content that offers insight that can’t be found anywhere else. When people read your content, they’ll begin thinking of you as an industry expert, and they’ll be excited to connect and engage with you on LinkedIn.

Recently, there has been a surge of personal Wikipedia pages. This trend was preceded by the emergence of purported specialists who extol the benefits of Wikipedia entries not just for organizations, but also for business owners.

In fact, some argue that failure to embrace social media could stunt executives’ career prospects, as it serves the dual purpose of promoting and legitimizing a business as well as creating an authentic and personal online presence. Many public figures (i.e., Hollywood celebrities, politicians, writers, media personalities, etc.) have no choice in the matter. However, some business people do have a choice and can attempt to avoid being memorialized in Wikipedia — perhaps the most controversial platform. While there is relative clarity regarding the importance of social media, the argument for business executives having a presence on Wikipedia is not as concretely understood. Wikipedia is the world’s largest and most-read reference work in history, and despite battles with credibility challenges, is often a go-to when researching a notable person.

Related: 15 Surprising Facts About Wikipedia

Pros and cons of having a Wikipedia presence

One of the obstacles in navigating a Wikipedia presence is, of course, how to get a page in the first place. Understandably, there are certain criteria to prevent the platform from becoming log-jammed with self-made pages of random self promoters. To pass the “notability” test, an individual must be “significant, interesting, or unusual enough to deserve attention or to be recorded.”

This means you need coverage in numerous reliable secondary sources, independent of the subject. Arguably, meeting this barometer is in itself an accolade worth making a point of. Therefore, if this is you, you may wish to use it to signal your success. On the other hand, Wikipedia retains a reputation as being filled with a plethora of niche and un-noteworthy pages, or pages that contain incorrect claims based on dubious sources or no sources at all — and the layman is likely not aware of the eligibility hoops one has to jump through to make it on there. In essence, it may not be worth having a page simply to “flex” your importance. Other factors are at play. Moreover, once your page is up and survives initial scrutiny, be prepared to defend its integrity and direction of the narrative it provides. With a Wikipedia page, you may become a target of random trolls, ex-spouses, former business associates or disgruntled employees. Just because you could, doesn’t mean you should.

To state the obvious, it would be bizarre for certain CEOs and business executives to not feature on Wikipedia due to their celebrity status and long lists of accolades. The CEO of a multinational corporation and the owner of a small startup will likely not have the same needs, and thus their Wikipedia pages will be of differing impact. It can add little value to shoehorn yourself onto a platform where you don’t belong. A managed Wikipedia page that lacks substance and reads like promotional material — even if it survives Wikipedia scrutiny — can make an entrepreneur look like a phony. Smart audiences can spot thinly disguised sponsored content.

Let’s put it another way: If you should not have a Wikipedia page, don’t get one. And if you should, think twice. Notwithstanding, if you are your brand or are intrinsically linked to it, then a Wikipedia page might eloquently showcase how you have curated a personal brand and can champion you as both your business and a person, assuming that you are truly noteworthy.

Having a Wikipedia page presents advantages in search engine optimization, or SEO for short. Wikipedia ranks highly on search engine results: In fact, it’s the number 1 search result on more than 56% of Google searches. This is thanks to its strong domain authority and the structuring of its internal links. Despite Wikipedia’s rocky reputation over the years — for example, its use by students being typically frowned upon by teachers and professors — its top spot on search engines does bolster reputation and suggest both fame and credibility. With this in mind, it is perhaps advantageous to prioritize your business over yourself when considering a Wikipedia presence as a business tool.

A good personal Wikipedia page is undoubtedly quite an impactful way for your achievements, personal background, previous business ventures, awards and honors to be listed, with links to references embedded. Its presence signals that the executive is noteworthy and serves as an endorsement when it is substantive and comes across as being objective. There is a certain credulity in a third-person account of someone which is not (or at least shouldn’t be) biased or self-promotional.

But beware: One of the shortfalls of having a Wikipedia presence is the lack of ownership of content. One of the most common criticisms of the platform is the fact it is run by a community of volunteer contributors. That’s to say, just because you are the subject or a feature of an article, does not mean you get to control the content, even if it is incorrect, damages your character or mistakes you for someone else! You could even find yourself in a battle with moderators and editors. In an era of cancel culture hegemony, an incorrect allegation of fact — even if only posted temporarily — could be very damning.

Have you heard of the rippoffreport.com? If you have not, consider yourself lucky. It is a controversial site, where people can post anonymous complaints. It is often relegated to a category of rogue complaint sties, despite its purported utility as a forum for the public to voice grievances. Why is this relevant to a discussion about Wikipedia? As I have suggested, Wikipedia has a shady side to it beyond the risk of falling pray to revisionist editors’ zeal. Some (and perhaps many) Wikipedia editors are not just selfless nerds, but rather cold-blooded paid mercenaries. I have witnessed their work firsthand and was surprised at the audacity that editors-turned-paid-media-consultants exhibited in protecting their clients and dismantling substantiated, empirically factual information to maintain an entirely false narrative that their clients paid for. Once you have a Wikipedia page, make sure you allocate a budget to defend it from paid attacks or random vandals.

Related: What I Learned When a Wikipedia Troll Deleted My Page

Other options

In light of contributor corruption inherent to Wikipedia, you may wish to focus your time and resources on curating a safer social media presence — one that aligns with and promotes your brand and core values, provides insight and depth into who you are as a person and signposts clients and customers to your offering. This could be your personal website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and other pages where you have more control over content. LinkedIn, for example, is well-known and widely used by business executives and provides the added benefits of availing its participants of business networking opportunities. It also empowers business people to chat, promote, recruit, post content and even market products.

In essence, unless you organically find yourself featured or strongly feel it will accelerate your business, there is no need to divert too much attention to a personal page — especially one that looks disingenuous. The risks that your Wikipedia page turns into a ripoffreport.com complaint about you on the first page of a Google search is real.

Related: The 7 Key Elements of an Effective Personal Brand

When social media first popped into existence — your Six Degrees, your MySpaces, the prehistoric version of Facebook that looks like an entirely different site today — there was no intention of using them to circumvent the traditional sales process.

Now, with the rapid expansion of online marketplaces and a two-year pandemic that’s made everyone much more tech-savvy, we’re starting to see the integration of commerce and community in a way that the forefathers of social media never dreamed of — and probably never intended.

But, this is the reality that we as digital marketers and social media specialists live in. And if we want our brands to thrive on social media, we need to play by social media’s new rules. Nearly every platform will allow you monetization opportunities, but that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make sales. Like anything in marketing, it takes strategy to turn a profit on social media. And to be honest, the strategy for getting your socials off the ground and generating conversions isn’t that different from how you’d set up a brick-and-mortar business for success. Here are some tips to follow for your brand to really thrive on social media:

Use the right platforms

First, you need to have the right location, or digitally speaking, utilize the right platforms. If you set up your lemonade stand in the middle of the woods, you’re going to go home with empty pockets.

Let’s do a hypothetical: You have a small business that manufactures and sells unique, bespoke furniture. If your main sales avenue is Twitter, you’ve goofed up. That is an Instagram and Pinterest play almost exclusively. Knowing where to build your social storefront is an integral part of generating revenue. (Pro-tip: Just don’t try to sell things on Twitter).

Related: The Business of Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Spend money, make money

Next, realize that the oldest idiom in the business world applies to social commerce too. What will any Business 101 class tell you? “You need to spend money to make money.”

Social media is not strictly pay-to-play, there are success stories of brands that have built up a presence mostly organically. I say “mostly,” because even in those cases, they still had an advertising budget, minuscule as it might be. However, in the current landscape of social media, due to the sheer amount of competition, every industry pretty much demands that businesses who aren’t household names put some amount of money behind their social channels.

Where should they be allocating these funds? In my personal opinion, you should be using them to boost your social media content to a larger audience instead of shelling out for Facebook ads. Content is what draws consumers in and turns them on to your brand. Make sure that the engaging copy and design you’re producing is reaching the widest segment of your audience possible, and you’ll see sales begin to steadily trickle in.

Related: Social Commerce Is the Future of Marketing. Are You Ready?

Know your buyers

And speaking of content — it really is king! But if you’re trying to use it solely to generate a profit, then you’re wasting it.

Let’s do another hypothetical. If you live in even a modestly sized area, you probably have multiple grocery stores about equidistant from you. And yet, despite travel time being equal, you have a preferred store. What is it that takes you to Grocery Store X over Grocery Store Y?

Whatever star factor Grocery Store X has, that’s what your digital content needs as well. It needs to not only be modern and well-designed, but it also needs to cater to the audience most likely to interact with your brand — your buyers.

This comes down to creating on-point buyer profiles that can precisely predict what kind of challenges your buyers are facing and how you can position yourself as the solution. Without buyer profiles, you’re just casting a net into a body of water, unsure if it’s a lake or swimming pool, and hoping you get a bite.

There’s no right way to create a buyer profile, but to make one that helps you dictate your content, you’ll need to get inside the mind of your audience. This means gaining their insights, whether that’s through interviews or demographic research. Once you’re inside your buyer’s head, you can start to interact with your brand in the way they would start plotting content around their wants and needs that ultimately drives their purchasing decisions.

Social media has exponentially expanded since its creation, but at its core, it still maintains the town square sensibility to it. It can be a place for brands to drive growth and profit, but the social element of social commerce shouldn’t be ignored. Ultimately, running a business on social media isn’t too dissimilar from running a business in real life. You have to pick the right platform, provide an X factor that helps you stick out from the competition, and know your buyers well enough to serve their needs. Whether you make sales through a checkout lane or a landing page, the route there isn’t as different as you might think.

Related: The Evolving Role of Social Media in Ecommerce

When speaking of digital markets and the recent norm of content marketing, a common dilemma arises. The entire industry often gets confused when using the terms of content writing and copywriting. Often, they place the idea under the same umbrella. Since both ideas are very closely linked to each other, there is yet a significant line of distinction between the two. The ideals of the two are also thoroughly different from each other, and even the objectives differ on the result. Nonetheless, the points of distinction are vague and cause ambiguity in the various professions and activities around the two.

Creativity is an imperative element in the content business. Both copywriting and content writing depend upon it for their survival. However, even the use of creativity is completely different, and the necessary skills in demand for the two are also a matter of prime difference. There is also a raging debate surrounding the responsibilities in both of these respective job roles. Many are divided over which is more challenging and which upholds the image of the product in the market. In the face of such questions and biased thoughts, here is an attempt to clear the clouds over the difference between copywriting and content writing.

Related: The 5 Cs of Content Marketing Copy

Definition

Content writing can be defined as the description of the product in layman’s terms. It is a deep dive into the nature of the product, the features of the product, the utility of the product and the durability of the product. This form of writing is aimed at educating the consumer in terms of the product or service they buy or rent. The intricate information available about the product is maintained through content writing. The writer goes through a session of product study, its benefits and its flaws. They then draft the content, which informs the customer about every aspect of their purchase. Blog posts, FAQ sections, how-to articles, detailed product descriptions, email newsletters and ebooks are all examples of content writing.

Copywriting is not such a comprehensive, detailed reading of the content. It is aimed at the consumer with the sole purpose of driving their decision to purchase. Content marketing is the primary objective of copywriting. They intend to attract customers with engaging and catchy lines and phrases to grab their attention. The copy of a marketing campaign usually highlights the product as the efficient commodity missing from the consumer’s life. It is also based on market and field research and is drafted solely keeping in mind the preference of the consumer. The data from the research is to read the needs of the customer and target the phrases at those points. That objective achieved is the birth of a successful campaign. Examples of copywriting would be taglines, billboards, brochures, radio scripts, TV scripts and magazine brochures.

Related: What Does a Copywriter Do? (Infographic)

Key responsibilities

The primary responsibility of a content writer is to provide informative content. They are to conduct thorough market research and formulate the content that consumers demand. The content they provide must not be informal and should maintain the barriers of formal language. The manner of writing should be appealing as well. However, content writers must make sure to not use any form of pop-culture language or slang in their content and make sure that they provide a well-proofread document. Grammatical errors or errors in phraseology make for a bad reading experience.

The writer’s job even extends to SEO infusion within the content. It is imperative for a content writer to have SEO knowledge. There is a debate over the importance of SEO, but in the case of ranking, searchability and prominence, SEO works wonders. A content writer must have pure and unparalleled knowledge for keywords, their use, their efficiency, backlinking, hyperlinking and all forms of SEO marketing, so that the content appears in the search engine. Catchy and informative headlines are also very important.

Copywriting, on the other hand, has a distinct set of responsibilities altogether. The process for every campaign begins at meeting the stakeholder for the product. The marketing team focuses on providing a voice and identity to the brand. The attractive taglines and the relatable stories regarding a product or commodity are based on the common objective of making it a household name. The advertisement scripts are also crafted with the needs of the consumer and their basic demands in mind.

Related: Every Entrepreneur Should Learn These Essential Copywriting Skills

Another point of distinction

Another difference worth mentioning is that the work that comes out of copywriting is not as lengthy as content writing. Copywriters target relatable, catchy content and are focused on making the most from the product’s information and features. However, on the other hand, content writers usually target the lengthy form of content where they can sufficiently touch upon each aspect of the product or service and make the most of the article and space provided. They intend to deliver on-point information to the consumer that will be helpful to them even after the purchase.

In the end, both are very relevant to business in their own respective format and are often seen to be working in cohesion. In the present light of business, there is a dire need for both of these departments in a company.