I want more engagement on social media, especially LinkedIn. I get just a few likes and a comment or two when I post. What am I doing wrong?

First, congratulations on posting content. Many people do not, but it is a great way to give back to the LinkedIn community and build your network. Just know, those that have built an audience did not get to that place overnight. They did it through a lot of hard work and consistency. That is why their networks are large, and they easily get 50+ comments on a post. While my network is not huge (yet!), and I do not usually get that number of comments, I do have a decent presence on LinkedIn. I get a lot of positive feedback about what I post. Here are what I think are essential elements to a LinkedIn social media strategy that will result in more engagement over time.

1. Who is your audience? Who do you want to read your information? Know this first. Like with any marketing, you need to understand the market first and then tailor your product to meet the market need.

2. What is the right content for your target audience? What will that audience want to read or view? What will they consider of value? If you do not know, do some market research. On LinkedIn, you can go into a person's profile and see their activity. Look at what people you want to appeal to are commenting on, sharing, or liking. You can also use hashtags to find examples of posts on a topic area. What content gets great interest, in terms of likes and comments? Learn from this research.

3. Interact with others. It is not just about your content. You should be engaging with others' content, especially those that you would like to have as part of your audience. By the way, interacting is more than saying that you liked the post. It involves putting yourself out there and telling why you liked something, what you learned or why you disagree. Do not forget to leave a comment in response to when others comment on your posts.

4. Invite those that like or comment on your posts to connect. These people already have an interest in what you have to say. Connect with them and keep them seeing your content. Find out more about them and establish a relationship.

5. Keep statistics about your posts. Track how your posts are doing over time and analyze trends. Do specific topics get more interaction than others? Does posting on certain days or times give you more engagement? Have the invitations to connect increased? What sort of people are sending these invites?

6. Look at what influencers in your space are doing as well. What do they write about? Do you see any particular style of writing that works well for them? Are they using video or image posts instead? Track what your competition is doing.

7. If you are using more than one social media platform, use the same content in multiple places. This will help you widen your audience.

An important thing that I have learned over time is that you need to bring your authentic self to your content and how you interact. People have a good sense of whether a person is genuine. Do not hide behind a persona. Be professional, yes, but be yourself. Doing this will attract people that want to learn from you and be inspired by you. When you do that, you will get engagement. I promise.

Should I include a link to my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or blog on my resume?

It would help first to ask if you have a strategy around how you use social media for your job search. Many people use social media for play - like sharing adorable pet videos or catching up with the goings-on of our family and friends. That is fine - hey, I do the same thing on my non-work social media accounts. Social media also can be for work and career. As an example, it can be used for job search or personal branding. Do you have a well thought out strategy, and are you actively using social media? 

If you are using social media as part of a job search strategy, then yes, you can put links to those social media platforms. This will help you showcase your content, like video content or a blog, or give an employer a picture of how you are presenting your professional self to the world. 

If you are using some social media platforms strictly for play or amusement, then I would not link to those. 

I am working and have limited time for a job search. Can I pay someone to post on LinkedIn for me?

I am assuming by this question that you are talking about your own LinkedIn profile and not a company page. If you have a company page, you can designate another person as an Administrator with rights to manage the page, including posting content. 

Since I believe you are asking about your profile, I am assuming you are asking about having someone else write content for you, and then posting it on your own profile. My question would be, why? What is the ultimate goal here? Your professional brand is what others see from your profile and posts. How does it serve your brand to appropriate other people's work as you own? Even if you are giving direction to the writer on content, I still do not see how this helps you in the long run. People are attracted to people that are unique and genuine and have interesting things to say. I doubt that you would accomplish this by having a ghostwriter. Additionally, part of the strategy of visibility on LinkedIn included not only posting content but also commenting on feedback that a post receives or on other posts. You can't accomplish this by having someone else write your content.

Also, if you give your account password to someone else, that person will violate LinkedIn Professional Community Policies for using another person's profile.

You may not use or attempt to use another person's LinkedIn account or create a member profile for anyone other than yourself. 

Also, under the LinkedIn User Agreement, you need to keep your password confidential. Therefore, giving your password to someone else for access would also be against the user agreement.

I have a friend that posts a lot of political things on Twitter and Facebook. Some of it, I feel, is inflammatory. Should I disconnect with this friend on social media? I am afraid of guilt by association.

I can understand your concern. People have very strong views on many issues that the country and world are grappling with right now and are not afraid to express them on social media. It sounds like that in at least some of these posts, you feel uncomfortable with the views expressed by your friend. If someone is looking at your social media profile as part of the vetting process, they are more likely to be looking at what content you are writing or your comments or likes. It is less likely they are looking at your contacts and then going through their social media posts. 

You cannot control your friend's behavior. The only thing you can control is your own. You have a few choices. You could remove the friend as a contact. This might be the nuclear option. That may have repercussions on your friendship, though, so you may not want to do that, nor am I suggesting this is needed. You could also check your privacy or security settings on the platform to see if you can keep others from seeing your contacts. That could keep any prying eyes away. A third option would be to not engage with any posts from your friend that are inflammatory or make you feel uncomfortable. That way, there is no digital connection between you and these posts. If you want to chat with your friend about them, you may want to take that conversation offline.

If you would like additional information on social media and your job search, here are some resources:

14 Categories of People to Network with on Linkedin

How to Job Search on Facebook for Success

How to Successfully Use Twitter for Your Job Search

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.