LinkedIn has groups that you can join. 341,175 groups as I write this.

There are 30 groups in the search results for the word Lighthouse. 1,338 results when you search food. 8 when when search Garrett (but none are directly related to Chris Garrett). With a little effort you will find at least one group, probably at least a dozen, that are directly related to your niche. Sign up to these groups and follow the discussions.

When you are choosing what group to join, look at the About this Group window which will show you the age of the group, and how many members there are. Joining a grop with only 30 people may work for you, but only if they are people that are really interested in you and  in your niche. For each small group yo join, consider joining a larger group, even if it is only partially related to your niche. You will find that a lot of people in a larger group will still be interested in your subject.

Don’t join a group on firefighting, with the intention of writing about knitting. That may seem like something that goes without saying but there are a lot of people that will join the groups with the most members and post garbage. MLM posts in a technical group. Maybe they are right to try, the numbers are more in their favor. The problem is that many group members ask to have people that make posts like this banned from the from the group.

I get the daily update, you might prefer to only see it weekly.

Then there is the answer section. I have IT questions posted on my LinkedIn home page. I only answer those there are really related to me. I avoid answering the open questions that do pop up (“what’s better black or white…”) because opinion questions on LinkedIn, like any forum, can lead into arguments that are just a waste of time.

Once in a group, write a post specifically about the niche that the group covers. I am in a group called “CrossConnects Europe: Telecom & Telephony Sales Professionals Group”. Easy enough for me to write for them. How about “IT Governance” – a subject that most people have not heard of, but was a big part of my job at Microsoft.

Once you write an article targeting that group, create a dicsussion. I’ve found that saying “I wrote a new post” annoys people. If you open a new discussion that relates to your post and link to your blog at the right point in your new discussion, it gets traffic.
I also created 2 or 3 posts about getting jobs. A lot of people who use LinkedIn are looking for work. Once you join a group you can create a new discussion or a new post in the job section. Yo have different people that read both sections, but both get traffic. Since you are only writing good content on your blog, getting a visitor that has already identified themselves as being in your niche, it is just up to you to get them to come back.

I also like to comment on other posts. I have answered off line (no no one else will see my insults) to tell people how to write a better post – or discussion title. “Jobs” does nto really draw me in. “Bilingual IT Infrastructure Senior Project Manager for Paris Area” – hmmm, that sounds a bit more like it cold match me.

On LI you can have connections, like most social media. I joined the Linked In Open Networker (LION) groups. I don’t get the up from these groups, but I go back about monthly and ID myself and ask people to connect to me. Lazy? Yes. But the people that connect with me are actually interested in me in one way or another.

There are a lot of other things to do on linked it, to prepare yourself