LinkedIn is a great professional networking platform, only when you know what your end goal is.

As Simon Sinek explains in his popular TED Talk, it is essential to start with why.

8 out of 10 executives I speak to do not have a clear vision on what they want to get out of LinkedIn as a platform. They say that they want to grow on LinkedIn, get more visibility, grow their follower count, and become a thought leader.

But what next?

What if you get more visibility?

What if you grow your follower count?

What if you become a thought leader?

Most of them haven’t thought that far.

Imagine you walk out with your car keys, unlock your car, start the engine, and begin driving. You just don’t know where you’re headed.

You’ll keep driving, enjoy the scenery, maybe even stop to place your go-to Starbucks order.

Sounds fun? It is, but only for a little while.

You realise that you were supposed to urgently get a new MacBook charger for an important client call that was scheduled for an hour ago.

Huge nightmare, right?

That’s what happens when you don’t make time to reflect and know your end goal on LinkedIn.

You end up spending either a lot of time trying to make LinkedIn work for you or a lot of money on a LinkedIn personal branding agency.

Here’s the thing -

You do not need to have a crystal clear picture of this goal. It can be vague but clear enough to give you a sense of direction. For instance:

• Eric Partaker uses LinkedIn to stay on top of the mind in his existing network.

• Dan Koe and Justin Welsh use LinkedIn to sell info products.

• Ryan Musselman uses it to generate leads for his business.

Some other use cases include:

• Building high-value relationships with people in (or outside of) the industry
• Starting a newsletter (like this one! :) )
• Starting a paid community
• Getting an internship
• Switching to a better job
• Finding a co-founder
• Attracting better talent
• Attracting potential investors

You can use this end goal to backtrace your journey, build a content strategy, and plan your LinkedIn activity accordingly.

It will prevent you from doing anything and everything.

Begin with the end goal in mind. You’ll not only have more clarity but will also be able to move faster than usual.