The concept of “Givers Gain” is not new.
Sometimes referred to as “Pay it Forward” the logic goes that if you are seen to be supportive, if you are seen to be happy to openly share your thoughts and experience to help others without any expectation of getting something back, you will build up so much ‘credit’ then people will start to notice and proactively engage with you when the time is right for them.
Linkedin is a great platform on which to apply the Givers Gain approach as it provides you with numerous ways to share your knowledge and point of view. By doing this openly and without restriction (i.e. – expecting someone to give you something in return for the material you are sharing), you will quickly build your profile and positioning as an authority in your particular subject area.
Activity:
Let’s start to consider what you can share and the best approach to get this knowledge into the wider market.
Think back to your previous roles/ projects and list out all of the issues/ challenges that you had to overcome. This may be difficult stakeholders, problematic relationships with 3rd party providers, lack of engagement etc – you get the picture.
Once you have a list, think about what you did to overcome these difficult situations and try to outline 4/5 steps that you took that ultimately made the difference.
You now have the basis of some really great material that you can share in multiple ways. You can create an infographic (Canva have some templates that you can adapt), you can create a Video, a blog or a simple Linkedin Post.
Take a look at the following examples;
What you have just created is a library of materials that highlight how organisations can overcome typical challenges that they will face as they undergo change and transformation.
This library will help to position you as an authority and elevate you above others who simply rely upon their profiles and CVs to get attention of recruiters and recruiting organisations.
Your job now is to release these materials in a systematic way across the Linkedin platform as well as other social networks such as Twitter and #TLH. Once published, these become a constant reference to your skills and experience and will be indexed by search engines resulting in your name appearing when people are looking for information and support on the very areas that you can assist with.
You may also wish to consider establishing your own website to host these materials – we will be creating a simple course to help you to do this in the near future.