How I gained 18,000 followers on LinkedIn

Wan Li Ann became a LinkedIn Influencer when she created a post that went viral. Over time, she has exponentially grown her following and generously shares her tips to social media success!

By Wan Li Ann

LinkedIn accounts for 17% of all social media users – that’s 850,000,000 people out of 4.72 billion active social media users worldwide. 

This data demonstrates unequivocally that the internet has become an integral part of people’s daily lives. So why not take advantage of the fact that we live in an age where social media can be used as a tool?

I will be sharing my journey of establishing a personal brand on LinkedIn and how I increased the visibility of my profile to gain up to 18,000 followers.

1. Know your platform and your audience
To start off, LinkedIn is a professional networking and career development platform. If you want your LinkedIn profile to go viral, you must first have an objective or goal to achieve in mind. Some may create a profile that showcases their professional experience, skills, and accomplishments to connect with other professionals in their industry and beyond. 

Some may be using LinkedIn to join groups and communities, whereas some may be searching for jobs or new business opportunities. Nevertheless, LinkedIn is an international platform often used for networking, job searching, recruiting, and building brand awareness.

A core principle we should follow when using social media is to know your audience. To begin with, you should not treat your LinkedIn account the same way you treat your other social media accounts, such as Facebook and Instagram. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional platform for career development, not an entertainment platform.

2. Be relevant and authentic
The next tip to make your profile go viral is to ONLY share content relevant to your industry. Meaning strictly NO meaningless musings to gain attention. Nobody wants to open your LinkedIn profile with high hopes just to look at TikTok videos of yourself or ridiculous videos of your pet dancing. That reflects poorly on your profile and diminishes the value of LinkedIn as a professional network.  

Also, value authenticity. Here’s a a piece of advise by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to one of his fans: “If you want to be famous, you have to work hard. Forget about attempting to replicate my success”. Again, people tend to go for the easiest path in front of them. When we see someone else achieve fame, we often want to emulate them. However, attempts to replicate would usually fail. 

An example of authenticity gaining fame was when I wrote about being a sales engineer on my LinkedIn page. It was just a quick recollection of how people mocked me in college for wanting to sell engineering instruments rather than study technical engineering like the rest of my classmates. One of my classmates even made fun of me. Assume you put in a lot of time and effort to learn chemical engineering but all you end up doing is working in sales. It certainly hurt, but I persisted in my goal of becoming a sales engineer. 

But at the end of the day, I realized that no profession, not even cleaners, are beneath us. We should never judge others based on the work they do. After that post, I gained a lot of attention with more than 9,000 likes just for that one post. This taught me that the key to getting people interested on LinkedIn or on any social media platform was to simply be yourself and make the value of your postings obvious. Remember the golden rule: Be genuine at all times. 

3. Last (but not least), don’t self-promote!

Most importantly, LinkedIn is not a place to promote yourself. Many people present themselves online in the same way Darth Vader would if he used LinkedIn. I frequently saw people on LinkedIn bragging about their accomplishments, credentials, and the positions they had held. 

But… what is it that distinguishes you from the thousands of other applicants with impressive degrees and titles?

It’s a common misconception that employers and recruiters value our impressive resumes and academic credentials. However, LinkedIn is a platform for you to showcase your skills to the rest of the world, not a place to extol your virtues.

LinkedIn members and “head hunters” don’t want to be sold to, they want to participate. 

Above are a few tips and tricks on using LinkedIn and my personal experience on how I gained 18,000 followers. Remember, To get the most out of LinkedIn, you must first define your goals, purpose, authenticity, and relatability. 

The Art of Letting Go

By Christine Sitambuli

What are the things that you can do to help you let go of your troubles, fears and insecurities? Christine Sitambuli reveals the secrets of learning to focus on what matters most in your life,   

 This life will present you with a lot of challenges, but it will also bring you a lot of opportunities for success. We need to have inner peace to make room for greater things to come. It’s important to let go of that weight, those shackles, that tightness in our chests, that heaviness in our heads. It is one surefire way to live our days with freedom.

 As you’re here, you’ve taken the very first step in realising that it’s time to let go of all that weighs us down. And, I want you to appreciate that.

 So, how do we let go? What is the art of letting go?

Just as an artist uses a paintbrush to create a masterpiece, you can wield a set of life tools or  ‘paintbrushes’ that will help you achieve a happy and carefree life. 

Paintbrush #1: Self-forgiveness
The very first paintbrush you’ll need is the paintbrush of self-forgiveness. When we face adversity, whether in our professional or personal lives, we tend to blame ourselves for the negative outcomes. So, we end up moping about everything we’ve lost and fantasizing about what could have been and what we could have done differently. To find inner peace and make room for greater things, you must learn to let go by forgiving yourself in order to move forward. 

Paintbrush #2: Hope
The second step is to have hope. Sometimes we fail to move forward, and we fail to create a sense of inner peace because we believe that we lived our great lives in the past or that the goodness of our lives can only be found in the things that we have lost. As a result, we become mired in the past, oblivious to the fact that there is more ahead of us. In The Art of Letting Go, the second brushstroke is to instill hope. that there is more to come. You have more success ahead of you. There will be more love ahead of you, as well as more good things in your life.

Paintbrush #3: Have faith
The final one is belief in the bigger picture. Our lives are not isolated – they’re  intertwined with a bigger story that we sometimes cannot see. And this is something we don’t understand. But, even if we don’t understand it, we must believe that there is a bigger picture and that there is a purpose for everything we have lost and everything good that we have accomplished.

 As you keep learning the art of letting go, let go of your fear, of your past, of your mistakes, of your insecurities, of your failures, of your self-doubt. Forgive yourself enough to let go of the parts of you that dim your light.

 “If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.”

—Paulo Coelho

How I Successfully Overcame Challenges in My Life

By Tinisa Ooi 

At the age of 3, I was a sickly child; always in the hospital to receive nebulizer treatments for my lungs. I was one of those kids living on borrowed time. The asthma medication I received turned my hair white, which meant that I had premature aging.

In school, I couldn’t participate in sports. I always carried an inhaler with me wherever I went, and to make matters worse, I was always bullied for being too quiet. Not wanting to fight back, as I was a pacifist, I turned inward as a child and buried myself in books. 

Overcoming illness

When I was 9, I was given the opportunity to learn an old ancient yoga dance called Bharatanatyam. It originated in Tamil Nadu India. My teachers saw that I was enthusiastic to learn and even sang for joy in an ancient language called Sanskrit. 

I was a prodigy teacher. By the age of 12, I was already teaching adults and teenagers how to dance. My teacher divided us into tiny groups of three and I was their leader. Unfortunately, my first teacher left, and by luck, I stumbled upon another teacher who took me to greater heights.

Due to the spiritual nature of this dance, I describe this dance art that I took on as an eternal flame of the Cosmos because it expanded my lungs and cured my Asthma.

Overcoming the fear of being in public

I first performed in public at the age of 16. I danced in many places — such as temples, charity events, weddings as well as other social functions.

My passion for dance attracted a lot of media attention and that made me feel uncomfortable. I decided then to take took two steps back from the unwanted fame. 

A Devadasi is depicted as a beautiful woman who is pure and has a lovely smile. As she is blessed by the Goddess, her pure spirit contains Wisdom, Wealth and Spiritual Power. It is with this inner power that she brings joy and prosperity with her presence. It is said that it is a blessing to see her dance at weddings or any social functions as her energy is that of the Immortal Gods. Her presence also gave me the courage to step out of my shy, introverted shell and face my bullies with firmness in my voice.

Photo by Tinisa Oii

Every time I put on my dancing bells, I would always get butterflies in my stomach, but something magical happened once the song started, and I danced to tell stories, describing ancient battles and ancient love stories, mischievous pranks, and joyful dancing, I described them all using my eyes, hands, and feet. All while mastering emotions such as happiness, anger, fear, sorrow, and joy. 

Learning to be resourceful

One of my most notable stories was during an auspicious festival called Navaratri. I diligently performed my full Vegetarian ten day fast, before I put on my bells. And during one of those spiritual days, I was told to dance in a very small temple and there was no space for me. So, I bravely danced outside in the night sky, with the bright beautiful stars shining on me. It was like a blessing from the Creator.

Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash

Overcoming my fears through Toastmasters

Throughout my life, dance has given me the strength to cast away doubts, overcome my fears of being in public and emerge from the introverted shadows.  

I made the decision to continue pushing myself out of my shy shell by joining Toastmasters because everyone needs to find their voice. Being a part of Toastmasters has helped me overcome my introverted nature and encouraged me to speak confidently in public. Being around optimistic individuals who are genuine about encouraging and strengthening our respective leadership skills is very much needed in today’s ever-changing world.

In light of all of this, I encourage you all to strive to overcome your challenges and to find your voice as well.