Many of us are experiencing a dramatic reduction in post engagement notifications and LinkedIn have admitted that they are prioritising other notifications instead. This week I look at what notifications are most useful to us and ask why we can't choose our own. In addition to that...  A new 'Active Group' badge that misses the point! More feedback on the services marketplace Do more followers improve engagement levels? Feedback on a new LinkedIn authors' posts Post of the week 

Many of us are experiencing a dramatic reduction in post engagement notifications and LinkedIn have admitted that they are prioritising other notifications instead. This week I look at what notifications are most useful to us and ask why we can't choose our own. In addition to that... <ul> <li>A new 'Active Group' badge that misses the point!</li> <li>More feedback on the services marketplace</li> <li>Do more followers improve engagement levels?</li> <li>Feedback on a new LinkedIn authors' posts</li> <li>Post of the week</li> </ul>

What's happened to Notifications?

I've been away in Greece for 10 days...it was pure bliss! While I was away, a few things have been happening on LinkedIn so in this episode, I'm catching up on it all! The biggest news was LinkedIn's algorithm changes: I will give my thoughts on content dominance, meaningful comments, and the quest for 'knowledge &amp; advice' amplification. As you would imagine,I have a few things to say about it!

I've been away in Greece for 10 days...it was pure bliss! While I was away, a few things have been happening on LinkedIn so in this episode, I'm catching up on it all! The biggest news was LinkedIn's algorithm changes: I will give my thoughts on content dominance, meaningful comments, and the quest for 'knowledge &amp; advice' amplification. As you would imagine,I have a few things to say about it!

Trust me, I'm an expert!

This is the talk that I gave at LinkedSummit in Odense, Denmark this year. We know that the content that perhaps should really be on Facebook does well on LinkedIn, but it's not going to generate business and pay the bills! On the flip side, neither is boring business content that fails to engage and is seen by very few. So we need to find the sweet spot! 

This is the talk that I gave at LinkedSummit in Odense, Denmark this year. We know that the content that perhaps should really be on Facebook does well on LinkedIn, but it's not going to generate business and pay the bills! On the flip side, neither is boring business content that fails to engage and is seen by very few. So we need to find the sweet spot!

The LinkedIn Content Sweetspot

This weeks episode is inspired by a post I saw that included this line; "Don’t believe the bullsh!t that “commenting on others posts is the best way to grow” So I thought it would be worth examining this in more detail. Also in this episode;  What's going on with Events messaging? Services Marketplace - dormant or important? Does unfollowing someone will reduce your relevance to them? Why I haven't published a book Is 'Open for work' worth having on your profile? A text-only Fathers day post of the week. 

This weeks episode is inspired by a post I saw that included this line; "Don’t believe the bullsh!t that “commenting on others posts is the best way to grow” So I thought it would be worth examining this in more detail. Also in this episode; <ul> <li>What's going on with Events messaging?</li> <li>Services Marketplace - dormant or important?</li> <li>Does unfollowing someone will reduce your relevance to them?</li> <li>Why I haven't published a book</li> <li>Is 'Open for work' worth having on your profile?</li> <li>A text-only Fathers day post of the week.</li> </ul>

Is commenting a good strategy?

A special episode of the podcast this week as I talked through my recent experience of the LinkedIn conference in Odense, Denmark. I can only give my feedback on the English language sessions from Ruben Hassid and Richard van der Blom for obvious reasons but they both provided plenty of gems in their presentations. That plus a few new features and some features LinkedIn are retiring.

A special episode of the podcast this week as I talked through my recent experience of the LinkedIn conference in Odense, Denmark. I can only give my feedback on the English language sessions from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/7074692841142120448/?author=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAADHkIABleQd2Aq1AUuwIxE-tIurEy3oBis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ruben Hassid</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/7074692841142120448/?author=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAADHkIABleQd2Aq1AUuwIxE-tIurEy3oBis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Richard van der Blom</a> for obvious reasons but they both provided plenty of gems in their presentations. That plus a few new features and some features LinkedIn are retiring.

LinkedSummit 2023

This week I return to the hottest topic in town! Artificial intelligence and how it can be utilized on LinkedIn. I'm no expert and these examples are very basic, but I'm hoping you might find them useful That plus;  A new and very useful update to Sales Navigator New Recruiter features that every job seeker should know about Feedback on the new 'conversations happening now' feature A very creative post of the week 

This week I return to the hottest topic in town! Artificial intelligence and how it can be utilized on LinkedIn. I'm no expert and these examples are very basic, but I'm hoping you might find them useful That plus; <ul> <li>A new and very useful update to Sales Navigator</li> <li>New Recruiter features that every job seeker should know about</li> <li>Feedback on the new 'conversations happening now' feature</li> <li>A very creative post of the week</li> </ul>

4 Examples of How to Use AI on LinkedIn: It's Easier Than You Think!

This week I discuss the 7 ways to become more visible on LinkedIn. In the competitive world of professional networking, it's essential to make your presence known and stand out from the crowd. By applying these tips, you'll significantly improve your visibility on LinkedIn and attract more career opportunities. So, grab your notepad and pen, and let's dive into the world of LinkedIn visibility.

This week I discuss the 7 ways to become more visible on LinkedIn. In the competitive world of professional networking, it's essential to make your presence known and stand out from the crowd. By applying these tips, you'll significantly improve your visibility on LinkedIn and attract more career opportunities. So, grab your notepad and pen, and let's dive into the world of LinkedIn visibility.

7 ways to be more visible on LinkedIn

Imagine you're on another social media site and you see a great video post - it's ideal content for LinkedIn and especially your audience! You quickly check whether the author has posted it on LinkedIn and they haven't. What do you do next? Plagiarism is rife on LinkedIn and LinkedIn don't seem to be doing much about it. Can we help? That plus:  Feedback from the last LinkedInformed regarding the prevalence of LinkedIn ads in our feed plus some more thoughts on that strange data from Social Insider. You can now specify that a job application on LInkedIn is one of your 'Top choices' but do Recruiters really care? Did Fiverr game the algorithm by changing the job titles of their staff? LinkedIn cut 716 jobs, discontinue InCareer in China, and close their graduate training program. LinkedIn starts to test AI-generated posts A technique for getting great results from Chat GPT The dangers of AI - humanity could be at risk! A royal post of the week. 

Imagine you're on another social media site and you see a great video post - it's ideal content for LinkedIn and especially your audience! You quickly check whether the author has posted it on LinkedIn and they haven't. What do you do next? Plagiarism is rife on LinkedIn and LinkedIn don't seem to be doing much about it. Can we help? That plus: <ul> <li>Feedback from the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sponsored-personal-posts-mark-williams" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">last LinkedInformed</a> regarding the prevalence of LinkedIn ads in our feed plus some more thoughts on that strange data from Social Insider.</li> <li>You can now specify that a job application on LInkedIn is one of your 'Top choices' but do Recruiters really care?</li> <li>Did Fiverr game the algorithm by changing the job titles of their staff?</li> <li>LinkedIn cut 716 jobs, discontinue InCareer in China, and close their graduate training program.</li> <li>LinkedIn starts to test AI-generated posts</li> <li>A technique for getting great results from Chat GPT</li> <li>The dangers of AI - humanity could be at risk!</li> <li>A royal post of the week.</li> </ul>

Copycat Content

This week I chat with the LinkedIn ads guy AJ Wilcox. AJ is very enthusiastic about what I saw as the beginning of the end for LinkedIn - personal sponsored posts. Hear what AJ has to say and make your own mind up! That plus  New call to action button on profiles Why your follower numbers may have dropped LinkedIn Stats from 2022 - if you can make any sense of them! A positive change to hashtags LinkedIn reveals a little more about how the feed algorithm works A unique first for post of the week 

This week I chat with the LinkedIn ads guy AJ Wilcox. AJ is very enthusiastic about what I saw as the beginning of the end for LinkedIn - personal sponsored posts. Hear what AJ has to say and make your own mind up! That plus <ul> <li>New call to action button on profiles</li> <li>Why your follower numbers may have dropped</li> <li>LinkedIn Stats from 2022 - if you can make any sense of them!</li> <li>A positive change to hashtags</li> <li>LinkedIn reveals a little more about how the feed algorithm works</li> <li>A unique first for post of the week</li> </ul>

Finding Time For Content

Weekly LinkedIn updates, discussion, interviews and tips for the UK's best known LinkedIn Trainer, Mark 'Mr LinkedIn' Williams

I love the informal conversational style of this podcast. I always get useful information and look forward to each new episode. Mark is authentic and doesn’t try to fit a mold or type.

LinkedIn knowledge in a nice conversational style

LinkedInform is a great way to stay updated on LinkedIn. It is in fact the only podcast that I listen to without fail. Mark finds the right balance between serious and humorous and mixes enough personal anecdotes in to feel like you know him.

The Best Podcast!

LinkedInformed Podcast. The LinkedIn Show

Welcome to episode 194, this week I have a chat with my friend and fellow LinkedIn trainer/consultant Sandra Long about personal branding.   Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week  LinkedIn Announce some changes to groups I have mentioned previously that I’m aware that LinkedIn are currently working on a project to improve groups and this week they sent out a communication advising of several changes that will happen soon. I think most people have been sent it but in case you didn’t see it; My thoughts; Accessing groups from the homepage is a welcome move but lets be clear, this is just a roll back to how it used to be! Including group conversations in the feed is also nothing new. This one concerns me in that most activity in groups is useless broadcasting as well as spam so this could actually be a negative thing for members homepage feeds! Posting videos is great news. No surprise either as it has been a success on the home page and the ability to @mention (assuming it works!) is a positive step. Retirement of the iOS Groups app. I’m not sure how this will improve the use of groups….taking away an app is not exactly moving forward! You have always been able to access groups from the main app anyway (Android users have always had to do it that way) Maybe LinkedIn felt it was necessary to release this information now in light of the recent Facebook summit where groups were mentioned but I have to say, these changes are somewhat underwhelming! I’m sure this is really just the start of the groups design. I’m disappointed because I felt they needed to scrap groups altogether and start again from scratch. Getting members back engaging in groups is going to be very hard because most members have just written them off. LinkedIn quote: “Additional notifications, groups posts in feed, video posts, @mentions and replies to comments have been announced because those are the items for which we have a decent sense of the timeline. But it is definitely not an exhaustive list of the work we're doing to improve Groups” Let’s hope that the next announcements are more exciting!  Personal Branding This week I had a chat with LinkedIn expert Sandra Long. Personal branding was one of my predictions for 2018 covered in episode 192 and a subject I believe to be very important to all of us. I even covered it briefly in the first ever episode of LinkedInformed when I introduced ‘Personal Branding for Brits’ author Jennifer Holloway Key takeaways Tom Peters article The Brand Called You which is still just as relevant today as when it was written in 1997! Social media really allows us to craft an image that we want to portray. This has many advantages but also creates an authenticity challenge. Social media has blended our social and professional lives. This creates a question as to how ‘open’ we want to be with business contacts about our personal lives. 40% of people don’t know how to describe what they do…and those are just the hard facts, never mind describing your character! The best way to describe what you do is to be very specific - broad, ‘jack of all trades’ profiles rarely work for you. In terms of character - what makes you unique? You can display this information in a variety of different sections of your LinkedIn profile. It can help to define a ‘persona’ when writing your LinkedIn summary - Sandra’s book gives plenty of persona examples and has a list of questions that can help define your persona. This also impacts corporate brands as many organisations are now realising that they are in reality, a collective of many personal brands and this can be a very powerful. It is however really important to be authentic to your own brand and this needs to align, for the most part with the corporate brand you are representing. Your activity on LinkedIn should also be in line with your brand. If your brand is genuine then this should not be difficult! It’s often a good test on whether your brand image is right. Posting should never be self-promotional. Thought leadership, being helpful and contributing to the LinkedIn community by developing conversations is the best way to ‘stay on brand’ - your profile should clearly explain what you do. Final word from Sandra: Take the time to really think through who you are and your ‘brand elements’ before you start to write your profile

Welcome to episode 194, this week I have a chat with my friend and fellow LinkedIn trainer/consultant Sandra Long about personal branding. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week LinkedIn Announce some changes to groups I have mentioned previously that I’m aware that LinkedIn are currently working on a project to improve groups and this week they sent out a communication advising of several changes that will happen soon. I think most people have been sent it but in case you didn’t see it; My thoughts; Accessing groups from the homepage is a welcome move but lets be clear, this is just a roll back to how it used to be! Including group conversations in the feed is also nothing new. This one concerns me in that most activity in groups is useless broadcasting as well as spam so this could actually be a negative thing for members homepage feeds! Posting videos is great news. No surprise either as it has been a success on the home page and the ability to @mention (assuming it works!) is a positive step. Retirement of the iOS Groups app. I’m not sure how this will improve the use of groups….taking away an app is not exactly moving forward! You have always been able to access groups from the main app anyway (Android users have always had to do it that way) Maybe LinkedIn felt it was necessary to release this information now in light of the recent Facebook summit where groups were mentioned but I have to say, these changes are somewhat underwhelming! I’m sure this is really just the start of the groups design. I’m disappointed because I felt they needed to scrap groups altogether and start again from scratch. Getting members back engaging in groups is going to be very hard because most members have just written them off. LinkedIn quote: “Additional notifications, groups posts in feed, video posts, @mentions and replies to comments have been announced because those are the items for which we have a decent sense of the timeline. But it is definitely not an exhaustive list of the work we're doing to improve Groups” Let’s hope that the next announcements are more exciting! Personal Branding This week I had a chat with LinkedIn expert Sandra Long. Personal branding was one of my predictions for 2018 covered in episode 192 and a subject I believe to be very important to all of us. I even covered it briefly in the first ever episode of LinkedInformed when I introduced ‘Personal Branding for Brits’ author Jennifer Holloway Key takeaways Tom Peters article The Brand Called You which is still just as relevant today as when it was written in 1997! Social media really allows us to craft an image that we want to portray. This has many advantages but also creates an authenticity challenge. Social media has blended our social and professional lives. This creates a question as to how ‘open’ we want to be with business contacts about our personal lives. 40% of people don’t know how to describe what they do…and those are just the hard facts, never mind describing your character! The best way to describe what you do is to be very specific - broad, ‘jack of all trades’ profiles rarely work for you. In terms of character - what makes you unique? You can display this information in a variety of different sections of your LinkedIn profile. It can help to define a ‘persona’ when writing your LinkedIn summary - Sandra’s book gives plenty of persona examples and has a list of questions that can help define your persona. This also impacts corporate brands as many organisations are now realising that they are in reality, a collective of many personal brands and this can be a very powerful. It is however really important to be authentic to your own brand and this needs to align, for the most part with the corporate brand you are representing. Your activity on LinkedIn should also be in line with your brand. If your brand is genuine then this should not be difficult! It’s often a good test on whether your brand image is right. Posting should never be self-promotional. Thought leadership, being helpful and contributing to the LinkedIn community by developing conversations is the best way to ‘stay on brand’ - your profile should clearly explain what you do. Final word from Sandra: Take the time to really think through who you are and your ‘brand elements’ before you start to write your profile

Personal Branding on LinkedIn

Welcome to a new episode, this week is very different as the majority of this show will be dedicated to a talk that I'm giving this week on LinkedIn visibility and posting techniques. But first I wanted to highlight three posts that each deserve a special mention, all for different reasons. Go to http://linkedinformed.com/episode236/ for the more

Welcome to a new episode, this week is very different as the majority of this show will be dedicated to a talk that I'm giving this week on LinkedIn visibility and posting techniques. But first I wanted to highlight three posts that each deserve a special mention, all for different reasons. Go to <a href="http://linkedinformed.com/?p=2800&amp;preview=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://linkedinformed.com/episode236/</a> for the more

Increase Your Visibility With Effective Posting

Welcome to episode 184, this week I’m expanding on the subject of the meteoric rise of LinkedIn in terms of engagement and activity and I want to to focus on some of the key characters behind that change - the class of 2017! But before I get to that….. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week HiQ turn to crowdfunding to fight LinkedIn’s legal appeal of a recent court decision LinkedIn announces the ‘Most socially engagement employment agencies’ but the get the measures all wrong! Native video is coming to company page updates. Currently only a few have access including Mashable. See one such update here. Mashable video update Huawei and LinkedIn announce a new phone collaboration embed https://youtu.be/C5gXjyGimRA As reported recently ‘smart replies’ are improving in LinkedIn messaging and here is the Engineering blog on the detail of how it is done. The Class of 2017 (plus Oleg!) When we look back in years to come we will see 2017 as being THE year LinkedIn really became a mainstream social media platform. 2008 was a similar year, that was when LinkedIn initially became widely used but this year is different. It’s not so much that LinkedIn are attracting new members, it’s more that more users are engaging on LinkedIn. A 60% increase in engagement levels vs the same period last year is pretty phenomenal so how has this happened? I mentioned recently that a big part of this has to be attributed to the new design and LinkedIn deserve a lot of credit for that but another big part of this has been down to a new generation of LinkedIn users who have started to use the platform in different and more ‘socially connected’ ways. I have been studying this for some time now and I just love the way the class of 2017 are challenging the status quo and rewriting the rule book on how to use LinkedIn. Here is a list of some of the most impressive and influential members of the class of 2017 (in no particular order) Michaela Alexis Janet Murray Tim Queen Mike Morgan Josh Fechter Jonathan Pollard Gretta van Riel Eli Hochberg Chris Williams Ben Rea Alexandra Galviz Matt Wilson Lila Smith Tom Mallens Simon Dodson Josh Quigley Erik Eklund String Nguyen Amy Blaschka Anna McAfee Manu Goswami Simon Chan And last but not least, I can’t go without giving a mention to the honourable ‘mature student’ of the year Oleg Vishneplosky who consistently continues to set the pace with some of the highest levels of engagement ever seen on LinkedIn! I’m sure I have missed some important names, so please do not be offended if I have not listed you! I’m not stating that I agree with everything these members do on LinkedIn but they are definitely pace setters in this new age of LinkedIn engagement. Take a look at their posts and you will see similar patterns; Storytelling, often of a personal nature Use of hashtags Lots of @mentioning Large, diverse networks and followers A sense of community - many comment, share or Like each others posts A sense of fun about their LinkedIn activity Rarely, if ever, promote themselves or their businesses Use of native video Many long, text only posts As I have stated before, some of them post things that I think are not always suitable for LinkedIn but who am I to argue with the level of engagement those posts get? Many (not all) of the above are millennials and one concern I have is whether they are likely to drop LinkedIn like a stone when something ‘new and shiny’ comes along - this is very typical of how this generation use Social media and it could happen to LinkedIn. This weeks questions are all regarding last weeks topic of GDPR and were all aimed at Jeremy Kajendran following his interview. Jeremy has been very generous in answering all the questions I sent him by recording his answers. Topics covered were; Do subscribers on pre-GDPR email lists need to opt-in again to be compliant? If I work under the name of another company as a Consultant and promote them as a company etc. Do I still need to register with the ICO? Am I still able to send InMails to 2nd and 3rd degree contacts under GDPR?

Welcome to episode 184, this week I’m expanding on the subject of the meteoric rise of LinkedIn in terms of engagement and activity and I want to to focus on some of the key characters behind that change - the class of 2017! But before I get to that….. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week HiQ turn to crowdfunding to fight LinkedIn’s legal appeal of a recent court decision LinkedIn announces the ‘Most socially engagement employment agencies’ but the get the measures all wrong! Native video is coming to company page updates. Currently only a few have access including Mashable. See one such update here. Mashable video update Huawei and LinkedIn announce a new phone collaboration embed <a href="https://youtu.be/C5gXjyGimRA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/C5gXjyGimRA</a> As reported recently ‘smart replies’ are improving in LinkedIn messaging and here is the Engineering blog on the detail of how it is done. The Class of 2017 (plus Oleg!) When we look back in years to come we will see 2017 as being THE year LinkedIn really became a mainstream social media platform. 2008 was a similar year, that was when LinkedIn initially became widely used but this year is different. It’s not so much that LinkedIn are attracting new members, it’s more that more users are engaging on LinkedIn. A 60% increase in engagement levels vs the same period last year is pretty phenomenal so how has this happened? I mentioned recently that a big part of this has to be attributed to the new design and LinkedIn deserve a lot of credit for that but another big part of this has been down to a new generation of LinkedIn users who have started to use the platform in different and more ‘socially connected’ ways. I have been studying this for some time now and I just love the way the class of 2017 are challenging the status quo and rewriting the rule book on how to use LinkedIn. Here is a list of some of the most impressive and influential members of the class of 2017 (in no particular order) Michaela Alexis Janet Murray Tim Queen Mike Morgan Josh Fechter Jonathan Pollard Gretta van Riel Eli Hochberg Chris Williams Ben Rea Alexandra Galviz Matt Wilson Lila Smith Tom Mallens Simon Dodson Josh Quigley Erik Eklund String Nguyen Amy Blaschka Anna McAfee Manu Goswami Simon Chan And last but not least, I can’t go without giving a mention to the honourable ‘mature student’ of the year Oleg Vishneplosky who consistently continues to set the pace with some of the highest levels of engagement ever seen on LinkedIn! I’m sure I have missed some important names, so please do not be offended if I have not listed you! I’m not stating that I agree with everything these members do on LinkedIn but they are definitely pace setters in this new age of LinkedIn engagement. Take a look at their posts and you will see similar patterns; Storytelling, often of a personal nature Use of hashtags Lots of @mentioning Large, diverse networks and followers A sense of community - many comment, share or Like each others posts A sense of fun about their LinkedIn activity Rarely, if ever, promote themselves or their businesses Use of native video Many long, text only posts As I have stated before, some of them post things that I think are not always suitable for LinkedIn but who am I to argue with the level of engagement those posts get? Many (not all) of the above are millennials and one concern I have is whether they are likely to drop LinkedIn like a stone when something ‘new and shiny’ comes along - this is very typical of how this generation use Social media and it could happen to LinkedIn. This weeks questions are all regarding last weeks topic of GDPR and were all aimed at Jeremy Kajendran following his interview. Jeremy has been very generous in answering all the questions I sent him by recording his answers. Topics covered were; Do subscribers on pre-GDPR email lists need to opt-in again to be compliant? If I work under the name of another company as a Consultant and promote them as a company etc. Do I still need to register with the ICO? Am I still able to send InMails to 2nd and 3rd degree contacts under GDPR?

The Class of 2017 - The New ‘IN’ Crowd!

Welcome to a new and special episode on LinkedInformed. A shift from the normal format, this week I’m chatting with Scott Millward, the Marketing Director of Matt Burton Associates. Scott only started posting on LinkedIn in February 2019 and in a matter of months he was producing posts that went viral. How did he manage to do that so quickly? Prior to our interview I checked back and counted the average engagement he received on his last 10 posts; Reactions (Likes etc) – 1289/post Comments – 193/post In this fascinating interview, Scott reveals the techniques he has utilised to gain this level of success – enjoy!

Welcome to a new and special episode on LinkedInformed. A shift from the normal format, this week I’m chatting with Scott Millward, the Marketing Director of Matt Burton Associates. Scott only started posting on LinkedIn in February 2019 and in a matter of months he was producing posts that went viral. How did he manage to do that so quickly? Prior to our interview I checked back and counted the average engagement he received on his last 10 posts; Reactions (Likes etc) – 1289/post Comments – 193/post In this fascinating interview, Scott reveals the techniques he has utilised to gain this level of success – enjoy!

How To Go Viral On LinkedIn

Welcome to episode 198, this week I have a real treat for you! As I have mentioned previously, I wanted to revisit the controversial subject of LinkedIn automation. LinkedIn make it very clear they do not approve of the use of any type of automation bot as you can see in the image above which was received by someone after visiting just 100 profiles in a day…..but does that mean we should avoid them? Could they be a useful tool that help us become more productive and successful? I have thought about this a lot and my conclusion is that automation tools are a bad thing for all of us and the more they are used, the less effective LinkedIn will become. Darrel Griffin agrees But not everyone sees it that way…..enter John Nemo! John is a LinkedIn trainer and a big fan of automation on LinkedIn so I thought it would be fun to get him on the show and have a good old debate! We get into all sorts of areas during our discussion and I’m not going to even attempt to cover everything here, you will have to listen to the episode but in short; John believes In Permission Based Marketing. Contact people via direct message and ask them if they are interested. If they say “No thanks” then that is fine, move on. Most people are not active on LinkedIn so direct messaging has to be a numbers game. Automated of connecting and messaging saves you time and acts as a filter - eliminating those that are not active or not interested. In not wasting time with ‘Tyre (tire) kicking people, it’s better to focus on those that are likely to buy. If LinkedIn is ruined by automation then so be it, people will move to another platform and we can follow them there. Quote “Marketers ruin everything” - Gary Vaynerchuck Whilst LinkedIn are not supportive of 3rd party tools, they are mainly against scraping tools, not automation. I believe Visibility, reputation and relationships are the key to winning business. By putting your time an effort into engagement on LinkedIn via Posts, Articles and comments (not direct messaging) you also filter out those that are not active on LinkedIn When you play the numbers game you are likely to put many more people off than you attract, this is damaging to you in the long term although may be more rewarding in the short term. I will help anyone, including so called ‘tyre kicker’s because I believe that ‘giving’ in this way will gain me more visibility and build better relationships - this strategy means that 95% of my business comes to me and I do very little traditional ‘business development’. Automation is a numbers game, for every 5 positive responses there are 95 negative, not all of these will be annoyed and very few will actually complain but a decent percentage of these become tired of being ‘hit on’ - no matter how politely it is done. LinkedIn has become an amazing business resource but automation will ruin it because these tools will be extensively used by people who misuse hem and this will result in the people we wish to do business with, switching off or even closing their accounts. We can’t afford to let LinkedIn deteriorate in this way. Using automation tools is highly risky, the chances of getting your account suspended are increasing all the time. LinkedIn are very keen to stop the use of automation tools, not just scraping tools.  John referred to an article he wrote about his method which you can read here;  https://www.inc.com/john-nemo/1-simple-strategy-that-will-skyrocket-your-engagement-on-linkedin.html I personally wouldn’t recommend that strategy……but that is entirely up to you! So what do you think? Please get in touch and let me have your views. Send me a voicemail or drop me an email to mark@linkedinformed.com

Welcome to episode 198, this week I have a real treat for you! As I have mentioned previously, I wanted to revisit the controversial subject of LinkedIn automation. LinkedIn make it very clear they do not approve of the use of any type of automation bot as you can see in the image above which was received by someone after visiting just 100 profiles in a day…..but does that mean we should avoid them? Could they be a useful tool that help us become more productive and successful? I have thought about this a lot and my conclusion is that automation tools are a bad thing for all of us and the more they are used, the less effective LinkedIn will become. Darrel Griffin agrees But not everyone sees it that way…..enter John Nemo! John is a LinkedIn trainer and a big fan of automation on LinkedIn so I thought it would be fun to get him on the show and have a good old debate! We get into all sorts of areas during our discussion and I’m not going to even attempt to cover everything here, you will have to listen to the episode but in short; John believes In Permission Based Marketing. Contact people via direct message and ask them if they are interested. If they say “No thanks” then that is fine, move on. Most people are not active on LinkedIn so direct messaging has to be a numbers game. Automated of connecting and messaging saves you time and acts as a filter - eliminating those that are not active or not interested. In not wasting time with ‘Tyre (tire) kicking people, it’s better to focus on those that are likely to buy. If LinkedIn is ruined by automation then so be it, people will move to another platform and we can follow them there. Quote “Marketers ruin everything” - Gary Vaynerchuck Whilst LinkedIn are not supportive of 3rd party tools, they are mainly against scraping tools, not automation. I believe Visibility, reputation and relationships are the key to winning business. By putting your time an effort into engagement on LinkedIn via Posts, Articles and comments (not direct messaging) you also filter out those that are not active on LinkedIn When you play the numbers game you are likely to put many more people off than you attract, this is damaging to you in the long term although may be more rewarding in the short term. I will help anyone, including so called ‘tyre kicker’s because I believe that ‘giving’ in this way will gain me more visibility and build better relationships - this strategy means that 95% of my business comes to me and I do very little traditional ‘business development’. Automation is a numbers game, for every 5 positive responses there are 95 negative, not all of these will be annoyed and very few will actually complain but a decent percentage of these become tired of being ‘hit on’ - no matter how politely it is done. LinkedIn has become an amazing business resource but automation will ruin it because these tools will be extensively used by people who misuse hem and this will result in the people we wish to do business with, switching off or even closing their accounts. We can’t afford to let LinkedIn deteriorate in this way. Using automation tools is highly risky, the chances of getting your account suspended are increasing all the time. LinkedIn are very keen to stop the use of automation tools, not just scraping tools. John referred to an article he wrote about his method which you can read here; <a href="https://www.inc.com/john-nemo/1-simple-strategy-that-will-skyrocket-your-engagement-on-linkedin.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.inc.com/john-nemo/1-simple-strategy-that-will-skyrocket-your-engagement-on-linkedin.html</a> I personally wouldn’t recommend that strategy……but that is entirely up to you! So what do you think? Please get in touch and let me have your views. Send me a voicemail or drop me an email to mark@linkedinformed.com

LinkedIn Automation

In this special episode I take a break from the normal format to concentrate fully on a comprehensive review of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator product.I believe that this product is critical to the future of LinkedIn who are still trying to break away from an unhealthy reliance on their flagship Recruiter product so I thought it was about time I upgraded and gave Sales Navigator a thorough appraisal.What is Sales Navigator?The first thing to understand about Sales Navigator (SN) is that it is not a conventional premium account. It's DNA comes from the Recruiter product and so it sits separately from LinkedIn.com.To access SN you click on a link from within your normal LinkedIn account which opens a separate tab with a different user interface. Premium accounts are basically normal accounts with added features, SN is very different and is designed for people who are focussed on using LinkedIn as a social selling tool.It is principally a lead generation and social listening tool, it's not a CRM (contact/customer relationship management) tool....not yet anyway!TerminologyOne of the first things you notice about SN is that LinkedIn have chosen to rename things, despite the fact that they are (mostly) the same as the traditional features on LinkedIn.com. For instance;Leads - translation = PeopleAccount - translation = CompanyLead builder - translation = Advanced search (with all filters)

In this special episode I take a break from the normal format to concentrate fully on a comprehensive review of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator product.I believe that this product is critical to the future of LinkedIn who are still trying to break away from an unhealthy reliance on their flagship Recruiter product so I thought it was about time I upgraded and gave Sales Navigator a thorough appraisal.What is Sales Navigator?The first thing to understand about Sales Navigator (SN) is that it is not a conventional premium account. It's DNA comes from the Recruiter product and so it sits separately from <a href="http://LinkedIn.com.To" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn.com.To</a> access SN you click on a link from within your normal LinkedIn account which opens a separate tab with a different user interface. Premium accounts are basically normal accounts with added features, SN is very different and is designed for people who are focussed on using LinkedIn as a social selling <a href="http://tool.It" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tool.It</a> is principally a lead generation and social listening tool, it's not a CRM (contact/customer relationship management) tool....not yet anyway!TerminologyOne of the first things you notice about SN is that LinkedIn have chosen to rename things, despite the fact that they are (mostly) the same as the traditional features on <a href="http://LinkedIn.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn.com</a>. For instance;Leads - translation = PeopleAccount - translation = CompanyLead builder - translation = Advanced search (with all filters)

Episode 83. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Review

Hello everyone and welcome to a new episode. This week I have had messages from several people about an article doing the rounds that details how the LinkedIn algorithm works – “Wow, that sounds very interesting” I thought….then I read it and felt somewhat cheated. It’s not what it purports to be but I do think it’s worth covering so that will be the main subject for this week More of that later but first….. Go to http://linkedinformed.com/episode220

Hello everyone and welcome to a new episode. This week I have had messages from several people about an article doing the rounds that details how the LinkedIn algorithm works – “Wow, that sounds very interesting” I thought….then I read it and felt somewhat cheated. It’s not what it purports to be but I do think it’s worth covering so that will be the main subject for this week More of that later but first….. Go to <a href="http://linkedinformed.com/episode220" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://linkedinformed.com/episode220</a>

I've Cracked The LinkedIn Algorithm!

You open your laptop (or pick up your phone) in the morning, fire up LinkedIn and then notice this……  Wait….that’s not 2 invitations, it’s 2000! Where did they all of a sudden come from? This week I’m investigating what I call the LinkedIn Invitation Tsunami. What is it, why does it happen and what you should do if it happens to you. But first….. Go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode254 for the rest

You open your laptop (or pick up your phone) in the morning, fire up LinkedIn and then notice this…… Wait….that’s not 2 invitations, it’s 2000! Where did they all of a sudden come from? This week I’m investigating what I call the LinkedIn Invitation Tsunami. What is it, why does it happen and what you should do if it happens to you. But first….. Go to <a href="https://linkedinformed.com/episode254" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://linkedinformed.com/episode254</a> for the rest

LinkedIn Invitation Tsunami!

Welcome to episode 186, this week I really enjoyed chatting with Leif Carlsen, A social selling expert and podcaster from Denmark. Leif and I chat about a range of things in the episode; ROI - Return on Investment It's difficult to measure Statistics are often merely a vanity measure Social selling will always be a ‘long game’ Some ways you can measure RIO; Post comments, likes and views in the feed InMail / message replies Profile views Invitations received True followers (followers minus connections) SSI (social selling index) Successful referrals The influence formula as discussed in episode 167 LinkedIn should be added as a lead source in your CRM The future of social selling Less about content marketing and more about engagement Sales people will need to grow their own following and influence Think of yourself as being a DJ Broadcasting to a wide audience of listeners The attributes of sales people will change; Less selfish, more motivated to help others Driven to help people even when there is no chance of doing business with them Better at written communication Are LinkedIn moving in this direction? The design of Sales Navigator might suggest not! InMail is, in many respects, a form of cold calling via LinkedIn! Does cold calling really work any more? Company Pages I believe that company pages have very limited use, primarily because people do business with people. Most company page posts get the very little, if any engagement Leif Took a more positive stance but believes that Company pages can only work if you deliver high quality educational and interesting updates. Check out Leif’s Company page below Articles Leif has found that Google will find articles but only if the content is of the highest quality. A good technique is to write with a specific person in mind Articles give you credibility, they don't need to be written very regularly but it's important that your prospects and followers can see that there is more to you then just the "Gift of the gab” Writing good articles will make you think more about your market and inevitably make you a better salesperson.

Welcome to episode 186, this week I really enjoyed chatting with Leif Carlsen, A social selling expert and podcaster from Denmark. Leif and I chat about a range of things in the episode; ROI - Return on Investment It's difficult to measure Statistics are often merely a vanity measure Social selling will always be a ‘long game’ Some ways you can measure RIO; Post comments, likes and views in the feed InMail / message replies Profile views Invitations received True followers (followers minus connections) SSI (social selling index) Successful referrals The influence formula as discussed in episode 167 LinkedIn should be added as a lead source in your CRM The future of social selling Less about content marketing and more about engagement Sales people will need to grow their own following and influence Think of yourself as being a DJ Broadcasting to a wide audience of listeners The attributes of sales people will change; Less selfish, more motivated to help others Driven to help people even when there is no chance of doing business with them Better at written communication Are LinkedIn moving in this direction? The design of Sales Navigator might suggest not! InMail is, in many respects, a form of cold calling via LinkedIn! Does cold calling really work any more? Company Pages I believe that company pages have very limited use, primarily because people do business with people. Most company page posts get the very little, if any engagement Leif Took a more positive stance but believes that Company pages can only work if you deliver high quality educational and interesting updates. Check out Leif’s Company page below Articles Leif has found that Google will find articles but only if the content is of the highest quality. A good technique is to write with a specific person in mind Articles give you credibility, they don't need to be written very regularly but it's important that your prospects and followers can see that there is more to you then just the "Gift of the gab” Writing good articles will make you think more about your market and inevitably make you a better salesperson.

In Conversation with Leif Carlsen

Hashtags and @mention tagging. Two often misunderstood and misused features of LinkedIn. Should you use them and what are the best techniques.

Hashtags and @mention tagging. Two often misunderstood and misused features of LinkedIn. Should you use them and what are the best techniques.

Welcome to episode 207, this week I had the pleasure of chatting with Simon Bourne from The Hand Dyed Shoe Company. Simon is a classic example of what can be achieved when you use LinkedIn to develop an authentic personal brand.   Takeaways LinkedIn has massive untapped potential to develop your brand Simon developed his visibility because he posted honest, authentic content about his personal and business journey. LinkedIn success is not about View or Share Numbers it's about the reaction you get from followers, on and off line. Quote “it's not about selling your products, it's about developing your brand”. You can be more promotional with your posts once you have built an engaged audience. The power of storytelling. Authentic stories are the way to develop a brand, you must stir emotion to gain engagement. Never follow what other people do on LinkedIn. Be you and show your authentic emotions. Once you are visible and your followers are emotionally invested in you, it becomes relatively straightforward to sell to them.

Welcome to episode 207, this week I had the pleasure of chatting with Simon Bourne from The Hand Dyed Shoe Company. Simon is a classic example of what can be achieved when you use LinkedIn to develop an authentic personal brand. Takeaways LinkedIn has massive untapped potential to develop your brand Simon developed his visibility because he posted honest, authentic content about his personal and business journey. LinkedIn success is not about View or Share Numbers it's about the reaction you get from followers, on and off line. Quote “it's not about selling your products, it's about developing your brand”. You can be more promotional with your posts once you have built an engaged audience. The power of storytelling. Authentic stories are the way to develop a brand, you must stir emotion to gain engagement. Never follow what other people do on LinkedIn. Be you and show your authentic emotions. Once you are visible and your followers are emotionally invested in you, it becomes relatively straightforward to sell to them.

Building An Authentic Brand on LinkedIn.

Welcome to episode 221, after a weeks break while I was hiking around the Swiss Alps. If you have never been I would highly recommend it, as you can see below, the scenery is breathtaking!   Interesting Stuff I saw This Week LinkedIn Groups Announcement Thank you for your continued dedication to your LinkedIn groups. As you know we are fully rebuilding Groups and reintegrating it into the main LinkedIn website and mobile apps. We are excited for you to experience the new version of Groups which will start rolling out to all members at the end of August. We've heard from many of you over the past year that boosting engagement and enabling vibrant discussions in your groups is important, so we've prioritized features that support this including: Making it easier to access Groups right from the LinkedIn homepage and improving visibility of group conversations in the main LinkedIn feed Giving you the ability to manage your group on the go in the LinkedIn iOS and Android apps Helping you stay up-to-date on group activity through Notifications Enabling richer conversations with the ability to reply to comments, edit posts and comments, and post native video All of your groups will be migrated automatically and for the first time the full functionality of Groups will be available from the LinkedIn app and desktop experience. In the coming months you'll also see new and better ways to manage your communities on LinkedIn. In the meantime, we've streamlined some existing admin functionality that we want you to be aware of: Moderation queues will be temporarily unavailable. We realize the importance of moderation tools and are working on rebuilding moderation functionality in the new version of Groups. This rebuilt and improved moderation queue will be available in the next few months. We are not planning to rebuild the auto-generated classifier queue. We encourage you to review any content in the queues and remove any members who continue to violate your group rules. Admin roles will be streamlined to just owners and managers. We heard feedback from many of you that current admin roles are confusing so we're simplifying to just owner and manager roles. Moderators will become regular members once this change takes effect. If you have moderators who you'd like to keep on as admins, please promote them to managers. Admin and auto-generated group emails (including digests, automated templates, and announcements) will be unavailable as we build better and more robust notification and communication channels. We have seen significant lift in engagement to Groups coming from notifications and believe that notifications will be an effective way for you to communicate with your members. There is no required action for this change but we wanted to clearly highlight it as we know many of you plan your email content in advance. We have many more updates coming and an engineering team dedicated to building admin functionality for Groups. We know your role as a group admin is integral to the success of your group, and we look forward to continuing to work with you as we build out the new experience. Thank you for your continued support in making groups on LinkedIn a trusted place to share knowledge and learn from other professionals. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the changes and stay tuned for more updates! I'm not sure why people are kicking up such a fuss about this, LinkedIn are making it clear that these changes are mainly temporary, whilst they complete the implementation of a new Groups format. Let's hope new groups are something to be excited about it......I'm not holding my breath! New Feature Actually, it would be better described as an old feature that has been corrected! This video post explains it;   LinkedIn Articles Formerly known as Published posts, long-form articles on LinkedIn were once incredibly popular with authors achieving phenomenal view numbers. In more recent times, views have dropped significantly. In this chat with Deepak, we explore why that has happened and debate with Articles are still worth writing and how often. Click on the image below to view Deepaks full profile.   Summary of points covered; Deepak is sceptical that posts and engagement generate business. He once did a post that attracted over 2 million views but didn't attract any leads from it whereas he gained business from Articles with significantly less views. FACT: Article views are actual clicks - Post views are merely page impressions (no guarantee it has been viewed) so you can't compare the two. Posts are more popular than articles due to a lower barrier on entry - both in terms of production and consumption. Articles have generated more conversions to actual business for Deepak because the reader is more engaged. The increased use of mobile has coincided with the decrease in Article views. Is it a coincidence or are mobile users less likely to read long-form content? Because of the lower entry barrier of posts, there are significantly more of them and this is bound to have a negative impact on Article views. Posts and Articles can and should work in tandem. In summary, posts establish and maintain rapport whereas Articles are more likely to establish credibility. Deepak believes that having a strong body of long-form content attached to your account can help with LinkedIn search optimisation. This is unproven but would make sense (less about keywords and more to do with LinkedIn recognising you as an expert). Articles have the advantage of a long shelf life although if you produce too many, they are almost impossible to find. The 'See more Articles from' section at the bottom appears to have no topic relevance, even when hashtags are used. The articles are just in date order. If you were to post long-form content on your website rather then as a LinkedIn article, it is more likely to rank higher for SEO. You could of course post on both! The case for writing more Articles is that you create a broader body of work, covering a wider variety of topics which gives you a greater chance of appealing to a potential customer. A strong body of work also shows the reader that you are serious about your subject.  I really enjoyed chatting with Deepak and I think he made some excellent points. I'm unlikley to start writing an article a week but I can definitely see the beenefits more clearly now....I hope you can too. Let me know your thoughts.   That's it for this week.

Welcome to episode 221, after a weeks break while I was hiking around the Swiss Alps. If you have never been I would highly recommend it, as you can see below, the scenery is breathtaking! Interesting Stuff I saw This Week LinkedIn Groups Announcement Thank you for your continued dedication to your LinkedIn groups. As you know we are fully rebuilding Groups and reintegrating it into the main LinkedIn website and mobile apps. We are excited for you to experience the new version of Groups which will start rolling out to all members at the end of August. We've heard from many of you over the past year that boosting engagement and enabling vibrant discussions in your groups is important, so we've prioritized features that support this including: Making it easier to access Groups right from the LinkedIn homepage and improving visibility of group conversations in the main LinkedIn feed Giving you the ability to manage your group on the go in the LinkedIn iOS and Android apps Helping you stay up-to-date on group activity through Notifications Enabling richer conversations with the ability to reply to comments, edit posts and comments, and post native video All of your groups will be migrated automatically and for the first time the full functionality of Groups will be available from the LinkedIn app and desktop experience. In the coming months you'll also see new and better ways to manage your communities on LinkedIn. In the meantime, we've streamlined some existing admin functionality that we want you to be aware of: Moderation queues will be temporarily unavailable. We realize the importance of moderation tools and are working on rebuilding moderation functionality in the new version of Groups. This rebuilt and improved moderation queue will be available in the next few months. We are not planning to rebuild the auto-generated classifier queue. We encourage you to review any content in the queues and remove any members who continue to violate your group rules. Admin roles will be streamlined to just owners and managers. We heard feedback from many of you that current admin roles are confusing so we're simplifying to just owner and manager roles. Moderators will become regular members once this change takes effect. If you have moderators who you'd like to keep on as admins, please promote them to managers. Admin and auto-generated group emails (including digests, automated templates, and announcements) will be unavailable as we build better and more robust notification and communication channels. We have seen significant lift in engagement to Groups coming from notifications and believe that notifications will be an effective way for you to communicate with your members. There is no required action for this change but we wanted to clearly highlight it as we know many of you plan your email content in advance. We have many more updates coming and an engineering team dedicated to building admin functionality for Groups. We know your role as a group admin is integral to the success of your group, and we look forward to continuing to work with you as we build out the new experience. Thank you for your continued support in making groups on LinkedIn a trusted place to share knowledge and learn from other professionals. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the changes and stay tuned for more updates! I'm not sure why people are kicking up such a fuss about this, LinkedIn are making it clear that these changes are mainly temporary, whilst they complete the implementation of a new Groups format. Let's hope new groups are something to be excited about it......I'm not holding my breath! New Feature Actually, it would be better described as an old feature that has been corrected! This video post explains it; LinkedIn Articles Formerly known as Published posts, long-form articles on LinkedIn were once incredibly popular with authors achieving phenomenal view numbers. In more recent times, views have dropped significantly. In this chat with Deepak, we explore why that has happened and debate with Articles are still worth writing and how often. Click on the image below to view Deepaks full profile. Summary of points covered; Deepak is sceptical that posts and engagement generate business. He once did a post that attracted over 2 million views but didn't attract any leads from it whereas he gained business from Articles with significantly less views. FACT: Article views are actual clicks - Post views are merely page impressions (no guarantee it has been viewed) so you can't compare the two. Posts are more popular than articles due to a lower barrier on entry - both in terms of production and consumption. Articles have generated more conversions to actual business for Deepak because the reader is more engaged. The increased use of mobile has coincided with the decrease in Article views. Is it a coincidence or are mobile users less likely to read long-form content? Because of the lower entry barrier of posts, there are significantly more of them and this is bound to have a negative impact on Article views. Posts and Articles can and should work in tandem. In summary, posts establish and maintain rapport whereas Articles are more likely to establish credibility. Deepak believes that having a strong body of long-form content attached to your account can help with LinkedIn search optimisation. This is unproven but would make sense (less about keywords and more to do with LinkedIn recognising you as an expert). Articles have the advantage of a long shelf life although if you produce too many, they are almost impossible to find. The 'See more Articles from' section at the bottom appears to have no topic relevance, even when hashtags are used. The articles are just in date order. If you were to post long-form content on your website rather then as a LinkedIn article, it is more likely to rank higher for SEO. You could of course post on both! The case for writing more Articles is that you create a broader body of work, covering a wider variety of topics which gives you a greater chance of appealing to a potential customer. A strong body of work also shows the reader that you are serious about your subject. I really enjoyed chatting with Deepak and I think he made some excellent points. I'm unlikley to start writing an article a week but I can definitely see the beenefits more clearly now....I hope you can too. Let me know your thoughts. That's it for this week.

LinkedIn Articles. Are They Worth Your Time?

Welcome to a new episode of LinkedInformed. It's been a very slow week for news about LinkedIn so I thought I would take the opportunity to focus on the subject of content and specifically the type of posts that typically attract comments and likes and therefore have greater reach. For more go to  http://linkedinformed.com/episode242/

Welcome to a new episode of LinkedInformed. It's been a very slow week for news about LinkedIn so I thought I would take the opportunity to focus on the subject of content and specifically the type of posts that typically attract comments and likes and therefore have greater reach. For more go to  <a href="https://linkedinformed.com/?p=2883&amp;preview=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://linkedinformed.com/episode242/</a>

The Types of Posts That Engage

Welcome to episode 205, this week I’m joined by Robert Indries to discuss content marketing on LinkedIn. But first…  Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week  The ‘Find nearby’ feature on the mobile app actually works very well (once you have asked others to switch it on) as I found when I experimented with it this week at a course I ran LinkedIn are changing Middle East and African accounts onto US based contracts as from May 8th to avoid GDPR compliance.   LinkedIn Tips to Keep Your Profile Fresh includes reference to new profile design You can now add subtitles to your native videos via desktop, it’s a bit fiddle but the video below explains it very well Content Marketing I chatted with Robert Indries about how content marketing can work on LinkedIn but only if it is done in the right way. Key points  Content should be designed to create connections and conversations. Long form content is great for SEO but less suitable for LinkedIn Most LinkedIn content searching is actually"Passive" searching. Most people perceive LinkedIn is a place to find and engage with people. Google is the place to search for answers, LinkedIn is the place to search for people who might provide answers. Video posts usually have the greatest impact in passive search largely down to autoplay. Short-form text content is also effective at "Drawing in" the viewer. Posting allows people to associate us with a subject or niche and we tend to remember the first names and faces (profile photos). Article listings in a profile only work well when you have a singular niche subject. Media in your summary will be improved in the new design profiles. Five pieces of media show (allowing you to demonstrate five subjects) Plus they are visible before the ’show more’ link. Long form content is most effective as a secondary impact on the viewer. It is better to use posts to get someone's attention initially. Content should be driven by your own personal experience or by interviewing others who show their experience. 

Welcome to episode 205, this week I’m joined by Robert Indries to discuss content marketing on LinkedIn. But first… Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week The ‘Find nearby’ feature on the mobile app actually works very well (once you have asked others to switch it on) as I found when I experimented with it this week at a course I ran LinkedIn are changing Middle East and African accounts onto US based contracts as from May 8th to avoid GDPR compliance. LinkedIn Tips to Keep Your Profile Fresh includes reference to new profile design You can now add subtitles to your native videos via desktop, it’s a bit fiddle but the video below explains it very well Content Marketing I chatted with Robert Indries about how content marketing can work on LinkedIn but only if it is done in the right way. Key points <ul> <li>Content should be designed to create connections and conversations.</li> <li>Long form content is great for SEO but less suitable for LinkedIn</li> <li>Most LinkedIn content searching is actually"Passive" searching.</li> <li>Most people perceive LinkedIn is a place to find and engage with people. Google is the place to search for answers, LinkedIn is the place to search for people who might provide answers.</li> <li>Video posts usually have the greatest impact in passive search largely down to autoplay.</li> <li>Short-form text content is also effective at "Drawing in" the viewer.</li> <li>Posting allows people to associate us with a subject or niche and we tend to remember the first names and faces (profile photos).</li> <li>Article listings in a profile only work well when you have a singular niche subject.</li> <li>Media in your summary will be improved in the new design profiles. Five pieces of media show (allowing you to demonstrate five subjects) Plus they are visible before the ’show more’ link.</li> <li>Long form content is most effective as a secondary impact on the viewer. It is better to use posts to get someone's attention initially.</li> <li>Content should be driven by your own personal experience or by interviewing others who show their experience.</li> </ul>

Does Content Marketing Still Work?

Welcome to episode 212. A big thanks for all the feedback from last weeks show. Most of you seemed to enjoy Marjorie’s information about ProFinder although I was surprised by a couple of people who felt I shouldn’t have been promoting a service such as ProFinder - the premise being that LinkedIn are creating a market that is free to use (even though it isn’t) and once people are dependent on ProFinder as a source of work, they will start to charge more for it. I massively struggle with that mindset - I can remember people in recruitment saying exactly the same thing about LinkedIn “Don’t support a business threat” was a common view and look at where we are now? You can’t put your head in the sand on things like that, a perceived ‘threat’ can become an opportunity but only if you embrace it. This week I’m looking for your help… I’m thinking of writing a book about my famous ‘rants’ about LinkedIn - I want to focus on the things that people do wrong or the things that go wrong on LinkedIn. Ideally from a humorous perspective. What have you seen happen on LinkedIn that is a good example of a mishap or poor practice? You don’t need to name names, just tell me the story. As a starting point, I though I would cover my 5 biggest mistakes I see on LinkedIn and hope that you can help me add to the list.  But first…..  Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week Airline sources a plane via a LinkedIn post! Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t consider LinkedIn to be a competitor  The Company (Drift) that did that cool video takeover thing on LinkedIn Here’s an example of one of the videos posted by one of the team at Drift New LinkedIn Features New Sales Navigator profiles - a definite improvement The people also views has gone but they do have an extra ‘Recommended leads at:’ section that isn’t shown above   Using Stickers and Text to Stand Out on LinkedIn Video ‘How You Match’ feature speeds up time-to-hire Post of the Week This one obviously resonated with me! Thanks to Gary Stockton for sending this one in. Have you seen a post that you really enjoyed recently on LinkedIn? If so drop me a note on LinkedIn or via mark@linkedinformed.com with a link to the post.   The 5 Biggest Mistakes Made on LinkedIn  Poor quality profile. I’m amazed I still find myself saying this one! Bad profile pics, unedited headlines, non existent summaries, no background images….the list goes on and on. When will people realise that this is their professional identity online?! Promiscuous Connecting. Whilst it once made sense to grow very large networks and adopt a LION philosophy, those days are gone….in fact they have been gone for at least 5 years! Oversized networks add little extra value to your visibility, confuse the algorithm and potentially expose your other connections to scammers. Many automation tools facilitate this behaviour and it’s a massive mistake Inactivity. Linkedin are lucky to get 25% of their users to log in more than once a month….and that’s in a good quarter! There really is very little point in LinkedIn if you don’t at least engage in some activity every week. These ultra passive users are missing all sorts of opportunities. Even those that are active often ‘hold back’ on LinkedIn and are too scared or shy to post or comment on others posts, another missed opportunity. Direct selling. Sometimes is just blatant spam but more common than that is the blunt ‘I want something from you’ messages, InMail or posts. It’s like trying to french kiss someone when you first meet them on a first date! Another aspect of this is the ‘McFly’ posts you see all the time ‘Look at me’ ‘Aren't we wonderful’ and ‘look how we can help you (at a cost)’ - it’s all about you! Lazy Networking. Similar to the post of the week as shown above. Extensive use of short canned messages such as ‘congrats’ or only ever liking posts and never being bothered to comment, invitations that are not personalised or personalised with a message that is clearly sent to everyone (automation) 

Welcome to episode 212. A big thanks for all the feedback from last weeks show. Most of you seemed to enjoy Marjorie’s information about ProFinder although I was surprised by a couple of people who felt I shouldn’t have been promoting a service such as ProFinder - the premise being that LinkedIn are creating a market that is free to use (even though it isn’t) and once people are dependent on ProFinder as a source of work, they will start to charge more for it. I massively struggle with that mindset - I can remember people in recruitment saying exactly the same thing about LinkedIn “Don’t support a business threat” was a common view and look at where we are now? You can’t put your head in the sand on things like that, a perceived ‘threat’ can become an opportunity but only if you embrace it. This week I’m looking for your help… I’m thinking of writing a book about my famous ‘rants’ about LinkedIn - I want to focus on the things that people do wrong or the things that go wrong on LinkedIn. Ideally from a humorous perspective. What have you seen happen on LinkedIn that is a good example of a mishap or poor practice? You don’t need to name names, just tell me the story. As a starting point, I though I would cover my 5 biggest mistakes I see on LinkedIn and hope that you can help me add to the list. But first….. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week Airline sources a plane via a LinkedIn post! Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t consider LinkedIn to be a competitor The Company (Drift) that did that cool video takeover thing on LinkedIn Here’s an example of one of the videos posted by one of the team at Drift New LinkedIn Features New Sales Navigator profiles - a definite improvement The people also views has gone but they do have an extra ‘Recommended leads at:’ section that isn’t shown above Using Stickers and Text to Stand Out on LinkedIn Video ‘How You Match’ feature speeds up time-to-hire Post of the Week This one obviously resonated with me! Thanks to Gary Stockton for sending this one in. Have you seen a post that you really enjoyed recently on LinkedIn? If so drop me a note on LinkedIn or via <a href="mailto:mark@linkedinformed.com">mark@linkedinformed.com</a> with a link to the post. The 5 Biggest Mistakes Made on LinkedIn <ol> <li>Poor quality profile. I’m amazed I still find myself saying this one! Bad profile pics, unedited headlines, non existent summaries, no background images….the list goes on and on. When will people realise that this is their professional identity online?!</li> <li>Promiscuous Connecting. Whilst it once made sense to grow very large networks and adopt a LION philosophy, those days are gone….in fact they have been gone for at least 5 years! Oversized networks add little extra value to your visibility, confuse the algorithm and potentially expose your other connections to scammers. Many automation tools facilitate this behaviour and it’s a massive mistake</li> <li>Inactivity. Linkedin are lucky to get 25% of their users to log in more than once a month….and that’s in a good quarter! There really is very little point in LinkedIn if you don’t at least engage in some activity every week. These ultra passive users are missing all sorts of opportunities. Even those that are active often ‘hold back’ on LinkedIn and are too scared or shy to post or comment on others posts, another missed opportunity.</li> <li>Direct selling. Sometimes is just blatant spam but more common than that is the blunt ‘I want something from you’ messages, InMail or posts. It’s like trying to french kiss someone when you first meet them on a first date! Another aspect of this is the ‘McFly’ posts you see all the time ‘Look at me’ ‘Aren't we wonderful’ and ‘look how we can help you (at a cost)’ - it’s all about you!</li> <li>Lazy Networking. Similar to the post of the week as shown above. Extensive use of short canned messages such as ‘congrats’ or only ever liking posts and never being bothered to comment, invitations that are not personalised or personalised with a message that is clearly sent to everyone (automation)</li> </ol>

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Made on LinkedIn

What are pods? Sometimes they are called engagement or amplify or boosting pods. The basic premise is that a group of active users form a group/community somewhere online (LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack or any other online community site) and announce (with a link) to the group everytime they publish a post or article on LinkedIn. The agreement is that everyone in the group then engages with that post (Liking and/or commenting). This has two effects;  It spreads the post to a section of their followers which is likely to increase views and engagement The algorithm will give an extra boost to more of your followers if it believes the post is popular. This calculation seems to be made within the first hour after posting.    Pods are sometimes managed by one individual with strict rules and procedures and others are managed much more loosely. Some pods have hundreds of members and others are much smaller. I first came across them last year when a listener directed me to a Facebook group that was set up for this purpose, then again earlier this year when I saw this article. My first reaction was that they seemed somewhat ‘shady’ and populated by ‘internet marketers’ who were trying to cut corners and gain quick wins (as they do!). Then a couple of months I was invited to join one by someone I knew and respected so I thought I would join to learn more and assess it’s effectiveness. My experience is that they do work but only when managed correctly but I wanted to get the views and knowledge from someone who has been using pods for much longer – enter podcast listener Lynnaire Johnston.

What are pods? Sometimes they are called engagement or amplify or boosting pods. The basic premise is that a group of active users form a group/community somewhere online (LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack or any other online community site) and announce (with a link) to the group everytime they publish a post or article on LinkedIn. The agreement is that everyone in the group then engages with that post (Liking and/or commenting). This has two effects; <ol> <li>It spreads the post to a section of their followers which is likely to increase views and engagement</li> <li>The algorithm will give an extra boost to more of your followers if it believes the post is popular. This calculation seems to be made within the first hour after posting.</li> </ol> Pods are sometimes managed by one individual with strict rules and procedures and others are managed much more loosely. Some pods have hundreds of members and others are much smaller. I first came across them last year when a listener directed me to a Facebook group that was set up for this purpose, then again earlier this year when I saw <a href="https://winatlinkedin.com/linkedin-engagement-pods/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">this article</a>. My first reaction was that they seemed somewhat ‘shady’ and populated by ‘internet marketers’ who were trying to cut corners and gain quick wins (as they do!). Then a couple of months I was invited to join one by someone I knew and respected so I thought I would join to learn more and assess it’s effectiveness. My experience is that they do work but only when managed correctly but I wanted to get the views and knowledge from someone who has been using pods for much longer – enter podcast listener Lynnaire Johnston.

LinkedIn Pods. Part 1

Welcome to episode 206. As the new desktop profile design continues to roll-out to many, I thought it would make sense to cover profiles with you in this episode.  Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week LinkedIn’s AutoFill plugin could leak user data, secret fix failed Facebook faces exodus as businesses call time Facebook's new slogan: 'If you think we're not good for your business, leave' Always Customise Your LinkedIn Invitation? Better not?  LinkedIn Features The new mobile ‘Find Nearby’ seems to be broken! The settings have disappeared which renders it useless! Post of the Week Following on from last weeks episode on content marketing I thought I would highlight this excellent post from John Espirian. Great advice…and great subtitles too! Refresh Your Profile With the new profile design rolling out to many of you I thought it would be a good time to make some changes to your profile. As a starting point I posted this video this week showing a side by side comparison  You might find Andy Foote’s article on the reasons behind the new profile design interesting A Scientific Explanation Of The NEW LinkedIn Profile Some of you will have to change your background image because of the new position of the profile picture. It is unlikely to change on mobile where it is still centred. This is not a massive issue as the background image is less important on mobile, but worth considering. The easiest way to create a background image is to find a suitable free image on Pixabay and upload it to Canva and then create a ‘custom dimension’ of 1584x396 px It may also be a good time to invest in a new, professionally taken headshot image. This is no longer an expensive thing to do and you should easily be able to find a good local headshot photographer on LinkedIn, just type the following into the searcher at the top of the page; headshot AND title:photographer then select ‘people’ and add your location Review your headline : Is there clarity to your prospects? Are you using your 120 characters wisely? Company Logo; The most recently commenced position will be the one that shows a logo at the top of your new profile. Make sure that if you have several concurrent positions that the most important one is at the top (you can move them by dragging the 4 horizontal lines) Summary: This has increased from 2 to 3 lines (roughly 300 characters) now. A good summary should start with your contact details (only 45 characters are seen on mobile) and the rest should provide an enticing ‘teaser’ to encourage the viewer to click on the now more prominent ‘show more’ Media: As there are now 6 thumbnails that actually show in the preview, it may be a good time to review which media you are using and perhaps designing them so that the thumbnails (which are much smaller) show what the media is. Skills: If you are into skills (I’m really not!) then you might want to use the new format as an excuse to review what you show (see Greg Coopers post above)

Welcome to episode 206. As the new desktop profile design continues to roll-out to many, I thought it would make sense to cover profiles with you in this episode. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week LinkedIn’s AutoFill plugin could leak user data, secret fix failed Facebook faces exodus as businesses call time Facebook's new slogan: 'If you think we're not good for your business, leave' Always Customise Your LinkedIn Invitation? Better not? LinkedIn Features The new mobile ‘Find Nearby’ seems to be broken! The settings have disappeared which renders it useless! Post of the Week Following on from last weeks episode on content marketing I thought I would highlight this excellent post from John Espirian. Great advice…and great subtitles too! Refresh Your Profile With the new profile design rolling out to many of you I thought it would be a good time to make some changes to your profile. As a starting point I posted this video this week showing a side by side comparison You might find Andy Foote’s article on the reasons behind the new profile design interesting A Scientific Explanation Of The NEW LinkedIn Profile Some of you will have to change your background image because of the new position of the profile picture. It is unlikely to change on mobile where it is still centred. This is not a massive issue as the background image is less important on mobile, but worth considering. The easiest way to create a background image is to find a suitable free image on Pixabay and upload it to Canva and then create a ‘custom dimension’ of 1584x396 px It may also be a good time to invest in a new, professionally taken headshot image. This is no longer an expensive thing to do and you should easily be able to find a good local headshot photographer on LinkedIn, just type the following into the searcher at the top of the page; headshot AND title:photographer then select ‘people’ and add your location Review your headline : Is there clarity to your prospects? Are you using your 120 characters wisely? Company Logo; The most recently commenced position will be the one that shows a logo at the top of your new profile. Make sure that if you have several concurrent positions that the most important one is at the top (you can move them by dragging the 4 horizontal lines) Summary: This has increased from 2 to 3 lines (roughly 300 characters) now. A good summary should start with your contact details (only 45 characters are seen on mobile) and the rest should provide an enticing ‘teaser’ to encourage the viewer to click on the now more prominent ‘show more’ Media: As there are now 6 thumbnails that actually show in the preview, it may be a good time to review which media you are using and perhaps designing them so that the thumbnails (which are much smaller) show what the media is. Skills: If you are into skills (I’m really not!) then you might want to use the new format as an excuse to review what you show (see Greg Coopers post above)

Time To Refresh Your Profile?

This week I respond to a post by Richard Moore about the apparent lack of 'Content Creators' on LinkedIn in the UK. What exactly is he referring to and how do we define great content? That plus a few interesting things I saw this week about LinkedIn. More info at LinkedInformed.com

This week I respond to a post by Richard Moore about the apparent lack of 'Content Creators' on LinkedIn in the UK. What exactly is he referring to and how do we define great content? That plus a few interesting things I saw this week about LinkedIn. More info at <a href="http://LinkedInformed.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedInformed.com</a>

What Makes Great Content on LinkedIn?

Welcome to episode 210, I’m back after a very restful week in the sun in Cape Verde and was surprised to see very little news about LinkedIn circulating the internet over the last couple of weeks so this is going to be a shorter than normal episode.   Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week  Actually not interesting at all! I got back from holiday to an email inbox that could only be described as GDPR hell! A plethora of emails asking me to read a new privacy policy (necessary but annoying) combined with a series of ‘Do you still want to hear from us’ followed by ‘Are you sure you want us to go?” emails encouraging me to opt-in to future emails. I’m not expert but I thought the idea of GDPR was to reduct the number of emails?!! I guess we may feel the benefit in the longer term. I have to say (again not from any position of expertise) that these people who are sending out ‘opt-in’ emails seem to be doing unnecessary damage to their business by culling lists they have built up over years.  Here is a post I published this week on the subject, which generated quite a debate! Another example of scammers using LinkedIn in this article. This really highlights the need to be a bit more careful who we connect with, for everyones benefit. LinkedIn Announces New Sales Navigator Capabilities  Is It Time To Re-think How We Use LinkedIn To Win Business?  LinkedIn has made it much harder to direct people to your own website. A client recently told me that their website referrals from LinkedIn were down by 50% over the last year! Increased legislation regarding data privacy and email marketing (such as GDPR) is only likely to increase.  What is wrong with using LinkedIn to gain greater visibility to generate more business. If LinkedIn goes away, we just move with our audience.  I’m not suggesting we move away from email lists but I do think the ‘build a platform’ with the intention of building a list methodology might be worth challenging today. Is it still as relevant?  Michael Hyatt’s Platform book influenced me years ago and it’s still mostly relevant but I now question the ‘don’t build your brand on someone else platform’ philosophy.  Could it be time to focus more of our time on interacting with people on LinkedIn via posts, articles and groups rather than relying on building email lists?  The ‘passive income’ model is a myth. Everyone I know who makes decent money online does it through lots of hard work.

Welcome to episode 210, I’m back after a very restful week in the sun in Cape Verde and was surprised to see very little news about LinkedIn circulating the internet over the last couple of weeks so this is going to be a shorter than normal episode.   Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week Actually not interesting at all! I got back from holiday to an email inbox that could only be described as GDPR hell! A plethora of emails asking me to read a new privacy policy (necessary but annoying) combined with a series of ‘Do you still want to hear from us’ followed by ‘Are you sure you want us to go?” emails encouraging me to opt-in to future emails. I’m not expert but I thought the idea of GDPR was to reduct the number of emails?!! I guess we may feel the benefit in the longer term. I have to say (again not from any position of expertise) that these people who are sending out ‘opt-in’ emails seem to be doing unnecessary damage to their business by culling lists they have built up over years. Here is a post I published this week on the subject, which generated quite a debate! Another example of scammers using LinkedIn in this article. This really highlights the need to be a bit more careful who we connect with, for everyones benefit. LinkedIn Announces New Sales Navigator Capabilities Is It Time To Re-think How We Use LinkedIn To Win Business? LinkedIn has made it much harder to direct people to your own website. A client recently told me that their website referrals from LinkedIn were down by 50% over the last year! Increased legislation regarding data privacy and email marketing (such as GDPR) is only likely to increase. What is wrong with using LinkedIn to gain greater visibility to generate more business. If LinkedIn goes away, we just move with our audience. I’m not suggesting we move away from email lists but I do think the ‘build a platform’ with the intention of building a list methodology might be worth challenging today. Is it still as relevant? Michael Hyatt’s Platform book influenced me years ago and it’s still mostly relevant but I now question the ‘don’t build your brand on someone else platform’ philosophy. Could it be time to focus more of our time on interacting with people on LinkedIn via posts, articles and groups rather than relying on building email lists? The ‘passive income’ model is a myth. Everyone I know who makes decent money online does it through lots of hard work.

Build Your Business On LinkedIn

Welcome to this weeks episode after a break for a week in the sun, I’m back fully refreshed and raring to go…oh and hating the cold, wet UK weather! I have had a couple of listeners contact me this week to tell me about a strange message they received from LinkedIn regarding missing InMails, at first I thought it must be a hoax…it wasn’t! Here's what you can found in this weeks episode; 06.00 - 11.30 Interesting stuff I saw this week 11.40 - 24.06 New Features 24.16 - 32.33 Do we need 30,000 connections? 32.44 - 45.20 The InMail Scandal 45.30 - 49.10 How our feed could be improved 49.20 - 53.18 Post of the week 53.28 - Question about the Daily rundown

Welcome to this weeks episode after a break for a week in the sun, I’m back fully refreshed and raring to go…oh and hating the cold, wet UK weather! I have had a couple of listeners contact me this week to tell me about a strange message they received from LinkedIn regarding missing InMails, at first I thought it must be a hoax…it wasn’t! Here's what you can found in this weeks episode; 06.00 - 11.30 Interesting stuff I saw this week 11.40 - 24.06 New Features 24.16 - 32.33 Do we need 30,000 connections? 32.44 - 45.20 The InMail Scandal 45.30 - 49.10 How our feed could be improved 49.20 - 53.18 Post of the week 53.28 - Question about the Daily rundown

The Great InMail Scandal!

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