LinkedIn™️ are finding it hard to control pods so some LinkedIn™️ users have decided to take the law into their own hands and expose people who use pods to falsely inflate the engagement on their content. But...are these exposures accurate and could some people be caught up in the fallout? That plus; 'Videos for you' on mobile app Sharing comments You really don't need hashtags 'LinkedIn is a mess. Here's how to fix it' The Guardian has it all wrong! Post of the week

...Finding the right balance. This week, I am replaying a conversation I had with Gillian Whitney on her recent LinkedIn™️ Live. You can view the full Livestream here Also the post of the week can be viewed here

Discover the art of business development on LinkedIn and how AI shapes user engagement! Dive into the rise of collaborative articles amidst the challenge of misinformation. Learn the perfect character count for text-only posts that capture attention. Plus, hear personal reflections on caregiving during a cruise and exciting travel tales from Norway and the Swiss Alps. Unpack the evolution of LinkedIn’s badge system and how it recognizes content creators. Get savvy tips for leveraging LinkedIn to elevate your business success!

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable...so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better. But do we REALLY know them? interesting People interviews are designed to reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️ This week I chat with one of the nicest and most helpful LinkedIn™️ Experts out there - My friend John Espirian. Subscribe to my newsletter for full show notes https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6726487426274992128/

In this engaging discussion, personal branding specialist Ella Orr shares her insights on adding personality to LinkedIn content. She highlights the struggle between being overly loud or too bland and emphasizes the value of authenticity. Listeners learn how to balance personal experiences with professional branding, leveraging storytelling to forge deeper connections. With examples of visual storytelling and personal anecdotes, Orr encourages embracing individual identities to transform LinkedIn into a vibrant networking tool.

I was hoping that we, the LinkedIn™️ community, would have learnt by now but no, illegal (Linkedin law) automation products are still thriving and new ones seem to appear almost every month. It's been a long time since I tackled this subject - remember the battle I had with John Nemo in episode 198? John has since changed his views but since those days (2018), the tools have become more sophisticated but still do the same damage to this platform so I thought I would return to this important topic. Also in this episode I talk about; A content generation tool called AuthoredUp Two new features A worrying security issue Post of the week Subscribe to my newsletter for full show notes https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6726487426274992128/

I'm back from a wonderful two weeks in Greece...back to a windy and wet UK (summer lasted two days apparently!) So to warm myself up, I got stuck into the following topics in this weeks podcast; Should a company be posting this? Congratulations you are in the top ten experts list! Four new features LinkedSummit 2024 Post of the week  

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable...so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better. But do we REALLY know them? interesting People interviews are designed to reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️ This week I chat with my favourite Kiwi, New Zealand based LinkedIn expert Lynnaire Johnston. Lynnaire has a fascinating career history in radio, publishing and copywriting before finding her passion for LinkedIn™️. Lynnaire is one of the friendliest, most generous and knowledgable LinkedIn™️ experts out there and I'm sure you will enjoy hearing her describe her background.

It's a common belief that the answer to poor (and getting worse) organic content reach from a company page is employee advocacy. So why are so many organisations getting it horribly wrong? That plus; The new video feed and how it impacts the videos we post. Multiple image posts - new dimensions Images on external links are shrinking and it really doesn't matter! An outrageous post of the week The New Video Feed I was chatting recently with Lynnaire Johnston about this new feed (she doesn't yet have it) and she made the valuable point that this new style of delivery might necessitate a change in the way a video is produced. Because the scroll has audio enabled (unlike in the normal feed) it puts more emphasis on the opening few seconds of the video and less emphasis on the words you type to accompany the post - these appear at the bottom of the video in this feed. This doesn't mean that you should worry less about the words because they still play an important role in the normal feed on both mobile and desktop (see image below). In addition, the new video feed appears to zoom in somewhat which creates an issue with text on the video or even captions if you add them yourself. How a video is displayed in 3 different feeds As a reminder, this video feed is only enabled once you tap on some video posst you see on the main mobile feed, at the moment this is only for about 40% of the videos I see in my feed. Once you are in this feed you can the scroll to see more videos and those videos all autoplay with sound. I suspect that LinkedIn will fix the zooming issue but that will probably take some time so it's worth ensuring your text does not go near the edges of your video for now. Multiple Image Posts The way images are displayed in a multi-image post is beginning to change as you can see here in these example of 2 and 3 image posts; LinkedIn™️ have provided this helpful document which can be downloaded here. I've had this change for a while but apparently more the majority of users are now seeing this in their feeds. Images On External Links LinkedIn™️ have announced that images on posts with external links are shrinking unless you sponsor (advertise) that post, in which case the image stays the same size as it has always been. Lots of people are up in arms about this! Why? External link posts are seen by very few people anyway so not seeing a larger or small image results in the same...it's not seen! OK I'm being a bit cynical there but honestly guys, have you not learnt yet?....don't post external links, unless you really have to. Employee Advocacy Earlier this year I was a panel member on stage at UpLift Live when a question about employee advocacy on LinkedIn was asked. My slightly cynical response was to state that asking employees to Repost or Like a company page post was not employee advocacy in any sense yet that is as far as most organisations go. I stand by that answer but it did occur to me that it was worth trying to explain what a more productive method would be. Firstly I am not a fan of the phrase 'employee advocacy'. To my understanding an 'advocate' is someone who promotes someone or something. This leads to a belief that employee advocacy is all about encouraging employees to promote the company that they work for. And for the most part, that is what happens. Employees either repost company page content or directly promote the organisation that they work for either to other potential employees or customers. This is highly ineffective. Below is a classic example. Robert Half have published an article (ironically about employee advocacy) and then asked their employees to post it...so they do! This is merely a distribution mechanism and, as you can see by the lack of engagement, not a very effective one! Whilst this might be employee advocacy for some organisations, others 'ask' their employees to post about the amazing work environment or how they are so happy working for them or how impressed they are with the products or customer service etc etc. It just comes across as forced and hollow...frankly nobody is buying it! We all know that promotional content does not do well on LinkedIn, it is difficult to attract engagement and so typically achieves poor reach. So why do companies do it? It strikes me as being nothing more than a 'ticking the box' exercise. "employee advocacy...done!" ✔️ All that said, we know that company page content has extremely limited reach and this reach seems to be getting worse so it does make sense for organisations to use their employees personal accounts for their benefit. If however the objective is promotion, it simply won't work. The problem is that the objective is wrong, if the objective was greater visibility then employee advocacy could work, if done the right way. When an employee of an organisation becomes influential on LinkedIn then the organisation will benefit from their greater visibility. To become influential on LinkedIn though, the employee shouldn't be posting about how amazing the company is, that's not great content. The trick is to identify individuals within an organisation who have the motivation and ability to gain a following and influence on LinkedIn. This does not need to be many employees, just a few with the right mindset and desire. The second part of this is about what employees are asked to do and many organisations will be deeply uncomfortable with what is the right approach - to encourage employees to develop their own personal brand by producing content that is helpful, interesting, entertaining and focussed on the audience. This is usually seen as a threat in most organisations and that is the heart of the problem. In the podcast I also get into the topic of recruitment and how this strategy will impact the sort of people that are recruited. Tip: Start small by encouraging a few select employees to comment on company page content. Make sure the content is focussed on the audience and not the company and let the employees contribute to it by adding meaningful comments that add value to the piece. These same employees should also be encouraged to comment of many other posts (not from the company) that are focussed on topics that will be interesting to your target audience. Let them build their confidence and credibility this way first. Then give them the tools and skills to start posting great content designed to encourage engagement. Once they have gained a strong following and influence, they can occasionally post something about their employer or it's products/services but the main objective is to increase visibility and influence. Ultimately, the power of employee advocacy lies in authenticity. By encouraging employees to share their unique perspectives, you can create a more compelling and genuine narrative for the organization. Post Of The Week This a belter from Lara Bywater and mainly because the topic is just....well, unbelievable really! How on earth could anyone be so stupid as to think that this business card is OK? Maybe they would defend it by saying it's just harmless banter...if you believe that then just read the comment thread! It's not clever, it's not funny and it shows a complete lack of empathy or understanding of how a woman would receive this. The post is also well structured with a great hook line. Well done to Lara for a great post and for having the courage to call out this sort of behaviour. That's all for this week. If you are in Odense in Denmark at Linkedsummit this week, come and say hello! Until next time... Published by Mark WilliamsMark Williams People call me 'Mr LinkedIn™️' · LinkedIn™️ visibility · Informed Podcast host · One to one online coaching · Speaker · Social Selling · Online sessionsPeople call me 'Mr LinkedIn™️' · LinkedIn™️ visibility · Informed Podcast host · One to one online coaching · Speaker · Social Selling · Online sessions Published • 4d 181 articles So the organic reach for company pages has gone from poor to almost non-existent...so what do you do? You turn to your employees (who have better reach) and you call this employee advocacy! Sharing company page content is not employee advocacy, it doesn't really help either the company or the individual...but there is a better way. More of that plus; 🔶 The new video feed and how it impacts the videos we post. 🔶 Multiple image posts - new dimensions 🔶 Images on external links are shrinking and it really doesn't matter! 🔶 An outrageous post of the week from Lara Bywater Want these articles delivered to your inbox automatically❓ Simply subscribe to the Informed newsletter Follow me 👊 Ring the 🔔 on my Profile

This week I had a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking chat with Copywriting expert and author of the modern classic 'A self-help guide for copywriters' Dan Nelken . I've been a follower and admirer of Dans work for several years, so I was delighted to finally get him on the podcast to talk about copywriting techniques, LinkedIn™️ and Bunions! Plus a post of the week about gender equality! Here are the topics we covered; Dan's Journey and Overcoming Self-Doubt. Dan shared his early days working as a forklift driver, his later studies at copywriting school, and his subsequent work as a copywriter at various ad agencies, working with massive brands. Authenticity in Professional Content We chatted about how people find it challenging to really be themselves on LinkedIn™️ and how we need to become 'an expert in being ourselves' and why our inner critic is a 'ding dong' - I wrongly assumed this was a Canadian term! He also shared his struggles with self-doubt and the importance of remaining true to oneself in communication Balancing Personal and Professional Content We discussed how sharing personal experiences can effectively engage the target audience by illustrating overcoming relevant challenges. Dan emphasized the importance of authenticity and using language to impress oneself rather than others "Your audience is you" We also discussed the trend of using complex vocabulary in professional settings and debated its effectiveness as a means of communication. Content Creation Strategy and LinkedIn Success Dan admits to being no expert in LinkedIn™️ content strategies but he has, through trial and error developed a style using images, quotes and carousel templates that resonate with his audience.   He also discussed his 'list and twist technique' as demonstrated in this 2 page carousel post...   AI & Creativity Dan does use AI and is impressed with it's capabilities but he "prompts it to prompt him to be more creative"...not to answer questions or create for him. Book Rankings, Deals, and Course Launches Dan revealed his challenges with the competitive element of launching a book and bestseller rankings and how with that and marketing his course he stuck to his values and accepted that he is not going to appeal to everyone and that being helpful to others is more important than maximising sales. Maximize image Edit image Delete image Click on the image above to view Dans book   Embracing Self-Expression on LinkedIn Everyone has to start somewhere and Dans advice is to start small and develop a habit for content, even if it's just 15 mins a week brainstorming ideas for posts. Figure out who you are and how you want to communicate and develop the habit of creating content ideas. As mentioned earlier, above really is a very brief summary of a 55 minute conversation so I strongly recommend you listen to the full episode to gain the most from Dan's expertise. Thanks again to Dan for taking the time to share so many golden nuggets. Post of the week Plenty of good nominations this week including this highly impressive video post from Farouk Bacha in support of Lara Acosta This weeks winner had less impressions and engagement but I've picked it because I think we can learn more from it. An attention grabbing and recognisable image of a film star couple with a brilliant hook 'My new man!!' followed by... Well icon…. Well screen saver.. ok not even screen saver… look I took the image from Google! and then the (now irresistible) 'See more' link Great structure, a great use of image and even more critical to it's success, an important and potential controversial topic. Congratulations to Jo (although you would be much easier to tag if you used your full name...just sayin!) and thanks to Katharine Robinson for nominating it.       That's all for this week, feel free to say hi to Dan and let him know what you thought of the episode. Until next time.