LinkedIn™️ seem to love it, more and more posts are created by it and comment threads are becoming infested with it...so I thought it was time to revisit the topic of AI and try to answer this important question...

Can AI be used in a credible, authentic and ethical way on LinkedIn™️?

That plus...

• New - Company page premium inc' Who viewed your company page'

• An improved 'Premium benefits' page plus a special offer

• Why the new 'Recruiters verification badge' is a disgrace!

• Post search results now favour Articles

• A great new option for profile custom buttons

• An interesting piece on Colla'boring'ative articles!

• Post of the week

This week I chat with Merrill Charette a long timer listener to the podcast (and a podcaster himself!) about his upbringing, experiences and how he ended up in the maritime industry.

I really enjoyed chatting with Merrill who is a fascinating character and a great raconteur. In this interview we cover;

• How he grew up the '6th child' with his other siblings being 5 Old English Sheepdogs!

• His very sports orientated childhood and his (and his fathers) obsession with Lacrosse

• The benefits of focus and determination to achieve his potential in lacrosse

• How he attended 4 high schools in 5 years experiencing bullying at every turn

• Tough love from his father

• Why he gave up lacrosse and rebuilt his identity

• Dealing with authority (when you know they are wrong)

• The 1000 Origami Crane Challenge and how it changed him

• Completing a challenging 2,200-mile trek along the Appalachian Trail

• Quitting law school

• The difference between moving on and giving up

• How a random comment from a stranger "You could always live on a boat" led him to the maritime industry.

• How he negotiated for and bought his first boat

• How he taught himself to sail his first voyage from New York to Boston

• Finding a new community of boat owners

• Becoming a boating entrepreneur as an outsider to the industry

• Artificial intelligence and the maritime industry

This week in the podcast I complete my review of Uplift Live with the speakers from the afternoon sessions

Gillian Whitney  

Kevin D. Turner 

Tiina Jarvet

Richard van der Blom 

Also in this edition;

• New ‘Takeaways’ on Articles & posts
• New video feed on mobile
• An excellent example of brand partnership with influencer
• Post of the week

My thoughts and feedback on Uplift Live

UpLift Live is an in-person, LinkedIn-focused conference that took place for the first time on 21 March 2024 in Birmingham, UK.

With the demise of Creator mode, or the opening of creator mode to everyone (however you wish to view it!) imminent, it probably opens up the possibility of all LinkedIn™️ users having the opportunity to create their own newsletters.

So it seems a good time to have a new look at this feature so that you can decide whether you will be be going down that track.

That plus;

• A new mysterious 'Who viewed your profile' filter.

• Your comment doesn't comply with our policies!

• AI enhancements drive an increase in LinkedIn™️ Premium subscriptions.

• A sneaky way to get 3 months premium free.

• How AI features are being assessed

• Native AI post generation. Is it any good?

• Post of the week

This month we will see Creator mode disappearing and with it, the obligation to have 'Follow' as the primary option on your profile so I thought it was worth revisiting the persistent question...Connect or Follow?

That plus;

• New Recruiter & Learning tools that assist retention but might also have the the polar opposite impact!

• New Privacy setting

• New option for profile custom CTA button

• Feedback from last week regarding the homepage feed

• Post of the week.

Has your feed changed recently? Are you seeing posts from people who are unfamiliar to you?

This may be due to LinkedIn™️ deciding that they know what 'quality' content looks like.

Not you...you are clearly not in a position to decide this for yourself!

This week I discuss what we can do to fix this.

That plus;

• AI comments are getting very annoying!

• The real reason customised invitations are being limited and a cool workaround.

• A very sneaky change to your data privacy settings

• Saved posts feature urgently needs updating

• My take on Public groups

• Profile verification favours men!

• Post of the week

Are you sure you want to be providing LinkedIn™️ with your hard earned knowledge for a badge?

Do the benefits of collaborative articles add up?

That plus;

• An update on the revamped Services section

• A voice message tip

• Sales Navigator improvements

• New profile photo feature

• Another new 'Pay to spam' feature update

• B2B Deep sales playbook. Useful or a Sales Navigator ad?

• Are LinkedIn Corp' Sales professionals using LinkedIn™️?

It's that time of the year when the legend that is Richard van der Blom publishes his LinkedIn™️ algorithm insights report so in this episode I discuss some of the highlights, what we can learn and why we need to treat the results with caution.

Also covered;

• Services page gets a makeover

• Creator mode is going

• Is profile verification enough?

This week I find out about the 'person behind the profile' with the LinkedIn content Queen herself Nanna Sondrup

Nanna was very open and honest in this chat where she describes a troubled childhood experiencing terrible bullying and parents distracted by her brother who had severe ADHD challenges.

She herself was later diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD yet has managed to become a very well known LinkedIn™️ expert in Denmark.

Join me in hearing why Nanna is such an INteresting person!

LinkedIn™️ is primarily a B2B networking platform but that doesn't mean that a B2C (business to consumer) business can't succeed. This week I talk with Anna Williams about how she recently relaunched her coffee shop on LinkedIn™️.

That plus;

• How I became a LinkedIn 'Top voice'

• An update on profile verification with Persona

• More on how to get a community top voice badge

• New - Company sponsored articles

• Are hashtags still relevant?

Big news this week...The LinkedIn Corporation are attacking me and I need some creative ideas from you to be able to move forward.

More of that later, also included in this episode I talk about;

• Uplift Live conference - I can offer you a discount.

• Profile custom buttons are really good but are they too effective?

• Verification issues and privacy concerns

• New Events features

• New features for collaborative articles

• More skills (that most of us don't need)

• New 'Daily' feature in LinkedIn™️ learning

• Public profiles get a revamp and there are winners and losers!

• Post of the week

Welcome to the first edition of interesting People, a new type of show for the LinkedInformed podcast.

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 reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️.

For this first episode, I sat down and had a good old heart to heart chat with Ashley Leeds.

Ashley always comes across as energetic and very positive...but is he always like this?

We discuss the traumatic events that influenced his childhood, why he quit his promising career as a Chef, how he met his wife Debbie, his kids, his many career and job moves and how he ended up being the 15-minute LinkedIn™️ guy!

I absolutely loved finding out more about Ashley and I'm sure you will too

Every year I dust off my LinkedIn™️ crystal ball and look at what changes I think we will see on the platform over the coming year...every year I get it spectacularly wrong! I like to think I'm ahead of LinkedIn Corp' with my thinking because often my predictions eventually come to fruition a few years later! Either way, it's always fun to do and gets us thinking about what we want from LinkedIn™️ (in truth I produced a wishlist rather than a list of predictions, this year is a bit of a mix)

So here are my predictions and wishes for this year...