Episode 74. The Power of Positivity

News

• Australian politician suffers extortion attempt via LinkedIn from a fake anti child trafficking advocate
• The best LinkedIn profile pictures are "slightly happy" This subject was also covered in my other podcast WinbussinesIn
• I was sexually harassed on LinkedIn and it made me question the site's credibility...not me, that's the title of the article I referred to! I also mentioned the website socialcreeps.com

Commentary

• Positivity works!  I am a great believer in the power of engagement on LinkedIn. Too many people post updates that receive no comments or further interaction but it has been an observation of mine that when you do engage on other people's posts you often attract negative comments and people even start to attack you!
• People become very brave online and are often unnecessarily rude, something they would be highly unlikely to do to your face! I see this on a regular basis and find it quite depressing because all this does is discourage people from engagement.
• When commenting on LinkedIn keep your comments positive, encouraging as well as challenging if necessary but never stray into an argument or points scoring. This reflects very badly on you.
• Don't feed the trolls! People that regularly post negative comments do so because they enjoy winding people up. Don't give them the airtime and just ignore their comments.

 Here are my tips to get more views of your status updates;

• Always post image updates with a link rather than text updates with a link.
• • Pick a suitable image that has bright colours.
  • Make sure the image file has a suitable name (this will be seen!)
  • Always ask a question to encourage engagement
  • Reply to comments including quoting the person by name to encourage the conversation to continue. Keep asking questions!
  • Make sure your settings allow anyone (public) to see it.
  • • Timing is critical. Find out (by trial and error) when your audience are most likely to respond and stick to that time.
    • Topical subjects work - think about how a recent news headline could be applied to your business ie Zayn leaving One Direction = How to cope when a key member of your team leaves.
    • Comparison questions are most powerful in terms of engagement but they need to be relevant so you can't do it all the time