Welcome to episode 274 and Merry Christmas!

I think the week before Christmas is one of my favourites of the year. It’s never a busy time for LinkedIn training so I get to enjoy the build-up to the Christmas break…Christmas shopping, which largely involves answering the door to the Amazon delivery person these days! Plus carol concerts, Christmas films on TV and lots of nice messages from customers, associates and listeners to the show.

Unfortunately, Christmas is not always a happy time for everyone and I want to spare a thought for my buddy Steve Phillip. Steve bravely wrote an article this week announcing that he had recently lost his son to suicide. I’m close to Steve and when he told me the unexpected news I was completely numb with shock. I know it’s supposed to be a jolly time of year but I would ask all of you to take a few minutes to read his heartbreaking article..it’s important because we all need to more aware of the dangers of mental health issues.

I have two main topics to cover this week – the new LinkedIn groups features and an Article written by a listener to the show ‘Lessons from my 2019 Linkedin experience’

In addition, I have some feedback from last weeks show, a couple of new features LinkedIn are testing and a fantastic post of the week.

Hashtags and @mention tagging.

Two often misunderstood and misused features of LinkedIn.

Should you use them and what are the best techniques.

This weeks episode is mainly dedicated to this years 'Top Voices' list. Whilst there are certain aspects of these lists that I find bewildering, it is also a genuine opportunity to discover great content producers and assess why they are successful

LinkedIn have announced the top 10 company pages of 2019...but are they actually any good?

Welcome to this weeks episode in a baron week for news I’ve been noticing some subtle changes that suggest LinkedIn might be testing out falsely boosting the distribution of reshares – this got me thinking about a much broader issue about how much LinkedIn try to control our behavior.

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 a new episode, this week I pick up again on the final section of settings…Communication. These settings are pretty important and may have changed since you last took a look!

For more go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode268

Welcome to this weeks episode, a shorter one due to work commitments but I’ve had a week to play with the new Events feature and wanted to share my thoughts.

More at  http://linkedinformed.com/episode267/

Welcome to episode 266.

So the time has finally come, I’ve been waiting in nervous anticipation for this for months and finally, LinkedIn have announced their new company page features. It, therefore, makes sense to focus on them this week although I will also continue with the series on LinkedIn settings.

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 this weeks fill of LinkedIn news and information.

In this episode, I continue to cover Privacy and settings but before that…….

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• A LinkedIn Video Experiment: Does Native Video Drive Reach for Salespeople?
• LinkedIn Announces Updates to Talent Solutions: Benefits for Recruiters
• Best of LinkedIn Pages 2019: Nominations Are Now Open!

For the rest of the notes go to http://linkedinformed.com/episode264/

Welcome to LinkedInformed 263.

This week I continue with my tutorial on settings with probably the most important section of all - Privacy

But before that...

Go to http://linkedinformed.com/episode263/ for the full notes

Welcome to episode 262, I hope you had a great week.

I thought I would cover a more educational topic this week by going through a very important but often ignored part of LinkedIn – your settings!

Once I started recording I realised this was far too big a subject to cover in one episode so I will break it down across 3 or 4 episodes. This week I’m covering the Account settings.

Also covered;

• The Linked Inn in Grimsby
• Have LinkedIn dumped one of Sales Navigators best features? 
• New features (they don't all work properly)
• New items in our feeds
• Why do Document posts achieve higher views?
• Post of the week
• Are hashtags really worth bothering with?

Hello and welcome, I’m back from my week away in San Francisco and I can tell you that my Find Nearby experiment yielded zero results! I had it on the whole time I was there and I checked it several times in busy places but never once saw anyone nearby!

How disappointing!

This week I want to return to Articles which we have covered recently but a listener highlighted an Article on LinkedIn about long-form content and I really felt I should counter it with a different perspective.

Firstly let me be clear……I definitely don’t believe long-form content is dead or even dying, I just think people need to recalibrate how they use it.

Anyway more of that later

Continued at http://linkedinformed.com/episode261/

Welcome to episode 260 which has been inspired by two separate incidents that occurred this week.

Firstly I had a session with a client who was really struggling to come up with ideas for content – I recommended she should start by using other peoples posts as inspiration to create similar posts.

Secondly, a friend found out that someone had been copying his content – word for word, A clear example of plagiarism.

This got me thinking about the differences between the two and where the line of acceptable practice sits.

More of that later…

Welcome to episode 259.

It’s great to have followers but to increase the visibility of our posts we need to get more of them to engage.

This isn’t just about what we write but also about how we treat our followers, especially new ones!

This week my main focus is on my new (and not fully tested) engagement blueprint. I have covered elements of it before but the extra part that I want to focus on in this episode techniques to get our followers more engagement.

Welcome to episode 258. We all know that post engagement is crucial for you to become visible on LinkedIn but not all ‘engagement’ types are equal. We know shares are pretty useless to you but what about Likes and Comments. Which one is best?

Following some interesting research I saw this week, I thought that would be an interesting topic to explore.

Welcome to episode 257 where this week I want to cover a really important aspect of using LinkedIn in a productive and successful way… finding great content! As usual with LinkedIn, we have an algorithm that makes choices (often the wrong ones) for us but we can take actions to help us find and engage with the best content.

Also covered in this episode;

• Main LinkedIn automation bot recommends it’s users to stop using it before their accounts get closed down!
• Another story about a fake account, easily created due to poor LinkedIn design that was used to con financial journalists
• A LinkedIn bug that allowed a fake job to be posted – CEO of Google!
• LinkedIn will be moving its servers to the cloud!
• Why is your post trending and is it something to celebrate?
• What exactly is a ‘Top’ comment?
• Do hashtags in comments count?
• Post of the week. A video post with over 350 Likes, 200 comments and over 17,000 views
• Question – Can you see the activity from someone from when they were blocked (after you unblock them)

Welcome to this weeks digest of all things LinkedIn.

Today I want to address and issue which has always been a tricky question for LinkedIn users to answer…Should you connect to competitors?

More of that later but first…..

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• LinkedIn Member number exceeds 645 million
• Iran-Linked APT34 Invites Victims to LinkedIn for Fresh Malware Infections
• Help clients discover your services with a new feature on LinkedIn

For the full show notes go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode256/

Welcome to a new episode and it’s great to be back after a wonderfully relaxing week away in the truly stunning Swiss alps.

About a month ago I received a personalised connection request from someone who had the words ‘LinkedIn and Neuroscience’ in his headline….as you can imagine this really piqued my interest.

What on earth does that mean?

So I arranged to have a chat with him and he explained to me his theories and how he uses his understanding of the ‘social brain’ to achieve success on LinkedIn…….so I just had to get him on the show!

But first…..Go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode255/

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

Apparently, at LinkedIn they have a saying;

 “People You Know, Talking About Things You Care About.”

And so they have announced that they have been adjusting our feed algorithm to give us exactly that.

More at https://linkedinformed.com/episode253

Welcome to episode 252. I thought it was about time we revisited Articles this week. I’m not the most prolific article writer so I thought I would ask, fan of the show and business copywriting expert, John Espirian onto the show.

In our chat, I ask John about what to write about, how often to do it and how long an article should be. John talks about styles of writing, how to stimulate ideas and how to best repurpose blog pieces as LinkedIn articles

For more go to linkedinformed.com/episode252

Covered in this show;

• A brief history of LinkedIn Ads
• Can you have too many followers
• Do paid followers have any benefit?
• Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets
• New invitation feature (coming soon)
• Scheduling posts - is it worth bothering?
• Post of the week

Welcome to another episode and a bit of a landmark really, our 250th one! Thank you so much to everyone that subscribes, listens and/or reads the show notes.

I consider it a real privilege to host and produce the show and I’ve had such an amazing time putting together all 250 of them!

Items in this show;

4:44 - Interesting stuff I saw this week

17:07 LinkedIn Updates

29:07 Can you spot a fake profile

51:46 Post of the week

56:06 AFQ - question

This is an unusual episode in that it’s very short due to the fact I’m leaving for sunny Madrid today to attend the Champions league final frivolities….I nearly type celebrations then…but that would be tempting fate!

I nearly skipped a week but I just had so many good posts to talk about……thank you all so much for nominating them, the quality seems to be increasing!

So the main thrust of this episode is to talk through four brilliant posts that grabbed our attention this week but first….

For more go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode249

• Did you know you can buy LinkedIn Followers and more?
• LinkedIn refreshes Sales Navigator homepage to put focus on alerts
• Mike Winnet has released his first Contrepreneur episode…and it’s brilliant!
• More on organic reach and recency 'hot streaks'
• Post of the week
• AFQ - How can I influence my Highlights section?

More at LinkedInformed.com

In this weeks show;

Update on that new messaging feature - 3:50

Oleg has a new profile pic - 09:59

Josh Fechter lost his account - 12:00

New LinkedIn Member numbers - 17.29

How to spark meaningful conversations (according to LinkedIn) - 19:24

The New LinkedIn profile design - 23:24

LinkedInLive update - 31.13

Post of the week - 36:05

NOT post of the week! - 40:03

LinkedInLocal, Manchester - 43:59

AFQ - Question about invitations to connect - 45:50

Hello and welcome to another episode of LinkedInformed and the first from my new office (studio). I hope the sound quality is the same as it was in my last office!

This week I want to focus on several new features but one in particular which really caught my attention!

Welcome to episode 245. I hope you had a good week on LinkedIn, things definitely seem to be getting back to normal after the troubles of last week. That said, I know some of you are still finding you are invisible in searches so hang in there, the issue does appear to be getting better.

This week I want to focus on LinkedIn organic reach and try to answer the question ‘Has it peaked or is there more to come?’

Welcome to another episode in what has been a difficult week for LinkedIn and many of its members.

I have two main topics to discuss this week;

• LinkedIn seize control of LinkedInLocal events
• LinkedIn had a meltdown this week with millions of users discovering that their profiles were invisible!

Welcome to episode 243, this week I want to return to the subject of native LinkedIn video. It’s been a while since I covered this and the techniques for this type of post has developed somewhat. I also have some interesting analaysis to share with you on the content in my hoe page feed. But first…

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• Are we now going to get Brand Ambassadors on LinkedIn?
  • Oh please no! LinkedIn top voice and video creator String Nguyen has signed up with a video service and now much of her posts are boring promos!
• Microsoft and Adobe strengthen partnership to take on Salesforce using LinkedIn

Feed Analysis

For the rest go to  http://linkedinformed.com/episode243

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 this weeks show. So who do you follow on LinkedIn and why?

I’m not talking about who you connect with, that should be for different reasons (even though you do then follow them) but those people on LinkedIn that you purposely follow with the intention of seeing their activity, posts and articles in your feed.

Have you got a clear strategy or is it based on ad-hoc seeing ‘something good’ from someone and then following them’?

Welcome to a new episode and this week I will be focussing on a subject that I haven’t covered before on the podcast – Employer branding and it’s close cousin, employee advocacy.

If you are not interested in recruiting or working in HR then this might be an episode to skip but I do know there are plenty of listeners who do have a keen interest in using their company page for employer branding purposes and the activities of some of their employees for employee advocacy purposes.

For more information go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode240

Welcome to a new episode, this week we are back to talking about LinkedIn company pages.....but with a difference!

More of that later but as always firstly.......

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• LinkedIn Updates Sales Navigator, Gets Closer to Salesforce
• LinkedIn announces the rebuild of three core talent tools to one platform
• LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service

Welcome to episode 238. I really struggled to think of a title for this episode because unlike most weeks, no one subject dominates!

That said, I have a lot to talk about in this episode.

Firstly, due to a family bereavement, I will not be producing an episode next week but will be back the week after.

For the remaining notes go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode238

Welcome to a new episode, this week I want to focus on attempting to answer one of the most common and complex questions I get about LinkedIn….Premium accounts – are they worth it?

More of that later……

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• New Ways to Keep a Pulse on the Companies You Care About
• Five Things We Learned from Microsoft’s Earnings
• Introducing Interest Targeting
• LinkedIn Articles versus LinkedIn Posts/Updates
• Could it be that ‘Trending content in your area’ might actually be paid ads! Listener Mark Lee got in touch with this message “I saw a post on my home page yesterday. Linkedin was showing it to me allegedly because it was ‘Trending in London’. This was odd for two reasons. Firstly it contained a link to a newspaper article (so encouraged me to leave the Linkedin platform). The other reason it was odd was that the article was not able to be viewed by anyone outside the USA. So why was it trending in London? I don’t think it was. But equally, why would a foreign newspaper (or anyone else) sponsor a link to an article that can’t be viewed by the people who see the link? What is going on here?

For the rest of the show notes go to https://linkedinformed.com/episode237

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

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great break over the Christmas holiday. I had an ‘enjoyable at times and stressful at times’ break and as I  decided to completely switch off from all work matters, it has been a busy last 2 weeks catching up on everything.

The main subject this week is empathy. If you are a long time listener then you may recall that I covered this previously in episode 122. I’m aware that many of you have only started listening to the show more recently and many don’t listen to every episode so I decided to cover it again…mainly because it is such an important subject!

More of that later…..

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• Lessons from my Linkedin experiment 2018
• The Contrepreneur interview with Mike Winnet
• LinkedIn Censored A Pro-Democracy Activist’s Profile In China
• LinkedIn now requires phone number verification for all users in China
• Facebook investigates ‘deceptive’ election operation backed by Reid Hoffman

For more, go to http://linkedinformed.com/episode235