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 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 204, this week I want to return to the increasingly important subject of video, not just native video but the wider use of video on LinkedIn.
No interesting news to report this week apart from a couple of changes to LinkedIn;

LinkedIn Updates

LinkedIn appear to be trialling the compulsory use of hashtags in posts. Goof idea or not?

GIFs have returned to LinkedIn! They are now accessible only in the Messages feature and interestingly via a 3rd party source called Tenor. This itself interests me as LinkedIn have shown reluctance to work with 2rd parties previously .(see emoji’s and video filters). Here is a link to the article. I’m a bit mixed up when it comes to GIF’s, in theory I shouldn’t like them as they are usually pretty stupid……but I keep finding myself using them so I think I’m going to have to come out and say it…….I’m a Giffer!
New Profiles. As the roll out of the new profile design continues more information is coming to light (I still don’t have it). It would appear that Summary previews are now more than double the size and 5 media thumbnails show in the main profile page, rather than 3.

Video on LinkedIn

I’m pretty sure everyone now has access to LinkedIn native video, at least via the mobile app if not on the desktop version of LinkedIn which may still be rolling out.
Many people have grasped the opportunity to post native videos which are often getting significantly more views and traction than YouTube or Facebook videos.
This is great news but my sense is that many of you are still holding back so I thought it was worth revisiting the subject, not just native video but the concept of using any form of video on LinkedIn.

Whilst I wouldn’t advise posting YouTube, Vimeo and other external links to videos as posts, they can still provide excellent content to add to Articles and your profile in the media section under the Summary, Experience and Education sections. With the forthcoming changes to profiles, 5 pieces of media will show in the profile which potentially allows you to do more with adding videos into your profile.

Whether it be Native LinkedIn video or other sources, the guidelines are the same.
I applaud people for stepping out of their comfort zone and giving video a try, it’s often a tricky step to take and it’s inevitable that people will make some mistakes.

In the podcast I highlight some examples of people who are posting awful, ‘Vcard’ type videos with boring, sales content. Whilst tempting, this really does you no favours!

The best type of video content (as a post or in media in your profile) will include;
Decent sound. A modern smartphone can record good enough sound provided you are in a room that has plenty of soft furnishings. Avoid high ceilings and wooden floors.
Acceptable light. You don’t need specialist lighting…a window is just fine. Stand facing a window with your phone or camera in between you and the window. This will almost always give a good lighting effect.
Always add subtitles to your LinkedIn videos - most LinkedIn users do not have sound! I recommend using the iOS Clips app or the excellent Clipomatic app for this.
Make your videos short. I have found that 3 mins is the maximum length but ideally keep it below 1 minute
A video doesn’t have to be you talking to camera. It could simply be a ‘moving pictures and words’ format. A good app for this is InShot or for desktop I use Biteable.
Content - This is often the hardest bit!
Be real and authentic…switch off from ‘sales talk’, relax and just chat to the camera.
Try to use humour as much as you can
Be vulnerable and genuine. Viewers are much more likely to ‘connect’ with who you are.
Provide tips and aim to help others. This demonstrates expertise but also generosity.
Use a Blog style format and tell people what you have been up to and what you have planned. Share your thoughts and lessons learnt from experience (but don’t preach)
Have a rant! If something bothers you…let your audience know and encourage them to add their views.
Tell stories. Always ask yourself ‘Can I deliver this message in the form of a story’. Human beings are naturally drawn to stories.
Persist. Don’t be put off if your videos gain few views and comments. They are bound to be terrible to start with but you will improve, especially if you ask for feedback (vulnerability again!)

Post of the week

Of course if you were really brave you could also record yourself singing as Page Kemna does in this ‘singing Résumé post that went viral recently. Even Jeff Weiner felt the need to comment on this one! Thanks to Giles Davis for highlighting this

I keep hitting the commercial use limit. I can’t afford to upgrade my account so do you have any tips to avoid this problem?

ANSWER;

Commercial use limit is defined by LinkedIn as;
If you reach the commercial use limit, your activity on LinkedIn indicates that you're likely using LinkedIn for commercial use, like hiring or prospecting. This limit is calculated based on your search activity since the first of the calendar month.
Specific activities that contribute to the limit include:
Searching for LinkedIn profiles on LinkedIn.com and mobile.
Browsing LinkedIn profiles using the People Also Viewed section located on the right side of a profile.
These activities do not count toward the limit:
Searching profiles by name using the search box located at the top of every page on LinkedIn.com
Browsing your 1st-degree connections from the connections page.
Searching for jobs on the jobs page.
You'll see a warning as you approach the limit. Your free monthly usage resets at midnight PST on the 1st of each calendar month. We are not able to display the exact number of searches or views you have left and we also cannot lift the limit upon request. Also note that the warning that you are approaching the limit may not display if you run through the full amount of searches or views too quickly.

This information from LinkedIn gives us some handy clues as to how to navigate around the limit.

Reduce unnecessary profile views
Find profiles by name searching, you can add more information to the name (such as company) to help locate them via a quick search.
Find names via a free Alumni search
Search for people within ‘My network’ and check their ‘people also viewed to get names for a name search
Check your feed for new connections your connections are making (change order to ‘Recent’

Welcome to episode 203, after a weeks break for the Easter holidays we are back and this week I want to talk about engagement……quite possibly the single most important thing you should consider when using LinkedIn!
Not much news since the last episode, apart from the following

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

LinkedIn Goes All-In on B2B Video

I have mixed feelings about this, as you know I love video and the ability to post videos from a company page is a positive thing but then again, the people that manage company pages tend to be stuck in a mindset of promotion……so we can expect to see a lot of boring corporate, ‘look at how amazing we are’ videos….joy!
In addition, the main reason LinkedIn have implemented this is to encourage companies to sponsor their video posts, which will also lead to more boring, non-engaging promotional videos.

I still think video from a personal page is by far the best way to encourage engagement.

It looks like LinkedIn have figured a way to work out what Chrome extension you are using!
I have no idea how they do this but perhaps this marks the end of automation tools.

New Feature

LinkedIn are now rolling out the ‘find nearby’ I have mentioned previously to mobile apps (roll-out is ‘account specific’ not ‘device specific’).
This could be a great feature for events and conferences but having it switched off by default is a disastrous move! If you have to explain to people how to switch it on, it kind of loses the point!

Engagement

Promotion simply doesn’t work on LinkedIn…or at least, it very rarely works so that poses the following question;

“If we are using LinkedIn to win new business and promotion doesn’t work…why bother with LinkedIn?”

The answer is simple: LinkedIn allows you to achieve two key things that will help you win more business;

Increased visibility.
Warmer relationships with prospective customers

Both of these factors are achieved by one thing…….Engagement

Engagement - the development of conversations on LinkedIn. This is the key to success in my opinion.

How to engage
Find relevant content and join in the conversation
Post about relevant, interesting topics and ask questions

The first point about finding the right content is dependant on searching for content (keywords and Hashtags) as well as ensuring your homepage feed is full of comment-worthy posts. This is achieved by;
Cleaning out your feed by unfollowing people who post bad content
Following people that post interesting stuff
Influencing the algorithm by showing interest in the above people and their content

The algorithm has to make decisions as to what to show you in your feed, if it showed you every post from every connection you wouldn’t be able to make any sense of it.
The algorithm can only act on the information it is given and this information actually comes from you.
Topics you have followed or previously commented or Liked
Topics you have posted or written articles about
Groups you have joined, especially if you are active
Profiles you have viewed
Messages you have sent
Skills in your profile
Your industry in your profile

There are probably more factors, LinkedIn doesn’t tell us how this is done but we know it’s an algorithm and that can only work from data/activity based instructions. You need to think of yourself as being a ‘programmer’ through your actions.

This is important to consider in terms of what you see but even more important to consider when you are posting! Who will see your post and can you influence this in your activities?
@mentioning can also help but don’t rely on notifications as they are throttled by LinkedIn for highly active users.
Using # in your posts is also helpful

Some people have suggested that LinkedIn should allow us to control our own feed…this is unrealistic as very few would use it.