Think LinkedIn is just a network of stiff profiles? Think again!
Treat it like a professional Instagram to boost your visibility.
Visual content is king on LinkedIn, and I'm here to guide you on harnessing its power for maximum engagement and visibility. Learn how images can outperform other post types and discover effective content patterns by analyzing your LinkedIn newsfeed. I challenge you to embrace more genuine, human-centric imagery in your LinkedIn strategy.
Tune in to learn the data-driven secrets you need to stand out!
Learn More:
- Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreads
- Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinforgrowth
- Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
- Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
- Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/
- Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
- All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com
Speaker 1: those that are successful on LinkedIn treat it
00:00:03
like a professional Instagram.
00:00:05
I'm going to dig deep into the why and also provide you the
00:00:09
data so that you can better understand this, take advantage
00:00:12
of it and improve your visibility within LinkedIn.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: So stay tuned for this next episode of the your
00:00:18
Digital Marketing Coach podcast digital social media content,
00:00:23
influencer marketing, blogging, podcasting, vlogging,
00:00:26
tick-tocking, linkedin, twitter, facebook, instagram, youtube,
00:00:30
seo, sem, ppc, email marketing.
00:00:33
There's a lot to cover.
00:00:37
Whether you're a marketing professional, entrepreneur or
00:00:41
business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert
00:00:44
advice.
00:00:45
Good thing you've got Neil on your side, because Neil Schaefer
00:00:50
is your digital marketing coach helping you grow your business
00:00:58
with digital.
00:00:59
First marketing, one episode at a time.
00:01:02
This is your digital marketing coach and this is Neil Schafer.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, this is Neil Schafer, your digital
00:01:12
marketing coach, and welcome to episode number 386 of my podcast
00:01:17
.
00:01:17
As always, I want to begin this episode with some of the latest
00:01:20
news that I have been following that I recommend you check out
00:01:23
as well.
00:01:24
First of all, linkedin has actually launched a free AI
00:01:28
certification course.
00:01:29
This course covers foundational AI topics, practical
00:01:33
applications and ethics, and really are suitable for all
00:01:37
experience levels and can help you boost your career and
00:01:41
professional opportunities.
00:01:42
If you complete the course, you gain a LinkedIn certificate
00:01:46
which can help increase visibility to employers and
00:01:49
demonstrate your AI expertise.
00:01:50
I really love the fact that LinkedIn is doing this and the
00:01:54
source for all the information I share here.
00:01:56
Please make sure you sign up to my newsletter at neilschafercom
00:02:00
slash newsletter to get all the information.
00:02:03
You can also Google it and find it, I'm sure as well, but this
00:02:05
is really cool news and really shows that LinkedIn is on this
00:02:09
mission.
00:02:09
They are social media, but they also want to better equip its
00:02:13
members with relevant digital skills.
00:02:16
So kudos to LinkedIn and if you are still late to the AI game,
00:02:20
you are never too late.
00:02:21
Definitely check out those free AI certification courses.
00:02:25
We also are seeing a new evolution in AI, of the use of
00:02:30
AI to improve other AI models, a method known as AI to build AI.
00:02:36
It's basically leveraging AI to optimize the large language
00:02:40
models and the outputs of AI that we see around us language
00:02:45
models and the outputs of AI that we see around us and it's
00:02:48
really, really interesting because this leads to the
00:02:49
potential that, well, this could be a self-improving AI
00:02:52
explosion or it's AI in a bubble , right.
00:02:55
So you know AI continues to evolve.
00:02:57
There's no immediate action item or recommendation I have
00:03:00
for you right now, but just understand the potential
00:03:04
limitations of AI, that, yes, there are ways in which AI can
00:03:07
improve itself and AI can help improve your business, but at
00:03:11
the end of the day, at some point, especially if you're in a
00:03:14
niche industry, it just might run out of content or ideas that
00:03:17
are going to help you.
00:03:18
So, very futuristic, look at AI very exciting, but also
00:03:23
understand those potential limitations as well.
00:03:25
Would be just want to plant that seed in your mind and then meta
00:03:29
.
00:03:29
So you know, back in the day when Facebook was extremely
00:03:34
popular still is but you know we had the talk that Facebook was
00:03:37
rivaling Google, and then we have TikTok come along, and then
00:03:40
we have ChatGPT come along right.
00:03:41
So meta is obviously they have a lot of conversations that they
00:03:44
are able to leverage to develop their own AI and they have a
00:03:48
chat bot.
00:03:49
They have their own AI.
00:03:50
Now they're reportedly developing a search engine for
00:03:54
their chat bot.
00:03:55
So the chat bot obviously you see in Facebook messenger as
00:03:59
well as when you use AI on their website, but this could allow
00:04:02
you to obviously within Facebook to more easily use AI when you
00:04:04
use AI on their website.
00:04:04
But this could allow you to obviously within Facebook, to
00:04:06
more easily use AI when you publish content, but also be
00:04:11
able to tap into that AI to search content.
00:04:14
In other words, not leaving Facebook if you wanted to do a
00:04:18
Google search or a chat GPT search.
00:04:20
So really, really interesting development.
00:04:22
I think social media back in the day was really all about
00:04:23
eyeballs and making social media back in the day was really all
00:04:25
about eyeballs and making sure you stay on the site as long as
00:04:28
possible.
00:04:28
And we're now beginning to evolve, with LinkedIn offering
00:04:32
AI tool as part of their paid premium package and we see other
00:04:36
networks also providing AI functionality in various formats
00:04:40
and even the marketing tools that we use providing AI
00:04:43
technology.
00:04:44
We're now entering an age where it's not just time on site, but
00:04:48
it's also the utilitarian aspect that we are all going to
00:04:51
use AI throughout the day.
00:04:52
Let our site be the place that you use that AI on.
00:04:57
So, really, really interesting development.
00:04:59
Once again, nothing that you should immediately be doing, but
00:05:03
if you haven't checked out Meta AI, if you haven't spent time
00:05:04
on Facebook recently, it is something you should immediately
00:05:05
be doing.
00:05:06
But if you haven't checked out Meta AI, if you haven't spent
00:05:07
time on Facebook recently, it is something you should definitely
00:05:09
check out just to understand its capabilities for the future.
00:05:12
All right, so today I'm going to talk a little bit about
00:05:15
LinkedIn.
00:05:15
As you know, it's been about six weeks, but I published
00:05:18
Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth.
00:05:20
I'm currently working on expanding that book as we speak.
00:05:23
Growth I'm currently working on expanding that book as we speak
00:05:27
.
00:05:27
But I want to share with you that every year, I remotely
00:05:29
teach a class as part of a professional certification
00:05:31
course at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,
00:05:34
and the class is geared towards financial sales professionals
00:05:39
and their use of LinkedIn.
00:05:40
So I teach it every year.
00:05:42
It's usually in the fall.
00:05:43
I'll be teaching it later this month and as part of it, and
00:05:45
I've shared this with you on previous episodes.
00:05:47
In fact, it was episode number 258.
00:05:50
This is back in March of 2022.
00:05:53
When I talked about the 10 areas of your LinkedIn profile where
00:05:56
a majority of you are failing, this comes from the same data
00:06:00
that I took as part of this course, because, as part of
00:06:04
teaching the course, I audit the LinkedIn profiles of each
00:06:07
participant based on my proprietary list of 20
00:06:10
components to give everyone a score from one to 100.
00:06:12
And I do plan to provide this audit to anyone.
00:06:15
It will be for a fee because I'm going to put some skin in
00:06:18
the game and really want to help you and spend time with you,
00:06:21
but once my new store is open and I am building a store on
00:06:24
Shopify to help distribute books as well as provide this types
00:06:28
of coaching and consulting services and and audits so so
00:06:31
stay tuned for that.
00:06:31
But I've been teaching this class annually for several years
00:06:34
and, while I do plan on talking again about those 10 areas
00:06:38
where a majority of profiles are failing, actually this year it
00:06:40
was 11 areas and the components and where people fail actually
00:06:44
evolves over time, but that's going to be a subject for
00:06:47
another episode, but this is the first year and I talk a little
00:06:50
bit about this in Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth,
00:06:53
which I believe the LinkedIn algorithm has significantly
00:06:55
changed, even more than in previous years.
00:06:57
So let me give you a feel for what I see, based on the data
00:07:02
for my own posts.
00:07:03
So these are the posts, or I should say the types of posts,
00:07:07
which I got the most impressions for on a quarter by quarter
00:07:10
basis.
00:07:10
So let me take a step back.
00:07:11
I am all about impressions.
00:07:13
It may get a lot of clicks.
00:07:15
It may not get a lot of clicks.
00:07:16
If you read digital threads, you understand my view on
00:07:19
platform authentic content.
00:07:20
It's not necessarily about the clicks and we should be
00:07:23
publishing more and more content .
00:07:24
That isn't about the clicks.
00:07:26
It's the link in bio approach to social media.
00:07:29
I also want to say and preface this with the fact that I
00:07:31
publish very regularly on LinkedIn.
00:07:33
I want to say pretty much every day.
00:07:36
There might be days where I publish twice.
00:07:37
I don't publish on weekends anymore because I just don't get
00:07:40
the visibility when I do.
00:07:41
But I publish a variety of text , obviously a lot of links, and
00:07:46
I think links has been the primary focus of my LinkedIn
00:07:49
publishing.
00:07:49
I publish images, I publish newsletters not as regularly as
00:07:54
I would like to, but I do.
00:07:55
I do live stream video.
00:07:57
I also upload repurposed video from those live streams, so I
00:08:01
definitely publish content in a lot of different formats and
00:08:05
over time.
00:08:05
It gives me really really good data to assess what is working
00:08:10
and what is not, and it's been a while since I've done this, but
00:08:13
I want to walk you through, quarter by quarter, the content
00:08:17
that seems to do one.
00:08:18
I think you're going to see, or I should say you're going to
00:08:20
hear, some common threads here.
00:08:22
So I'm going to go back to 2023 Q1, and I'm giving you the top
00:08:27
three posts for those quarters in terms of impressions.
00:08:31
So 2023 Q1, photo text photo.
00:08:34
2023 Q2, newsletter newsletter photo.
00:08:38
2023 Q3, newsletter newsletter newsletter.
00:08:42
2023 Q4, newsletter live stream image.
00:08:47
2024q1, photo live stream photo .
00:08:51
The image is pretty much the same as a photo.
00:08:52
Sorry about that.
00:08:53
2024q2, live stream photo photo .
00:08:57
2024q3, newsletter newsletter newsletter.
00:09:01
All right, so let's break this down.
00:09:03
I think the first, most important thing and the reason
00:09:06
why I did this analysis, it was inspired by the audits that I
00:09:10
did for this LinkedIn class and recently writing Maximizing
00:09:13
LinkedIn for Business Growth.
00:09:14
But every month, I take a look at my Google Analytics and one
00:09:18
thing that I look for in my Google Analytics is which social
00:09:20
networks are driving how much traffic and how many conversions
00:09:24
.
00:09:24
And, as you know, if you've been listening to this podcast,
00:09:27
pinterest has really come back as the number one driver of
00:09:31
traffic.
00:09:31
It used to be Twitter.
00:09:32
I think the usage of Twitter has really gone down over time,
00:09:34
but interestingly enough, I found that Twitter in October of
00:09:39
2024, actually I saw an increase, even though I am
00:09:42
publishing less frequently there and I saw LinkedIn take a big
00:09:46
drop and Facebook take an even bigger drop, to the point where
00:09:48
I don't even know if it's worth publishing on Facebook anymore,
00:09:51
in all honesty.
00:09:51
But regardless, the big drop in LinkedIn I mean LinkedIn and
00:09:54
Facebook combined do not equal what Twitter generated.
00:09:57
So it just goes to show you you need to have this data driven
00:10:00
approach and I really keep my social media usage on a tight
00:10:04
leash because that ends up the creating content, the engaging,
00:10:07
spending time in the sites can eat up a lot of time if you're
00:10:10
not careful, right.
00:10:11
So the number one thing here is that, probably on LinkedIn, half
00:10:14
of the content that I publish is link-based, but it does not
00:10:18
get impressions and I've been saying this for years.
00:10:21
It's the whole reason why I wrote about platform authentic
00:10:23
content in digital threads.
00:10:24
You know, yes, pinterest, you can still get organic content.
00:10:28
Twitter, yes, you can actually still get organic content.
00:10:31
The data you know backs that up .
00:10:32
Facebook it's been dead for a while.
00:10:34
Linkedin it is dying pretty quickly and the reason is that
00:10:42
if you see what those little images that appear when you
00:10:44
share a link, those default little highlight images that
00:10:46
LinkedIn will show, the size of that the vertical size of it
00:10:48
really got hacked significantly to the point where it barely
00:10:51
shows up in the feed compared to an image or what have you.
00:10:54
So link-based content is pretty much dead on LinkedIn and I
00:10:59
still publish it.
00:10:59
There's still blog posts, podcast episodes, what have you,
00:11:02
but I know it's just not going to get that traffic anymore.
00:11:05
So I'm trying to shift as much away from it as possible.
00:11:08
One way of shifting away from link-based content is to
00:11:11
actually publish what you published in that link in the
00:11:14
form of a newsletter.
00:11:15
So I've been experimenting doing this and I used to
00:11:18
republish my weekly email as a newsletter on LinkedIn.
00:11:22
That was back in 2023.
00:11:23
And you know, when I published it I didn't really see that much
00:11:26
engagement, but now I know that newsletters have probably a
00:11:31
longer shelf life than other content on LinkedIn and LinkedIn
00:11:35
still prioritizes it.
00:11:36
I thought newsletters were sort of dead, but apparently the
00:11:40
newsletters I did in 2024, q3, and I think I only did three
00:11:43
were my top three.
00:11:44
So what I started doing 2023, like I said, I repurposed my
00:11:48
email newsletters.
00:11:49
2024, I would take one singular podcast episode and I would
00:11:54
riff off of that episode and share that episode, including
00:11:57
the YouTube video, because now I'm recording, if it's an
00:12:00
interview, recording these on LinkedIn and on YouTube as well,
00:12:02
and sharing that YouTube video as well for those that wanna see
00:12:05
the whole thing.
00:12:06
So, summarizing some of the nuggets from that podcast
00:12:10
together with that YouTube embed and that has proven to be
00:12:15
really, really successful to the point where well, why don't you
00:12:19
take the concept?
00:12:20
Because a newsletter is a misunderstanding in terms of its
00:12:25
terminology on LinkedIn.
00:12:27
A newsletter is what LinkedIn posts, what a LinkedIn blog post
00:12:30
used to be.
00:12:31
It's just that once you have, I believe you only need 100
00:12:34
followers, but once you have that, if you create a newsletter
00:12:37
, then you can regularly be publishing this and get
00:12:41
subscribers and it gives sort of a taxonomy to what you're
00:12:45
publishing.
00:12:45
So you could have multiple newsletters if you cover
00:12:47
different topics.
00:12:48
I think that'd be a little bit crazy.
00:12:49
But the concept of the newsletter is you are basically
00:12:51
blogging on LinkedIn and it could be similar content to what
00:12:55
you use on your website.
00:12:56
You can try to lead people to your website through the
00:12:58
newsletter, but once again, I think it's the link in bio
00:13:02
approach of just keeping people on the site longer, having
00:13:05
people consume more of your content, and I think that
00:13:08
LinkedIn is seeing that.
00:13:09
Hey, there are people that will engage with images, there are
00:13:13
people that will watch videos.
00:13:14
There's also people because it is a business site that will
00:13:22
read longer form content in the form of a newsletter.
00:13:23
So that, to me, was a really aha moment.
00:13:24
That, okay, I really need to become a more regular producer
00:13:26
of these newsletters because they are getting the visibility
00:13:30
on LinkedIn that a link-based post will not get.
00:13:34
So the other?
00:13:35
Well, let's look at two more big takeaways, right?
00:13:38
Another big takeaway is videos are not performing that well Now
00:13:42
.
00:13:42
I know that there are some people because on the LinkedIn
00:13:44
app, there is now a dedicated video tab.
00:13:45
If you haven't checked on the LinkedIn app, there is now a
00:13:46
dedicated video tab.
00:13:47
If you haven't checked out the LinkedIn app recently you should
00:13:49
and the video tab.
00:13:50
If you are able to get your video in, it can get massive
00:13:54
amount of impressions.
00:13:55
That has yet to happen with me.
00:13:56
But on the other hand, if you look at the videos in the video
00:13:59
tab, it's not the podcast interview content I've been
00:14:02
doing.
00:14:02
It's basically one person talking about one topic and
00:14:06
there's almost like a format of successful content that you can
00:14:10
see there.
00:14:11
So video, I think, and even live streams.
00:14:14
Now some of my live streams have gotten a lot of visibility.
00:14:17
They didn't necessarily have a lot of people join it at the
00:14:19
time, but because they had maybe a famous guest or because of
00:14:23
the topic over time.
00:14:25
Once again it has gotten visibility similar to the
00:14:28
newsletter, but not, as I don't want to say viral, but not as
00:14:31
high of visibility.
00:14:32
But the other thing here and this goes back to the teaser
00:14:36
when I started this podcast was the image, right, the photo, and
00:14:40
this is where you know when I'm in my newsfeed I predominantly
00:14:45
see images and when I do the audits of my students in this
00:14:49
class at Wharton, there are clear discrepancies between
00:14:53
engagement on images versus non-images, and I should also
00:14:58
point out reposts don't really get you that many impressions.
00:15:01
I do a bunch of reposts.
00:15:02
I might even comment on it.
00:15:03
A repost is really not for your benefit but for the benefit of
00:15:09
the original creator of that content.
00:15:11
So if I am a guest on a podcast and they publish it on LinkedIn
00:15:14
, yes, I will repost that at a sentence or two, but it's not
00:15:16
going to get a lot of visibility and I want you to understand
00:15:18
that as well.
00:15:19
That is what the data is showing, but the imagery is
00:15:22
really taking a look at LinkedIn and it goes hand in hand with
00:15:26
these videos that are becoming popular.
00:15:28
In that video tab it is looking at LinkedIn not as a
00:15:32
professional networking site, but as a professional version of
00:15:35
Instagram, meaning you are visual first.
00:15:38
You are visual first with photos, you are visual first
00:15:41
with video.
00:15:42
And this is the first time, as part of this 20 component audit
00:15:46
that I do, where I am now saying , part of this 20 component
00:15:47
audit that I do, where I am now saying one of those 20 things is
00:15:50
are you publishing images?
00:15:52
And that is my challenge to you .
00:15:54
If you have not yet been publishing images, I want you to
00:15:58
do an analysis in your newsfeed from your network.
00:16:01
What sort of images are people publishing.
00:16:04
Now I know that there's the selfie with the long explanation
00:16:07
of they were a failure, they lost their money, and you don't
00:16:10
necessarily need to do that right.
00:16:11
You don't need to follow in the footsteps of quote-unquote
00:16:14
LinkedIn influencers, but you need to find a groove in this
00:16:18
new visual world that we live in , because obviously LinkedIn
00:16:22
prefers it and people prefer it.
00:16:24
They engage with you on it.
00:16:25
So that's my homework for you.
00:16:27
If you're already publishing images and you see that
00:16:29
engagement, you will tend to want to publish more because you
00:16:32
understand that visibility that it brings you.
00:16:35
But if not, really take some time to look around.
00:16:39
Now, interestingly enough, if you go in on any given LinkedIn
00:16:44
profile, you might already know this, but just in case you don't
00:16:46
.
00:16:46
So if you go into any profile, you can scroll down, you'll see
00:16:52
the top matter, you'll see highlights about, you'll see
00:16:55
featured and then you'll see activity.
00:16:57
If you look at the activity tab , it has these little bubbles
00:17:00
posts, comments, videos, images.
00:17:02
If they post all this stuff, if you go to images, you can
00:17:05
actually see the images that people are publishing on any
00:17:10
given profile and then for every one of those images, you can
00:17:13
click through and see the original post.
00:17:14
This is the research that I recommend you do Now.
00:17:17
Graphically created images or just graphics like Canva
00:17:20
graphics that doesn't count.
00:17:21
That doesn't really resonate.
00:17:22
What resonates is pictures of people, like iPhone type
00:17:26
pictures.
00:17:26
So that is my challenge for you is to if you're not publishing,
00:17:31
you're still not sure.
00:17:32
Well, that's not what LinkedIn is about.
00:17:33
It's not about me publishing photos.
00:17:35
I really want you to take a second look.
00:17:37
Look at the content that pops up your newsfeed right as your
00:17:40
initial data source, and then dig into those profiles that are
00:17:44
publishing images that get a lot of engagement.
00:17:46
Go in and look at all the different images they published
00:17:49
and look for patterns, and I think what you're going to see
00:17:51
is, yes, there are selfies, but there's also a lot of imagery
00:17:55
when there are business gatherings, when there is an
00:17:59
event, when they are meeting with a client, meeting with a
00:18:03
colleague, and these are the things.
00:18:06
At the end of the day, I always say and if you've been listening
00:18:09
to this podcast, you probably heard me say it a thousand times
00:18:12
but social media was made for people, not for businesses,
00:18:14
right?
00:18:14
And this brings social media back down to the human element.
00:18:18
I think you know, with COVID and with the emergence of TikTok
00:18:21
.
00:18:21
There is a greater aspect of this human element, this raw
00:18:25
authenticity, as we call it, that's been reintroduced back
00:18:28
into social media and I think that's a good thing and I think,
00:18:31
yes, even on a network like LinkedIn, it is here and it is
00:18:35
here to stay, and those that tap into that will find a lot more
00:18:39
success than those that don't.
00:18:41
So I provided you the data, I provided you the reasoning, I
00:18:46
provided you sort of the steps to take to do the analysis.
00:18:51
All that's left is for you to implement and obviously I have
00:18:56
written Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth as a way to help
00:18:59
you implement.
00:19:01
But I really look forward to seeing you take action on this
00:19:04
podcast episode and if you did take action, or if you disagree,
00:19:07
or if you have further questions, need any
00:19:09
clarifications, please reach out to me.
00:19:11
I really want to make this podcast a two-way conversation.
00:19:13
Neil at neilschafercom I am the real Neil.
00:19:19
Folks, that's N-E-A-L.
00:19:19
Don't do the Starbucks barista misspelling of my name.
00:19:21
But yeah, I would just love to hear from you and I hope that
00:19:24
this inspires you to do more and to have better results on
00:19:27
LinkedIn and really on any other social network.
00:19:29
But I think this is really this professional version of
00:19:32
Instagram is really specific to LinkedIn, as you can imagine.
00:19:37
All right, well, that's a wrap on another edition of the your
00:19:40
Digital Marketing Coach podcast.
00:19:42
I wanna thank you for all your subscriptions, thank you for
00:19:45
those that continue to listen and those that have taken the
00:19:48
extra step to review this podcast.
00:19:50
If you have reviewed this podcast, please, please, make
00:19:53
sure you send me a screenshot so that I can personally thank you
00:19:55
for that review.
00:19:56
Also, if you haven't hit that subscribe button, the way that I
00:20:01
structure this podcast is one half of me doing solo episodes
00:20:04
like this and one half of doing interviews, and I've already
00:20:09
published interviews well into the future.
00:20:10
We have some great interviews coming up on a variety of topics
00:20:15
AI generated content and Google and SEO, best practices for
00:20:20
email marketing for small businesses, e-commerce marketing
00:20:23
, influencer marketing, behavior , science in marketing, clarity
00:20:28
with your messages.
00:20:29
It covers a wide range of topics, but really, my promise
00:20:32
to you is to deliver positive ROI with each episode, so I hope
00:20:36
you'll stay subscribed.
00:20:37
And well, all that's left to say is that's it for another
00:20:41
edition of your Digital Marketing Coach podcast.
00:20:52
Speaker 2: This is your Digital Marketing Coach Neal
00:20:55
podcastneilschafercom.
00:20:57
Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes at
00:21:02
neilschafercom to tap into the 400 plus blog posts that Neil
00:21:07
has published to support your business.
00:21:09
While you're there, check out Neil's digital first group
00:21:12
coaching membership community if you or your business needs a
00:21:16
little helping hand.
00:21:17
See you next time on your Digital Marketing Coach.