August 18, 2023 • 23 mins
What do you do after you publish 2 books on LinkedIn but would rather work on new content rather than revise the older books?
You offer a free update on LinkedIn best practices.
With that thought, my free ebook, Maximizing LinkedIn for Business, was born.
Now in its 4th edition, which I am announcing with this podcast episode, this is a 55-page PDF chock full of recommendations and best practices that has become a labor of love to revise annually to make sure it is even more up-to-date than a published book, which aren't as frequently updated.
This year I decided to focus on creating two new chapters:
1️⃣ The Art of LinkedIn Content - helping you understand and create the new types of content that appear to get the most visibility in the LinkedIn feed
2️⃣ How to Leverage A.I. Specifically for LinkedIn - introducing the tools and processes that I use to inspire you to do more on LinkedIn
If you were curious the chapter I removed to make way for the new chapters is:
LinkedIn Automation: I included it because I know a lot of people to continue to use it, but I have also seen many people end up in LinkedIn Jail as a result. Why not spend the time in content creation and actually engaging with others and developing real relationships?
Download the ebook here: https://nealschaffer.com/linkedin-book-free-download/
Learn More:
- Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
- Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
- 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/books/
- Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
- All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So I was on a call with a marketing technology
partner this week and he thankedme for accepting his LinkedIn
connection request a few monthsago, and he told me since then
he has already started to createcarousel posts on LinkedIn, one
which generated more than100,000 views, and he just
(00:23):
joined LinkedIn a few months ago.
Linkedin is changing and this ismy annual update for you on
what you need to know aboutLinkedIn today.
On this next episode of thedigital marketing coach podcast.
Hey everybody, this is NeilSchaefer, your digital marketing
(01:28):
coach.
Welcome to episode number 332of this podcast.
If you are new here, I am afractional CMO, a marketing
consultant, also an author andspeaker really on all things
digital writing books, frombooks specifically about
LinkedIn to books about socialmedia, marketing strategy,
(01:49):
influence of marketing, andworking on my fifth book, which
is going to be hopefully theultimate digital marketing
playbook for the post COVIDeconomy that we live in today,
but that is a story for anotherepisode.
Today is my annual update onLinkedIn.
I provide an annual update notjust to my podcast listeners,
(02:10):
but also to my email subscribersand my community, because every
year, I religiously update thisfree ebook that I have called
maximizing LinkedIn for business.
It's currently in its fourthedition.
There were a few years where Ididn't update it, but I have
updated it every year over thepast few years and I will put a
link in the show notes.
But it is now available.
(02:31):
I just released it earlier thisweek.
It is now available forimmediate download and if you
don't want to look at the linkin the show notes, you want to
try going directly there.
The exact link and my apologiesit's a little bit long it is
neilshaefercom slash.
Linkedin dash book dash freedash download.
I'll create a bit for that inthe future, but for now,
(02:54):
linkedin dash book dash freedash download.
This is a 55 or so page PDF and, as I said when I introduced
this book in my LinkedIn post, Isaid what do you do after you
publish two books on LinkedInbut would rather work on new
content rather than revise theolder books?
You offer a free update onLinkedIn best practice and with
(03:16):
that thought, that's where thisfree ebook was born.
Now, in its fourth edition, itis a 55 page PDF chalk full of
recommendations and bestpractices.
That has become a labor of loveto revise annually and to make
sure it is even more up to datethan a published book could be,
because they aren't asfrequently updated.
Well, let's get into the book,because by getting into the sea
(03:38):
book and what I covered, I thinkit gives you a snapshot as to
where LinkedIn is today and whatyou should be focusing on.
I do this by revising chaptersand sometimes replacing chapters
.
Last year was the first time Iintroduced something called
creator mode, which was onlyinvite only and beta.
Obviously, this year that isnow available for everybody.
(03:59):
But let me take a step back.
I want to cover four areaswhere I have seen the biggest
change in LinkedIn, includingthat teaser where I talked about
LinkedIn carousel post.
So hold on for more informationabout that.
But I want to first begin.
Where I talk about this ischapter two how LinkedIn is used
today for business, and I talkabout the different ways in
(04:19):
which LinkedIn has been usedover the years Simply recruiting
for sales and social selling,and if that is your thing,
please, please, please listen tomy previous episode, which was
with John Ferrara of Nimble thesecrets to successful social
selling.
Obviously it is used formarketing.
It has been used for somethingcalled employee advocacy.
(04:42):
It is also been used for justgeneral thought leadership, in
fact, linked in and this is sortof on the paid side.
But they have recentlyintroduced thought leadership
ads, where you can actually, asa corporation or organization,
boost the content of yourexecutive team.
Pretty cool, right?
Only available linked in.
(05:02):
But I added one more sectionthis year and that was employer
branding.
Now this is a topic I've beentalking more about.
If you remember, if you've beensubscribed this long back in
September, 15th of 2022, episodenumber 284, I offered my own
introduction to what is employerbranding and why is it
important to marketers.
But just to give you a feel asto what I cover in the book, I
(05:26):
have seen this become more andmore important.
These thought leadership ads,employee advocacy, employee
engagement they're all sort ofrelated.
In fact, I would say influencermarketing is related to this as
well, especially when weleverage our employees, but they
give you a feel in just areally quick snapshot.
Employer branding is how youmarket your company to desired
job seekers.
(05:46):
It is marketing, but notmarketing products to people or
organizations as by them.
It is marketing your cultureand your company to desired job
seekers, who are obviouslyactive on linkedin, and a
brilliant way of thinking aboutit is through this quote, one of
my favorite quotes on the topicfrom someone at linkedin on
(06:06):
their recruiting blog said yourcompany also has a second brand,
related to its primary brand,about how you're viewed as an
employer.
This is your employer brand andit lives and breathes in the
minds and hearts of your former,current and future employees.
So because linkedin is such animportant place of source talent
, you can imagine how it becomesthe most important social
(06:29):
network for employer branding.
An employer branding itself, ifyou don't realize it already, is
becoming more important for thefollowing reasons.
The job market is ascompetitive as ever, so a strong
employer brand is going to becritical to attract and retain
the best talent.
Without an employer brand, itbecomes difficult and costly to
(06:50):
hire and retain the bestemployees and, in this age of AI
and always changing landscape,you really need to have the
brightest working for you inorder to advance your company,
and the best way to find themand attract them is to present
your company as a fantastic,absolute, best place to work,
where people spend their time,and that is in social media.
(07:13):
So, as a result of all this,employee advocacy programs are
also being evolved into employerbranding programs, finding new
ways of collaborating withemployees to find new ways to
positively promote their brandto potential job seekers and
make current employees feel goodabout their workplace.
If you are in charge ofinfluencer marketing for a B2B
(07:34):
or even B2C company and you'relooking to tap into your
employees, if you manage anemployee advocacy program, if
you work in HR or if you want totry to figure out a way to
include your employees as partof your marketing employer
brandings for you, definitely goback and listen to that episode
number 284.
But I think this is a new wayin which LinkedIn is being used
(07:56):
compared to last year, obviouslyrelated to what we see in the
past with employee advocacy,employee engagement, but a new
take on it.
So that was a minor revision tothe ebook, but I just wanted to
bring that up with you today.
The other minor revision is thatof creator mode.
So when I talk about LinkedIn'snewest features, when I also
(08:19):
talk about the way you shouldoptimize your profile, this is
where LinkedIn creator modecomes in Now.
A year ago it was in beta.
I've already talked aboutLinkedIn creator mode on this
podcast and, to refresh yourmemory, it was just two months
ago in episode number 324,linkedin creator mode your
killer, secret weapon forLinkedIn growth.
I still believe that way, but Icovered it in more detail now
(08:42):
in this ebook.
So if you do not know whatcreator mode is, if you haven't
turned it on, I have a greatYouTube video that I'll handhold
you through the process.
That I am going to link to inthe show notes as well, and it
is covered in the ebook.
But one thing I want to pointout about creator mode it gives
you ability for a few differentthings, and you can add hashtags
(09:02):
to your profile.
You get access to LinkedIn liveto start live streaming.
You have the ability to havemembers subscribe to newsletters
that you can send them.
You can create a customizablelink to probably place right
under your location on yourprofile.
But one thing that I didn'tmention of these four things is
that you also have the abilityto do an audio event, and I
(09:24):
don't know about you, but almostevery day when I go to my
notifications, I am seeing apromotion for a LinkedIn audio
event.
I'm not seeing promotions tosign up to a newsletter.
I'm not seeing promotions forlive streams or for events.
I'm seeing them for LinkedInaudios and audio events.
That, once again, this is partof creator mode, and this seems
(09:44):
to be today and I'm recordingthis in mid-August of 2023, what
the algorithm is emphasizing.
If you come from the clubhousespace or Twitter spaces space,
this is a natural.
If you haven't tried a LinkedInaudio event I actually haven't
Something I want to do I highlyrecommend that you give it a try
.
Obviously, you need to be increator mode first, but that is
(10:05):
definitely something new that wedo not see or did not see a
year ago.
The popularity of audio events,especially since clubhouse
itself, has sort of died out,for lack of a better word.
I know it's still there and ithas its fans, but it's just not
the same buzzwordliness that itused to be.
Now, as part of this annualrevision, if there is something
(10:25):
major that demands its ownchapter, I create its own
chapter.
If there's something thatdoesn't need a chapter anymore,
I delete it.
This year, I deleted a chapteron LinkedIn automation.
I think it just has no place inLinkedIn.
Trust me, I have a blog post onhow to send a complaint to
LinkedIn.
I wrote this blog post morethan a decade ago, when I was an
(10:48):
angry little punk, an angryElvis Costello about some things
that LinkedIn had done.
I wrote this blog post aboutcomplaining, basically, and
helping other people complain,but almost on a daily basis
these days I will get an email.
My LinkedIn accounts have beenrestricted, please help me.
And it's like look, I'm notrelated to LinkedIn, I'm just a
blogger.
You have to contact LinkedIncustomer service and I will tell
(11:10):
you that as well.
I have had a member of mydigital first mastermind
community also be put inLinkedIn jail temporarily for a
few weeks, but it is very, verystressful.
So Do not use LinkedInautomation.
Do it manually.
You can hire a virtualassistant.
You can have someone else do itfor you.
There's a little bit ofsecurity that you need to go
through in order to do that, butif you understand the way that
LinkedIn automation works, youcan do the same thing manually.
(11:33):
Yes, it's more time, but guesswhat?
Linkedin is the most valuablenetwork of them all.
I do not wanna see you evenhaving the slightest chance of
getting kicked off, and I knowthat there are some that have
religiously used automationtools for years, never had a
problem, but there are a lotothers that have had problems.
The ones that don't haveproblems don't really talk about
it.
The ones that do have problemsI hear about.
(11:55):
So I'm just gonna tell youthat's why I literally deleted
the chapter from the previousyear's ebook and why it is not
part of this, and that, I think,is another real update, because
LinkedIn today and when I goover one of these two new
chapters in just a second it'sjust very different than it used
to be.
It's not about connecting andthen sending a message that is
clearly right after you acceptthe connection request.
(12:16):
They're trying to pitch yousomething.
It's really about engagement inthe feed, it's about publishing
content in the feed and it'sabout commenting in the feed,
and that is where you'reactually gonna get your most
visibility right, and that'sreally one of my I wanna
encourage.
And that's why this next bigrevision is really chapter nine
in the sea, but called the artof LinkedIn content, and it'll
(12:40):
give you an introduction.
Linkedin has become one of themore engaging social media
platforms, believe it or not.
We're talking 100,000 views ona carousel a few months after
joining a social platform.
That's pretty amazing, if youask me.
More people are sharing morecontent than ever before.
Where the news feed used to beboring and I put those in air
quotes, now one can find a rangeof content, from personal
(13:01):
selfies to videos, photos andeven carousel posts which read
like mini ebooks.
If you really wanna make asplash on LinkedIn and reach
more people while also engagingwith your own network, there is
no better way to do it than byregularly sharing content.
Even just publishing contentonce a week can ensure that you
remain top of mind with yourLinkedIn network.
In order to do so, I wanna giveyou some ideas, as well as
(13:23):
decipher the most popular typeof LinkedIn post formats to help
you.
Now, for each one of these, I goin a little bit more detail and
I even have some sample imageryin the ebooks.
You're gonna have to downloadit, but to give you an idea,
right, we begin with share links.
This is old school LinkedIn and, yes, I still share links, but
instead of sharing 100% of linksas my content, I am trying to
(13:47):
cut that down to 75%, 50%.
I'd love to get to a pointwhere I don't share links at all
, and this is because, when wethink about the art of LinkedIn
content, linkedin wants to keepyou on the platform and
therefore, the content thatkeeps people longer on the
platform is the content they'regonna serve.
A link you know it sends peopleoff the platform, and that's why
you see people putting link incomment, although I think
(14:09):
LinkedIn can figure that out aswell.
But it just goes to show youand this is not just LinkedIn,
this is any social network.
Even I heard today it has notbeen confirmed, but on X,
apparently Elon Musk has sloweddown the speed when, if you
click on a link in X, formerlyknown as Twitter, and you go to
a site that Elon or X does notlike, like certain news media
(14:31):
sites.
So, anyway, I don't know ifthat's real or not, but it's
another example of socialnetworks disliking people
leaving the site.
Therefore, sharing links shouldbe a minimum and actually, if
you do all these other types ofcontent that I'm gonna talk to a
lot, it's gonna help raise theboat, raise the ocean, so that
when you do have a link-basedpost to share that's really
(14:53):
important it's actually gonnaget more visibility, right?
So well, what can you postbeside sharing links?
You can actually post a selfie.
Now, some older LinkedIn usersmay scoff at this idea, but with
newer generations flockingLinkedIn, it has become quite
common to see a selfie in thenews feed, especially when you
pair it with some compellingcommentary.
(15:14):
You can also share multiplephotos.
This is not a carousel post.
On other social networks likeFacebook or especially Instagram
, it would be a carousel post.
This shows up sort of like aphoto gallery.
I have an example in the ebookwhere there was someone who went
to an event and shared threephotos and, you know, one photo
(15:35):
takes up the top two thirds andthe other two photos are split
left and right in the bottomthird.
But it looks very attractive,looks very engaging.
A lot of people will clickthrough.
These are really effective whenyou have client meetings and
they're okay.
You posting when you go toevents, when you have, you know,
internal meetings.
It's a great medium that Ihighly suggest you do,
especially if you don't wanna doa selfie, at least do a gallery
(15:57):
or share multiple photos of anevent that you're part of that
you can comment on as well.
Now the fourth type isexperimenting with a poll.
I mentioned how audio eventsshow up very commonly in the
notifications.
Well, polls used to show upvery frequently and very
prominently in the news feed.
(16:17):
We do not see that today, butit still shows up and it is
still a type of content toexperiment with and thus I put
it in there.
Another type of content isuploading a video.
Now, you know, live stream isanother type, and uploading a
video is a way of keeping peopleon the platform longer, and I
(16:39):
like to look at it this way.
You know, in YouTube, I willget a little stat in my YouTube
studio analytics that say youraudience prefers to see long
form videos, or do they preferto see shorts or short form
video, or do they prefer to seelive stream?
And it really has this meter,like from one to five, of the
popularity of these differentthings.
Everyone's different, right.
(17:01):
Some people love shorts, somepeople love live stream, some
people love the longerhorizontal videos.
So, whatever is that issomething that you will
definitely wanna consider asanother type of video.
It could be a live stream, itcould be recorded video.
I am now uploading my YouTubevideos natively in LinkedIn.
I'm not posting a link toYouTube.
(17:22):
Now, another type of contentthat I referred to in the teaser
of this podcast episode that Ididn't even talk about.
In fact, now that I'm goingthrough the ebook, I seem to
have completely forgotten to putit in the ebook.
Man, how did that happen?
But anyway, it is the carouselpost.
The carousel post is a, so onlypeople listening to the podcast
get this information.
But the carousel post is andprobably why I didn't put it in
(17:45):
the ebook is it is the mostdifficult to create.
It is a PDF document.
Right, it is like a mini ebookor a mini.
I mean.
It's almost like a slide share,the way they used to be, but it
is a mini PDF that people canscroll through and these, I
think you would agree, arefeatured prominently in the news
feed.
In fact, there is a paid mediatype, an actual paid carousel
(18:06):
type, where, if you wanna keepscrolling through, you literally
have to give away your emailaddress in order to see the
final pages of that carouselpost.
So this is not a carousel postin terms of multiple photos, it
is a carousel post in terms ofan actual PDF document and right
now, today, in mid-August of2023, that is going to be the
(18:29):
most popular type of content andsorry, it's not in the ebook,
but I plan to publish morecontent on that.
I am still doing my own R&D.
Those that are in my digitalfirst mastermind group, that are
listening, know that we talk alot about this and I encourage
you as well when you see one ofthese carousel posts in your
feed to just you know, you canactually click on it, maximize
(18:51):
the screen and there is a way todownload it.
After you maximize the screen,I recommend, like what I did,
was download a few of them and Ithink you're gonna see patterns
and I think you're just gonnasee you are able to repurpose
your own content into these andI encourage you to do that to
give more value to those aroundyou.
All right, one last thing Iwant to cover, and this is also
another new chapter.
(19:12):
So this 10 chapter ebook is now11 chapters, 10 minus 1 plus 2,
right?
The second new chapter, aftertalking about the art of
LinkedIn content, is literallycalled the two LinkedIn AI tools
I use and recommend.
Now, if you've been subscribedto my YouTube channel, hintent,
youtubecom slash, neal Schaefer,you've already seen me post
(19:32):
some tutorial videos of some ofthese.
One of these I have yet to, butI will just, you know, tell you
one of these is great.
When you want to sharelink-based content, it will
easily.
Or you want to share a video?
You want to redo a description,I would say, for shorter form
content.
I really like to use this tool.
(19:53):
Like I said, I especially useit when I share podcasts and
links to my blog.
It makes it really really easyto share and to schedule.
It's a tool that I talk a lotabout on this podcast and in my
digital first community andwhenever I speak to about social
be.
I'm going to put an affiliatelink in the show notes, but you
can go to Neil Schaefercom slashsocial be.
That's a B E E, as in that Bzzz.
(20:13):
That stings you.
The second tool is really akiller, killer tool for creating
more of these long form content.
It is the tool that I use formy own selfies, where I want to
tell more of a story, and it'sreally, really a compelling AI
tool that will help you createlonger form content and really
help you tell your story or yourstories.
(20:34):
You're gonna have to go intothe ebook and download it in
order to see what that one is.
I've got to do a video of it onYouTube, but it is a really
awesome tool that I highlyrecommend as well.
So there you have it.
Employer branding, creator mode, including the popularity of
audio events.
The art of LinkedIn contentlet's do a reset on how we think
(20:54):
about LinkedIn content,including Carousel posts and
then the two LinkedIn AI toolsthat I use and recommend.
It is time to embrace AI andfind ways of using it for better
ideas and to potentially makeour life easier as well,
creating better content inshorter time.
I'm a big believer, I'm a fan.
(21:15):
I'm already using it as far andwide as I can.
I do not use it for long formcontent like blog posts, and I
demand that if I have guestbloggers and it goes through an
AI detention tool and if I seeit's AI, I do not approve of it.
That's how far.
I believe that AI should beused in certain situations, but
not in others.
But once again, you're gonnahave to create your own rules
(21:36):
for that.
So I encourage you to go toneilchafercom slash
LinkedIn-book-free-download.
You can also go to the bottomof my website.
There's a link there in thefooter, and I will have a link
in the show notes.
I would love for you todownload it and I would love to
hear your feedback on it.
It really, as I say in theLinkedIn post where I introduced
(21:58):
it.
I'll stop here.
The landing page link for theebook is in the show notes.
Hope you like it and it servesyou.
That is my Ikigai, after all,and if you don't know what
Ikigai means, it's an importantconcept for my new book.
Just listen in to.
It was actually just two weeksago.
Episode number 330, finding yourmarketing purpose with Ikigai.
(22:19):
Alrighty for a solo episode.
I hope that this gives yousomething to think about,
something to take action on.
If you've had a lot of successwith your LinkedIn posts, I'd
love to hear from you.
Let's decipher together how wecan be successful.
Feel free to reach out to me atany time.
Neilatneilschafercom I am thereal Neil NEAL at nealscaffercom
(22:43):
, and if you would like to bepart of my digital first
mastermind community, it islimited to only 15 participants.
I am currently only at 14.
I have an opening.
I would love for you to be partof it.
Go to neilschafercom, we cansign up and hopefully I will see
you on our next weekly Zoommeeting and I hope to serve you
there as well.
That is it for another episodeof the your Digital Marketing
(23:05):
Coach podcast.
This is your digital marketingcoach, neil Schaefer, signing
off.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Coaching membership community if you or your
business needs a little helpinghand.
See you next time on yourDigital Marketing Coach.
So I was on a call with a marketing technology
partner this week and he thankedme for accepting his LinkedIn
connection request a few monthsago, and he told me since then
he has already started to createcarousel posts on LinkedIn, one
which generated more than100,000 views, and he just
(00:23):
joined LinkedIn a few months ago.
Linkedin is changing and this ismy annual update for you on
what you need to know aboutLinkedIn today.
On this next episode of thedigital marketing coach podcast.
Hey everybody, this is NeilSchaefer, your digital marketing
(01:28):
coach.
Welcome to episode number 332of this podcast.
If you are new here, I am afractional CMO, a marketing
consultant, also an author andspeaker really on all things
digital writing books, frombooks specifically about
LinkedIn to books about socialmedia, marketing strategy,
(01:49):
influence of marketing, andworking on my fifth book, which
is going to be hopefully theultimate digital marketing
playbook for the post COVIDeconomy that we live in today,
but that is a story for anotherepisode.
Today is my annual update onLinkedIn.
I provide an annual update notjust to my podcast listeners,
(02:10):
but also to my email subscribersand my community, because every
year, I religiously update thisfree ebook that I have called
maximizing LinkedIn for business.
It's currently in its fourthedition.
There were a few years where Ididn't update it, but I have
updated it every year over thepast few years and I will put a
link in the show notes.
But it is now available.
(02:31):
I just released it earlier thisweek.
It is now available forimmediate download and if you
don't want to look at the linkin the show notes, you want to
try going directly there.
The exact link and my apologiesit's a little bit long it is
neilshaefercom slash.
Linkedin dash book dash freedash download.
I'll create a bit for that inthe future, but for now,
(02:54):
linkedin dash book dash freedash download.
This is a 55 or so page PDF and, as I said when I introduced
this book in my LinkedIn post, Isaid what do you do after you
publish two books on LinkedInbut would rather work on new
content rather than revise theolder books?
You offer a free update onLinkedIn best practice and with
(03:16):
that thought, that's where thisfree ebook was born.
Now, in its fourth edition, itis a 55 page PDF chalk full of
recommendations and bestpractices.
That has become a labor of loveto revise annually and to make
sure it is even more up to datethan a published book could be,
because they aren't asfrequently updated.
Well, let's get into the book,because by getting into the sea
(03:38):
book and what I covered, I thinkit gives you a snapshot as to
where LinkedIn is today and whatyou should be focusing on.
I do this by revising chaptersand sometimes replacing chapters
.
Last year was the first time Iintroduced something called
creator mode, which was onlyinvite only and beta.
Obviously, this year that isnow available for everybody.
(03:59):
But let me take a step back.
I want to cover four areaswhere I have seen the biggest
change in LinkedIn, includingthat teaser where I talked about
LinkedIn carousel post.
So hold on for more informationabout that.
But I want to first begin.
Where I talk about this ischapter two how LinkedIn is used
today for business, and I talkabout the different ways in
(04:19):
which LinkedIn has been usedover the years Simply recruiting
for sales and social selling,and if that is your thing,
please, please, please listen tomy previous episode, which was
with John Ferrara of Nimble thesecrets to successful social
selling.
Obviously it is used formarketing.
It has been used for somethingcalled employee advocacy.
(04:42):
It is also been used for justgeneral thought leadership, in
fact, linked in and this is sortof on the paid side.
But they have recentlyintroduced thought leadership
ads, where you can actually, asa corporation or organization,
boost the content of yourexecutive team.
Pretty cool, right?
Only available linked in.
(05:02):
But I added one more sectionthis year and that was employer
branding.
Now this is a topic I've beentalking more about.
If you remember, if you've beensubscribed this long back in
September, 15th of 2022, episodenumber 284, I offered my own
introduction to what is employerbranding and why is it
important to marketers.
But just to give you a feel asto what I cover in the book, I
(05:26):
have seen this become more andmore important.
These thought leadership ads,employee advocacy, employee
engagement they're all sort ofrelated.
In fact, I would say influencermarketing is related to this as
well, especially when weleverage our employees, but they
give you a feel in just areally quick snapshot.
Employer branding is how youmarket your company to desired
job seekers.
(05:46):
It is marketing, but notmarketing products to people or
organizations as by them.
It is marketing your cultureand your company to desired job
seekers, who are obviouslyactive on linkedin, and a
brilliant way of thinking aboutit is through this quote, one of
my favorite quotes on the topicfrom someone at linkedin on
(06:06):
their recruiting blog said yourcompany also has a second brand,
related to its primary brand,about how you're viewed as an
employer.
This is your employer brand andit lives and breathes in the
minds and hearts of your former,current and future employees.
So because linkedin is such animportant place of source talent
, you can imagine how it becomesthe most important social
(06:29):
network for employer branding.
An employer branding itself, ifyou don't realize it already, is
becoming more important for thefollowing reasons.
The job market is ascompetitive as ever, so a strong
employer brand is going to becritical to attract and retain
the best talent.
Without an employer brand, itbecomes difficult and costly to
(06:50):
hire and retain the bestemployees and, in this age of AI
and always changing landscape,you really need to have the
brightest working for you inorder to advance your company,
and the best way to find themand attract them is to present
your company as a fantastic,absolute, best place to work,
where people spend their time,and that is in social media.
(07:13):
So, as a result of all this,employee advocacy programs are
also being evolved into employerbranding programs, finding new
ways of collaborating withemployees to find new ways to
positively promote their brandto potential job seekers and
make current employees feel goodabout their workplace.
If you are in charge ofinfluencer marketing for a B2B
(07:34):
or even B2C company and you'relooking to tap into your
employees, if you manage anemployee advocacy program, if
you work in HR or if you want totry to figure out a way to
include your employees as partof your marketing employer
brandings for you, definitely goback and listen to that episode
number 284.
But I think this is a new wayin which LinkedIn is being used
(07:56):
compared to last year, obviouslyrelated to what we see in the
past with employee advocacy,employee engagement, but a new
take on it.
So that was a minor revision tothe ebook, but I just wanted to
bring that up with you today.
The other minor revision is thatof creator mode.
So when I talk about LinkedIn'snewest features, when I also
(08:19):
talk about the way you shouldoptimize your profile, this is
where LinkedIn creator modecomes in Now.
A year ago it was in beta.
I've already talked aboutLinkedIn creator mode on this
podcast and, to refresh yourmemory, it was just two months
ago in episode number 324,linkedin creator mode your
killer, secret weapon forLinkedIn growth.
I still believe that way, but Icovered it in more detail now
(08:42):
in this ebook.
So if you do not know whatcreator mode is, if you haven't
turned it on, I have a greatYouTube video that I'll handhold
you through the process.
That I am going to link to inthe show notes as well, and it
is covered in the ebook.
But one thing I want to pointout about creator mode it gives
you ability for a few differentthings, and you can add hashtags
(09:02):
to your profile.
You get access to LinkedIn liveto start live streaming.
You have the ability to havemembers subscribe to newsletters
that you can send them.
You can create a customizablelink to probably place right
under your location on yourprofile.
But one thing that I didn'tmention of these four things is
that you also have the abilityto do an audio event, and I
(09:24):
don't know about you, but almostevery day when I go to my
notifications, I am seeing apromotion for a LinkedIn audio
event.
I'm not seeing promotions tosign up to a newsletter.
I'm not seeing promotions forlive streams or for events.
I'm seeing them for LinkedInaudios and audio events.
That, once again, this is partof creator mode, and this seems
(09:44):
to be today and I'm recordingthis in mid-August of 2023, what
the algorithm is emphasizing.
If you come from the clubhousespace or Twitter spaces space,
this is a natural.
If you haven't tried a LinkedInaudio event I actually haven't
Something I want to do I highlyrecommend that you give it a try
.
Obviously, you need to be increator mode first, but that is
(10:05):
definitely something new that wedo not see or did not see a
year ago.
The popularity of audio events,especially since clubhouse
itself, has sort of died out,for lack of a better word.
I know it's still there and ithas its fans, but it's just not
the same buzzwordliness that itused to be.
Now, as part of this annualrevision, if there is something
(10:25):
major that demands its ownchapter, I create its own
chapter.
If there's something thatdoesn't need a chapter anymore,
I delete it.
This year, I deleted a chapteron LinkedIn automation.
I think it just has no place inLinkedIn.
Trust me, I have a blog post onhow to send a complaint to
LinkedIn.
I wrote this blog post morethan a decade ago, when I was an
(10:48):
angry little punk, an angryElvis Costello about some things
that LinkedIn had done.
I wrote this blog post aboutcomplaining, basically, and
helping other people complain,but almost on a daily basis
these days I will get an email.
My LinkedIn accounts have beenrestricted, please help me.
And it's like look, I'm notrelated to LinkedIn, I'm just a
blogger.
You have to contact LinkedIncustomer service and I will tell
(11:10):
you that as well.
I have had a member of mydigital first mastermind
community also be put inLinkedIn jail temporarily for a
few weeks, but it is very, verystressful.
So Do not use LinkedInautomation.
Do it manually.
You can hire a virtualassistant.
You can have someone else do itfor you.
There's a little bit ofsecurity that you need to go
through in order to do that, butif you understand the way that
LinkedIn automation works, youcan do the same thing manually.
(11:33):
Yes, it's more time, but guesswhat?
Linkedin is the most valuablenetwork of them all.
I do not wanna see you evenhaving the slightest chance of
getting kicked off, and I knowthat there are some that have
religiously used automationtools for years, never had a
problem, but there are a lotothers that have had problems.
The ones that don't haveproblems don't really talk about
it.
The ones that do have problemsI hear about.
(11:55):
So I'm just gonna tell youthat's why I literally deleted
the chapter from the previousyear's ebook and why it is not
part of this, and that, I think,is another real update, because
LinkedIn today and when I goover one of these two new
chapters in just a second it'sjust very different than it used
to be.
It's not about connecting andthen sending a message that is
clearly right after you acceptthe connection request.
(12:16):
They're trying to pitch yousomething.
It's really about engagement inthe feed, it's about publishing
content in the feed and it'sabout commenting in the feed,
and that is where you'reactually gonna get your most
visibility right, and that'sreally one of my I wanna
encourage.
And that's why this next bigrevision is really chapter nine
in the sea, but called the artof LinkedIn content, and it'll
(12:40):
give you an introduction.
Linkedin has become one of themore engaging social media
platforms, believe it or not.
We're talking 100,000 views ona carousel a few months after
joining a social platform.
That's pretty amazing, if youask me.
More people are sharing morecontent than ever before.
Where the news feed used to beboring and I put those in air
quotes, now one can find a rangeof content, from personal
(13:01):
selfies to videos, photos andeven carousel posts which read
like mini ebooks.
If you really wanna make asplash on LinkedIn and reach
more people while also engagingwith your own network, there is
no better way to do it than byregularly sharing content.
Even just publishing contentonce a week can ensure that you
remain top of mind with yourLinkedIn network.
In order to do so, I wanna giveyou some ideas, as well as
(13:23):
decipher the most popular typeof LinkedIn post formats to help
you.
Now, for each one of these, I goin a little bit more detail and
I even have some sample imageryin the ebooks.
You're gonna have to downloadit, but to give you an idea,
right, we begin with share links.
This is old school LinkedIn and, yes, I still share links, but
instead of sharing 100% of linksas my content, I am trying to
(13:47):
cut that down to 75%, 50%.
I'd love to get to a pointwhere I don't share links at all
, and this is because, when wethink about the art of LinkedIn
content, linkedin wants to keepyou on the platform and
therefore, the content thatkeeps people longer on the
platform is the content they'regonna serve.
A link you know it sends peopleoff the platform, and that's why
you see people putting link incomment, although I think
(14:09):
LinkedIn can figure that out aswell.
But it just goes to show youand this is not just LinkedIn,
this is any social network.
Even I heard today it has notbeen confirmed, but on X,
apparently Elon Musk has sloweddown the speed when, if you
click on a link in X, formerlyknown as Twitter, and you go to
a site that Elon or X does notlike, like certain news media
(14:31):
sites.
So, anyway, I don't know ifthat's real or not, but it's
another example of socialnetworks disliking people
leaving the site.
Therefore, sharing links shouldbe a minimum and actually, if
you do all these other types ofcontent that I'm gonna talk to a
lot, it's gonna help raise theboat, raise the ocean, so that
when you do have a link-basedpost to share that's really
(14:53):
important it's actually gonnaget more visibility, right?
So well, what can you postbeside sharing links?
You can actually post a selfie.
Now, some older LinkedIn usersmay scoff at this idea, but with
newer generations flockingLinkedIn, it has become quite
common to see a selfie in thenews feed, especially when you
pair it with some compellingcommentary.
(15:14):
You can also share multiplephotos.
This is not a carousel post.
On other social networks likeFacebook or especially Instagram
, it would be a carousel post.
This shows up sort of like aphoto gallery.
I have an example in the ebookwhere there was someone who went
to an event and shared threephotos and, you know, one photo
(15:35):
takes up the top two thirds andthe other two photos are split
left and right in the bottomthird.
But it looks very attractive,looks very engaging.
A lot of people will clickthrough.
These are really effective whenyou have client meetings and
they're okay.
You posting when you go toevents, when you have, you know,
internal meetings.
It's a great medium that Ihighly suggest you do,
especially if you don't wanna doa selfie, at least do a gallery
(15:57):
or share multiple photos of anevent that you're part of that
you can comment on as well.
Now the fourth type isexperimenting with a poll.
I mentioned how audio eventsshow up very commonly in the
notifications.
Well, polls used to show upvery frequently and very
prominently in the news feed.
(16:17):
We do not see that today, butit still shows up and it is
still a type of content toexperiment with and thus I put
it in there.
Another type of content isuploading a video.
Now, you know, live stream isanother type, and uploading a
video is a way of keeping peopleon the platform longer, and I
(16:39):
like to look at it this way.
You know, in YouTube, I willget a little stat in my YouTube
studio analytics that say youraudience prefers to see long
form videos, or do they preferto see shorts or short form
video, or do they prefer to seelive stream?
And it really has this meter,like from one to five, of the
popularity of these differentthings.
Everyone's different, right.
(17:01):
Some people love shorts, somepeople love live stream, some
people love the longerhorizontal videos.
So, whatever is that issomething that you will
definitely wanna consider asanother type of video.
It could be a live stream, itcould be recorded video.
I am now uploading my YouTubevideos natively in LinkedIn.
I'm not posting a link toYouTube.
(17:22):
Now, another type of contentthat I referred to in the teaser
of this podcast episode that Ididn't even talk about.
In fact, now that I'm goingthrough the ebook, I seem to
have completely forgotten to putit in the ebook.
Man, how did that happen?
But anyway, it is the carouselpost.
The carousel post is a, so onlypeople listening to the podcast
get this information.
But the carousel post is andprobably why I didn't put it in
(17:45):
the ebook is it is the mostdifficult to create.
It is a PDF document.
Right, it is like a mini ebookor a mini.
I mean.
It's almost like a slide share,the way they used to be, but it
is a mini PDF that people canscroll through and these, I
think you would agree, arefeatured prominently in the news
feed.
In fact, there is a paid mediatype, an actual paid carousel
(18:06):
type, where, if you wanna keepscrolling through, you literally
have to give away your emailaddress in order to see the
final pages of that carouselpost.
So this is not a carousel postin terms of multiple photos, it
is a carousel post in terms ofan actual PDF document and right
now, today, in mid-August of2023, that is going to be the
(18:29):
most popular type of content andsorry, it's not in the ebook,
but I plan to publish morecontent on that.
I am still doing my own R&D.
Those that are in my digitalfirst mastermind group, that are
listening, know that we talk alot about this and I encourage
you as well when you see one ofthese carousel posts in your
feed to just you know, you canactually click on it, maximize
(18:51):
the screen and there is a way todownload it.
After you maximize the screen,I recommend, like what I did,
was download a few of them and Ithink you're gonna see patterns
and I think you're just gonnasee you are able to repurpose
your own content into these andI encourage you to do that to
give more value to those aroundyou.
All right, one last thing Iwant to cover, and this is also
another new chapter.
(19:12):
So this 10 chapter ebook is now11 chapters, 10 minus 1 plus 2,
right?
The second new chapter, aftertalking about the art of
LinkedIn content, is literallycalled the two LinkedIn AI tools
I use and recommend.
Now, if you've been subscribedto my YouTube channel, hintent,
youtubecom slash, neal Schaefer,you've already seen me post
(19:32):
some tutorial videos of some ofthese.
One of these I have yet to, butI will just, you know, tell you
one of these is great.
When you want to sharelink-based content, it will
easily.
Or you want to share a video?
You want to redo a description,I would say, for shorter form
content.
I really like to use this tool.
(19:53):
Like I said, I especially useit when I share podcasts and
links to my blog.
It makes it really really easyto share and to schedule.
It's a tool that I talk a lotabout on this podcast and in my
digital first community andwhenever I speak to about social
be.
I'm going to put an affiliatelink in the show notes, but you
can go to Neil Schaefercom slashsocial be.
That's a B E E, as in that Bzzz.
(20:13):
That stings you.
The second tool is really akiller, killer tool for creating
more of these long form content.
It is the tool that I use formy own selfies, where I want to
tell more of a story, and it'sreally, really a compelling AI
tool that will help you createlonger form content and really
help you tell your story or yourstories.
(20:34):
You're gonna have to go intothe ebook and download it in
order to see what that one is.
I've got to do a video of it onYouTube, but it is a really
awesome tool that I highlyrecommend as well.
So there you have it.
Employer branding, creator mode, including the popularity of
audio events.
The art of LinkedIn contentlet's do a reset on how we think
(20:54):
about LinkedIn content,including Carousel posts and
then the two LinkedIn AI toolsthat I use and recommend.
It is time to embrace AI andfind ways of using it for better
ideas and to potentially makeour life easier as well,
creating better content inshorter time.
I'm a big believer, I'm a fan.
(21:15):
I'm already using it as far andwide as I can.
I do not use it for long formcontent like blog posts, and I
demand that if I have guestbloggers and it goes through an
AI detention tool and if I seeit's AI, I do not approve of it.
That's how far.
I believe that AI should beused in certain situations, but
not in others.
But once again, you're gonnahave to create your own rules
(21:36):
for that.
So I encourage you to go toneilchafercom slash
LinkedIn-book-free-download.
You can also go to the bottomof my website.
There's a link there in thefooter, and I will have a link
in the show notes.
I would love for you todownload it and I would love to
hear your feedback on it.
It really, as I say in theLinkedIn post where I introduced
(21:58):
it.
I'll stop here.
The landing page link for theebook is in the show notes.
Hope you like it and it servesyou.
That is my Ikigai, after all,and if you don't know what
Ikigai means, it's an importantconcept for my new book.
Just listen in to.
It was actually just two weeksago.
Episode number 330, finding yourmarketing purpose with Ikigai.
(22:19):
Alrighty for a solo episode.
I hope that this gives yousomething to think about,
something to take action on.
If you've had a lot of successwith your LinkedIn posts, I'd
love to hear from you.
Let's decipher together how wecan be successful.
Feel free to reach out to me atany time.
Neilatneilschafercom I am thereal Neil NEAL at nealscaffercom
(22:43):
, and if you would like to bepart of my digital first
mastermind community, it islimited to only 15 participants.
I am currently only at 14.
I have an opening.
I would love for you to be partof it.
Go to neilschafercom, we cansign up and hopefully I will see
you on our next weekly Zoommeeting and I hope to serve you
there as well.
That is it for another episodeof the your Digital Marketing
(23:05):
Coach podcast.
This is your digital marketingcoach, neil Schaefer, signing
off.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Coaching membership community if you or your
business needs a little helpinghand.
See you next time on yourDigital Marketing Coach.
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