Daniel Murray: Welcome to a new special series called The Bathroom Break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom, or both. But I don't recommend both, but that's your choice.

Jay Schwedelson: This collab's gonna be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from The Marketing Millennials, and me, Jay Schwedelson from the Do This Not That podcast, and subjectline.com.

Daniel Murray: Each episode in the series we are gonna go over quick tips about different marketing topics, and if you wanna be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out.

Jay Schwedelson: We are back for another Bathroom Break. I'm Jay Schwedelson from Do This Not That, and I'm with the Daniel Murray from The Marketing Millennials. And before we talk about some very cool under-the-radar, off-the-radar LinkedIn secret tips, tactics, stuff, Daniel, we haven't really talked about it much, but you're, like, very deep in now as, as being a dad. How... What is going on? How old is your kid? Are you, like, is your kid now driving? Like, give me an update on some things that you're doing.

Daniel Murray: So, um, two weeks ago we just started swim lessons, and I didn't know that there, it's in, intense, that you have to go, like, four days a week, and they have all these rules that you can't-

Jay Schwedelson: Four days a week?

Daniel Murray: Yeah, four days a week. He goes four days a week to swim lessons every morning, and they have all the rules, like, he can't have, like, dairy, like, two hours before. He can't have this. Like, fruit. There's all these rules and that, but it's, two days ago was, like, his first time, like, going underwater, and I'm like, I started freaking out and, like, searching, like, what is the rules for dry drowning? Is he drowning? Like, how would I know if he's drowning? And I know he's with an infa- he's with a, like, swim instructor that's, like, really good and well-known. But it's just so scary to see your kid first time underwater when he's been in, like, a bathtub for, like, eight, nine months, um, and not going underwater, so.

Jay Schwedelson: No, that's, that's freaky. When they put, like, babies underwater like that, it f- I don't care that my kid... I, I, it freaks me out.

Daniel Murray: Yeah, it's freaking- It freaks me out but he's good. He's good now. Like, he's, like... But this is the only time he ever screams. Like, I never hear him scream. Every time he goes in the water, he is full-blown screaming- ... the whole time, like, non- nonstop. Panic attack. But the only time he doesn't scream is, like, he'll, he knows when he's about to roll underwater, he stops, like, holds his breath, and then comes back up, and that's, like- That's amazing this far. Yeah, so.

Jay Schwedelson: Do you do anything else four times a week? Not with your child, just in general. That is the most, uh, I mean- I don't think I do anything for 10, 11 weeks

Daniel Murray: Oh, that's the most intense. I thought, like, swim lessons are like you go once a week and-

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, yeah. Once a... Yeah, wild ...

Daniel Murray: yeah, I thought it was, like, a chill thing, and it's like, no, it's intense, like-

Jay Schwedelson: You have, like, Michael Phelps or something

Daniel Murray: like babies are t- and you- apparently, like, you're... there's, like, rules about you have to put them in a bathtub a certain way because if you teach them something bad in the water, then you, like, throw your lessons back, and it's just all this stuff that I have to think about with swim lessons. Um, but yeah.

Jay Schwedelson: Dude, you're, you're next level. I need you to be my dad. Um, all right. Let's, let's jump into some LinkedIn tips. Uh, Daniel, you taught me something about the size of a LinkedIn post that I stole that has... my engagement skyrocketed after I stole this tip from you, so you gotta share with everybody what the tip is.

Daniel Murray: Yeah, so the ratio eight, 8 by 999, the reason why we, we think that's, like, the best ratio is that if you see a text post, it only t- if you look in your feed, it takes... you do a text post, is you're competing against other real estate. Um, when you do 800 by 999, you basically take up the whole feed for your post. So if you're on your phone and scrolling, yours is the only post that someone could react to. Um, so this helps, like, get not only, like, people, you not competing against other real estate, but you're, you're, like, the only... like, scroll time goes up on that post. It gives you more, more chance of getting engagement, and if you have a good hook or a good image, it skyrockets your engagement if you do it this way because it takes up the whole feed.

Jay Schwedelson: All right, so let me break that down in simple terms. On LinkedIn, let's say you're making your thing in Canva or whatever. You go and you pick custom size, and you put 800 by 999 pixel size. Yeah. That specific size. That's the size that Daniel's talking about to get you to have the ultimate engagement on LinkedIn. I've now done this for, I don't know, six months. It has changed my engagement. It skyrocketed. All right, I have something super cheesy, I'm gonna get ma- made fun of, that I've been doing that is working that I'm embarrassed to say I'm doing. But, so the, the number one thing for, uh, the algorithm on LinkedIn that they're looking for is how often a post that you put out there gets, uh, shared, sent around to other people, or if it gets saved. If somebody clicks, you know, on the three dots and then saves the post. So what I've been doing, um, ab- after about 10 minutes of my post going live, I go and I actually save my own post, and then I click the send button, and I send it to, like, I don't know, 10 people that I know or whatever, and since I've started doing that, saving my post and then sending it to people, it has boosted my engagement significantly. How cheesy is that?

Daniel Murray: I hate to say this as, like, a, as, like, a, a marketer, but you have to do what the, what works on the platform, and a year ago, like l- if you liked your own post, it gets shared to your network more than you not liking your post. So- People who said don't like your own post, it's so cheesy, well, you get way more reach because it's sharing to a portion of your, your network every time you like your post. Um, so I don't think that is a ... I think d- I always recommend do what works, even though that is pretty cheesy that you're just sending your post to- ... random people, and people are like, "Why are you sending this post to me?" But I do think, I always am on the side of you have to know the rules of the game of a platform and play them to the best of your ability, because they're gonna, those rules are gonna go, and other people are playing those games. So, like, play them so you can get attention, 'cause the ultimate goal on social is to get attention. I don't care what anybody says. Yeah. Like, if you run social to write a post to get two likes 'cause it's a good post, and you don't wanna get attention, that's fine, but that's a journal, not a, like, an actual marketing strategy. So that's my take on that. So,

Jay Schwedelson: so I, I'll tell you one thing on LinkedIn that I did once and I'll never do again, and I wanna see if you agree, which is unlike on Instagram where you could use something like, uh, ManyChat to automate, you know, DMs to people, um, a while back, about a year or so back, I decided I was gonna attempt to automate some DMs on LinkedIn, and I connected to some tool that everybody said was a great tool, whatever, and it was firing off all these DMs and all this stuff. And then, like, I got, like, w- it was terrible. I lost all my engagement on my posts. I was, like, blacklisted without me even knowing it, right? And, and then I got rid of that tool, and I got rid of the automated DMs and stuff, and, and everything came back, everything was fine. So I'm on Team never use a LinkedIn automation tool, because, A, it is cheesy, but, B, it's not like on Instagram. It will destroy you. Do you beli- do you buy that?

Daniel Murray: LinkedIn notoriously does not like plugin stuff on their platform. I think the only thing they, they're okay with is scheduling tools, and if it's, like, approved by them. Mm-hmm. But if you're doing random hacky stuff that connects, you, not only are you risk of, like, getting shadowbanned on the feed, you're at risk of actually getting your account banned from LinkedIn, and then you have to go fight- Oh and say, like ... So I've never, I've stopped, like, connecting third-party tools that are, like LinkedIn hasn't recommended anymore, because I'm super scared of LinkedIn just banning my account, and then you lose your account for, for ... And then you have to go and fight and talk to cu- I've seen people banned out of their account for two, three weeks from doing-

Jay Schwedelson: Oh, no, no any tools like that. Oh, that's good to know. Yeah, no, I, I'm with you. I, I, they, they don't mess around. They really don't mess around. Um-

Daniel Murray: No,

Jay Schwedelson: like

Daniel Murray: Instagram is, like, more chill. Like, other platforms- Yeah ... are more chill. I've been doing DMs on Instagram of, like, a free guide to people who, like, get new followers, just to, like, introduce them to my s- uh, my- Yeah. Same ... yeah, so I get a new follower, I'll, like, do a ManyChat DM. Yeah.

Jay Schwedelson: ManyChat's cool.

Daniel Murray: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a cool way to, like, engage with your followers, but- Um, but d- Instagram's less, is more chill than LinkedIn, 'cause LinkedIn also, if you ... Some people are like, think they're super smart and, like, they change their name on there, and they're like, "Oh, I got you. Like, uh, you changed your name on there." "Like, I may put my name in all caps. I got you. Um, look, they're spamming me." Um, so that's the LinkedIn game is played, so, um.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. Um, back, back to the swim lesson thing. So when I, not that you asked, but when I was two years old... I wonder why I couldn't swim when I was two. I was two years old. I was living in New York, and I, we had a pool. And, um, I, I guess I fell in the pool, and my parents were, like, in the backyard, but they weren't watching me or whatever, and my brother ended up saving me, and it was a big deal, and they put it in the, in the New York Post that he saved me from drowning. But the problem is my parents have always felt like crap. Like-

Daniel Murray: Yeah, the parents are, like, bad ...

Jay Schwedelson: like terrible. They're always like, "We look horrible. Like, we're in the New York Post for basically being crappy parents." I was like, "Dude, why was I near the pool if I couldn't swim?" And then I end up getting a lot of swim lessons and stuff, too, so it's good that you're doing it. But, um,

Daniel Murray: yeah. Yeah, I, I, as a kid, I remember I- was with my grandma in the pool. And, like, you know those, like, like, floaty things that you put in between your legs?

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, yeah.

Daniel Murray: I think I, and I have a vivid memory, and I'm like, I think I was, like, two years old too, and I kind of knew how to swim, but I jumped to go grab it. And then I, like, my only memory is, like, the, like, wa- like, I saw water, like, um, above, and my grandma dived in and s- got me. But it was, like, super scary. And so now we have a pool fence. We have an alarm that when someone goes out, like, the house, it says that, like, sliding door opens.

Jay Schwedelson: I wanna ask you something. So for all the listeners, Daniel spent the first, like, seven of his years of his life growing up in Africa. That's not a joke. He did. Mm-hmm. So, like, when you would get swim lessons, were you, like, in the water with, like, like, sharks and whales? Like, I feel like there's a lot of animals going on there. Yeah, like- How did you get swim lessons in Africa?

Daniel Murray: I think, I, you, you kind of learn how to, like, the hippos teach you how to swim. So, like, hippos and- ... and flamingos. And, uh, yeah, you learn the, you learn

Jay Schwedelson: the- I don't feel like you're being honest.

Daniel Murray: No. You go to an actual pool. It's just like- Oh ... it's a pool, but, um, but there are, there's a lot of bodies of water in Africa, so, like, you could, you could, uh... But not as much as, like, Florida, but.

Jay Schwedelson: Did you have a pet hippo, like, as a kid?

Daniel Murray: No. I, I told you the story. I used to tell people, 'cause so many people don't know anything about Africa, that I had a pet elephant named Hakuna Matata that I used to- Yes ... ride to school every morning. Um, and then I had, like- ... my little hut, and I lived in hut seven. Right. Hut number seven. Um, and I would come back to my hut and go chill in my hut. 'Cause people, people really don't know anything about Africa. It's really- Yeah ... the un- it's really that bad.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, Hakuna Matata.

Daniel Murray: Hakuna Matata. That elephant is- No

Jay Schwedelson: worries.

Daniel Murray: Yeah, exactly. So.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, I miss, you miss that elephant. Um, well, yeah, everybody drop, you know, Daniel, uh, a comment on his, uh, reviews. Let him know that Hakuna Matata, you know, no worries. You know what I mean?

Daniel Murray: Oh, actually, funny- And- ... story about that. That's my son's cool song. So.

Jay Schwedelson: Who knew? I meant...

Daniel Murray: Yeah.

Jay Schwedelson: I need a pool song. Yeah. I think it's gonna be something by Drake, but, uh, anyway.

Daniel Murray: Yeah, 'cause that's, like, the only way he chills if I put it on, so I put Hakuna Matata on, so.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh, that's good. I'm gonna do that. All right, everyone go listen to Hakuna Matata. We'll see you the next one. Daniel, come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. All right. While he's still in there, this is Jay. Check out my podcast, Do This Not That, for marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing, and I hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

Daniel Murray: Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Marketing Millennials podcast, but also tune into this series. It's once a week, the bathroom break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out, and it could be anything from email subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a, a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear.

Jay Schwedelson: Peace out. Later.

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