You're doing all the things.

You're posting, you're sharing, you're showing up, and still you're not getting

any closer towards your business goals.

I'm here to break it to you.

It's probably because your audience doesn't care about you.

There.

I said it.

They do not care.

And in today's episode, I've got a bit of tough love for you listeners.

So stick around and we're gonna fix this problem and get

your engagement back on track.

G'Day everyone.

It is Coach Michelle J Raymond, and welcome back for another

episode of the podcast, and this is a really important podcast.

This is something that is going to come across as a bit of tough love, like I said

in the intro, but something that I think is so valuable to marketers and business

owners looking to grow their businesses.

And we're hearing so much on the platform, that the algorithm isn't

showing our content as far, you're watching your numbers go plummeting,

and it's happening to everyone.

It's not just you.

And very soon my friend Richard van der Blom will release an algorithm

investigation report and he's gonna teach you lots of tips and tricks around things

that you can do to tweak what you do on LinkedIn to get more reach and engagement.

Now, I'm here to tell you, you don't need to wait for that.

You can get in early and fix the problems with your content today.

That's right, we can fix this today.

I'm gonna share what the problem is, the solution, and give you the tools

to do a quick audit of your own content so you can fix this immediately.

No tools are required, it is just your time and attention.

Getting your time and attention is easier said than done because I

appreciate that this is only one part of what you have to get done every day.

For marketers, you might be across multiple platforms in and out of

meetings, probably managing a team if you're a senior marketer, possibly you

are somebody that's starting out and managing different social media platforms.

I get it.

And you know, especially a shout out to those business owners who are responsible

for everything in the business.

Yay.

Don't you love that?

It's so cool to try and keep up with everything.

But this episode is going to be short, sharp, and practical.

My favorite types of episodes.

Before we dive into all of that cool stuff today, here's a quick word

from our podcast sponsors, Metricool.

let's start out and talk about the most common issues that I see with content,

and can I be honest for a moment?

I don't think that anybody sets out to make bad content.

And I don't even think it's bad content.

It's just ineffective content.

And I understand that from time to time, it could be because you

just had to get the job done.

And unfortunately, your audience can feel that you've just ticked and flicked

and created content with that in mind.

I also understand that there are pressures internally that people come

to you and say, do a post on this.

Reach our audience.

We wanna tell the whole world about it.

And I honestly think that that is the beginning of the end for poor content,

especially when it comes to Pages.

If I had to say what the biggest issue with content was that I see as I'm

scrolling LinkedIn or working with my clients in two words, self-absorption.

That's right, we only care about ourselves.

We don't pay enough attention to our audience.

ChatGPT it doesn't know your audience.

It doesn't care about your audience.

It is searching the internet for the average of all of that content

out there and serving up something that is not specific to the people

that you're trying to target.

When you are self-absorbed and talk about yourself or have no consideration

for the people that you are trying to target with your content, they know it.

They feel it.

It doesn't resonate, and they keep on scrolling.

That then plays out when we use so much corporate jargon.

We don't need any more of that in our lives, and it doesn't

matter which industry you work in.

This is a big part of content that I see with company pages, is that we feel

like if we use the jargon and we sound smart, then people wanna buy only from

the companies that sound the smartest.

That's not actually the case.

We are looking for companies that align with our values, that we

feel seen, that we feel heard.

I'm gonna go into this a little bit when we talk about the solutions,

but ultimately, jargon is a killer for your content engagement.

The other thing that you probably haven't thought about when

you're in self-absorption mode is what's a day in the life of

your target audience really like?

No, really.

Do they get up early?

Do they have families to get off to school?

Are they highly strung professionals that are in back-to-back meetings all day?

Do they take lunch breaks?

Do they probably skip their lunch breaks?

Are they working on weekends?

What is life like when they get home from work?

Are they dealing with homework?

Do they have kids' sports?

Are they trying to do self-care for themselves?

Do they stay up late?

Are they night owls?

If you can't come back to me with some generalised answers to many of those

questions that I've just asked, then the answer is you're self-absorbed.

You actually don't care about your audience.

You have something you wanna say.

You are just going to broadcast it at them, and they're just gonna

take it whether they like it or not.

You know that they don't like it because your numbers aren't working.

You cannot blame the LinkedIn algorithm all the time.

It is not the fault of the algorithm that you are not getting engagement.

LinkedIn is showing your content elsewhere.

It is making sure that you are being seen.

It may not be by as much as what we were historically.

But what happens when people see it, that's on you.

And ultimately, I am going to guess, and I see this when I do audits for Company

Pages or people book a Power Hour with me, the first thing I do is I look at

their content and say, you know what?

Your content, it's all about you, and nobody cares.

And it's really a harsh truth, but it's also the most powerful thing

that I can share with people.

After this short break, let's come back and talk about the fix.

I've got the solution for you.

It's never doom and gloom listeners.

There is always, if we have a problem, there are solutions, and especially

when it comes back to content.

And if talking about yourself and being self-absorbed is the kryptonite to your

content, the good news is you also have the superpower within you to be able to

fix this, and that superpower is empathy.

Having empathy for what it's like for people on the other side and really

getting to understand what is a day in the life like for them, can allow

you to quickly fix your content.

What are the key problems that they have?

What are the challenges that they have in achieving their KPIs?

If you work for somebody else, you're showing up every day trying to get

closer to those goals so you can achieve your personal career goals.

And that could be because it links to getting a promotion,

it could be more wages.

It could be bonuses, it could be all kinds of things.

But as a creator, creating for your audience, think about what

motivates people on the other side.

What are they trying to achieve?

And for some of your audience, it could be that they're really motivated by

shared values, and we see that, especially with Gen Z. They're looking to work with

people that have an opinion, that stand for something, that share their values.

And if you don't show that in your content, then they could be swiping on by.

Now when you bring empathy your content will shift and it will

have an amazing impact on the people that are on the other side.

Because all of a sudden it feels like they're invited to your party.

It feels like they're the centre of attention and we

pretty much all love that.

Let's put this in a face-to-face context.

We meet at a party or a networking event you come up and start talking

to me and I start blabbering on about how amazing I am.

I've just been on this world tour.

I wrote books.

I've got a YouTube channel.

I'm amazing.

I've done this, I've done that.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Everybody switches off.

We all do it.

That's when we say, oh, I'm just gonna go and get a drink, or

I'm just going to the bathroom.

People will walk away from that, and it's no different in an online world.

The cool part is when you flick that switch, all of a sudden you'll have people

flocking to you because they feel seen.

They feel heard.

They can understand your content.

It's easy to consume and it offers a fair value exchange.

Their time for your value.

If those two things are aligned, they'll keep coming back.

That's where your engagement will go up and when your engagement

goes up, then also you're reach and impressions and views also will go up.

How can you check where things are at to make sure that you are using empathy

as your superpower to win on LinkedIn?

Let's go back to the R.A.T.E framework.

If you missed that podcast episode, I'm gonna put the details in the show

notes because I dedicated a whole episode to this because it's really that

important, and the R.A.T.E framework is R.A.T.E, so it's easy to remember.

R.A.T.E your content, R.A.T.E your comments, and this is how it works.

R, is your post relevant to your audience?

That is very different to, this is what I want to post.

This is what my boss wants me to post.

This is what the company wants to talk about.

Nobody cares about that stuff.

They are looking for content that is relevant to them, that

meets them where they're at.

That helps them achieve their goals.

I'm gonna keep repeating this over and over again.

When it's relevant they will consume your content.

Then we look at A authenticity.

Authenticity in this case, I mean that we are not just using

those templated approaches.

That you really come across as the individual or the brand,

and you are genuinely creating content with that audience in mind.

And we ditch the jargon.

We make it easy for people to read.

So one quick check, if you put your post into ChatGPT and ask it is this

suitable for a level four reader?

And this is because we wanna make sure that our content is most accessible

by the most number of people.

And especially on a global platform, you're gonna have people from all

walks of life, all backgrounds, all education levels, and we wanna

make sure that we can reach 'em.

And yes, this includes even if the person that you are targeting is the

CEO or someone high up in a business, make it easy for them to consume.

That's a really quick and easy tip.

T is thought leadership.

Now for me, thought leadership is always all about just having

something that's original.

That shows your positioning in the industry.

That you have a great understanding of the topic, and you can

share your own opinion on this.

There are so many different ways that you can use the word thought leadership.

But for me, the key point is always having your own opinions and your own

experiences, and using that to lead other people to get closer to their

goals and what they're trying to achieve.

Always coming back.

We're serving our audience and solving the challenges that they have.

E. E comes back to empathy.

The superpower of all content.

And empathy is so important because I want you to check in

and say, in this piece of content?

Do I really see things from the same view of my audience?

Do I understand what it's like for them?

Are they time poor?

Are they drowning?

Have they just had budgets cut?

When you have empathy for the people on the other side, you don't come across

like a robot, you will stand out.

It will be immediately obvious that you've done your research and homework

and understand your clients, your industry, and really what makes them tick.

And putting yourself in somebody else's shoes is really powerful

because you'll be able to very quickly and easily understand what kind of

content can I create that really helps that person with where they're at?

We're coming back to R.A.T.E. Is it relevant?

Is it authentic?

Does it express thought leadership?

And am I showing empathy for the people on the other side?

So they're the four steps.

I wanna set a little self-audit challenge for you listeners, because it's all well

and good to listen to the podcast, but you don't get anywhere closer to your business

goals if you don't implement these.

So I want you to go back and check your last five to 10 posts, depending how much

time you've got, and have a look with the R.A.T.E framework and see is it relevant

to my audience, is it authentically me or has some jargon or terminology crept in?

Is it thought leadership?

Am I sharing something that's original and helpful and shares my opinion

and leads people towards their goals?

If the answer is yes, you can tick that one off.

And do I show empathy?

Do I have a good understanding of what it's like a day in the

life for my target audience?

If you can tick all four of those things off for the majority of your posts, and

of course it's not gonna be every post I don't believe in formulas for content

because sometimes we've just gotta do things because we enjoy them and have fun.

But if we apply the 80 20 rule where we R.A.T.E our posts and make

sure they're fine, then you can freestyle those other posts and people

will still engage and enjoy them.

So that's your homework for this week, listeners.

If after you do this self audit, you discover that you've got a bad case of

all about me, you now know how to fix it.

If you wanna use LinkedIn to help you grow your business, it all starts with empathy.

If you need any help implementing this, reach out it might be that having a Power

Hour session with me where I can review your content with you, make suggestions,

and then set you up for success in the future, all within 60 minutes.

Might be the ideal way for you to get results.

and I've had so much fun this week doing a couple of those as I just got back

into the office and it's so cool to watch my clients go from oh yeah, it's really

obvious now to, yes, I can't wait to make this switch and make my content in service

of our audience, and I know that they're gonna get the results that they're after.

So there you have it listeners.

Empathy for the win.

Until next week, cheers.