Time for me to check in with you.

On a scale of one to 10, how frustrating is your Company Page growth?

I'm gonna guess that you're at 10 out of a 10, like most people that I talk with.

So in today's episode, I'm gonna share what you can do about it.

G'Day

everyone.

It's Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide to building your

brand and your business on LinkedIn.

And we are back to talk about all things LinkedIn Company Pages.

I guess that's what happens to me when I'm the Company Pages Queen.

I'm involved in a lot of conversations and get asked a lot of questions

from people that reach out and they are so frustrated, 11 outta 10,

not even 10 outta 10 frustrated.

And they're trying everything, doing their best, and it feels

like they're getting nowhere.

And so in today's episode, I wanna quickly go into what are the four

areas that we can look at if this is a problem and you can relate.

And also one of the solutions, you may not have thought about

it, but may actually work for you.

So stick around to the end because I'm gonna share something that

will surprise a lot of you.

But for some of you, it might be the answer that you've been searching for.

Before we go into the four areas that I wanna take a look at, let's

hear about the latest features from our podcast sponsors Metricool.

Today's episode as we step through each of the four areas I want you

to check out is sent with love.

I don't want anyone on the other side of this podcast walking away with the

feeling that they're not doing enough, that they're not trying hard enough.

Or that in some way, shape or form that there's something wrong with them because

they can't seem to get the Page to work.

This is so common people.

I want you to know that upfront.

I would say being a Company Page admin on LinkedIn is one of the

hardest things that anyone could do, and so don't feel deflated.

Because we're going into each of these areas, and for you, you might be ticking

off all four of them saying, yeah, no, actually that's a problem for us.

That is not the point of this.

I want to give you the places to look so that you can go back and take action

and have an impact immediately and get your follower growth back on track,

get your engagement back on track.

The first place that I want you to look is do you have a Company Page strategy?

Because with no strategy, you have no direction, and for some of you, you

might be going, yeah, maybe we did one a while ago, or maybe you have a marketing

strategy, but that hasn't filtered down specifically into what the strategy

is for your LinkedIn Company Page.

For some of you, you inherited a LinkedIn Company Page as the admin

from somebody else in the team.

Maybe you recently started at a business and you're trying

to figure this stuff out.

Most of the time when I'm working with clients, there's not a lot written

down that anyone can refer to, which is the first issue that we mostly have.

If things aren't written down and you are handing the page admin role across to

somebody else, then it's no surprises that person is going to be left floundering and

feeling like the water is just climbing up and up and up and they're drowning,

and that is like a terrible feeling.

That is exactly the feeling that I want people to avoid because of this episode.

Strategy when we're looking at, in terms of the Company

Page, go back and have a look.

Have you done customer research?

Has there been any effort put into that?

Maybe it's as simple as you need to go and have a conversation with the sales team.

Get to know what's going on for your customers, the language they

use, the problems that you solve.

What's important to them right now?

What are the trends that they wanna know about?

Maybe the global financial environment right now is impacting businesses

out there, and your business can talk about it, but you need to have a really

good understanding of your customers.

Move on to the business plan because if your LinkedIn strategy isn't aligned

to your business goals, then it's gonna feel like the business is going one way.

You are going another, and the role of the Page and everything that we're doing

there is really to help the business achieve its goals, whatever they may be.

So if you haven't done that exercise, it's time to go back and make sure

that you're both calibrated and heading in the same direction.

Then we can move on to things like the content pillars, like what

is your page gonna talk about?

And this will involve knowing your positioning and messaging and all

the other parts of branding that come into this, and making sure

that that's really clear in how you're gonna show up on social.

A lot of you might have done this exercise as a group in the past, or

maybe you've never done it at all.

I can tell you I know when this work hasn't been done because I can

see that people are posting and the only goal that they have is to post

three times, have it sound relatively professional and talk about something

that's going on in the business.

And it's completely ineffective and unfortunately, the only solution to

this particular issue is if you have no strategy, you have to go back and put

these pieces of the puzzle in place.

I think this is where ChatGPT is going to be brilliant and a really

good tool that you can help bounce ideas off, if you don't know how

to do any of these steps, ask it.

Ask it to give you some kind of program that you could follow,

questions that you could ask.

That is what I think is one of the most brilliant things around ChatGPT and tools

like this, where they will help you do the research and if you have knowledge gaps,

they can help you find those answers.

So if you are missing any of the pieces of this puzzle, it's

time to go back and do the work.

Let's move on to part two, and this is something completely out of your control,

and that is that LinkedIn changes so fast, it changes at a rate that it is so hard to

keep up with everything that's going on.

I'm a specialist on LinkedIn only.

I'm a specialist on organic LinkedIn only.

I'm a specialist on only using LinkedIn for growing your business.

There is so many more facets to LinkedIn to understand, and so if you're a

Marketing Manager or a Social Media Manager or someone responsible for

the Company Page you quite often don't have the luxury that I have in being a

specialist and more, you're a generalist.

You have to wear many different hats during the day, and the

Company Page is just one of them.

I right now have read so many different reports, like the Metricool

LinkedIn Study around what's working with Pages that was 40 pages long.

I am about to read another one from Social Media Today, which is all

about pages and LinkedIn in general.

That's about the same length again, you got Richard van der Blom's report,

that's gonna be what, 125 pages or something like that of insights.

It's huge.

It's a monster.

And that takes them six months to put that information together.

Now that's not even keeping up to date with all the changes that LinkedIn make

to the platform, things come and go.

They move around, features get taken away.

Shout out to the employee advocacy that disappeared off LinkedIn.

That was a bummer.

And people are struggling to find ways around that.

If you spend all of your time scrolling LinkedIn, then you are just going to

lose more time than you gain by trying to keep up with all of these things.

That's exactly why I'm here to help you.

This podcast is one way.

Did you know I've also got a YouTube channel.

It's @MichelleJRaymond.

There's so many how to videos over there, and I specialise in videos for

Company Pages, so LinkedIn in general, but specialty in Company Pages.

So if you're looking for info, it's most likely gonna be over there.

Mostly along the lines of how to videos.

And of course there's my brand new newsletter that's there to help you as

well, to give you the insights first, and I will put the details in the show

notes on how you can get access to that.

These are the kinds of things that I'm trying to do to make

sure you don't get sidetracked.

Trying to chop and change your strategy based on what the LinkedIn

algorithm may or may not be doing, or the features and functions.

Strategy will never go outta style regardless of all of

these other bits and pieces.

But if you aren't up to date with current best practice, then you are going to fall

behind and things that used to work like or maybe worked last year won't work now.

Or they've become harder, or they're not generating the same amount of results.

So it's really important that you take me up on one of those offers,

the newsletter, the YouTube channel.

You can obviously follow my content over on LinkedIn.

I've got a couple of books to throw in there.

Did you know I was the co-author of the world's first and only

book dedicated to LinkedIn Company Pages called Business Gold?

And we only put that out four or five years ago.

That's how little information there is out there for Company Page Admins.

So I do my best to help you.

So stay up to date with any one of those or multiple channels.

And if you've ever got a question like reach out, who knows?

Might end up becoming a podcast episode in the future.

If keeping up with all the changes on LinkedIn is a full-time job, then it's

no surprises that the third thing that I find and the area that I want you to

have a look at is the consistency or rather inconsistency of your content

or just how much content are you putting out via your Company Page.

I come across Page Admins and the first question that they always ask

me is, how often should I be posting?

Now I'm assuming that you're a small to medium sized business, not solopreneur.

So I'm gonna park you for a moment, 'cause this doesn't really apply to you,

but if you're a small to medium sized business or larger, of course, then I

would expect that you're posting three times a week would be my magic number.

That's not always possible because you are juggling things.

I meet many Page Admins that this is just one part of their job, or

they work part-time hours and it's really hard to keep up with everything

that's expected within those hours.

If ideally posting three times a week is where I would love you to be

at, and that is every week, 52 weeks practically of the year, minus all

the holidays and bits and pieces.

But ultimately it's the consistency and that persistency over the

long term that will generate the growth for your Company Page.

Hot and cold.

The classic one that I see all the time.

I don't see any content on Company Pages for ages.

Then what do you know?

We've got a trade show coming up.

We've spent all this money on the booth.

We get our photos for the couple of days while the trade show's on at best,

and then we disappear for a while.

Or you've got some kind of online webinar you want signups for.

You know, the part where people come back and just use LinkedIn when they've got

something that they want from an audience.

It's a bit of an afterthought.

The problem is when you're inconsistent, your audience will find other

places to get their information and solutions from, and you may

actually miss out on opportunities just because you're not top of mind.

Finding consistency and finding a way to get that done over the long

term is going to take a few things.

One of which I think is putting time aside and blocking it out in your

actual calendar so it pops up so you can't get double booked, so people

don't put meetings in over the top of the time that you had in your mind

that you're gonna create the content.

And this is such a simple thing, but also something that's really powerful 'cause

it signals to other people, this is important work that I need to get done.

If you are running out of time, then getting really good at repurposing

is going to be your next skill that you're gonna become good at.

And that could be repurposing long form to short form, whether that's articles down

into posts, or it could be longer videos and webinars down into short form clips.

It doesn't matter which way you do it, but you have to have some kind

of system or structure around that.

It could also be that you take posts that you created six months ago that

are evergreen, that you could repost.

Again, there's lots of ways that we can do this, but if you don't have

systems in place and shout out to Metricool, they're the tool that we

use to keep everything under control and in a place where we can find it.

And that's something that, you know, I'm guilty.

Lil is so much better at this than me.

I'm still working on it for my own personal content.

But for our Company Pages that we have with the B2B Growth Co Company Page, or

we have a Company Page for this podcast called Social Media for B2B Growth over

on LinkedIn where we share other tips.

But ultimately having systems and processes is gold

'cause it saves you time.

So if you're finding yourself not being able to keep up or you don't have a place

to store ideas, then sit down and spend some time and think what is gonna be the

best way for you in the future to keep a track of this stuff so you can repurpose.

I think number four is the one that has the biggest impact.

The area that I would like you to have a look at.

Is your team stretched too thin?

Are you a team of one trying to do everything and on a fast

track to burning yourself out?

Maybe you're a small team of two and you're trying to keep up with the demands

across every single platform, all kinds of formats, and it's just draining.

Or maybe you're part of a much bigger marketing team, but ultimately your head

count may have been reduced or budgets are being slashed, and now you've got fewer

people to do the same amount of work.

Regardless of the circumstances.

Please take a moment and ask, is this actually physically possible

for me to keep up with everything?

I'm going to guess that the answer is actually no.

And that's not a reflection on you not being good at your job, despite

the fact that it may feel like this.

I remember I read a stat when I was doing some research for a presentation

at Social Media Marketing World like last year, and it said that content

marketers were spending up to 34 hours per week creating content.

I'm trying to understand where the other hours of the week are actually spent

to have lunch breaks and go to meetings and all those other fun kinds of things

that we have to get done during the day.

If the answer is that you aren't able to keep up then after this break I'm

gonna offer a solution that I think might actually resonate with you the most.

I promised you a solution to all of the issues that we've

discussed in this episode.

And the good news for you is the solution is not another tip, it is not another

tool, and the beauty of this option is it's only available on Company Pages and

it is not available on personal profiles.

And that is outsourcing.

It is completely within the user agreement on LinkedIn that you can

assign a third party to run your Company Page on LinkedIn for you.

Companies like my own that we create content aligned with your business

strategy, up to date with the current LinkedIn best practices, and really work

with you to take away the workload that we've just realised that honestly you

have no chance of ever keeping up with.

Now it's not suitable for every business.

If you are too small, it doesn't work.

And for some of you, it might actually be that you have your own internal big

marketing teams, and this isn't an option.

I can tell you that I've worked with companies of all different sizes.

I've come in and helped them on a short term basis when they've been

looking for replacement staff.

I have worked with companies where they have no marketing team.

We were able to take on that responsibility for them and get

their Company Page up and going.

And the good part is it's not about losing control because that's what a

lot of people think outsourcing is, but it really is a true partnership.

And the companies that we work with always know that they can tick off consistency.

They've got someone that can focus on getting the results and

keeps them aligned and on track.

And also, I bring my Company Pages expertise.

And for many people that is such a huge sense of relief to have a partner that

can work with them and take some of the ideas and bring them to life or find

ideas when they can't come up with some.

I only work with a handful of clients at any one time on Company Page management

because I'm not just a social media manager that's creating posts for you.

We're looking at this from the perspective of how will the page

and everything we do on LinkedIn really generate business results.

So the page might be one place, but we work together and figure out

how can we get employees involved?

Where else should we be using our time?

What things can we tweak and improve as we get the analytics?

And check them for you to see what's working and what's not.

And the sense of relief for the clients that we do work with is probably one

of my favorite things about my job.

Watching a business that knows they should be on LinkedIn, and despite

all of their best intentions, life is just really busy and it's something

that they never quite got around to.

But now we create a Page that's consistently thriving and

generating business results.

If you've been nodding your head going, oh my God, this would be amazing.

I wish I could have this.

The good news is I've got one spot and one spot only that's opened up for Company

Page management services directly with me.

I'm not palming you off to anybody else.

It's you and I and we work together to really come up with a plan that is

going to make sure that your Company Page is growing and you can focus on

what matters in your business and to together we generate better results.

If you are someone that's been listening and there's no budget to work directly

with me, or it's not a service that you're looking to outsource, you

could invest in training with me.

Did you know that I actually do Company Page admin training

specifically for Company Page Admins?

No one else offers a training like that.

Everybody else gives you training that's applicable to profiles and

says, Hey, just marry it across.

It'll be fine.

They don't work like that.

Pages and Profiles are completely different.

For those of you who may not have those options available to you now, good news is

you have four places that you can go and check and look for areas that you could

improve with the resources that you have, and if anything changes in the future

of course, you know where to find me.

As we wrap up today's show, I hope that this has been helpful.

I know that if you go and audit each of these four areas that we've discussed,

that you will find improvements to help you grow your Page and make sure

you take me up on some of those other resources that I've got out there.

The YouTube channel @MichelleJRaymond.

You can come and sign up to the newsletter.

Details are in the show notes.

That is how you can get even more great tips around growing your brand

and your business on LinkedIn from me in between these podcast episodes.

So until then, cheers.