Are you playing things too safe on LinkedIn?

You know, all of your content is designed to make sure it stays within the rules.

Doesn't upset anybody, but ultimately what's happening is your

content's getting passed on by.

Why is that and what can we do about it?

Let's take a look.

G' Day everyone it is Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide to building

your brand and your business on LinkedIn.

And I know that the most popular episodes that I ever do on this podcast are always

related to how can you get your content seen by more people, whether you wanna

find out for yourself, for your team, or for your company page, everybody wants

more reach, more engagement, and lots of those cool metrics going up and up and up.

And right now on LinkedIn, as I've said in multiple episodes recently,

it's certainly not the state of the game that LinkedIn are playing.

So they would tell you that it's all about your content now is

more relevant to your audience.

IE that's code for, we're not going to show it to as many people.

That's called impressions.

But yet at the same time, your engagement should still be the same.

Hopefully that's right, and their aim to make sure that we get our

content seen by the right sets of eyes actually helps us grow the business.

The only way that you'll be able to tell is are you getting inbound leads from your

content, from your efforts on LinkedIn?

The answer is no.

The problem is your content is probably just getting scrolled

by, and I see this regularly because people play things so safe.

They don't wanna upset anyone.

They use lots of corporate jargon.

They stay within the company branding guidelines.

There's lots of different ways that we can do this.

And one of the major ways that most people play it far too safe is by not having

an opinion on anything at all, ever.

They're completely neutral, and from that perspective, no one

knows exactly where you stand.

When we're playing it safe with our content, I understand that safe feels

comfortable, but comfortable gets ignored.

So after this quick word from our podcast sponsors Metricool, I am going to talk

about your invisible posts and more importantly, stick around to the end

'cause I'm gonna give you the solutions in how you can fix this problem and make

sure your post gets seen on LinkedIn.

Let's talk about your safe but invisible posts and what the actual problem is.

The actual problem is if people don't stop for your post, neither

does the LinkedIn algorithm.

So ultimately, our job is to make sure that our audience slows down

long enough, consumes our content and hopefully they like, they comment,

maybe they save or repost your content.

That's the ultimate goal.

But if your content is so safe and so boring that ultimately nobody

stops, then the algorithm doesn't reward that, and that is why your

post isn't being seen by people.

What does the LinkedIn algorithm reward?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

One of the things that the algorithm loves is you generating conversations,

and conversations normally start from having a point of view on a particular

topic that's within your industry, and from that you can then lead conversations.

Sometimes they turn into arguments on social.

I get it.

But ultimately, I like to think that LinkedIn is a safe place with not too

many trolls, and it's a professional environment, which is great for getting

some of the best minds in your industry together to have a conversation

around the topics that matter.

So having a strong point of view and an opinion in your content is a really great

place to start to get people to actually stop for a moment and pay attention.

The way that we do this, the actual mechanism is by putting that

opinion or a strong question in the opening two lines of your posts.

We call that the hook, right?

So think about what can you use as a hook line that will stop people in their

tracks and want them to get involved in your conversation that you're leading.

Now, if you are not sure what a hook is.

That's what our friend ChatGPT is there for, or any of the other AI tools.

Ask it, How can I improve the hook on my post?

This is a magic way that AI can help you and start to get people

to slow down and make sure that your posts are no longer invisible.

So if you don't put it in that hook line, maybe it's your image

that captures people's attention.

It might be a gif, it might be something that makes people laugh.

It might be a photo of something that you saw, a news article

that will spark a conversation.

There are so many creative ways that you can hook people in so that

they start to pay attention to your posts and they don't scroll past it.

So that's one of the ways that you can do this.

What else do I think will make the biggest difference to your content

to make sure that it's not invisible?

Uh, show up as you, talk like you, create your digital twin.

IE be the same as if I met you face to face.

Write your posts exactly the same.

I think that's what actually stops a lot of people from creating content at all

on LinkedIn, is that they think they have to be a LinkedIn version of themself,

you know, professional buttoned up.

But I find that the people that I stop for their content on LinkedIn the most,

are the ones that just sound like someone I would love to connect with if we met

face to face, the ones that call it how it is, the ones that used everyday

language, the ones that are passionate about their topic, whatever that may be.

What it really is, they use their own words, and that's what I love.

I love that it may not be the most professional, although it can be,

or it can be using humour, sarcasm.

It could make people angry.

It could make people sad, but at the end of the day, I just know it's

in exactly the same words as if I would meet that person face to face.

So if you're not doing that, that's probably the most simple fix to make

sure that your content is being seen.

Why does this work so much?

Well, because right now LinkedIn is flooded with so much AI content.

I don't need to tell you this, listeners.

You already know.

and I don't know about you, but for me, the more polished and perfection

that comes through on this content now, the less I'm interested.

Honestly, I am so bored by these perfect posts that I just keep scrolling by.

That they become invisible to me.

They don't catch me or my attention long enough for me to wanna find

out more, even though it might be something that's a really great idea.

When it sounds like ChatGPT wrote it then I'm not on board for that.

I wanna know what you think and the chances are, so does your audience.

Let's talk about some of the practical ways that you can fix this.

Now, I mentioned one earlier, we are going to need to rewrite the hook, like the

opening sentence on your post needs to be the strongest sentence in the whole post.

Why is that?

We want people to stop and we want them to click on see more

to discover the rest of the post.

If they don't do that, then all that effort that you put into the other

probably thousand characters goes nowhere.

So from that perspective, that opening line has to be your best.

I also want you to think about moving away from statements that are so

beige and so bland and so boring that everybody just goes, eh, and shrugs their

shoulders and just keeps on scrolling.

It is okay to have an opinion.

I know that you're all super smart people that listen to this podcast.

I've connected with so many of you over on LinkedIn, so I know this to be true.

I want to hear more from you.

I want you to call out things in your industry.

Be strong enough to back yourself and your positions and your ideas and

invite people into the conversation.

This isn't about having big arguments, but this is standing for something

and having the, I guess inner strength and courage, 'cause it does take

courage to back yourself, as I said, and be that leader in your industry.

This is where those people that say, I want to be a thought leader on LinkedIn,

or they want members of their team to be thought leaders and yet they put up so

many guardrails and so many restrictions on the types of things that people can

say then that is not thought leadership.

Thought leadership is not regurgitating things that ChatGPT could do.

It is about sharing your opinions and leading conversations.

So that is another way.

Think about if you were to look at the post.

Is there a way that I can tell that it's your post and not just somebody

else's if I took your name off it, and that's a pretty good check, would I be

able to tell by the words that you use, the language, the emojis that you have?

Like I know emojis and em dashes and things have copped and

absolute hiding since ChatGPT came on and everybody's onto it.

Like I know you are using ChatGPT if you've got the rocket emoji,

or you know, whichever one is the current flavour of the month.

But ultimately, you know, you probably recognize my post because

I'm probably the person that overuses the smiley face emoji everywhere.

Why?

Because that's just who I am.

I smile a lot.

If you meet me.

I smile a lot.

There is no difference and I want people to feel happier for

having had an interaction with me, so that's why I use it.

So emojis are great.

They can help you, really reinforce your message without having to use

thousands of words, and they're totally acceptable on LinkedIn.

These are some of the other ways you can be controversial, but

don't be controversial for the sake of it, like to be antagonistic,

unless that's part of your personal brand, in that case, go for it.

But it's all about being, I think like LinkedIn's research would say contrarian.

If everybody goes one way and you go the other way, then it's easier to stand out.

So my perfect example of this is when I first started setting up my business.

I backed LinkedIn Company Pages.

Everybody else was anti LinkedIn Company Pages, so it was easy for me.

I went one way.

They all went the other.

I get to stand out and this is what you need to discover to help make

sure that you stand out and that your content isn't invisible on LinkedIn.

As we wrap this one up, listeners, at the end of the day, you don't

need to be over the top outrageous.

You do need to find a way to stand out in the feed.

Get people to understand that your content is helpful, and make sure

that your content is memorable so they know to look out for it in the future

when they see your posts in the feed.

Remember, we have so many people creating content.

The platform's getting busier.

Find an angle that works for you to make sure that no one

ever wants to miss your content.

At the end of the day, I want you to say something real.

Say it in your own way.

Say something that matters and lead conversations.

And when you try this, I guarantee you that your LinkedIn

content, your numbers will go up.

You are going to be leading the conversations.

And when this works, do me a favour, reach out to me on LinkedIn, let

me know that you gave it a try.

And more importantly, how did that turn out for you?

Cheers.