LinkedInformed Podcast. The LinkedIn Show

This month we will see Creator mode disappearing and with it, the obligation to have 'Follow' as the primary option on your profile so I thought it was worth revisiting the persistent question...Connect or Follow?

That plus;

• New Recruiter & Learning tools that assist retention but might also have the the polar opposite impact!

• New Privacy setting

• New option for profile custom CTA button

• Feedback from last week regarding the homepage feed

• Post of the week.

Has your feed changed recently? Are you seeing posts from people who are unfamiliar to you?

This may be due to LinkedIn™️ deciding that they know what 'quality' content looks like.

Not you...you are clearly not in a position to decide this for yourself!

This week I discuss what we can do to fix this.

That plus;

• AI comments are getting very annoying!

• The real reason customised invitations are being limited and a cool workaround.

• A very sneaky change to your data privacy settings

• Saved posts feature urgently needs updating

• My take on Public groups

• Profile verification favours men!

• Post of the week

Are you sure you want to be providing LinkedIn™️ with your hard earned knowledge for a badge?

Do the benefits of collaborative articles add up?

That plus;

• An update on the revamped Services section

• A voice message tip

• Sales Navigator improvements

• New profile photo feature

• Another new 'Pay to spam' feature update

• B2B Deep sales playbook. Useful or a Sales Navigator ad?

• Are LinkedIn Corp' Sales professionals using LinkedIn™️?

It's that time of the year when the legend that is Richard van der Blom publishes his LinkedIn™️ algorithm insights report so in this episode I discuss some of the highlights, what we can learn and why we need to treat the results with caution.

Also covered;

• Services page gets a makeover

• Creator mode is going

• Is profile verification enough?

This week I find out about the 'person behind the profile' with the LinkedIn content Queen herself Nanna Sondrup

Nanna was very open and honest in this chat where she describes a troubled childhood experiencing terrible bullying and parents distracted by her brother who had severe ADHD challenges.

She herself was later diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD yet has managed to become a very well known LinkedIn™️ expert in Denmark.

Join me in hearing why Nanna is such an INteresting person!

LinkedIn™️ is primarily a B2B networking platform but that doesn't mean that a B2C (business to consumer) business can't succeed. This week I talk with Anna Williams about how she recently relaunched her coffee shop on LinkedIn™️.

That plus;

• How I became a LinkedIn 'Top voice'

• An update on profile verification with Persona

• More on how to get a community top voice badge

• New - Company sponsored articles

• Are hashtags still relevant?

Big news this week...The LinkedIn Corporation are attacking me and I need some creative ideas from you to be able to move forward.

More of that later, also included in this episode I talk about;

• Uplift Live conference - I can offer you a discount.

• Profile custom buttons are really good but are they too effective?

• Verification issues and privacy concerns

• New Events features

• New features for collaborative articles

• More skills (that most of us don't need)

• New 'Daily' feature in LinkedIn™️ learning

• Public profiles get a revamp and there are winners and losers!

• Post of the week

Welcome to the first edition of interesting People, a new type of show for the LinkedInformed podcast.

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable...so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better.

But do we REALLY know them?

interesting People interviews are designed reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️.

For this first episode, I sat down and had a good old heart to heart chat with Ashley Leeds.

Ashley always comes across as energetic and very positive...but is he always like this?

We discuss the traumatic events that influenced his childhood, why he quit his promising career as a Chef, how he met his wife Debbie, his kids, his many career and job moves and how he ended up being the 15-minute LinkedIn™️ guy!

I absolutely loved finding out more about Ashley and I'm sure you will too

Every year I dust off my LinkedIn™️ crystal ball and look at what changes I think we will see on the platform over the coming year...every year I get it spectacularly wrong! I like to think I'm ahead of LinkedIn Corp' with my thinking because often my predictions eventually come to fruition a few years later! Either way, it's always fun to do and gets us thinking about what we want from LinkedIn™️ (in truth I produced a wishlist rather than a list of predictions, this year is a bit of a mix)

So here are my predictions and wishes for this year...

In this episode, I talk through the following topics;

• LinkedIn™️ ran a Christmas poll

• INteresting profiles 2024

• Issues with post drafts and article analytics

• Spot a pod

• New WVYP filters - are they useful?

• The new 'create an image' feature for Articles using Microsoft designer

• 50+ factors that can impact the performance of your posts

• Post of the week

When your company page content consistently fails to engage an audience what can you do to make your brand more visible?

That plus;

• Profile verification finally comes to Europe

• Skill assessments

• A new feature on profiles

• A new content newsletter from LinkedIn™️ - is it any good?

• How to report spam

• Post of the week

Last week I shared a message I received from Sandra Long (AKA East coast 🇺🇸Sandra) about collaborative articles where she shared that she finds them very useful asked me to have another look at them...so I did!

I will share the results of my findings later but first, here's what else I cover in this weeks episode...

• Feedback on company page competitors

• A new profile feature

• A couple of improvements to Newsletters

• Why the out of office reply feature needs updating.

• Post of the week

I'm back from the trip of a lifetime!

And I got married as well!

This week I catch up on what has been happening on LinkedIn™️ while I've been away;

• Collaborative articles improve but become more like Q&A's rather than articles
• LinkedIn™️ break links with X (Twitter) accounts
• Several changes to company pages
• Profile videos are going to disappear
• Profile custom badges surpass creator website links
• 1 billion users...but less than 40% are active!
• Profile verification expands to Brazil and Australia
• More images allowed in image posts
• @mention (tagging) gets worse!
• The customized invitation debacle returns

All that plus the lowdown on my amazing trip.

Why do men approach women on LinkedIn when they would never act that way in real life?
Why do people send a sales pitch DM immediately after connecting?
People seem to act in strange ways with a keyboard, often very differently to the way they would in person.
In this episode of LinkedInformed I had the pleasure of chatting with Jacob Elton about this fascinating topic

Part two of my chat with Karen Tisdell about LinkedIn™️ profiles.
In this final part we discuss...
🔶 Experience section
🔶 Recommendations
🔶 Skills
🔶 Background image
🔶 Pronouns and there misuse
🔶 Name pronunciation

Thanks again to Karen for helping out with not just the recording but also helping me put together this summary of the podcast.

Profiles are the bedrock on which everything else you do on LinkedIn™️ is built.
So why do we sometimes take them for granted ❓
Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at your profile?
This week I chat with Karen Tisdell, who is a professional profile writer about what makes a great LinkedIn™️ profile.
We don't agree on everything but I think you will find this discussion valuable.

Business development on LinkedIn.
Some focus on inbound whilst others cold approach multiple prospects (knowing they will mainly get rejected). Luis Báez 🇵🇷🏳️‍🌈 has a different approach...one that is more targeted and highly personalised.

This week I chat with Luis, a sales enablement strategist and coach dedicated to online business owners and B2B professionals - he also used to work for LinkedIn in sales!

When pods combine with auto-commenting tools, we have a problem ❗ 

But is it right to publicly expose people who we believe are cheating in this way ❓ 

That plus;

- A new Chrome extension

- My thoughts on LinkedIn™️ AI enhancement tools

- A great AI talk from Mo Gawdat

- A brilliant post of the week

LinkedIn restricts customised invitations to just 10 a month❗️

I examine why they are doing it and why it's such a bad idea.

That plus;

✅ New message inboxes 👍

✅ New content search filter 👍

✅ Added feature to new custom buttons 👍

✅ Name pronunciation goes backwards 👎

✅ Does verification make you more visible? 🤔

✅ Added value author comments 💡

✅ 'Top' emerging creators (not) 👎

✅ Is it wise for LinkedIn™️ to be 'all in' on AI? 🤔

✅ Screw the views! 👍

✅ Post of the week 🏆

There are 5 key questions to ask yourself before you post on LinkedIn™️

If you can consistently deliver on these points, you are much more likely to reach more of the right people on LinkedIn™️

Before that though...

• NEW profile 'goals'
• Connections vs followers - your feedback
• How to promote a podcast, or anything else on LinkedIn™️
• A Hashtag u-turn or misinformation?
• Have you checked your profile URL preview lately?
• Daniel Roth the dictator and the arrogance of LinkedIn™️!
• Post of the week