Welcome to episode 266. So the time has finally come, I’ve been waiting in nervous anticipation for this for months and finally, LinkedIn have announced their new company page features. It, therefore, makes sense to focus on them this week although I will also continue with the series on LinkedIn settings.

But first…

Feedback from last weeks show

Thank you all so much for the compliments about last weeks chat with Scott Millward, if you haven’t heard it I would strongly recommend you do, it’s a belter!

Quote from Emmie;

Took some of the learnings from yours and Scott’s episode and implemented yesterday. Mainly around creating a topic of interest for
Discussion and had 3k views already and loads of comments which for me is quite impressive. Also had someone contacted me about a really interesting project having seen me pop up on LinkedIn! I think that’s what he is doing right is starting an interesting topic of conversation that people want to get involved it- like he said they are responding to the topic not you. Really interesting to see it work in practice

Wow, that’s exactly why I do this show. The best possible outcome!

Quote from Steve;

Hey Mark just been listening to your podcast interview with Scott Millward, absolutely outstanding and one of the best pieces of discussion on social media (LinkedIn) I’ve heard in a long while. You know, given the choice between following someone like Gary V or Scott, people would pick up ten fold the amount of relevant learning from Scott. Brilliant job.

I’m always eager to hear feedback from you so please feel free to get in touch.

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• LinkedIn Events is finally being rolled out to all English speaking users
• LinkedIn are testing ‘Manage conversations’ in mobile messages
• Fascinating piece on the rise and fall of Social media including the following video

New To LinkedIn Pages

So finally we get to see the new features that have been promised for what seems like a long time.

There are only really three new features to report. I like them all but none of them especially excite me!

Maybe LinkedIn are going for incremental development but for me, Pages need major surgery in order to make them something that is worth us spending any time on. I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to revamp my page, get active and start afresh only to find the effort I am putting in is yielding zero results – it’s so disheartening!

You can read the full announcement here

I was hoping for something exciting and innovative. Here’s what we get;

Don’t get me wrong, all of those new features are improvements, especially the Employee notifications (read more about them here). It’s a step in the right direction but I’m not seeing anything that would make me spend time posting from my page anytime soon. Do you?

Settings Part 4 – Ads

How often do you check your settings? They often change so it’s worth having a check through them from time to time.

Previously I covered Account settings in episode 262 and Privacy settings in episodes 263 and 264.

To get to your settings;

Desktop

> Click on the ‘Me’ menu

> Select Privacy & Settings

Mobile

> Tap on the small round profile pic top left

> Tap View profile

> Tap on the cog – top right

Now you will see there are four sections. Account, Privacy, Ads and Communications.

This week I dive into the Ads section.

• General
  • Insights on websites you’ve visited
  • Ads beyond LinkedIn
  • Profile data for ad personalisation
  • Interest categories
• Data collected
  • Connections
  • Location
  • Demographics
  • Companies you follow
  • Groups
  • Education
  • Job Information
  • Employer
• Third-party data
  • Interactions with business
  • Ad-related actions

I’m being a bit selfish with this one, I had quite a few good nominations this week but I’ve chosen one nominated by me!

Angus is a competitor and someone I’m grateful to call a friend.

This post is a genuine, authentic message of support for people who need it. It’s not written to game the algorithm (although the structure is good) and it’s definitely not boosted by an engagement pod.

I know that Angus dedicates a significant amount of time, often late into the evening to support people who are struggling with alcoholism and he is using this platform to reach out to more people that may need (or know someone) that needs his help.

I know he would have pondered and worried about whether this was an appropriate post to put out as a LinkedIn Trainer. It takes courage and a big heart to post something like this and I know he did it because he believes it may help others.

If you feel that Angus can help you either personally or by coming and talking to a group then please reach out to him on LinkedIn or call him on 01442 876 038 / O7708343341

This week we have a question about the Social Selling Index.

Answer;

Unfortunately, LinkedIn do not make it very clear what specific actions count for each section of your SSI score. InMail response rates are definitely measured but I suspect they are in the 3rd category ‘engage with insights’ rather than the category your client is falling short in. He might improve that one by sending more messages (not InMail) to his connections, connecting with more people and especially senior-level decision-makers. In addition, he might want to try engaging more with his connections posts more, again especially the more senior ones.

What is important to state here though is that SSI has limitations. I believe it can be a useful tool to get people from a low score (less than 50) to an acceptable level (70+) but beyond that, it has very little use.

Rather than being obsessed with a high SSI you are far better off focussing on more important KPI’s such as;

• Profile views
• Invitations to connect
• Average comments/post
• Average Likes/post
• Average views/post

You can check out your own SSI by going to www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi

That’s all for this week.

Keep sending in your questions and nominations for the post of the week.