Standing out from the noise during lockdown
Hello and welcome to a new episode, I hope you are keeping safe and well during this lockdown. Whilst there is no doubt that the number of active users is up on LinkedIn, our feeds seem to be full of one subject…Corona Virus / Covid-19. So how do we continue to post effectively and remain visible when all people want to talk about is the current crisis?
That is the main subject this week but before we get to that;
Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week
Social media interest is spiking worldwide — except for LinkedIn! – This just doesn’t ring true in my experience but they are only referring to search data so maybe it’s less job seekers who are not using LinkedIn for anything else.
New Features
LinkedIn are apparently testing an ‘away / out of office’ message but it’s only going to be for premium users – source Jane Wong on Twitter.
LinkedIn are also in the very early stages of a roll-out of new messaging rules within groups. Traditionally group members have been able to send a DM to another group member outside of their connections but this has been limited to 15 a month across all groups. Now it’s moving to unlimited but the message has to be accepted by the recipient…my guess is there will be penalties for those who get lots of rejections!
Click on the image to view the page on LinkedIn
How to Stand out amongst the Coronavirus noise
Firstly it may make sense to alter your profile to reflect the current situation (if appropriate).
As far as posting, I don’t think you should try to post about other subjects!
People are clearly focussed on one thing so why battle against it? Instead, we should be thinking of interesting topics associated to the current crisis.
I’m especially interested in the impact this situation has on Managers. How do you manage your team when they are;
- At home, working but with kids to homeschool amongst many other distractions
- Furloughed (still employed but paid by the government and not allowed to work)
- At work as normal but feel vulnerable and unsafe as a result
These are exceptional times and the stress this causes everyone is significant but I can’t help feeling that those managing teams must be finding it especially tricky…I also believe they are the key to making a quick recovery!
The current situation provides many different opportunities to post, so I haven’t picked one post of the week but three that have all taken different approaches and all very successfully.
A different twist on the ‘support for Nurses and Doctors’ but one that has caught the imagination of many and divided opinion amongst some.
Jobseekers often post about their situation and needs but Danny takes a much more effective approach here with this beautifully crafted text-only post.
He also posted this update about the results;
What a fantastic result!
And finally one from my buddy Steve who is rightly concerned about the mental health impact this will have;
Paolo Lanciani sent me a voicemail with a great question regarding notifications he is receiving informing him that a connection has posted. Why do we see these and why from those people in particular?
Answer- I have also noticed this recently, so I checked the ones I had received in the last few weeks;
- The topic seems irrelevant
- The person who posted and the reason I’m notified seemed to fit one of three types;
- A new connection who has posted something that is doing well
- A connection I have regular contact with (high relevancy) who has just posted something with a promising start to engagement
- A failing post from someone I have had zero contact with (low relevancy). These posts were mostly re-shares but not always.
It’s difficult to know for sure but my sense is that they are using notifications to try to boost underperforming posts, especially re-shares.
What has your experience been and can you suggest any other examples?
That’s all for this week. Stay safe and keep active on LinkedIn.
