Welcome to episode 182, lots to tell you about this week so no main subject as such.

Firstly I want to correct something I mentioned in last weeks show under the title ‘The State of Groups’ It seems that, on closer examination, the stated number of pending members isn’t actually accurate! Thanks to Carl for putting me right on that one!

Another correction from last week regarding GDPR. Asked if you had any questions and a number of you did. I will be interviewing an expert on the matter soon so I will make sure all your questions are answered (keep sending them in).

The thing I got wrong was suggesting that this would only be a subject of interest to European listeners - apparently this isn’t the case as anyone who holds data on people who are in a country under GDPR could be liable for fines (quite how, I don’t know!)

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

• LinkedIn opens it’s new EMEA HQ offices in Dublin.

It’s a bit ‘cheesy’ as always but here is the video of the new offices. They do look pretty amazing!

 

• Gary Vee is finally waking up to LinkedIn…get with it Gary!
  

  Click on the image to watch the video

   

• ‘Canned’ message responses are becoming more contextual…and actually pretty good!

A connection Giles Davis recently alerted me to this by showing this message. After someone had accepted his connection he was given some useful suggestions

 

When he sent me this screenshot via a LinkedIn message, I was given the option of a canned reply ‘Thanks for sharing’ which was also contextual.

I then sent a message to him suggesting a time to meet (as an experiment) to see if it would be as clever as Google’s Inbox which would give me the option of ‘Great, see you then’.

Unfortunately, all he got was the standard;

Oh well, it is at least some sort of progress…Rome wasn’t built in a day!

• Emails now show how many notifications you have.

 

I left it a few minutes until I had another notification and then checked the email again;

 

 

Have you seen ‘Topics in the feed’?

Listener Alessandra Cimatti has noticed that Topics in the feed have arrived on desktop, to be honest, I hadn’t even noticed them on mobile!

Here is what the Help Centre has to say about them;

So it would seem that the algorithm is categorising external and native content somehow. I’m not sure how useful this is but it would be nice to know how we can write content so that it gets categorised appropriately!

Tip.

Did you know how to find your followers?

I posted this video on LinkedIn this week and asked some other respected experts what they do with followers. Take a look at Bruce Johnston’s response - very interesting!

Biteable

Here is Campbell’s video post made using Biteable.

And below is my first attempt - just to demonstrate what can be done.

You can remove the logos and download the video by upgrading for $99/year

Linkedinformed on Biteable.

Question from Jose Jimenez:

I just wanted to say how much I enjoy the podcast. I don’t normally listen to podcasts longer than 20/25 mins but I make an exception for yours. Your recent episode where you discussed how you managed to gain some insights on someone for an interview via the recommendations they gave was brilliant. Apart from being a fantastic nugget of information I also found it very funny when you described the reaction of the interviewer!

I have a question. A couple of things you have mentioned on your shows and which I’m aware of as a user is 1) how great the newsfeed is right now 2) the demise of groups. Its great that LI is now starting take off but where do people for deep and meaningful conversations with their peers? Where do they go to discuss issues with other people that work in the same industry? I know some groups are still very active/good but they are diminishing all the time. I know some people can, of course, use their feeds but this isn’t always possible or you won’t get the same feedback that you would from a group. Just wanted to get your feedback/opinion on this question?

Great question and you make a very good point. There is a need for niche communities and LinkedIn recognise this too which is why they are re-designing groups. That solution, however, is not likely to be available for some time.

In the meantime, I see two options for you;

1. Create your own group, invite specific individuals you know will contribute and keep it small. The problem with this is that many (most) LinkedIn users have just switched off from groups so getting people interested will be hard.
2. Create a Slack group. I’m a member of a LinkedIn Trainers group and it has proved to be a fantastic, supportive and highly resourceful community for me. The key is to keep it small. we are currently at just 9 members and that is plenty enough. Much bigger and you really start to lose value in my opinion.

We also have a voicemail question from Paul Copcutt

You can hear my answer by listening to the show.

 

That’s it for this week, don’t forget to leave a voicemail or email me with any questions or suggestions, till next time.

Have a great week everyone.

PS New Service. I am now providing one to one coaching sessions. Click ‘Schedule a call’ and arrange a time to speak directly with me.

---

Thank you so much for listening. I value your support and interest.

Help me to promote the podcast

It can be difficult to get noticed in iTunes and one thing that can really make a difference is reviews. If you enjoy the show please take a minute to write an honest review in iTunes, it would be most appreciated.

If you are not sure how to write an iTunes review I have made a short video demonstrating how this is done.