Welcome to episode 247, I’m back after a really relaxing vacation and quite a few things seem to have been happening on LinkedIn whilst I have been away!

Update on the last episode

So that game-changing messaging feature didn’t last very long did it? Within a week I found that although you could still create a message by double tapping, it gave an error message (see below)

This could simply be a glitch in the new feature or perhaps the feature wasn’t a feature after all and was just an error?

My theory is that they implemented this as a feature in group discussions as part of the ongoing improvements to groups but by accident, they discovered (probably because we alerted them!) that it also worked for normal posts in the homepage feed. They, therefore, disabled it until they find a fix…..just my theory!

Maybe Oleg does actually exist! Have you noticed he has changed his profile pic? Still no videos posts (the ultimate proof) but I reckon he must be the real deal now.

On the subject of Oleg, I’ve noticed recently that the founder of the agency he uses (allegedly BAMF media) Josh Fechter has disappeared from LinkedIn. I did some investigation and found this interesting thread in his Facebook account;

So it would seem that Josh lost his LinkedIn account with 70,000 followers because he was using automation tools. Another great example of the dangers of using Automation products inline with our #autoban campaign.

LinkedIn now has 630 million members!

I can’t get too excited by these numbers anymore but it does always amuse me when I see others quoting the wrong figure (see next topic)

How to Spark Meaningful Conversations and Measure Success

LinkedIn released this presentation this week. It’s pretty basic but does seem to suggest that the aim of content is to create conversations (correct) and it’s focus is on posts from personal profiles…because company posts fail to engage!

Isn’t that what I have been saying for ages?

The other amusing thing in this is that, even though it was published this week, it states on page 11 that LinkedIn has 610m members! ?

New Profile design (desktop)

This is currently being rolled out. If you have it, every profile you view looks like this so it’s based on the account of the viewer not the one with the profile.

Overview

Mostly cosmetic changes but good to see them make the contact info more prominent. The only change we might need to consider making is the start of the ‘About’ section.

Changes

As highlighted by the arrows;

Contact info - now more prominent on the left and blue to indicate it’s a link

Connections - Also moved left and changed to blue to indicate it’s a link

Message/Connect/Follow - Now top right, the More menus haven’t changed

About (previously summary) has moved below Highlights (if shown) and the number of characters shown before the ‘see more’ is 220 rather than the 300 previously.

This could be important because a good About preview should be a teaser to entice the viewer to click on the ‘see more’ If your cut off is mid-sentence, the reader is more likely to click on it.

 

LinkedInLive continues to grow.

I’m seeing more and more notifications including this ‘in page’ notification which I saw appear in the bottom left corner of my page on desktop.

LinkedIn continue to push this out and I’m sure publishers are seeing great numbers and engagement. I do remain sceptical though as I can’t see the LinkedIn community warming to the idea of 15-20 min videos hitting them whilst at work and in the middle of something else! For fun, I made this spoof video this week;

I’m inundated with some really great nominations at the moment, this one wins this week though. Text posts are still the most powerful in terms of engagement if you get the structure right. Katie does a great job here in that it says enough in the first 5 lines to get your attention, especially as the ‘see more’ is after “Marrissa Mayer used to…”

It’s opinionated but also very easy to relate to. Some people will wholeheartedly agree with her but others will think she is being negative and there are many people who worship characters like Elon Musk.

It’s well structured and ends with a question….perfect!

Thanks to Paul Copcutt for the suggestion. I’m following Katie now - lots of great content!

NOT Post of the Week!

Be careful what you post. This video has been doing well on LinkedIn so I guess it scores high on that front but to me, it seems completely staged. There is no way people are that cruel, you would have to drop your keys in front of hundreds of people to find any that would reply in this way!

Videos like this are commonplace on YouTube, Facebook & Instagram but on LinkedIn, you are publishing to a more discerning audience. For sure some people will fall for it but the majority will just see it for what it is……manipulative and contrived!

Another point worth making…If you see something like this, move on or unfollow the person who posted it. Whatever you do, don’t comment as all that does it give it more views.

This question was from a few weeks ago but still relevant

This might be related to that crazy week LinkedIn had but I don’t think so because I have heard about others experiencing this phenomenon before. Invites often come from the ‘People You May Know’ section and sometimes the algorithm decides to plaster you over everyone’s PYMK…that is my theory anyway. It’s never happened to me thank goodness!

That’s all for this week….next week….Would you buy Followers on LinkedIn?