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How to Use Jasper to Create Your LinkedIn Personal Bio

March 30, 2022 No Comments

Want to write a professional bio for your LinkedIn profile? Here’s how Jasper can help you with this.

Whether you’re looking for a job, hoping to attract head-hunters, or want to network professionally, then LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform of choice for your career.

Some of your profile bio fields are simple to fill in—you already know the date you graduated from college or started at your new job. But creating a compelling and persuasive bio that makes other professionals want to connect with you is more challenging.

If you’re stumped, Jasper is an AI copywriting tool that could help you craft a winning personal statement.

What Should Be Included in Your LinkedIn Personal Bio?

Need some motivation to get started on LinkedIn? Well, if you’re looking for a job, know that 87% of recruiters regularly check out LinkedIn during the hiring process. But even better, how about the fact that 44% of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year. This is above the US national median.

If you’re ready to jump in, it might be tempting to publish some basic details about yourself quickly. But your LinkedIn personal summary shouldn’t be copied and pasted from your résumé—it needs to be unique and have plenty of personality.

This is your chance to break free from job titles or industry qualifications and write from the heart. Why do you love your career? Why are you the best at what you do? What project did you get great results with?

With a generous 2,000-character limit, your LinkedIn profile should give someone a great idea of your experience and what it would be like to work or collaborate with you. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a few non-work-related details, too, so recruiters know you’re human!

If building a LinkedIn profile sounds challenging, then it is! There’s plenty of pressure in knowing when someone googles your name, and your personal bio will usually show up within the first three search results.

But that’s precisely why you should put some effort into crafting these words and keeping your bio updated regularly.

What Is Jasper AI?

Jasper, (formerly known as Jarvis) is a GPT-3 copywriting tool built using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It writes high-converting copy for websites, blog posts, email funnels, ads, and social media posts.

Essentially, you give the software a description of what you want to create, a title idea, and any keywords you want to include. The software will quickly create text for you to use or edit as you wish. Using one of the inbuilt templates, Jasper can help you craft an eye-catching LinkedIn bio to win new clients and attract those recruiters who might be browsing your profile.

Jasper costs $29 per month for their starter package, which gives you access to 20,000 words per month and the use of 50 free templates. This increases to 50,000 words if you subscribe to their Boss mode plan for $59 per month.

To try Jasper out before investing in their software, there’s also a 10,000-word free trial available.

How to Use Jasper to Create Your Personal Bio on LinkedIn

To get started using Jasper to revamp your LinkedIn bio, head over to your profile and click to edit your About section. This is where you’ll place your finished bio.

Next, you’ll go to Jasper, open the dashboard and choose Templates > Personal Bio.

Note, there’s also an option to choose Company Bio if you want to try both.

There are three main sections within the Personal Bio template, to fill in.

Personal Information

400 characters are available here to provide basic details about yourself and your professional background. You might choose to add your current job detail, how you got into the industry, and what you love most about your profession.

Are you proud to have won an industry award or been promoted to CFO by the age of 25? Note down as much as you can in this box to give Jasper plenty to work with. Don’t forget to add those human details too.

Tone of Voice

The Jasper software completed base training at the end of 2019 and read 10% of the Internet. This means that Jasper doesn’t know about important events like Covid-19, but the software does have an excellent grasp of natural language.

Using the tone of voice feature, you can prompt Jasper on what to say and how to say it. Try experimenting with some of the following adjectives to get the tone you’re looking for:

Professional
Bold
Humble
Friendly
Casual

You can even go one step further by asking Jasper to imitate a specific person or character to write your LinkedIn bio. How about sounding like Oprah or Tony Robbins?

Point of View

The final information you need to feed Jasper is whether to create your LinkedIn bio in the third person or the first person.

Third-person example: “Michael Smith is a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years experience in the industry.”

First-person example: “Hi, I’m Michael Smith, a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years of experience in the industry.”

As this is a LinkedIn profile and recruiters will know you’ve created your own bio, it’s usually best to choose the first person point of view to be more personable.

Generating Your LinkedIn Bio

Once you’ve entered your details, head to the bottom of the screen and choose the number of outputs you want to generate. The default is set to 3. You’ll then hit Generate and watch Jasper get to work creating your bio.

On the right-hand side of your screen, you’ll read and choose the output you like best and select Copy to Clipboard. From here, you can paste the copy straight into your LinkedIn profile as the base of your bio. Alternatively, you might wish to open the Jasper editor to continue working on the text.

Making the Most of Jasper

The best way to use Jasper to create your LinkedIn personal bio is to think of the software as a creative tool. You’ll find that Jasper isn’t flawless and may even make up random details about you. But if you’re suffering from writer’s block, it’s a useful way to develop new ideas on how to present yourself to hiring managers.

By Rebecca Noori

Rebecca has 7 years of experience as a freelance writer covering topics related to work, careers, HR, and productivity. She specializes in creating long form blog content with a human touch. You’ll also find her offering tips and support to new freelance writers who are just starting out.

Sourced from MUO

In News

How To Build A Strong Network And Create An Effective Networking Strategy On LinkedIn

February 17, 2022 No Comments

By Wendi Weiner

Building a strategic network requires formulating relationships, sending purposeful messages, and creating meaningful engagement.

In last week’s column, I discussed the importance of seeking out informational interviews as part of a job search strategy or career transition. This week, I want to include a complementary piece on how to properly network, build networking contacts, and create an effective networking strategy on LinkedIn.

Networking in the digital age is significantly easier than in the predigital age. This is because you have wide access to a larger portfolio of potential contacts — former co-workers, mentors, high-profile executives (such as the general counsel at Starbucks), business leaders, law firm partners, legal commentators and journalists, and fellow law school alumni. These individuals are merely a click away on LinkedIn and can easily loop us into a networker’s paradise.

Building a strategic network requires formulating relationships, sending purposeful messages, and creating meaningful engagement. Networking is not a race to build more followers on LinkedIn or engage in a “comment-for-comment” quid pro quo on your content. Networking is a long-term strategy with a tactical process involved. Yet, and probably like you, I get dozens of misguided and misdirected messages on LinkedIn every week.

Here’s an example of recent networking gone wrong on LinkedIn:

During the last days of December, I received a message in my inbox with an attempted networking call-to-action from a connection on LinkedIn: “Wendi, I’d like to introduce you to a UF graduate all-star. ____ was a student leader at (insert fraternity name here) and left his mark on future generations there. He works in support[ing] the legal industry. Of course, I thought of you when he told me what he is doing. Please review his profile and take his phone call as he will be reaching out to you soon.”

Typically, people reach out to me at the very end of the year to kick off their job search. The message did not seem to have a purpose other than letting me know the recent grad supported the legal industry (he marketed software to firms). So, I let my connection (a financial services professional who added me a few years ago on LinkedIn) know I was out on a holiday break and that I worked with senior attorneys, executives, and C-suite/board leaders for career services. I provided him with a referral to a colleague who was a more appropriate fit for him. The next response came in from the recent college grad:

“I appreciate the introduction. It’s a pleasure to continue to grow my Gator Alumni network. Wendi, it is very nice to meet you via LinkedIn and I hope you had a nice holiday. A few months back, I spoke with ____ about expanding my professional network and he has been helping to connect me with fellow colleagues in the legal space. If you have 15 minutes come January, I’d love to speak with you to learn about your practice as well as share some information about what it is I am doing. Please let me know what date might work.”

The initial sender was the past president of the same fraternity chapter nearly 40 years ago and had genuine motives and interest for his young protégé. However, he didn’t create a message with a purpose or address it to a targeted recipient. Instead, he quickly ran a search of his connections with “attorney” or “lawyer” in their headlines and sent out the same blanket message to each of those connections, hoping for something to stick. If you skim my LinkedIn headline and about/summary section, you’ll learn in less than 30 seconds what I do and who I serve. You’ll also quickly realize I’m not a Gator alumnus (I graduated from Florida State University in 1999), I’ve never owned my own law firm, and I haven’t held a legal role since I left practicing law in 2015.

Since the initial outreach was not targeted correctly, the outcome resulted in a new college grad asking to set up a 15-minute coffee chat with someone who would never be a potential client — a waste of time for both of us. The original message also lacked purpose, strategy, and clear messaging, which defies the goal of networking.

As the recipient of these messages (and repeated faux pas) on a weekly basis, it feels more like a pepper spray approach of hitting “connect” with the same cookie-cutter messages. While I realize many utilize automation software as part of the sales networking funnel and marketing strategy, lawyers are in a business (and industry) of building relationships. That means we connect purposefully and with intent. We know time is money and we also realize that relationship building is something that takes credibility and trust to foster.

A network is only as strong as the connections you have in it — and while we all welcome new connections, messages should have a purpose for that call-to action.

Here’s my simple advice for LinkedIn networking: be sure you read through the person’s profile thoroughly before you “pitch” them or ask for a coffee chat. Don’t send mass connection requests and cookie-cutter connection messages. Don’t assume that each person will want to engage in a “15-minute call” for networking. Instead, engage virtually and foster synergy. Think about how you’ll add value and create a truly authentic connection. Your LinkedIn inbox provides enormous networking capabilities, but you must use it wisely.

Remember, you want the right people connected to you as well as the right people in your network — otherwise networking loses its meaning and goal.

By Wendi Weiner

Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at [email protected], connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.

Sourced from ABOVE THE LAW

In News

How to Set up Your First Campaign on LinkedIn in 5 Steps

January 28, 2022 No Comments

By Alexandra Rynne

The first step is often the hardest. New undertakings can feel complicated and intimidating before one dives in and gets a feel. At LinkedIn, we recognize that this can be the case with Campaign Manager. When investing in your brand’s success, no marketer wants to miss a step or get off on the wrong foot.

Objective-based advertising experience is designed to make campaign setup more seamless and intuitive, all while providing the top benefits of advertising on LinkedIn.

Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to setting up your first campaign. Through these straightforward instructions, you can square away your targeting, ad format, budget, and more. Plus, we’ve included some insider tips to maximize your success right off the bat.

(Note, the guidance below covers the setup process after you click “Create Campaign.” For specifics on creating your account and campaign groups, we recommend checking out our LinkedIn Learning course, Marketing on LinkedIn: The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide, which walks you through everything.)

Setting Up Your First LinkedIn Campaign in 5 Easy Steps

1. Choose your objective

We believe it’s important to build your entire campaign around what you hope to achieve, which is why this is the very first step. You’ll want to decide whether your goal is awareness, consideration, or conversions. Then, you can select from subcategories to get more specific. If you’re unsure which one to choose, this blog post explains how to select the best objective for your LinkedIn ad campaign.

Tip: We highly recommend balancing your objectives across the awareness, consideration, and conversions category, as part of a full-funnel marketing approach.

2. Choose the right audience

As a preface, we strongly suggest saving an audience once you’ve created one, so you can use it again. This will enable you to frequently skip much of this process in the future.

First up: profile language. This is a basic yet critical step in personalizing your ads for their recipients. LinkedIn offers 19 different language options!

Next you’ll want to customize your location settings — the only other required targeting facet for building an audience. Start at the continent level, then country, etc. In addition to choosing regions you wish to include, you can pick exclusions as well.

From here you can start exploring the more specific and granular targeting criteria, which are organized across five different categories: Company, Demographics, Education, Job Experience, and Interests.

Watch the video below for more guidance on setting up your audience targeting:

Tip: You can use the Matched Audiences feature for more precise targeting, enabling you to combine your own first-party data with LinkedIn’s robust professional data. Options within Matched Audiences include Email Contact Targeting, Lookalike Targeting, Website Targeting, and Account Targeting.

3. Choose your ad format

Based on your objective, a certain set of ad formats will populate here. Some of the ad types available to advertisers on LinkedIn are:

Text Ads: Consist of a headline, brief text, and an optional image. This format may be placed at the top of the page or on the right rail on desktop pages.
Single Image Ads: Allow you to promote your message directly in the LinkedIn feed. This ad format can be targeted to a specific audience across desktop and mobile
Carousel Ads: Allow you to tell an interactive story with a swipeable series of cards in the LinkedIn feed. You can customize the content and link for each card.
Video Ads: Allow you to engage your audience with interactive content directly in their feed. These ads show up on desktop and mobile.
Dynamic Ads: Personalized ads that appear on the right rail of desktop pages and allow you to acquire followers, showcase your product, and share thought leadership.
Message Ads: Direct personalized messages delivered through LinkedIn messenger with a single call-to-action. Messages are only delivered when members are active on LinkedIn to ensure higher conversion. This format is available on desktop and mobile.
Conversation Ads: Allow you to create a choose-your-own path experience for your audience. This allows for deeper engagement with your audience and more conversions. This format allows you to include multiple call-to-action buttons.

For more info on which ad format is best for each objective, take a look at LinkedIn’s Guide to Objective-Based Advertising.

Tip: Creative best practices across all ad formats include showcasing value, making every word count, featuring eye-catching imagery, and having a clear call-to-action.

4. Set your budget and schedule

You can select either daily or total budgets, depending on your preferred spending structure.

The start date for your campaign will automatically set itself to the current date, unless you select otherwise.

When it comes to bidding, the automated bid option is what we generally recommend, because the tool will most efficiently use your budget without stringent oversight required. For best results, we advise going with the recommended bid or higher.

Tip: To get a full grasp of the terminologies and fundamentals of LinkedIn ad bidding, check out our blog post on Defining Key Terms for LinkedIn Ad Auction.

5. Launch and optimize

With the objective, audience, format, and budget all squared away, it’s time to push your campaign live! Note that new ads are reviewed by LinkedIn before being served to members, but this process usually takes less than 24 hours. (Learn more in our advertising guidelines.)

Once the ad is active on the platform, you’ll start gathering data and insights, which can help you optimize and improve results. We recommend letting ads run for seven consecutive days before making optimizations, but at that point, you can begin drawing conclusions and tweaking campaign elements based on what you’re seeing in these performance categories.

Reach and frequency
Overall impressions
Clicks
Engagement metrics
Budget

Tip: A little attention and oversight can go a long way when it comes to maximizing the value of your ad spend on LinkedIn. Evaluate campaigns each week to check bid ranges, make sure the daily budget is properly allocated, and more.

Now You’re Ready to Rock Your First Campaign

With these five simple steps, you’ve launched a LinkedIn ad campaign and checked all the necessary boxes. Remember: all of the above steps will become more efficient after you’ve gone through once and saved your audience for future use.

For a more in-depth walkthrough of all this information, including videos, interactive exercises, and knowledge checks, we invite you to experience our LinkedIn Marketing Labs course, Introduction to LinkedIn Ads. It’s free and, dare I say, even kind of fun?

By Alexandra Rynne

Sourced from LinkedIn Marketing Blog

In News

5 Mistakes 99% of LinkedIn Profiles Contain

January 21, 2022 No Comments

By Josh Steimle

A dazzling LinkedIn account is an invaluable asset for professionals and almost necessary for networking purposes. The website currently hosts nearly 740 million accounts, and all it takes is a few costly mistakes to make your professional peers roll their eyes and move on to other profiles.

To make matters worse, most people don’t even realize when they are making a misstep on the platform. It’s understandable as not everyone is experienced with the effective business card of the internet. Still, some unofficial rules and guidelines guarantee your profile promotes you in the best possible light.

By rooting out these common errors, any profile can be fine-tuned and become far more effective in finding opportunities and keeping your business network strong.

1. A lacklustre headline

If your headline doesn’t have a hook, your profile isn’t likely to garner much attention. Just like a magazine headline or book title, a LinkedIn headline should be a brief advertisement of what a reader can expect to come in the profile. It’s the first thing people will see, so it’s important to make a positive first impression.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should copy and paste your job title. Instead, focus on using keywords and actions relevant to your work, as this can improve your search ranking association.

The best headlines are brief — some say under 120 characters — impactful and leave the reader with a positive impression. It’s worth tweaking and experimenting with your own until you feel this has been accomplished.

2. An unprofessional photo

LinkedIn is a far different social media platform than Facebook and Instagram, and the criteria for acceptable photos are essential to note. A professional profile and cover photo are key components of LinkedIn. Without it, your profile appears dry and lacks the critical human element. Your photos should portray a sense of quality, composure and a hint of character. They shouldn’t be an advertisement of your physique, your latest exotic trip, or anything that distracts the viewer from your professional abilities and history. Both the profile and cover photo should be a simple statement, and it’s best not to take too many risks in this respect.

3. A resume-mimicking ‘About’ section

Perhaps the most common mistake people make in LinkedIn profiles is treating their “About” section — a brief personal biography — like a resume. The two are quite different in function. A resume should be tailored to fit the criteria of a position you are applying to. By nature, it’s more aspirational and acts as your effective pitch as to why you fit the position.

LinkedIn’s About section is for a presentation of your professional self, not necessarily seeking any single job, but stating who you are, what you have accomplished, and what you are capable of doing. Done correctly, it very well might lead to new professional opportunities. The tone here should be a confident declaration.

Remember to keep it brief as studies show that the most effective About sections can be skimmed in 30 seconds or less. Unlike photos, this section is the best place to insert some spice and showcase your unique self. Additionally, one common pitfall of the About section is being far too bland, so throw in some personal flair and colour here to stand out from the pack.

4. Skills and experiences with a lack of focus

The relevant skills and experiences section should support the claims made in your About section. Ideally, these are backed by peers for additional support. This section is critical as 69% of professionals value verified skills more than a college degree.

The easy mistake here is to list every skill and experience you might possess. Instead, stay focused and relevant towards your professional aims.

A profile with dozens of skills and listed experiences doesn’t necessarily impress, especially if they aren’t relevant to your field. It can come across as haphazard and unfocused, which is not the impression a profile should make upon the reader.

You can control what skills and experiences appear first on the profile, so use discretion in how you want to frame your expertise.

5. No personal URL

Creating a personal URL for your LinkedIn profile is an easy step that adds a layer of legitimacy to any profile. Unfortunately, those who simply go with the default setting of random numbers and letters appear less professional than those who take the time to customize.

Not having a personal URL has several negative drawbacks, the most immediate being it becomes more difficult for people to remember or find your profile. It also can show a degree of laziness or technical incompetence, neither of which are helpful labels for any professional.

When taken as a whole, a LinkedIn profile is a critical step in creating an effective digital presence for your professional self. Creating a clean and effective profile isn’t that difficult, and the positive effects of doing so can connect you with global opportunities that are truly life-changing.

By Josh Steimle

Josh Steimle is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of “60 Days to LinkedIn Mastery” and the host of “The Published Author Podcast,” which teaches entrepreneurs how to write books they can leverage to grow their businesses.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

The Top 8 LinkedIn Groups for Job Seekers

January 12, 2022 No Comments

By Joy Okumoko

Looking for a job on LinkedIn all by yourself can quickly become a full-time job in itself. You could spend days or weeks combing through your feeds for job ads or hoping your connections will share a job opportunity.

But there’s a simpler and smarter way to improve your job search results by joining a community of fellow job seekers.

In this article, we’ll cover some of the top LinkedIn groups for job seekers with at least 200,000 members. This can exponentially increase your network and with it your chances of landing your dream job.

1. Linked:HR

Linked:HR is home to more than one million job seekers and HR professionals. The popular HR group was created in September 2007 and is managed by Next Dimension Media.

It is a well-organized community with a dedicated website and specialized Community Business Forum, Job Board, HR Resume Page, and Events Calendar, among others.

Members are mostly encouraged to post in English with preference given to discussion items. A discussion item usually includes a question. Questions are more visible at the top of postings, especially ones with less than 50 words.

2. The Recruiter.com Network

LinkedIn groups The Recruiter.com Network

Over 800,000 members can’t possibly all be wrong about The Recruiter.com Network; which is one of the largest recruiter networks you can find on and off LinkedIn.

The Recruiter.com Network group was created in November 2007 as a platform where recruiters can post vacancies, and find and hire top talent across different industries.

To maintain quality and decorum, conversations and comments are moderated and must be approved by the admin before being posted. Members who contact other members in a spammy way for commercial purposes will be blocked.

3. Banking Careers

If you’re a job seeker, recruiter, or professional in the banking or financial industry, you’ll find over 500,000 other like-minded professionals in the Banking Careers LinkedIn Group.

This LinkedIn Group is powered by the Carfang Group and was created in March 2009. Discussions in the Banking Careers group centre solely around financial risk management and related topics.

The group features loads of career advice that can help you advance your career in the banking and finance industry. You can also make valuable connections and land job opportunities as a member.

4. HR Jobs

Recruitment is usually the job of the HR department, but what if you’re an HR professional in need of a job, an HR job? Well, you can find HR jobs and networking opportunities by joining a group like HR Jobs.

HR Jobs currently has more than 300,000 members made up of job seekers, recruiters, and other seasoned HR professionals. You not only find job opportunities in this group, but you also get career advancement tips.

The group was created in March 2008. It is a platform where beneficial HR content is shared and connections made. Posts have to be approved by the admin before going live.

5. Digital Marketing Jobs LinkedIn Group

This group’s name is as lengthy as the list of different professionals, recruiters, and job seekers it caters to. The full name of the group is Digital Marketing SEO SEM Mobile Apps Data Internet Media Brand CRM PR Email Affiliate Jobs.

There’s something for everyone whether you’re into digital marketing, SEO, SEM, or mobile app development.

Jobs, connections, courses, advice, and tips on digital and online marketing are also widely available in this group which has more than 300,000 LinkedIn members.

The group was created in March 2008 as a hub for all kinds of online marketing professionals, developers, and content creators, among others. Members are warned against spam and posting in all caps.

6. Life Science Network

If you’re a professional in the life sciences, pharma, biotech, medical, clinical, and healthcare fields, among others, you can get up-to-date news and job-related information from this group.

Instead of guessing where to find your next job opportunity, simply join this group, post, share, and explore all the immensely beneficial information available.

Here’s your chance to connect, learn, improve, and hopefully land your dream job in the life sciences and medical fields. Created in July 2009, the group has more than 300,000 members.

7. Aviation Jobs

With a LinkedIn Group like Aviation Jobs, your aviation career can take flight more quickly than you expected.

With over 200,000 aviation job seekers, recruiters, and professionals in the group, you’re certainly in good company.

The group is powered by Aviation-Job.eu and caters to flight and cabin crew, aviation maintenance, commercial and cargo airlines, airport jobs, and government operations.

8. Oil and Gas, Engineering, Construction, Mining Jobs and Artisans

Recruiters, job seekers, and other professionals can find a lot of opportunities in the Oil and Gas, Engineering, Construction, Mining Jobs and Artisans LinkedIn Group.

The group which was created in October 2010 currently boasts of more than 200,000 members. As the name suggests, members come from the oil and gas, engineering, construction, and mining industries and also include artisans.

The group caters mostly to professionals from the Middle East, UK, Africa, and other offshore locations.

Members are not allowed to post a CV or resume, general news items, or engage in spammy activities.

Join a Job Seekers LinkedIn Group Today

The journey of job-hunting can be tiresome and time-consuming, so don’t go at it alone if you don’t have to. Join a job seekers’ LinkedIn group today and you could land your dream job by tomorrow.

Joining a LinkedIn group is one powerful strategy for getting a job via LinkedIn. You should also explore other LinkedIn features that allow you to find and land your dream job.

By Joy Okumoko

Sourced from MUO

In News

How LinkedIn Has Transformed The Businesses of These 3 Entrepreneurs

December 9, 2021 No Comments

By Hailley Griffis

I sat down with a few founders to learn more about how LinkedIn has transformed their businesses. Read on to hear their stories, see their results, and learn the strategies you can start implementing today.

People often think of LinkedIn as the place to go for personal career growth but it can also be an incredible resource for growing your company. Especially if you’re a small business owner whose personal brand is closely linked to your company mission, LinkedIn shouldn’t be ignored as part of your social media strategy.

I sat down with a few founders to learn more about how LinkedIn has transformed their businesses. Read on to hear their stories, see their results, and learn the strategies you can start implementing today.

Quick note: Before you get started with these strategies I recommend you audit your LinkedIn profile to ensure it’s accurate and compelling. It won’t take much time and it can go a long way!

Building Thought Leadership

While other social channels are typically reserved for building your company’s brand, LinkedIn provides a unique opportunity for you to grow a personal following—that can, in turn, support your brand’s recognition. This is especially true when your individual thought leadership aligns closely with the mission of your company.

When Sherrell Dorsey started the digital news and insights platform The Plug, she knew she wanted it to be seen as the leading voice in the Black innovation economy—and she wanted her voice to be in the mix as well. She turned to LinkedIn to share the work she was doing and lessons she was learning a couple of times per week.

Sherrell Dorsey, Founder and CEO of The Plug

The results were shocking: “Just a few months later, the kind of engagement I received was insane. And then just a few months after that, I was named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology.”

This recognition has helped give Dorsey and her company more leverage when it comes to PR outreach and speaking opportunities. “There’s a little street cred to it. I think folks come across my profile and they see that I’m a LinkedIn Top Voice, so I must be legit,” she says.

She’s continued to double down on her LinkedIn strategy—adding LinkedIn Live conversations into the mix—because she’s noticed how demonstrating her passion ultimately boosts her company’s brand, too. “It’s been a way for people to see me, see the work, see the authenticity, and then make a decision that they want to engage with this brand based off of what they’ve seen me post or share on LinkedIn,” she says.

Connecting With Industry Leaders They May Otherwise Have Never Met

Social media is great for connecting with new people, regardless of where they’re based. But many entrepreneurs share that LinkedIn has been especially valuable in this respect. In a post-COVID world where conferences and gatherings are less common, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for finding peers to serve as sounding boards, mentors to learn from, and even future customers from afar.

Sheena Russell, founder and CEO of Made With Local, loves the fact that her company operates out of the relatively remote city of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. However, she shares, “In certain circumstances, it can feel isolating to not be where the action is.”

Thanks to a strategy of sharing some behind-the-scenes action and reflections on her life as a CPG (consumer packaged goods) entrepreneur on LinkedIn, Russell has grown her network far beyond what would be possible locally. “With LinkedIn, I am personally connected to huge CPG founders and people who are running brands I really admire,” she says.

Beyond helping Russell and her team feel more connected and giving them the chance to learn from the best in the business, Russell expects these far-reaching connections will prove valuable as Made With Local sets its sights on expanding into the U.S. and beyond.

“It’s a really great way for us to start building a name for ourselves in the international CPG and natural food and beverage community that will serve us down the line when it’s time for us to finally start selling into those markets,” she says. “By that point, I will hopefully have shown up on the feeds of lots of other CPG founders and people from the States, so they’ll be somewhat familiar with the brand.”

Meeting Clients

Many social media platforms seem like a fun diversion—but do they actually help small businesses make money? The answer for LinkedIn—especially for companies in B2B or career-related industries—is a resounding yes. According to the Content Marketing Institute, LinkedIn is the top paid and organic channel for B2B businesses.

Latesha Byrd, CEO of talent development agency Perfeqta, has seen this firsthand. Back in 2015, before founding her company and while she was still working a full-time job, she started using LinkedIn Profinder (now called LinkedIn Services Marketplace) to advertise her career coaching services and find her early clients. “That essentially tripled the amount of revenue I was bringing in for my business, and in about six months I was able to leave corporate America,” she says.

Latesha Byrd, CEO of Perfeqta

Even today, as Perfeqta has established itself on other platforms, LinkedIn continues to be a powerful driver of clients. “One of my current retainer clients—a tech startup that we created a talent acquisition framework and did some diversity and inclusion roadmapping for—found me on LinkedIn and reached out,” Byrd notes.

Although not every new connection will lead to an immediate sale, putting yourself out there on LinkedIn can be a powerful way to build a pipeline of potential clients. “After my last LinkedIn Live, someone who works in diversity recruiting at a really great company reached out to ask for the inclusive recruitment guide I mentioned,” Byrd says. That LinkedIn Live has since been viewed almost 30,000 times.

The best part is that all of these business owners agree that LinkedIn requires less intense curation and content creation than many other social platforms. Post consistently a few times per week, engage with people in your world, and don’t hesitate to share your story authentically. With those three steps, you’re well on your way to building a strong LinkedIn strategy—and growing your business in all kinds of incredible new ways.

By Hailley Griffis

Sourced from Buffer

In News

Why LinkedIn Is The One Good Social Network

December 7, 2021 No Comments

By Alex Kantrowitz

LinkedIn is something of an enigma as a social network. Despite its massive size — nearly 800 million members — it isn’t filled with the same type of misinformation, trolls, and engagement baiting algorithms that define its peers. The tone on LinkedIn is, actually, kind of friendly. It’s a place, as Scott Galloway recently put it, where people assume you’re engaging in good faith, not bad. “I no longer respond to people on any platform except LinkedIn,” Galloway said. “People are much more civil.”

LinkedIn’s built a friendly, productive, and scaled network by developing the right incentives and taking genuine action when things go wrong. It’s not perfect, of course. But given that the network’s peers seem to live in perpetual scandal, there’s a lot we can learn from it. Here’s a brief rundown of what LinkedIn gets right:

Real consequences for being a jerk

On most social networks, you can be a jerk with little consequence. Twitter is filled with anonymous, bile-spewing users who corrode the network’s tone. Facebook may require you to use your “real name,” but being a jerk can mostly cost you Facebook “friends,” and since you likely have more of those than friends in real life, you can spare a few. On LinkedIn, being a jerk has consequences. It threatens your ability to get your next job, strike your next partnership, or find your next customer. You use your real identity there, and what you say has ramifications. This encourages people to pick their fellow users up, not tear them down.

Long term product health > engagement

LinkedIn’s product team makes substantial changes to address bad things on its product, even when it costs the company “engagement.” While I was at BuzzFeed News, for instance, my colleague Ryan Mac and I wrote about a phenomenon called Broetry. At the time, LinkedIn’s feed was flooded with “broems,” or stories written line by line with spaces in between, often by cringeworthy growth hackers. LinkedIn prioritized these posts in its algorithm because it believed that when people clicked “see more” to expand posts in their feed, the posts were probably compelling. But the growth hackers figured this out, and then exploited the curiosity gap and filled the feed with garbage.

LinkedIn’s product team could’ve left the algorithm alone and kept its precious engagement. But after the story came out, they changed the algorithm and minimized the signal, and Broetry largely disappeared. When you have a product team willing to sacrifice short-term numbers for long-term product health, you’ll often end up in a good place.

A business model aligned with user interests

Most social networks make money via advertisers (their real customers), so they try to keep people (users) as engaged as possible, even if it requires some sacrifices. When you run an ad business, it’s okay if a certain percentage of the platform hates each other, as long as they keep coming back to fight.

LinkedIn’s business model is different. About one-third of its revenue comes from advertising, but many of LinkedIn’s users pay to use its premium product, so its users are its customers, and the interests are aligned. LinkedIn also sells a premium product to recruiters, who want to get people jobs, and creepy targeting won’t help with that. LinkedIn is able to sacrifice short-term engagement for long-term goals — as noted above — because its business model incentivizes it.

A functional trending column

LinkedIn’s trending column is world-class. It’s filled with relevant news, curated by human editors, and doesn’t rally people to ridicule peers who became that day’s “main character.” Facebook struggled to figure how to build a trending column, and eventually gave up. Twitter’s trending column is so bad that the best stories about it call for its destruction. LinkedIn, however, is demonstrating how you keep people informed about relevant, popular news without wrecking society.

A reasonable share button

LinkedIn’s share button doesn’t allow you to pass along other people’s posts without accountability. Unlike Twitter’s retweets, posts on LinkedIn show up with your name and photo when you share them, adding a layer of ownership that’s missing on Twitter. There’s also little incentive to share dunks or outrage due, again, to the disincentives for being a jerk.

The slow life is the good life

LinkedIn’s feed has interesting information, but nothing feels too pressing. People using the service, therefore, tend to be thoughtful when posting. This differs from Facebook and Twitter’s rollicking, impulse-driven feeds. Slowed-down social media, as counterintuitive as it may seem, tends to be a better experience and healthier for society.

Feature Image Credit: Gabriel Varaljay on Unsplash

By Alex Kantrowitz

Sourced from Big Technology

In News

Where to Place Links Within LinkedIn Posts: An Analysis of 86,504 Posts

October 7, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from lightspandigital

One of the biggest debates we hear from LinkedIn fans who are determined to make the social network’s algorithm work in their favour is whether or not to place a link in the post or in the comments. In other words, does LinkedIn’s algorithm favour posts that don’t link off the platform?

The tactic of posting links in the comments instead of creating a post containing a link has become very popular with those who are trying to “work” the LinkedIn algorithm. Are they right? We decided to put it to the test.

Do LinkedIn Posts Without Links Get Better Engagement Than Posts With Links?

Socialinsider, an in-depth social media analytics provider, partnered with us to analyse their trove of data and provide insights. They analysed 86,504 LinkedIn posts from a total of 883 LinkedIn pages.

What do we mean by a LinkedIn post with a link vs. no link? Typically when we share a resource on LinkedIn, we’ll share a link with our own commentary. But what if we were to share only the commentary, perhaps with an image, and then post the link in the comments?

The hypothesis here is that posts that are not based on a link will perform better than those that share text only or images. And that leads to a preference by many to post the link in the first comment.

If we think about it, it’s in LinkedIn’s interest to keep people on the platform as long as possible. The longer people stay, the more ads they’ll see, which is profitable to LinkedIn. Keeping people on the platform is a key strategy that’s been theorized for most social networks. It also circulates when it comes to Facebook content and might be behind Instagram’s reluctance to enable linking off the platform.

Objectives:

While our original hypothesis was related to the effect of text-based posts, Socialinsider’s volume of data gave us access to additional insight. We looked to:

Determine how LinkedIn posts perform when placing the link in the posts itself compared with posts without a link
Determine how LinkedIn posts perform when placing the link in the comments, not in the post itself.
Find out what type of post performs best overall on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Algorithm Study Key Insights

Posts with no links perform better across all types of posts on LinkedIn.

For example, a single image posted on LinkedIn with no link can get an engagement rate that’s 70% higher than a post with an image and link.

99.8% of companies that use LinkedIn for business don’t usually place links in comments.

To note, based on an analysis of 86,504 LinkedIn posts from a total of 883 LinkedIn pages, brands on LinkedIn usually don’t place links in comments. Most brands are using scheduling tools that limit their options to add links in comments.

The top-performing content on LinkedIn is the image post, with a 0.45% engagement rate per post.

The most common type of business content on LinkedIn is an image with an engagement rate per post of 0.45%. Simply adding just text with no link, video, or link doesn’t increase your chances of getting higher engagement from your content on LinkedIn.

Methodology

Socialinsider tapped into their database to evaluate more than 86,504 LinkedIn posts from a total of 883 LinkedIn pages that had an active presence on LinkedIn between January 2020 and June 2021. During that period, these pages had LinkedIn follower counts between 100 and over 100K.

For the purposes of the study, we define engagement as the measurable interaction on LinkedIn posts, including likes, comments, and shares. The engagement rate is calculated based on the total of these interactions per post, divided by the total follower count.

The LinkedIn data was also analysed based on page size, defined as the total number of followers that liked the business page.

We used Socialinsider to find out the engagement rates, the type of posts, and the link placement in the post.

Below are the categories of LinkedIn posts analysed in this case study:

Article – represents content that links to an article
Image – represents content that contains images
Job – represents content that contains jobs
Native document (PDF) – represents file types (most of the time, these are PDFs) uploaded natively. LinkedIn allows you to create posts that contain documents.
Text – represents content that does not contain any media
Video – represents content that contains videos

Conclusion

While it’s impossible to decode social network algorithms, especially since many have AI components built-in, these insights are worth exploring.

While the original hypothesis had to do with links in posts, the finding that image posts get the most engagement is beneficial and easy for you to test out on your audiences. And it may have nothing to do with the algorithm but rather with our visual human nature.

I believe that empathy is the good marketer’s superpower. Powerful content is content that gives the people what they want, how they want it, and where they want it. Algorithms are typically designed to give people what they want so they continue using that social network. If you can figure out how to give YOUR people what they want, you won’t have to worry about the algorithm.

Sourced from lightspandigital

In News

What Most B2B Marketers Get Wrong About SEO And LinkedIn

July 20, 2021 No Comments

By Kevin Kruse,

In an age where all B2B marketing is digital yet very little of it actually works, it’s tough to know whose advice you can trust. Perhaps the first clue is when they acknowledge, up front, just how ineffective most marketing really is.

Alex Boyd, founder and CEO of RevenueZen, isn’t shy about sharing what most B2B marketers get wrong about SEO and LinkedIn. But he’s hesitant to give advice without first understanding the context and nuance of a particular situation, which is usually a sign someone has earned their chops.

I recently caught up with Boyd to hear his thoughts on SEO strategy, demand gen philosophy, LinkedIn spam, and why, at the end of the day, a simple phone call can go a long way.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Kevin Kruse: What have you seen change or shift in marketing and demand generation in the last several years?

Alex Boyd: Anything “mass” has decreased in effectiveness as well as anything easy to measure with a low barrier to entry. Those types of activities have less value because everyone presses the buttons that are easy to press, like sending a lot of emails and running a lot of very general ads. When you think about what marketers need to do to justify their tactics, it’s usually putting up big numbers on a dashboard to show to the CEO who doesn’t always “get it.” And so the easier something is to measure and show on that dashboard, the more marketers will do it, even if the channel is saturated and the leads aren’t converting.

Kruse: What’s a common misconception people have about demand generation?

Boyd: A lot of people think all leads are created equal, but they’re not. How you got that lead in the first place is so important. On paper, a lead is an object in a CRM with an email address. But how would a salesperson define a “lead”? It’s somebody who’s gotten more interested in your product than they were before. The person who says, “I saw your CEO in that great Forbes article and I have a few friends that use your company. I’m ready to sign,” is a lead. But, to many marketers, so is the person who entered their email address just to download a checklist and always dodges your calls when you follow up. Those two leads are not equal. Demand generation isn’t about the quantity of leads. It’s focusing on how the lead got to your company, and whether or not the environment in which they arrived warmed them up to what you sell.

Kruse: In general, what’s working in B2B marketing, assuming “working” means generating a lead that comes to you in the right way and with some interest to potentially buy?

Boyd: You already know it depends, but I’ll share what I’m seeing: first, founder-driven, brand marketing—meaning sharing the perspective of what the leadership team believes in a personal, organic way. LinkedIn is a good example, but this could also look like the CEO giving a fireside chat, or speaking at an event. People want to know what the people behind the product believe because that tells them more than a list of features. The feature list is static, but what the founders and leadership team believe is dynamic—it tells you about the future and where the company is headed. CEOs shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking that managing their social media accounts is “below them”: many prominent CxOs of tech unicorns are very active on social.

Secondly, organic search still has a lot of potential. Most SEO is still done quite badly, even by experts. The biggest thing that Software-as-a-Service companies in particular get wrong about SEO is they think they need to optimize for people searching for exactly what they do. That’s table stakes. What the SaaS companies who see massive growth through organic search do is they compete for the attention of their buyer. It’s not a game of what your product does, it’s a game of attention. And if you get in front of people and put your name, brand and insights in front of them while they’re looking for related content and they happen to encounter your product that way, you’re going to show them a new way of doing things. And that’s the core of SaaS marketing: showing someone a new way of doing things.

Kruse: Do you have a real-world example of how that kind of attention-grabbing SEO works?

Boyd: One of the best ways of doing SEO at first is to talk about the basics. Most companies will create a blog for announcements and news, but nobody is searching for your company. So why not rank for keywords they’re already searching for? A company called lightyear.ai is a great example. They’re a marketplace for IT and networking solutions—kind of like a kayak.com for IT. They don’t assume that people are searching for “IT product marketplace”, because they’re not. They rank for things that people search for to educate themselves on how to buy IT. It’s a subtle shift in thinking: when you’re a small start-up, your new idea is not the centre of your prospects’ universe.

Kruse: How should you approach SEO if you’re trying to sell something new?

Boyd: When you’re selling a brand-new product, the way you do SEO should change. Nobody is searching for your unique new product category – yet. If you sell something new, you need to rank for things that are related to what you do but aren’t your product. If you’re building an AI to help recruiters sort through resumes, you don’t want to rank for “AI resume screener”, you want to write about the Top 10 Ways to Screen Candidates, or How To Write An Amazing EEO Statement. Once your company is larger, this game changes and you then want to focus on people who are already looking for exactly what you do.

Kruse: You’ve been creating a new product for LinkedIn. Tell me about that.

Boyd: The way that people engage on LinkedIn has been broken for a long time. A lot of people see relationship-building as transactional: “I liked your posts, please take a meeting.” There’s a feeling of entitlement. That needs to change.

The right way to engage on LinkedIn involves writing good content, engaging with others, networking, and actually building community. Our product shows you which of your target accounts are talking to your competitors, customers and strong connections. And it tells you exactly which important conversations to take part in. The whole point of our product – Aware – is to give people the ability to send a LOW volume of hyper-targeted messages that have 60%+ conversion rate: unheard of.

Kruse: What’s one piece of advice you’d like to leave marketers with?

Boyd: Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Tech marketers spend so much time geeking out on growth-hacking funnel jockeying, but sometimes you just need to pick up the phone and call a prospect instead of waiting around for an answer. I think we need to spend more time building relationships with people, which sometimes means just calling them up.

Feature Image Credit: Founder of RevenueZen: Alex Boyd

By Kevin Kruse

Kevin Kruse is the Founder + CEO of LEADx, a platform that scales and sustains leadership habits throughout an organization. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author of Great Leaders Have No Rules, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, and Employee Engagement 2.0. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

7 Ways You Can Use LinkedIn To Blow Up Your Brand

June 18, 2021 No Comments

By Julie Guest.

Over the last three years, LinkedIn‘s active user base grew by a staggering 27 percent, from 500 million in 2018 to 740 million in 2021. Business owners and entrepreneurs can leverage the platform to grow their brand, generate new leads, establish partnerships and make connections.

The following seven ways can help you utilize LinkedIn to grow your brand and gain a competitive edge over your competition.

1. Optimize your company profile and connect with people

If you haven’t worked on your LinkedIn profile, please take some time and perfect it. Make sure it provides all the essential details about your company’s products and services. Put more emphasis on the headline and summary to ensure that it’s compelling, engaging, interesting and professional. Furthermore, optimize it for more B2B and B2C lead generation.

Within no time, you will start seeing the “Someone has viewed your profile” notification. Don’t just view their profile back. Instead, track the individuals who viewed your business’s profile. If they are an ideal prospect, invite them to connect. An individual who views your company profile is most likely finding out more about your brand. There could be a chance they are also interested in your products or services.

2. Post valuable content on LinkedIn publisher

You can use LinkedIn Publisher to publish blog posts that users can engage with and share. With more shares of your blogs, the higher the impact it has on growing your brand. The post can also get prospects interested in your products, triggering an open door for more partnerships.

Make it a habit to publish content on LinkedIn consistently — but remember quality is key. It can build a community of loyal followers who admire your brand. Through them, you have ambassadors who can create a good reputation out there about your business. When users see the value and insights in your content, it gives them the conviction to check out more about your company. It’s one of the most straightforward and subtle ways of promoting your brand on LinkedIn without being pushy.

3. Follow other companies

Don’t forget to follow other businesses within your industry, including those you have partnered with and those who can be potential partners. This way, you have a chance to learn about them and what they offer. Still, don’t limit yourself from poking around as it might be an eye-opener to some techniques other companies use to get more leads. Also, the more you position yourself out there, the higher your chances of getting more returns.

4. Join LinkedIn groups where your target clients gather

The right groups can be a very powerful tool in growing your brand. By using advanced search, you can locate practitioners within your sector and your firm. Group conversations can give you vital insights into your industry. You can also learn about emerging industry pains and the options you can use to solve these issues.

While in the group, learn about the rules to know if content sharing is allowed. If so, create your credibility by sharing relevant content that capture potential prospects. It can include links to articles about your brand, relevant blog posts, event notices for webinars and posts that quote your business. However, make sure the materials you post are a helpful source and avoid dominating the conversation.

5. Utilize plugins

LinkedIn can be an even more powerful lead generation tool by itself when you utilize the complementary add-ons. Tap into the following plugins:

LinkedIn Connection Revealer: The LinkedIn Connection Revealer shows you the following that your connections have. By pinpointing the users who travel in big circles, you can engage with them to leverage their platform and promote your brand.
LinMailPro: It’s a Chrome extension that gives you the capability to automatically find and invite individuals who have recently viewed your profile. You can also send personalized messages to them about your brand or deliver marketing messages.
Headlinr: You may have sponsored a great story, uploaded ads or put up posts, but without a great headline, your potential targets might not click on them. When you use Headlinr, a chrome paid plugin, it automatically generates multiple headline combinations with the keyword you specify depending on your industry. You will get compelling titles that lure users into clicking through your ads and stories.
Rapportive: If you are a Gmail user browsing in Chrome or Firefox, Rapportive can be a handy tool in getting more leads. It enables you to get LinkedIn profiles that have email addresses in your contacts. You can then send them personalized invites to their inbox to help you grow your network.

6. Create a sponsored InMail campaign

By utilizing sponsored InMail campaigns, you have an easier route to cut through the clutter and reach inboxes of individuals who matter to your business. You can send your target prospects compelling offers and rich content.

7. Ask your employees to post your business’s content

In most cases, entrepreneurs search for powerful brand advocates who can share their brand case studies and blogs. Yet, you can also do it through your employees. Research shows that about 50% of employees are already posting on social media platforms about their employers. Ask them to post blog content and other pieces relating to your brand to generate more traffic and leads. In fact, some organizations allow their marketers to pick company-approved content that their employees can share on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn can be a goldmine in attracting new clients and growing your brand, but correct execution is critical. Take your time to create your LinkedIn strategy, get clear about how you can offer prospective clients value first — then implement like crazy!

By Julie Guest

CEO of Bolder and Louder

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe