by Caroline Leach | Jul 13, 2023 | Careers, Social Media
How can you build your personal brand on your LinkedIn profile? ✨
People often ask that question in the talks I give on personal branding at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Here are 3 actions to get started in sharing your unique value on your LinkedIn profile. You can make them easier to do by tackling one each week.
⭐ CUSTOMIZE YOUR HEADLINE. Don’t let your current job title be the default. Instead, tailor your headline. Focus especially on the initial words. Why? The first 2 to 3 words appear under your name in search and comments. Weave in keywords for skills and accomplishments you want to be known for and found for.
⭐ REFRESH YOUR ABOUT SECTION. Tell your professional story in an engaging way. Share insight into your values and motivations. Let your personality come through. Open with a compelling first line that will encourage people to read more. Add up to 5 skills you want to be known for and found for.
⭐ TURN ON CREATOR MODE. Choose up to 5 relevant content hashtags that will display on your profile. These should reflect your professional interests and expertise, both what you want to be known for and what content topics you post about. Post content that you create or curate at least once or twice a month.
Remember that your LinkedIn profile is a work in progress, just like you and your career. Your profile should change and evolve as you do. And if you don’t like something you’ve changed on your profile, you can simply change it again. Experiment to see what works best.
What do you want to know about building your personal brand?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 8, 2023 | Careers, Marketing & Analytics, Social Media
What happens when you post daily on LinkedIn? ✍️
A week ago, I decided to find out. I began a reprise of an experiment I did in 2017. At the time, I posted every weekday for a month, collected and analyzed data, and shared my findings in this article.
Back then, I was testing a hypothesis about how many posts are needed in a month to reach a certain percentage of my network.
Now, I’m doing a slightly different experiment. I’m posting daily, including weekends, during the month of July.
My hope is that this data will be valuable to you, too, as you think about your own content creation strategy.
I’ll share interim updates in July, and a full report in an article in August.
In this experiment, I want to answer these questions about content creation:
📊 What content is most engaging, or valuable, for serving my network?
📊 How can I increase the quality of my network through content creation?
📊 How will content creation enhance my personal brand?
It was a bit daunting to start this experiment during the 4th of July week. It feels like this week has evolved into what the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is like. Everyone seems to be on vacation. This is great for quality of life, and not so great for interest in business content.
But I pressed on. Thanks in part to encouragement from various people.
And I’m happy I did. Here are some numbers for the past 7 days:
📈 Post impressions are up 862%
📈 Profile views are up 147%
📈 Search appearances are up 11%
Qualitatively, I’ve noticed other changes.
They all have to do with the ratio of salespeople (who I DON’T want to meet) to professionals (who I DO want to meet).
As a coach, consultant, and speaker, I hear from a LOT of salespeople who want to “fill my business pipeline and increase my revenue through done-for-me marketing.” No thank you. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
What is changing in these first 7 days?
Profile views, connection requests, and DMs are all evolving. I’m seeing and hearing from much more interesting corporate professionals and business owners. These are exactly the people I’d like to get to know better and serve through my content.
My daughter thinks these changes are because the salespeople are on vacation this week, too. But time will tell as July unfolds. 😊
What questions do YOU want to see answered in this experiment?
by Caroline Leach | Aug 6, 2020 | Careers, Change, Social Media, Work/Life
Three aspects of Covid-19 stand out in August 2020.
First, transmission of the coronavirus is largely airborne through respiratory droplets, when people talk and interact.
Second, wearing a face covering and physically distancing are our individual best defenses against the virus.
And third, we’ll probably need to spend a lot of time at home as the virus rages on for the better part of a year.
Wow. Let that sink in. A year of remote work (and life), for those of us lucky enough to be in a profession that can be done outside of a physical office.
In my case, writing, consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching can all be done remotely. The first three were already remote work activities. But how about speaking and teaching? Thankfully, they’ve both moved online to Zoom.
Since the pandemic sent us home in March, I’ve spoken (remotely) in several graduate school courses on digital communications and marketing. A highlight this fall will speaking in an executive education program. And a few interesting developments are happening in the teaching space, which I’ll share more about soon.
One question seems to loom large. Simply because an activity can be done remotely and online, does that mean it’s of the same or higher quality? Many people might say no. However, I disagree. Why? It’s an opportunity to innovate, experiment, and iterate. As we do that, it will be on a scale none of us has ever experienced before.
From Surviving to Thriving
For those who love to play in ambiguous spaces, this is a dream come true. Yet the uncertainty and capriciousness of the pandemic has pushed even me to crave a bit more structure and concreteness.
And while this might seem to be a matter of survival, I’d like to do more than simply grit my teeth and get through it. How about you?
As the renowned internet commentator Mary Meeker says of this pandemic period, we’re in the process of, “getting to the other side.”
What is the other side? And how long will it take to get there?
There’s no way of knowing for sure. So rather than feeling like a rudderless ship being tossed about in a storm, I choose to captain my own ship. I choose to create my own environment, to the greatest extent possible. I choose to thrive, rather than simply survive.
This topic of thriving is one I’ll explore in my upcoming writing. For today, I’ll couple this with my focus on boosting your career through social media. How do the two interact? It’s a topic I’ve written about this year on a few levels — from How to Pivot Your Personal Brand on Social Media to How to Engage People with Your Social Media Content.
With an eye toward thriving in a stay-at-home world, here are three ideas for making the most of your social media time.
Create a Learning Environment
Now is the time to experiment with social media. Within the bounds of respect for all people, it’s an ideal moment to try new types of content. See what resonates with your network. Use new features you may not have engaged with much before. Rarely share an Instagram story? Give it a whirl, play with the features, and see how people respond. Or use the newly announced Instagram Reels video feature. This can be your own personal learning environment. In fact, I gave a TEDx talk on the subject. It’s called How Social Media Can Make You a #LifelongLearner. Check it out for more ideas.
Follow New Voices
The move toward social justice through the Black Lives Matter movement and others can present an opportunity to seek out new voices and perspectives. It’s an ideal time to actively listen. On Instagram and Twitter, a few accounts I’m now following are Black Lives Matter and PrivtoProg. LinkedIn has a great feature in “My Network” where it suggests Black voices to follow and amplify. Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments, Carla Harris of Morgan Stanley, and Karamo Brown of Netflix’s Queer Eye stood out to me. Mellody’s TED talk called Color blind or color brave? is excellent. Carla has leadership motivation for the ages in a talk she gave about how to own your power.
Say No to Negativity
With all the polarization in America, it has sometimes felt to me that I shouldn’t retreat into my own echo chamber of similar voices. Often, I kept people in my feed in the name of listening to a variety of perspectives. However, that doesn’t extend to negative, disrespectful, or incorrect information. It has become increasingly important to consider the source of information, whether it’s scientifically based, and how healthy it is. It’s okay to unfollow people, or to simply mute their content. There’s so much negativity in the world. Why perpetuate it by tolerating people’s feeds who are insulting your deeply held values?
In Closing …
People are spending more time on social media during the pandemic. Increased usage has plenty of downsides. However, with a slight shift in how you view social media, it can become a force for good in your life. With a spirit of curiosity and innovation, you can get playful and have some fun with it. I shared a few ideas here. How are you using social media to help you thrive and transform during this time?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 20, 2020 | Leadership, Learning, Social Media
What are the best content types to share in our stay-at-home, pandemic world? What do people most need right now? What are they seeking?
A place to start is with content that resonates with you. What are you looking for when you scroll through LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter?
Another consideration is experiences you’ve had or observations you’ve made about leading and navigating through work during a global pandemic.
Two hypotheses emerged for me.
First, people are looking for helpful content that informs them on topics of interest that solve a problem for them.
Second, people are attracted by inspiring content that motivates them to take action amidst difficult circumstances.
To test these hypotheses, I analyzed the last 60 days of my LinkedIn posts. I’ve been known to gather my own data on a spreadsheet and analyze it for unique learning.
If you post content regularly, I encourage you to do the same. It creates clarity about what’s resonating with people. In addition, it gives clues about what will be engaging in the near future.
Before getting into the data, it’s worth noting that views, likes, and comments are considered by some to be vanity metrics. Why? It can be difficult to link social media content to specific business outcomes. As I reviewed the last 60 days, though, it was clear that one-third of my new clients were people who saw my content on LinkedIn and reached out to me as a result. That’s why these metrics are valuable to me as a solopreneur. They may be helpful to you as well, depending your goals for social media in boosting your career.
My average was one post a week. Views ranged from 4,692 on the high side to 86 on the low side. Likes/reactions went from 113 to 3. Comments went from 34 to 0 (yes, zero; ouch!). In addition, by clicking on the number of post views, more data is available. This includes organizations, titles, and geographic areas of people who engaged with a post.
What did the two lowest-scoring posts have in common? They were both shares of someone else’s content. That was a valuable learning. From now on, I’ll make a substantive comment on content I find share-worthy. However, I won’t share it. Instead, I’ll create an original post on the topic, crediting and tagging the creator.
Looking at the top half of my posts, five themes emerged.
Big Brands
The post with the most reach was a farewell meeting as my my three-year term concluded on the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, representing the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. With 60+ people on the board and more than 400,000 living alumni (Patrick Auerbach can always quote the exact number), potentially a large number of people might be interested. This post got more than 4,700 views and 113 likes. Thanking various people and tagging them, as well as including relevant hashtags, probably helped this post gain more exposure.
Giveaways
Thinking about what could help people right now, I remembered I had several copies of my book, What Successful People Do on Social Media: A Short Guide to Boosting Your Career. Why not offer some free copies? In a book giveaway post, I tagged the book’s editor and cover designer, along with people who gave the book 5-star ratings on Amazon. In under an hour, five people claimed their books, which were mailed out the next day. Others could still get a free workbook, Your Social Media Success Roadmap, with 50 questions, actions, and ideas about career building on social media. This post got more than 1,700 views. It had the most comments at 34. A few second-degree connections commented, and we’ve since connected with each other.
Media Quotes
As a result of commenting on U.S. Chamber of Commerce posts about marketing ideas for small businesses, I was interviewed for a few articles. Of the three I posted, the most engaging one was customer communication tips during Covid. Here I tagged the article author and the other contributors, in addition to connecting on LinkedIn with everyone involved. This post got more than 1,460 views, 22 likes, and 8 comments. My theory is this one performed the best because it had the most people tagged. And it was for an appropriate reason, because they were all quoted in the article as well.
Podcasts
A fellow grad-school alum, Randa Hinton, contacted me this spring for an informational interview. She introduced me to another alum, Anika Fisch, and we had chatted as well. A few weeks later, Randa and Anika invited me to a be a guest on their new podcast, Opportunity Unknown. They teamed up to share the journey of their job search in the middle of a global pandemic. It’s an excellent podcast, BTW, for anyone who’s looking for work right now … full of actionable advice and inspiration. This post got 1,379 views, 34 likes, and 4 comments.
Black Lives Matter
As a white person who wants to contribute to social equality and justice, reflect on and adjust my own behavior, and amplify Black voices, I struggled with how to engage on social with Black Lives Matter. Then I read a poignant op-ed in the LA Times by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I shared his article, along with my thoughts. This post got more than 1,240 views and 26 likes. Of my recent posts, however, this was the only one that got zero comments. Hmmm. I’m not sure what that means. Perhaps people didn’t know what to say? Why do you think no one commented?
What’s Unique to You?
For the most part, these posts focused on what I’ve been doing in my consulting and coaching business. No doubt you are working on important projects, learning hard-won lessons, and achieving celebration-worthy victories with your colleagues. Your experiences might help someone else solve a problem or feel inspired to keep going on their own professional journey. What will you be sharing in the coming days? Please tag me so I can check it out!
by Caroline Leach | May 31, 2020 | Careers, Leadership, Social Media
A heartening trend is shaping up on LinkedIn.
Multiple people are posting with offers of helping others during these turbulent times.
It may be a LinkedIn reference for someone who lost their job due to the global pandemic. It may be an introduction to someone else in their network. It may simply be encouragement to keep pushing beyond rejection. It may be valuable ways of fighting the racism that is front and center in our national consciousness.
Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient, recently posted an invitation inviting people to contact her for help and connections to her vast network.
Savannah Rayat offered to help people she knows who have been laid off, by putting them in touch with a company or sending an email putting in a good word for someone.
Randa Hinton and Anika Fisch are launching a new podcast. It’s called Opportunity Unknown They’re helping fellow job seekers by chronicling their journey as recent grads searching for meaningful jobs during a pandemic.
Karyn Spencer and Charlene Wheeless have offered their perspectives on what’s happening in the aftermath of this past week’s horrific events towards Black people in our country.
Men are part of these dialogues as well, and I applaud their efforts to help others navigate these difficult times.
As I sort through the truly disturbing news in our country this weekend, I am heartened by pictures of police in Camden, New Jersey; Flint, Michigan; Santa Cruz, Calif.; and other communities nationwide.
They are joining arms with protesters, sometimes taking a knee, and peacefully de-escalating tensions. This is so important to help us start listening to each other and making meaningful change.
As for me, I invite people in my network to reach out if I can be of help. I’m happy to make introductions, share perspectives, and listen to your journey.
Each of us has something to offer others at this time. It’s especially powerful if we help someone who is different in some way from ourselves. What are you doing to help make the world a better and more just and equitable place?
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