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 | Jul 7, 2023 | Careers, Corporate Communications, Leadership, Social Media
Don’t apply for stuff. 🚫
Students and colleagues give me a puzzled look when I share that advice.
How are you supposed to get jobs and grow careers without applying?
Applying for stuff:
🔴 Rarely leads to anything good
🔴 Often involves being ghosted or rejected
🔴 Gives a false sense of taking action that will lead to desired outcomes
What works instead?
✅ Getting to know people and being of service
✅ Building a network of colleagues who encourage and help each other
✅ Creating a reputation – a personal brand – for delivering value
A few examples …
In a career change, I applied for multiple jobs in corporate communications in my organization. Initially, I got rejections. Then I met people on the team through professional associations. They helped me get interviews. But I was often the number-two candidate, without an offer. Finally, I interviewed for a job and hit it off with the hiring manager. The role wasn’t right, but we kept in touch. Two months later, he reached out. A senior writer had resigned. Was I interested in the job? Um, yes! More interviews ensued. They wanted to make me an offer, but I hadn’t applied for the job. So I quickly did.
In leaping from the corporate to entrepreneurial world, I wanted to teach as a focus area. My start was serendipitous. A colleague from a volunteer board was a department director at a local college. He asked if I was interested in designing and teaching a new class in digital marketing. Um, yes! It was a blast. Later, I wanted to move to a larger university. I reached out to people in my network to chat about opportunities. While the conversations were friendly, they didn’t lead anywhere. One referral seemed hostile and uninterested in connecting, so I decided not to push it. A few months later, I got an email introduction. It was someone at the university who knew me from my alumni volunteer work and corporate social media work. A department head asked her for adjunct professor recommendations in digital and social media. My contact recommended me. After several conversations and guest speaking, I was invited to start teaching. Oh, and I had to apply after that.
More recently, I applied for an intriguing part-time contract role. It was complimentary to my current portfolio of clients and focus on coaching, consulting, speaking, and teaching. I thought I met or exceeded the key criteria. I excitedly applied online. Two days later, the rejection email arrived. I reflected on what went wrong. Because I thought my experience was a strong match with the requirements, I didn’t reach out to people for advice. This is a mistake I will not repeat.
So, stop applying for stuff. Instead, nurture your network. Help people. Let them know how they can help you. Do great work and tell people about it in the spirit of serving others.
How have you landed new opportunities?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 30, 2020 | Social Media
With 10 million confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world — and climbing — we are living through tough times.
The pandemic has wrought economic pressure. Layered over this is continuing civil unrest with the important aim of creating a just world for everyone.
There are actions we can all take to be part of the solutions to these issues. At the same time, consuming too much news right now may need its own form of social distancing, to maintain our resolve and perseverance in the face of adversity.
If you are working remotely from home and keeping yourself and your family healthy, you are lucky indeed.
Social media usage is hitting new highs. You may be using it more yourself, to keep in touch with family, friends, and colleagues.
As you do, how have you changed your approach? What have you done to re-calibrate the content you share?
Here are three things not to share on social media during today’s crises — or anytime in the future, for that matter.
Tone-Deaf Content
Have you seen posts that cheerfully and chirpily promote some new product or service, seemingly oblivious to the devastation going on all around us? This is tone-deaf content that it’s wise to avoid right now. Why? Because people won’t be paying attention to it. Content has to be presented within the complex context the world is in right now. If it’s not, it will be ignored. Your credibility will also suffer.
Self-Promoting Posts
Have you seen posts that come across as “all about me?” Content that is too self-promotional doesn’t work well in normal times. It falls even flatter in our pandemic era. No one wants to read about or watch someone else’s seemingly perfect life. It doesn’t connect with people. It does nothing to inform, inspire, or entertain. If your content is all about you, it’s best to skip it.
Questionable Sources
Have you seen posts that link to news sources you’ve never heard of? With so much misinformation floating around, it’s more important than ever to evaluate the sources of information you share. In addition to reading/viewing a link before you share it, carefully consider the source. Choose reputable news sources and exercise critical evaluation of any story or article before sharing it.
What to Share Instead
There you have it. These are the types of content it’s wise to steer clear of now, and in the future. What are better choices? Coming up in my next post are ideas about the best types of content to share during this global pandemic. What are you sharing that’s helping others during these turbulent times?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 16, 2019 | Careers, Learning, Social Media
photo by istock.com/akinbostanci
What question do people ask the most about social media?
This is a busy speaking month for me, and I’ve been reflecting on themes in questions. I’ve been talking about personal brands and building careers and companies through social media.
What am I hearing across a diverse group of audiences? What do people ask in the Q&A following my talks? What do they want to know in one-on-one chats?
This month includes talks with CEOs affiliated with the Community Associations Institute, and community members at an author’s panel. It includes employees at Ericsson North America, and employees and guests at Otter Media‘s We Gather women’s leadership event. At the end of the month, I’ll speak with students at the USC Rotaract Club.
What people often ask is a form of this question: what’s the best way to share professional updates on social media without sounding too self-promotional?
Said another way: what’s a good approach to being active on social media professionally without coming across as arrogant and turning people off?
We’ve all probably seen people in our social media feeds — whether it’s LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter — who make it all about themselves. Sometimes it can be tempting to tap the “mute” button and make those posts go away.
Yet, if we don’t share about our professional accomplishments, there are downsides. We run the risk of being underestimated in our abilities. We may be overlooked for future opportunities. We may not be able to make the impact that we want in our work.
The happy medium: a social media trifecta
So what’s the solution? It lies in a formula I call the social media trifecta. In every post you share about your work, strive to balance three elements of your content.
- First, share what you did and why you’re excited about it.
- Second, share how your team and your colleagues contributed.
- And third, share what’s special about your organization that enabled your contribution.
With this approach, you highlight your own accomplishments in an engaging way. You also showcase the work of others — something good leaders do frequently. And you’re a good brand ambassador for your organization, in an authentic way for you.
In addition, offer something of value to your network. What insight or idea could you include that would help them in their work?
Here’s an example. Laura Ramirez and her colleagues at Ericsson created a fabulous Career Learning Day. Workshops, activities, and employee groups engaged colleagues in career development. My keynote speech included 3 questions to help people create a personal brand statement and 4 steps to build a personal brand. Afterwards, I posted pictures about the event and the great people at Ericsson. My post included bullets for the questions and the steps in my post. People who weren’t there could also benefit from the key concepts.
Who does this well? Here are a few …
Who do you know who does this well? Please share and tag people in the comments. And maybe it’s you!
by Caroline Leach | Apr 17, 2019 | Social Media
Your Social Media Success Roadmap is a free companion workbook to my book What Successful People Do in Social Media: A Short Guide to Boosting Your Career.
In this workbook you’ll find 50 questions, actions and ideas to help you build your career through your social media presence. The workbook gives you space to jot down your answers and ideas to the prompts that appear in the book.
Social media is increasingly the way people get great new jobs, build vibrant professional networks, establish themselves as thought leaders, and become lifelong learners.
Successful people use social media to effectively boost their careers. They define their personal brand, pick where to play in social media, build a broad and diverse network, consistently share content about their professional interests, and give back to help their colleagues and companies succeed.
To download your free PDF workbook, sign up in the top left-hand column of this website.
Here’s to your success!
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