by Caroline Leach | May 29, 2017 | Marketing & Analytics, Social Media
It’s almost the end of my month-long experiment of posting an update every weekday on LinkedIn.
There’s a growing spreadsheet of data ready to analyze for conclusions and implications. I’ll share them in an upcoming blog post.
In the meantime, I found an interesting data point in a book released this month.
It’s Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
Seth got his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, worked as a data scientist at Google, and writes for the New York Times.
He makes the case that “we no longer need to rely on what people tell us” in things like surveys or social media or casual conversations.
He provides compelling data telling the story that big datasets of how people search for information online reveals what’s really on their minds.
Seth writes about “text as data” and how sentiment analysis can identify how happy or sad a piece of content is.
He shared the most positive 3 words in the English language: happy, love and awesome. The 3 most negative? Sad, death and depression.
And what content gets shared more often? Positive or negative stories?
If you agree that “news is about conflict” – summed up by the journalistic sentiment “if it bleeds, it leads” – you might conclude that negative content gets shared more often.
But it’s actually the reverse, according to a study by professors at the Wharton School, Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman. They looked at the most shared articles for the New York Times.
And what was shared the most?
Positive stories.
As the professors said, “Content is more likely to become viral the more positive it is.”
My first reaction was happiness that my “positive comments only” philosophy for social media savvy had some data supporting it.
The second reaction was to turn to my own data from this month’s LinkedIn experiment to see if it held true.
Here I’m measuring engagement by the number of views, rather than by the number of shares.
Why?
I’m fairly new to this daily posting routine, so the first change I’ve seen over the past 4 weeks is an increase in views of my content, rather than any significant shares. And I’m finding shares more challenging to measure so far.
What were my most-viewed posts?
The first 2 posts make sense to me as highly positive content. The third made me pause. On the face of it, it seems like a negative that our brains are limited in the amount of focus they can handle.
But as I thought about it and revisited the comments on the post, I realized that many people might have found this information to be happy news. In other words, it’s okay and even desirable to NOT focus your brain all the time.
How about the least-viewed posts?
The first has to do with a fabulous new book by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant on what the research and practice say about bouncing back from adversity.
But since it began from Sandberg’s husband’s death, one of the saddest words in the English language, that puts the topic in the negative zone. (I still recommend reading the book, because it’s full of uplifting advice about grit and resilience.)
The second was a special report in The Economist about how “data are to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change.” Because “change” is not something many people eagerly embrace, perhaps this story was seen as more negative than positive.
The third was a Harvard Business Review article about what distinguishes goals we achieve from those we don’t. My takeaway here? Maybe thinking about goals we haven’t achieved brings up negative thoughts.
Could other factors have impacted which posts were the most and least viewed? Perhaps. Day of the week would have been the most likely. However, the top and bottom views were each for the most part posted on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Another factor could have been posts during the beginning of my daily posting experiment vs. those closer to the end. This certainly could be a factor. Posts later in the month are getting more views in general. From the first week of May to the last, views of my posts have increased more than 6 times.
One conclusion could be that the consistency of posting daily is increasing engagement with my content. Of course, it’s still a small dataset at this point. In the months to come, I’ll continue tracking it and adjusting my strategy. (Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
How are people engaging with your LinkedIn content? What’s attracting the most interaction?
by Caroline Leach | May 26, 2017 | Social Media
When you scroll through your LinkedIn feed, do you have a strategy for engaging with content?
Here are a few things to think about as you bring social savvy to LinkedIn.
How is the way you like, comment on and share content strengthening your network and building on your areas of expertise?
Do you consider how this engagement shows up in your activity feed that day for people looking at your profile?
And do you think about who you’re meeting with that day or week, who you recently connected with and who you’d like to strengthen your connection with?
With those questions in mind, here are 3 easy ways to approach content engagement.
- Like content that fits with your areas of expertise, interest and learning. Remember to look before you like, taking care to read the post and the link.
Be sure the content is aligned with your personal brand and your employer’s brand. Make sure the visuals are appropriate too.
Generally, stick with positive content. Don’t engage with negative or snarky items. Sure, you can read them to seek multiple points of view. But there isn’t much upside and there’s plenty of downside to engaging with them in a public way.
An exception to this is to provide a different point of view. Even then, however, think twice about whether it’s worth it.
Guidelines about liking content also apply to commenting on and sharing content – and with even more more rigor.
- Comment on content where you want to further a relationship with a connection and/or share your point of view on a topic aligned with your areas of expertise, interest or learning.
Keep it brief – 3 short sentences, max. Be upbeat. Be specific. Tailor your comment to the post, rather than writing something generic.
If you liked content, consider posting a comment. Why? Comments show greater commitment than likes and give insight into your thinking on the subject.
And there’s the rule of reciprocity in play – your comments may influence others to comment more frequently on your content. And that’s what you want in social media – engagement and interaction.
- Share content that is most closely aligned with your areas of expertise, interest or learning. This gives one of your network connections more visibility and it serves as valuable content in your activity feed. It’s a win for your connection and for you, plus everyone viewing your content.
It takes about “20 LinkedIn posts every month to reach 60 percent of your audience.” This is a data point that Carly Okyle cited in an Entrepreneur article about LinkedIn profiles.
Sharing content from your connections is an easy way to post frequently, reach more of your audience and benefit your connections – all at the same time.
What could be better?
by Caroline Leach | May 14, 2017 | Social Media
In your growing LinkedIn network, how can you strengthen your professional relationships?
For starters, you can send a thank-you reply when someone invites you to connect or accepts your personalized (always personalize!) invitation.
Not many people do this (yet), so if you want to stand out in a new connection’s mind, send a thank you.
You can test this out on your own network. Tap on “messaging” at the bottom of your LinkedIn mobile app screen and scroll through your messages.
Notice how many people sent a personal reply to your connection request. Do they stand out among the messages that simply say, “Jennifer Smith is now a connection”? Absolutely they do.
To make it easy to reply on a regular basis, set aside a few minutes each week to respond to LinkedIn requests and to send personalized requests to people you met that week or anticipate meeting soon.
Scan the person’s profile to see what you have in common (e.g., employers, schools, activity, etc). and what piques your interest. Maybe they published something on a topic of interest to you or have successfully tackled a problem similar to one you’re grappling with.
You can create a standard, 3-sentence reply to tailor as appropriate for each connection. Try keeping it in an easily accessible place, whether it’s an Evernote entry, Notes on your phone, or a Word document.
And as with all networking, it’s important to focus on the other person, rather than on yourself. Be interested in learning more about them or in helping them in some way.
Thanking someone for inviting you connect
Here’s a sample thank you when someone invites you to connect. Content to customize is in parenthesis.
Hi (First Name) –
Thanks for reaching out. Glad to be in your network.
(Comment on something you have in common or something you’re interested in learning more about them)
Look forward to staying in touch.
Thanks,
(Your First Name)
(Any relevant contact info, like your website or other active business-related social media handles such as Twitter)
Thanking someone for accepting your invitation
When you invite someone to connect and they accept, you might think your work is done.
But take advantage of the opportunity to further solidify the relationships by thanking the person for accepting your invitation.
Here’s a sample. Content to customize is in parenthesis.
Hi (First Name) –
Thanks for connecting.
(Comment on something you have in common, something you’re interested in learning more about them, or some way you might be of help to them)
Look forward to staying in touch.
Thanks,
(Your First Name)
(Any relevant contact info, like your website or other active business-related social media handles such as Twitter)
How should you end your note?
Research by Boomerang shows that one of the most effective ways to close an email before typing in your name is simply, “Thanks.”
Specifically, the study looked at emails that got the most responses, based on the sign off. While you aren’t necessarily looking for a response, it can’t hurt to use one of the more effective ways to close.
Just as the study showed that “the best way to end an email is with gratitude,” what better way to end a thank-you message than to say thanks?
As a result, I’ve stopped using “Best” and “Best regards” to end emails and other messages. It’s also efficient because I don’t have to decide which sign-off to use with every message. It’s always “Thanks.”
What NOT to do
Don’t pitch anything – whether it’s to ask for a meeting, for business or for a job. The purpose of a thank you is to build a relationship for the future, so simply thank the person for connecting.
Don’t send a long message. You’re writing for mobile. Like you, other people are busy. So keep it to 3 sentences, max. Edit out extra words before you tap “send.”
Sending connection thank-you messages is new for me, so I’ll share what I learn in a future post.
How do you thank people for connecting with you on LinkedIn?
by Caroline Leach | May 6, 2017 | Social Media
Do you want to attract more views, likes, comments and shares of your LinkedIn posts? Do you want to increase your engagement with your network and beyond?
Of course you do. And to do that, you need to know what’s working and what’s not. Then you can create a hypothesis about why, and test it.
You can check out the analytics for your posts, also known as sharing an update, to see what content is resonating with your network.
There you’ll see the number of views, along with your viewers’ main employers, predominant titles and geographic locations.
Being a week into my month-long experiment of posting to LinkedIn every weekday, I turned to the analytics to see what I could learn.
Defining engagement broadly as a combination of views, likes, comments and shares, three types of posts rise to the top.
A view of a post is defined as someone seeing your post in their LinkedIn homepage feed. (Views are defined differently for articles, which will be a future blog post topic.)
Career strategies. My most-viewed posts were links to articles with career advice – including the biggest predictor of career success and LinkedIn profile updates for every career stage.
Given this blog’s focus on social media savvy for corporate professionals, I’ll keep an eye out for articles with career strategies that make use of social media.
Big news about the company. My fellow colleagues were understandably as proud as I was to see our company named to Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2017, as well as being named the #1 telecom globally in Fortune’s most admired companies.
(This is where I remind readers that opinions expressed here are my own.)
For upcoming posts, I’ll keep my eye out for milestone news and events to share about my employer. This is where an employee advocacy program is incredibly valuable.
Leadership quotes and eye-catching photos for major holidays. This one surprised me. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving, I posted a beautiful picture from iStockPhoto along with a related leadership quote.
These turned out to be some of my most engaging posts. I’ll definitely add more of these to my editorial calendar. If I hadn’t looked at the analytics, this would have been a missed opportunity.
One thing I haven’t yet found in LinkedIn or through my research is an aggregated set of analytics. I’m creating an Excel spreadsheet to consolidate the analytics for this month’s posts.
It will include:
- Post title
- Post or article
- Content type
- Date
- Day of the week
- Time of day
- Views
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Employers
- Titles
- Geographic locations
- First- or second-degree networks
- Hypothesis about performance
- Action indicated by the hypothesis
Then I’ll have greater insight at the end of the month to see how to develop and execute an editorial calendar going forward.
What posts get the greatest engagement with your network?
And how do you use analytics to amp up engagement with your posts?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 4, 2017 | Careers, Social Media
“In growing your network, you want it to be both diverse and concentrated,” personal branding expert William Arruda wrote recently in Forbes about how to cultivate a powerful LinkedIn network.
First, begin with why you’re on LinkedIn. What do you want to accomplish? How can growing your network help you do that?
Second, ask yourself this question: Who did you meet this week, who will you be meeting soon and who do you want to meet?
Third, take a few minutes every week to add to your LinkedIn network. Always send a personalized invitation, explaining how you know each other and why you’d like to connect.
As you build your network, make sure your profile presents you in the best light. Here are great profile tips from LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher and Landit CEO Lisa Skeete Tatum. They spoke this winter at the MAKERS Conference for women’s leadership.
Who did you meet this week? Did you start working with any new colleagues? How about vendors? Invite them to join your network.
What professional, civic and charitable organizations are you involved with? Invite key people from those groups to be part of your network.
Look at your email contact list, your Facebook friend list, your Twitter followers and so on. Identify the ones you want to invite to your LinkedIn network. The “grow your network” feature on LinkedIn will see who you already know based on your email address book.
At the airport recently, I ran into someone I met a few years ago at an event at my son’s school. We struck up a conversation and caught up on what was going on at our respective employers (opinions expressed in this blog are my own). To keep the connection going, I followed up with a LinkedIn invitation.
One of my professional associations, a roundtable for senior communicators, also had its quarterly meeting this week. At the end of each day, I sent personalized invitations to people I’d met. An even better strategy – one colleague sent invitations in real time during our roundtable discussion of timely issues.
Who will you be meeting soon? What’s on your calendar for the coming week or month? Will you be meeting new people? Send them an invitation in advance of the event.
When you meet in person, you’ll already be acquainted with each other’s LinkedIn profiles and you may find a great conversation starter. For example, maybe you know interesting people in common or your new connection is working on a project you want to learn more about.
Who would you like to meet? Are you working in a new area and want to learn from the luminaries in the field? Are there companies of interest you want to know more about? Are there second-level contacts you’d like to add to your network?
This is where the personalized invitation is especially important. Explain in a compelling and brief way why you’d like to connect.
Take advantage of the “people you may know” algorithm in LinkedIn. Is there anyone you’ve missed connecting with? Invite them to your network.
Lucas Buck recommends looking at alumni groups and people who have similar college degrees. He’s an area sales manager at Farmers Insurance who uses LinkedIn highly successfully to achieve his business objectives.
He spoke last fall at a networking group affiliated with my son’s school. What did I do the same day as the event? I sent personalized LinkedIn invitations to the people I met at the event, along with Lucas.
Here’s a sidenote about conference speakers. Introduce yourself and chat with the speaker briefly before they speak, if they aren’t too busy with final presentation preparation. Fewer people line up to talk with them before their presentation, as opposed to the larger group that tends to gather after the talk.
Back to LinkedIn, what strategies do you use to grow your network?
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