Dec. 9, 2021

4 Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn Strategy in 2022 with Benji Block

In this episode, Benji breaks down 4 ways you can improve on LinkedIn next year. Talking through 4 recent posts, he shares practical insights you can implement right now.

Links to the 4 LinkedIn posts discussed can be found below:

LinkedIn is a 24/7 networking event by Benji Block 

You can’t outsource social engagement by Dan Sanchez 

So you want to beat the LinkedIn algorithm… by Emily Brady 

Why do you post on LinkedIn all the time? by Same Kuehnle 

Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:00.250 Mhm 2 00:00:04.340 --> 00:00:09.090 Hello Hello, Welcome in to be, to be growth. My name is Benji Block, one of 3 00:00:09.090 --> 00:00:14.320 the co hosts here and a member of the Sweet fish Media team. Hey today we're 4 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:17.800 going to switch things up a little bit, we're going to take the next 10 to 15 5 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:23.080 minutes and I want to give you four tips to improve your linkedin strategy 6 00:00:23.090 --> 00:00:28.750 in 2022 were in that part of the year where we're looking back at the past 12 7 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:32.750 months and we're thinking what went well, what do I wish I would have done 8 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:38.980 better? What should I strategize on and really spend time on what will improve 9 00:00:38.980 --> 00:00:45.250 my business in quarter one and and and in next the next 12 months. Right, And 10 00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:49.880 so I thought it would be a good time for us to think about what are some 11 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:55.520 practical ways that we can engage on linkedin and uh just some strategy, 12 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:01.020 some practical tips tricks giveaways here on this episode. And so what I've 13 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:07.270 done, I'm gonna talk about one post actually that I shared on linkedin last 14 00:01:07.270 --> 00:01:12.720 week and then Actually found three other posts from others in my network 15 00:01:12.730 --> 00:01:18.130 that I thought were really Insightful that we can learn from together today. 16 00:01:18.130 --> 00:01:23.230 And I'm gonna give four tips to improve your linkedin strategy going into 2022. 17 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:27.310 And here's the first tip and this is the one that comes from me and that is 18 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:35.670 to view linked in as a 24/7 networking event. View Linkedin as a 24/7 19 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:41.280 networking event. We all know the person that we kind of want to actively 20 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:45.400 avoid when it comes to linkedin right, because they're always talking about 21 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:49.750 their expertise, their always posting about their product. It's like the 22 00:01:49.750 --> 00:01:55.810 universe revolves around them and their success is now linked in is a place 23 00:01:55.810 --> 00:01:59.880 where we do share our professional success, but it's so much more than 24 00:01:59.880 --> 00:02:05.570 that because there's so much engagement happening, which I do want to dive into 25 00:02:05.580 --> 00:02:11.700 really linked in becomes so much more fun when we're willing to engage 26 00:02:11.700 --> 00:02:15.770 differently when we're thinking about it as relationships that are, are being 27 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:19.680 built when we're not constantly thinking, how do I get my product in 28 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.440 front of more eyes when you're thinking about it that way, you're almost going 29 00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:27.900 in with the wrong intentions and it's going to be hard to see the type of 30 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:34.510 success that we really want to see, I dare you to show up on linkedin in 2022 31 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:39.730 and genuinely care about others and what they're posting, you're going to 32 00:02:39.730 --> 00:02:43.810 find some really great interesting, amazing people. In fact, a year ago, I 33 00:02:43.810 --> 00:02:48.590 was not on linked in six months ago, I was just waking up to the reality that 34 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:52.400 meant a lot of really cool things are happening on linkedin and some of you 35 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:56.950 might be in that space where you're going, I check every once in a while I 36 00:02:56.950 --> 00:03:02.080 post, you know, when my company does something cool or whatever, but I don't 37 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:07.130 have a strategy, I haven't seen a lot of engagement and I got to tell you, 38 00:03:07.140 --> 00:03:11.900 I've ended up talking to so many people, whether it's in direct messages or in 39 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:17.590 comments and uh really just getting to talk about business and getting to grow 40 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:23.740 community and friendships that are powerful and that that man linked in is 41 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:28.570 a place where where business relationships can be foster, but we 42 00:03:28.570 --> 00:03:32.550 have to take time to view it in that way instead of just somewhere that we 43 00:03:32.550 --> 00:03:37.100 post occasionally, that's like the baseline, right, linkedin is a 24 7 44 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:41.880 networking event. Once we have that mentality, once we have that mindset, 45 00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:47.480 once we approach it that way, then we can build from there. But if it's a 24 46 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:51.380 7 networking event, then that means that I'm engaging consistently right, 47 00:03:51.380 --> 00:03:57.490 that means I'm doing more than just checking in with A company's success 48 00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:00.530 every once in a while, but I'm looking at what others are doing what others 49 00:04:00.530 --> 00:04:05.460 are posting, I'm giving away things that are working well for us or maybe 50 00:04:05.470 --> 00:04:10.410 things that we wish we were doing better and we're being authentic in 51 00:04:10.420 --> 00:04:14.330 this space, which really leads well into where I want to take us for tip 52 00:04:14.330 --> 00:04:20.640 number two and tip number two is just engage engage, engage. I thought dan 53 00:04:20.640 --> 00:04:25.950 Sanchez you guys no, no dan Chevez from the pod here and I thought what he 54 00:04:25.950 --> 00:04:30.840 posted was really, really insightful, he said this, he said you can't 55 00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:36.490 outsource social engagement, Your intern cannot help you, you can hire a 56 00:04:36.490 --> 00:04:40.860 ghostwriter to help you make content. They might help you prioritize your D. 57 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:45.410 M. S. But if you want to win on social media and what would we say in this 58 00:04:45.410 --> 00:04:50.270 episode if you want to win on linkedin, you have to actually log in on your 59 00:04:50.270 --> 00:04:55.290 account and engage with people. Whether it's on your posts, commenting on other 60 00:04:55.290 --> 00:05:00.410 people's posts engaging in one on one conversations, that's where Lincoln 61 00:05:00.410 --> 00:05:06.810 gets special is when we realize that engagement human to human connection is 62 00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:13.500 the whole purpose of social media. Social media is about engagement. That 63 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:19.220 should be a no brainer. But honestly going into 2022. Uh we can easily think 64 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:24.700 that it's just about post and leave and we don't want to be those types of 65 00:05:24.710 --> 00:05:31.140 people. Write. Marketing is a lot more fun. Sales is a lot more. Not just fun 66 00:05:31.140 --> 00:05:34.940 but there's a better R. O. I. When we are actually engaged with people in a 67 00:05:34.940 --> 00:05:38.250 real way when we're hearing about their problems when we're offering each other 68 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:42.520 solutions and we're engaged. It's a two way street right? We're actually 69 00:05:42.530 --> 00:05:50.680 showing up linkedin works when we actually engage and so engage engage, 70 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:54.720 engage. That's that's tip number two. So we're gonna view it as a networking 71 00:05:54.730 --> 00:05:59.020 event. 24 7 networking event. We're going to engage, the third one is to 72 00:05:59.020 --> 00:06:03.530 focus on dwell time. Now this gets a little bit more tactical, this is a 73 00:06:03.530 --> 00:06:08.660 little bit more uh you can actually look at your posts and what you're 74 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:15.590 doing and thinking is this creating uh interaction that's allowing people to 75 00:06:15.590 --> 00:06:24.020 dwell and and look at my post. Ah for a longer amount of time. Emily brady she 76 00:06:24.030 --> 00:06:28.600 posted this and she says dwell time, the longer someone spends interacting 77 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:33.660 with a post, the more likely linked in is to boost it to the top of the feet. 78 00:06:34.440 --> 00:06:40.160 If you want to beat the algorithm or play by its rules, you have to increase 79 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:45.420 your dwell time. Now Emily goes into quite a bit more detail. But I want to 80 00:06:45.420 --> 00:06:49.580 give you two of the ways that you could do this. How are you going to actually 81 00:06:49.590 --> 00:06:53.840 increased? Well time one, you're gonna mix up format. You want to keep people 82 00:06:53.850 --> 00:06:57.770 on your posts for as long as possible. So there's gotta be something to engage 83 00:06:57.770 --> 00:07:00.590 with. Sometimes that's a carousel post. We've all seen these where you can 84 00:07:00.590 --> 00:07:05.600 click through multiple images, they go side to side. It's a video right? That 85 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:09.130 obviously is going to increase if the videos engaging, I'm gonna stay on that 86 00:07:09.130 --> 00:07:13.300 post for longer. Maybe long text posts. We've all seen those where they're 87 00:07:13.300 --> 00:07:17.640 spaced out really well and they tell a story but they're so engaging that the 88 00:07:17.640 --> 00:07:22.650 people want to read all the way to the bottom. So if we have a good variety of 89 00:07:22.650 --> 00:07:27.280 the types In the formats that we're posting. That's going to help. Another 90 00:07:27.280 --> 00:07:32.830 really practical one is to use hashtags include 3-5 hashtags in your post and 91 00:07:32.830 --> 00:07:38.780 you're going to have more eyes that can potentially see that post. Another 92 00:07:38.780 --> 00:07:43.580 thing to be thinking about clearly is is this post going to generate comments? 93 00:07:43.590 --> 00:07:48.930 Is their conversation that can happen here. I see people that spend time to 94 00:07:48.930 --> 00:07:53.950 create posts, but there's no question at the end, there's no real way to 95 00:07:53.950 --> 00:07:58.720 engage other than to maybe like or celebrate the post. So people don't 96 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.120 know what to do with it. If there's a way that we can have and share our 97 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:08.610 opinion or our experience on your post, that's going to create staying power. 98 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:13.660 That's gonna make people want to, to stay around in that space. That's 99 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.650 something to be thinking about. Am I creating a conversation that other 100 00:08:16.650 --> 00:08:19.940 people can contribute to or is this content that I just want someone to 101 00:08:19.940 --> 00:08:24.290 look at and view me as an expert and then they kind of bounce without being 102 00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:30.700 invited in. Two more View Linkedin is a 24/7 networking event, engage, engage, 103 00:08:30.710 --> 00:08:38.390 engage, focus on dwell time and finally think long term and value the community 104 00:08:38.400 --> 00:08:44.280 you're creating. Now this comes to us from SAM he's the VP of demand gen at 105 00:08:44.290 --> 00:08:50.410 refined labs and he posted on on linked in this week. I thought this was so 106 00:08:50.410 --> 00:08:55.880 valuable. He gets this question, why do you post on linkedin all the time and 107 00:08:55.880 --> 00:08:59.900 are you doing it kind of just for likes and social validation and and Sam's 108 00:08:59.900 --> 00:09:04.690 responses that that's a short term mindset for platforms, that the answer 109 00:09:04.690 --> 00:09:08.690 is thinking long term and about the community you're creating. I could not 110 00:09:08.690 --> 00:09:14.040 agree more with Sam's answers here because the truth is that comments are 111 00:09:14.040 --> 00:09:19.880 nice and shares are great and we all kind of like getting likes on our posts, 112 00:09:19.880 --> 00:09:24.830 right? But when we think long term, There's so many people that see our 113 00:09:24.830 --> 00:09:29.930 posts that may not comment this time. There's so like, like my views on my 114 00:09:29.930 --> 00:09:34.280 posts far larger, right than the people that took time to actually comment. In 115 00:09:34.280 --> 00:09:40.660 fact, Sam says that on most of his posts, he maybe gets to 3% engagement. 116 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:45.750 That means like for every 1000 people who see it, that 20-30 might comment on 117 00:09:45.750 --> 00:09:52.590 it. But if we think about the community, we're trying to create That they're 118 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:56.760 that we're trying to deliver value consistently, that we're not just 119 00:09:56.760 --> 00:10:01.960 chasing vanity metrics. If that's the way that you go into 2022 and you go 120 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:06.920 think about where I could be, where we could be as a company if we engage 121 00:10:06.920 --> 00:10:12.700 consistently for the next 12 months a year is so different than how did this 122 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:16.830 one post perform and that will up your consistency because it doesn't matter 123 00:10:16.830 --> 00:10:20.720 just today. That's not what you're focused on, not just one post, but over 124 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:25.490 time. What are we building over time, What are we doing? I love dan dan told 125 00:10:25.490 --> 00:10:29.760 me when I first started working here at Sweet Fish post 90 days in a row. 126 00:10:29.770 --> 00:10:34.740 There's something about the consistency of that thinking I got to stay in the 127 00:10:34.740 --> 00:10:38.600 game long enough and I can't just, you know, if you haven't posted ever on 128 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:44.030 linkedin, you can't expect your first post to blow up or go viral, but 129 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:48.590 instead to be thinking, what am I building? What's the type of community 130 00:10:48.590 --> 00:10:52.620 I want to create, Who are the people that I want to engage with and being 131 00:10:52.630 --> 00:10:57.040 intentional there. In fact, one other thing that Emily had said on her post 132 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:01.100 that I think goes so well actually under this is to engage with creators 133 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:06.730 with larger audiences to actually go and comment on people that influence 134 00:11:06.730 --> 00:11:11.790 your industry and to to add value to the post that they, that they've 135 00:11:11.790 --> 00:11:18.060 created, I can't tell you how much. In fact, if I, if you were to ask Benjy, 136 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:22.130 uh you know what, what's been the best part of linkedin for you so far? I 137 00:11:22.130 --> 00:11:26.840 would say the comment section on other people's posts because right now I'm 138 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.920 still so new to this, that when I post something, you know, there's some 139 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:34.200 engagement, there's some likes and some comments and I, I definitely love 140 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:37.420 getting to create content, but when I see what other people are doing, what 141 00:11:37.430 --> 00:11:42.620 other people are posting and what it sparks in me going to the comment 142 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:46.060 section and just telling them, hey, this had an impact on, on the way I 143 00:11:46.060 --> 00:11:49.860 think about this in marketing or you know, thank you for your, your 144 00:11:49.870 --> 00:11:57.020 authenticity here on this post, The back and forth is really powerful. And 145 00:11:57.020 --> 00:12:02.130 uh, I promise you just, that's a great way to build long term community 146 00:12:02.130 --> 00:12:06.070 because then you end up connecting with those people, you end up getting an 147 00:12:06.070 --> 00:12:11.230 invite to, to not just follow them, but to be connected with them long term. 148 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:15.290 And so four tips to improve your linkedin strategy rounding it out here. 149 00:12:15.290 --> 00:12:18.810 Here it is. Here's all four. Again, we're going to think long term, we're 150 00:12:18.810 --> 00:12:22.510 going to value the community. We're creating, we're gonna focus on dwell 151 00:12:22.510 --> 00:12:27.780 time, we're going to engage and we're gonna view linkedin as a 24 7 152 00:12:27.790 --> 00:12:33.020 networking event. You can find the four posts mentioned here in show notes that 153 00:12:33.020 --> 00:12:39.310 we put links to all of them, My post dan's Emily's and Sam's and would love 154 00:12:39.310 --> 00:12:43.010 for you to go and and look at the content. There's so much more you can 155 00:12:43.010 --> 00:12:46.950 read there and in the comments and engage yourself and hey, if you're not 156 00:12:46.950 --> 00:12:50.780 subscribed yet to be, to be growth, would love if you would do that on, you 157 00:12:50.780 --> 00:12:53.180 know, wherever you listen to your podcast, whatever your favorite 158 00:12:53.180 --> 00:12:58.190 services. Never miss an episode. We have so much coming up next year and 159 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:02.360 things were planning for this show, it's gonna be the best year of B two B 160 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:06.110 growth yet. Hey, if you want to reach out to me, you can do so on linkedin. 161 00:13:06.110 --> 00:13:09.720 Just search Benji Block would love to talk to you about all things business 162 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:14.760 marketing, sales in life and uh hey keep doing work that matters and we'll 163 00:13:14.760 --> 00:13:15.760 chat again next week. 164 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:18.750 Mhm Okay. 165 00:13:22.540 --> 00:13:26.570 For the longest time I was asking people to leave a review of BB growth 166 00:13:26.570 --> 00:13:31.020 in apple podcasts, but I realized that was kind of stupid because leaving a 167 00:13:31.020 --> 00:13:36.180 review is way harder than just leaving a simple rating. So I'm changing my 168 00:13:36.180 --> 00:13:39.820 tune a bit instead of asking you to leave a review, I'm just going to ask 169 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:43.910 you to go to BBB Growth in apple podcasts, scroll down until you see the 170 00:13:43.910 --> 00:13:47.570 ratings and reviews section and just tap the number of stars you want to 171 00:13:47.570 --> 00:13:53.370 give us no review necessary. Super easy and I promise it will help us out a ton 172 00:13:53.380 --> 00:13:57.390 if you want a copy of my book, content based networking, just shoot me a text 173 00:13:57.400 --> 00:14:01.790 after you leave the rating and I'll send them your way. Text me at four 074 174 00:14:01.790 --> 00:14:04.030 and I know three,