Did you know, without knowing it, your sales team is training the LinkedIn algorithm to ignore them? - Scary right?
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
It was put to me in a meeting the other day a statement that is very true
Most salespeople are training the?LinkedIn?algorithm?to ignore them and training prospects to ignore them.
If you think about that as a sales leader that's big?shit.
Let me walk you through how?LinkedIn?algorithm works (by the way this is non-technical)
This?blog?is going to walk you through elements of the LinkedIn algorithm and how you can make it work for you.??This is not an article?about if you should use 3 or 5?hashtags, I leave that for people with time on their hands to work out.?
Why write this?
While it may seem to some people that how the LinkedIn algorithm works is?common sense, it's clear from the?vast majority of people using LinkedIn who are?sabotaging?themsleves, and probably, I can only guess, don't know it.?
Social selling is a methodology
The issues with most sales people on LinkedIn today is a lack of understanding that social selling is a process
What are sales people do to train the LinkedIn algorithm to ignore them?
Let's walk through some of the things I see people doing, and what you can do to make Linkedin work better for you.
1.?Linkedin is a business, they are there to make money, while I know that's like dur, often people forget.?While you can use LinkedIn.com which is free, if you pay, then you are more likely to get support from the algorithm.?I use the?professional edition?so I can see who has looked at my profile, there is of course?sales navigator.
2.?LinkedIn as a business has a problem, when compared to a competitor like?TikTok.??There are actually few people on LinkedIn creating content
3.?LinkedIn likes you logging in often?and the more you do this, the more it will reward you with algorithm support.?
4.?Linkedin likes you consuming content, reading posts, reading articles and commenting, the more you do this, the more the algorithm will like you.?The more you log in and engage, the more LinkedIn can go to the advertisers, who actually pay for the platform and tell them their ads are being seen.?I doubt they are, but that's how you measure advertising.?Different subject for a different blog.
5.?If you only turn up to LinkedIn weekly or monthly, the people that log in daily will be promoted over and above you.?
6.?LinkedIn works as a "walled garden"?it likes people that stay within the walls, it does not like people that post links that make people leave that garden.?While I understand youtube links are not that bad, a link to that?Harvard Business Review?article or the?Forbes?articles takes the reader out of LinkedIn, the algorithm will always downgrade external links.?Which leads me onto.
7.?Always post natively on LinkedIn.??Articles, posts, video, whatever it is Linkedin will reward you.?If you are using a tool or automation, LinkedIn know this is not native and will downgrade your post.?The people selling you these tools will either not tell you this or will have research to disprove this.?Don't get taken it.
8.?Linkedin likes posts that are successful, that get engagement.?Posting brochures, white papers don't get engagement and will make the posts and you to be downgraded by the algorithm.?While only 10% of the 800 million people on LinkedIn create content, the algorithm will always promote popular content.
9.?It may surprise people, but research shows, see?here, that?people come to social media to be social, not to read brochures.?
10. And finally, remember to have a buyer centric profile
In our social selling and influence course, teach and coach in all of these areas.?
What is social selling?
Here at?DLA Ignite, we define social selling as
"Using your presence and behavior on Social Media to build influence,
make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to
conversation and commercial interaction."
It's not?witchcraft, it's?enabling your salespeople to work from?home, (or the?office) and create conversations with prospects and customers.?Conversations on social media and conversations that convert.?
So who's social selling?
In case you missed it, the?Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch?have?banned cold calling?and have moved all their people to?social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.
But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling??Not according to Merrill Lynch.
"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"
The?CRO?(chief revenue officer),?Richard Eltham?of?Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about?social selling. See?here.
“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”?
Kevin Murray?who is the Head of Sales at?MacArtney?Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling?here?and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales?here.
Andrew Ferrier?who is the?CEO?of?Display Technology?Ltd and in this?article?it talks about why?Display Technology?have adopted social selling.?His team have also created a social media strategy with help from our partner,?Crux.
Their social media mission statement is
“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”
Andrew also says in that post
"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).
Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results. Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.
The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."
What sort of results can you expect?
If you check out this?video?of?Chris Mason?CEO at?Oracle?reseller?Namos, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a?$2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the?DLA Ignite?social selling and influence course.?
Here at?DLA Ignite, we work with our partners such as?Crux,?Little Bird Marketing,?Funnel Amplified,?Accelery,?EDPE Consultants, etc. We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate provided by an independent qualification body (OfQual) and sponsored by the?Institute of Sales Professionals?(ISP).
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Our VP of Sales Just got 83 likes on a LinkedIn post, so that means we are social selling? No!
At my core, I am a teacher. I'm great at the middle of conversations. I'm not as athletic as I remember being.
3 年"Did you know, without knowing it, your sales team is training the LinkedIn algorithm to ignore them?" ?? That's one of those things you can never un-know, Timothy! As soon as I read that one sentence I got it - and the implications.
I make strange electronic music that scares cats ??
3 年You could call this the ten commandments of LinkedIn Tim I have an idea ??
?? Slay your revenue dragon as your NERDY self ?? Unleash your inner social selling HERO ?? JOIN our fantasy-inspired community ?? Head to the featured section BELOW
3 年Love this Timothy sales teams seem to be moving further and further away from the very thing that makes them unique and pulls people towards them.