Ego Posting

Some people post about a good deed they have done, show a picture of their flashy new car, or casually mention that they are on an exotic holiday. Most of us would never post anything like that but it can’t be denied that such posts typically attract high engagement so I thought it would be a good idea to explore this technique and evaluate whether it’s a good idea or not!

before we get into all that…

This article has also been recorded as a podcast which you can listen to at

Linkedinformed on Google podcasts ?/?Linkedinformed on Apple podcasts

Or just click below to listen to the full recording

Feedback from last week

I was really impressed with this comment about the new repost feature;

Fredrik Fornes is on to something here. So many organisations do the exact opposite and ask their employees to re-share company posts but imagine a company page that has a feed populated with interesting and engaging posts from it’s employees? I think this technique would massively improve the quality of the content shown on a company page..and it’s quick and easy to do!

Just go to the post you want to repost and click on the small drop-down triangle next to your profile pic on the left

Now select your company and then click on the ‘Share’ option to the right (this is apparently going to be renamed repost) and then select reshare. (this feature is still rolling out so it might not be possible for you yet).

It’s still a company page post, so don’t expect great visibility but at least it is improving the quality of what visitors see on your page. I’m not suggesting this type of content should dominate your page but it will provide a good flavour of what your employees are posting about.

Products on personal profiles. Sandra Clark got in touch because she has the facility to add products to her company page, I thought it was only available to a limited number of large companies from a small list of industries - this is backed up by this Help article which was only recently updated. Sandra has listed ‘Social Network Platforms’ as her industry and. despite not being on the list, she is able to add products.

On finding this out I immediately changed my industry to the same and voilà a products tab suddenly appeared!

The rule is that you can only add ‘products’ not services so I tried adding an online tutorial product. Once you have added all the information you have to submit it for approval. The review may take up to two weeks. You’ll receive a notification in your Activity tab once the approval process is complete, apparently many get rejected and, despite what they say, they don’t notify at all, you just suddenly find your product listed on your page! If you are lucky enough to have it approved you ‘might’ be able to add it to the experience section of your profile (or other employees can) if you have been included in the roll-out of that feature.

In addition, I noticed another new feature which is the ability to showcase clients of a product (see above ‘Featured customers’). I haven’t tried this yet but they state that the customer needs to give their permission, apparently this isn't a formal process within LinkedIn, they just state you should get permission but you can just list anyone you wish, they don't even appear to be notified! When done, it just opens a simple pop-up box with a list of those customers’ company pages and the opportunity to follow them.

A Rant!

LinkedIn annoyed me this week by sending me an email claiming a ‘member of their team’ reviewed a message I had reported which I don’t believe to be true…so I posted about it!

MARK LEE FCA got in touch to show me this screenshot which comes from a page in the marketing services section that promotes advertising.

It’s shocking that they are using data from a survey done in 2016!! They now have over 850 million members and this stat would suggest that 680 million of them ‘drive’ business decisions in their company!!

In addition, just look at the profile screenshot they use below that, it’s an old desktop design that disappeared a few years ago!

New Features

Beth Granger highlighted a recent post from a LinkedIn staffer announcing a new feature that allows you to search for Videos and Newsletters which is, in turn, a section of a new ‘discover’ page. Articles have been pretty impossible to find for some time so this is a welcome addition for those with newsletters and perhaps indicates why hashtags are now becoming active in Articles.

The new Discover page is a good idea but worryingly, it seems to have completed replaced the ‘My Network’ page in this video

So perhaps this is all part of the moving of invitations to notifications (in a separate tab) as discussed last week with John. I’m not sure how I feel about this and it is hard to come to any conclusions until we can see it properly.

Linkedin have also released a bit more information about the new Carousel post format. You can manually move through the slides by swiping or wait for it to autoplay through and on mobile, tapping on the post makes it go full screen.

Jake Poses also mentions that it’s only being tested by a limited number of people currently but will be available to all those in Creator mode by the fall (Autumn).

I’m really looking forward to playing with Carousels but it looks like we may have to wait a few months yet!

The CAP program continues to expand with the second US cohort application process announced recently. I wonder if they will do second cohorts elsewhere?

Finally, I wanted to ask you about the prospect of doing a LinkedInformed episode live via a LinkedIn Audio event. Is this of interest? What subjects would be of interest to cover? What topics do you think I would most likely gain the most audience interaction from?

Let me know and I will get one set it up. Keep watching here for more information.

Ego Posting

This subject was originally inspired by a message Steve Bruce sent me highlighting this post below which refers a previous image post Jay had published but since deleted. It was a picture of a man lying exhausted on the street.

It’s clear that Jays post had attracted a lot of negative feedback and also clear that she believes that it was right to post in order to inspire others to help people who have mental health challenges.

The original post did very well and lots of people saw it. Given that Jay claims it was her motivation to help others, this was apparently a good thing.

Is this an ego post or a helpful post? Did she publish it for attention or to motivate others to help others?

What about the entrepreneur who posts a picture of their new Porsche, stating that they came from humble beginnings and are proud of their achievements? Is this inspirational or boastful? Is the author looking for attention or trying to help others?

These types of posts are relatively rare but we see them because they tend to do very well. They often polarise opinions and attract lots of positive and negative comments which really helps the reach of the post.

If this type of content annoys you, it’s worth addressing why that is. Are you jealous or do you believe it’s fundamentally wrong? It’s never worth commenting on any post that you disapprove of though as all you are doing is helping more people see it!

In addition, people that post like this often repeat the process, in the knowledge that they will attract a lot of negative comments. Why do that…do they enjoy the fight? Perhaps they hate the negative attention but find the positive comments make it worthwhile and claim that the cause (motivation to others) makes it worthwhile.

I know of someone who ego posts regularly and gets into lots of battles in the comment thread - they seem like someone who loves a good argument but someone told me, who knows them personally, that they are not like that at all and they appear to have no ego either! Are they being authentic or just use this ‘technique’ to gain visibility benefits for their business?

A counterargument that ego posters will use is that they understand that many people will hate them for this public display of ego but others will love them for it and want to see more from them, get to know them, refer them to others and become customers…a customer that has been ‘filtered’ as exactly their type of person - an ideal customer!

But what about the negative effect boasting has on others? We hear stories of Instagram users getting depressed because everyone they follow seems happier, prettier, and more motivated than they are.

Can this happen on LinkedIn? A business owner boasts of record profits for their small business and shows images of their plush house with all the trimmings of success and someone who is running a similar business sees this content and begins to feel like a complete failure!

Unintended outcome, or do they just not care?

I don’t have all the answers here and I really can see both sides of this argument. I do have two pieces of advice though;

1. Never post without giving yourself the time to think about all the consequences of your content.
2. Never try a technique because you see it works for others if it isn’t authentic for you. If boasting is just not you, don’t do it.

I don’t see myself ego posting anytime soon, it doesn’t feel comfortable to me and I trust my instinct on that. I post images of holidays all the time on Instagram but my account is private and all my followers are friends who know me well enough to just be happy for me.

That doesn’t mean I think it’s wrong, just wrong for me.

I’d love to know more about what you think about this subject, let me know in the article comments or send me a DM.

Post Of The Week

I have two to show you this week. The first one is not post of the week, it just feels wrong to celebrate it in any way but I do want you to see it. It’s really heartbreaking but take the time to read what Paul writes about his network and reflecting on memories. Maybe we should all be doing this now rather than when we have months to live.

Thank you for reminding me of what is important Paul.

On a more upbeat note my choice for post of the week is just the most fascinating video! What amazing creativity has gone into this!

Unfortunately, the creator is not on LinkedIn and this was taken from an Instagram post from the account technical_world.in

It’s been posted many times and Ufuk Tarhan post has also been copied but I’m fairly sure she was the first to post it on LinkedIn.

This very much falls into the ‘something cool’ category of LinkedIn posts…she’s not trying to make a point or discuss something, she just saw it and thought her network would enjoy seeing it too, so she posted it. I’m so glad she did!

Click on the image above to view the video

That’s all for this week.

Thank you for all your messages of support this week regarding my Dad. He’s making progress, slowly but we are heading in the right direction.

Catch up again soon…take care.