LinkedIn June challenge?

I met Steve Bjorck two weeks ago.  In the same way as I meet more of my new contacts.

He liked my post, I connected with him, and we started chatting.

He told me about his campaign - #25Posts

What is the #25Posts Challenge?

It is a campaign to encourage people who would like to either start posting, or want to post more consistently to post almost daily for the month of June.

Is posting every day necessary?

No it isn’t.  And some would say (including ourselves) that sometimes with LinkedIn, that less is more.  However, habits are formed when they are done consistently and daily.

“It takes 21 days to form a new habit”

Once you are in the habit, then you can reduce it down, but this campaign is about getting into it in the first place.

Why did it capture my imagination personally?

Just a few weeks’ back I hosted a webinar on how to get more views on your post.  This content is great for people already posting, but perhaps could be overwhelming when your questions are,

• What should I post?
• Will anyone find what I have to say interesting?
• How personal do I make it?

So, I wanted to support an initiative that just helps people get started.

At Pitch121, we create people’s posts on their behalf, we ask them questions, they tell us personal stories, we do research and we post.

But, we would rather our clients did this for themselves, it would be better if that part of our service didn’t have to exist, so we encourage everyone to have a go.

Below, I’ve put together some questions I’ve been asked before, with my answers, as it might help you get started with posting.

How can posting help my business?

There are 1000s, millions even of people that could be your future client on LinkedIn, there are probably 100s just in your 1st degree network.

No-one can keep in touch with everyone through direct interaction, and so posting keeps you front of mind for those that know you, and helps you to get known by those you don’t.

Done well, posting can attract new people towards you, due to the topic and the values you demonstrate.  (and don’t forget to use good hashtags)

When someone does interact with your post, reply to them, and if you want to start up a conversation, also direct message them.

If someone has commented, and they are a 2nd or 3rd degree connection, just send them a connection request -

“Thanks for liking my post about X, I took a look at your profile, and wondered if you’d like to connect?”

Nearly everyone will accept.

A shared thought generated by a post gives you a topic for you both to start chatting.

Then it is up to you to steer a conversation, set up a call, send them an email.  If it doesn’t go anywhere the first time; don’t push it.  You have a new connection who will see your future posts, learn more about you, and how you can help them. Next time they interact with you, you can spark up a conversation again.

This network growing and nurturing all starts with getting out there and being seen.

What if I don’t have anything to say?

I guarantee you, this gets easier.

Start with you.

You are the person that stands out on LinkedIn, not your company or what you do.  Start with why you are doing the challenge, and be honest.  Authenticity, light-heartedness, humour go a long way.

You might immediately be thinking about sharing some corporate content.  That is ok, but it won’t help you really stand out.  If you have to, then share this, with other types of posts between.  Have an opinion that accompanies corporate content, bring your personal slant or experience into it.  As a minimum, tell your network why it might be a good read for them.

Steve has kindly put together a list of 25 ideas, one for each day, so if you are struggling with what you can say, take a look here

Any other tips?

People need to immediately understand a post.

There isn’t time for anything too complex; use simple language, short sentences, double spacing.  Think of how it will look on a mobile phone.

Say One Thing.

If you are sharing a website link, and it simply accompanies what you are saying, and you don’t need people to link through, you can add it in the comments.  LinkedIn prefers you not to link people off their platform, so more people will see your post if you aren’t trying to send them off to Forbes.

However, if you do want people to go to your website, sign up to something, read something in full, then add it right there in the main post.

Native documents perform well in terms of views, but they also look nice in the feed.  Slideshares, PDFs uploaded allow you to scroll through the pages.  When people spend time on your post, LinkedIn allows more people to see it.

Videos take a lot less time to create than you think, and better to pay to use a programme like Screencast-O-Matic so your video can be downloaded and uploaded natively onto LinkedIn.

Remember that 80% of people watch videos on mute, so consider uploading onto a subtitle software (I use Zubtitle, its quick and easy to use) and downloading it again before posting.

Use 3 hashtags, and make them count.  #25Posts will get our attention, make the others relevant to the topic and your audience.  Choose other hashtags with 1000s, or millions of followers.  You can check the number of followers by searching ‘#keyword’ in the search box.

Mix it up.  Formats, topics, but most of all, with every post, let ‘the real you’ come out.

Your experiences, your opinion, what you think is what people will buy into.

What if I don’t get many likes?

Most people are passive on LinkedIn, so don’t worry, it will be seen, and it will improve over time.

Be encouraged by the number of people who just view your post initially.

You can kick things off to get some likes by using the hashtag #25Posts so others doing the same as you through the month of June will like and comment to give you encouragement.

Also, think about people who the topic is interesting for, and tag them in, make sure they are people who’ll help you out, are active on LinkedIn.  It works just as well if you tag, in the comment of your post.  If you haven’t tagged before that is putting an @ then starting to type someone’s name, and choose them from the dropdown.

Finally, don’t worry about it if your engagement is low, getting started and learning what works is more important.

Get Started

1. Go to your LinkedIn search bar, and search #25Posts.
2. Click follow
3. Write a post, starting Monday 1st June and every day after that, include #25Posts in the post, and 2 other hashtags
4. Click on the hashtag to see others doing the same and provide encouragement by liking and commenting on the posts

Need more help?

Ask the others on the challenge, by using #25Posts, or, connect with me, or email me on [email protected]. I would be more than happy to provide a steer.