Take a Leap of Faith with Your Content

Here’s what you can expect from this issue:

• Taking a Leap of Faith
• Content Spotlight
• Gold Standard Content Creators?
• How Heather Helps
• Calls to Action

Taking a Leap of Faith

Not only is it a Leap Year, but I am publishing this edition of my newsletter on Leap Day! Leap Days happen once every four years, and those who have Leap Day birthdays have much fewer birthdays as a result. I used to know someone with a Leap Day birthday who proudly declared on Leap Day he was turning 4 instead of 16!?

Leap Years are practical. They help calendars stay in sync, since it takes Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to orbit the sun, according to NASA via CBS News. The last time we had Leap Day was in 2020, which turned out to be an unprecedented year/years for us with the COVID-19 pandemic.?

Now that we’re in another Leap Year, I’m challenging you to think about how you want this year to be different when it comes to your content strategy. Maybe you’ve posted on and off like I have between periods of burnout, or maybe you have never posted a single original piece of content on LinkedIn?. There’s no time like the present to start, so think about what drives you and what knowledge you can share with others. The worst thing that happens is your content doesn’t get as much engagement as you hope it will, but everyone has to start somewhere!?

Speaking of leaps of faith, I recently launched a poll asking what you think my personal brand is. If you have a second, please vote here!?

If you do decide to take a leap of faith, feel free to tag me! My commitment to you is I will support you with a comment and reaction if you tag me. When I first joined Clubhouse in 2021 and stepped into a LinkedIn Mastery room with Bobby Umar , LIAM DARMODY , A N D Y F O O T E , Lea ?? Turner , Joel Lalgee and others, they supported me in the same way, and I would love to pay their kindness forward.?

Content Spotlight

ICYMI, I started a new job this month! I’ve been sitting on the news for a while, so it felt great to finally share this new position with my LinkedIn community. Check out the full post here.

For some additional context, this was an internal transition from my prior team of North American Corporate Communications (NACC) to our Social Media team under Marketing. As a result, instead of having a typical two weeks’ notice, I stayed on for another six weeks or so before making a clean transition to my new team. This provided an opportunity for me to continue supporting incoming requests, wrap up existing projects and create/update existing standard operating procedure documents so my institutional knowledge could be easily accessible to my colleagues. Plus, since I am still with Honda, my colleagues can reach out should they have any questions about my work.

The Strategy

Celebrate an Occasion.?

Why it Works

At its core, LinkedIn? is a place for professionals to connect and find opportunities. When posting content, Linkedin? has a special call out for celebrating an occasion. Per the platform’s help section, “The recognition or celebration is displayed as an update on your feed and profile.”

While I can’t speak to how the algorithm treats occasion celebrations differently than regular text posts, polls, documents, or videos, what I do notice is that LinkedIn? users want to celebrate one another, and as a result, these types of posts perform well.?

Additional Considerations

In addition to an initial notification that goes out to your network about your celebration, users can also visit “My Network,” and then “Celebrations” to see all recent celebrations posted by first-degree connections. This provides even more opportunities for engagement on your post!

What the Numbers Say

Thank you to D A N I E L H A L L for supporting my newsletter with exclusive engagement analytics. Daniel is a LinkedIn? analytics guru who is helping put the HUMAN back in HUMANity.

At the time of publishing this newsletter, this post from Feb. 21 had 124 comments (62 unique commenters) and 8,963 impressions. This post also had 188 reactions (102 likes, 76 celebrations, 9 hearts and 1 support).

Most interestingly, Daniel’s report found that users engaged with my post for a total of 41 minutes! How incredible is that? I look forward to seeing this engagement time change over time, and how it correlates to the post’s “vanity metrics.”

Gold Standard Content Creators

In each newsletter, I feature three people in my network (or 2nd-3rd degree connections) who from my perspective are putting out the gold standard for content on LinkedIn.

1. Gabby Beckford?

I have been following Gabby for a bit, but recently became first-degree connections with her. Gabby is one of the few travel creators I know taking full advantage of LinkedIn? and is a LinkedIn? Top Voice in addition to posting on more traditional lifestyle platforms like Instagram and TikTok.?

Gabby’s passion for travel is abundantly clear in each post she makes. She is also the founder of Packs Light, a Gen Z travel website that helps young people seek risk, seize opportunity, and see the world. If Gabby couldn’t get any more impressive, she is a Tedx speaker! Check out her Tedx Talk on “Why More People Should Practice Delusional Confidence” here.?

2. Marcia Lee?

I met Marcia (pronounced Mar-cia) Lee, a health and wellness advocate, in a LinkedIn audio room run by Sumana Jeddy, MPH and Felipe Cofi?o , and continue to see her show up in these spaces regularly. Marcia’s passion is health and wellness, and her focus is on people being physically well and introducing people to eating healthy and low cost on a budget. Not only does Marcia post about health regularly, but she also uses her voice to speak about health and wellness in social audio spaces, a powerful tool for thought leadership. If you come across Marcia in a LinkedIn?Audio space, be sure to stick around and hear what she has to say! She will be speaking in The Community Hub Compassion & DEIB series on March 18, so click here to attend and mark your calendar!?

3. Trish Lindo?

Trish is one of the most selfless and powerful creators I have come across on this platform. I first met Trish while she was working for LinkedIn? to establish the inaugural LinkedIn? Community Management Team. She recently started her own venture and works with entrepreneurs of color who are seeking to take their startups from seed funding and beyond. Trish understands the power of storytelling and has been running a LinkedIn Live series called Too AMBITIOUS, which celebrates Black women and Women of Color Founders. If you aren’t already following Trish, I encourage you to do so!?

How Heather Helps

Here are five ways I can help; feel free to send me a direct message with your ask:

1. Resume review.
2. Introduction to someone in my network.
3. Referral to my employer, for a specific role you are interested in https://www.honda.com/careers.
4. Open Conversation/ Career Reflection Brainstorm.
5. Feedback on Optimizing Your LinkedIn profile/ content strategy ideas.

Calls to Action

? Don’t forget to subscribe here!

? Follow #HeatherHelps to see more of my content!

? Share this newsletter with two connections you think would gain insight from it.

? Engage with Me! Comment below with questions you have about content strategy.

? DM me! See a piece of content on LinkedIn you think is awesome? Send it to me via LinkedIn messenger.

? Follow me on other social channels including Instagram and X (Twitter)

Stay Golden