Uplift Live (part one)

In this weeks podcast, I tell my story and experience of the first ever independent conference for LinkedIn?? enthusiasts in the UK. There's a lot to cover so this will be in two parts.

Informed is a weekly podcast which you can listen to and subscribe to for free on any podcast app. These notes are merely brief overview of what I covered in the podcast so do listen to the full show on Spotify below or simply search for 'Informed by Mark Williams' on your podcast app of choice

This week I cover the morning sessions but before I get into that, I must explain the new name and branding.

Goodbye LinkedInformed and hello 'Informed by Mark Williams'!

Late last year, I received a very rude 'Cease & Desist' email from a law firm in Omaha demanding that I stop using the LinkedInformed name...claiming that it could confuse people to think that I actually work for LinkedIn??...which is hilarious when you think about it! ??

The clear threat was that they would close my account if I didn't comply.

Some of you may think that is crazy...surely people like me encourage others to use LinkedIn?? so why would they want to put barriers in our way? The reality is, and has always been, very different to that - LinkedIn?? probably feel that independent LinkedIn?? trainers do more harm than good, unless they teach people to use the platform in ways that support their own commercial revenue goals.

I'm more interested in helping LinkedIn?? users achieve their own commercial success and that's not of interest to the LinkedIn corporation!

So a change has been necessary and I'm actually fine with that, it's a good excuse to freshen things up...What do you think of the new brand?

UpliftLive 2024

UpLift Live is an in-person, LinkedIn-focused conference and the first of it's kind in the UK. The inaugural event was held on 21st March in Birmingham and I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the event.

There were eight speakers in total brilliantly MC'd by Gus Bhandal .

Here is a quick summary of each speaker (Listen to the podcast for more thoughts). If you want to watch the full event you can buy on demand tickets of the event here

Louise Brogan

Louise drew the short straw and had to talk about company pages! Not a subject I would normally have any time for but she did a brilliant job of demonstrating how company pages can fit into the mix for achieving success on LinkedIn?? .

Being the first on stage is never easy and to add to that, minutes before going on stage she had found herself stuck in the lift at the hotel! I'm not sure I would have been able to cope with the stress but she did an amazing job and got the day off to a fantastic start. A very brief overview;

• When we meet someone interesting in business, after finding out about them we naturally want to explore who they work for and how that might be relevant to us. This is where company pages come into their own.
• The information provided on a company page should be distinctly different from what we see in a personal profile, even for solopreneurs.
• For discoverability, keywords are especially important in the tagline and About sections.
• Corporate employees use LinkedIn?? very differently to solopreneurs and small business employees and will visit company pages.
• She cited First Horizon Bank as a great example of a company who regularly repost their employees content.
• Notify employees about new posts from your page
• Events from a page can attract really high numbers
• Encourage employees to invite their connections to follow the page

For more information, Louise has also now posted a carousel on the topic

View Louise's full talk with an on demand ticket

Nigel Cliffe

Next on stage was Nigel who had picked a topic close to the one I had requested...research. So earlier this year we jumped on a call together and worked out that he would cover finding people plus some personality analysis and then I would build on that in my session.

Originally Nigel had been billed as covering Sales Navigator as a search tool but instead he covered a much more effective way of finding people on LinkedIn??.

• Success is not about vanity metrics such as post impressions
• Focus on finding ideal clients, the like of which won't require you to generate tons of leads.
• Focus on a smaller number of hot prospects - a very specific set of potential customers who can be found by using Boolean search strings on Google.
• Here is the string he used as an example

site:Linkedin.com/in AND "digital marketing" AND (SEO OR SEM) AND "lead generation" AND "content marketing" NEAR/3 Strategy AND "social media"        

I loved the way Nigel gradually built up this string showing how the google search result gradually got smaller and smaller. I've used Google boolean searches when looking for public profiles before (a common technique adopted by Recruiters) but I had a blindspot on using it instead of a regular LinkedIn?? or Sales Navigator search.

Nigel then introduced the audience to CrystalKnows an external tool that allows you to gather personality assessments of prospects via AI analysis and DISC assessments gathered from publicly visible information such as their LinkedIn?? profile. He demonstrated how the tool shows you how someones personality compares to your own, allowing you to understand how to communicate with them more effectively.

View Nigels full talk with an on demand ticket

My Talk

After a short break, it was my turn. I must admit, I was VERY tense during the break! The 30 minute time limit plus a discerning audience had me concerned!

Here is a picture of the steps I had to climb before appearing in front of the auditorium...

Here is a copy of the (rather minimalistic) slides that I used.

You will gain a better understanding of the topic by listening to the podcast.

Essentially I only really covered two main points

1. Read the profile thoroughly and pay particular attention to the recommendations section. Especially those they have written for others where you will find valuable information about the traits and qualities they value in others. If you can demonstrate these qualities when you communicate with them, they are likely to feel more positive about you.
2. Engagement is a critical activity on LinkedIn?? but are you engaging with the right people? It can be very easy to fall into the trap of only engaging with friendly, highly active users who have very little relevance to your business objectives. Focus on finding highly active 'Associates' who are aiming to influence and do business with the same people that you are. Build relationships with them and seek their help when researching potential targets on LinkedIn??.

I managed to finish within the 30 minutes (phew) and thoroughly enjoyed myself on stage! Hopefully the organisers and audience were equally happy!

Here is an illustration of the content of my talk created by the amazingly talented Phoebe Robinson . She literally drew this whilst I was on stage and did the same for every speaker!

John Espirian

My notes are a bit sparse for Johns talk because I missed the start (recovering backstage) and I was still on a high after my session and didn't take any written notes!

He was essentially talking about standing out from the crowd and covered both profile and activities.

Noticed, Remembered and Preferred was his tagline for the session.

John started with the profile headline, which we all know is extremely important and in typical John fashion, he has worked out his own formula for one. It means using only c120 of the 220 characters allowed and follows a 40-60-20 rule as seen below.

I like this although I do feel that it wastes 100 characters of rich keyword space.

John cited recent political campaigns where very simple phrases were used to make their campaign highly memorable and he uses this technique to make his profile and presence on LinkedIn?? more 'sticky' in peoples minds. Phrases such as 'Relentlessly helpful' and 'not a Douche canoe' being examples.

He also covered the Featured section, which I think John uses very well. Just look at the consistency on display here, all are external links with images that are all the exact same dimensions.

As mentioned, my notes were non existent for Johns talk and he covered a lot of ground not mentioned here. For a recording of all of his talk, and all the other speakers, you can still buy a virtual ticket

So that was the morning, we all then departed for a lunch which deserves a mention in itself! I've been to many conferences and the food is almost always average at best and the type of meal that makes you very sleepy for the session immediately after the break. Lois Cliff did an amazing job in selecting a buffet meal that was both delicious and not yawn inducing. Yet another win for UpliftLive!

I hope you found that summary useful. Next week I will be covering the afternoon session which included talks from Gillian Whitney , Kevin D. Turner , TIINA JARVET and Richard van der Blom

Post of the week

I debated whether to have this fantastic video post as the winner because I prefer to use a post where we can learn something that will help us post better content in the future.

The following post teaches us us nothing about LinkedIn content techniques, it's just a great video but how could I not make this the winner? It's emotional and inspiring and can be related to any circumstance that we may find challenging.

It's also only the second time that a company page post has won post of the week so well done to CoorDown

This is for this week, part two on it's way to you soon.