'You' vs 'Work You' on LinkedIn

Does your employer encourage you to develop your authentic voice on LinkedIn? Many organisations are starting to understand the benefits of doing so.

But before I get to that...

LinkedInformed is back after a brief unexpected break. Not much seems to have happened in my absence but I thought I would update you on a few things that have grabbed my attention.

LinkedInformed is a weekly podcast that you can listen to on Apple or Google podcasts, Amazon music or Spotify (below). If you subscribe on your podcast player app, the next episode will automatically download to your phone.

New Stuff

As usual I am writing this on a Friday prior to the podcast episode coming out the next day followed by this article published on Monday. I don't want to publish an article and post about it at the weekend so I keep it in my drafts until Monday morning when I go through the process of finding my article drafts and then publishing. It's a bit of a drawn out process but manageable...unless I go away and only have access to my phone - that becomes very tricky as you can't access article drafts via the mobile app! There is a long workaround but I won't bother boring you with that because guess what?..

LinkedIn have announced that Articles can now be scheduled...Yippee!

That is a massive game changer for me...I excitedly opened LinkedIn today and created a new article, only to see that I don't have the feature yet! Oh the joy of roll-outs!

Another game changer for me is this new update to the LinkedIn inbox

The LinkedIn inbox has never been very sophisticated...and it still isn't but this is a pretty big deal for me.

Being able to highlight important messages and filter my inbox to just show those ones is really very handy. It's new so it's rolling out, some people have it on mobile only (me), others also have it on desktop.

Don't worry if you don't have it yet, you should get it soon - I can't see them rolling back this one.

LinkedIn have also recently added a new people search filter 'talks about' which refers to the hashtag topics that those on Creator mode select to show on their profile. To date this feature seemed like it was for information only but this definitely makes it more relevant.

The next one is actually a Microsoft Edge and Bing new feature rather than a LinkedIn one but it could have a significant impact on the content we see on LinkedIn!

This week, Microsoft announced and launched their new version of Bing, a search tool designed to rival Google that never quite got there...until now perhaps! MS have incorporated ChatGPT into their new version of Bing and it can do some pretty amazing things!

I'm not sure how this plays with the new premium ChatGPT but it seems like quite a smart move by Microsoft.

This is especially true when they combine it with their browser Edge and that's where it may have impact on LinkedIn.

The New Bing will show in the sidebar on MS Edge so when creating a LinkedIn post you can do the following;

• Click on compose
• Write a short command/prompt for ChatGPT
• Select an appropriate tone from casual, enthusiastic, professional, informational or funny (this is a bit tacky but you can amend it later)
• Select a format from Paragraph, Email, Blog post or Ideas (bullet points)
• Choose a length (short, medium, long)
• Click 'generate draft'
• Amend the draft to suit your writing style
• Once you are happy with the preview, click 'Add to site' and it will automatically populate the create a post dialogue box on LinkedIn!

You can view this in the video below at 37 mins 21 secs. Sorry but LinkedIn Articles are not clever enough to recognise a YouTube 'start at' link (how bad is that?)

Less reach for your posts. I've heard some creators complaining that, whilst the engagement on their content has stayed the same, impressions have dropped. This mainly seems to be for creators with a large following who typically get very high impression numbers. This relates to a point made by several key people at LinkedIn recently.

"Our members value hearing from their?immediate networks"        

So they seem to have adjusted the algorithm to show us less viral content via those we are following have engaged with in favour of original content from those we are following. I'm broadly in favour of this, I'm sure those with a huge following can cope with losing a few thousand impressions!

It's not all bad news for those creators though because in the same sentence LinkedIn also said the following...

"When members see content from people?outside?their immediate network, 
they derive more value if that content is grounded in?knowledge or 
advice. 
This could range from tangible work tips, to practical advice about
getting a new job, to ideas for how to run your business, and more".        

This relates back to what I covered in the last LinkedInformed and is further evidence that this 'Knowledge transfer' team are very focussed on ensuring that such content is promoted widely throughout the network. I'm still unsure how they work out whether a post is providing advice but I think it's worth focussing our efforts on delivering that type of content for now.

Does your employer allow you to be authentically you on LinkedIn?

I've noticed a real change in my business over the last year or so...probably coinciding with a post pandemic period. Many clients are now asking me to help their employees become more visible on LinkedIn and encouraging them to be more authentic and true to who they are.

It never used to be that way!

I'm conscious that not all companies, especially some of the larger corporates, are not there yet so I thought it might be worth covering this on the podcast.

I go into more detail in the episode but here are the main points I cover;

• Organisations that are not confident at allowing key staff (externally focussed jobs plus senior management) to be authentic on LinkedIn need to take a hard look at their recruitment policy and processes!
• A key strength of any company is it's people and this is especially true for sales & marketing professionals and senior management. People do business with people so a company increases its chances of success by encouraging key staff to be active and authentic on LinkedIn.
• This works both ways though. Individuals need to act in a responsible way on LinkedIn and understand that they are representing the corporate brand as well as their own personal brand - these two brands should compliment each other. If they don't we have a problem!
• Jobseekers need to be very aware of this when attending interviews. Ask questions to ascertain how the company feels about you being active on LinkedIn and developing your own brand and visibility on the platform.
• By establishing an authentic and visible presence on LinkedIn, future employers will be able to assess whether your personal brand compliments the organisations brand and values - this is so key to both parties!
• Key staff who merely repost company page content are doing nothing to establish their brand and persona on this network and are also doing very little to help their company. When they start to deliver content that is clearly from their perspective, they begin to gain a following and that is of great benefit to the company.
• Companies need to encourage key staff to do much more than a box ticking exercise on LinkedIn. They should be trained and supported to produce good quality, interesting and authentic content. This will benefit both parties, as the personal brand grows, so does the corporate brand.
• Hard hitting social media policies that are full of 'Don'ts and very few do's' are unhelpful and send employees into their shell.
• If you are working for a company and feel uneasy about being authentically active on LinkedIn, speak to your boss as well as the HR or/and marketing heads to find out what they think about it. You might actually find them more receptive than you imagined.

I really believe that forward thinking companies have started to realise that encouraging key staff to develop their personal brands on LinkedIn is a real win/win.

I look forward to seeing more of this in the future.

Post of the Week

I guess one could argue that attacking the likes of BP and Shell for their high profits is an easy target and is likely to receive a lot of support...well that's probably true for other social networks but this is LinkedIn and many people here would defend a company's right to make as much money as they can!

So I think this is a well chosen topic delivered in a thought-provoking way. Interestingly Amanda actually switched off comments after the thread had developed to such an extent that she felt all angles had been covered. I especially like the way she gave thanks to those that had challenged her as well as agreed with her. It's a credit to this community that we can (mostly) debate important issues in a sensible, mature manner...I think it's one of LinkedIn superpowers and differentiates it from other social networks.

It also achieved success of a different kind in that bp have been in touch with her as a result of this post. Well done to BP for being active and observant on LinkedIn! Where are you 壳牌 ?

That's all for this week. Keep sending in your nominations for post of the week plus any questions and suggestions for the show/article.