What kind of LinkedIn posts to create?

I already blog, and I create quite a lot of content that way.

Where will I find the time to create new content for LinkedIn?

Well, I won't.

I'll re-purpose content.

My current LinkedIn post strategy is 'executive summary'.

• I write a bunch of posts on my normal blogs
• I summarise them and draw 'management conclusions' for LinkedIn

The LinkedIn audience that I'm trying to target is one that will invest in consultancy, that is a different audience than the practitioners I target on my blog.

My first post I forgot to tweet and promote!

Now, when I create a LinkedIn post:

- mention it as a Company update
- 'share' the company update through my linkedin profile
- tweet the linkedin post

The LinkedIn reciprocal Visit Strategy update.

Thousands. I've automatically visited thousands of profiles.

How many you ask?

2747, I reply

Wow, that must have massively increased your profile views, you say.

Eh, not really.

To make this 'scientific' I made sure this was the only strategy I employed for 2 weeks.

And, not really much of a boost,

When I didn't employ these strategies and did nothing I was getting about 30 - 40 views a week. Some weeks up to 70, some weeks as low as 20.

With this strategy I had a 40 week, and a 48 week. Which is well within 'normal tolerance'.

Looking at the people who did view my profile... none, were in the list of visited people.

I'm going to conclude that this strategy is 'LinkedIn Guru' hyperbole and let it lie.

So what to do instead?

Well, the one thing it was good for, was seeing what LinkedIn groups my target market was part of.

And I have joined as many of those groups as would let me in.

I have also created more updates and started using the LinkedIn 'post an article' and this week I'm up to 55 views.

Now, I also have to try 'engaging in the groups'

Summary

I conclude that 'content' is a better strategy for 'profile views' than visiting.

But 'visiting' is the best (and only) strategy to find out what groups your target market visit.

Going forward I will:

• Create posts
• Post more regular updates
• Engage in group discussions where I can

And see how that goes

LinkedIn Ads Update

Two weeks ago I wrote that:

• One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00
• The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.
• I chose “Cost per Click” model.
• LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.
• I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens

So after 14 days, what has happened.

• The ad has been clicked 6 times, so that is 5 more clicks
• Average click through at $3.0
• The ad has 74,409 impressions

If I earned money from impressions that would be great.

It is possible that people are trained not to look at ads. I'm pretty sure I am.

I've decided to end my 'ad' experiment and I probably won't repeat it.

I think 'content' serves my business better than ads.

LinkedIn has limits on everything! - number of pending group requests

As part of my 'try to use linkedin' better strategy. I've been looking at the profiles for people in roles I probably want to connect with to get work.

And when I do that, I've been looking to see what groups they are members of.

Then I apply to join those groups that seem relevant.

Strategy:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• join potentially beneficial groups

And then LinkedIn says:

"You've already requested to join too many groups. Withdraw pending requests before joining this group."

I think I had about 6 requests pending.

As a result of this my strategy is now:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• make a list of potentially beneficial groups
• join groups in my list

Otherwise, I'll forget the good groups.

And since LinkedIn allows you to join about 100 groups I'm working through my list now.

PS:

Remember to edit your profile so that you only show groups in your profile that augment your sales message. 

LinkedIn Connection Oddness

I've often wondered how I received so many connection requests prior to posting my email address on my profile, and why no-one gives a reason why they want to connect.

But I've only just realised that on the "People you may know" view, under "My Network". I can click 'connect' on any of those people and I don't have to provide how I know them, nor do I have the opportunity to say why I would like to connect.

If I open their profile and try to connect, then I have to give a reason.

Strangely inconsistent methinks.

How to make blogger more responsive

This blog is hosted on Blogger.com - primarily for expediency.

• I don’t like the HTML it generates
• And I don’t like the templates (i.e. how it looks)

But other than that, it is fine.
For a while I’ve been wanting to make the blog more ‘responsive’.

• I don’t particularly like the fixed sizing
• and I don’t like the small screen formatting

I had a quick look around are responsive templates for blogger.
But:

• I didn’t really trust them
• I thought I would have to reconstruct my sidebar etc.
• It all seemed too much work

I tried using the Advanced editing on the template to add some CSS but:

• The custom CSS is added into the HTML before the Template CSS
• So the template CSS overrides your custom CSS

So, I bit the bullet:

• visit the site
• use dev tools to find the ‘key’ areas to influence
• hack around with the CSS

And I came up with this:

---

/* Minimal Hack to make blogger more responsive
     Added in the Template HTML Template Skin Section
     At the bottom
     20160902
*/

.content-outer{
     min-width:none;
     max-width:1400px;
     margin: auto;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     margin:auto;
}

/* push sidebar to the bottom - content break, not device break*/
@media only screen and (max-width: 900px){

.content-outer{
     min-width:0;
     max-width:auto;
     margin: auto;
}

.column-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .column-right-outer{
     width:100%;
     margin-right:0px;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-right-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .columns{
     padding-right:0;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     max-width:100%;
     height:auto;  
}
body{
     min-width:0;
}
}

/* End of minimal hack to make blogger more responsive
    20160902
*/

---

It isn’t pretty.
But it basically says. If the screen is bigger than 900 pixels then allow it to resize.
If it is below 900 pixels then move the side bar to the bottom of the screen and make everything fit the width.
Oh, and resize the header image to fit the screen (if I add one to this blog).
Why 900? Because.
I chose a content break, rather than a device break. And on some of my other blogs, choosing 900 seemed like the right choice.
In blogger I have to:

• go to the blog dashboard
• choose ‘Template’
• Edit HTML
• Expand <b:template-skin> ...</b:template-skin> in the editor
• and right at the bottom of this section, above the ]]> I add my ‘hack’ CSS

Just in case anyone else is still on Blogger, and wants to make their blog a little more responsive.
Feel free to adjust the max-width in the media query for your own personal preferences.

Does LinkedIn Advertising and Sponsored Update work?

I have never clicked on an advert on LinkedIn, or knowingly clicked or shared a sponsored update.

But I have taken advantage of the LinkedIn promotions wehre they give you £20 or £30 to try running ads or sponsored updates.

I tried advertising & sponsored updates.

Sponsored Updates burn through cash

I burned through the ‘free’ cash on the sponsored update in a day or so. Suspecting that this might be successful, I paid to increase the ad budget.

A few days later the cap was reached.

Result.

• A few shares. A few clicks.
• But no upsell.

Perhaps I picked the wrong update to sponsor?

Certainly it got in front of people, but I had less interaction with the sponsored update, than I do on a normal update.

So I probably will not try this again.

Text Ads

I created two text ads.

I thought two might give me an A/B test, and feel kind of scientific.

One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00

The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.

I chose “Cost per Click” model.

LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.

I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens.

At the moment Ads seem like a way of putting text on people’s screen that they don’t click on. But it doesn’t cost much.

And you can cap the daily spend - so provided you remember to check the ads section of LinkedIn periodically you might not end up too much out of pocket.

Does this work?

Again, I’m not convinced of the efficacy of this advertising approach.

I suspect that quality updates and posts might have a better impact.

Are Linkedin Groups Still Useful for Marketing?

Are Linkedin Groups Useful?

I still read in posts from Linkedin ‘experts’ and various social media sites that LinkedIn Groups are one of the best ways to get in front of prospects and demonstrate your expertise.

Unfortunately LinkedIn groups seem dead to me.

I dropped out of LinkedIn groups a few years ago because, while they were active with discussion the discussion was:

• of very poor quality
• highly opinionated without justification
• incredibly argumentative without ‘listening’ to the other side

And I just became tired of reading it, and being on the receiving end of “that won’t work” opinions’ despite posting factual success experiences.
But, since I’m trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn for marketing I’ve gone back through the groups I subscribe to.

I evaluated my groups for value

I adopted the following strategy to evaluate linkedin groups:

• for each group I am in:
  • does it give value to me? i.e. looking over the last 50 or so posts, did they add value?
  • are my prospects in this group?

If they answer to either is “No” then leave the group.

Most were full of spam posts and no discussion

Most of the groups were filled with ‘peers’ rather than ‘prospects’ and so many of the groups were actually filled with the same ‘posts’. I went from group to group seeing the same promotional posts from people in each group.
Perhaps that marketing strategy works - publish the same post in each group, regardless of its relevance to the group. But to me it seems like spam.

• I could find no group that had any real discussion.
• I could find no group that had ‘prospects’ in it.
• I left many of the groups I was subscribed to.

How to find new groups?

I’m going to start searching for ‘prospects’ and seeing what groups they have joined.
And then, once I gain access to the groups, I can evaluate them using the ‘value’ strategy I listed above.
I remain to be convinced if LinkedIn groups will add value to my marketing strategy.