My experiment:
On January 2, I made a decision to publish on LinkedIn for 30 days, utilizing the free instruments that include any account.
In February I checked out my preliminary outcomes, and prolonged the experiment to 90 days. I felt that may give me sufficient suggestions/knowledge to resolve whether or not to maintain posting completely.
Why LinkedIn?
X has changed into a bin-fire of lies, insults, anger and baiting. Now that Fb and Instagram have stopped moderating posts, I believe they’ll do the identical.
The promoting on all three channels means it’s a lot tougher to succeed in a giant viewers with out paying. Your posts are solely being proven to a small variety of your individual followers, not to mention reaching new individuals.
Clearly, if you have already got a giant viewers and it’s nonetheless working for you – ignore me. However if you happen to’re discovering it laborious to succeed in the identical individuals you used to succeed in 5 years in the past, please know that it’s not simply you.
TikTok’s success has meant that different channels modified their algorithms, making it tougher to construct an viewers or promote there.
LinkedIn may be various.
The channel has 1.1 billion customers, however just one% of them publish each day. It wants new content material, so it has an incentive to indicate your posts to a wider viewers. For now, it additionally carries much less promoting, making natural attain simpler to attain.
I’d seen a pointy enhance in creatives getting contracts, shoppers and freelance commissions by way of LinkedIn. So I’ve, for a while, been urging shoppers to beef up their LinkedIn profile and publish extra to draw work.
However.. I wasn’t utilizing it nicely myself.
This experiment was about altering that.
The outcomes are under.
However first, it’s essential to say that social media isn’t obligatory. Creatives bought their work, discovered new shoppers and constructed an viewers for a whole bunch of years earlier than social media come alongside. And we nonetheless can.
Many people nonetheless get most of our work by way of referral from our community. If that’s working for you, don’t really feel you’re one way or the other failing if you happen to don’t use socials.
10 issues I discovered:
1: By conventional metrics, this experiment was a failure.
None of my posts went viral (and even barely infectious). My whole views in per week shot as much as over 7,000, then settled again to a gradual 2000 or so. Only a few posts had greater than a few feedback as engagement.
Over the 90 days, my following went up from 1200 to 1400. (For context, a fellow coach who was posting solely 3 times per week however utilizing video added 800 new followers in the identical interval.)
2: I loved it greater than I anticipated.
I reconnected with some previous associates and work colleagues I’d misplaced contact with. I met some attention-grabbing new individuals. I acquired a couple of new concepts, assets and techniques to strive, too.
3: It was surprisingly good for enterprise.
I all the time have a surge of individuals reserving introductory teaching classes with me in January. However the excessive demand continued within the following two months, so I checked extra carefully. Plenty of these new session functions have been from new followers on LinkedIn.
A number of new followers additionally booked locations on my workshops. Three have turn out to be new one-to-one teaching shoppers.
I estimate the earnings generated by this experiment to be about £9k. All of the sudden, my little experiment doesn’t appear a failure in any respect.
4: Select who you have interaction with fastidiously.
Hunt down different creatives and folks you’re feeling aligned to, and your feed shortly turns into extra attention-grabbing. Should you have interaction with ‘sizzling takes’ and clickbait, that’s what you’ll get extra of. That is all fairly apparent, nevertheless it reworked my LI expertise.
After I began, my feed was filled with tech bros shouting about chilly showers, exercises and the right way to 10x my enterprise. Now there are artists, writers, photographers, TV and movie individuals, considerate posts on AI, artistic enterprise and advertising. There’s nonetheless loads of noise, however I’d say 50% of my feed is now content material I discover attention-grabbing.
5: Commenting issues.
I used to be suggested to have interaction with at the least 10 posts every day, including significant feedback reasonably than simply clicking the ‘like’ button. This undoubtedly helped with my attain and engagement, and made my feed extra attention-grabbing.
However it was a lot, far more time-consuming than writing my very own posts. Discovering posts to touch upon and pondering of one thing helpful so as to add took time and vitality, although it acquired simpler as I discovered and bookmarked individuals I felt aligned with.
6: Any social channel is a time-suck.
LinkedIn is nowhere close to as addictive as Instagram or TikTok, however I nonetheless discovered myself scrolling greater than regular, checking my telephone very first thing and dipping in whereas watching TV within the night.
I’ve needed to be strict about not touching my telephone within the morning till I’ve written for at the least an hour, and never checking the feed outdoors my work hours. I wasn’t all the time profitable on this!
7: Posting on Saturday didn’t work for me.
I acquired behind, and ended up writing posts on the weekend. So I now publish simply a “Sunday celebration”, with three issues I’d loved or discovered inspiring that week.
I’m unsure how helpful this weekly publish is to anybody however me, however I’ve liked doing it. It’s fast, it acquired me in search of attention-grabbing issues to share, and it’s additionally a document of what I’m watching, studying, doing. This can be a keeper for me.
8: Private tales did higher than common statements.
Posts with exterior hyperlinks (normally to my web site) did a lot worse.
A few of my posts have been polished and thought of. However many have been no matter was on my thoughts that day, written shortly. There have been typos, errors. It doesn’t must be excellent!
9: I didn’t run out of issues to say.
Posting every day was a battle, at first. However the extra I wrote, the better it acquired.
A number of fast feedback I made on different individuals’s posts later acquired expanded into new posts for me. I’ve fashioned the behavior of capturing new concepts every time they arrive, which makes it a lot simpler after I sit down to write down.
10: Views of my LinkedIn profile rose sharply.
And this has continued, even when views of my posts decreased. I don’t suppose I’ve acquired the profile itself proper but – it wants extra thought.
Should you solely do one factor on LinkedIn, ensure your profile is up-to-date, enticing, and clearly states what you do, who you do it for, and the way potential shoppers can get in contact.
I’ll be making a step-by-step information that will help you do that as quickly as I’ve acquired my very own in higher form!
Conclusion:
- I’ll proceed posting on LinkedIn for the remainder of the 12 months, however solely 3-4 instances per week.
- My subsequent focus will probably be bettering my profile, and honing methods to make it simpler to publish and remark constantly, in much less time.
- Commenting on ten posts a day is difficult for me. So shifting ahead, I’m setting a objective of at the least 5 feedback, each weekday.
- I’ll now begin to repeat a number of the content material I’ve already created. Posts that labored will merely be reused; posts that didn’t work will probably be edited, rewritten, or given new pictures. Most people who find themselves profitable on social media appear to have a library of content material, best hits that they recycle each 4-6 months. That’s what I’m aiming to construct over the subsequent 12 months.
- It’s not concerning the variety of followers you may have. It’s about their high quality. Should you’re attracting the best individuals, you don’t want an enormous following. Discover your tribe, and serve them brilliantly.
- That is what labored for me. If you wish to experiment with LinkedIn, begin with a brief dedication, monitor your outcomes and regulate accordingly. Discover what works for you!
Useful assets
Wish to comply with me on LinkedIn? I’m right here
I discovered two programs helpful, on my LinkedIn journey. Justin Welsh and David Hieatt are masters of short-form, attention-grabbing writing and nicely value following on LinkedIn.
Welsh makes use of his posts to advertise his programs and to speak about constructing a enterprise that matches your values and life-style; Hieatt makes use of it to share stuff he finds attention-grabbing and draw consideration to his many companies, from Hiutt denims to the DO Lectures and books.
- The LinkedIn Working System, by Justin Welsh is $200, however he runs common gives (I paid $70). It’s very thorough and helpful, although principally aimed toward individuals wanting to construct a enterprise on-line.
- Micro-blog System, led by David Hieatt. That is on-line, however he runs it in cohorts, inserting you in groups of ten that will help you keep constant. I paid $350, however pricing for the subsequent one (beginning Could 2025) wasn’t clear.There have been a number of creatives in my cohort.
