Figuring Out LinkedIn

[LightHouse]

Am I onto something here?

My posts that seem to be doing better for me (engagement wise at any rate) are ones where I don't have a one sentence "hook" but just launch into a story and let LinkedIn cut off my first paragraph prior to the "Read More". (See two examples below.)

I'm personally tired of all the first sentence hooks, and the bullet point lists where the length of the sentences get longer/shorter.

I wonder if doing the opposite of what the LinkedIn and content marketing gurus recommend means we stand out more?

Maybe writing naturally with an eye to grabbing and keeping attention but without looking like a copywriter beats applying clever copywriting tricks? Who'd have thought...

@LightHouse ... which posts in your own feed attract your eye?

View attachment 54624

Stories will always win for sure.

I'd say these two have clear reasons why they did better. Both are primed for screen time, the first opens with a story and includes "friends" which will always illict attention, Esp on LI where it's mostly dry business talk.

Have you ever seen the viral stories on there, they are sometimes a groutuesqe display of virtue signalling... to the point where there are content creators making fun of the audacity of the posts.

@Kung Fu Steve just forwarded me one of these videos the other day.

1.1M views · 103K likes | Pasha Grozdov on Instagram: "this is a true story. a year ago, I went for a morning walk. it was raining. during my walk, I encountered a heartwarming scene: a mother duck bravely leading her baby ducklings across the road.

103K likes, 852 comments - pashagrozdovFebruary 25, 2024 on : "this is a true story. a year ago, I went for a morning walk. it was raining. during my walk, I encountered a heartwarming scene: a mother..."

www.instagram.com

The second one uses $xxx/mo/year/etc which also will always grab eyes.

So you can't avoid being a content guy @Andy Black !


To answer your question, content with relevant photos attached or short form video that seems interesting catches my eye. This also has to line up with the person posting it as well.

 

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[Andy Black]

I'd say these two have clear reasons why they did better. Both are primed for screen time, the first opens with a story and includes "friends" which will always illict attention, Esp on LI where it's mostly dry business talk.

The second one uses $xxx/mo/year/etc which also will always grab eyes.

Dammit. I thought it was because I wasn't using a hook. Turns out I might have been anyway.

So you can't avoid being a content guy @Andy Black !

So you're saying if it walks like a duck and looks like a duck?

 

[LightHouse]

Dammit. I thought it was because I wasn't using a hook. Turns out I might have been anyway.

All communication is designed to illicit some sort of intention, otherwise it just wouldn't exist.

You are simply just not using the same format to the T.

So you're saying if it walks like a duck and looks like a duck?

Considering the reach and engagement rate matters.... definition of content marketer. The question is, why is that bad? If anything it's useful to your mission of helping more people. The more your content makes it out, the more folks you reach.

 

[Andy Black]

All communication is designed to illicit some sort of intention, otherwise it just wouldn't exist.

You are simply just not using the same format to the T.



Considering the reach and engagement rate matters.... definition of content marketer. The question is, why is that bad? If anything it's useful to your mission of helping more people. The more your content makes it out, the more folks you reach.

I jest. It just tickles me how we often do better by not following the herd. I'm trying the simplest post format of just text at the moment.

 

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[Andy Black]

I was surprised to see a progress style post doing so well compared to other posts.

I thought it might have been a bit too detailed or geeky, but I think it's likely different from much of the other posts on LinkedIn.




I decided to lean into it and changed my bio and banner:




I also changed my newsletter description to match:




And I posted another detailed update to LinkedIn:




And sent an email to my small newsletter.

Here's what I wrote:

Hi <name>,

Below is a screenshot of a Google Sheets report I created for one of our clients.

This account reminded me how cheaply we can sometimes get visitors from Google Ads.

It inspired me to start another €5/day project to figure out how to grow newsletters with Google Ads.

We're 10 days into that project and I've written up my notes on LinkedIn <HERE>.

Feel free to ask any questions in that LinkedIn thread.

Hope it helps!

Andy

Screenshot of weekly/daily client work:

<Screenshot>


Here's the stats so far:

 

[Andy Black]

Interesting. I'd been wondering about how soon to send emails to my subscribers where I send them to a LinkedIn post. It seems odd to send them to a post that has a CTA to signup to the newsletter. I hadn't thought of having the post run for an hour without a CTA/link, then add the link later. Now it makes sense to post, send an email directing subscribers to the new post, and then add the CTA/link later.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/zsF07igQleM?si=6V0NGaO-A06A6Xk2

 

[Andy Black]

I'm quite enjoying doing daily progress updates to LinkedIn.

I'm also sending daily emails to my email list. Someone unsubscribed this morning, which is great. I'll get round to removing everyone who's not opening emails, and I'll make sure new subscribers know it's a daily-ish newsletter.

Today's post:

Andy Black on LinkedIn: (Day 17) 74 visitors for €14.76 so far for the new campaigns where people… | 16 comments

(Day 17) 74 visitors for €14.76 so far for the new campaigns where people are being sent to a lead capture page (instead of a search results page). 16… | 16 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

 

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[Andy Black]

Thought I'd save this screenshot with a nice round number of followers:

 

[Andy Black]

I tagged Sparkloop in my latest post and an employee and a co-founder replied.

LinkedIn is pretty cool!