Informed: the podcast for LinkedIn® users

Is AI coming for all our jobs? That's the main topic this week, with lots of resources for you to check out so you can work out on which side of the fence to fall.

Postbag

Anon: How can I make my Featured items look the same size?

Other topics in this week's show:

Something Big Is Happening AI article by Matt Shumer

Frank Prendergast has shared a voice note about this. Check out Frank's podcast with Justin Collery: The AI Argument

See this annotated version and...

This week's show comes out early to remind you of this weekend's price rise for the UpLift Live 26. We have an interview with our final speaker, the host of the Nudge podcast, Phill Agnew.

Postbag

Ashley Leeds: Premium banner image buttons

Caryn Yuen: Some experts say that sharing glimpses of your personal life can help build your brand and make it easier for your audience to connect with you. How important do you think this is? How often should one be doing this? How do you decide what’s worth sharing, and what’s no...

Being away for a week in Milan did wonders for people asking me questions for the show!

Postbag

Richard G Abrahams: As a fiction author, given that time learning and using social media is time not spent writing and editing fiction, and given that LinkedIn is a business platform, is there really any value for me to go through the learning curve to promote my novels? Will I really get return for the effort?

Ashley Leeds: How are LinkedIn group recommendation emails generated? How is your Espresso+ podcast on Apple?

Kate...

This week we look at audio pronunciation on your profile.

Postbag

Sara Gallagher: How can I realistically tell what advice is applicable to me, and what "works" because of the skewed sample but won’t in the broader LinkedIn universe? Does it just come down to trial and error?

Illiya Vjestica is running a bonus UpLift Live 26 webinar on Thursday 5 February at 4pm, on the topic of presentation best practice. This one's free for all ticket-holders to t...

Main topic is how others can be your marketing department via their recommendations and video testimonials.

Postbag

Mark Lee: I’m wondering what would happen if I chose to start another newsletter on a different topic potentially of interest to a different subset of my connections. Do all my connections get notified of the new newsletter? Does it have an impact on what happens with the other newsletter? Do all new connections get notified that I have two newsletters?

Do off-topic posts work?

Dates and times on posts

Recommendations an...

What is real and what is fake on LinkedIn? We're looking at some fake accounts this week.

Postbag

Gillian Whitney voice note

Can anything be done to stop DMs fragmenting when sending LinkedIn recommendations?

LinkedIn security fake account

Update on fake LinkedIn security accounts via Guy Strijbosch

Where did all the Top Voices go?

Keep your headline short: check out some tips on the importance of making a quick impact with your profile headline.

UpLift Live conference discount

Our most recent...

Happy New Year!

Postbag

Hanne Møller – reposting your own post

Caryn Yuen – hashtags

I know LinkedIn has removed the ability to follow hashtags, but people can still use them. Some include hashtags within the body of their post to draw attention to certain words, while others add several at the end in a more Instagram-style approach. So what purpose do hashtags actually serve on LinkedIn now?

My top LinkedIn questions

What's in your LinkedIn Year in Review? This is LinkedIn's version of Spotify Wrapped.

Postbag

Should a CTA be included in the headline?

Caryn Yuen

If the CTA is very short and part of a reasonably short overall headline, then that’s OK. Headlines that are too long won’t be read by humans, and if the intention of the text isn’t clear to the AI-powered LinkedIn search, that could do you harm.

How to share achievements

Famey Lockwood

LinkedIn has a new template for an...

Postbag

Does the industry setting matter on your profile?

Christopher Johnson (voice note) 

LinkedIn industry options help page

Fake accounts with similar headlines?

LB Brittingham

I'm searching for other experts supporting introverts and I keep coming across profiles with "introvert living in an industry of extroverts" or similar. Many seem like real accounts. Maybe it's some sort of LinkedIn insider knowledge/meme? Kind of like newbies to Threads don't understand the rage bait from fake accounts when they first get there. I'm wondering if the same thing h...

This week's main topic looks at how many active accounts there are on LinkedIn. See my LinkedIn membership tracker, particularly the updated section titled "How many active users are on LinkedIn?"

Postbag

– What do you think of people customising their pronouns?

In short, don't do it!

– There are quite a few LinkedIn experts who seem to attach an image to every single one of their posts. Do text-only posts perform less well than posts with images?

Looking at my own data since the start of 2024, my text-only posts get 27% more...

Postbag

via Beth Kirk: Loving the informed podcast! I have a question around the proactive use of DMs to build relationships on LinkedIn. Do you have any top tips for people with established audiences please?

— Look for opportunities to start conversations: birthdays, job changes

— Look through your network to find key referral partners and potential clients, then scour their profiles and content for anything that could start a conversation

— Don’t jump in out of the blue with a sales message. That will look like a campaign. Be more human!

— If t...

Thanks to Mark Williams for his kind farewell newsletter.

Postbag

Other topics

Everyone is talking about algorithmic bias against women. I’m going to investigate.

A couple of text-plus-image posts:

Starting a post with a short bit of quoted text often seems to get me good engagement, as per the second example.

Why put a date a...

The first episode of the new-look show took me 6 hours to record, edit and produce last week.

Postbag

Why not refresh your About statement with some icebreakers? Pick 3–5 conversation starters and drop them into your profile so that people doing their research can say something interesting to you.

Free LinkedIn members can now send only 3 free personalised invitations per month – there are 5 quick tips in the show for how to get around this very anno...

This is the new-look Informed podcast, all about LinkedIn best practice, hosted for the first time by John Espirian. 

There’s a quick backstory of the handover from the show’s creator, Mark Williams, to John, and then on to listener questions in the Postbag.

Postbag questions

My final ever episode. I have made the decision to retire, which means no more LinkedIn™️ training or LinkedIn™️ at all so the podcast needs to be handed on to someone else.

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

This week’s topic was inspired by a post I didn’t even read!

I only caught a glimpse of it in my feed, but the headline or hook must have stuck in my brain and started to evolve into an idea for a podcast episode. It’s not the first time that’s happened—and it definitely won’t be the last.

Chances are, it’s happened to you too, even if you didn’t realise it.

That inspiration came from just one impression out of almost 20,000!

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable...so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better.

But do we REALLY know them?

Interesting People interviews are designed to reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️.

Lea Turner is known for her openness and authenticity so it was a challenge to get her to reveal something we hadn't heard before...but she is most definitely very interest...

The only dedicated LinkedIn™️ conference in the UK enters its second year this week. I won't be able to attend but they have a stellar line up of speakers so I asked John Espirian to come on the podcast to give us a glimpse of what in person and virtual attendees can expect.

Plus:

So, the world's largest online business networking platform has decided to invest in offline networking? LinkedIn's new experience centre, in London is a bit more than just about networking but it's an interesting new development.

That plus:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Ma...

In this episode of the Informed podcast I argue that thoughtful and considered commenting is the single most effective action that anyone can take on LinkedIn™️ - that's a bold statement but one I really believe to be true.

That plus:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

In this episode I cover the positives and negatives of the new(ish) mobile video feed.

Plus a brilliant post of the week (and it's not a video).

Video summary

https://youtu.be/_Cpjy-U0UXM

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

What would you spend your time doing if you only had one hour on LinkedIn™️ per week?

Is it possible to have impact in that time?

A recent interaction led me to think about this topic. One hour a week is woefully inadequate but it's an interesting challenge...what would be the best things to do in those precious 60 minutes a week?

That plus:

Mentione...

In this weeks episode I discuss my predictions for LinkedIn™️ this year.

I've always said that there are 3 LinkedIns:

My prediction is that the biggest changes this year will come from user behaviour and those changes provide opportunities for all of us.

Topics covered:

Introduction

07.00 New features

24.30 My predictions for 2025

53.15 Is the trend towards video damaging the reach of other great content?

60.00 UpLift Live conference in March

Mentioned in this episode:

This...

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable...so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better.

But do we REALLY know them?

Interesting People interviews are designed to reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️.

This episode features the wonderful Louise Brogan, A much travelled LinkedIn™️ trainer with an IT background, a passionate feminist and advocate for small businesses.

We talked about the following to...

How the new feed is quietly stifling engagement.

Also covered in this week's episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Has your network grown out of control?

Do you think it might be time to disconnect from a few?

Does it make sense to do it and will it help you?

What is the best way to go about it?

In this episode I try to answer all those questions plus:

I also briefly talk about this bril...

This may be an unpopular opinion: using LinkedIn™️ as a 'funnel' to push followers/connections onto your site is not a great strategy!

Also covered in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

This week, I discussed the mystery surrounding the disappearing connections and revealed that this is not the first time it has happened! Also, in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

LinkedIn™️ say that 10 million users have a services page, a 48% increase year on year. 

But the vast majority of those profiles aren't really freelancers or even service providers!

In addition, LinkedIn™️ are stating that there has been a 65% increase in service enquiries. My experience tallies with this but the enquiries are almost mostly inappropriate & irrelevant!

Services has so much potential but it's LinkedIn™️'s worst feature...poorly designed and implemented.

This is what I think they could do to improve it.

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created b...

You can be great at posting content that engages an audience, you can have a highly impressive profile and you can be amazing at searching for the right contacts … you can be a LinkedIn™️ superuser!

But none of that matters if you are not primarily focused on building strong, sustainable relationships with the right people.

More of that later, the other topics covered in this episode are:

"It must be less than 60 secs"

"You don't want Likes"

"LinkedIn™️ favour advice/helpful videos"

"A headline is essential"

There is lots of well meant advice out there about how to get your videos featured in the new mobile feed but most people are just making educated guesses.

I've crunched the data and can reveal a detailed analysis of what features are most likely to land your video in the new feed.

More of that later, the other topics covered in this episode are:

"I just don't have the time to post on LinkedIn™️. It's not that I undervalue the benefits, it just takes me far too long because I overthink it."

This came from a delegate on a course I delivered recently and it hit me right between the eyes. That's why so many people find it hard to find the time to post content, they overthink it!

Also in this episode:

Serious question: why do you do it? 

What are your objectives and are you achieving them?

This week I received a message which challenged my views on posting content on LinkedIn™️. I disagreed with the points made but that doesn't make them wrong or inappropriate, just different and a good challenge to my thinking.

So, I thought I would share my thoughts in this week's episode. Plus:

Mentioned in this episode:

Th...

LinkedIn™️ are finding it hard to control pods so some LinkedIn™️ users have decided to take the law into their own hands and expose people who use pods to falsely inflate the engagement on their content.

But are these exposures accurate and could some people be caught up in the fallout? That plus:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created...

Finding the right balance. This week, I am replaying a conversation I had with Gillian Whitney on her recent LinkedIn™️ Live. You can view the full Livestream here

Also the post of the week can be viewed here

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

This week I answer 3 questions about:

Also covered in this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

We often come across people on LinkedIn™️ who look interesting and produce content we find valuable, so we follow or connect and over time we feel as though we get to know them better.

But do we REALLY know them?

Interesting People interviews are designed to reveal more about the background, personal lives and characteristics of some of our favourite people on LinkedIn™️

This week I chat with one of the nicest and most helpful LinkedIn™️ Experts out there, my friend John Espirian.

Subscribe to my newsletter for full show notes:

https...

This week I chatted with personal branding specialist Ella Orr about the tricky topic of putting your personality into your LinkedIn™️ content.

In my experience, this is a big challenge for many people and they tend to either be:

Both of the above are driven by the same thing, a reluctance to reveal their real character and personality. It should be easy but it's really not!

So, I sat down with Ella for an hour or so and chatted abou...

I was hoping that we, the LinkedIn™️ community, would have learnt by now but no, illegal (LinkedIn law) automation products are still thriving and new ones seem to appear almost every month.

It's been a long time since I tackled this subject - remember the battle I had with John Nemo in episode 198? John has since changed his views but since those days (2018), the tools have become more sophisticated but still do the same damage to this platform so I thought I would return to this important topic.

Also in this episode I talk about:

Should a company be posting this?Congratulations you are in the top ten experts list!Four new featuresLinkedSummit 2024Post of the week

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.