Are You Frustrated With LinkedIn?
If you are a business owner and you don't get any results on LinkedIn, you are probably following the wrong advice.
If you have been trying to play the LinkedIn game with little to no success, or if you just want to dip your toes in the water and learn how to get started the right way, this article is perfect for you!
In this article, we are going to talk about cognitive biases, the state of LinkedIn and why so many business owners fail to attract leads and customers for their business, and what you can do to get actual results.
But first, a bit of storytime...
Pigeons, Mad Scientists and LinkedIn
In the 1950s, a researcher by the name of Dr. Skinner performed a couple of research experiments on pigeons.
Every time a pigeon would press a button, they would get one piece of food.
A couple of repetitions later and the pigeon learned to do the correct behavior.
Because the pigeons understood the logic, they would only press the button whenever they were hungry.
This was about to change…
LinkedIn algorithm changes and learned helplessness
The researcher changed the setup of the experiment from one press of a button and one piece of food to complete randomness.
Pigeons would now receive food at completely random times and in random amounts.
The pigeons went completely berserk and were visibly frustrated and anxious.
They did not understand what was going on…
What worked before, did not work anymore.
Some pigeons started pressing the button 10,000 times in a row.
Others started to interpret random behavior at the time of receiving food as new triggers.
Of course, that behavior was just coincidentally happening at the same time and had no effect whatsoever.
Nonetheless, the pigeons were trying it anyway, only to feel more frustrated and confused.
You might be asking, so, Tim, what is the link between the pigeons' frustration and the LinkedIn algorithm?
Hang on, that's coming up next.
The state of LinkedIn
What happened in this experiment is not too far off from what is happening on social media, and the LinkedIn platform in particular.
Many people get very confused when the LinkedIn algorithm is changing.
Or when certain behaviors seems to get rewarded, while others don't.
Many people take these wrong signals as indicators of success on LinkedIn and mimic them.
Let's take a look at a couple of seemingly "successful" LinkedIn posts (with high engagement) and I will dissect them for you.
Why Inspirational Virtue-Signaling Content on LinkedIn Doesn't Work for Businesses
The type of "successful posts" that never fail to attract tens of thousands of likes and comments fall under this category: virtue-signaling content.
Inspirational and motivational quotes LinkedIn posts
Motivation quotes resonate very well with the LinkedIn members and they love stories of kindness.
As you can see, sharing the two posts attracted thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.
"I-interviewed-someone" LinkedIn posts
Typical interview stories that have an unexpected "happy endings" often strike a chord in the hearts of many, garnering tens of thousands of likes and thousands of comments.
"I-hired-someone" LinkedIn posts
Success stories of candidates who beat the odds and secured jobs go down very well with the masses.
Support job seekers LinkedIn posts
"I-am-such-a-kind-boss" LinkedIn posts
"I-am-a-kind-person-outside-the-office" LinkedIn posts
It's good to share your values from time to time but it would be more relevant if the content is linked to a professional context. Customers would be more interested in knowing how it would be like if they were working with you. i.e. your work ethics.
"I-got-rejected" LinkedIn posts
As inspirational as the content may seem, would these posts attract the right people into your network?
Engagement bait LinkedIn posts
Content that encourages action but isn't necessarily educational nor valuable to your customers don't help you to establish your authority in your industry.
Fake Fairytale Stories on LinkedIn
What most people don’t understand about these posts is that 99% of them are not even real.
They are made up!
And even worse, not even written by the person who posted them.
Check out this screenshot below.
And yes, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As you can see, the same "successful" posts are replicated by different people and spread across the entire LinkedIn platform.
LinkedIn post: The story archetypes
Most LinkedIn stories follow the same blueprint.
Overcoming the monster
Someone evil – usually a boss makes a great target – is bullying someone who is often discriminated against. A person who is pregnant, someone who is old, or identifies as gay, has a different skin color or nationality.
In all cases, the author positions him or herself as the hero of the story who stands up to the bully.
These good vs evil stories always attract a ton of likes, because everyone likes fairy tales with happy endings.
Don’t Follow the Wrong Role Models on LinkedIn (If You Want to Succeed as a Business)
What you must understand is that all these stories are getting views, likes and comments for various reasons.
What do you think why this is happening?
Because some people have a very strong emotional reaction to these types of posts.
They love to hear stories about how the world should be all day long…
- We should be kind to each other.
- We should uplift and help each other.
- Hire someone who needs a job.
- Help someone in need.
- Stand up to a bad boss.
- Donate to a good cause.
As good as these messages are, there is a huge problem.
When business owners learn about the great potential of LinkedIn for their business, for attracting hot leads, and finding clients and customers, they're getting excited and join the LinkedIn platform.
Normally, they have no idea where to begin and start looking for role models…
They scroll through their newsfeed, and what do they see?
Motivational posts and fake HR stories…
One after another.
And all posts seem to get thousands of likes, comments and shares…
When they see these huge numbers they almost always draw the wrong conclusions and start believing that they too must create similarly inspirational content.
They start to associate the number of likes and views with how successful they are on LinkedIn. Add a little bit of peer pressure and group conformity and the illusion is complete.
They believe that if they get more views, they will somehow make more sales.
Then they try to mimic these creators by creating similar stories.
Well, of course they don’t work.
None of these stories create any sales.
Just because someone is emotionally touched, by a heartbreaking fake HR story, that doesn't mean that this person would buy something from them.
That's just not how this works.
You have to get away from looking for role models who have a ton of likes, comments, views, it doesn't matter because most of the time they're getting those views for the wrong reasons.
Don’t Follow LinkedIn Advice From Non-business People
What you must understand is, that almost all inspirational content creators on LinkedIn are not business owners.
They are not people running their own business.
They are not motivated by revenue and profit margins.
Well, to a certain degree, I should say…
Some want to be booked as inspirational speakers.
Others are hoping to write a book one day.
Most are happy with their salary and just enjoy a little ego boost here or there, when they get a new like on one of their posts.
If you don’t have to worry about your time or monetary return on your time investment on LinkedIn, you can write about all kinds of topics and go viral with your LinkedIn posts.
The Only LinkedIn Success Metric That Matters as a Business
You can get 10,000 likes, and you will not make one sale. (One famous example is an Instagram star with 2 million followers and couldn't even sell 36 T-shirts.)
But you could create a post that gets 0 to 10 likes, but you could make two sales from that.
That's the reality of LinkedIn marketing.
You must understand what counts.
It's totally unimportant how many views you get. You want to get the views from the right people!
It doesn’t matter how many likes you get, you want people to act.
And by act, I mean one of two things.
- Either to connect with you on LinkedIn and to start a conversation.
- Or to enter your sales funnel, for example by downloading a white paper on your website.
Create LinkedIn Content for Your Ideal Buyers, Not for Maximum Engagement
Imagine this.
There is a gardening club in your neighborhood. They meet every Saturday to discuss gardening tips.
If you wanted to get their attention, what should you talk about?
Would it make sense to create LinkedIn posts about chocolate?
White chocolate, brown chocolate, dark chocolate… Or pumpkin-spice, hazelnut or chili-cherry flavored chocolate?
Or should you rather talk about topics such as…
Tips on growing specific plants, indoors or outdoors.
About flowers and vegetables.
About the best fertilizers.
About the best shovels and rakes.
Or where to buy the best seeds.
Seems rather obvious when I phrase it like that.
Yet on LinkedIn everyone seems to be walking around with tunnel vision.
Sure, some gardening people are probably also interested in chocolate, but they will be the minority.
You might end up with a group where 98% of people are only interested in chocolate, and 2% in gardening and chocolate at the same time.
And on LinkedIn…
If you are running a business, you must talk about business, and what your customers and potential customers need.
Not about what most people on the LinkedIn platform would react to.
This is really, important!
If you don't get this, you won’t have any success on the LinkedIn platform.
How to Attract New Customers on LinkedIn (i.e. Business Success)
it's important to understand how to attract new customers on LinkedIn.
Start by getting 100% clarity on understanding who your customers are, what they need and then create content that’s aligned with that.
A strategic LinkedIn content plan that speaks to your ideal customers
Then, create a plan, or more precise a plan for your content strategy.
Where do you find your ideal customers?
What hashtags do they follow on LinkedIn?
Every customer journey starts somewhere. Some don’t know that they have a problem, others don’t know that there are solutions for their problems.
It’s your job to map out this journey and to identify key beliefs that you must overcome to turn someone from a prospect into someone who is ready to buy.
There are often different phases where they must go through, and there's each phase is coupled with different beliefs that you must change for them to progress to the next phase.
If someone is a total beginner. What do they have to learn to get to a point where they're ready to buy?
Knock out every one of those beliefs and allow them to progress to the next phase, and then to the next phase and to the next phase until people are ready to become your new customers.
If you need a dose of content inspiration, check out my article: Best Content Ideas for LinkedIn.
Next, focus on building your LinkedIn network.
Connect with people who fit your ideal buyer persona. Reject connection requests from people who wouldn’t be a good fit.
Build a sales funnel and create automated processes that allow you to capture the contact information of potential buyers on LinkedIn.
Now start posting content in alignment with your LinkedIn content strategy, focus on topics for your ideal audience, use targeted, buyer-specific hashtags on LinkedIn and have a strong call to action that allows readers and viewers to enter your sales funnel.
And let’s be honest, this highly specific, targeted content won’t get as many views and likes as any inspirational post.
But you don’t care!
Because you understand the truth.
You didn’t join LinkedIn to become internet-famous.
You are here to make money and to grow your business and revenue.
Your content may not get the same amount of engagement as inspirational posts, but it’s 100x times more effective because you are targeting real people who might buy from you.
That takes time.
Don't get distracted by the wrong ideas of what success on LinkedIn looks like.
Success means money in your bank account.
Not views, likes, or comments or anything else to boost your ego.
Next Steps for Your LinkedIn Journey to Success
Now if you want to learn how to use LinkedIn the correct way, download my free 33-pages LinkedIn Hashtag Guide. This will tell you how to find the right hashtag for your business to grow organically on the LinkedIn platform.
If you want to go further, I want you to check out my LinkedIn Accelerator Program. This is my complete A to Z training program, how to build a LinkedIn sales funnel with LinkedIn content marketing, that is warming up people through the different phases and then getting them ready to buy from you
