344 Level Up Your LinkedIn Game (Insights From My 30-Day Challenge!)
LinkedIn Insights
Here’s what’s working after my 30-day challenge.
What's working when it comes to Social Media Marketing, right now?
If you ask me... it's LinkedIn!
(psssst: follow me there! https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseyreidl/)
Even though LinkedIn has been around for 20+ years, it's more alive than ever before - especially for B2B interactions and industry-specific content.
LinkedIn is also a great platform for new online business owners, because it supports thought-leadership by facilitating professional updates, creating space for professional content, and it offers the chance for advanced targeting for B2B marketing.
You thought it wasn’t a very sexy platform, and that might be right, but it’s where opportunity is right now!
Episode Time Stamps:
[00:00] We are feeling totally disenchanted with Instagram, so here's what to try instead
[05:44] Two 'must follow' accounts for learning LinkedIn from the 'pros'
[08:23] Why I love LinkedIN (& the types of opportunities available)
[15:59] Tips for creating engaging content on LinkedIn
[25:12] Recap of my Top 3 Strategies
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down, down inside of you. It's in you.
It's in all of us. Let's dive in. Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to sit down with you today and to chat about a topic that I feel really passionate about. Going into 2025, I am really feeling like I want to hedge my bets on LinkedIn as the new social media platform. Well, not new, but the social media platform that every single creator, single entrepreneur, every single small business owner who is looking to grow their business, maximize their reach, and who wants to do so online. I really think that LinkedIn is a massive opportunity.
And I recently posted a quote that really kind of sums up my feelings towards LinkedIn right now. So if you feel like you're in that stage where you're like, a little too young for Facebook, you know, like, that's where our parents are posting and sharing all their weird life updates. And if you feel like you're too old for TikTok, and that is definitely me, I tried my hand at TikTok. I see the opportunity on the platform, but in my own life, I don't really find TikTok all that inspiring. And then as a creator, in turn, I'm not super motivated to create for my marketing consulting business. So if you feel like you're too young for Facebook, Too old for TikTok, and Snapchat, LinkedIn is kind of that happy medium. It kind of sits in that same realm as Instagram. But I think a lot of us are disenchanted with Instagram.
We are inundated with content. There are a lot of creators, and I never want to say that anything is saturated because I don't believe that. But Instagram is reaching this capacity where it's like, we've seen it, we are not spending as much time, we're not really deeply engaging with that much content on Instagram. People's likes and comments are down, their reach is down, their impressions are down, and they keep thinking, like, how do I beat the algorithm? And at the end of the day, it's like, there is a small chance that you can break through and go viral. But Instagram right now, like, you have to be putting a lot of intention to rise above some of those bigger creators. And I think there's such an opportunity to use Instagram in the middle of your funnel to nurture the audience that you already have. But for reaching new people, I'm not so certain that it is the best way. So hence why I am feeling super excited to talk about LinkedIn today.
I think there's a lot of unexpected opportunities that await you there. And I would encourage you, by the time we end this episode to consider running an experiment. And that means you might not know what the outcome is. You might love LinkedIn. After 30 days, you might say, you know what? It's not for me. But remember, marketing is experimentation. And so my hope is that through this podcast, I can encourage you to do a little LinkedIn experiment based on my own recent experience. So let's go right back to the beginnings.
I first want to share a few things that you can do to make sure your LinkedIn is updated. So if you have not logged into your LinkedIn in quite some time, I would encourage you go reset your password, go log into your profile. Once you're inside, I want you to make sure you have a really awesome profile photo. This is generally something that is most close up of your face. You should be smiling, maybe your eyes are open, looking into the camera. And you can do some fun editing on a software like canva, where you blur the background, remove the background, or just put the photo there. You're also going to want to update your profile so you can add in a banner, a cover photo that you can actually design using a canva template. And you don't have to make this complicated at all.
Just as an example, I've designed one that kind of gives an overview of what I do for work. A link to my podcast. And then I've done this fun little mockup where my face is on a cell phone and it's very inviting and engaging and warm as a banner. And then below my name in the tagline, I have rewritten everything. It says marketing coach, consultant and teacher. Plus podcast host and then I say I talk about SEO, social media, simple funnels and website optimizations. That's generally the four topics that I dig into on LinkedIn, so I actually give people some insight into what they can expect if they want to give my content a follow. So make sure you go make those minor updates and make sure your profile is completely finished off.
Then I would highly recommend that you go follow a few people who are creating on the Daily on LinkedIn so you can follow me, but I am definitely still more of a junior in the LinkedIn space. I would highly encourage you to follow Jake Carls from Midday Squares. He has really mastered the LinkedIn game. All of his profiles and his recent posts are getting hundreds of comments and I really think you're going to learn a lot just by studying what other people are doing in the space. So go ahead and follow Jake Carls. J A K E K A R L S the other person you can follow is Mike Fatah. He's the founder of Manitoba Harvest and I actually had him on the Visionary Life podcast this week. So you can check out the November 1 episode if you would like to hear from Mike Fata.
He is also somebody that I have learned a lot about how to post on LinkedIn for conversation, for engagement, and to actually strike up a chat with people who could potentially become business partners. So I want to dive into a few reminders of why LinkedIn is awesome and then I'm going to debrief my own experience over the last 30 days of showing up on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn has been around a long time. It's been around something like 21 years. And it really is like that professional social media platform that we should all be part of. It's where people show up and share a lot of their work experience, their expertise. People don't go on LinkedIn just to kind of numb out to random content and memes. Yes, you could be posting that stuff.
But more so, LinkedIn is a platform that people are logging into to learn, to find their next practitioner, to see what's going on in the life of an entrepreneur, to really feel more deeply connected to the founders of a brand. And all of these things in turn will lead to business growth. So it's a huge opportunity for you as a founder to show up on behalf of your company, to make valuable connections and to share a little bit of the behind the scenes. You can also make such amazing connections with industry peers. So people who do similar to what you do and to really squash that competitive nature and to go with a mindset of collaboration and to get to know others in the space. So if you're a chiropractor, go connect with other chiropractors, go connect with other wellness practitioners, nutritionists, naturopathic doctors. Of course, potential clients will be on LinkedIn. Especially if you're in a space where you sell business to business services.
There might be strategic partners on there, there might be people who host conferences, who are looking for speakers, there might be people who have podcasts, who are looking for qualified guests, potential sponsors for your different outlets, your newsletter, your podcast, your YouTube Chann, um, the list goes on. But LinkedIn is really this tailored platform for professional networking. And yes, it's great to get out and to go to a live event and to put yourself in the room. Maybe it's a conference, maybe it's a workshop, maybe it is a three day summit that you travel to California for. Maybe it's an event like the one that I hosted last week in Elora where 27 female entrepreneurs came together. But if you want to do this very same thing in the online space, I would highly suggest using LinkedIn. It's an ideal tool for business to business interactions and especially learning more industry specific content. It's also this place where people are exercising their thought leadership so you can practice some of these concepts, like picture yourself doing a TED talk one day and getting up there and sharing 10 or 15 minutes of material.
Well, you could actually start practicing this on LinkedIn right now and people are really excited to read that stuff and to workshop with you. And even if you're still not convinced that it is the sexiest platform, I want you to give it a chance. Because again, what we're seeing and what we're experiencing is that Instagram and other platforms and mediums of posting on social media are just feeling like they're falling flat. And So I think LinkedIn is an amazing alternative solution. It offers refreshing perspectives and even if I can just share my own experience, of course, I've been on LinkedIn for a long time. I've had quite a few opportunities and conversations and wonderful reconnections with people through LinkedIn overall. But when I decided in August of 2024 to do a 30 day LinkedIn challenge, I would sit down at my desk and that was kind of my top priority each day because I was seeing so much opportunity. And even though I am on a modified work schedule, I'm on maternity leave in, you know, three out of the five days of my work week.
And then I work two days A week. I thought, you know, even while I am in Mama mod, I can definitely still be posting on LinkedIn and giving it a shot, at least publishing something. Even if it's not perfect, it definitely does not need to be this polished thing. I just want to share a story or an insight or something I have been thinking about. And so I posted every single day, Monday to Friday for about four weeks. I also tried some posts on the weekend and I'll share some insights on that in a bit. But. But in that time span I was invited to speak on a stage, a virtual stage of 10,000 people alongside Dr.
Mike Mark Hyman. That was from a LinkedIn post. I connected with a potential client and still TBD whether she's signing on. But we had a discovery call, it went really well and so that connection was made possible. I had somebody reach out and actually ask me if I was able to bring myself and my family and my husband who's a videographer to a retreat that we had actually filmed a video for a wedding and met this guy and he has this company where he does a lot of off site leadership retreats. So there was a potential video opportunity that we turned down. Plus I ended up speaking with the hiring director of a program running out of Toronto Metropolitan University and I ended up getting hired for a facilitation role with the growth marketing program there. So that is kind of crazy, right? Like that is a lot of big outcomes from a 30 day experiment.
Now it I should be very, very clear that, you know, this is part of my overall marketing ecosystem. It's not like I have been doing nothing for the last decade. I have been showing up, I have many different platforms that I create for. I have the podcast, I have my email list, I have my website, I do blogs, I create on Instagram, I post on Facebook, I do LinkedIn, I host in person event digital workshops, courses, programs, et cetera. So LinkedIn is really just a small part of the entire ecosystem. But at the same token, just me revving up my cadence of posting led to all of these opportunities and these different, you know, these different moments in time where I never could have predicted what was going to come my way. But I love what Sean Purry says of the My First Million podcast. He says every time you post online, you open up a chance for serendipity, right? Every time you post, you share yourself.
Working at, working out at the gym. That's a moment where you could have a long lost friend saying, oh my gosh, I was just at that gym. We should meet up for coffee, I'm in town. Or maybe you post about how you recently supported a client who was wanting to learn to run, but she couldn't fit it into her schedule as a busy mama. And you post that and then you end up having three more busy mamas reach out and they're like, like, I need to hire you. This is exactly what I'm going through. Maybe you share a meme and it's super relatable and somebody else is like, oh my gosh, my kid's not sleeping either. Let's chat, let's swap sleep plans, whatever the case is.
So every time you post, you're opening yourself up to these serendipitous moments. And I think that's one of the coolest things about LinkedIn. Okay, so I want to share a few of the takeaways, the gatherings that I got from my 30 day experiment. So number one is that storytelling is vital for getting engagement. So if you're not telling a story, it's likely that the content is going to fall flat or it's just going to be super generic. And so I would encourage you next time you sit down to write a post for LinkedIn or any social media platform for that, for that chance, come up with a story that has been super impactful in your life that you have insight around or some something that is meaningful to you. So something that I love to reflect back on is the idea insight matrix that Jay Akunzo has actually come up with. So if you want to look it up, it's Jay Akunzo, the Idea Impact Matrix.
And he talks about something called the Commodity Cage. So when a post is just informative and general, it usually falls into this commodity cage. But when you can actually make the post insightful and personal by adding a story, it goes into the field of favorites. And that's when a post generally gets more likes, more comments, more shares, and goes viral. Because if you're just posting about generic informational stuff, it's like, hey, did you know that kale has 47 vitamins and minerals and you can put it in a green smoothie? Any person could post that. Anyone in the nutrition space. In fact, a lot of nutritionists have probably posted that very same post. But if you can turn that information and that generic content into something that's more insightful.
So maybe you recently went from eating an entirely keto based diet where you couldn't have a lot of kale and spinach and whatever, and now you're including more greens and you kind of share why? Maybe you got tested and you were low on minerals and then you share a personal story around that. Like you weren't sure how to eat kale and spinach, so you found a Vitamix blender and that made it so easy to get your 2 cups of veggies because you would just blend them into the morning family smoothie that takes a post and brings it into the field of favorites. So storytelling is vital on LinkedIn and vital on any social media platform if you want to get engagement. Now for some of you, if you haven't posted on LinkedIn in a while, you're going to want to make a comeback post. What is a comeback post? It's something really simple that reintroduces yourself to LinkedIn, that warms up your audience again and that doesn't try to sell them something right off the bat. I know when people launch their business or they have their website go live, their immediate gut instinct is like okay, I'm going to go to LinkedIn and I'm going to go everywhere and just like announce my business. But we really want to come in soft here because nobody wants to be sold to. People are more interested in the behind the scenes of your life than they are that you've just launched a business and now you're trying to get them as a client, if that makes sense.So you could try starting with a post that's like, hey LinkedIn, it's been a while but I know I have many wonderful connections here from my time working at Google, from my time working at Garden of Life, from my time working at Metro. Since that time I have had a baby. I had my first baby boy. I traveled to South America. I went on a 90 day hike through the Appalachian Mountains and my family and I recently just got back from a dude ranch in Texas and most recently too I also launched my newest venture and then talk about your brand new business and then let them know. I plan to show up here weekly with insights on X and Y and Z. So talk about a few topics that they can expect from you and then a call to action. So if you want to reconnect, book a coffee date or know someone who I should talk to.
DM me. I'm so excited to be back. I'll be commenting and liking on all your posts and I will see you later this week. Something really personal, something fun. Notice how that didn't have a salesy undertone. Yes, it announced the business. Yes it announced that you're back. But it also gave a life update and let me tell you, people are so curious.
They just want to know what you're up to behind the scenes. And the creepier, the better, the more you can give them to satisfy that curious itch that they have. They're gonna love it. You know, for me, even specifically, like, I really try to open up and just share those mini details of how do I structure my work week? What do I do when I'm not working? What is my balance between motherhood and running a business? What am I cooking for breakfast, lunch or dinner on a super busy day? Those type of things will hit equ or even more so than your business or your thought leadership content. Another idea in creating a post is to just like pick a moment in time, pick a story that you remember from a past career, or think about an opportunity that you recently had and recap how it all happened. So for me, I put up a post when I got invited to speak at the Practice Better Summit and I shared how I met the growth Marketing manager of Practice Better. So I said I first met Abigail Kiso in brackets, the founder of that Clean Life. And I tagged them and now leading growth for Practice Better.
And I tagged them in 2013, living in Toronto while working for Loblaws. So I tagged Loblaws. So again I'm saying I first met this person who's the founder of X business while I was working for Y company. Okay, so Already I've tagged three different LinkedIn accounts and then I go on and on to share the story of what I was up to and how I'm so grateful for my past experience and how all of that led me to now speaking on a stage of 10,000 people for the Practice Better Summer Summit. So again, you can see how if you just make it conversational, if you really think about a story and try to use a framework for telling that story. So I'll kind of shift into point number two here. So storytelling is important. Now let's go into the next piece, which is using some sort of framework to write a compelling caption.
So if you follow my Instagram, you probably know that I've talked about the tape framework. The tape. I've also shared this on LinkedIn, so you can scroll back in my LinkedIn feed and find out about it. So the tape framework, or the tape framework is essentially a four part copywriting framework. And this is what I use to write all of my posts. So. So what I do is I start by sharing a truth. So I might say when I started my podcast in 2017, I had no idea what I was doing.
I wasn't qualified to do sound engineering. I had no experience interviewing experts or crafting compelling stories. And my equipment was the bare bones, the cheapest stuff I could find on Amazon. So that would be the truth. Then that's the T. We go to the A in tape. So the alternative. The alternative was I realized that in order to get started, I just had to get started.
And I needed to reframe my mindset around what it was to be a podcaster. Did I have to be perfect? Did I have to be a journalist? Did I have to have it all together before hosting my first experience, first interview? No, I just had to be curious. So that's the alternative. So you kind of share the opposite to your truth and then proof is the P. So then I share. Since that time, I have recorded 350 episodes with over 290 successful business owners. We have had hundreds of thousands of downloads, et cetera, et cetera. So that gives proof or a little bit of a story as to why I love talking about this topic.
Topic. And then the E in the tape framework is engagement. So over to you. Why? What is one thing that you're currently doing that you previously thought you were unqualified for? So that's the E in the tape framework. So again, that is a way to boost your chances of success on LinkedIn of using the Tape framework as you're writing a caption. Okay, so let's get into the next point. So point number one was storytelling is vital. Point number two, use the tape framework to create content that's super compelling.
Point number three is I need to scroll and find it here that random relatable thoughts seem to work really, really well. So I posted something the other day. It was something that just pinged me. I was between coaching calls. I have been thinking a lot about how when I'm reading through emails in my inbox, I can always identify one that has been written by ChatGPT and that people not edited. So I threw up a post that said, I swear I can decipher a post written by Chat GPT and one that is genuine and written from the heart. Anyone else, question mark? I didn't post a picture with it. There were no emojis.
It was so basic and it got a really good amount of attention and conversation and people had a lot of thoughts and people love sharing their opinions. So this is kind of one of those topics that everybody seems to have an opinion about AI and ChatGPT right now. I also posted something a few weeks ago and it was really basic. I said, I've been wondering, do people really check LinkedIn over the weekend? Let me ask and find out. Is anyone reading this? On Sunday night when I posted it and I got tons of traction and people who I had not heard from in years were commenting on it. So I think it's really cool that when sometimes something genuine and in the moment strikes you, you can just go over to LinkedIn, post it. And that's sometimes the content that is most interesting. It's because you didn't overthink it, you didn't try to build it out into like this fancy professionally written piece of content.
You just posted what was on your mind in the moment. So those are three tips. If I could give anyone advice right now who's starting their LinkedIn journey, it's number one, focus on stories. Really think about making every single post insightful and personal. Number two, when in doubt, use the tape framework. So share in the four part framework, truth, alternative, solution, proof or a story of what you're talking about and then engage. So ask for engagement comments or a call to action. And number three, post relatable in the moment, down to earth, genuine thoughts that strike you midday.
Make sure you have a note in your iPhone or have a notebook beside your desk. So when you're on calls and you're like, oh, that is such a golden nugget, or you're listening to a podcast as you walk your dog and you're like, oh my gosh, that quote is so good, then post that. And honestly, you guys, the best way to figure out LinkedIn or to figure out any platform is to get through your first 50 to 100 posts. I know most people don't want to hear that because they're like, that's a lot of time to experiment. But that's how long it's going to take for you to really see whether a you enjoy this platform or not. Because that's a really important metric. Am I having fun? Am I deepening connections? And number two, if you're seeing results. So when you're measuring how much account activity you're getting, what are the number of impressions you're getting on each post? How many comments are you getting? And are your DMS becoming more active? Because I really believe that if your DMS are lit up on any social platform, you are doing a good job because you're creating that space, that container for your community to talk with you.
They don't feel like you're just talking at them. All right? Guys. So there you have it. There's some tips for mastering LinkedIn for becoming better. I hope these were helpful. I have a lot more to share and maybe for a future episode I'll do a deeper dive. But in the meantime, keep me posted. If you're on your LinkedIn journey, I'd love to follow you and you can just go follow me over at kelsey ridle on LinkedIn and I'll put the link in the show.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis, so it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second and if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice. Tagging me at Kelsey Rival. I'll catch you in the next episode. Hey Visionary, I want to interrupt this episode to share a little bit more about one on one Coaching. I work with clients who want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends, who want to bring more ease into their marketing funnel or just build a marketing funnel in the first place because maybe you don't have one yet and ultimately take the effort and overwhelm out of your marketing plan. I know your energy is limited and you just want someone to tell you what to do.
Should you be on thread? Should you be creating on TikTok? How do you grow an email list? What does SEO mean? Anyways, this is why I offer private one on one business and marketing coaching for business owners like you who need help with their marketing strategy. You can head to Kelsey Ridle.com private coaching to learn exactly what it's going to look like if we decide to work together. And I'm excited because I can give you the precise strategies that will take your business to the next level this year. So if you want to learn more KelseyReidl.com PrivateCoaching of course it is a bit more of an investment than any of my other courses or offerings, but my private clients are seeing crazy results. Christina landed a six figure consulting contract. Emily signed six clients in one day. Barb had a Black Friday sale that generated a lot of money. And these are all based on the strategies that we've implemented.
So Kelseyreidl.com private coaching you can learn all about it. You can see all of the amazing visionary businesses that I've worked with and supported over the last decade and I can't wait to see your application come through. Kelseyreidl.com PrivateCoaching now back to the episode.
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