Transcript of Exhibitioning Tips & Linkedin Growth Strategy. EP012 “The Marketing Hub”

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How to grow your business on
LinkedIn? What strategy to use?

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These are questions on the minds
of a lot of businesses

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and in particular B2B businesses
who know

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their audience is on LinkedIn.
To help answer these questions

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I’m delighted to say on today’s
Marketing Hub

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that we have John Espirian,
who is “the relentlessly helpful LinkedIn nerd”

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and the author
of the book Content DNA.

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He leads the Espresso+
community on LinkedIn.

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Now I have completed
one of John’s online courses

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and I joined the Espresso+
Community,

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which I heartily recommend.

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So if you like

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up to date information, stats
and great content writing tips,

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John is “the relentlessly helpful LinkedIn nerd” for you.

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Hi, John.

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What a great intro.
Thank you very much, Paul.

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Thank you for having me
on the podcast.

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Really exciting to get going.

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Brilliant, John.

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John, it’s
great to have you on because,

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you know,

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now I recognize you
as a serious expert on LinkedIn.

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I am very interested
in LinkedIn

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and I know a lot of my

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my listeners, our listeners
are interested as well.

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So I guess
I’ll jump straight in, right?

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So I think, you know,
overall for businesses, right?

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and for people approaching
LinkedIn,

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they might be commenting a bit
that might be doing

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they might be on a little bit,

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but they know they need
to be better at their strategy.

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Could you outline
what a complete LinkedIn

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strategy for businesses is, i.e.

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content, comment, commenting,
connecting,

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joining groups,
etc.? Yeah. Okay.

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There’s
so much to say about this.

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I would always start
with your LinkedIn profile.

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That’s your shopfront.

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So that’s the thing
that you want to optimize

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so that people in a few seconds
of looking at your profile,

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they should know
which domain you operate in.

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What you really want
to be known for.

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And I always say that it’s best

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to try to be known
for only one thing,

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because we can’t keep
a lot of things

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in our brain for each person
that we come across.

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It’s much better to remember
them for just one thing.

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Are they a video expert?
Are they a LinkedIn expert?

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So focus
on what you want to be known for

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and make that profile as human

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and approachable
as possible as well,

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because actually
all of the business

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from LinkedIn
comes from conversations.

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So start with that.

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And then I always recommend
people to get out on LinkedIn

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and start commenting on relevant
other posts in your industry.

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So whatever you do,
if you’re an architect,

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a logo designer,
whatever it is, go and find

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people talking about
the things that you know about

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and then comment
with substance on that content.

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because what that will do is it
will expose your thinking

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to people who are outside
of your LinkedIn network

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and that will organically,
naturally

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draw people towards you.

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So do that

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and once you’re a little bit braver,
you can start

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your own discussions

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by posting your own short
form and long form content.

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So short form are posts
that make up the feed,

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which is what
we’re used to seeing.

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If you ever look at things
like Twitter and Facebook, the

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the timeline of posts,
they’re all short, snappy things

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and long form content is things
like articles and newsletters.

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That’s where you can really show
the depth of your knowledge

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about your industry,

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and that’s the kind of stuff
that gets indexed on Google.

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Beyond doing those things,
I suppose you

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you need to get into connecting
with people

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and also
having conversations in private.

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So the private DMS, direct
messages,

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that’s actually where all of
my business has been transacted.

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I kind of… my method
is have an appealing profile,

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create some content
that gets people’s interest

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or make a comment
that gets people’s interest

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and then actually build
your relationship with people

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in private
through 1 to 1 direct messages

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and somewhere down the line,
those people end up either

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turning into clients.

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In my case, they become members
of my community,

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or they refer me
to other people.

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And for that reason,
because I get so many referrals,

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I always say,

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you know, don’t discount
connecting

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with any particular person

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because you don’t know
who they know.

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Mm hmm.

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So they might not be an ideal
client, but,

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you know, their cousin might be.

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So if you can build enough of
a presence that you can appeal

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and build trust,
you’ll get referrals.

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I suppose one of the thing that
I find has been really powerful

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in the last year and a half
or so, is being active inside

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effective LinkedIn groups.

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Okay.
So LinkedIn groups have got

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a bit of a bad reputation,
but if you find one that

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actually suits
your business goals

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and that is actually active
and not full of spam or

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anything like that,

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that can be a great way
to build relationships

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and again, build trust

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and also learn
and share in a safe space

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because LinkedIn’s got almost
900 million members.

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It’s a big, scary place.

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It can be.
But if you’re in a small

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community
of people learning together,

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That can feel a lot more empowering
that you can,

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you know,

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you can speak your mind
and you can share and help

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others
without fear of being judged.

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So LinkedIn

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groups are actually a bit
of a secret weapon of LinkedIn.

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If you find the right one,
they can be really effective.

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Yeah. And we come back to that
actually.

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I think I think that’s
that’s an area that people,

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you know,

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because we do

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see groups that are there
and you may join them

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and then you see
they’re huge groups.

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But like there’s just very

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little interaction on the content.

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Yeah.

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You know, it doesn’t seem to be,

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for the size
of the volume of people on it,

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it doesn’t seem to be
an active group at all.

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That’s brilliant.

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So, so like I think
you really covered it there.

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You covered that the profile,
which is important

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and all the little tricks
that the likes of yourself

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informs about, but
things like that, your profile

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video and your pronunciation
with what you do.

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I found just on your course
there was things even like where

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in your company sections
you can put in links to go

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straight to your website.

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Ah, to a to testimonials
or whatever.

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I didn’t know that before.

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So there’s all these extra
little things

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that you can add on
and your bites section,

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which I now know that
that the value of

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because now I look at it
more and and really at zero

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zero down

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of what you’re saying there
so that it really gets across

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what you do
and there’s loads of things

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I and the others
that you mentioned there, the

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commenting, the connecting
and the joining groups

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and the DMS,
which is very interesting.

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My focus
on a few of these areas.

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And so businesses may know what

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their ideal client profile is
and most do.

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And but how do they find
and successfully connect

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with these individuals
on LinkedIn?

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Well, I think the
the kind of the long term

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background activity
that you should be aiming for

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is to be creating a shape
for your content

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so that

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people who are looking for

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the kind of product or service
you provide will find you.

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That’s the dream,

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because then you don’t
need to go out to anyone.

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They come to your shopfront.

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But that takes a while
to build truthfully.

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So while you’re doing that as
a kind of daily ongoing activity

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in the early days, you can also
use LinkedIn search features.

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And there’s there are
massively powerful features

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for being able to narrow down
a kind of hit list of the people

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that you most want to influence.

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So let’s say, for example,

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if I was targeting chief
technical officers,

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all based in London who used
to work for a given company.

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LinkedIn search
lets me filter to that level

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and I can build a list
of, let’s say, 20 people

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and I could then
go into each of their profiles

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and look in their activity
section and say,

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which of these are actually
on LinkedIn properly?

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Not just

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they haven’t

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just got a fossilized account
that I haven’t

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been touching for three years,
but they’re actually active

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because those people
will probably be most receptive

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to invitations to connect.

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They’ll be most receptive
to people

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commenting on their posts
because as a content creator,

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I love it
when people comment on my stuff,

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you know,
I’m begging for it, really.

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So if you can help others
by commenting on their content

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with with relevant thoughts,

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that will
really get their attention.

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And the more you can

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kind of warm
those people up, the better.

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So rather than just
jumping straight in with

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an empty invitation to connect,
they don’t know you from Adam.

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Why would they?

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Except if you go and see that
they’re creating content,

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you’re going to follow them
first,

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see what their vibe is

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when you start
commenting on their stuff,

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and then maybe a week
or two later,

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then you invite them and they’ll
go on to recognize your name.

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You’ve been commenting
on all my things.

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Of course I’m going to say yes.

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And those people
will be more open to having,

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you know, future Zoom calls
and maybe

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commenting on your stuff in
return to boost your visibility.

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So it’s a bit of a slow game,
really,

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but I would certainly start
with a search narrowed down

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based on your criteria
of who you want to influence

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and then
and then go for it from there.

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All the while

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having that background activity
of building your own content

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so that people, those people
ultimately find you rather

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than you having to go in
and knock on their door.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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And your and,
and you summed up very well

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there in the, in the last line,
you know, that the areas

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to, to, to use the search
to narrow it down.

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And also what you said,
which makes so much sense, is

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if it’s somebody you come across
and they’re already active on

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LinkedIn, there’s
no point really because

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they’re not active.

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It’s very hard
to engage with them

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and ultimately
their focus might be elsewhere.

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So so definitely the people
who are active on LinkedIn.

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Another thing to say about that
is if you’re

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trying to target
someone who’s really high up,

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then sometimes the smarter thing
would be to use

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what I call the stepping
stone approach,

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where you go
and try and find out

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who’s in their organization
that they know

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who might be a bit junior

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to them, and go and connect
with those people first.

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Because then when you ultimately

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try to make an approach
to that person, the top person,

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they will

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they can see then
that you’re already connected

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with lots of people
from their company.

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Or even better,
one of those people who’s junior

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to them might be willing
to do an introduction

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for you,

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in which case
that kind of blows away

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everything else

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because

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because a personal introduction
is really going to get ignored.

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So there are all sorts of ways

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of getting in front of really

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powerful people.
You don’t have to just

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leap straight
into sending connections.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Because if you get a fine
in their organization and they

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and they even mention you to
to their

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to the leader
in the organization,

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you’re in there anyway,
just like you’ve broken down

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a lot of the barriers,
the natural barriers

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that would
be there as brilliant. John

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Also another thing that
we touched on there in the past,

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something that I haven’t done
enough of is commenting, right.

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And why is it so important
on LinkedIn?

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Well,
there are a few different ways

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of engaging them on LinkedIn.

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You can like something,
you can comment, you can share.

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And of those,
the commenting does seem to be

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the most powerful vehicle
for moving a piece of content

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through the network
so that more people see it.

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And specifically,
a longer comment

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that has obviously taken
you more time to create

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will be seen

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as more valuable than a short
kind of great post comment.

00:12:21:12 – 00:12:24:15
So if you can turn up
with something that’s

00:12:24:15 – 00:12:28:09
well-researched, supportive,
interesting, insightful,

00:12:29:06 – 00:12:32:06
and you spend 30 seconds
a minute writing that out,

00:12:32:14 – 00:12:34:12
there’s a good chance
that that comment

00:12:34:12 – 00:12:37:12
will jump to the top
of the list of comments

00:12:37:20 – 00:12:40:04
so that anyone else
looking at the post

00:12:40:04 – 00:12:40:19
will say,

00:12:40:19 – 00:12:42:08
Oh, you know,
who’s this poor guy

00:12:42:08 – 00:12:45:02
talking about video and share
and all this helpful stuff?

00:12:45:06 – 00:12:47:08
Never heard of him,
but let’s click through

00:12:47:08 – 00:12:48:22
and see what he’s all about.

00:12:48:22 – 00:12:51:19
And that’s why your headline
needs to be good,

00:12:51:19 – 00:12:54:00
because all they’ll see
is your comment

00:12:54:05 – 00:12:55:07
and they’ll see your face

00:12:55:07 – 00:12:57:10
and they’ll see a little snippet
of your headline.

00:12:57:20 – 00:12:59:06
And if that’s just enough to go,

00:12:59:06 – 00:13:01:04
I know what that guy
does, I get it.

00:13:01:04 – 00:13:03:08
Laughs Interesting.
I’ll click through.

00:13:03:08 – 00:13:06:17
It needs to be optimized,
but it’s a really,

00:13:06:17 – 00:13:07:14
really powerful thing.

00:13:07:14 – 00:13:10:05
And loads of people who’ve
invited me to connect have said,

00:13:10:08 – 00:13:14:06
I saw your comment on Bob’s
post and dot, dot, dot.

00:13:14:06 – 00:13:15:17
So, you know, it’s

00:13:15:17 – 00:13:18:21
getting me to be more visible
if I comment on more stuff.

00:13:18:21 – 00:13:21:05
So I try and comment
as much as I can.

00:13:21:05 – 00:13:23:13
It’s just like free visibility.

00:13:23:13 – 00:13:23:22
Yeah.

00:13:23:22 – 00:13:26:02
And I suppose is it
is it true as well?

00:13:26:03 – 00:13:28:02
Like,
you know, if you’re more active

00:13:28:02 – 00:13:31:22
and if you’re commenting more,
you’re, you’re increasing the

00:13:31:22 – 00:13:36:07
likelihood of your own content,
getting seen by more people.

00:13:36:10 – 00:13:37:22
Yes. If you comment on

00:13:37:22 – 00:13:40:23
other people’s stuff
before you post your own stuff.

00:13:40:23 – 00:13:43:00
So let’s say you turn up
in the morning on LinkedIn

00:13:43:11 – 00:13:46:11
ATM, you go and comment
on five people’s things.

00:13:46:18 – 00:13:49:07
Those five people
when you next post

00:13:49:12 – 00:13:51:22
will be more likely
to see your content.

00:13:52:09 – 00:13:53:14
So that’s the order to do it

00:13:53:14 – 00:13:55:18
and try
and do your commenting first

00:13:55:18 – 00:13:58:03
and then leave your posting
for afterwards.

00:13:58:03 – 00:13:59:16
And that way you’ll maximize

00:13:59:16 – 00:14:01:11
your chances of people
seeing your stuff.

00:14:01:11 – 00:14:03:14
But yes, the more active
you are in comments,

00:14:03:21 – 00:14:06:08
the more visible
you’ll be on LinkedIn.

00:14:06:20 – 00:14:09:00
Yeah, that’s great
because I think a lot of people

00:14:09:00 – 00:14:10:10
that take it on,

00:14:10:10 – 00:14:11:01
they post

00:14:11:01 – 00:14:12:10
they post something
and then they

00:14:12:10 – 00:14:13:19
then they go off commenting

00:14:13:19 – 00:14:15:11
just because
they’re not really on the site.

00:14:15:11 – 00:14:15:23
But it’s actually

00:14:15:23 – 00:14:19:21
to put that the cart before
the horse in this instance.

00:14:19:21 – 00:14:22:13
Yeah, very good. Very good. And

00:14:23:23 – 00:14:25:17
so we we

00:14:25:17 – 00:14:29:16
talked about groups on LinkedIn
a little bit there.

00:14:29:16 – 00:14:30:07
Right.

00:14:30:07 – 00:14:34:00
If you could just flesh it out
a bit and.

00:14:34:14 – 00:14:35:21
Could you.

00:14:35:21 – 00:14:38:06
Talk us through like why?

00:14:38:12 – 00:14:40:06
Why join a group?

00:14:40:06 – 00:14:41:07
What type of groups?

00:14:41:07 – 00:14:42:02
Because you mentioned groups

00:14:42:02 – 00:14:46:03
that are kind of active
and how to make the most of

00:14:46:04 – 00:14:49:02
being a member of a group
as well. Yeah. Yeah.

00:14:49:02 – 00:14:51:03
So there’s a couple of reasons
for joining groups.

00:14:51:08 – 00:14:52:22
First of all,
you could just do it

00:14:52:22 – 00:14:56:17
for kind of strategic
alignment reasons. If you join,

00:14:56:20 – 00:14:58:14
So let’s say
you’re an architect.

00:14:58:14 – 00:15:01:04
If you go
and join architectural groups,

00:15:01:19 – 00:15:05:00
then that signals to LinkedIn
that this is the domain that

00:15:05:00 – 00:15:06:04
you’re really interested in.

00:15:06:04 – 00:15:08:13
So it’s like an extra ticket
in the lottery to say:

00:15:09:02 – 00:15:11:13
– Hey, LinkedIn, I’m really
interested in architecture.

00:15:11:13 – 00:15:13:17
This is what
I want to be known for.

00:15:13:17 – 00:15:14:17
When you’re in a group,

00:15:14:17 – 00:15:15:23
you can message

00:15:15:23 – 00:15:18:00
the other group members
for free,

00:15:18:00 – 00:15:19:22
even if you’re not connected
with them.

00:15:19:22 – 00:15:20:18
So that’s powerful

00:15:20:18 – 00:15:21:09
because

00:15:21:09 – 00:15:24:14
maybe you discover a group
where your ideal customer

00:15:24:14 – 00:15:27:11
hangs out and there’s
100 of them in that group.

00:15:28:05 – 00:15:30:14
Just by virtue of you
joining that group,

00:15:30:19 – 00:15:34:03
you have the permission to see
who they are and to message them

00:15:34:07 – 00:15:37:09
without connecting with them
or without paying for an InMail.

00:15:38:00 – 00:15:39:07
So that’s powerful as well.

00:15:40:17 – 00:15:43:04
And of
course, the main reason for me

00:15:43:04 – 00:15:46:02
is so that you can learn
from like minded people.

00:15:46:06 – 00:15:49:06
So you might want to
join, let’s say, an architecture

00:15:49:10 – 00:15:51:21
expert’s group
where people will be talking

00:15:51:21 – 00:15:53:11
about the latest legislation

00:15:53:11 – 00:15:55:14
or whatever
the latest methods are.

00:15:55:15 – 00:15:58:06
So you become more
knowledgeable.

00:15:58:06 – 00:16:01:10
But all of that is dependent
on finding the groups either

00:16:01:14 – 00:16:04:11
not ghost towns,
which is what most groups are,

00:16:04:17 – 00:16:06:13
or complete spam fests,

00:16:06:13 – 00:16:08:08
you know,
where the leaders of the group

00:16:08:08 – 00:16:10:09
are just
pushing their own agenda.

00:16:10:09 – 00:16:13:19
And because of those things,
sometimes LinkedIn groups

00:16:13:19 – 00:16:15:07
don’t get a good reputation.

00:16:15:07 – 00:16:18:00
But if you do find the right one

00:16:18:00 – 00:16:21:11
and you can get yourself
involved, so your posting

00:16:21:11 – 00:16:22:09
and your commenting,

00:16:22:09 – 00:16:24:12
you’re doing all the things
that you’re doing in public,

00:16:24:20 – 00:16:27:11
but inside the group,
you might become

00:16:28:01 – 00:16:29:06
you might become the expert

00:16:29:06 – 00:16:32:00
in that group
for your particular niche.

00:16:32:20 – 00:16:34:09
Yeah. Yeah.

00:16:34:09 – 00:16:38:07
Because this one group,
I mean the video editor is group

00:16:38:07 – 00:16:40:01
and it actually is good.

00:16:40:01 – 00:16:43:16
There was one guy posted on it
some some excellent hacks for

00:16:43:20 – 00:16:45:15
our premiere
there the other day.

00:16:45:15 – 00:16:47:21
So like so
the learning was there. Yeah.

00:16:47:21 – 00:16:49:00
So I can see that.

00:16:49:00 – 00:16:49:10
Yeah.

00:16:49:14 – 00:16:52:11
It’s, it’s definitely
something I have to revisit

00:16:52:17 – 00:16:53:17
because I’m on a few groups,

00:16:53:17 – 00:16:56:13
but I think I have to go back
and have a real look at it.

00:16:56:21 – 00:16:57:02
Yeah,

00:16:58:04 – 00:16:59:11
that’s brilliant John.

00:16:59:11 – 00:17:00:23
That, that was that that

00:17:00:23 – 00:17:04:06
great whistle
stop tour through, through

00:17:04:06 – 00:17:07:08
a bit of LinkedIn strategy
there and certain areas.

00:17:07:18 – 00:17:10:11
And we come to the part
now where I just ask you

00:17:10:11 – 00:17:11:16
a few of the marketing help

00:17:11:16 – 00:17:14:11
questions
that we ask all our marketers.

00:17:14:11 – 00:17:16:23
So the first one

00:17:16:23 – 00:17:19:12
What one marketing technique

00:17:19:19 – 00:17:22:16
have you used in the last year
or two

00:17:22:21 – 00:17:26:04
that has been
particularly effective?

00:17:26:04 – 00:17:29:09
Sending short voice
notes and short videos to people

00:17:29:09 – 00:17:31:22
through direct messages
has been really effective,

00:17:31:22 – 00:17:34:11
especially the videos
I found.

00:17:34:11 – 00:17:38:17
So my method for that is:
I will use a browser plugin

00:17:38:17 – 00:17:39:18
for Chrome

00:17:39:18 – 00:17:41:01
where I can just click a button

00:17:41:01 – 00:17:42:11
and start recording my screen

00:17:42:11 – 00:17:44:13
and it puts my face
on camera as well.

00:17:44:19 – 00:17:48:09
And then I’ll start those videos
on the other person’s profile

00:17:48:15 – 00:17:50:13
so that when I send the video
to them,

00:17:50:13 – 00:17:51:15
they get a thumbnail

00:17:51:15 – 00:17:53:03
and they can see their own

00:17:53:03 – 00:17:55:07
profile and they know it’s
not spam or anything

00:17:55:07 – 00:17:57:00
because it’s
their profile,

00:17:57:00 – 00:18:01:19
it’s direct for them.
That gets, I would say, 99.9%

00:18:01:19 – 00:18:04:23
response rate because people
never ignore that kind of thing.

00:18:05:18 – 00:18:07:13
And it’s a great way
of helping people

00:18:07:13 – 00:18:09:00
and starting more conversation.

00:18:09:00 – 00:18:11:00
So it’s just
massively effective.

00:18:11:00 – 00:18:12:12
It’s totally free to do.

00:18:12:12 – 00:18:14:02
It does take some time.

00:18:14:02 – 00:18:14:10
Obviously,

00:18:14:10 – 00:18:16:01
if you’re trying to grow
your network quickly

00:18:16:01 – 00:18:19:06
and you want to be sending
videos to everyone, that’s hard,

00:18:19:06 – 00:18:22:20
but it’s hugely, hugely
effective in building trust.

00:18:23:03 – 00:18:24:02
And again, being a bit

00:18:24:02 – 00:18:26:21
more human on LinkedIn
is really, really powerful.

00:18:27:10 – 00:18:30:10
Yeah, that’s it’s great
because it’s through through

00:18:30:10 – 00:18:32:17
being in your group,
I started using the

00:18:33:02 – 00:18:36:10
the voice note function
and it’s just, it’s just

00:18:36:12 – 00:18:38:15
if somebody connects with you
and they want to have a chat,

00:18:38:15 – 00:18:40:11
it’s really good
to come back to them with that.

00:18:40:11 – 00:18:41:12
Thanks to me for connecting

00:18:41:12 – 00:18:45:02
and actually sit and talk about
what you’ve been chatting about

00:18:45:09 – 00:18:47:16
and people come back
generally with God.

00:18:47:16 – 00:18:49:05
It’s great to hear a voice.

00:18:49:05 – 00:18:51:08
So you get you get that straight
away, which is brilliant.

00:18:51:15 – 00:18:53:02
And just could you tell us,

00:18:54:07 – 00:18:56:14
you know, you’re using a chrome

00:18:56:14 – 00:19:00:01
add on there to record
you and your screen.

00:19:00:08 – 00:19:01:07
One of you using.

00:19:01:07 – 00:19:03:18
I’m using
something called a video card.

00:19:04:06 – 00:19:07:12
Yeah the other popular player
in the market is loom,

00:19:07:12 – 00:19:09:07
which I have used in the past.

00:19:09:07 – 00:19:12:01
Either of those you can
you can start using for free.

00:19:12:01 – 00:19:14:15
There are paid versions,
but you can use them for free

00:19:15:01 – 00:19:16:07
and they’re very quick.

00:19:16:07 – 00:19:18:09
They’re pretty lightweight
in the browser.

00:19:18:09 – 00:19:21:08
You don’t have to know any
techie stuff to make them work.

00:19:21:08 – 00:19:22:02
You just need to

00:19:22:02 – 00:19:24:13
give the permissions
when they ask for it

00:19:24:13 – 00:19:26:22
and then you’ve got a link
to share immediately.

00:19:27:01 – 00:19:29:00
There’s not even a wait
for upload time.

00:19:29:00 – 00:19:31:17
It’s just so, so easy to do.

00:19:31:17 – 00:19:34:01
And if you want to record them
without having your face,

00:19:34:01 – 00:19:34:23
you don’t need to.

00:19:34:23 – 00:19:36:08
So you can just
record the screen

00:19:36:08 – 00:19:39:03
and it doesn’t matter
what you look like then.

00:19:39:03 – 00:19:41:16
And it’s just just
video is so powerful.

00:19:41:16 – 00:19:43:04
I’m preaching to the converted
here.

00:19:43:04 – 00:19:44:16
I know, but absolutely.

00:19:44:16 – 00:19:47:15
But like as well, it’s brilliant
to use things like that

00:19:47:22 – 00:19:49:17
that just shorten the time.

00:19:49:17 – 00:19:51:22
So you’re not trying to drag it
into an editor.

00:19:52:08 – 00:19:53:00
You know,

00:19:53:00 – 00:19:55:17
all these things you can just do
is got a link to it.

00:19:55:17 – 00:19:58:02
You can share the link for.
Yeah, that’s fantastic.

00:19:58:09 – 00:20:00:15
That’s fantastic. Really good.
That’s a great answer.

00:20:00:15 – 00:20:05:06
And John, the next question,
so with your unique viewpoint

00:20:05:06 – 00:20:09:18
and knowledge of LinkedIn,
how is the type

00:20:09:18 – 00:20:13:22
of content posted
and changing at the moment

00:20:14:06 – 00:20:17:09
and what trends might we see
in the next year, do you think?

00:20:17:18 – 00:20:18:12
I think LinkedIn

00:20:18:12 – 00:20:22:00
is doing a big land grab
for people who are coming away

00:20:22:00 – 00:20:23:03
from platforms

00:20:23:03 – 00:20:27:03
like Instagram and TikTok
and now recently Twitter.

00:20:27:18 – 00:20:29:09
And that means there’s probably

00:20:29:09 – 00:20:32:10
a younger demographic
coming on people who are more

00:20:32:11 – 00:20:36:06
apt to see visual content
or very, very short videos.

00:20:36:18 – 00:20:38:18
So right
now, for example, videos

00:20:38:18 – 00:20:40:22
that are only about 30
seconds are performing

00:20:40:22 – 00:20:42:05
pretty well on LinkedIn.

00:20:43:11 – 00:20:44:04
LinkedIn’s

00:20:44:04 – 00:20:47:07
latest content
format is called Carousels,

00:20:47:17 – 00:20:51:05
which is a combination of images
and videos that are kind of

00:20:51:05 – 00:20:55:05
composited into a single video
automatically.

00:20:55:05 – 00:20:57:22
I don’t have that feature yet,
but you can see that

00:20:57:22 – 00:20:59:03
that’s the kind of

00:20:59:03 – 00:21:02:13
content format that will appeal
to the more visual generation

00:21:02:13 – 00:21:03:15
of people.

00:21:03:15 – 00:21:06:18
So I think more visually,
I would say,

00:21:06:23 – 00:21:10:06
and maybe less about text,
more about visuals

00:21:10:16 – 00:21:14:18
and keep it as short as you can
because I don’t really buy

00:21:14:18 – 00:21:18:03
into the whole attention
span thing myself.

00:21:18:07 – 00:21:21:19
I do think attention is there
if the content is good enough.

00:21:22:03 – 00:21:25:12
Yeah, but people are expecting
something shorter and tighter.

00:21:25:12 – 00:21:28:02
So the shorter
your videos the better.

00:21:28:02 – 00:21:28:09
Yeah.

00:21:28:09 – 00:21:30:12
And I suppose
platform wise as well.

00:21:30:12 – 00:21:34:11
Like if we go to YouTube
where we’re down for a longer,

00:21:34:11 – 00:21:35:21
longer piece of content,

00:21:35:21 – 00:21:38:16
I think you know what
we’re depending

00:21:38:16 – 00:21:40:01
we’re looking for short,
shorter content.

00:21:40:01 – 00:21:43:20
So even if it comes platform
specific in certain ways

00:21:44:00 – 00:21:46:08
and what people think
they’re going to get

00:21:46:08 – 00:21:49:19
and like I have always thought
that if you can say, like, if,

00:21:50:03 – 00:21:52:08
if it’s amazing content,
people will stick with you

00:21:52:08 – 00:21:53:23
because they’re learning
and they’re getting value,

00:21:53:23 – 00:21:55:07
they’re getting entertained.

00:21:55:07 – 00:21:58:07
But if, if you can give them
a really good thought

00:21:58:07 – 00:22:00:23
and send them on their way
and 30 seconds, please do that.

00:22:01:02 – 00:22:02:11
Yes. That’s the reason why

00:22:02:11 – 00:22:04:21
I haven’t really invested
in LinkedIn live video,

00:22:04:21 – 00:22:06:23
because that tends to perform
better

00:22:06:23 – 00:22:09:02
when you’re running a 15 minutes
or longer.

00:22:09:12 – 00:22:12:02
But honestly, I’d rather do it
in 30 seconds and give you the

00:22:12:02 – 00:22:15:14
tip that I was there to give you
rather than just pad it out.

00:22:15:14 – 00:22:18:02
You know, for some people
that works perfectly.

00:22:18:08 – 00:22:20:17
For me, I’m all about
being relentlessly helpful.

00:22:20:17 – 00:22:22:09
That means respecting
your time as well.

00:22:22:09 – 00:22:24:17
So in and out as quickly
as I can. And that’s good.

00:22:25:04 – 00:22:25:15
Yeah.

00:22:25:15 – 00:22:26:11
Nice one. Nice one.

00:22:26:11 – 00:22:28:19
And the last question.

00:22:28:19 – 00:22:33:15
What one piece of business
advice that you got in the past

00:22:34:01 – 00:22:36:19
that has stuck with you
and you still follow

00:22:36:19 – 00:22:38:08
are try to follow today.

00:22:39:17 – 00:22:41:07
I think I think the whole thing

00:22:41:07 – 00:22:44:22
about being known for one thing
was massively important.

00:22:45:05 – 00:22:46:16
You know, I was trying to offer

00:22:46:16 – 00:22:48:05
a few different
things in the past

00:22:48:05 – 00:22:50:22
and I didn’t really have a clear
brand identity.

00:22:50:22 – 00:22:55:11
But the more you boil it down,
the easier you are to remember

00:22:55:19 – 00:22:57:20
and the easier
you are to remember,

00:22:58:02 – 00:22:59:09
the more likely you are

00:22:59:09 – 00:23:01:19
for someone to say,
I know a guy who does that

00:23:02:18 – 00:23:03:18
because they don’t have to keep

00:23:03:18 – 00:23:06:05
too many things jiggling
in their brain to think what?

00:23:06:10 – 00:23:08:03
What does Paul do again?

00:23:08:03 – 00:23:11:01
And they just know straight
away, Oh, is that video guy?

00:23:11:11 – 00:23:12:04
Boom.

00:23:12:07 – 00:23:15:12
So it could just be just focus
on the one thing

00:23:16:04 – 00:23:19:10
and keep reinforcing
that as many times as you can.

00:23:19:11 – 00:23:21:19
That’s
that’s the path to success.

00:23:21:19 – 00:23:23:11
Yeah,
I’ve heard that so many times

00:23:23:11 – 00:23:25:13
that I keep on thinking about it
myself as well.

00:23:25:13 – 00:23:28:02
I might spread out too much of
what I’m trying to put out there

00:23:28:10 – 00:23:31:11
and and yeah, it’s a constant,

00:23:31:11 – 00:23:34:14
it’s a constant thing that’s
running around my head as well.

00:23:34:21 – 00:23:36:21
Yeah, that’s, that’s
a really good piece of advice.

00:23:36:22 – 00:23:40:09
What I say to people is even
if you can do lots of things,

00:23:41:03 – 00:23:43:18
if you focus publicly
on one thing, once

00:23:43:18 – 00:23:46:05
you’ve got your foot in the door
and someone trusts you,

00:23:46:17 – 00:23:47:22
you can kind of go,

00:23:47:22 – 00:23:50:04
Well, I can do this, that and
the other as well, by the way.

00:23:50:11 – 00:23:52:01
But you’re already
in the conversation

00:23:52:01 – 00:23:53:00
then, and it’s fine.

00:23:53:00 – 00:23:53:14
They’ll, they’ll,

00:23:53:14 – 00:23:56:02
they’ll probably believe you
and trust you and it’s all good.

00:23:56:11 – 00:23:59:20
But if you try and give them
too many options at the first

00:24:00:06 – 00:24:01:12
time of meeting them,

00:24:02:16 – 00:24:05:02
there’s a saying
the confused mind doesn’t buy.

00:24:05:20 – 00:24:06:07
So, so

00:24:06:07 – 00:24:09:15
just narrow down to one thing
and that that’s your route.

00:24:09:15 – 00:24:11:11
That’s very good. That’s
very good. John Okay.

00:24:11:11 – 00:24:15:17
So and on that note, to
finish up and just before we go,

00:24:16:15 – 00:24:18:22
could you tell us how

00:24:18:22 – 00:24:21:18
listeners
can follow and connect with you?

00:24:22:01 – 00:24:24:16
Yeah, if you come to
if you just search for Experian,

00:24:24:16 – 00:24:27:02
you’ll find me on the Web
and on LinkedIn.

00:24:27:15 – 00:24:28:18
That will give you
more information

00:24:28:18 – 00:24:31:01
about my espresso
plus community as well.

00:24:31:01 – 00:24:32:06
I’m happy to have a chat.

00:24:32:06 – 00:24:33:18
If you want to invite me
to connect,

00:24:33:18 – 00:24:36:12
please say that you find me
through this podcast interview

00:24:36:21 – 00:24:40:23
and use the secret word that is
lurking in my about statement.

00:24:41:07 – 00:24:42:01
Okay. Yes.

00:24:42:01 – 00:24:44:07
So look in the about, say,
Stephen, people.

00:24:44:07 – 00:24:45:15
John, thanks for coming on.

00:24:45:15 – 00:24:47:23
That was so informative.
Thanks. Thanks, man.

00:24:48:05 – 00:24:49:23
Absolute pleasure.
Thanks a lot, Paul. Cheers