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1
00:00:03
Jim James: Welcome to this episode number five actually of
00:00:06
the LinkedIn Safari with the Simon Chapo in South Africa.
00:00:11
Simon,
00:00:12
Simon Chappuzeau: do you wanna say hello?
00:00:13
Yeah, that's great to be back and, um, can't wait to, to get
00:00:17
started
00:00:17
Jim James: there.
00:00:18
Yeah.
00:00:18
It's, it's great to have you back and, uh, thank you for
00:00:21
joining us again on the fifth LinkedIn Live and we are taking
00:00:26
a 12 week journey with Simon, who's a LinkedIn expert to help
00:00:30
me, Jim James.
00:00:32
Figure out how to make the most out of LinkedIn, how to leverage
00:00:36
LinkedIn, because we all spend a lot of time and we know there
00:00:38
are some 800 million people on LinkedIn, but most of us,
00:00:42
including me, spend more time than we get back in roi.
00:00:46
So that was the purpose of this, was how can I rebuild my brand,
00:00:50
my personal brand, and, and start to get connections and
00:00:54
build interest in the book that I've written and in building a,
00:00:58
a broader footprint as I grow as an entrepreneur.
00:01:00
So Simon.
00:01:02
Week five, what are we gonna cover today?
00:01:06
Simon Chappuzeau: So today, um, we're gonna talk about different
00:01:09
post types.
00:01:10
Um, it's a, a question that I'm being asked time and again.
00:01:15
Uh, what type of a post should I use and are video posts better
00:01:18
than text post and should I do carousels, slideshows, whatnot?
00:01:23
Uh, so there are a lot of.
00:01:26
And, um, I want to today look into the different options that
00:01:30
you have as a LinkedIn creator, and, uh, I want to piggy bank on
00:01:34
what you've done over the past week.
00:01:35
Look at a couple of posts that you've done and also I wanna
00:01:39
review what we've achieved over the past four weeks, five weeks,
00:01:43
um, because you have done quite a lot of work and, um, you have
00:01:48
seen results, which is.
00:01:51
Jim James: Thank you so much Simon.
00:01:52
So over to you.
00:01:53
And it says, as I look on my screen, uh, that we are actually
00:01:56
live.
00:01:57
So we've sold in four weeks, we've learned how to do a, a
00:02:00
Riverside to LinkedIn live.
00:02:01
So we have moving.
00:02:03
Well, Simon,
00:02:04
Simon Chappuzeau: show me.
00:02:05
I'm still learning.
00:02:07
Jim James: Yeah, we'll, we'll do that.
00:02:08
So, um, but we only keep these shows to 30 minutes.
00:02:13
So Simon, let's dive in.
00:02:15
Simon Chappuzeau: Let's, let's get started.
00:02:17
So, uh, quick review what we've done over the past week.
00:02:20
Uh, we started with a review of your profile page.
00:02:24
We looked at a Helen, a headshot, uh, headline and the
00:02:28
about section.
00:02:29
Um, you've done quite a lot of work here.
00:02:32
Um, we will not look at this.
00:02:35
but we will probably do it next week.
00:02:37
And one of the reasons is, um, it's an iterative process.
00:02:42
What we often see with clients, it's not something you do in one
00:02:46
sitting, it evolves over time because it's, um, it's a process
00:02:51
of you gaining clarity of what you stand for.
00:02:54
And I think in your case, it's also a question of like, where
00:02:57
do you wanna go?
00:02:58
In the future because you are at a crossroads in your lives.
00:03:02
You've in your life, you've, you've sold your business and
00:03:04
you're now figuring out what, what to do next.
00:03:06
And so the, the profile, the biotechs is a, it's, it's a
00:03:11
living piece of content that changes.
00:03:14
And um, I think you're going through some changes here.
00:03:18
Um,
00:03:19
Jim James: yeah.
00:03:20
And I think, and, and Simon, you're absolutely right.
00:03:22
One of the interesting.
00:03:24
Aspects of working on this with you has been, it's really made
00:03:27
me question what I am doing and how I position myself, and I'm
00:03:31
grateful to you because it, it's enforced clarity.
00:03:35
On me by having these weekly sessions.
00:03:38
So show us then what progress you think we've made and, and
00:03:41
what progress.
00:03:42
I'm still yet, sorry.
00:03:43
Simon Chappuzeau: You threw me this ball.
00:03:44
Now if you catch the ball.
00:03:45
It was really great because, um, I think one of the great things
00:03:48
with writing on LinkedIn, and it's not only doing your profile
00:03:51
but also to content, is that it challenges, challenges you to
00:03:55
think about what you do, uh, how you do it, for whom you do it.
00:03:59
Um, and at least for me, but it's something that I hear from
00:04:04
another, a lot of other creators on LinkedIn, that it really
00:04:07
helps them to gain clarity for their business.
00:04:10
So it's not only about the profile, it's, it pertains to
00:04:13
all aspects of your business and you've just given, uh, testimony
00:04:17
to that.
00:04:18
Jim James: Yeah, absolutely.
00:04:19
And in an earlier episode, Simon has uh, reference to sort of a
00:04:23
number of questions that he asks, and you can also get those
00:04:26
from Simon as well after the
00:04:27
Simon Chappuzeau: show.
00:04:28
Mm-hmm.
00:04:29
Okay.
00:04:29
So back to what we've achieved over past couple of weeks.
00:04:33
So we've reviewed your profile page next week on our.
00:04:37
Take a deep dive and review that what you, the changes you've
00:04:39
done.
00:04:40
Um, we have then looked at your, um, at the frequency of your
00:04:45
posting, we found that you, or I found that you posted like, uh,
00:04:49
3, 4, 5 times a day and, uh, I told you not to, and you obeyed
00:04:54
and, um, you stopped.
00:04:56
Which is a good thing because, um, it, it said, yeah, it saved
00:05:01
you some time.
00:05:02
Um, Then the other week we spoke about the posting in groups, um,
00:05:09
which was a thing that you've done.
00:05:11
I think you mentioned you were part of 80 groups.
00:05:13
We didn't, you, you didn't post on all of them, but you posted
00:05:16
in many and we did a quick review and you saw that, um, you
00:05:21
did not really get a lot of views, uh, on most of these
00:05:24
posts.
00:05:25
And you, you said like you spent an hour a day crossposting in
00:05:29
all of these groups for basically no reach.
00:05:33
Jim James: That's right.
00:05:34
Yeah, I, exactly, Simon.
00:05:36
So highlighting a number of inefficiencies there in my, in
00:05:39
my sort of LinkedIn.
00:05:40
So
00:05:40
Simon Chappuzeau: we've saved, you know, we've saved, you know,
00:05:44
a ton of, ton of time by stopping the cross posting and
00:05:47
the, the frequent posting.
00:05:49
And by the way, I did, um, I did a quick shoutout last week, uh,
00:05:54
on my profile and somebody else saw copied that asking.
00:06:00
Is seeing any be benefits of being part of groups and, um, I
00:06:05
barely heard anybody say, yeah, they're, they're great.
00:06:08
They work for me, so it's something I thought I hadn't
00:06:12
figured out, but it looks like nobody's really figured out what
00:06:14
groups are good for.
00:06:16
Um, so glad you left them or you stopped posting.
00:06:20
Jim James: Okay.
00:06:21
Yeah.
00:06:21
I think, uh, that the groups and performance of groups deserves
00:06:23
another deeper dive.
00:06:25
But let's carry on today with what we've
00:06:27
Simon Chappuzeau: got.
00:06:28
Yep, exactly.
00:06:29
So today we wanna look at different post types and that is
00:06:34
always a popular topic on LinkedIn.
00:06:37
And uh, a thing that I keep hearing a lot is are saying
00:06:41
video.
00:06:42
Videos.
00:06:43
Great.
00:06:43
We should do more videos because everybody loves videos and, um,
00:06:48
there, there, there's, there's some hard data out there.
00:06:51
So it's not like, um, it's, it's sort of set, set in stone and
00:06:56
um, there's a guy called Richard Funder Blom.
00:06:59
Uh, who publishes the big LinkedIn report every year?
00:07:04
Uh, everybody who has not heard of Richard blm, he's, uh, a
00:07:07
Dutch guy living in Barcelona and he, uh, runs an agency
00:07:11
focusing on LinkedIn optimization for companies.
00:07:15
And, um, he does a, an annual report and I'll share some
00:07:20
numbers from this report, which basically shows us that, um, Not
00:07:30
all post styles and types are the same.
00:07:34
And um, there are some post types that do really well,
00:07:37
others that don't do well.
00:07:40
And I've just listed here, uh, these post types and you have to
00:07:43
understand there's like, they're like two sides to, um, the post
00:07:48
form you choose.
00:07:50
One is the average reach, which means.
00:07:53
across all people who use that kind of post, what is the reach
00:07:58
they get?
00:07:59
But the other side is how you play that kind of post format.
00:08:04
So there are people who choose a postform that does not very well
00:08:10
on average, but they just kill it because they are very good at
00:08:14
sort of mastering this type and people.
00:08:17
Have come to know them for that.
00:08:20
But these are average numbers and uh, how you have to read
00:08:24
them is that, um, so you have a baseline, which is, um, yeah,
00:08:29
the average of all different post types together.
00:08:32
And if you do document posts, um, you get on average 2.2 to
00:08:38
three.
00:08:39
For the average reach, um, which means, uh, without doing much,
00:08:44
you just get more reach because LinkedIn gives you sort of a
00:08:47
soft boost.
00:08:49
Um, it it, it also has a psychological side because some
00:08:54
post performance are more easier to consume.
00:08:57
And we're gonna talk about this with videos in a.
00:09:02
So we have the, the document posts usually slideshow.
00:09:06
Then we have polls.
00:09:07
I think everybody of everybody has seen polls on all.
00:09:12
Possible topics.
00:09:13
Um, they've, they were even more popular year back.
00:09:16
They've sort of dropped in popularity and reach.
00:09:19
Um, carousel posts are not to be mistaken with the slideshow,
00:09:26
which is what, what is called the document post.
00:09:30
So what I do is I.
00:09:34
Document posts, which are slide shows that I create outside of
00:09:37
LinkedIn, as a pdf, I upload them.
00:09:40
That's why there are document posts and carousels is what you
00:09:43
can create natively within LinkedIn.
00:09:47
Um, and they look slightly different because you always
00:09:49
have an slide overlap to the next slide.
00:09:52
So you see slide one and quarter of the second slide, so that's
00:09:57
the carousel post.
00:09:58
So it's very similar, but it's different and the rate is worse.
00:10:04
and um, almost baseline post is the text and the text and
00:10:09
picture post, which I think all of us are familiar with.
00:10:13
Jim James: Um, and, and, right.
00:10:14
And that's kind of the entry level post, isn't it, that most
00:10:16
of us are doing
00:10:18
Simon Chappuzeau: Exactly, because it's the easiest to just
00:10:20
write something and it's easy to just add a picture.
00:10:24
Um, so it's definitely one of the most popular post types.
00:10:28
Then on the below average, We have on first position the video
00:10:35
post.
00:10:35
Um, and I think it's Oh, interesting talking that the
00:10:38
video posts only get 0.5.
00:10:40
Isn't it surprising?
00:10:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:10:43
And um, and again, as I said the beginning, it's one is the, the
00:10:49
average reach of all people across all form.
00:10:53
and video posts I think are a great example, um, because there
00:10:58
are people who do pretty well with video posts, but, uh, video
00:11:02
posts are, I think a good example if you have to do them
00:11:05
really well to, um, reach people.
00:11:09
And one of the typical mistakes I see with video posts are
00:11:12
people don't do subtitles.
00:11:14
And, uh, back to the scenario, London subway, rainy day between
00:11:19
two stops.
00:11:20
You don't gonna crank up the volume volume to hear what this
00:11:24
guy is saying.
00:11:24
Yeah.
00:11:25
So you're just gonna skip it.
00:11:26
And, um, so subtitles super important and the length, super
00:11:32
important.
00:11:32
You have a lot of videos there, like five minutes.
00:11:34
Nobody watches a five minute video on LinkedIn, so you can't
00:11:38
do a lot of things badly.
00:11:41
And, um, people who kill it with video really understand how to
00:11:44
do the.
00:11:48
Then, um, the other post, um, type is a post with an external
00:11:53
link.
00:11:53
And, um, I know that this is also a thing that a lot of
00:11:56
people talk about, um, whether LinkedIn sort of re deliberately
00:12:03
reduces reach for.
00:12:06
Posts with external links.
00:12:08
Um, there are two theories to it.
00:12:10
Uh, one is, it's not really LinkedIn who's doing that, but
00:12:14
it's um, the, the visual appeal of these posts.
00:12:18
And I can show you an example of one of your posts.
00:12:22
Um, let me get this one,
00:12:27
Jim James: Simon.
00:12:27
Just a small thing.
00:12:28
You've got someone doing some construction.
00:12:30
I hope they're not coming to take you away, but we can hear
00:12:32
that quite a.
00:12:33
Simon Chappuzeau: That is horrible.
00:12:35
Thanks for taking that out.
00:12:36
As we close.
00:12:37
Jim James: Sorry, have a technical interruption there.
00:12:41
Simon's in South Africa, they've had a power outage, uh, in the
00:12:45
last week and he was explaining that to me earlier now.
00:12:48
Okay.
00:12:49
So we Perfect.
00:12:50
Welcome back.
00:12:52
Simon Chappuzeau: That's better.
00:12:54
Thanks for pointing that out.
00:12:56
Okay.
00:12:56
Um, okay, so the post with the external link I wanted to show
00:13:02
you.
00:13:04
Jim James: Yeah.
00:13:04
So it's really interesting.
00:13:05
So the assumption that you know, articles and as you say,
00:13:09
external links and video posts means that.
00:13:13
These are underperforming.
00:13:15
Simon Chappuzeau: Okay?
00:13:16
Mm-hmm.
00:13:17
So you did a post yesterday.
00:13:20
Why does I
00:13:21
Jim James: was so, I was so proud of this post as well.
00:13:25
So,
00:13:27
Simon Chappuzeau: well, it's, it's beautiful layout and, um,
00:13:31
what happens, and I was just saying, um, you, you added the
00:13:36
link and LinkedIn automatically created this image.
00:13:40
From the link.
00:13:41
Yes.
00:13:42
Um, it's nothing you did.
00:13:44
And, um, there are two things why the post, this post might
00:13:50
have underperformed technically.
00:13:52
Um, one is that it has this external link, which is
00:13:57
something that yes, linked probably doesn't like.
00:14:00
But also what happens if you have an Exxon link, you lose
00:14:03
control over the image that you have.
00:14:04
Yes.
00:14:05
And this image, um, is.
00:14:10
Not really descriptive of what to expect from this post.
00:14:14
And it's not in line with what you do or your brand.
00:14:18
It's sort of like, it's, it's not something if I would scroll
00:14:22
through the feed, I would not say, Hey, this is Jim's post, I
00:14:25
wanna read this.
00:14:26
Okay.
00:14:26
And um, yep, that is, The reason, well, the, the reason is
00:14:32
also if you look at the, at the bottom of the post, you see this
00:14:35
PR episodes by Crowley.
00:14:38
It just doesn't look very nice.
00:14:40
And um, it's the same with, uh, newsletters on LinkedIn, uh, and
00:14:46
articles.
00:14:47
If you do those and they appear the newsfeed as a post, it
00:14:52
always looks sort of like.
00:14:55
Not, not sexy.
00:14:56
Okay.
00:14:57
Interesting.
00:14:58
I have not any scene really performed well.
00:15:02
And one, one thing is I attributed to the, to the less
00:15:06
than
00:15:07
Jim James: optimal look and feel.
00:15:10
Okay.
00:15:10
Right.
00:15:11
Yeah.
00:15:11
Cuz this is, um, PR episodes by proudly.
00:15:13
I'm, I'm the one of the hosts, uh, for the upcoming session.
00:15:18
So I was trying to amplify that event and the role I was
00:15:21
playing.
00:15:22
Um, but it, I thought I'd done a nice job on it, but is it that
00:15:26
if I hadn't put the link in that it might have performed better
00:15:30
than Simon?
00:15:31
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah, so I, I don't want to, to, to only blame
00:15:34
it on the link.
00:15:34
There are a couple of things.
00:15:35
Um, so, but the link, um, with the, Image that is automatically
00:15:41
pulled, um, just doesn't look as nice.
00:15:45
Then there's the, the hypothesis that external links limit the
00:15:50
reach in general.
00:15:52
Um, there's no hard evidence, but it's sort of can be assumed.
00:15:57
Jim James: Yeah.
00:15:58
Other platforms do that.
00:15:59
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah.
00:16:00
Other platforms do that.
00:16:02
And then is the other thing, um, which is more the, the content
00:16:07
and it then it's more to style.
00:16:09
But what I also see is whenever, uh, there is an announcement for
00:16:13
some life webinar or something, you can join something time
00:16:17
bound.
00:16:18
People don't really care about that.
00:16:19
It's, it's, it's, um, It's interesting, it's something I
00:16:24
try to avoid and, um, people I see like Justin Wells who are
00:16:30
like the top performers in this space, they never or barely ever
00:16:35
post something like, join this webinar or come to this event or
00:16:40
duh, duh duh.
00:16:40
It's always pure content on topic consistently and
00:16:46
recognizably on that one thing that they talk.
00:16:50
Jim James: Okay.
00:16:50
That's really good.
00:16:51
Thank you for that.
00:16:52
I know we've got a lot still to cover and we've uh, we've
00:16:54
already got quarter pass, so we've only got 15 minutes less
00:16:57
time, so I won't interrupt you.
00:16:58
Carry on.
00:16:59
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah.
00:17:00
Okay.
00:17:00
So let's go back to the overview.
00:17:02
Uh, out.
00:17:06
So we spoke about the video posts, uh, the posts with the
00:17:10
external link, and I mean, it's a drastic drop from average to
00:17:14
0.5 to 0.5, uh, four to 0.5.
00:17:17
Uh, celebrate.
00:17:18
Let's talk about that one.
00:17:19
It's a new thing that, uh, I think has about that.
00:17:22
Um, but newsletters and articles, uh, are like
00:17:27
shockingly at the bottom of the.
00:17:29
Point two, 2.9 and 0.1 2.2.
00:17:34
And um, again, yeah, what can I say?
00:17:38
Um, both, um, appear in your newsfeed as opposed and in doing
00:17:46
so, they just don't look very good.
00:17:49
And let me share an sample here.
00:17:52
And
00:17:52
Jim James: I guess, and it makes sense really if you think about
00:17:54
it cuz it's actually not original thought.
00:17:56
If you are sharing someone else's article, You're not
00:17:58
really sharing by and large original thought, you're just
00:18:02
taking someone else's and that's not being rewarded by
00:18:05
Simon Chappuzeau: LinkedIn, right?
00:18:06
Yeah.
00:18:07
I mean, LinkedIn always likes people to share original content
00:18:10
and not recycle other, other people's stuff.
00:18:12
That definitely is one of the factors when in this case, you
00:18:16
link to your own article, as we can see here.
00:18:22
Um, But again, it's, it's, if I scroll through the feed, it just
00:18:29
doesn't look very nice with this gray area at the bottom and a
00:18:35
lot of text that is not really.
00:18:38
Essential for me to make a decision on whether I want to
00:18:41
read the whole thing or not.
00:18:43
Um, so I think that's on the aesthetic side, but apparently
00:18:48
there's also a technical side why LinkedIn doesn't give a lot
00:18:52
of reach to these kinds of, um, posts.
00:18:57
Interesting.
00:18:57
Back here.
00:18:58
So, Yeah, so general overview, articles, newsletters, the
00:19:04
worst.
00:19:05
So I would try to avoid that as much as I can.
00:19:08
Um, and as you said, text posts with a picture is the baseline,
00:19:15
the easiest thing to do, and the best performing post you can do
00:19:20
is the slideshow post.
00:19:23
Which is like a carousel, but it's a dedicated piece of
00:19:27
content.
00:19:29
Okay.
00:19:32
So, um, to
00:19:35
Jim James: and on another day we can go through in more detail,
00:19:38
but today we're gonna just go top line.
00:19:40
But that's why we're, we're working over 12 weeks, so, okay.
00:19:43
Perfect.
00:19:43
Simon, what do we have to do next?
00:19:44
Because we've, you know, another 11 minutes before people will
00:19:48
head off for their lunch.
00:19:50
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah, I mean, um, I think we have to, to make
00:19:52
a plan for Asia.
00:19:53
Asia.
00:19:53
How, how, how.
00:19:54
Forward.
00:19:55
Um, one thing I noticed, um, we spoke about what you wanted to
00:20:01
post about, you have a book that has been published, I think it
00:20:04
was March 23rd.
00:20:06
Showed.
00:20:07
Showed to us.
00:20:09
I wanna see, yeah,
00:20:09
Jim James: there's the book.
00:20:10
Yeah.
00:20:12
Cameras
00:20:13
Simon Chappuzeau: whole of your body.
00:20:14
Yeah.
00:20:15
Okay.
00:20:15
Yeah.
00:20:16
Notice entrepreneur.
00:20:17
Very nice.
00:20:18
And I think it was published on March the 23rd with Wiley
00:20:22
Jim James: and, um, February, February 23rd.
00:20:24
Yeah.
00:20:24
February, February.
00:20:25
Simon Chappuzeau: February, yeah.
00:20:25
Yep.
00:20:27
And um, in this book you have 50 entrepreneurs share the.
00:20:34
The strategies, the tools that they've used to be to, to get
00:20:38
noticed.
00:20:39
Um, yep.
00:20:40
And we said, you are gonna milk the content from this book for
00:20:45
your LinkedIn posts.
00:20:45
And when I look at the posts that you did over the past week,
00:20:50
what do I see?
00:20:54
I've been guilty
00:20:54
Jim James: of that full amount content
00:20:56
Simon Chappuzeau: strategy.
00:20:56
You did then follow your own content strategy.
00:21:01
I'm shocked.
00:21:02
Jim James: Well, and, and of course, ironically enough, I
00:21:05
made work for myself mm-hmm.
00:21:08
by thinking of new things.
00:21:11
Um, so busted actually absolutely busted on that.
00:21:17
I find I've had a conversation with another entrepreneur this
00:21:18
week talking about his content strategy, and he showed me his
00:21:22
content strategy that's been written down, and then I asked,
00:21:25
what are you doing this week?
00:21:26
And he said, I'm doing a post about what my son did at school.
00:21:29
I'm like, well, Why are you not doing a post about your content
00:21:33
strategy So it's kind of we, why do we not follow through?
00:21:38
Simon, what?
00:21:39
What's your
00:21:39
Simon Chappuzeau: theory?
00:21:40
I don't know.
00:21:41
It's, um, It's the entrepreneur syndrome of jumping for the next
00:21:46
shiny thing.
00:21:47
Maybe it's like, oh, that's something.
00:21:49
Jim James: Yeah.
00:21:50
I think there's a fear of boredom, right?
00:21:52
Simon Chappuzeau: There's a fear of boredom.
00:21:53
Yeah.
00:21:53
Entrepreneur, shiny.
00:21:54
Yeah.
00:21:54
Mm-hmm.
00:21:55
And, um, and maybe the other thing also might be that, uh,
00:22:01
we.
00:22:02
overestimate our audience attention and probably they
00:22:08
wouldn't mind hearing the same or similar stuff time and again,
00:22:14
because probably if either not seen it, they've forgotten about
00:22:17
it, or if it's good content, why wouldn't they like to see it
00:22:20
again?
00:22:20
Because, uh, who, who, who doesn't like to be reminded
00:22:23
about, about good things?
00:22:24
So I think.
00:22:26
For speaking from my, for me personally, that I probably
00:22:30
sometimes feel like I can't, again, talk about the same thing
00:22:34
when in fact I should.
00:22:37
Jim James: Okay.
00:22:37
That's really good.
00:22:38
And actually, cuz the book has 50 entrepreneurs and I, the plan
00:22:41
was I would take three, uh, per day and highlight some of the
00:22:45
learnings and, and so I've got a.
00:22:48
You know, I've got a couple of weeks worth of, of really good
00:22:51
content, uh, from the podcast into the book.
00:22:53
So I must lean into that content strategy again and and stay
00:22:59
focused.
00:23:00
Simon Chappuzeau: One.
00:23:01
Yeah.
00:23:01
And one, one other share.
00:23:02
Maybe you can back that up with your own experience, but what
00:23:06
I've noticed myself is whenever I.
00:23:12
Create or write something.
00:23:14
I spent more time on making a decision and sort of like laying
00:23:21
the foundations for a post than I really spent on writing.
00:23:26
That sort of, once I have.
00:23:28
Crystally clarity, what I'm going to write about it.
00:23:31
It's very fast, but I spent probably half of my time, if I
00:23:35
look at one post half of the time, trying to figure out what
00:23:39
is this post really about?
00:23:42
And only once I've figured it out it's super fast.
00:23:46
And um, I think that's sort of time.
00:23:49
Killer park salons if we do on the spot writing.
00:23:54
Um, does he easily spent an hour or me spent an hour or two
00:24:00
writing a post, and half of the time is just figuring out what
00:24:04
I'm going to write about
00:24:07
Jim James: Simon, I think you've, you've nailed that
00:24:09
again.
00:24:09
And, and I think that, uh, the other aspect is that because we
00:24:13
want almost instant, instant success, we write something, if
00:24:16
it doesn't take off, we think, oh.
00:24:19
I've done the wrong thing.
00:24:19
I'll do something else.
00:24:21
And yet what we have to do is to think through what will work and
00:24:24
then execute on that plan.
00:24:26
Mm-hmm.
00:24:26
Uh, so thank you.
00:24:27
So useful to, you know, have this weekly session with you so
00:24:31
that we can mm-hmm.
00:24:32
you know, check back in on it.
00:24:33
Okay.
00:24:34
Um, Simon.
00:24:36
We've got another six minutes before we let people in Asia.
00:24:39
Let's dinner.
00:24:40
Let's make the plan dinner for the next dinner next week.
00:24:41
Yeah.
00:24:42
Yes.
00:24:42
Simon Chappuzeau: What are we gonna do next for lunch?
00:24:44
Um, so what is your commitment till next week?
00:24:46
What are, what are you gonna post about, uh, and what
00:24:50
postform are you gonna choose?
00:24:53
Jim James: Well, I think.
00:24:55
I've got the book, I'm gonna go back to what the plan and the
00:24:58
original remit was to get people to know about the 50 ideas in
00:25:02
this book, which will help them to get noticed on a way to a
00:25:05
sale, uh, of their business.
00:25:07
And that's something else I've worked on refining my, uh,
00:25:11
speaker bio and my strap line.
00:25:15
And so what I'm gonna work on.
00:25:18
Taking the content from the book.
00:25:20
Mm.
00:25:20
And then what I, in light of what you said about the highest
00:25:22
performing posts, I'm going to, um, make little video, um,
00:25:28
little PDFs and in fact, the, I think the post that performed
00:25:32
best was where I made a 30 excuses to get noticed.
00:25:35
Mm.
00:25:35
And I did, uh, six slides in pdf, which I built in Canberra.
00:25:40
Having asked you how to do that, for which, thank you.
00:25:43
Um, So I can take some summaries from the, you know, three per
00:25:48
day and then I can make those into a downloadable, uh, form
00:25:53
that people then can, can get, because that's then using the
00:25:57
content strategy, but the optimal format.
00:26:01
And actually, if I follow that through, I can pre bake that
00:26:06
because I, I can write those in Word and give those to my va,
00:26:11
Alex in the Philippines.
00:26:13
And actually then she can start to be making that up for me.
00:26:16
Cuz what we haven't mentioned is that if you make up something
00:26:20
every day different, no one else can do it for you.
00:26:23
You can't delegate.
00:26:25
And the rest of my business, Alex has been really doing a
00:26:27
great job with her team on post cast, post production, for
00:26:30
example.
00:26:32
And the posting, because of my inconsistent approach, means I
00:26:36
can't delegate it.
00:26:38
Good point.
00:26:39
So the workflow implications of having a strategy that's
00:26:43
consistent, um, will also liberate time.
00:26:48
So that's, that's what I'm gonna work on.
00:26:50
Simon Chappuzeau: I think that was a golden summary, uh, in
00:26:54
terms of having a strategy and executing on it as a time saver,
00:26:57
park salons and, uh, everything else stops your team from taking
00:27:02
on the work that you can delegate and then it sits on
00:27:05
your.
00:27:07
Jim James: Yeah.
00:27:07
Yeah.
00:27:08
So I think that's, that's gonna be where I'm gonna go with this.
00:27:12
And now we've managed to increase the number of people
00:27:15
that are following, you know, and part of my community now to
00:27:18
11 that's gone up.
00:27:20
Mm-hmm.
00:27:21
Um, that's cool because we were sub, you know, sub 11 weeks
00:27:25
ago.
00:27:26
Um, posting rates have also, um, gone down, but the engagement
00:27:31
has increased over a hundred.
00:27:33
So for all the things I'm doing wrong in the big picture, we are
00:27:36
moving in the right direction, aren't we?
00:27:39
Simon Chappuzeau: Absolutely.
00:27:40
And, uh, I mean, it's, it's easy to get.
00:27:45
Overwhelmed with all the things that you have to do and can do.
00:27:49
And I think we always have to look at, um, how, how much can
00:27:53
we change from a human perspective because we are run
00:27:56
by habits and we have to change habits, and you don't change
00:27:59
habits overnight.
00:28:00
So instead of trying to change everything at once, uh, it's
00:28:04
better to do one thing after the other and so on, because
00:28:09
otherwise we are just overwhelmed with like all the
00:28:12
things we have to take care of.
00:28:15
Jim James: So Simon, that, that sounds like, um, kind of a, an
00:28:18
end point for everybody.
00:28:19
Mm-hmm.
00:28:20
if there's one thing that you wanted to say to people that are
00:28:23
listening, cause we've got, uh, about a minute left.
00:28:25
If there's one, if you like, task or tip that you'd like as
00:28:28
a, as a takeaway for everybody.
00:28:31
That might be watching.
00:28:32
Um, I've got my tasks.
00:28:33
You can have, have one from Simon.
00:28:35
What would you, what would you say to people?
00:28:37
Simon Chappuzeau: Well, I, I guess coming back to, to the, to
00:28:41
different post formats, it's really to choose one format for
00:28:45
yourself, master it consistently, and, uh, stick to
00:28:49
it.
00:28:50
And, uh, just be good at this one.
00:28:54
Jim James: Simon Chapo, LinkedIn Maestro and extraordinaire.
00:28:58
Thank you so much for taking me through week five.
00:29:00
When we started this, you said we'll need 12 weeks, and I
00:29:03
thought eight, but I can really see the degree of detail and
00:29:07
attention to detail that you take.
00:29:09
Um, so I'm really grateful that you're investing so much time in
00:29:12
helping me on this, on this LinkedIn Safari Simon Chap in
00:29:14
South Africa.
00:29:16
That's a pleasure.
00:29:17
Thank you, Jim.
00:29:19
So thanks for joining us.
00:29:20
Um, on session five, we will be putting the video on YouTube on
00:29:25
our channel.
00:29:25
You can find it on, uh, YouTube at the Unnoticed Entrepreneur
00:29:28
Channel and also on the podcast, which is the Unnoticed
00:29:32
Entrepreneur, all players.
00:29:34
And we'll have run this as an audio and Simon and I will catch
00:29:37
up at the same time, same place next week.
00:29:40
So join us for session six, and you can see.
00:29:42
Whether I've managed to stick to my content strategy and whether
00:29:46
I've managed to make posts to get greater engagement.
00:29:48
Thank you for joining Simon Chapo in South Africa.
00:29:51
Me, Jim James here in the uk.
00:29:53
Enjoy your dinner or your lunch and keep on posting on LinkedIn.
00:29:57
Cheers, bye bye-bye.
00:30:00
How do you say goodbye in South Africa?
00:30:06
Simon Chappuzeau: I don't know.
00:30:06
There are some Africans word that they use, but uh, my
00:30:12
Africans is too rudimentary,
00:30:13
Jim James: too.
00:30:18
We'll just do a universal.
Jim James: Welcome to this episode number five actually of
00:00:06
the LinkedIn Safari with the Simon Chapo in South Africa.
00:00:11
Simon,
00:00:12
Simon Chappuzeau: do you wanna say hello?
00:00:13
Yeah, that's great to be back and, um, can't wait to, to get
00:00:17
started
00:00:17
Jim James: there.
00:00:18
Yeah.
00:00:18
It's, it's great to have you back and, uh, thank you for
00:00:21
joining us again on the fifth LinkedIn Live and we are taking
00:00:26
a 12 week journey with Simon, who's a LinkedIn expert to help
00:00:30
me, Jim James.
00:00:32
Figure out how to make the most out of LinkedIn, how to leverage
00:00:36
LinkedIn, because we all spend a lot of time and we know there
00:00:38
are some 800 million people on LinkedIn, but most of us,
00:00:42
including me, spend more time than we get back in roi.
00:00:46
So that was the purpose of this, was how can I rebuild my brand,
00:00:50
my personal brand, and, and start to get connections and
00:00:54
build interest in the book that I've written and in building a,
00:00:58
a broader footprint as I grow as an entrepreneur.
00:01:00
So Simon.
00:01:02
Week five, what are we gonna cover today?
00:01:06
Simon Chappuzeau: So today, um, we're gonna talk about different
00:01:09
post types.
00:01:10
Um, it's a, a question that I'm being asked time and again.
00:01:15
Uh, what type of a post should I use and are video posts better
00:01:18
than text post and should I do carousels, slideshows, whatnot?
00:01:23
Uh, so there are a lot of.
00:01:26
And, um, I want to today look into the different options that
00:01:30
you have as a LinkedIn creator, and, uh, I want to piggy bank on
00:01:34
what you've done over the past week.
00:01:35
Look at a couple of posts that you've done and also I wanna
00:01:39
review what we've achieved over the past four weeks, five weeks,
00:01:43
um, because you have done quite a lot of work and, um, you have
00:01:48
seen results, which is.
00:01:51
Jim James: Thank you so much Simon.
00:01:52
So over to you.
00:01:53
And it says, as I look on my screen, uh, that we are actually
00:01:56
live.
00:01:57
So we've sold in four weeks, we've learned how to do a, a
00:02:00
Riverside to LinkedIn live.
00:02:01
So we have moving.
00:02:03
Well, Simon,
00:02:04
Simon Chappuzeau: show me.
00:02:05
I'm still learning.
00:02:07
Jim James: Yeah, we'll, we'll do that.
00:02:08
So, um, but we only keep these shows to 30 minutes.
00:02:13
So Simon, let's dive in.
00:02:15
Simon Chappuzeau: Let's, let's get started.
00:02:17
So, uh, quick review what we've done over the past week.
00:02:20
Uh, we started with a review of your profile page.
00:02:24
We looked at a Helen, a headshot, uh, headline and the
00:02:28
about section.
00:02:29
Um, you've done quite a lot of work here.
00:02:32
Um, we will not look at this.
00:02:35
but we will probably do it next week.
00:02:37
And one of the reasons is, um, it's an iterative process.
00:02:42
What we often see with clients, it's not something you do in one
00:02:46
sitting, it evolves over time because it's, um, it's a process
00:02:51
of you gaining clarity of what you stand for.
00:02:54
And I think in your case, it's also a question of like, where
00:02:57
do you wanna go?
00:02:58
In the future because you are at a crossroads in your lives.
00:03:02
You've in your life, you've, you've sold your business and
00:03:04
you're now figuring out what, what to do next.
00:03:06
And so the, the profile, the biotechs is a, it's, it's a
00:03:11
living piece of content that changes.
00:03:14
And um, I think you're going through some changes here.
00:03:18
Um,
00:03:19
Jim James: yeah.
00:03:20
And I think, and, and Simon, you're absolutely right.
00:03:22
One of the interesting.
00:03:24
Aspects of working on this with you has been, it's really made
00:03:27
me question what I am doing and how I position myself, and I'm
00:03:31
grateful to you because it, it's enforced clarity.
00:03:35
On me by having these weekly sessions.
00:03:38
So show us then what progress you think we've made and, and
00:03:41
what progress.
00:03:42
I'm still yet, sorry.
00:03:43
Simon Chappuzeau: You threw me this ball.
00:03:44
Now if you catch the ball.
00:03:45
It was really great because, um, I think one of the great things
00:03:48
with writing on LinkedIn, and it's not only doing your profile
00:03:51
but also to content, is that it challenges, challenges you to
00:03:55
think about what you do, uh, how you do it, for whom you do it.
00:03:59
Um, and at least for me, but it's something that I hear from
00:04:04
another, a lot of other creators on LinkedIn, that it really
00:04:07
helps them to gain clarity for their business.
00:04:10
So it's not only about the profile, it's, it pertains to
00:04:13
all aspects of your business and you've just given, uh, testimony
00:04:17
to that.
00:04:18
Jim James: Yeah, absolutely.
00:04:19
And in an earlier episode, Simon has uh, reference to sort of a
00:04:23
number of questions that he asks, and you can also get those
00:04:26
from Simon as well after the
00:04:27
Simon Chappuzeau: show.
00:04:28
Mm-hmm.
00:04:29
Okay.
00:04:29
So back to what we've achieved over past couple of weeks.
00:04:33
So we've reviewed your profile page next week on our.
00:04:37
Take a deep dive and review that what you, the changes you've
00:04:39
done.
00:04:40
Um, we have then looked at your, um, at the frequency of your
00:04:45
posting, we found that you, or I found that you posted like, uh,
00:04:49
3, 4, 5 times a day and, uh, I told you not to, and you obeyed
00:04:54
and, um, you stopped.
00:04:56
Which is a good thing because, um, it, it said, yeah, it saved
00:05:01
you some time.
00:05:02
Um, Then the other week we spoke about the posting in groups, um,
00:05:09
which was a thing that you've done.
00:05:11
I think you mentioned you were part of 80 groups.
00:05:13
We didn't, you, you didn't post on all of them, but you posted
00:05:16
in many and we did a quick review and you saw that, um, you
00:05:21
did not really get a lot of views, uh, on most of these
00:05:24
posts.
00:05:25
And you, you said like you spent an hour a day crossposting in
00:05:29
all of these groups for basically no reach.
00:05:33
Jim James: That's right.
00:05:34
Yeah, I, exactly, Simon.
00:05:36
So highlighting a number of inefficiencies there in my, in
00:05:39
my sort of LinkedIn.
00:05:40
So
00:05:40
Simon Chappuzeau: we've saved, you know, we've saved, you know,
00:05:44
a ton of, ton of time by stopping the cross posting and
00:05:47
the, the frequent posting.
00:05:49
And by the way, I did, um, I did a quick shoutout last week, uh,
00:05:54
on my profile and somebody else saw copied that asking.
00:06:00
Is seeing any be benefits of being part of groups and, um, I
00:06:05
barely heard anybody say, yeah, they're, they're great.
00:06:08
They work for me, so it's something I thought I hadn't
00:06:12
figured out, but it looks like nobody's really figured out what
00:06:14
groups are good for.
00:06:16
Um, so glad you left them or you stopped posting.
00:06:20
Jim James: Okay.
00:06:21
Yeah.
00:06:21
I think, uh, that the groups and performance of groups deserves
00:06:23
another deeper dive.
00:06:25
But let's carry on today with what we've
00:06:27
Simon Chappuzeau: got.
00:06:28
Yep, exactly.
00:06:29
So today we wanna look at different post types and that is
00:06:34
always a popular topic on LinkedIn.
00:06:37
And uh, a thing that I keep hearing a lot is are saying
00:06:41
video.
00:06:42
Videos.
00:06:43
Great.
00:06:43
We should do more videos because everybody loves videos and, um,
00:06:48
there, there, there's, there's some hard data out there.
00:06:51
So it's not like, um, it's, it's sort of set, set in stone and
00:06:56
um, there's a guy called Richard Funder Blom.
00:06:59
Uh, who publishes the big LinkedIn report every year?
00:07:04
Uh, everybody who has not heard of Richard blm, he's, uh, a
00:07:07
Dutch guy living in Barcelona and he, uh, runs an agency
00:07:11
focusing on LinkedIn optimization for companies.
00:07:15
And, um, he does a, an annual report and I'll share some
00:07:20
numbers from this report, which basically shows us that, um, Not
00:07:30
all post styles and types are the same.
00:07:34
And um, there are some post types that do really well,
00:07:37
others that don't do well.
00:07:40
And I've just listed here, uh, these post types and you have to
00:07:43
understand there's like, they're like two sides to, um, the post
00:07:48
form you choose.
00:07:50
One is the average reach, which means.
00:07:53
across all people who use that kind of post, what is the reach
00:07:58
they get?
00:07:59
But the other side is how you play that kind of post format.
00:08:04
So there are people who choose a postform that does not very well
00:08:10
on average, but they just kill it because they are very good at
00:08:14
sort of mastering this type and people.
00:08:17
Have come to know them for that.
00:08:20
But these are average numbers and uh, how you have to read
00:08:24
them is that, um, so you have a baseline, which is, um, yeah,
00:08:29
the average of all different post types together.
00:08:32
And if you do document posts, um, you get on average 2.2 to
00:08:38
three.
00:08:39
For the average reach, um, which means, uh, without doing much,
00:08:44
you just get more reach because LinkedIn gives you sort of a
00:08:47
soft boost.
00:08:49
Um, it it, it also has a psychological side because some
00:08:54
post performance are more easier to consume.
00:08:57
And we're gonna talk about this with videos in a.
00:09:02
So we have the, the document posts usually slideshow.
00:09:06
Then we have polls.
00:09:07
I think everybody of everybody has seen polls on all.
00:09:12
Possible topics.
00:09:13
Um, they've, they were even more popular year back.
00:09:16
They've sort of dropped in popularity and reach.
00:09:19
Um, carousel posts are not to be mistaken with the slideshow,
00:09:26
which is what, what is called the document post.
00:09:30
So what I do is I.
00:09:34
Document posts, which are slide shows that I create outside of
00:09:37
LinkedIn, as a pdf, I upload them.
00:09:40
That's why there are document posts and carousels is what you
00:09:43
can create natively within LinkedIn.
00:09:47
Um, and they look slightly different because you always
00:09:49
have an slide overlap to the next slide.
00:09:52
So you see slide one and quarter of the second slide, so that's
00:09:57
the carousel post.
00:09:58
So it's very similar, but it's different and the rate is worse.
00:10:04
and um, almost baseline post is the text and the text and
00:10:09
picture post, which I think all of us are familiar with.
00:10:13
Jim James: Um, and, and, right.
00:10:14
And that's kind of the entry level post, isn't it, that most
00:10:16
of us are doing
00:10:18
Simon Chappuzeau: Exactly, because it's the easiest to just
00:10:20
write something and it's easy to just add a picture.
00:10:24
Um, so it's definitely one of the most popular post types.
00:10:28
Then on the below average, We have on first position the video
00:10:35
post.
00:10:35
Um, and I think it's Oh, interesting talking that the
00:10:38
video posts only get 0.5.
00:10:40
Isn't it surprising?
00:10:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:10:43
And um, and again, as I said the beginning, it's one is the, the
00:10:49
average reach of all people across all form.
00:10:53
and video posts I think are a great example, um, because there
00:10:58
are people who do pretty well with video posts, but, uh, video
00:11:02
posts are, I think a good example if you have to do them
00:11:05
really well to, um, reach people.
00:11:09
And one of the typical mistakes I see with video posts are
00:11:12
people don't do subtitles.
00:11:14
And, uh, back to the scenario, London subway, rainy day between
00:11:19
two stops.
00:11:20
You don't gonna crank up the volume volume to hear what this
00:11:24
guy is saying.
00:11:24
Yeah.
00:11:25
So you're just gonna skip it.
00:11:26
And, um, so subtitles super important and the length, super
00:11:32
important.
00:11:32
You have a lot of videos there, like five minutes.
00:11:34
Nobody watches a five minute video on LinkedIn, so you can't
00:11:38
do a lot of things badly.
00:11:41
And, um, people who kill it with video really understand how to
00:11:44
do the.
00:11:48
Then, um, the other post, um, type is a post with an external
00:11:53
link.
00:11:53
And, um, I know that this is also a thing that a lot of
00:11:56
people talk about, um, whether LinkedIn sort of re deliberately
00:12:03
reduces reach for.
00:12:06
Posts with external links.
00:12:08
Um, there are two theories to it.
00:12:10
Uh, one is, it's not really LinkedIn who's doing that, but
00:12:14
it's um, the, the visual appeal of these posts.
00:12:18
And I can show you an example of one of your posts.
00:12:22
Um, let me get this one,
00:12:27
Jim James: Simon.
00:12:27
Just a small thing.
00:12:28
You've got someone doing some construction.
00:12:30
I hope they're not coming to take you away, but we can hear
00:12:32
that quite a.
00:12:33
Simon Chappuzeau: That is horrible.
00:12:35
Thanks for taking that out.
00:12:36
As we close.
00:12:37
Jim James: Sorry, have a technical interruption there.
00:12:41
Simon's in South Africa, they've had a power outage, uh, in the
00:12:45
last week and he was explaining that to me earlier now.
00:12:48
Okay.
00:12:49
So we Perfect.
00:12:50
Welcome back.
00:12:52
Simon Chappuzeau: That's better.
00:12:54
Thanks for pointing that out.
00:12:56
Okay.
00:12:56
Um, okay, so the post with the external link I wanted to show
00:13:02
you.
00:13:04
Jim James: Yeah.
00:13:04
So it's really interesting.
00:13:05
So the assumption that you know, articles and as you say,
00:13:09
external links and video posts means that.
00:13:13
These are underperforming.
00:13:15
Simon Chappuzeau: Okay?
00:13:16
Mm-hmm.
00:13:17
So you did a post yesterday.
00:13:20
Why does I
00:13:21
Jim James: was so, I was so proud of this post as well.
00:13:25
So,
00:13:27
Simon Chappuzeau: well, it's, it's beautiful layout and, um,
00:13:31
what happens, and I was just saying, um, you, you added the
00:13:36
link and LinkedIn automatically created this image.
00:13:40
From the link.
00:13:41
Yes.
00:13:42
Um, it's nothing you did.
00:13:44
And, um, there are two things why the post, this post might
00:13:50
have underperformed technically.
00:13:52
Um, one is that it has this external link, which is
00:13:57
something that yes, linked probably doesn't like.
00:14:00
But also what happens if you have an Exxon link, you lose
00:14:03
control over the image that you have.
00:14:04
Yes.
00:14:05
And this image, um, is.
00:14:10
Not really descriptive of what to expect from this post.
00:14:14
And it's not in line with what you do or your brand.
00:14:18
It's sort of like, it's, it's not something if I would scroll
00:14:22
through the feed, I would not say, Hey, this is Jim's post, I
00:14:25
wanna read this.
00:14:26
Okay.
00:14:26
And um, yep, that is, The reason, well, the, the reason is
00:14:32
also if you look at the, at the bottom of the post, you see this
00:14:35
PR episodes by Crowley.
00:14:38
It just doesn't look very nice.
00:14:40
And um, it's the same with, uh, newsletters on LinkedIn, uh, and
00:14:46
articles.
00:14:47
If you do those and they appear the newsfeed as a post, it
00:14:52
always looks sort of like.
00:14:55
Not, not sexy.
00:14:56
Okay.
00:14:57
Interesting.
00:14:58
I have not any scene really performed well.
00:15:02
And one, one thing is I attributed to the, to the less
00:15:06
than
00:15:07
Jim James: optimal look and feel.
00:15:10
Okay.
00:15:10
Right.
00:15:11
Yeah.
00:15:11
Cuz this is, um, PR episodes by proudly.
00:15:13
I'm, I'm the one of the hosts, uh, for the upcoming session.
00:15:18
So I was trying to amplify that event and the role I was
00:15:21
playing.
00:15:22
Um, but it, I thought I'd done a nice job on it, but is it that
00:15:26
if I hadn't put the link in that it might have performed better
00:15:30
than Simon?
00:15:31
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah, so I, I don't want to, to, to only blame
00:15:34
it on the link.
00:15:34
There are a couple of things.
00:15:35
Um, so, but the link, um, with the, Image that is automatically
00:15:41
pulled, um, just doesn't look as nice.
00:15:45
Then there's the, the hypothesis that external links limit the
00:15:50
reach in general.
00:15:52
Um, there's no hard evidence, but it's sort of can be assumed.
00:15:57
Jim James: Yeah.
00:15:58
Other platforms do that.
00:15:59
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah.
00:16:00
Other platforms do that.
00:16:02
And then is the other thing, um, which is more the, the content
00:16:07
and it then it's more to style.
00:16:09
But what I also see is whenever, uh, there is an announcement for
00:16:13
some life webinar or something, you can join something time
00:16:17
bound.
00:16:18
People don't really care about that.
00:16:19
It's, it's, it's, um, It's interesting, it's something I
00:16:24
try to avoid and, um, people I see like Justin Wells who are
00:16:30
like the top performers in this space, they never or barely ever
00:16:35
post something like, join this webinar or come to this event or
00:16:40
duh, duh duh.
00:16:40
It's always pure content on topic consistently and
00:16:46
recognizably on that one thing that they talk.
00:16:50
Jim James: Okay.
00:16:50
That's really good.
00:16:51
Thank you for that.
00:16:52
I know we've got a lot still to cover and we've uh, we've
00:16:54
already got quarter pass, so we've only got 15 minutes less
00:16:57
time, so I won't interrupt you.
00:16:58
Carry on.
00:16:59
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah.
00:17:00
Okay.
00:17:00
So let's go back to the overview.
00:17:02
Uh, out.
00:17:06
So we spoke about the video posts, uh, the posts with the
00:17:10
external link, and I mean, it's a drastic drop from average to
00:17:14
0.5 to 0.5, uh, four to 0.5.
00:17:17
Uh, celebrate.
00:17:18
Let's talk about that one.
00:17:19
It's a new thing that, uh, I think has about that.
00:17:22
Um, but newsletters and articles, uh, are like
00:17:27
shockingly at the bottom of the.
00:17:29
Point two, 2.9 and 0.1 2.2.
00:17:34
And um, again, yeah, what can I say?
00:17:38
Um, both, um, appear in your newsfeed as opposed and in doing
00:17:46
so, they just don't look very good.
00:17:49
And let me share an sample here.
00:17:52
And
00:17:52
Jim James: I guess, and it makes sense really if you think about
00:17:54
it cuz it's actually not original thought.
00:17:56
If you are sharing someone else's article, You're not
00:17:58
really sharing by and large original thought, you're just
00:18:02
taking someone else's and that's not being rewarded by
00:18:05
Simon Chappuzeau: LinkedIn, right?
00:18:06
Yeah.
00:18:07
I mean, LinkedIn always likes people to share original content
00:18:10
and not recycle other, other people's stuff.
00:18:12
That definitely is one of the factors when in this case, you
00:18:16
link to your own article, as we can see here.
00:18:22
Um, But again, it's, it's, if I scroll through the feed, it just
00:18:29
doesn't look very nice with this gray area at the bottom and a
00:18:35
lot of text that is not really.
00:18:38
Essential for me to make a decision on whether I want to
00:18:41
read the whole thing or not.
00:18:43
Um, so I think that's on the aesthetic side, but apparently
00:18:48
there's also a technical side why LinkedIn doesn't give a lot
00:18:52
of reach to these kinds of, um, posts.
00:18:57
Interesting.
00:18:57
Back here.
00:18:58
So, Yeah, so general overview, articles, newsletters, the
00:19:04
worst.
00:19:05
So I would try to avoid that as much as I can.
00:19:08
Um, and as you said, text posts with a picture is the baseline,
00:19:15
the easiest thing to do, and the best performing post you can do
00:19:20
is the slideshow post.
00:19:23
Which is like a carousel, but it's a dedicated piece of
00:19:27
content.
00:19:29
Okay.
00:19:32
So, um, to
00:19:35
Jim James: and on another day we can go through in more detail,
00:19:38
but today we're gonna just go top line.
00:19:40
But that's why we're, we're working over 12 weeks, so, okay.
00:19:43
Perfect.
00:19:43
Simon, what do we have to do next?
00:19:44
Because we've, you know, another 11 minutes before people will
00:19:48
head off for their lunch.
00:19:50
Simon Chappuzeau: Yeah, I mean, um, I think we have to, to make
00:19:52
a plan for Asia.
00:19:53
Asia.
00:19:53
How, how, how.
00:19:54
Forward.
00:19:55
Um, one thing I noticed, um, we spoke about what you wanted to
00:20:01
post about, you have a book that has been published, I think it
00:20:04
was March 23rd.
00:20:06
Showed.
00:20:07
Showed to us.
00:20:09
I wanna see, yeah,
00:20:09
Jim James: there's the book.
00:20:10
Yeah.
00:20:12
Cameras
00:20:13
Simon Chappuzeau: whole of your body.
00:20:14
Yeah.
00:20:15
Okay.
00:20:15
Yeah.
00:20:16
Notice entrepreneur.
00:20:17
Very nice.
00:20:18
And I think it was published on March the 23rd with Wiley
00:20:22
Jim James: and, um, February, February 23rd.
00:20:24
Yeah.
00:20:24
February, February.
00:20:25
Simon Chappuzeau: February, yeah.
00:20:25
Yep.
00:20:27
And um, in this book you have 50 entrepreneurs share the.
00:20:34
The strategies, the tools that they've used to be to, to get
00:20:38
noticed.
00:20:39
Um, yep.
00:20:40
And we said, you are gonna milk the content from this book for
00:20:45
your LinkedIn posts.
00:20:45
And when I look at the posts that you did over the past week,
00:20:50
what do I see?
00:20:54
I've been guilty
00:20:54
Jim James: of that full amount content
00:20:56
Simon Chappuzeau: strategy.
00:20:56
You did then follow your own content strategy.
00:21:01
I'm shocked.
00:21:02
Jim James: Well, and, and of course, ironically enough, I
00:21:05
made work for myself mm-hmm.
00:21:08
by thinking of new things.
00:21:11
Um, so busted actually absolutely busted on that.
00:21:17
I find I've had a conversation with another entrepreneur this
00:21:18
week talking about his content strategy, and he showed me his
00:21:22
content strategy that's been written down, and then I asked,
00:21:25
what are you doing this week?
00:21:26
And he said, I'm doing a post about what my son did at school.
00:21:29
I'm like, well, Why are you not doing a post about your content
00:21:33
strategy So it's kind of we, why do we not follow through?
00:21:38
Simon, what?
00:21:39
What's your
00:21:39
Simon Chappuzeau: theory?
00:21:40
I don't know.
00:21:41
It's, um, It's the entrepreneur syndrome of jumping for the next
00:21:46
shiny thing.
00:21:47
Maybe it's like, oh, that's something.
00:21:49
Jim James: Yeah.
00:21:50
I think there's a fear of boredom, right?
00:21:52
Simon Chappuzeau: There's a fear of boredom.
00:21:53
Yeah.
00:21:53
Entrepreneur, shiny.
00:21:54
Yeah.
00:21:54
Mm-hmm.
00:21:55
And, um, and maybe the other thing also might be that, uh,
00:22:01
we.
00:22:02
overestimate our audience attention and probably they
00:22:08
wouldn't mind hearing the same or similar stuff time and again,
00:22:14
because probably if either not seen it, they've forgotten about
00:22:17
it, or if it's good content, why wouldn't they like to see it
00:22:20
again?
00:22:20
Because, uh, who, who, who doesn't like to be reminded
00:22:23
about, about good things?
00:22:24
So I think.
00:22:26
For speaking from my, for me personally, that I probably
00:22:30
sometimes feel like I can't, again, talk about the same thing
00:22:34
when in fact I should.
00:22:37
Jim James: Okay.
00:22:37
That's really good.
00:22:38
And actually, cuz the book has 50 entrepreneurs and I, the plan
00:22:41
was I would take three, uh, per day and highlight some of the
00:22:45
learnings and, and so I've got a.
00:22:48
You know, I've got a couple of weeks worth of, of really good
00:22:51
content, uh, from the podcast into the book.
00:22:53
So I must lean into that content strategy again and and stay
00:22:59
focused.
00:23:00
Simon Chappuzeau: One.
00:23:01
Yeah.
00:23:01
And one, one other share.
00:23:02
Maybe you can back that up with your own experience, but what
00:23:06
I've noticed myself is whenever I.
00:23:12
Create or write something.
00:23:14
I spent more time on making a decision and sort of like laying
00:23:21
the foundations for a post than I really spent on writing.
00:23:26
That sort of, once I have.
00:23:28
Crystally clarity, what I'm going to write about it.
00:23:31
It's very fast, but I spent probably half of my time, if I
00:23:35
look at one post half of the time, trying to figure out what
00:23:39
is this post really about?
00:23:42
And only once I've figured it out it's super fast.
00:23:46
And um, I think that's sort of time.
00:23:49
Killer park salons if we do on the spot writing.
00:23:54
Um, does he easily spent an hour or me spent an hour or two
00:24:00
writing a post, and half of the time is just figuring out what
00:24:04
I'm going to write about
00:24:07
Jim James: Simon, I think you've, you've nailed that
00:24:09
again.
00:24:09
And, and I think that, uh, the other aspect is that because we
00:24:13
want almost instant, instant success, we write something, if
00:24:16
it doesn't take off, we think, oh.
00:24:19
I've done the wrong thing.
00:24:19
I'll do something else.
00:24:21
And yet what we have to do is to think through what will work and
00:24:24
then execute on that plan.
00:24:26
Mm-hmm.
00:24:26
Uh, so thank you.
00:24:27
So useful to, you know, have this weekly session with you so
00:24:31
that we can mm-hmm.
00:24:32
you know, check back in on it.
00:24:33
Okay.
00:24:34
Um, Simon.
00:24:36
We've got another six minutes before we let people in Asia.
00:24:39
Let's dinner.
00:24:40
Let's make the plan dinner for the next dinner next week.
00:24:41
Yeah.
00:24:42
Yes.
00:24:42
Simon Chappuzeau: What are we gonna do next for lunch?
00:24:44
Um, so what is your commitment till next week?
00:24:46
What are, what are you gonna post about, uh, and what
00:24:50
postform are you gonna choose?
00:24:53
Jim James: Well, I think.
00:24:55
I've got the book, I'm gonna go back to what the plan and the
00:24:58
original remit was to get people to know about the 50 ideas in
00:25:02
this book, which will help them to get noticed on a way to a
00:25:05
sale, uh, of their business.
00:25:07
And that's something else I've worked on refining my, uh,
00:25:11
speaker bio and my strap line.
00:25:15
And so what I'm gonna work on.
00:25:18
Taking the content from the book.
00:25:20
Mm.
00:25:20
And then what I, in light of what you said about the highest
00:25:22
performing posts, I'm going to, um, make little video, um,
00:25:28
little PDFs and in fact, the, I think the post that performed
00:25:32
best was where I made a 30 excuses to get noticed.
00:25:35
Mm.
00:25:35
And I did, uh, six slides in pdf, which I built in Canberra.
00:25:40
Having asked you how to do that, for which, thank you.
00:25:43
Um, So I can take some summaries from the, you know, three per
00:25:48
day and then I can make those into a downloadable, uh, form
00:25:53
that people then can, can get, because that's then using the
00:25:57
content strategy, but the optimal format.
00:26:01
And actually, if I follow that through, I can pre bake that
00:26:06
because I, I can write those in Word and give those to my va,
00:26:11
Alex in the Philippines.
00:26:13
And actually then she can start to be making that up for me.
00:26:16
Cuz what we haven't mentioned is that if you make up something
00:26:20
every day different, no one else can do it for you.
00:26:23
You can't delegate.
00:26:25
And the rest of my business, Alex has been really doing a
00:26:27
great job with her team on post cast, post production, for
00:26:30
example.
00:26:32
And the posting, because of my inconsistent approach, means I
00:26:36
can't delegate it.
00:26:38
Good point.
00:26:39
So the workflow implications of having a strategy that's
00:26:43
consistent, um, will also liberate time.
00:26:48
So that's, that's what I'm gonna work on.
00:26:50
Simon Chappuzeau: I think that was a golden summary, uh, in
00:26:54
terms of having a strategy and executing on it as a time saver,
00:26:57
park salons and, uh, everything else stops your team from taking
00:27:02
on the work that you can delegate and then it sits on
00:27:05
your.
00:27:07
Jim James: Yeah.
00:27:07
Yeah.
00:27:08
So I think that's, that's gonna be where I'm gonna go with this.
00:27:12
And now we've managed to increase the number of people
00:27:15
that are following, you know, and part of my community now to
00:27:18
11 that's gone up.
00:27:20
Mm-hmm.
00:27:21
Um, that's cool because we were sub, you know, sub 11 weeks
00:27:25
ago.
00:27:26
Um, posting rates have also, um, gone down, but the engagement
00:27:31
has increased over a hundred.
00:27:33
So for all the things I'm doing wrong in the big picture, we are
00:27:36
moving in the right direction, aren't we?
00:27:39
Simon Chappuzeau: Absolutely.
00:27:40
And, uh, I mean, it's, it's easy to get.
00:27:45
Overwhelmed with all the things that you have to do and can do.
00:27:49
And I think we always have to look at, um, how, how much can
00:27:53
we change from a human perspective because we are run
00:27:56
by habits and we have to change habits, and you don't change
00:27:59
habits overnight.
00:28:00
So instead of trying to change everything at once, uh, it's
00:28:04
better to do one thing after the other and so on, because
00:28:09
otherwise we are just overwhelmed with like all the
00:28:12
things we have to take care of.
00:28:15
Jim James: So Simon, that, that sounds like, um, kind of a, an
00:28:18
end point for everybody.
00:28:19
Mm-hmm.
00:28:20
if there's one thing that you wanted to say to people that are
00:28:23
listening, cause we've got, uh, about a minute left.
00:28:25
If there's one, if you like, task or tip that you'd like as
00:28:28
a, as a takeaway for everybody.
00:28:31
That might be watching.
00:28:32
Um, I've got my tasks.
00:28:33
You can have, have one from Simon.
00:28:35
What would you, what would you say to people?
00:28:37
Simon Chappuzeau: Well, I, I guess coming back to, to the, to
00:28:41
different post formats, it's really to choose one format for
00:28:45
yourself, master it consistently, and, uh, stick to
00:28:49
it.
00:28:50
And, uh, just be good at this one.
00:28:54
Jim James: Simon Chapo, LinkedIn Maestro and extraordinaire.
00:28:58
Thank you so much for taking me through week five.
00:29:00
When we started this, you said we'll need 12 weeks, and I
00:29:03
thought eight, but I can really see the degree of detail and
00:29:07
attention to detail that you take.
00:29:09
Um, so I'm really grateful that you're investing so much time in
00:29:12
helping me on this, on this LinkedIn Safari Simon Chap in
00:29:14
South Africa.
00:29:16
That's a pleasure.
00:29:17
Thank you, Jim.
00:29:19
So thanks for joining us.
00:29:20
Um, on session five, we will be putting the video on YouTube on
00:29:25
our channel.
00:29:25
You can find it on, uh, YouTube at the Unnoticed Entrepreneur
00:29:28
Channel and also on the podcast, which is the Unnoticed
00:29:32
Entrepreneur, all players.
00:29:34
And we'll have run this as an audio and Simon and I will catch
00:29:37
up at the same time, same place next week.
00:29:40
So join us for session six, and you can see.
00:29:42
Whether I've managed to stick to my content strategy and whether
00:29:46
I've managed to make posts to get greater engagement.
00:29:48
Thank you for joining Simon Chapo in South Africa.
00:29:51
Me, Jim James here in the uk.
00:29:53
Enjoy your dinner or your lunch and keep on posting on LinkedIn.
00:29:57
Cheers, bye bye-bye.
00:30:00
How do you say goodbye in South Africa?
00:30:06
Simon Chappuzeau: I don't know.
00:30:06
There are some Africans word that they use, but uh, my
00:30:12
Africans is too rudimentary,
00:30:13
Jim James: too.
00:30:18
We'll just do a universal.
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