Video Transcription:

So today we're going to be talking about how you can use social media better and how you can get more engagement. And as I was saying, you don't necessarily base your success on how many comments you get, or how many likes you get. However, they are good measures for if your content is engaging, building some community, and they are a way that people can engage. If you're not getting an engagement, you're not getting any visibility. And you're probably not getting any sales off of that. Although there are times in your posting schedule where you might want to post something that doesn't necessarily get engagement, but to use a different goal. Today, we're going to talk about how you can get more engagement on your posts on social media platforms. First thing I see people doing that doesn't get engagement is that they post a post that requires me to go somewhere else to read it.

And I actually don't allow these in our Facebook group because of this. If you post a link, most of the time, you will get zero engagement on that link. Now in LinkedIn, people have blamed this on the algorithm and that's possible, but I'm guessing the algorithm doesn't like links. Not just because it kicks you off the platform, but because humans scroll past them, because I'm assuming that I have to read that link to respond. And either I know I don't have time to read that link to respond so I just keep scrolling or I go to that link and then I am gone, right? I'm not going to come back and respond to your post after I've read that. People are moving too fast. So what we need to do is give people enough information in the post that they can respond to. They shouldn't have to go and read the link to get some great value out of whatever it is you're posting.

And then you can include the link, but don't include the click-through graphic that pops up, the preview that pops up because then they're going to click and they're going to be gone right there. They're not going to engage on your posts. And so when you are doing some kind of a click through link, you might still do that in your content strategy, because you're going to click through to your blog. You're going to click through to a call to action page. Those are great ways to use those click-through links because then what you want is the click-through. You don't necessarily want engagement, but in most of your posts on most social platforms, you will want engagement first to build that community and build your visibility. So don't do those link previews. Give enough in the content that I can get the gist of the article and I can respond. Be clear about how I can respond and engage.

And then you can still include that link. As long as it doesn't have that click-through, you can include the link in the comments or in the post. I don't really think it matters even on LinkedIn as long as that preview doesn't show up. That's what has people scrolling by and not engaging is the reality or the thought, the perception that I have to read that article before I can engage on this post. And it's just not going to work. People don't have time, or they're going to shoot over to forums or wherever, and they're going to get caught up in reading. And they're not going to remember to go back to your posts and respond. So that's the first mistake that people make is they're not thinking about how humans are showing up to that platform and how they want to engage. The second thing that people are not paying attention to is the algorithm.

And I'm not a fan of, you know, playing to the algorithm, trying to trick it, overwhelming yourself with all the things about the algorithm. But there are some pretty simple things that we know that you can avoid to get better results. And most of them actually are around getting better engagement because when your post gets engagement or people stop to pause to read it, the algorithm likes that. It's not like trying to trick anyone, right? It's trying to get the content that people will stay and read in front of the most people because it wants people to stay on whatever platform this is, video, Twitter doesn't matter if your content engages people and they respond and they stay on that pro on that post, then the algorithm is going to like it. One thing we know about the LinkedIn algorithm is that for some reason, it doesn't like shared content.

Now this is kind of hilarious because if you've made a comment on someone else's post in the last week, you might've seen this thing pop-up right underneath your comment. So if I go and comment on Tamika's posts, it might pop-up this thing that says, share this post, don't do that. Don't give into LinkedIn's rogue suggestions because when I share to make this content, so I actually hit the share button, my post has a very little likely of getting seen, and I don't really know why it doesn't make any sense in the LinkedIn algorithm, but it may be similar to that same thing we were just talking about with the link because people think they need to go and read Tamika's post to be able to respond. And so they click on her post and now they're gone from mine.

And so my post doesn't get any traction. Her post might get a little bit of traction from my share, but not as much as if I did it differently because if I get more traction, she gets more traction, right? So I can still share Tamika's content, but I want to go and capture the link to that post, start my own new post, and then link to her content in my post without letting that preview pop-up, you know, without having that visual as the shared post. It's just a link. And maybe I'll just share this with you here because I'm realizing that this might be challenging to visualize unless we actually go there. So I'm on my homepage right now for the Career Thought Leaders, but I'm going to just go to my homepage. And all I'm talking about is here, Allie Baldwin's post, right? If I hit share, what pops up is her post, and this is not going to do very well in LinkedIn.

I'm not going to get much visibility on this post because of something who knows. So what I can do instead, discard this post, come here and copy the link to the post. Now I write my own post here, right? So I write my own thing. I write my own thing, response to what she's saying, being cordial, being collegial. I can add to what she says or even disagree as long as I agree with something, she said. Have some kind of collegial. And then I could say, in addition, I would add this and it can be somewhat contradictory to what she said. I don't have to say, I don't agree with her and blah, blah, blah, right? I can just do that. And then I can put the link to her post here. And all I want to do is click out of that preview.

I don't want that preview to show up. I'll put in my hashtags under that 3 hashtags on LinkedIn. Let's just say personal branding, just have one that shows up here and then I'm going to make sure again, that that preview is gone before I hit post. So when I do that, the link will still show up, but it won't look like a shared post and I'll get much more visibility. I could put that link in the comments as well. That used to be kind of a big deal, you know, put the link in the comments instead of in the post. I really think it had more to do with the preview showing up than the link actually being in the post. And you could try that and see what you think and let me know. I'd love to hear what you think, but that's the difference.

So instead of hitting the share button, I'm going to copy the link and, and share it that way. That is a simple thing to do that the algorithm likes better. That will help me get more visibility for my post as well as for, for her post. Hey Jackie, good to see you. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I know. And you think you're being helpful. You're sharing someone else's post and I love it when you share my content. So please share my content, but for your benefit, as well as mine, I would encourage you to use the link instead of that share.

Now, if you have a really good visual post, like maybe someone's done a, a quick poll on LinkedIn, and you want to share the results of their poll, you can try sharing that visual, but just realize that people are going to click right through to that powerful visual, which will mean your post won't get as much visibility because you're putting people to their posts and as soon as LinkedIn sees that, everyone's clicking off of you into that, that's when they kind of hide your post because it's kind of like your website bounce rate, right? Google doesn't like it when people go to your site and they immediately leave. That's what's going on with these posts. People are seeing your posts, but they're immediately bouncing to something else.

And that's what is getting your post pushed down. So I would try it with the link and see how it goes and see what you think. So that is our second point. The first one was that they're not thinking about the human. The second one is you're not thinking about the computer and the algorithm. I don't try to gain the algorithm or think about it too much, but there are some simple things that I can do differently that won't make the algorithm mad and sharing posts differently is one of those easy ones.

I'll just throw it in here that LinkedIn recently raised the character limit for a post to 3,000 characters instead of 1,300. I haven't seen if there is the post on the company pages, which used to be 700 characters. They might still be. And they're rolling this out in LinkedIn style. So some people got the extra characters and some people didn't. If you try some of those 3,000 character posts, I'd love to see what you think and how it goes. I've seen some people using them. Usually there are a lot of short paragraphs. I still find it to be a really long scroll, but I'd love to hear what you think if you start using it and if you have any success. So the third reason that posts don't work and don't get engagement is because people don't think about why would someone engage, especially on this platform.

So on LinkedIn, people are going to engage to build their own personal brand. It's going to be hard to get people to engage with a post that makes them vulnerable, or, you know, ask them what they're struggling with because people are on LinkedIn to build their personal brand. They want to look good. So if you want people to engage in your posts, give them a way to engage. That makes them look good. What tips would they add? What's worked for them? You know, what have they done as a great leader? Ask questions that give people an opportunity to build their own brand, their own visibility in a positive way. And you'll get much more engagement. That doesn't mean that you can't ask a question that gets to a more vulnerable place. You'll just expect that post to get less engagement and maybe some DMs, which is great now on Instagram. And those types of platforms, especially on Instagram, people are going to respond more to something that's inspirational.

You know, most of the comments I see on content, there is more around inspiration and not something where people are giving an in-depth response and do a little bit of research. What are other people in your world, in your space or other people you follow on those platforms? What are they doing to get engagement? And you don't want to copy it, but you can say, oh, here, here's the types of questions they're asking, or the way that they're kind of doing this. And this is how they're getting people to comment on their posts. Number one thing for getting engagement is giving engagement. And this is true on any platform. I know a lot of people on LinkedIn will say that they spend 10 minutes commenting on other people's posts before they post. And then another 10 minutes commenting after. So I like to say it's a 6:1 ratio, at least where you're commenting on other people's and then you're posting because that's what makes people go back to your profiles, see your content and want to engage is kind of that give to get. You can't be overt about it, or, you know, say, come and see my posts.

And then people will not be happy with you on Instagram. You can get away with it a little bit more, you know, the hashtag follow me. And some of those things work on Instagram, is not going to work as much on LinkedIn. On Twitter, people seem to engage more with direct kind of questions depending on your audience. And again, things that people can reply to without being too vulnerable although I see people being more vulnerable on Twitter than maybe any other place, which is interesting. You really want to think about why would that person engage on your posts? How will it make them look when they engage? And in what ways could you help them look good? But in the way that you ask the question that you're asking in your post and the thread that you've heard throughout here is that you have to ask a question and you have to be clear.

One of the things I struggle with is that I'll ask like 2 or 3 questions, or my question will be kind of convoluted. And the clearer their question is, the easier it is for people to answer it. Of course, the easier it is for people to engage. And if that answer is going to help them build their personal brands, even better for getting them to engage, especially on LinkedIn. So those were my 3 tips. Think about the humans, the time that they have that they want to engage right there in real time. They want you to have the information there that they can engage with. Two, think about the algorithm and don't do things that we don't need to do, like pointing people away from your post, by a share or a pop-up of the article. And then 3, really think about getting people engaged in a way that fits with your platform.

And that makes them look good, especially if you're doing things on LinkedIn. Those are my three tips for today. I love it. If you have anything else that you would share and building your engagement, building your conversations. Obviously, you respond to every comment because it's really about building your community. And if you do that on your posts and you do it consistently, then you're, you'll be more likely to turn those relationships that you're building into leads for your business, referral partners, whatever it is that you might want for your business. So if you have other topics you'd like us to talk about on these Tuesdays, we'd love to hear them and be able to share them with you. If you have people that you'd like to come on and share something you think might be helpful to your colleagues or your colleagues in their work with clients, I'd love to hear that too. So we'll see you next Tuesday. Thank you everyone.