Why No One Engages with Your LinkedIn Content (Do This Instead)

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You're doing all the things.

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You're posting, you're sharing, you're showing up, and still you're not getting

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any closer towards your business goals.

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I'm here to break it to you.

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It's probably because your audience doesn't care about you.

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There.

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I said it.

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They do not care.

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And in today's episode, I've got a bit of tough love for you listeners.

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So stick around and we're gonna fix this problem and get

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your engagement back on track.

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G'Day everyone.

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It is Coach Michelle J Raymond, and welcome back for another

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episode of the podcast, and this is a really important podcast.

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This is something that is going to come across as a bit of tough love, like I said

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in the intro, but something that I think is so valuable to marketers and business

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owners looking to grow their businesses.

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And we're hearing so much on the platform, that the algorithm isn't

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showing our content as far, you're watching your numbers go plummeting,

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and it's happening to everyone.

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It's not just you.

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And very soon my friend Richard van der Blom will release an algorithm

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investigation report and he's gonna teach you lots of tips and tricks around things

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that you can do to tweak what you do on LinkedIn to get more reach and engagement.

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Now, I'm here to tell you, you don't need to wait for that.

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You can get in early and fix the problems with your content today.

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That's right, we can fix this today.

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I'm gonna share what the problem is, the solution, and give you the tools

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to do a quick audit of your own content so you can fix this immediately.

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No tools are required, it is just your time and attention.

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Getting your time and attention is easier said than done because I

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appreciate that this is only one part of what you have to get done every day.

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For marketers, you might be across multiple platforms in and out of

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meetings, probably managing a team if you're a senior marketer, possibly you

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are somebody that's starting out and managing different social media platforms.

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I get it.

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And you know, especially a shout out to those business owners who are responsible

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for everything in the business.

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Yay.

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Don't you love that?

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It's so cool to try and keep up with everything.

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But this episode is going to be short, sharp, and practical.

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My favorite types of episodes.

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Before we dive into all of that cool stuff today, here's a quick word

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from our podcast sponsors, Metricool.

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let's start out and talk about the most common issues that I see with content,

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and can I be honest for a moment?

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I don't think that anybody sets out to make bad content.

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And I don't even think it's bad content.

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It's just ineffective content.

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And I understand that from time to time, it could be because you

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just had to get the job done.

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And unfortunately, your audience can feel that you've just ticked and flicked

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and created content with that in mind.

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I also understand that there are pressures internally that people come

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to you and say, do a post on this.

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Reach our audience.

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We wanna tell the whole world about it.

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And I honestly think that that is the beginning of the end for poor content,

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especially when it comes to Pages.

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If I had to say what the biggest issue with content was that I see as I'm

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scrolling LinkedIn or working with my clients in two words, self-absorption.

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That's right, we only care about ourselves.

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We don't pay enough attention to our audience.

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ChatGPT it doesn't know your audience.

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It doesn't care about your audience.

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It is searching the internet for the average of all of that content

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out there and serving up something that is not specific to the people

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that you're trying to target.

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When you are self-absorbed and talk about yourself or have no consideration

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for the people that you are trying to target with your content, they know it.

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They feel it.

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It doesn't resonate, and they keep on scrolling.

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That then plays out when we use so much corporate jargon.

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We don't need any more of that in our lives, and it doesn't

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matter which industry you work in.

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This is a big part of content that I see with company pages, is that we feel

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like if we use the jargon and we sound smart, then people wanna buy only from

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the companies that sound the smartest.

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That's not actually the case.

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We are looking for companies that align with our values, that we

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feel seen, that we feel heard.

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I'm gonna go into this a little bit when we talk about the solutions,

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but ultimately, jargon is a killer for your content engagement.

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The other thing that you probably haven't thought about when

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you're in self-absorption mode is what's a day in the life of

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your target audience really like?

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No, really.

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Do they get up early?

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Do they have families to get off to school?

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Are they highly strung professionals that are in back-to-back meetings all day?

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Do they take lunch breaks?

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Do they probably skip their lunch breaks?

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Are they working on weekends?

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What is life like when they get home from work?

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Are they dealing with homework?

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Do they have kids' sports?

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Are they trying to do self-care for themselves?

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Do they stay up late?

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Are they night owls?

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If you can't come back to me with some generalised answers to many of those

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questions that I've just asked, then the answer is you're self-absorbed.

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You actually don't care about your audience.

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You have something you wanna say.

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You are just going to broadcast it at them, and they're just gonna

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take it whether they like it or not.

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You know that they don't like it because your numbers aren't working.

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You cannot blame the LinkedIn algorithm all the time.

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It is not the fault of the algorithm that you are not getting engagement.

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LinkedIn is showing your content elsewhere.

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It is making sure that you are being seen.

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It may not be by as much as what we were historically.

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But what happens when people see it, that's on you.

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And ultimately, I am going to guess, and I see this when I do audits for Company

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Pages or people book a Power Hour with me, the first thing I do is I look at

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their content and say, you know what?

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Your content, it's all about you, and nobody cares.

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And it's really a harsh truth, but it's also the most powerful thing

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that I can share with people.

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After this short break, let's come back and talk about the fix.

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I've got the solution for you.

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It's never doom and gloom listeners.

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There is always, if we have a problem, there are solutions, and especially

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when it comes back to content.

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And if talking about yourself and being self-absorbed is the kryptonite to your

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content, the good news is you also have the superpower within you to be able to

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fix this, and that superpower is empathy.

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Having empathy for what it's like for people on the other side and really

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getting to understand what is a day in the life like for them, can allow

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you to quickly fix your content.

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What are the key problems that they have?

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What are the challenges that they have in achieving their KPIs?

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If you work for somebody else, you're showing up every day trying to get

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closer to those goals so you can achieve your personal career goals.

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And that could be because it links to getting a promotion,

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it could be more wages.

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It could be bonuses, it could be all kinds of things.

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But as a creator, creating for your audience, think about what

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motivates people on the other side.

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What are they trying to achieve?

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And for some of your audience, it could be that they're really motivated by

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shared values, and we see that, especially with Gen Z. They're looking to work with

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people that have an opinion, that stand for something, that share their values.

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And if you don't show that in your content, then they could be swiping on by.

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Now when you bring empathy your content will shift and it will

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have an amazing impact on the people that are on the other side.

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Because all of a sudden it feels like they're invited to your party.

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It feels like they're the centre of attention and we

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pretty much all love that.

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Let's put this in a face-to-face context.

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We meet at a party or a networking event you come up and start talking

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to me and I start blabbering on about how amazing I am.

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I've just been on this world tour.

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I wrote books.

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I've got a YouTube channel.

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I'm amazing.

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I've done this, I've done that.

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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Everybody switches off.

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We all do it.

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That's when we say, oh, I'm just gonna go and get a drink, or

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I'm just going to the bathroom.

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People will walk away from that, and it's no different in an online world.

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The cool part is when you flick that switch, all of a sudden you'll have people

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flocking to you because they feel seen.

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They feel heard.

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They can understand your content.

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It's easy to consume and it offers a fair value exchange.

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Their time for your value.

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If those two things are aligned, they'll keep coming back.

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That's where your engagement will go up and when your engagement

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goes up, then also you're reach and impressions and views also will go up.

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How can you check where things are at to make sure that you are using empathy

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as your superpower to win on LinkedIn?

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Let's go back to the R.A.T.E framework.

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If you missed that podcast episode, I'm gonna put the details in the show

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notes because I dedicated a whole episode to this because it's really that

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important, and the R.A.T.E framework is R.A.T.E, so it's easy to remember.

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R.A.T.E your content, R.A.T.E your comments, and this is how it works.

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R, is your post relevant to your audience?

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That is very different to, this is what I want to post.

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This is what my boss wants me to post.

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This is what the company wants to talk about.

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Nobody cares about that stuff.

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They are looking for content that is relevant to them, that

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meets them where they're at.

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That helps them achieve their goals.

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I'm gonna keep repeating this over and over again.

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When it's relevant they will consume your content.

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Then we look at A authenticity.

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Authenticity in this case, I mean that we are not just using

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those templated approaches.

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That you really come across as the individual or the brand,

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and you are genuinely creating content with that audience in mind.

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And we ditch the jargon.

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We make it easy for people to read.

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So one quick check, if you put your post into ChatGPT and ask it is this

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suitable for a level four reader?

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And this is because we wanna make sure that our content is most accessible

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by the most number of people.

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And especially on a global platform, you're gonna have people from all

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walks of life, all backgrounds, all education levels, and we wanna

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make sure that we can reach 'em.

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And yes, this includes even if the person that you are targeting is the

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CEO or someone high up in a business, make it easy for them to consume.

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That's a really quick and easy tip.

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T is thought leadership.

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Now for me, thought leadership is always all about just having

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something that's original.

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That shows your positioning in the industry.

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That you have a great understanding of the topic, and you can

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share your own opinion on this.

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There are so many different ways that you can use the word thought leadership.

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But for me, the key point is always having your own opinions and your own

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experiences, and using that to lead other people to get closer to their

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goals and what they're trying to achieve.

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Always coming back.

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We're serving our audience and solving the challenges that they have.

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E. E comes back to empathy.

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The superpower of all content.

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And empathy is so important because I want you to check in

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and say, in this piece of content?

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Do I really see things from the same view of my audience?

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Do I understand what it's like for them?

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Are they time poor?

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Are they drowning?

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Have they just had budgets cut?

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When you have empathy for the people on the other side, you don't come across

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like a robot, you will stand out.

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It will be immediately obvious that you've done your research and homework

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and understand your clients, your industry, and really what makes them tick.

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And putting yourself in somebody else's shoes is really powerful

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because you'll be able to very quickly and easily understand what kind of

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content can I create that really helps that person with where they're at?

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We're coming back to R.A.T.E. Is it relevant?

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Is it authentic?

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Does it express thought leadership?

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And am I showing empathy for the people on the other side?

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So they're the four steps.

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I wanna set a little self-audit challenge for you listeners, because it's all well

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and good to listen to the podcast, but you don't get anywhere closer to your business

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goals if you don't implement these.

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So I want you to go back and check your last five to 10 posts, depending how much

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time you've got, and have a look with the R.A.T.E framework and see is it relevant

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to my audience, is it authentically me or has some jargon or terminology crept in?

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Is it thought leadership?

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Am I sharing something that's original and helpful and shares my opinion

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and leads people towards their goals?

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If the answer is yes, you can tick that one off.

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And do I show empathy?

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Do I have a good understanding of what it's like a day in the

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life for my target audience?

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If you can tick all four of those things off for the majority of your posts, and

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of course it's not gonna be every post I don't believe in formulas for content

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because sometimes we've just gotta do things because we enjoy them and have fun.

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But if we apply the 80 20 rule where we R.A.T.E our posts and make

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sure they're fine, then you can freestyle those other posts and people

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will still engage and enjoy them.

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So that's your homework for this week, listeners.

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If after you do this self audit, you discover that you've got a bad case of

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all about me, you now know how to fix it.

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If you wanna use LinkedIn to help you grow your business, it all starts with empathy.

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If you need any help implementing this, reach out it might be that having a Power

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Hour session with me where I can review your content with you, make suggestions,

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and then set you up for success in the future, all within 60 minutes.

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Might be the ideal way for you to get results.

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and I've had so much fun this week doing a couple of those as I just got back

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into the office and it's so cool to watch my clients go from oh yeah, it's really

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obvious now to, yes, I can't wait to make this switch and make my content in service

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of our audience, and I know that they're gonna get the results that they're after.

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So there you have it listeners.

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Empathy for the win.

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Until next week, cheers.