NEW LinkedIn features (+ How to overcome the fear of posting on LinkedIn)

If you’ve tuned with in me before, then I guarantee you’ve heard me talking a LOT about LinkedIn: how to use it to grow your career and business, how to use all the new features and tools and of course, best practise on how to leverage it to build your Personal Brand. 

Depending on when you listen to this episode, you may or may not have heard the news but LinkedIn has yet again levelled up and introduced the so called creator mode. Maybe you have it already, maybe not. At the time of this recording I don’t have it yet but have seen its features on other people’s profiles and let’s just say – yes, yes and more yessss to it!

Since April’s focus in the Future of Work Campus is Digital Spotlight. We discuss how to leverage your online footprint and digital assets to build your Brand and grow your career.

So the timing is actually perfect to discuss those new features, how to use them in the best way and also reinforce the importance of having a strong online presence and good digital literacy skills.

WFH and flexible work has become the norm and is here to stay. 

So if you are still on the fence whether or not you should invest in your online presence, now is the best time to change your mindset about LinkedIn and embrace it!

And to make it easier and also less daunting, then you’ve come to the right place because in this episode, I will discuss the main fears and of course- how to overcome them.

First things first – there is some big news about LinkedIn!

It’s called creator mode and is a major profile overhaul and gives us even more new features to play with. At the time of this recording, I don’t have it but I have seen it playing out on other people’s profiles. This change will allow you to build your Personal Brand and profile even more effective.

There are a number of improvements and new features with this release. Here are the ones that I think are most compelling and helpful to you as you build your Personal Brand:

Video Cover Story 

Video has been growing since its introduction, but COVID-19 has increased the amount of videos people watch even more. 

There are a few reasons for it: first – it keeps people longer on the platform which is every social media channels’ goal since that means more ad revenue. 

Second- video is perfect to show your personality and is more powerful than words which has becoming even more important now that we rarely connect with people in the same physical space. Video is the best substitute for face-to-face interactions and this feature will make it much easier to introduce yourself and connect with people on a deeper level.

LinkedIn has realised the importance and added the new feature called ‘Video Cover Story’. It lets you “personalise your first hello” with a video message for your audience. 

And it’s actually cool how it works—LinkedIn calls it the “Harry Potter effect.” After you add your Video Cover Story, an orange ring appears around your profile photo, and a preview of your video story auto-plays without sound. 

Creator Mode

Now for those who’ve been sceptical about the importance of posting content, especially on LinkedIn: listen up!

The so called creator mode helps you in building your Personal Brand by getting your thought leadership noticed when you publish articles, blogs or videos, 

Creator mode—will be available in your Profile dashboard—lets you share your take on what’s happening in the news. It also allows you to identify hashtags that highlight the topics you post about the most. It also positions the Featured and Activity sections of your Profile more prominently so people who come to your profile, get a much better understanding and holistic view of what you’re all about.

Better Branding

LinkedIn Profile Backgrounds have provided an opportunity to brand your profile and make it stand out from the rest (and to also replace the boring greenish gray standard background image). 

Now, if you’re a LinkedIn Live broadcaster, your branded Profile Background shows up when you stream live. This helps reinforce your message and will increase the visibility of your content. 

Pronouns

This feature allows you to add your preferred pronoun next to your name and via an optional new field at the top of your LinkedIn profile, next to your name, you can choose from he/him, she/her and they/them.

So you see- there is lots going on and I’m sure there will be more to come.

I just wanted to highlight the importance of you building your digital skills and managing your online profile sooner rather than later!

This brings us to the main part of this episode:

Overcoming the fear of posting!

First things first- if you’ve ever hesitated to post (may it be on LinkedIn or any other social platform), then welcome to the club!
I don’t think there has been one single soul on this planet who hasn’t gone through those doubts and fears of posting. In the end, putting yourself out there can be daunting especially at the beginning.

Good news: there are tried and tested ways, tips and tactics on how you can overcome those limiting beliefs and leverage your social footprint for carer and business opportunities.

So let’s get straight in and uncover the reasons for this fear:

1.)   No one cares whether I post or not. So why should I post?

Glad you asked! LinkedIn is a search engine and one of the most trusted sources of information. Take the test and google yourself- you will see that your LinkedIn profile (given you have an active account), is the first and second search result.

The more content you post and relevant keywords you use in it, the more you will show up to those decision makers you want to get in front of.

What’s more is that creating your own content also sets you apart from others and lets people get to know you and your area of expertise.

Guess who’d be chosen when it comes down to 2 and one has a strong online profile, showcased thought leadership and demonstrated leadership and communication skills whilst the other person can’t even be found online?

Yep- you guessed it correctly! 

2.)   What if I get negative feedback/ comments or even a troll?

Fact is- in the second you put yourself out there, you’re exposed to negative feedback. But so are you when you join a meeting, climb the corporate ladder or disagree with your friends about a certain topic.

Yes, I get it … it’s a bigger stage but it doesn’t take away from the fact that – no matter your view and belief – people will disagree with you. You’d be surprised how few negative comments you really get and if they go too far, you can always hide them and also report the person to LinkedIn.

Don’t let the fear of possible negative comments hold you back from posting.

To be honest- the only way to find out whether your content and take on things resonates with people is by getting their feedback and constructive criticism, which  isn’t a bad thing at all. You can learn from it and improve the way you communicate your point of view.

3.)   What if no one replies or engages?

Everyone starts somewhere and believe me – it didn’t just happen.  I had 2 likes at the beginning (and I’m pretty sure one was from myself) but I still kept going and celebrated every single one of them. Engagement happens over time and also comes down to how much you engage in other people’s content.

So before you complain that your posts don’t get any comments or likes, take a step back and give the engagement you’d like to receive.

Trust me – it will pay off.

Plus- commenting on other people’s posts actually counts as content creation so that’s the easiest way for you to not only get visible and searchable but also to get traction with your own content 

4.)   What should I do I post on LinkedIn?

This is probably the most common question. And there is one simple answer: Have a strategy. People don’t know what to post because they haven’t done the groundwork. I always recommend identify 3-5 content pillars which are big topics that are aligned with your positioning.

So for example, if you are a CDO or CTO – Chief Digital or technology Officer, you want to choose content pillars like: Technology, Innovation, Leadership and maybe Tools. You can then rotate between those topics and talk about them from different angles.

This way, you never run out of ideas and also never get boring because you speak to different topics. 

Now if you want to have a more structured and simplified process to help you with creating content for LinkedIn in particular, then I have great news for you!

Every month, I run a live 1.5h workshop where we map out, plan and create content for the entire month ahead. You get a pre-populated content calendar, the key dates to consider, prompts and even copy and paste captions to make it super easy for you to build your profile online.

For more information, hop over to content-creation.club. 

And that’s a wrap!

Now over to you – what is your best tip to overcome fear of posting? Take a screenshot of this episode, tag me and share your best tip!

The more we can encourage others to post, the better content we all see!