Linkedin Safari - Session 11. My post exploded. We explore what I did right (at last)

Okay, and welcome to this episode with me, Jim James, here in the UK, back from Singapore where I was last week, which is great fun. There's some great excitement there because I found the book in the Kinokuniya store, so that was fantastic. And Simon, who's being a little bit the Gemini man because it says his live video will return when the internet Improves. Simon, uh, welcome back to the show from Cape Town. How are you?

Thank you. I'm good. I'm good except for load shedding, but other than that, okay, nearly. I'm excited.

Okay, perfect. So this is session 11 of 12, uh, of the LinkedIn Safaris where Simon has been working with me to go from fairly abysmal LinkedIn profile to modestly successful profile. Today, Simon, we're going to talk about content calendars, aren't we? Continuing in on that. And, uh, we're going to look at the sort of success of my LinkedIn account over the last week and see where we've gone right and where we've gone wrong. And we're going to share a plan that, that I've got that I'm going to share with everybody afterwards, which is a PDF that people can use. And Simon, what else have you got in store for us today?

Well, I thought we can take a look at the post that you did from Singapore. You did a video showing your book at the Canoe store, and that post did nicely. So congratulations on that one. And I think it'll be a good thing to show that for the audience to see that and see a piece of personal but professional content that does well.

Okay, so would— do we want to start then, Simon? Shall I share my screen, or do you want to share your screen?

I think it's safer if you do on your side. I'm not sure with my connection here.

Okay, so let me just go back to then sharing my screen because your connection, uh, has proven to be a little bit unstable, hasn't it? So let me just, um, get here. This is my screen. Okay, screen. Just move some of these tabs around here. All right, so what we can see here, Simon, is, um, my LinkedIn profile. I'll go up there. We've got 3,976 post impressions. So let's have a look and see how we've got on in the last week. Okay, so just under 4,000, but my impressions— should we have a look at that first?

Yes, let's take a look at that. And then it'll be great if you could give a bit of context, maybe go back to the 2-week view.

Yeah. And so let's do 2 weeks, show results. So we can see here 2,000 impressions, Um, from last Friday, which is, you know, after I posted that, that video.

Yeah.

Which is incredible, right? So actually I had, you know, 9,000 impressions, 30% up on the previous 14 days, right? And, um, I haven't posted anything really other than people posting about being on my podcast, which is great. And I've been a bit lackluster the last couple of days. But here we can see this is the one place self-published authors can't reach. A little bit of a tag on the Heineken strapline, Simon, as you know. Nearly 4,000 impressions. So I think probably my top performing post of all time, right?

52 likes, 20— what, 28 comments? Yeah, that is a good, good balance. More likes than comments. And a good number of impressions. That's great.

And I think, you know, if we look at that, what I did was I went to the bookstore in Singapore and I found my own book on the shelves. In fact, I was told about the book appearing by the young man Boon Chong, who I had lunch with that day. In Singapore. I think a couple of things I wanted to share. One was actually, it was me trying to blend your lessons about what makes a good post with my piece of news. So one of the things I did quite actively was, you know, rather than just say my book's on the shelf in Singapore, I made an effort to write something that people could actually, you know, get some value from. So I talked about, you know, self-publishing, because one of the big issues about writing your own book is should you self-publish or get a publisher? Obviously, if you can get a publisher, it gives you a different level of, if you like, credibility, but also distribution. So what, what I did here was to play off this, you know, the one place self-published authors can't reach, it's bookstores.

Yeah.

Okay. Because all about distribution. And then I tagged Wiley, you know, because they're the publishers of the book. And then also I did the Kinokuniya in Singapore and the Takashimaya, which is the building that the bookstore is in. And then I gave a little bit of my history. And then I tagged Annie Wright, who was at Wiley, um, and who found me, uh, you know, for the publishing deal.

Hmm.

And then I tried to explain, you know, a little bit of my, you know, about— sorry, about bookstores and what they do. And that actually prompted some discussion from someone in Singapore who said actually his children don't really do bookstores anymore, they only need it for the textbooks. We had a bit of an engagement there. And then, uh, I— a little bit of history But I tried to keep it short. You know, I wrote 2 volumes and then today it's on sale. So I tried to keep it tight. And then I did the history, which is why it kind of creates this nice counterpoint. You know, 27 years after setting my business up in Singapore, I've got the book. But then to make it, you know, something that someone could learn from, to your point about it needs to be informative or inspiring or educational, right?

Yeah.

the lessons that I've learned. Believe in anything, enter awards, give process time. And then sort of a, if you're writing a book, share with me. So the sort of, as Brad Sugars said on one of my podcasts where he came on the show from Action Coach, you've got to ask questions, get people to interact. And you've said that as well.

Mm-hmm.

And then also referenced a guy called Chris Robinson who's got a, a business that helps you find book awards to enter.

Yeah.

Um, now I then used just my phone, but I used this, um, Rode microphone. They've got a new app called Capture which enabled me to film my picture-in-picture just using my, my phone, and I used the Rode microphone here try and get better sound quality. Um, I just bought these. It's a new, um, it's called the Wireless Go, and, um, they, they're just like, you know, this size, as you can, you can probably see that. Um, and I, I bought a new one of those in Singapore that enables you to record, you know, without a lanyard mic, so it makes you more flexible. Um, and I did this on, on my phone, you know. I actually sat downstairs and had a coffee and posted it from the coffee shop. So it was very much sort of self-made, of nearly 4,000 impressions.

Yeah.

Right. And see some engagements there, which is great, including Night Shelley's a, you know, an author who's been on my show. Um, Andrew, who I used to know in Singapore, uh, and then he's— he said he liked my garden shed, so I sent a picture of My garden shed. Gopi kindly said he'd read a book, so I so I made as you know as much as I could of all the engagements. Mason Harris has been on the show. Boon Chong was the guy that told me about it.

So you are a poster child.

What I mean, I try to take a little bit of my story. Make it generally interesting about the difference between publishing and self-publishing, tag people, and ask people to respond. What do you think?

Yeah, well, I mean, you technically, you've done everything right on the technical side, but one thing that I want to point out that you also did beautifully is to share, as you said in the beginning, to share learnings and things that you've come to realize. And I think this post could have gone awfully wrong, and a lot of people would have done like, hey, look, my new book out in this bookstore. I'm so proud. And we know how these posts usually end with zero engagement, because what's in it for me if I see how great your book is. And you were really smart by sharing some things that I didn't know. So I found this very interesting, um, with self-published books in bookstores, um, and the challenges that you might have with a self-published book and sort of how things have changed now that you have found a publisher. Um, so you've shared a good number of lessons that even if I'm not an author, I find interesting to see and learn. And, um, In the end, that's when LinkedIn works best if we treat it as a knowledge platform with people sharing everything. And you've done exactly that and you can immediately see the results, plus linking people that then engage, you responding to that. So it's a beautiful post that works for all of these reasons.

Thank you, Simon. Well, I couldn't have done it without you. And, uh, you know, so really trying to blend, you know, the inform, educate, inspire, uh, with some context so that people that maybe, as you say, aren't necessarily connected to the book would learn something. So as you said before, LinkedIn is a sort of a learning community. Um, and also just from a tactical point of view, I used Canva. So what I did was I downloaded the video from my phone. Um, sorry, it's on the phone when I recorded it, and then I upload that to Canva. Um, and that's— and then I got the Kino Kanuya logo from, you know, Google search, and then you can upload the, the, the image to Canva and drop it on top of the video and then download it again. So that's how I embedded the Kino Kanuya logo.

Mm-hmm.

onto the video because initially I had subtitles and it took up so much of the space, um, that I had to revisit how I, how I created the video.

Yeah.

So that's how I did that. But, and then I was able to just drop that logo on top of the video. And then even if someone didn't look beyond the first frame, They would see, you know, me and Kino Kinnunen and a bunch of books.

I think that's the other nice thing with the video, that you are in the frame. We know that selfies always work nicely because we know the person that is writing. So to have a picture to the writing is always good. And in this case, you did this by having this selfie in the video. So I think that's— I've never seen this before. So I can only speculate that that was an extra boost to the performance of this post.

Yeah. And I think, you know, just so that if anyone's interested, this is the application. It's from Rode.

And it's the microphone company. Yeah.

And it's a new app. And it enables you to do a split Oh, get my fingers. It enables you to do a split screen, so, you know, you can film like that.

Ah, so it uses both cameras, the front camera and the backside camera. Yes.

And can you call it— can you call it a backside camera on—

I think so.

Like children's television. But yes, exactly. So can you see there, it's using both cams. That's the breakthrough, Simon, because I tell you what happened. I went the day before to just film, and I filmed myself in a normal way with my normal camera, you know, with, with like, like that. And then what happened was that I had to go back and twist the camera, so then I had to edit the film to do a join. Yeah, and, and very cumbersome. Very cumbersome, and also editing work. So I then discovered this new Rode app, like that night when I bought the microphones, um, I read the instructions, which makes a change, uh, and, uh, and it talked about, you know, you could do picture-in-picture.

Yeah.

So for anyone watching, you know, that transforms, um, your ability to, as you say, juxtapose or insert yourself into a video with really no, no technical skill set. Yeah. And you don't have to have the Rode microphone, by the way, to use the app.

Yeah. So here's a new post idea for you. Um, what I've seen do really nicely over the past weeks and months is people sharing their tech stack and doing sort of like, these are the 3 apps that I use, or these are the 10 apps that I use. Simple slideshow. One slide introducing the app, and then the second slide just saying a bit more about what it does. Da da da da. And then maybe with five apps, ten pages, intro page, outro page. And these slideshows, they go like crazy. It's it's fascinating to see. I think it all started with the with the AI ChatGPT thing, and I see so many influencers now just sharing. either their tech stack or their most favorite apps. And I know you know all of these apps because you have all these guests on your show. And I think you're also a person who likes to dabble with these apps. So maybe that's something you could add to your weekly mix of content that you have. So like your weekly, my top 3 apps, and then give a quick breakdown.

Yeah, I think I can absolutely do that. And what I do on my Unnoticed Entrepreneur website is I have a guest prep where I also show, um, my studio setup here. Um, so I already— I do some of that, so I could absolutely, absolutely do that. Um, and also what I have is I have a, a useful apps section on my, on my website, Simon. So, um, Good idea. I can make that into a, as you say, into a, you know, a slideshow. Acquisition, editing, graphics, distribution, monitoring. Okay, I can do that.

Please do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think these, these little techniques and these little technologies really liberate, you know, us, right? That you can make that video I used the phone, sat on a cup of coffee. I gotta tell you, writing, you know, like that, but, but it works. And I also tried to get it out within, you know, within hours of finding out about the book, so it kept it immediate. And a friend in Singapore said, oh, you know, he liked the fact that I looked genuinely, you know, excited by the fact that I'd found the book. I don't know how I would not feel genuinely excited about finding the book in Singapore.

But anyway, Yeah, I think one of the challenges now with all these apps is to first think about, oh, there could be an app that does that, and then finding that app and using it. And I think that's maybe one of the reasons why these slideshows introducing all these apps do so well, because people are just overwhelmed with like, what is out there? What can I do? And so your post with intros or with the presentations of these apps and what they do, I think would be very welcomed by a lot of people because they finally understand, ah, I could use this app or that app.

So yeah, and then maybe what I can also do is I'll share something that I put together some time ago, Simon. I put together a resource which I call a sort of a summary of different apps Okay, I called it the TAD, the Technology Application Directory. Okay, and in here I've actually already collated over 100 different tools that people can use. Um, I actually formatted this into a directory, and this is online. Uh, you can see different, uh, as part of what I called the Speak PR program. Oh my It's all gone. Why did that go?

So you've already grouped that into like different categories of what they do.

Yes, I already tagged it. And sorry, I don't know why the window's zooming in and out so much. I'm sorry, I'll stop sharing. But what I can do is I can also link to that because I created what I call a TAD. I need to update it. But the idea was that I could create— I did create, and I'll share with you this directory. Let's see. There you go. So I created this tech directory. So I actually need to just update this, but I can make this available to people because I like this. But there are over 9,000 MarTech products, and, and so what I have done is to start to make it, um, you know, is try and shortlist them. Cool.

So yeah, but do the slideshow of your top 10, and then you can always link to that. So you can spoon-feed it to people and give a bit more of context what that app is.

Yeah, I can do my core apps that I use, and then I've got the technology application directory as a spreadsheet. And then I've also got the PDF so we can share that, Simon. Okay.

Excellent. Exciting.

What else do we need to do today?

I think that is all that I had. No, what you wanted to show your content plan. We've spent 20 minutes talking about your amazing post that we kind of pushed back the content plan.

Okay, well, I wanted to share this. Let me just see if I can figure out why. This is a bit embarrassing.

Why?

Okay, sorry. Oh, Simon. Yes, here we go. Okay. So here, okay, here we go. Sorry. So the other thing that I also wanted to share was I had put together a little while ago a tool called the Technology Application Directory. But also that was part of a bigger picture, which is this whole idea of what I called the Speak PR program. So let me just— so in this Speak PR program, I have this sort of document which has— here we go— which has got 2 parts to it. One is the one which is this document. And the other— there we go— which has got— sorry, I'm struggling with getting the right document up. What is it? Right. Okay, here it is. Right. Apologies to those of you that are struggling to keep up. Right here. I have got, so it's not showing it. I have got a planner for people to use, and I'm going to just see if I can share that. Nope, I can't seem to share that. So let's see if I can up. Simon, are you there today? We've lost Simon. So look, I have a planner which I'll share with, uh, with you, uh, which basically has, um, the, the 4 different elements, um, including by week how you could then start to, um, how you could then start to plan out your content strategy. So I've got all this available because it's all been built already. And let me see if I can just share that one more time because it seemed to be struggling to share. All right, I've got that open on my browser here. Ah, there it is. Simon. Okay, here. So basically what I did was I created this SpeakPR program, um, which is, you know, a program to help me but also others. So this idea of storifying, personalizing, engaging, amplifying, and knowing, um, what, what you're doing. And then here, the stories. So week 1, week 2, week 3, week, um, week 1, 2, 3, and 4. So what I've done is create a, like, a template for me to use. Um, and I can share this again with anybody that's interested. We could again put a link to this, or perhaps I could share this maybe in my— in a presentation, Simon, on LinkedIn. Um, and basically the idea is that you can use this as a storyboard. You can use Simon's Trello if you like, but also you could use something a lot simpler, which is just like my Speak PR Mastermind. So each day we put in what the stories are going to be, and by doing that we can plan ahead rather than waiting until we are faced with the prospect of actually putting together something. So 2 parts: the messaging, the audience, the, the days that we're going to speak to, and then which channels we're going to use, and then when Maybe next week. Oh, Simon, you've gone— you've— because are you— should I be sitting like you using a different camera? You're— you've changed, um, orientation, Simon. So I will stop my share there. Ah, there we go, that's better. Now you're back. So I've got that tool that, Simon, I can share on LinkedIn. How do you think I should share that? I'm going to do the directory of tools that I use, I can do that. But what about, you say, for example, with the tool like the SpeakPR calendar, the planner that I could share with others? How, how do you think is best to share that kind of knowledge on LinkedIn? Okay. Yeah, I have it as a slideshow as well. So I have, um, a slideshow. If I— I think one of the things, Simon, is that I have no shortage of content, as you can probably see, right? Uh, so If I can, for example, I can show this one at the risk of baffling everybody. I also have this slideshow where I talk about the secret to becoming an authority is consistency and the formula, the Active Communications Index. And I talk about, you know, channels and content times frequency and my content flywheel, as I call it. And then I have here my sort of 2x2. So I have this content that I can share as a presentation within LinkedIn. So I was thinking what I could do is I've got the content to share about the book and the podcast. But I've also got, you know, thinking that I've done over the years that helps people to get some structure into all that content. So why don't I start to think about how to put that into my schedule?

Yep.

Okay, I'll do that. Now, speaking of anything else, it's 31 minutes, Simon. So mindful of, of our time, we've got about a minute or so left. Um, If there's a piece of advice that you've got for anyone still, you know, looking at how to improve their LinkedIn, we've got my post that seems to have worked. Is there one piece of advice you'd like to give people to think about for the week ahead? Okay, fantastic. Well, we're at week 11. I'm just delighted, Simon, that I've managed to get a post that finally, you know, works and gets past your scrutiny, uh, but also seems to have gone and, and still seems to be gaining some traction, uh, which is great. Any last words, Simon, before we sign off? Because it's half past today. We had a few technical issues today, haven't we? It's a, you know— Okay, and one of the reasons we're a little bit disorganized, uh, was my fault, but I've just been to the Bath Radio or Radio Bath Studios here, and just done a radio interview about the book. So I'm going to be posting now about the interview and about the power of radio for people because then that's kind of topical, personal, and I get to see if I can repeat some of the success of the post from last week's sort of Singapore. Post, although I don't have video in this particular case. Simon Chapazot joining me in South Africa. I had a few technical issues today and yesterday, so thank you for joining me today, just one day later than scheduled. And hopefully we'll be back next week as planned on time, which is Thursday, 12 o'clock GMT. for the final session of the LinkedIn Safari. Simon, thank you so much for joining me. All right, and, uh, thank you for joining us. Simon in South Africa, a long way away today, and me here in the UK. As always, we'll put this out on the YouTube channel, and also we make it into a bonus episode on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur podcast. And if you've got any questions, do of course send them to Simon or myself. We're both available on LinkedIn to answer your questions. And in the meantime, till we meet again, do encourage you just to keep on communicating. Thank you.