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    5 Essentials For Gamifying The LinkedIn Algorithm w/Jocelyn Macdonald

    Chris Do and sales expert Jocelyn Macdonald reveal the five essentials for gamifying the LinkedIn algorithm for massive reach.

    Chris Do

    Chris Do

    Founder, The Futur™ · March 2, 2021

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    The Great Professional Replatforming

    Most professionals are using LinkedIn wrong. They treat it like a digital file cabinet, a place to store a resume and collect endorsements like dusty trophies. It’s a static, passive strategy for a platform that has become anything but.

    LinkedIn is no longer a sleepy corporate directory. It is the third horse in the social media race, and it’s running on a different track. While other platforms throttle organic reach and demand you “pay to play,” LinkedIn is still a place where quality content can earn massive, unpaid visibility.

    As sales professional and LinkedIn strategist Jocelyn Macdonald explains, a seismic shift occurred during the global pandemic. Conversations between users jumped 55 percent. Content creation exploded by 60 percent. But the most revealing number is this: content on the platform now generates 15 times more impressions than job postings.

    Read that again.

    The platform’s primary function, in the eyes of its users, has changed. It is not about finding a job. It is about finding ideas, connections, and solutions.

    “It used to be that we were on LinkedIn just for our resume,” Macdonald notes. “But no, people are going there for their news. People are going there to make connections.” For creatives, this means a platform once seen as sterile and corporate is now a vibrant gallery. “I love seeing design, I love seeing art,” says Chris Do. “There used to be very little of that and now I find that designers, creatives are being a lot more open about sharing their work and I love to see it.”

    This is the new landscape. To succeed in it, you cannot use the old map. You need to understand the new rules of engagement.

    Understand the Motive, Win the Game

    To master the LinkedIn algorithm, you must first understand its motivation. It is not a benevolent force for good. It is a business engine.

    “LinkedIn really does want to sell LinkedIn ads and premium accounts,” Macdonald states plainly. “That's how they make their money.”

    This single fact is the key to everything. The platform’s goal is to keep users on-site for as long as possible to maximize the number of ads and premium subscription offers they see. Your goals and LinkedIn's goals must align.

    “The more content, the more reach a post has, the more opportunities they have to sell ads,” Macdonald clarifies. When your content keeps people engaged, scrolling, and commenting, you are directly serving LinkedIn's business model. In return, the algorithm rewards you with more reach.

    It’s a simple, symbiotic relationship. Your success is their success. Your failure to engage an audience is a failure for their bottom line.

    This is a fundamental departure from the pay-to-play ecosystems of Facebook and Instagram, where organic reach is often negligible. On LinkedIn, your effort is still the primary currency. “As a content creator, I want to be rewarded for my efforts,” Do explains. “If I make something, I want people to see it. That's the whole point.”

    This model is built on a foundation of trust. According to research Macdonald references, 73 percent of users say they trust LinkedIn with their data and privacy more than other major social platforms. This trust creates a more professional, focused environment, drawing in a user base of nearly 740 million people who have consciously decided, “This is important to my business.”

    Before you can gamify the system, you must accept this core premise. You are a partner in LinkedIn’s mission to hold user attention. Stop fighting the algorithm and start feeding it what it wants: content that makes people stop, think, and interact.

    Your Secret Weapon: The Social Selling Index

    Most users are completely unaware that LinkedIn is grading them. Behind the scenes, the platform uses a proprietary metric to measure your effectiveness. It’s called the Social Selling Index (SSI), and it’s one of the most significant factors determining your content’s reach.

    “Social Selling Index is kind of a system, a metric system that LinkedIn put together so people can have a little bit of a way to judge the strength of their profile,” Macdonald explains.

    Your SSI score, which you can check for free by searching “LinkedIn Social Selling Index” on Google, is a number out of 100. It is composed of four distinct pillars, each worth 25 points.

    • Establish your professional brand. This pillar measures the completeness and quality of your profile. It rewards a profile that is fully built out with a client-facing mindset, telling a clear story about who you are and what problems you solve.
    • Find the right people. This is about the quality and focus of your network. Did you “just blanket connect with everyone,” as Macdonald asks, or have you been thoughtful in targeting your audience? The algorithm wants to see that you understand who you’re trying to reach.
    • Engage with insights. This measures your activity as a contributor to the community. Are you sharing valuable content, commenting thoughtfully on others’ posts, and participating in relevant groups?
    • Build relationships. This final pillar tracks your ability to connect with decision-makers and nurture your network. It’s about turning connections into conversations and, ultimately, relationships. As Do observes, this means helping people “in their business and in their life.”

    A score of 75 or above is considered excellent. During the discussion, Macdonald reveals her score is 76, placing her in the top 1% of her industry. Do’s is 71. This score is not a vanity metric; it is a direct input into the algorithm.

    A high SSI, combined with an “All-Star” profile rating, signals to LinkedIn that you are a power user. You are a valuable asset. When you post, the algorithm gives your content the benefit of the doubt, pushing it out to a wider initial audience because you have a proven track record of creating value.

    Your SSI is a roadmap. It shows you exactly where you are deficient. Improving your score is not just about appeasing a machine; it is about building the fundamental habits that lead to success on the platform. It forces you to get clear on your brand, your audience, and your contribution, a process that is central to building a powerful personal brand.

    From Static CV to Dynamic Brand Hub

    Your LinkedIn profile is the foundation of your entire strategy. If it is weak, incomplete, or unprofessional, even the best content will struggle to gain traction. The algorithm judges your profile’s strength, categorizing it as Beginner, Intermediate, or All-Star. Your goal is nothing less than All-Star status.

    This is not about simply filling in boxes. It is about transforming your profile from a backward-looking resume into a forward-looking brand statement. Macdonald breaks down the essential components.

    First, your profile picture. “It’s your first handshake,” she insists. This means a clean, professional headshot. No wedding photos with a cropped-out cousin. For an extra edge, use a tool like remove.bg to create a version with a simple, solid-colored background that stands out.

    Next is your background banner. The default images are fine, but a custom banner that complements your job title, industry, or personal brand is a mark of a pro. It’s a billboard for your expertise.

    The “About” section is your manifesto. Macdonald stresses that this is not a “set it and forget it” field. It should be a living document. Crucially, it must be built around three to five strategic keywords that define your expertise and goals, such as “social selling,” “brand strategy,” or “creative direction.”

    “Find your story, find your keywords,” she advises. These keywords should then be woven throughout your profile, from your headline to your job descriptions, and even used as the hashtags you follow to dial in your content feed.

    Here are the non-negotiable elements for a complete, All-Star profile:

    • Professional Profile Picture: A clear headshot of you alone.
    • Custom Background Banner: A visual that communicates your brand or expertise.
    • Keyword-Rich About Section: A compelling summary built around 3-5 core keywords.
    • Featured Content: Pin examples of your best work, valuable articles, or projects you admire. Even if it's not your own work, feature content that reflects your perspective and taste.
    • Detailed Experience Descriptions: Don't just list titles. Tell a story for each role, highlighting accomplishments, awards, and the value you created.
    • Skills & Endorsements: List your core competencies to allow your network to validate your expertise.
    • Recommendations: Social proof is powerful. Actively seek recommendations from clients and colleagues who can speak to your work.
    • Interests: Follow relevant companies, influencers, and groups to signal your areas of interest to the algorithm and other users.

    Building this profile is your first act of contribution. It tells the algorithm, and every person who visits your page, that you take this platform seriously. It is the first step in moving from a passive observer to an active participant whose personal brand does the heavy lifting for them.

    The Unwritten Rules of LinkedIn Content

    Once your profile is optimized, it's time to contribute. But not all content is created equal. The LinkedIn algorithm has strong preferences, and ignoring them is the fastest way to kill your reach.

    The guiding principle comes from a familiar framework. “Educate, inspire, entertain,” Do says, borrowing his own philosophy. “So many people are on there just saying, ‘This is what we do, this is how we do it,’ and no one really cares.” The goal is to build trust and rapport. Value comes first; the sale comes much, much later, if at all.

    The first technical rule is about where your content lives. Create native content. The algorithm despises outbound links. “LinkedIn doesn't want you to send traffic away from their platform,” Macdonald states. When you post a link to YouTube, your blog, or a news article, LinkedIn will actively suppress your post’s reach.

    There are two primary workarounds to this penalty:

    1. Put the link in the first comment. Post your content, and then immediately add a comment containing the outbound link. Be sure to mention in your post, “Link in the comments.” The downside, as Do points out, is that the comment can get buried as engagement grows.
    2. Edit the link into your post. Publish your post without any links. Let it gain some initial traction, then go back and edit the post to add the link. This is a more advanced hack that can bypass the initial algorithmic penalty.

    The second rule is about originality. Original content is always more powerful than a reshare. Simply hitting the “repost” button on someone else’s content yields horrific reach. “It's not going to help you as much,” Macdonald confirms.

    Do offers a powerful hack for this. If you truly want to amplify someone’s post, don't just reshare it. “You should screen capture it and post the screen capture,” he advises. This makes it new, native content in the eyes of the algorithm. To do this ethically, you must also copy the original text, credit the author prominently by tagging them, and ideally add the link to the original post in the comments. This honors the creator while maximizing visibility.

    This raises a critical point about content etiquette. Do warns against people who “literally will grab my carousels from Instagram and then repost on LinkedIn… you didn't even ask.” Taking content wholesale, even with credit, can disrupt the original creator's content schedule. Worse still is taking an idea and simply changing the images without any reference. “Practice happens in private,” Do says. Taking someone's work and passing it off as practice is a cop-out. When you publish someone else’s concept, you are doing something different than learning. You are performing, and you must give credit.

    By producing valuable, native content that educates, inspires, or entertains, you align yourself with the core purpose of the platform. You become a creator, not just a consumer, which is exactly how to build content that people actually react to.

    The Art of the Algorithm-Friendly Conversation

    Posting great content is only half the battle. On LinkedIn, engagement is not a passive activity; it is an active, strategic process. The algorithm closely watches how you and your audience interact, especially in the first 24 hours after posting.

    “If someone says, ‘Oh, great point, I love what you just said,’ you need to react to it,” Macdonald insists. But a simple “like” is not enough. “Don't just react, comment.”

    Every comment on your post is an opportunity. When you reply, you double the engagement on that thread, signaling to the algorithm that a real conversation is happening. This pushes your post into more feeds. Your goal should be to respond to every single comment, especially within that critical first day. Even the choice of reaction matters. The newer “Support” reaction is reportedly weighted more heavily by the algorithm than a simple “Like.”

    And yes, Macdonald confirms, “it's okay to like your own posts.”

    This engagement-first mindset also applies to how you interact with others. If you want to connect with a high-level influencer or executive, cold-messaging them is a low-percentage play. A far more effective strategy, Do explains, is to engage with their content first.

    “Interact with that piece of content. Be consistent,” he urges. “Don't say, ‘Cool, rad, bro, awesome.’ That makes you disappear into the noise.”

    Instead, write something thoughtful. A two-sentence comment that shows you absorbed the content and have a unique perspective on it is infinitely more powerful. “If you do this consistently enough, eventually some idiot like me will see it,” Do jokes. When that influencer sees your name and thoughtful comments again and again, they start to recognize you. When your connection request finally arrives, they already know who you are. You’re not a stranger; you’re a valued member of their community.

    Macdonald builds on this, suggesting you research the key people you want to connect with. “Go to their profile and see what groups they're in. Research the hashtags they've used. Try and figure out what circles that they live in and then do what Chris just said: show up in those places again and again.” This creates an organic connection before the first direct message is ever sent, a strategy that is fundamental to building the rapport needed to close deals.

    Mastering Your Posting Cadence

    Once you are creating and engaging effectively, the final variable to master is timing. When and how often you post has a direct impact on your reach.

    “LinkedIn is going to more heavily weight your first post of the day,” Macdonald reveals. The algorithm wants to test your performance as a creator. It gives your first piece of content its best shot at success. If you post a second time on the same day, the algorithm will judge that post against the performance of your first one, often cannibalizing the reach of both.

    The rule is simple: one post per day, maximum.

    The research Macdonald has seen suggests a cadence of three to four times per week is optimal. More is not necessarily better. This gives each post room to breathe and achieve its maximum potential reach. When you see a clear drop-off in engagement on your last post, that is the signal to post again.

    Time of day also matters significantly. While any weekday morning is good, there is an ideal window.

    • The Best Time to Post: Tuesday through Thursday, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. in your target audience's time zone.
    • The Surprising Secondary Window: Saturdays and Sundays. While it may seem counterintuitive for a professional network, many users, especially creative professionals, use weekends to catch up on industry news and inspiration.

    However, both Do and Macdonald caution against becoming a slave to the schedule. Strategy is important, but authenticity and value trump all. “Don't get too rigid,” Macdonald advises. “If you have something to share, if it's valuable, if it's relevant, if it's going to help, if it's going to inspire, educate, or entertain, share it.”

    Connection Is a Strategy, Not a Statistic

    Finally, every tactic and strategy on LinkedIn converges on a single purpose: building genuine human connections. How you manage your connection requests is a direct reflection of your professional ethos.

    The generic, automated message is an instant red flag. “I don't like the one that says, ‘LinkedIn suggests that we should be connected.’ I'm just done with you,” Do states bluntly. It’s a sign of zero effort.

    To get your request accepted, especially by a busy professional, you must be human.

    “Write me two sentences that tells me you're a human being and why you think we should talk,” Do says. A specific, personal reason for connecting is all it takes. Reference a recent post, a shared interest, or a piece of their work you admire.

    Conversely, there are clear lines that should never be crossed. For Macdonald, an automatic decline comes when a connection becomes inappropriately personal. “As a female, I'll say I don't appreciate when people get too personal with me,” she says, advising all users to avoid commenting on physical appearance. “It happens all the time.”

    For Do, the line is the immediate sales pitch. The moment a new connection’s first message is an attempt to sell something, he doesn't just decline; he blocks them. “If your first piece of correspondence with me is trying to pitch and sell me something, I will block you for sure.”

    Managing incoming requests requires a filter. Here is a simple framework for who to accept and who to decline:

    • Automatic Decline: Connections with empty or suspicious profiles.
    • Automatic Decline: Requests with generic, robotic messages.
    • Automatic Decline & Block: Inappropriate, creepy, or personal comments.
    • Automatic Decline & Block: Immediate, unsolicited sales pitches.
    • Accept: Requests with a short, personalized, and respectful note explaining the reason for connecting.
    • Accept: Requests from people who have already engaged thoughtfully with your content.

    Macdonald even offers a clever trick for spotting bots. She includes her nickname, “Joss,” in parentheses in her profile name: Jocelyn (Joss) Macdonald. Automated bots will often scrape the full name, addressing her as “Hey Jocelyn (Joss).” A human will notice the cue and simply say, “Hey Joss.”

    This is not about hoarding connections. It is about curating a network. These are the modern rules of engagement, and they are essential for anyone hoping to leverage the platform for genuine leads, as detailed in discussions like LinkedIn DM secrets that get clients.

    The LinkedIn algorithm is not a mystery to be solved. It is a system to be understood. It rewards value, consistency, and genuine human interaction.

    Stop treating it like a chore. Stop using it as a megaphone for your services. Start treating it like a community you want to be a part of.

    The algorithm doesn’t reward tricks. It rewards contribution.

    TRANSCRIPT

    what is up everybody happy thursday good to see you again we're live in the studio risking our lives for your visual and oral benefit here i think that's what we're doing and i'm i'm really just glad to be here because a lot of people have been missing out on the conversations we've been having on clubhouse you know where my heart is my heart is here with you on youtube okay what are we doing jocelyn mcdonald's here she's my guest today she flew in from seattle just to do this with us which i feel really blessed to be doing with her she's going to be talking about the five gamification tips and tricks and strategies to understand or hack into the linkedin algorithm that's what we're doing jocelyn happy to have you here welcome to the show thank you so much thank you so much yeah i'm happy to be here happy to be talking about linkedin and um linkedin's a great place to be so as you say yeah i mean this is well overdue well tell us a little about you and your background yeah yeah absolutely so um i am a salesperson by nature um i definitely have brandon marketing and advertising experience but i'm a salesperson at heart um i've been in sales for about 15 years and um you know when covid hit i spent i've spent months thinking about the future of sales and what that means and i think we are definitely seeing people go to linkedin to help them figure out solve their problems how to continue to grow their networks and connect with people where else are you going to go yeah well for a lot of people in the creative community you might hear the word sales what does the sales people do like pre-covet what the heck did you do give us a little slice of how you do sales sure so i will start by saying selling creative was my most blessed favorite thing to do um i love design i love there we go um i love i think just being a part of the creative process is just a blessing so um how i chose to connect with people would be um always on linkedin first um did a lot of landscaping um but over time i mean i built my repertoire my rolodex if you will because we talk about being ogs so i have the rolodex right but um like being in advertising i mean you are hustling building that list of connections and um you know i don't look at them just as connections if you're a true salesperson i think everyone that you make a connection with they become or you hope to make them into your friends so that's what makes sales so fun to me is you just build your family and you know if you have a product or a service that helps solve a problem for someone um that's a it's a great feeling to be able to help someone out okay yeah so it sounds to me just to kind of distill that down a little bit you do social prospecting on linkedin you connect with people and you try to build a meaningful relationship with them and to help them in their business and in their life something like that right something like that okay so how do you build a genuine relationship when you actually want something you ultimately want to sell them some creative services right yeah how do you do that well it takes time you know you can't just show up and say hey i have a product i have a service you need this um most people don't need your product and some people don't have time to think about your product so it's i mean really it seems so silly but spending a lot of time just introducing yourself and if you can go the extra mile and offer something for free you know something we'll talk about a little later you know educate inspire or entertain i mean we spend so many hours behind the desk if you can just offer something to someone that's of value that makes them laugh or do something creative and they actually are okay with and then eventually enjoy seeing you come back then you're building a relationship that could um you know be a business relationship down the road is that one of your secret tips as to a salesperson i noticed that you send me weird pictures and awkward expressions and gifts and all that kind of stuff you you you are letting some of your personality come through in the communication yeah one of your things it is it is because i feel like we are all human and we i think it's really important to share your personality and who you are i mean we just get so locked behind this professional um veil and i think it's nice when people can actually see you have a humorous side you have a creative side you're respectfully um you know aggressive but you know again respectful you know so respectfully aggressive we'll have to dig into that little bit okay well a lot has changed in the world since covet hit and global pandemic and all so fewer phone calls no face-to-face meetings so you've been using linkedin this last year and maybe you're going to share some of that with us today right i would love to so you prepared i think a 30-minute presentation-ish yes and we'll just let's just jump into it yeah okay yeah let's do it do it first i wanted to share just a little some little facts about linkedin so linkedin has about 722 million users and that's an interesting number because although instagram has about 1 billion and facebook has about almost triple that linkedin is smaller but the fact that there is a group a large group of people that have decided to to be there and say this is important to my business they all have similar interests that is of unique value um linkedin is also has 33 offices around the globe it's offered in 24 languages and as luck would have it this may 5th cinco de mayo will be their 18th birthday so as we're all enjoying our margaritas and um you know celebrating it's happy birthday for linkedin so special year wow yeah so um you know just thinking about the last 12 months with kovid um we've certainly seen a rise 55 percent um increase in conversations amongst users online and 60 in content creation so people really took to the linkedin platform they're creating more content they're sharing they're having more conversations and we also saw that with linkedin lives there was 437 increase in linkedin lives and you know so many of us have been on so many different calls it's we almost all of us feel like we're at experts and zooms and google meets and um go-to meetings you know why not try a linkedin live you know with your team so um yeah i would encourage people to do that even though linkedin lives are not um necessarily um skewing as powerfully as a native video on linkedin i still think it's a great tool it's new it will continue to grow and it's just another way to create unique content on linkedin so try it um 15 content uh impressions so people who are looking at content online it's 15 more impressions on content than job postings it used to be that we were on linkedin just for our resume but no people are going there for their news people are going there to make connections people are going there to see something i know for me i love seeing design i love seeing art i mean there used to be very little of that and now i find that designers creatives are being a lot more open about sharing their work and i love to see it on linkedin creates same yeah yeah makes linkedin such a such a cooler more you know sexy place i if i can say that yeah you can say that yeah it's colorful what i think is really interesting that's happening with linkedin is organic reach is really high and as a content creator i want to be rewarded for my efforts if i make something i want people to see it that's the whole point and we've noticed that facebook is pretty lame when it comes to organic reach and they want you to pay to play you have to pay and boost things for people to see it and i think it's a different model and i love how linkedin is kind of coming as the third horse in this three horse race and really letting the algorithm reach people that are interested in your content without having them necessarily follow you so miraculously seemingly overnight i've been able to grow a pretty decent sized following and not even realize it just by releasing content now i understand why also it's getting a little harder for the for me to get the same organic reach i used to because covet hit and now everybody's on linkedin whereas fewer content creators were making stuff on linkedin before yeah yep yeah yep i mean even some of that is interesting because um you know linkedin is being seen as the most trusted major platform social media platform i think it's like 73 they're about say um you know most users say 73 of users say they trust um their data and their their uh privacy with linkedin over facebook and instagram i know there's been kind of a mass exodus off of facebook and some instagram but the fact that linkedin is able to retain that trust with their users i think is really important so yeah so i think it's important to kind of start from a place of kind of reverse engineering why the algorithm works the way it does so linkedin really does want to sell linkedin ads and premium accounts that's how they make their money so the more content the more reach a post has the more opportunities they have to sell ads for premium accounts and linkedin ads so if we understand that it makes it a little bit more easy to understand how to kind of gamify your reach um i think before we kind of get into it we also need to kind of uh discuss social selling index what that means have you ever heard of that chris i heard about it because you shared it with me right other than that i have no idea what that is so social selling index is kind of um a system a metric system that linkedin put together so people can um kind of have a little bit of a way to judge um whether the strength of their profile um so a social selling index is really broken down into four parts it's really your personal brand uh your brand audience your engagement and how your the relationships you're making inside those communities that you're building in linkedin so your brand it's like what stories are you telling um are you um have you chosen some keywords that really speak to who you are online have you used them in the descriptions for yourself and your profile and have you been thoughtful in with your connections or when you got on linkedin did you just blanket connect with everyone it's really important to kind of define your audience understand who you're trying to target what your messaging is so that you can understand you know what groups you want to follow and once you are in those audiences you can engage with them and that's also very important to the algorithm and then are you making relationships key relationships with the decision makers in your audiences do you find that you use it that way yeah sort of organically yeah i don't i'm not as methodical about it as you're describing so part of my social selling index has something to do with my profile that's one part of it right and the kind of content and the consistency in which i'm producing so is there a score somewhere where i can look this up there is where is it so if you google and it's just as easy as that if you google social selling index on linkedin you will find a link provided by linkedin um make sure it's the link provided by linkedin and you can go there and you can find your score for free okay and there you will be able to see kind of those four metrics we just went over yeah and it'll show you the areas in which you're kind of deficient so jonah can we look up jocelyn to see how she's doing and put up my stats compared to hers i'm not making this like a competition or anything i'm just curious how we're all doing because i've never even looked it up i don't think you can i can't i don't know can you look up my social selling index only you can see your own ssi yeah oh okay would you want to look up yours it'll be terrible i'm sure of it okay let's keep going then okay cool um so the other component to your reach on linkedin is your profile and linkedin does judge your profile strength by beginner intermediate and all-star so if you're just getting started no problem make sure that your profile is fully built out that's going to kind of boost your strength and i think linkedin does a really great job of coaching you through the ways to do that it'll cue you into the areas of like you know have you done your description have you um you know bolstered all of your experiences um and then you know when you when you're full there you can work on like your skills and people will start to endorse you and and maybe you'll have some recommendations that people can offer you and at the end of the day hopefully you're striving for an all-star so together if your social selling index is anywhere between like 75 and above you're doing really well and if you have a all-star profile then you are doing very well so with those together that will help your reach in your content go as far as it can as long as we get into the essentials that will also help i assume you're an all-star i am i am too awesome you know what they say game recognizes game all-star recognizes all-star okay eyes are rolling right now you'll have to share mine you share yours with me later yes i'm looking up my social selling index right now excellent did your score yes so do you want to share it before we go well i have to find it first whoa ho pull up yours i'll show you my stats and show me yours i actually was not so i don't even have my phone here on your body are you there yeah go get it it's fine come on let's go it's fine it's a live show yeah it's happening it's live it's it's happening dang this is where what's going on really ugly above what 76. oh you guys just search it on google man social selling index it'll pop right up if you search it on google and then you click on a link and it'll it'll bring it up so on the count of three when you're ready we'll we'll flash it on screen and we'll show god come on okay josh i'm ready you're the linkedin pro okay ready one two do i go that screen no you go to the camera ready one two three so you have seven i'm going to show you mine i wanted to see your scores on the top oh no do the the big circle well no tell me your score on the top okay so okay mine says i'm top one percent in industry ssi rank top five percent of network ssi rank you beat me there you're you're what what's your score foot five what's your score i don't know what's your score no i'm your top two scorers the top two things i just mine is one percent in ssi yes and top two percent so for network rank i got i got some work to do it's okay yeah i imagine yours would be there we go ricky okay so my current social selling index is 71. 71. minus 76. so you got me by five points there so i guess i'm listening to you from here on out okay you got me okay okay keep going all right so now we're going to get into the just the bones of a complete profile and this is we're starting off really easy folks make sure that you have a professional profile picture please don't put you where you we look really cute at our cousin's wedding your hands over someone i'm i'm just not a big fan but if you can find you know a nice picture of yourself that's you know just you and um if you are savvy enough to use an app like canva to take out the background or or something else i'm not a designer by nature i love i know i know i like to think i am but yeah photoshop is great too but for those of us who are not you know creatives um if you can take out a background it makes such a difference it really does there's a website you can go to remove bg remove background and it'll just do it for you automatically yeah that's so great oh yeah using software so anyway a profile picture is that's your first handshake so please reconsider your profile picture um your background you know there's a lot of backgrounds that linkedin offers um that are great but if you have skills and the ability to do one that complements your job title um your role your business i think it's always nice to see those and i'm seeing more and more now that people are getting really creative have you haven't you seen that too chris what's their backgrounds people are getting kind of creative with their backgrounds oh behind them mm-hmm i i don't know that like header i just oh the header yeah on linkedin profile okay yeah i guess i've seen some that are really nice yeah yeah yeah um so the about section the about section is an area that often changes i play with mine all the time this isn't like a ron popeil set it and forget it type of deal you can play with it um but this is an area where i would spend some time to think about three to five keywords right we i've mentioned it once before but like who are you what what are you why are you using linkedin what are your goals so for me my keywords are social selling marketing brands sales remote sales anytime you can use your keywords in your about section your job descriptions i know a lot of us have like a very you know diverse job history if you have you know you've worked in a restaurant you've worked in a factory and maybe you don't necessarily have a very what you perceive to be cohesive um story line you can make one it's all about your story right just find your story find your keywords and then once you find your keywords in linkedin choose those as your hashtags oh that's what i do what are your hashtags social selling branding marketing but i mean i have more too because there your hashtags will dial in your feed so i love to see design and art so or 3d right so i have other things outside of my but that's how the algorithm you know will put things in front of you i see yeah i'm not using hashtags like that okay noted um and that's the nice thing too is like everyone everyone uses linkedin how they want to use it you know so this just may be my flavor um feature content so uh you might think gosh i don't have any content i'm not quite sure i don't i haven't done anything i don't make anything if there's something that you think is a story that is really cool to you um it doesn't necessarily even have to be your work um and if you have questions you can you can send me a question on linkedin about featured content but pin something there that you feel like is relevant to your industry um i mean oftentimes people are just looking through your profile to see like what you're all about and so if you don't have something that you're you've done like maybe you haven't you know been in fancy videos or like run any awards or but you're you're really into 3d art and you want to pin some pieces pieces that you think are really cool go for it you know make sure that your experience descriptions tell a really nice story about the things you've done in each place if you have um you know awards or um accolades that you've experienced in those places i would put those in there you have anything to add there no okay um skills and endorsements skills skills are just saying these are this is these are the things i do for my my you know my current job but also even things you've done and you're not necessarily doing now like what are your skills what is what's in your toolbox and then people can endorse you for it i feel like back in the day and this could just be my experience i feel like people used to endorse me more i don't feel like i get so many endorsements anymore maybe i'm not doing a very good job anymore i'm just kidding but you run out of people to endorse you that's the problem i just don't know yeah yeah i don't know but um it's always cool when people endorse you for your skills but um recommendations we can talk about recommendations later at another time if people are interested i have some tricks on how to get more recommendations this is where you know people write something for you and they say this is my experience working with chris but people are really busy and it takes a lot of time so if you can help them with that um we can talk about how to do that really simply and easily and i think that would be so helpful for people yeah um accomplishments you know on again if you've had things in your past that are um things of note add that to your profile just make it rich and then at the very bottom in your interest section you've got influencers you follow companies you follow groups that you're in on linkedin people i'm sorry schools that you follow so is it unusual for me to want to pull out my phone right now work on my linkedin profile while you're talking no oh okay i told you you're making me this is cool i gotta catch up to you yeah this is cool stuff what's that ricky yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna work on my profile while we're talking i might need to have a conversation with you oh ricky okay okay so now the second essential for gamifying your the algorithm is contributing and we had already kind of talked about it uh once before but um stealing from you chris honestly educate inspire entertain you know gosh so many people are on there just saying this is what we do this is how we do it and no one really cares right what we're here to do is build trust and rapport and friendship and networks and if you lead with your heart and you know you lead with a loving place people will follow people you will magnetize people to you so educate inspire and entertain create native content so chris and i have talked a lot about this creating native content when we talk about this is if you like many of us do and it's a great thing that you have it but if you have like videos or anything on another platform living somewhere vimeo youtube linkedin doesn't want you to send traffic away from their platform because they're trying to keep you there and if you're taking you know traction away from their platform that's not helping them put their ads in front of new eyes so if you have a link that you want to share with other people which is a great thing there's two ways i know that i do it and i think chris you don't worry so much about this you just kind of do it which is fine too there's no right or wrong it's just your preference but put the link in the top comment the first comment you can do that or you can edit it go so you can post your posting and then go in and drop when it's edited drop your link in the edited version and repost it so if people just to be clear post your post your post and then drop the link in when you go in and re-edit that post you're saying do not embed a link an outbound link inside your original post because lincoln linkedin is going to flag that and say look we don't like that so then the hack the gamification part you're talking about go and make your posts and then go back and edit and then just drop the link back in yeah have you run a b test to see what impact this has i'm just curious you know i haven't yet but what i was going to talk to you about is i think it's just fine to put it in that first comment but as your reach grows what happens it gets buried yeah it gets buried so and also i don't again i don't think it's wrong to put it in that first comment because a lot of us are just learning so it's fine but if you put it in that first comment let your viewers know that the link is in that first comment all too often people come to your post later and it's it's there but they don't realize it so let them know where it is yeah make them work for a little bit yeah no yep but again we're all so busy that's true um so be consistent in po posting we'll get back to that in a second but linkedin is a community it's not like it it doesn't care if you're there or not it really does care if you're there because if you're there you are and you're putting out content people are viewing it and that's good but if you're not consistent if you don't give to it it won't give back to you it is a community so if you're not a community person if you don't like engaging in things i'm not sure if linkedin's really going to be for you you have to work it like all things like all things if it's worth having it's worth working for yeah yeah yeah and time of day it really does matter so we'll talk about that okay yeah so time of day uh between 8 and 10 a.m really on any day is the best day but there is an ideal day and it happens to be tuesday for linkedin and saturdays and sundays are also really great days but tuesday is the best day monday through friday um but i know i'm on linkedin on saturday are you on saturday and sunday i am but i thought about that since it's a work site i was just thinking am i promoting people working on the weekend if i post content that's interesting yeah and i think about that a lot of course yeah that doesn't stop me from putting out content on a weekend yeah i go there because i just love to see like the designers i follow um yeah okay so uh the fourth essential is when you post content you have got to engage with it so if someone says oh great great point i love what you just said you need to react to it and when i say react to it that would be like the equivalent of quote unquote liking it but we have reacting reaction buttons on linkedin and there is a choice so the newer one um just offhand is support and apparently that support button um gives a little bit more of a a reach it's weighted have heavier than a little bit that's what i'm hearing yeah um and don't just react comment leave a comment so when someone says oh i love this this you know was great blah blah blah give a reaction button and a comment it pushes it further and i used to not do this but it really does make a difference it's okay to like your own posts so when you react to it you're supposed to react to it as well is that like the equivalent of me standing in the mirror like hey you who's sexy yeah really it's okay to like your own stuff i guess so yeah so go for it scratch your own back right yeah that's a little bit more than scratching your own back but yes yeah right um 24 hours um give you have to be engaging in that first 24-hour period it's really important um and then if you love something that someone else uh you know like if you want to create content on linkedin they want it again to be native they want it to be yours original content is always more powerful so a reshare like taking someone else's content and putting it out there is not going to help you as much so what you're talking about is when you re-share a native post on linkedin the reach is not so hot i've seen that so i'll see something like oh 50 people reshared your post i'm like wonderful and then i go and thank them or like and comment on their reshare and i see well i'm the first person commenting on this this is ridiculous so you guys just need to know that so there's a hack around this dude you know the hack no tell me oh my gosh i thought you were i don't know maybe i could vacation queen tell me okay here's what i've been told if you like a post and you really really like it what you should do is you should screen capture it and post the screen capture as a result you're going to post it so it feels like it's new native content yeah and you may want to copy and paste original text in there and then add the link back to that original one in the comment yeah and that's how you really honor and help people that you really admire the content you may notice when you go and reach your content the reach is horrific it's horrible because they don't want people to do that yeah it's too easy yeah i i had heard of that i have not done that because i wasn't sure how i felt about screen capturing it but if you do it right way the right way like you just said if you treat it respectfully and you know do the um link back to it exactly and mention them and all that kind of stuff and that's yeah i think that's fine what i'm seeing also on linkedin i'm not sure how i feel about this but there are people who literally will grab my carousels from instagram and then repost on linkedin yeah and they do mention you but it's like you didn't even ask you didn't ask and i don't know how i feel about it but whatever so i'm not sure that linkedin likes that either and i'll tell you why why because the google algorithm is attached to that so but if they're screen capturing it probably not if they're screen capturing it but if you lift um type copy straight from like a website and you put that on linkedin um linkedin knows that it's from some other place and it will also flag it especially if it's got bold or italics in it yeah doesn't like that either from some other site because it's copying the styling yeah from something it transfers it over yeah because you can't i guess you can do it in a native post can't you what's that can you style your text in linkedin are you can you bold and italic your type gosh it's been a long time since i've done that yeah same here oh we'll have to look into it after the show yeah i don't think you can yeah it's been a long time we'll have to look into it um but i know that you can't like underline because i've tried to do that before but anyway but you know like when you grab something from google some or like in a text it'll say pasting something something from google or from yeah so um okay so the fifth is we're talking about cadence this is kind of uh this is interesting because you get to play with this this is a personal thing so some people say more posts the better and the research that i've kind of come across says not necessarily true so linkedin is going to more heavily weight your first post of the day and it wants to see how you perform as a content creator on linkedin so it's gonna let it go it's gonna kind of test your reach see who engages and if you put a second post out on a day it's going to weigh your second post against the first and it kind of uh does a little bit of a disservice so i would say wait don't be too eager to just put all kinds of content twice a day wait to see how it performs and then when you see that the reach um you know some people say because of that like twice a week is fine um i do like around three times a week or four times a week um but other people say when you see an obvious drop in engagement go ahead and post again but for me and i think for you too chris i don't watch it that closely i just enjoy the platform so if i feel like i have something to share it's not all about just the gamifying it for me if i have something to share i'll share it yeah and i think that's why you know i just wanted to say have fun with it don't get too rigid if you have something to share if it's valuable if it's relevant if it's going to help if it's going to inspire educate or entertain share it you know yeah and i think that wraps it for me oh that was the whole presentation the whole presentation oh it just flew by in like in a second yeah okay so what do we do now well we can now work on ricky's profile that's going to take too long how much time do we have here you know so why don't we do this jonah can or ricky can you highlight some comments so we can maybe address some questions in semi-real time although audio and video are not in sync i'm going to jump on youtube right now i'm not texting my friends about whatever i'm i'm actually working here guys so let's get into the comments here there is okay where is it all right okay thank you ricky for helping me out there the question for you is do you create themes or categories to post and if so at which interval monthly weekly good question this is from eric moore thank you yeah you can totally create themes um so i don't know if necessarily it's supposed to be used like this but i use unum um it's just a tool to help you basically plan for your instagram feed it doesn't automatically post it but you can plan for it and i pay for that service and you can create multiple boards and i use it for linkedin too so i totally create themes and i do that ahead of time um yeah great great question so smart okay next question here we go do i reach out to recruiters or how can i get recruited good question who's that from oh okay ricky just made it up okay perfect well i would say linkedin does a good job of kind of allowing a service to to flag you as being open to employment so if you go into your settings you can elect to put open to work there's a couple different ways to do it that i know of you can toggle the switch saying i'm open to work or you can put a frame around it it provides it for you but you can put a frame around your profile picture also visually flagging you that you're open to work and that's really nice especially if you're a freelancer and you want to be always on and available for work opportunities um so yeah that that's a great service i think that linkedin pride is unique to the platform so great there's a question here from nathan buxton who's asking this question i've wondered this too yeah do you get a lot of requests to connect on linkedin how do you manage these things how do you stay on top of all the applications yeah what's your what's your strategy on that yeah so i do get a lot of connections requests and for the most part i'll accept it because i do and i'm not like a hoarder i don't it's like it's not like oh more the better um more and more now people are looking at linkedin um as a way to kind of um i'm just thinking about safety here folks so like sometimes i think there are scammers right and i know that i've definitely been a target of some of those so just be careful who you let into your network if it doesn't seem right if it doesn't feel right um let it go and what do you do when you say let go just i say i don't know this person you just decline it decline that's all you do yeah yeah and i mean otherwise um i do i accept it and it's mostly just people wanting to connect and usually if they they want to ask me something or um you know when people connect if they have a reason they'll follow up again yeah so if they're there for a specific reason and they want to nurture that connection you'll hear from them again what's an automatic no for you in a decline what do they do to get an automatic decline from you oh my gosh i could go in a lot of different directions at that one um an automatic no for me why don't we do this you do one i'll do one we'll ping okay back and forth yeah okay well as a female i'll say i don't appreciate when people get too personal with me so that would be an automatic decline can you give us an example i think that people can get a little personal like i mean you can you can just guess i mean there's a lot of kind of like slimy people there's creepers on facebook there's creepers on you know you just got to be aware i'm i'm a bald asian man i don't get the creepers so i i in your way you do i'm assuming they're gonna make some kind of remark about the way you look sure okay that's a no see we can talk about it in a safe way yeah right and you can block people just i think it's important for people to know that i i do have people blocked use that service yeah and they won't know they're blocked they just yeah right so i would suggest that for any man you need to be aware that you should not begin a conversation talking about someone's physical appearance that's a definite no-no definitely on linkedin almost everywhere else you have to understand that that women are sometimes the subject of unwanted advances from people and is super unkosher not cool at all cut it out guys cut it out yeah i think it's important to touch on it it's not like the most comfortable topic but it happens all the time and so an immediate no for me in that same genre would be like hey what are you up to like not business related i just know where it's probably going so that's an immediate now are they are they using linkedin like tinder i have no idea because i've never used tinder but but who knows and you know the kids on the street hey we're both happily married so yeah nobody's here is using tinder okay yeah all right so we've heard yeah okay so for me i don't like the one that says linkedin suggests that we should be connected i just i'm done with you it's super nice that's just for me though not for me though yeah how come or maybe i'm a weirdo i don't know i'm leaning into the algorithm you know but if they're like we should you know i just know how hard i tried to build my network when i first came to linkedin and when you're new sometimes you don't know what to say and if you know especially after this last you know 12 months i know i've said that before because i didn't i didn't know any better so it kind of reminds me of who i was like eight years ago just trying so hard and i'm like okay and if i'll let it go right it's not the best intro but like if i hear from them again which i usually don't um i'll listen but usually i don't hear from them again so they're just trying to grow their network for whatever reason but you know i accept them yeah okay so you have your creepers my creepers are people who just want to sell me some crazy things complete i want a job who want to ask me the meaning of life in 13 paragraphs and i don't have time for that so generally speaking it's an auto decline for me if you reach out to me and use that generic linkedin thinks we're connected or i'm looking for business thought leaders in this space and it's all garbage i know it's a robot i just hit the client now granted i have about almost 5 000 people have sent me requests and i just i've just stopped responding to them yeah the ones i do respond to just to put a positive on a negative which is you write me two sentences that tells me you're a human being and why you think we should talk it doesn't matter i'm a fan i watch this video that last post you made was awesome or hey you know i have a bone to pick with you if i think you're a human being i will accept i don't i just put you in the garbage pile i mean you're a good human i'm just saying i'm just declining your thing in the garbage that's all yeah and i'm so glad you brought up bots because it's a it's a thing it is so much so much more now than it ever has before and so part of the reason why um i prefer people to call me joss you know um is like this is a test for bots so in your linkedin profile my name's jocelyn and i put in parentheses joss mcdonald because you know friends and people who know me and work with me they call me joss but if it's a bot oftentimes when they reach out they'll say hey jocelyn quote like parentheses joss you know and so if it's a person they know i prefer to be called joss because that's what i indicated on my profile or if they're a savvy enough person to notice that but oftentimes it's just a bot so if you have a nickname and you want to filter out some of those that's a little hint is to put your nickname in the profile yeah okay so you're probably staying on top of linkedin in ways that i'm not so my backlog of connections it's gotten out of control i didn't want to deal with it anymore and so there was a point in which i was just select all accept all and then there's all these marketers coming into my thing and if the first piece of correspondence this is my rule if your first piece of correspondence with me is trying to pitch and sell me something i will block you for sure i will literally block you i'm not even just decline i will block you because it takes extra steps to do that yep yep and when you have so many of those it just wastes your time and yeah it's clogs up your communication and waste your time yeah absolutely i wish here's the feature request linkedin people can we just make it a little easier to block people i don't want to go through two steps just give me the auto block button yeah i have a request for linkedin too oh you do yes okay i wish that the note that was attached to in asking for an acceptance of an invite or a connect i wish that note didn't go straight into my inbox when i accepted it because i've already read it or i don't care enough to read it i've just accepted it so job done yeah i don't know who came up with that but it's not that ui ux experience right there and what we're talking about is so for example joss and i will accept 100 connections in a moment and then you see 100 tabs at the bottom popping up like you got a million bucks and now the legitimate messages that are new and relevant to you get buried in that thing and you literally have to go and click on each one of those to like deactivate it right what a pain in the rear i'll be really honest with you perhaps if we go into the settings i've i've thought but i haven't had time to do it but i will um maybe i can turn that off oh will you let us know i will okay yeah great so what else is uh what else can we talk about maybe we should do another question whoa we have a whole bunch of questions here okay i think we just touched on some of the mistakes but are there other mistakes that people are making that you like don't do this why don't you take another question and think about that because i definitely probably can think of some okay here's another question then what's your advice for building relationships on linkedin when you are early in your career good one so good so i would say building on one of the things you said if you're going to reach out to someone that's your one time to reach out this is your moment your handshake moment so don't don't be cheesy maybe even like research best ways to reach out to people on linkedin come up with something that's original heartfelt meaningful and it's going to take more time but have a message that's quick and to the point and respectful don't say you know i see we have similar contacts you know see same thing no i know you just said it was okay it's true it's true i guess it depends on what day you catch me and for me it doesn't matter what day it's cold all that day is going straight in the garbage bin so it i don't think you have to be super creative i think you just say i admire your work i love that thing that you wrote just make something specific two sentences that's all it takes we're not trying to teach you how to be shakespeare here just just be human first what the heck is your reason for connecting with this person give them a reason to accept and they will so i work with a team of interns at a non-profit called i can help and i tell the interns be creative so linkedin provides you all different kinds of ways to send a note to people and if you're in their network and you want to message them you can send a video um we a creative way for prospecting is i i literally take my phone i create a video a very short succinct video and i'll send it with a little header statement um to that video and it gets you know attention especially from recruiters like if you're looking for recruiters and someone had a great question about you know should i reach out to recruiters absolutely you should totally reach out to recruiters um and if you do reach out to recruiters really research and figure out a game plan that's going to help you stand out from the crowd so also i know this sounds silly but there's emojis you can use i mean make it fun you're like rolling your eyes right now but it's just i'm squinting in pain no eyes rolled no it's totally fine but like if it's too if it's to your personality make it fun here's where i don't like the emojis and this is just me being stern asian dad here is it's a professional networking platform emojis are the language of teenagers like hey cute ha ha you know whatever fruit that you're gonna throw up i just that's not for me i want to be seen and perceived as a professional who's trying to either get a job or to do business with you or to establish some kind of contact i'm going to say this is where joss and i disagree don't do the emojis i don't but i don't do emojis period generally speaking okay but no i chuckled just because it it brought me back to um kind of that fruit ninja emojis kind of spot but um yeah i would say you we have all seen the like barfing of like emojis all over the place here and there i think it's okay just to be eye-catching i think it's fine but i'm of the same boat like do not yeah um and i maybe this is another eye roll because i know as a user of slack you know i i did like slack um but like there's jiff's gifts however you say it i mean sometimes that really gives like someone a unique chuckle so i've heard recruiters um you know tell me i really appreciate the people who have taken the time to appeal to what they think is personal and will connect with me in their notes and that's why i gave them attention yeah so i'm going to give you another tip i think it was nomigod who asked that question about advice for people who are trying to establish relationships in linkedin when they are still early in their career okay so we gave you advice on how to reach out to people but there's one that's even more effective than that i'm not a linkedin expert but i'm going to give you a little cristo hack here when somebody's posting a piece of content interact with that piece of content be consistent don't say cool rad bro awesome share that makes you disappear into the noise that exists already in social media write something thoughtful talk about something about the content that you read how it impacted you or something else that you're inspired by and put that in the notes i'm sorry in the comments below the post if you do this consistently enough eventually some idiot like me will see it it's like this person is really smart and without even realizing it i'll click on your profile and i'll say oh you've sent me a connection request i'll happily accept it because i know you're not a bot and you're trying to build a relationship with me versus you got a time share you want to sell to me so that's another great tip so if you're reaching way above your weight class like you're punching above your weight class and there's a big influencer an author or celebrity you want to reach out to engage with their content be consistent about it and eventually i think if they're smart they'll do what i do which is they'll accept your linkedin requests afterwards that was an awesome recommendation um another one kind of along those lines i would say if there's key people that you want to meet chat with connect go to their profile once you're connected go to their profile and see what groups they're in you know research the groups research the hashtags they've used try and figure out what circles that they live in and then do what chris just said show up in those places again and again and that will give you this organic connection yes it wasn't so organic here's another question or comment coming from andrew t andrew t what is up buddy andrew t is like hey i thought if i copy it and paste a quote that i want to share i didn't need to ask for their permission let's talk about this a little bit okay you have to ask yourself a question what is the purpose of you sharing a piece of content that's not authored by you is it done in the spirit of generosity or is it to try to hoard attention for yourself quotes are a little different because quotes are meant to be shared like that and the best way to handle quotes is guess what put it in quotes cite the person who said it and that should be good enough what i was talking about earlier was people taking content designs slides carousels diagrams charts whatever illustrations and just putting it on their feed without citing without trying to honor the original content creator and taking it wholesale there are a couple linkedin accounts one i know in particular that they routinely go through my instagram account pull the entire deck out and repost the thing on linkedin therefore robbing my myself of the ability to post it myself which i think kind of sucks because i have my own plan my own content release schedule it's kind of like you ripping a video from netflix and dropping on youtube because you're so excited as a fan that's why i think you want to ask for permission because what you're doing there you're not just taking little bits you're taking the whole thing and my number two pet peeve the mistakes that people make this really bothers me when people see a piece of content i'm just speaking about me specifically that i've written that i've designed and what they do is they take the same copy and they change the images and they do not reference or mention anywhere and then they use the excuse of i'm just practicing you know the difference between practicing and being a professional practice happens in private you don't go practicing piano on the concert stage so saying and excusing yourself and saying oh i was just practicing that's a that's a cop-out for ripping off being lazy and being too ashamed to reference the original post my general rule is if you want to share my post go and share the post leave it intact mention credit point back to the content otherwise you're doing something different and eventually in the professional world this stuff will catch up to you at some point absolutely yep and if you're interested let us know if someone is stealing content or doing anything that you know is not a feel good you can absolutely report them so yes how do you report them let's talk about it later why not know well let's talk about it later okay a little bit the dark side yeah okay i like that no okay okay what else yeah let's go to more questions well nathan bruxton is pretty funny he first thought we were ignoring his comments and i read his comments and he said thank you and now he's like i creep on you on you facebook chris it's fine go and creep on me yeah you can read the questions oh which one everyone appeals to you uh let's see here do i need to say something when i tried to connect we kind of addressed that um yeah just hey i love i appreciate your work or hey i'm noticing you live in this space and i could really use some guidance in this area hoping to connect just try and reach into that human side of yourself and and why are you connecting with this person do you have a reason for connecting with the person if you do then just state your reason um so i've got x connections now what yeah i've got x connections now what it's just really like you know more people that you have reached that linkedin can reach so they can sell more ads so you know it helps you promote your content so that's what you know i have x connections now what there's a better what than that you tell me i will do it okay thank you the name chris do it that's how it works right yep we haven't been live in a while i've not been in the presence of another human being you guys just relax a little bit okay if you have a connection just like in real life you have an ability to reach out to that person directly so it's important how you get it it's important how you maintain it and very very important to be respectful of the person that's on the other side so for example if i have a connection at cannes or sony and i need a new camera from canon or sony i would then drop something to them and i would just talk to them or if i connect with an author later on i can invite them to be a guest on the show and i think this is cool i i know in your profile you can block people from mentioning you because some some people don't like that because it pulls them into their feed and they don't want to do that but i also find that if i have a connection with somebody if i mention them in a post and i at them it'll show up right versus it won't let you show up yeah yeah so just think about it in real life what's the importance of having somebody's phone number or their email address because it says they trust you enough to give you their phone number their email address or to connect with you on linkedin don't abuse that trust absolutely so it's not just followers for followers sake there is some meaning behind this yo absolutely and i guess um the way i read that question too was i have x x amount of connections what does that mean i have 500 i have 5 000 does that mean i have more power here more you know but man so true if you um if you are being welcomed into anyone's inner circle anyone you must treat them with respect so um make sure that you're being genuine in those connections um what communicates chris this is a good question for you what communicates hireability whether you're employable or not is that your answer or a question no no when they're talking about higher ability just whether you're employable or not so that's the question you're a good candidate for hire yeah well first i think you need to just be careful that you don't assume somebody because you exist and they exist that they want to hire anybody at all i think it's sign it shows a sign of poor research to assume that and so if you connect to somebody and you're thinking they're going to hire you and you ask for a job right away that's not a good thing to do i think i answered the wrong question higher ability are you using linkedin to hire people am i yeah yeah for sure you are so why don't you answer that question okay okay cool so in my opinion i love a nice meaty built out profile you see how excited i get about it yeah so i i love color show me some color your your color show me your flavor um i want to know what you've done i would love to feel that you're proud of yourself around something um i love people who have pride in themselves and other people and what they do i'm super jazzed about people who are passionate about something and i would love to see that something on your profile so the last time you were looking to fill a position you went to linkedin and you filled out a job thing or when oh when when i was looking yeah um is that what you meant i think that's what they meant how do i become i thought you meant i was i hiring yeah i mean no last time you're hiring like you're looking for people to fill positions did you go on linkedin and looked at i mean how do you recruit on linkedin i'm just curious so i don't probably have the same needs that you might maybe i don't know um but so if i'm looking for creatives they're usually in my network we'll start there um i'll i'll see if we've had conversations before since things are so remote now it you know distance and location seems less of a um less of a thing for me um i love asking for people's online portfolios um i love to see that they are using linkedin and then once i feel comfortable we can have a chat you know we can we can schedule a call you're not going to just put a job posting out somewhere or ask a recruiter or find you a thousand so usually i am looking for a specific something and i know who to go to or you know what i'm saying so you're looking for a freelancer independent contract to come in and help you they come and do the job and they're gone so i think the way you're using linkedin is possibly like the way we're using it like 10 years ago which is you bookmark in your mind somebody who does something it that you admire and then when you have that need you go back into your catalog of your mind and then you pull that person out then you begin that dialogue again does that sound about right yep with the hopes that maybe i can retain them you know yeah yeah so how then for then the answer to that question is very straightforward then you need to do something consistently showing an area of specialization if you're a packaging person because i know you do packaging a packaging person or maybe you design really beautiful sales pages and you just keep putting that out over and over again your ability or your probability of somebody like joss who's going to remember you when they need something is going to go dramatically up we have a friend joshua smith he produces these crazy vector drawings using an old-school version of illustrator and he's doing them every single day with skulls and snakes he's he's amazing he's uh he goes by the name hydro 74. okay he's been on the show he does that so often that if i ever need a skull or a snake or somebody getting stabbed in the eye he's my guy nice because he's so good he's so fast and he's so consistent so that's what you would want to do if we're talking about like being recruited that's a whole nother animal you and i probably don't need to talk about that right now right right now i'll tell you how i hire i don't hire in that conventional way since we're a content and education company the most recent hires and whoever i wind up working with they do something to stand out one-eighth of an inch they have really deep long comments or they're offering to help me do something but not just like chris will hire me to do something they just do it there's a gentleman who works for us now his name is alex and this is the classic example alex was doing show summary notes for our youtube videos as comments and time after time i'm reading these things and eventually i think to myself okay you know what i'm just going to copy alex's show notes and put them in the actual official description of the show and made him really happy he's like wow i can't believe he did that and so this began a relationship i don't know what to do with alex so i tell ben ben here's a smart guy i don't know anything about him find him a job no alex works for us yeah so to me this is the side door path where you're not even asking for anything you're not looking for anything you're just looking to contribute to somebody because you you're doing it from a place of joy and general generosity and you just want to help yeah and when you do that smart people generally see it so that's a side door technique and caring people yeah see it and then you have this amazing powerhouse of a team of really empathetic awesome talented people yeah so rod has a question here rod is asking how do you interact with people if they reach out and connect with you what's the protocol now so let's say there's a like let's say i'm really into video games and sony games reaches out to me something for playstation 5 or whatever how do i organically have a conversation with them in case they want to hire me for something sure okay well for me i'm just putting my sales hat on if i've connected with someone and they're from sony or an ea or a blizzard um you know fortune 500 enterprise level company timing is really important because these people are really busy and usually people who i have in my head aren't necessarily living on linkedin all the time so it's not like a recruiter or someone in hr that um maybe on their computer on linkedin all the time so so if they've accepted your connection i have a tendency to if i have a question or a need top of mind i'll try and like respectfully hook them quickly just so that i can connect with them again in a second way because every time you connect with a person it in my mind someone once told me it leaves a thread so every time you have a touch with someone the thread gets left and the connection is stronger and stronger and stronger so timing has something to do with that um doesn't always work but i try um and then i would usually those people who you want like you want to work on their team usually they don't have something right now but sometimes they do and i think a nice question is i love what you do i love the the creative that your team is putting out if and when there's an opportunity for hire i would love to be considered who might i reach out to um or you could even pull a name that shows you did the due diligence like would so and so from your hr be the best person for me to reach out um just do all the heavy lifting up front for that person so they can even say yes or no and sometimes they would say um actually this is the person you should reach out to so um i just try to do all the heavy lifting up front for that person so if they want to respond to me they can do it quickly um here's my short answers to this is if somebody reaches out for to you and you recognize who it is from a company you'd like to work with the simple responses thank you for connecting with me is there anything i can do to help that's it there you go again i've gotten a job i've gotten actually a commercial from that yeah yeah okay andrew t is asking this question is a technical question i believe you can knock this one out of the park he's asking is there a difference between following a person versus connecting with them and what is it oh yeah so um actually the algorithm favors connections more than follows you you know you would think it might be the other way around but um when you connect with someone the algorithm really um likes to play more to connections than follows um what was the second part of that question the difference between a follower and a connection and and what's the difference yeah um and for me with following quite honestly if i'm following someone's because i really love the content that they're putting out i don't want to miss it so you're you're going to be receiving more of that person's content and telling the algorithm i i definitely want to see this feed um so that's how i look at a follow and a connection okay i'm realizing it's almost lunch time i think we can do maybe five more minutes and then get out of here is that okay wow i know you guys are really hungry for a salmon bowl don't talk about food we haven't ordered food what are you doing why would you do that to me okay uh what else do you want to talk about what's relevant what do you think okay i was going to tell another mistake but then i my brain froze trying to read all these comments yeah i mean if i could leave you know one piece of homework for people think about those three to five key words that would if you had to summarize yourself this year on linkedin what would be three to five keywords that you would use and i would think about the hashtags that you wanna incorporate that you wanna follow and i would sprinkle those keywords into your description into your about section into your experiences look into groups with that you know that might follow those similar keywords yeah okay i remember the thing i don't want you to do if i accept your connection please please don't do these couple things one don't say what's up yes i got no time for what's up i'm gonna delete you don't do that two don't try to ask me the meaning of life in 14 paragraphs i'm super annoyed by those things like just realize when when josh was saying be respectful what we're saying is be respectful of the person's time say what it is that you think and don't expect people to give you life career changing advice on linkedin or any other messaging platform i'm like what should i do in a situation like this with my father i'm like you know what i don't know you can't make your emergency my emergency just be respectful man we don't even have a relationship yet yeah you can't expect to have a conversation no on the street with someone you don't know so why would you reach out to someone and say what's up happens all the time though yeah don't ask me for money do not ask me to support or share your cause or whatever it is you're doing i don't have a relationship with you i'm not gonna do it don't ask me to do that i mean i just have to echo that the what's up really kills me yeah okay well we'll give a shout out to a couple of people because we see some of our friends here nico's saying hello from denmark what's up do you speak any languages oh my gosh don't do that to me this time you can say yes english i do speak some poorly okay no and i have a person who talks to me all the time on instagram her name is aditi and she's from india hi and she was wondering have you abandoned us on youtube and just have left us for clubhouse because a lot of people have access so do you know that linkedin um is available in 24 languages no what do we do with that since you and i don't speak other languages did you know that linkedin let's see here what's another linkedin fact um that 76 of users are outside the us it's a really global community oh all right yeah i know what we have our friend here from clubhouse she's british i believe her name is carol and she's asking this question you ready for it and we'll end on this one okay any tips on how to become a linkedin top 250 voice oh oh yes you know i think that's a whole other segment i do because that's an that's a interest of mine as well so i no i feel like that's a whole other segment how do i find out who's on the top 250 voice well another segment yeah i mean honestly there's a lot to say there so i kind of want to save it okay really a good topic hey that's what we call a cliffhanger ending and we'll end it on that the next time sorry carol the next time we do this joss is going to share with us how to become a top 250 voice on linkedin it's important to her it's important to me and we'll talk a little bit about the dark side of linkedin how's that for cliffhanger okay so on behalf of josh myself and the entire team that's here the entire two guys that are here thanks for tuning in with us thank you for bearing with us as we are having some audio video sync delays rest assured the synced version will be uploaded in the very near future i just want to remind you you're not defined by your past the future is what you make it have a great day everybody see you later
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