LinkedIn Content Strategy 2026: Stop Posting More and Start Posting Better | RR368

[00:00:01] Relationships Rule, that's my motto. I'm Janice Porter and I love to share the power of relationship marketing to help grow and impact business. I've grown my business by building and nurturing relationships and I'd like to help you do the same. Welcome to the Relationships Rule podcast where connection means everything. Hello everyone and welcome back to Relationships Rule. Question, what does it actually mean to show up as a thought leader on LinkedIn?

[00:00:33] Not just posting more, not chasing the algorithm, but showing up in a way that sounds like you and builds real trust before a single message is ever sent. Well, my guest today knows this world inside and out. Kayla Vanderhoof is head of content at Speedwork, a LinkedIn agency or LinkedIn ads agency, but we'll clarify that in a bit, where she leads organic LinkedIn strategy for B2B companies and executives.

[00:01:01] She writes over a hundred posts a month for clients. Oh my gosh, that just blows me away. And she's known for one thing above all else, capturing each person's authentic voice. I'm so glad she's here today because this conversation sits right at the heart of what relationships rule is all about. So welcome to the show, Kayla. Kayla Vanderhoof Hi, thanks for having me.

[00:01:22] Oh, my pleasure. It started out when I got the outreach from you or someone for you. I can't remember because I get so many that I was like, had my back up a little bit. I was like, okay, someone who does content for other people. I'm not all about content, but it's actually a big part of what my clients have to work with when they are

[00:01:48] using LinkedIn and I'm teaching them to link to be more effective when that content and to do the things that will help attract the right people to them. So it really does fit in. And since I've gotten to know you a little bit, I see that that's your zone of genius. So it's good to have you here.

[00:02:07] So let me just clarify. So your company Speedwork is a LinkedIn agency, but is it mostly for ads or is it both now? It's just doing- Yeah. So we are a LinkedIn advertising agency. So we primarily focus our efforts there. We do the organic side. So social content, LinkedIn articles, newsletters.

[00:02:33] We also do LinkedIn ads and we also help teams with their outbound. Perfect. All right. So before we get into strategy, I would love to know, how were you or what drew you into LinkedIn specifically? Was there a moment when you realized this platform was different from the rest? Or was it just that you took on this job and now you had to learn it?

[00:02:56] Yeah. You know, it's a little bit of both if I'm being honest. You know, I come from a background of social media. So I was primarily meta Facebook and Instagram. This is before TikTok.

[00:03:07] Yeah. And as I'm learning different things. And I remember I had to download LinkedIn as an assignment for undergrad. And so that's when I started seeing it. But I had the misconception that many people do of, oh, LinkedIn is just for job postings or it's for press releases. Like I didn't see the in-between just yet. And as I got older and I'm exploring, you know, working with other companies and we're using different platforms. I realized that LinkedIn is much more than that.

[00:03:37] And when I started working at Speedwork, I realized that so many people are under utilizing this platform because they're not posting at all. Right. And, you know, especially for business people, it's a great way to stay connected and it's a great way to show your expertise.

[00:03:57] Absolutely. So you write over 100 posts a month. I said that twice now because I'm like in awe of that. How do you capture someone's authentic voice when it's not your own? What does that process look like? Yeah. It comes down to meeting with them. I meet with all my clients during an onboarding process and I get to learn about them, their product.

[00:04:18] So we'll talk specifically about people right now. And with that, I learn about who they are, you know, their background, what they're interested in, how they got there and all of these things and conversations. I'm able to see, you know, what they're passionate about. You'll learn that when you talk to people, they start to get a little bit more excited about something light up.

[00:04:41] Right. Exactly. And those moments are when I'm able to be like, okay, like this is who they are, you know, because you, I can sit here and talk about myself, but you might see three key things. And those three key things are what's interesting and it's going to get other people's attention as well. So just, just meeting with them, talking with them one-on-one and, you know, it's easy to create content for someone from an outside perspective, because oftentimes we can be so hard on ourselves.

[00:05:09] I talk with people and they're hesitant. They're like, I just don't know where to start. I have nothing interesting to say. Right. But you do. Right. And you have all this experience. So it's, it's honestly, it just comes natural. It's super fun. And I love working with different personalities as well, because you have, you know, more spunky people or you have people who are just very hard, hard direct. Right. And it all just depends on who the person is.

[00:05:34] I think that, um, I identify with that a lot because when I'm working with a new LinkedIn, um, client, I'm starting usually with either building or rebuilding their profile. And, uh, the about section is most, the most difficult or the most fun because it's where all the, the, the, uh, the nuggets are that, that, that outline, not just who they are, but who they serve.

[00:06:04] But you can tell when you're working with somebody, like I just got off, uh, uh, training this morning and it was, we were rebuilding this girl's, um, about section. And I knew though, that it wasn't going to be, I love this. Let's tweak this and this and put it up because that's not who she is. She's going to go back and analyze the whole thing and go through every piece and make it, you know, her own, which is great.

[00:06:32] And she should, but just so that just as that other person tweaks it and they want to move on and they're, they're ready. Their personalities are different.

[00:06:41] Yeah. Just, you know, that when you start working with somebody and I think there's an added piece that you must have because it's that intuition to know that this person will like red and this person will like blue. So, you know, like that's a big piece for me to help me. Do you find that you act on intuition at all?

[00:07:05] Yeah, absolutely. You know, I, I've always said that I'm a people person. I love connecting with other people. And with that, I'm able to, it's just, yeah, it's the instinct. It's, it's a gut. It's just knowing like trusting yourself that you have that good indicator. Right. And then also the fact of, you know, the person that you're talking to is giving you the information that you need as well.

[00:07:30] So, yeah. And at the same time, you're building trust with each other and, and it gets better as time goes on, I suppose. Yeah, absolutely. I have, I have clients who leave zero feedback. They're like, okay, great. Post it. You know? And then I have some, they're like, wait, like, let's, let's find, you know, this and this. And it's, it's perfectly fine because it's coming from them. And my end goal is I want to help them get content that they're comfortable with and that they want to push out in into that world.

[00:07:58] And so whether that's, Hey, like, this is great or Hey, like let's tweak, you know, X, Y, and Z either way, they're one step closer to getting something published online. And that's the goal. Right. So most of my listeners spend a lot of time in, in their LinkedIn inbox building relationships, one conversation at a time. How does a strong posting strategy support that? Or does it, are they related?

[00:08:24] They definitely are. You know, when, when you're talking to someone on LinkedIn and in the DMS, they're going to go to your profile and they're going to look for credibility. They're going to look for proof. They're going to see, you know, who, if you are, who you say you are, if you know what you know. And so I always like to think of LinkedIn as like a one-stop shop. You should be able to show your expertise, but also show who you are because people are not going to build that relationship with you and that trust.

[00:08:54] If you're only doing hard sells on LinkedIn social posting, you want to lead with value. You have to be willing to give them something before you can ask for anything else. And with that was social. It's the same. People want to, before I buy from someone, I want to know who they are. You know, I need to know a little bit more than just here's my products or service. Here's how I can help you.

[00:09:17] And, you know, like talk about pain points or challenges and make it feel also like you're talking directly to me. Especially now with AI, AI is so great. But some issues that it comes with, with copywriting is that you can feel like it's copywriting and it doesn't feel authentic and it doesn't feel like yourself.

[00:09:37] And so, you know, I feel like when you're creating your content strategy, you need to make sure that you do not lose that human element because people connect with people at the end of the day. Yeah. So many good things in there. And now I've forgotten what you said at the beginning that I wanted to. Yeah, but that's okay. Okay. It's important that if you are doing your content through using AI and so many times today we are, let's be honest.

[00:10:07] We have to train AI to know who we are and how we speak, right? And, and feel free to challenge what it has said and then, you know, take it and make it your own.

[00:10:19] So when you're, I'm assuming, I shouldn't, but that you are using AI to some extent and perhaps if you are, you're training it on your specific clients in, you know, in different projects, right? So that you have, this is Janice's project. So here's who Janice is. Here's how she likes to phrase things. Here's how we're going to go forward with that.

[00:10:46] And then go back and, and, and give me something. Right. Yeah. You know, when I started AI wasn't very big, right? So I have the experience of creating everything from scratch. So now that AI is becoming more popular, I'm able to train AI just as I would myself. And what AI is so great about is, you know, I work with a lot of, um, for company side, lots of like techie and SAS companies.

[00:11:15] And I, you know, I am not an engineer. I'm not heavy on SAS in general. So I've had to teach myself about more. The jargon. And the jargon, the target audience, the pain points and AI is so great because it's helping me learn an entire different industry as if I am now an expert. And once I'm able to figure out what their pain points are or what the product does, I'm able to create content. And that shortens my time because I used to have to go through and read every single lady.

[00:11:44] Like I would have to do such intense research to learn about these companies or people. And then now I'm able to train AI and help me call it out quicker. Um, but yeah, so, and then, you know, AI is great as mentioned for that, but when we're using it for copy, a lot of mistakes I've seen is people would just copy and paste AI. And, um, I've actually talked to a lot of people who say that they will not stop and read AI content. If they feel like the hook is generated for AI, they keep scrolling.

[00:12:13] And that's not the best thing for LinkedIn because if no one is hitting that see more button and having a longer dwell time on your content, LinkedIn's not going to push it out to people because it's going to say, Hey, it's not relevant. People aren't stopping to read it. And so, you know, making sure that you're, you're having that human touch. It's fine as a foundation, but you have to add to it, you know? So what's a, what's a, um, uh, an indication that the hook is AI written? Hmm.

[00:12:43] There's a lot of AI jargon and phrasing that are red flags. Um, you know, there it's the way that it's formatted. It's little sayings. Um, it's honestly, AI could be in a totally different podcast for us to do. Okay. It's, it's, you know, there's a lot to learn and it's so useful.

[00:13:07] And there's a lot of people who maybe don't want to spend money or don't have the funds to spend extra money on a content strategist. And AI is great for it, but a lot of people are at that blocker of using it, but not using it properly. And so in return, it's, it's getting flagged. We'll come back to that then in our next episode. Um, so that does make me think though, that, um, when you work with a client, um, and you're getting, you're getting to know the new client.

[00:13:37] And you're getting to know what kind of, and you're developing what kind of content you're going to put out there for them as well. Um, how do you go about building a content strategy just more generically, but I'm curious about that. Yeah. You know, in your content strategy, there needs to be a content mix. So, uh, you know, we're talking about different formats, which is the, you know, native copy post, post with image, multiple images, carousel video.

[00:14:06] Um, but also we need to mix up our content in general. Um, not every single post needs to be a hard call to action for your product or service. We need to, you know, uh, do educational. You can do product thought leader, um, more lessons learned. And then also a lot of people forget sometimes that LinkedIn, like we're all just humans and it is a social platform at the end of the day.

[00:14:32] So we want to connect with other humans with that comes with either, you know, uh, things, learn experiences, but also I want to learn about who you are. Um, you know, I, I, I would tell my, my customers if, if you haven't done introduction posts before, those are a good place to start because introducing people to you. And people love those. Those are always the top performing at least for a quarter because people are attracted to people. People want to engage with people.

[00:15:00] And if I'm introducing myself and you know, if, if you and I haven't talked in a while, I'm going to go comment. Hey, Jane, it's so nice to see you. So glad that you're, you're doing great. Um, and you know, if I comment on it, then now my network might see your posts because I come down on, on it, even though that they don't follow you. And, you know, it gives a chance for people who don't know you to get to know you to start building that trust and that relationship. You know, I don't think I've ever done an introduction post to myself. I'm going to do that. Yeah.

[00:15:30] That's great. So I was looking at your content on your LinkedIn profile and I just went back a couple of months, but I noticed, and I had commented to you personally about this post. And all it says is marketing teams when employees start posting on LinkedIn and you're doing amazing, sweetie. And it's over a picture of Kris Jenner, uh, taking a picture and there's so much in there.

[00:15:56] And it was one of your well, most performing, um, posts. Right. And to me, it's got 2,400, um, likes and 76 comments and 175 reposts. That's pretty darn good for someone who, I don't know how many connections you have, but it's not huge. Like maybe 3,500. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, so that's really, really good. So what is it about that post? Well, it says a lot, right?

[00:16:26] Yeah, it does. I, I have this, this personal strategy. Um, so people who my, my personal ICP marketing people. Okay. And so I have to sit back and I always think about, I'm also a marketer and what do I enjoy? And when I'm looking at my content, I'm creating a full funnel strategy. So top of funnel is reach. I want as many people to see this and as many people to engage with it, because if they engage with it, the next time I post the middle of the funnel post, which is, you know, maybe

[00:16:55] more educational, they don't have to follow me, but they might see it because they once interacted with me. And so, yeah, with memes, uh, memes tend to be my highest performing content and it's because it's relatable. It makes people laugh. And sometimes we just forget that we like to have a good time. LinkedIn can get very serious. And, um, you know, especially in a world that is a little heavy people like to just connect

[00:17:24] with people and have a good time. And so I noticed that with memes, yeah, it gets really good impressions. It gets great engagement. And what's funny enough is I'm, when I have, you know, a quote unquote viral moment, I see my ICP following me. I have, you know, VP of marketing CMOs in my DMS and it's, you know, it's, it's hitting the right people and it's a, it's an entryway. It's a very easy way to be like, Hey, this is really funny. I saw this let's connect.

[00:17:55] And it's that bear to entry, um, type of content. Yeah. Um, and I think that's a really good point though, for people to remember that we have to be human. You know, we can't, we don't have to just be serious all the time. And whether that is, um, an accolade, uh, an event, you just went to, uh, showing something that you just won an award or, or as long as they're not all like that, as long as once

[00:18:23] in a while, I remember, uh, a client I had once who was a, um, commercial, um, real estate real, a commercial real realtor. Yeah. Commercial reals realtor. So he dealt in big properties, huge actually. And his partner, um, in his company, same thing, but they were very different. So they did, and they're big football fans and they're in Minnesota.

[00:18:49] And one of them had this, had a picture, they had a picture of one of them in a, um, obviously ordered online, a suit that was all about Minnesota Vikings. Okay. And it was like, had their logo all over it. And the other one had Green Bay Packers. Okay. And they're, they're arch rivals. That photo went viral big time because it was funny. And it showed their rivalry and it showed that, right. Had nothing to do with real estate at all.

[00:19:19] No, but it's same as this, but this made me think this one of you made me think that you did. Do you love the Kardashians? Do you follow them? Are you a, are you one of those people that watches them? Right. That was what it made me want to talk about. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. You know, um, because it was showing a side of you, maybe it wasn't, maybe it wasn't, I don't know, but I thought it was. And I think that there's no greater marketer than Kris Kardashian.

[00:19:49] Hey, she works hard. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. She's amazing. Okay. Nevermind her facelift, but that's another story. Right. Anyway, that was amazing. Yeah, totally. I just think that, um, we have to not take ourselves so seriously, but you said something about top of the funnel, middle of the funnel. I didn't, I don't think of it that way when I'm doing a strategy, I'm thinking more of my pillars. So talk to me about that. Yeah.

[00:20:17] You know, I, I like to think of a full funnel strategy and my pillars go within those, that funnel. Um, so, you know, and for myself, I, I don't, I'm not a big bottom of funnel, hard call to action. I will every now and then I'll do it very organically. Uh, cause you know, people don't want to be sold to right. And with that, it needs to feel very natural.

[00:20:43] So what I like to do personally is when I do, um, any type of educational how to's, um, news or any way that maybe I give you a lot of value up top. I'm like, Hey, do you need help with this? My name is Kayla. I am the head of content at speed work, and I would love to talk to you and I'll, I'll do it down there because it's very natural. And I'm not going to book a call with you just because you say, Hey, book a demo.

[00:21:11] You know, I, I want something more. So I do the same strategy for myself. Um, and you know, it, it works well. People seem to be more responsive to that because they feel like if I'm, if you're willing to give me something for free, imagine what exactly I can give to you for something that you pay for. And we think alike that way. Yeah. I, I don't mind giving up, you know, free tidbits because one, I know that not everyone is in

[00:21:38] the position to be able to work with me, but two, I want you to be able to build that relationship and that trust with me. And the only way that I'm going to do that is if I give you something first. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay. So, um, you, um, I think it was a post I saw on your, um, LinkedIn that talked about this, that you shared that personal profiles are outperforming company pages right now. And I've been looking at some of that, um, information as well. Why do you think that is?

[00:22:06] And what does it mean for someone who's trying to build relationships through the platform? Yeah. Um, so I guess maybe to, to be clear on the statement is that personal profiles do outperform company pages, but that does not mean that company pages are dead. I see that misconception all the time. And that's something I can talk about later, but going back to the question, it goes back to people want to connect with people and not logos, right?

[00:22:33] So on your personal page, that's where you can build that relationship. And with brands that I manage, I have seen an increase of following when we start to humanize the brand. Um, there is this one SAS product and we've grown about 150,000 followers for them. And it's from the strategy of humanizing the brand, making it feel, you know, using less terminology that maybe not everyone might know. And wait, wait, so this is on their company page doing the content on their company.

[00:23:03] Yep. Correct. Got it. Okay. And, you know, just humanizing that brand. And when we did that, that's when we started seeing increased engagement, increased following. And then that goes back to the whole point of people just want to connect with people, uh, you know, and it goes also back to the fact that it's a social media platform, right? Scrolling people want to connect with you and me. Um, you know, it takes someone probably three to four times more effort to go follow a company page.

[00:23:32] And so where it's so easy, if I see something of yours that I like, I'm going to hit follow just because you've said something that interests me, or you said something that I found in, you know, I learned from it. And, um, sometimes brands do a really hard time of conveying that in their brand voice. And, um, so I think that's kind of where those differences are, but. And also, you know, with your personal, you have a lot more flexibility and you have a lot more room to test things out.

[00:24:01] Uh, and it's just you, it's, it's just, you know, a person to person. And yeah. So while personal profiles are so amazing and they outperform definitely. And I do suggest for small business owners or anyone who is, has a business not to neglect that, uh, because people are still checking company pages and okay. So even if they're not following the company pages, they're checking those out is what you're saying. Yeah.

[00:24:28] You know, with, um, referrals, if they, there's, there's so many different things, um, especially, especially if you're running any type of LinkedIn ads on your company page, you should be posting. Uh, it's, you will see a decrease of cost per lead that way, because on your page, you are accumulating all of this content. Um, how I like to think about any pages. So this is a personal page and a company page is I want to be able to go to someone's, uh, LinkedIn.

[00:24:57] And I want to know who they are, what they offer. If there's any social proof, tell me more about if it's the company. I want to see employees. Um, if it's a person, tell me more about yourself. And whereas if I were to go to a website, it would take me about 10, 15 clicks to find out that information. Why LinkedIn is so important is I can learn everything about you in one scroll and I don't have to click around. So, uh, people don't use that to its fullest capabilities. I feel. Yeah, that's, that's very true.

[00:25:27] And it's funny. I, on my newsletter, that's going to be out, um, on LinkedIn on this next week. I just, um, was talking about, um, what was I talking about? Oh, your presence. And I was talking about, um, one of the things I mentioned is that when, when you meet somebody new or you, you know, you Google them, you still do that. You still Google them. And when you Google somebody, um, their LinkedIn profile usually shows up in the first five results,

[00:25:56] often in front of their website, if they have one. So it's important that when they go there, cause they will, that it's, you know, that it works for you and it's up to date and so on. So, but one of the things I just want to ask you, so what is your take on, like, when we're talking about company pages versus, um, people, uh, individual page pages or profiles, um,

[00:26:20] if you have a team and you're posting on the company page, is it still okay? I don't know if I follow this properly, but to copy or to share the company, um, post on your personal page, or should you be doing it the other way around, or should you be doing it at all, or should you, um, have employees post on their page from the company page and get them involved more?

[00:26:49] And, you know, does it help all of that good stuff? Yeah. This, so the employee advocacy pillar is I think really big because, um, as kind of mentioned how personal pages perform better. Yeah. I always recommend as much as possible that employees get involved as well, because not only are they building their own personal brain, which is great for them. It also is great for the company too. Um, so the more that people are posting content and education, people are going to start learning

[00:27:19] not only about them, but your company. And as far as performance, um, you know, I, I like to try and mix every audience is different. So I like to keep the company page active, but I do like to repost employee posts onto the feed as well. And then vice versa, there's a big announcement. Go ahead and share that big announcement. And then if you want to post natively about it a day or two later, do it.

[00:27:43] Um, but that repost is going to help get that your company page or your page, depending on, uh, you know, which route you decide more views, um, because then you're extended to further audiences. But if it's, if it's going from your personal profile to your company page, it won't, I believe, I don't think it, it will get you more viewership unless more people are following enough people are following the company page. Yeah.

[00:28:13] So if you want, um, the, the reason you would want to get a repost, an employee repost to the company page is more so of that humanizing the brand, showing your thought leaders, showing the people behind that logo. Yeah. But yeah, so if you want more reach, so everything depends on what the goal or objective is for that. If, if your goal is to have more reach that for the company page, then definitely encourage employees to repost that company page post to push it out to their audience.

[00:28:43] And even commenting, um, you know, commenting and reposting are two of the highest leverage thing that you can do. It used to be commenting. Uh, but recently there have been reports that reposting is now helping as well. Um, whereas it was showing that much impact previously. Right. But there's a, also like, I was just going to ask you to walk me through what a post looks like when it's working, what elements are present and what does the relationship building

[00:29:12] look like after someone engages with it? Okay. But let's just go back to the first part. Um, what it looks like when a post is working. Um, I've heard that if you're going to post or sorry, if you're going to comment on somebody's post that commenting on other people, let's start there. Commenting on other people's posts is a really good strategy right now. Right.

[00:29:36] Um, and you agree, um, that helps get you some more visibility if you're going to be posting. Right. And they say post before post just after you or comment before comment after. Um, your post is going to be, um, visible. Okay. So then I hear comment first, then like, does it make a difference? No, um, I, it doesn't. Oh, I recommend there.

[00:30:04] So there is a tactic of warming up your account, right? So that's engaging with content before you go live and then engaging with content after a lot of people are like, Hey, LinkedIn is not my full-time job. I have so much other things to do. So that's when I'm like, Hey, totally fine. Me too. Just say active. You don't have to, you know, as if you are consistently active online, whether that's scrolling for five to 10 minutes a day, just to engage that alone will help you. You don't have to be very nitpicky about it.

[00:30:33] Um, cause you know, once you start getting into the granularness of it, you're like, wait, I don't even want to do anything. I actually just want to log off my account. Um, cause it can get overwhelming all like the tips and tricks. So I definitely recommend just to be active in general, spend a couple of minutes, scroll, like comment, commenting. Um, if you do comment and, you know, when we look at commenting for exposure, so helping with that visibility, I would recommend more than just a couple of words because LinkedIn

[00:31:03] is going to scan it and they're going to see what's relevant or, you know, um, if I just drop three emojis on your post, then it's, it's not going to say, Hey, this is insightful. I'm learning stuff from it. Um, can we just talk about emojis for a second? I, I know you're a dislike of the emoji. It's LinkedIn people. It's a business platform. Okay. Yes. The once in a while I put a heart or I'll put something that, you know, shows me pulling

[00:31:32] my hair out or whatever, but no, it's not Facebook. It's not Instagram. It's not Twitter. It's LinkedIn. It's the only business platform. Okay. So yeah, I'm a, I'm not really for them. Sorry, Kayla. All right. Yeah. Um, yeah. So commenting and reposting will help get more reach and visibility on a post. Yeah.

[00:31:58] That's become a bit of a, um, scam actually though, with a lot of these posts that are showing up on LinkedIn. Well, not, uh, I don't know if it's AI, but they seem to be legitimate like, uh, influencers or marketers. I think they would be more who say, you know, I've, I've, um, I've got this great, um, document I want to send you and, you know, and then they'll say repost this.

[00:32:24] Um, and, um, for some reason it gets it more, it gets it more, but it doesn't get them, um, sending it to you any faster. And in fact, you shouldn't even do that because they're cutting back on these things like LinkedIn's clamping down on them now. Um, that yeah, not legit. In the latest update, um, common engagement, which is, you know, comment, Claude, and I'll send you a report on how I built content for Claude. Yeah.

[00:32:53] Um, they are actually, that's actually, it's going to be a negative effect. I have not, I still see posts frequently on my feed that are with this tactic right now. Uh, but with the engineering team and this latest update, I do believe that they are going to start, uh, you know, kind of cracking down on that as well as, um, AI comments. Cause AI spam comments have been really big and that's kind of where, you know, people hook up some automation and say the keywords they'll go and comment on it.

[00:33:22] Um, I just want to say, you know, just kind of be careful with any type of automation that anyone has. Cause LinkedIn is, they're shutting things down. I know. Um, so. And they should, I mean, it's, it's, but what is important, I think with comments, commenting and how I talk to my clients is that you want to, if you want to be more visible and you want to show your expertise then, and, and it needs to come back to how you are

[00:33:51] positioned on your profile, then put something intelligent in there that shows your point of view or that, you know, um, gives a, an added, um, value to what that person's, um, post is all about, because that's going to help you do that. And surely to God, you can do that without AI. Right. Absolutely. I, I tell the same, um, you know, oftentimes there's, you know, these big posts blowing

[00:34:19] up, whether it's articles or posts and people are down there 400 comments. And if that's something within your wheelhouse, something that you know a lot about go in there and comment on it. Cause that's more reach for you. And then that's one step of you showing your expertise and people are now going to start seeing you pop up in those comments and then they're going to go to your page. And that's kind of where that content is important, right? Because you can't be a thought leader in the comments. And then we go to your page and you have nothing. Right. Um, excuse me.

[00:34:49] There's one other quick thing I want to just ask you. I see this and it drives me crazy. And I don't know whether you, um, see it as well or whether you do it with any clients. And if you do, I'm sorry, I'm saying this for you, but I've seen, I saw a woman post something the other day. She tagged me in the post, but she tagged like 47 people at the end of the post. And I'm like, Oh, please. Okay.

[00:35:15] So I think that diminishes the, the, you're nodding your head. I like that. So talk to me about that. Yeah. You don't want to over tag. Um, just like back in the day, you don't want to use too many hashtags. Now hashtags are no longer relevant. Um, yeah, you know, it, it LinkedIn scan. So if you are just tagging, just to tag, if you have a paragraph long of tags, Lincoln will flag that as spam. Yeah.

[00:35:43] Um, and when it comes to, there are some people I get tagged in, in, in quite a bit, people will like create articles and they'll say, Oh, I found this person's post insightful. Go, go look at that. And they'll kind of learn. And that seems to get less flagged. Yeah. And I'm okay with that. If you are a community builder and you want to, you know, extend knowledge, Hey, I saw this post. Um, that's fine. But yeah, I definitely would not recommend just sitting there tagging me anyone that you

[00:36:12] think that you could extend your reach. Uh, not only does it not look great. If you don't, if people who you've tagged don't engage with it, LinkedIn also flags that. Exactly. And that makes it worse. It doesn't send it out to as many people. Um, and you mentioned the hashtags and you said that they're not relevant anymore. And, and that's true. Yep. Um, but there are still, um, some people who are using them to help them find, I think

[00:36:40] things, I don't know, like there's a kid. I think you can still put a hashtag in and bring up certain posts, but LinkedIn isn't using them at all really. Yeah. That actually changed last year. And, uh, soon after they took away the crater, uh, they had a crater type of program, uh, where you have like hashtags on your profile. But when they took that away, used to, I would, if I followed a hashtag and you posted something

[00:37:07] that had my hashtag in it, I'd get notified, you know, 15 people posted about marketing hashtag. And so that's how, you know, people use that as a hack to get more reach and you don't get notified anymore. And actually more hashtags you use, the more spam you're, you look. So it actually has that negative side of it. Um, obviously there are some people who still use two, three to five, um, which is perfectly fine.

[00:37:32] But if you're using it for some sort of hack, it's, it's no longer hackable. Yeah, that's great. I know there's so much, right? So much. So last question, if someone listening or watching today has been lurking on LinkedIn and not quite sure what to say or how to show up, what would you tell them? Where should they start? Well, I read a stat once that said 88% of LinkedIn users are lurkers. So yeah, it's true. The very small percentage are actually active. I know.

[00:38:01] I, I would just encourage everyone to start, you know, people are so hesitant and whether they think that they don't know what to say, they don't have anything interesting to say, but I would challenge that, you know, everyone, you have experience, you have connections and you have expertise. And so if you don't know where to start on your next business call, start taking notes. What are some pain points that came out? What are some challenges? What's some advice that, that you gave someone?

[00:38:30] Cause that's content that's going to resonate really well on a social copy. And so I would just encourage you to take the negative thoughts away. And, um, you know, people I work with are like, kind of feel like an imposter a little bit. And I'm like, no, you know, it's nothing's going to be perfect, especially the first time you posted it. And I've been doing it for years and I still make mistakes, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Nothing has to be polished. And that's why personal profiles are great. It's because it's authentic.

[00:38:59] And you expect a grammar issue. You expect extra letters. It doesn't have to be, um, you know, so PR release, uh, you know, that type of like format. It can just be you talking to people. So, um, I just recommend just to do it, get to a normal posting cadence. If you can one or two times per week, um, LinkedIn will push out your content and your profile more if you're posting five to six times per month.

[00:39:26] So do a little bit more, uh, and that will also help you get started by AI. So, um, yeah, it's all round a great idea and just hit that bend button. That's all very good advice, Kayla. And I, I feel your passion for, for doing it as well as mine. So, um, uh, I love it. So thank you. This has been a generous and grounding conversation.

[00:39:53] What I love most is that every, everything you've shared comes back to the same truth. People connect with people, not logos, not algorithms and not perfectly polished content. So, um, showing up with your real voice, a clear point of view and genuine curiosity is the strategy. Thank you so much for being here for everyone. And for everyone listening, you will find, um, Kayla will put your, um, link to your LinkedIn

[00:40:20] and to your speed work, um, uh, um, email, sorry. And your website in the show notes. And if today's conversation reminded you that relationships really do rule, I hope you will share it with someone who needs to hear it. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for joining us. If today's show inspired you to make a new connection, why not start with me head over

[00:40:49] to LinkedIn and connect with me. Be sure to let me know you're a podcast listener because I select one listener each month who connects with me on LinkedIn for a complimentary profile audit. And you know, I love to meet new people. So I hope you take me up on it. Don't forget to stay connected and be remembered.