Tag Archive for: advertising

The secret to creating successful LinkedIn posts…

Want to know what makes a great LinkedIn post? LinkedIn have revealed the secrets…

Earlier this year, Jason Feifer interviewed both Daniel Roth and Alice Xiong from LinkedIn on how to create high performing LinkedIn posts.

This was my takeout from their conversation:

  1. Help people to be better in their jobs. People come to LinkedIn for a purpose – often to learn more about something. If you can help them with this, you are off to a good start.
  2. Share advice/knowledge on things you are knowledgeable about. Think about the specific audience you are targeting and what might interest them.
  3. LinkedIn will share your content to your contacts and followers first. So, to increase your reach, be sure to connect with people who share similar interests.
  4. LinkedIn cares about authority of your post rather than volume of shares. So if it sees interactions from your audience then your post will reach more of the same audience.
  5. Linkedin values meaningful comments from your audience. If possible, encourage interactions and conversations with your target audience. If you get some good conversations going then your post will be shared with similar people.
  6. The platform isn’t interested in promoting your newsletter, learning programme or otherwise. If you are constantly linking out of the platform then don’t expect LinkedIn to be as excited about it as you are.

At wethepeople we have years of experience in helping our clients make LinkedIn work for their brands.

Contact me to find out how we could help you.

Harness FOMO to power up your next marketing campaign

We’ve all heard about FOMO – the fear of missing out.

FOMO is brought on by loss aversion; when we behave in a certain way because we are more motivated to avoid losing something, than gaining that same thing.

Like many similar principles, loss aversion is thought to have its roots in our evolution. Our ancestors faced scarcity and had to make decisions that maximised their chances of survival. Back in the day, the loss of resources or opportunities had a greater impact on their chances of survival compared to similar gains.

Robert Cialdini, in his recent webinar, Win with small changes that deliver big results, talked about how this principle could be used to help customers to see product benefits in a new way. Cialdini cited a study involving a home energy company selling roof insulation services. Rather than express the fuel bill savings from adding more insulation, the company highlighted the ongoing costs if the consumer didn’t install the insulation. This change of approach resulted in a 150% increase in sales.

So next time you are thinking about your brand benefits, think about how you might frame them from a loss perspective. And watch as your customers FOMO drives interest in your brand.

Trying to influence someone?
Offer them lunch or ask for a favour?

If you are stuck with an approach strategy to a particular person or group of people, it may be worth stopping thinking about what you can do for them, and think of what they can do for you.

When creating customer strategy, we often focus on changing attitudes or beliefs. Even though it’s often more effective to ask them do something for us, even in groups who may be less than receptive to our approaches.

The question in the headline may seem like a stupid one with a pretty obvious answer. But, as with many things involving human beings, the most likely answer is pretty surprising. There is a behavioural bias at work here which makes asking a favour more likely to be successful.

Asking someone, who you’d like to create a positive impression with, to do you a favour probably seems a bit strange, even counter-intuitive. But there is a good psychological basis for doing just that. There is a great deal of evidence that supports the idea that doing favours for people disposes us more positively to them and makes us more likely to do them another favour.

A simple example from a B2B perspective would be sending your “targets” an article you wrote and ask their opinion prior to your first meeting. Or you could ask them to contribute to your thinking by sharing what they believe to be important new products, trends etc. arising in the market. The important thing is that you are asking personally. Asking favours like these have a very low barrier to fulfilment (people love sharing what they think) and are likely to be more successful than asking if you can borrow their Aston Martin for the weekend.

The “Ben Franklin effect” posits that a person who has already done you a favour is more likely to do you another than someone for whom you have done a favour. He described it as an old maxim in his autobiography: “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.” He then also described how he had practically used this maxim on a hostile rival in the 18th century Pennsylvania Legislature.

“Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return’d it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death”.

This effect is connected to cognitive dissonance. We try to avoid conflicts between what we do and what we believe. In this instance, the behaviour drives the belief: “I did that person a favour, so obviously I must like them”.

It’s useful to know in many situations. Who wouldn’t want a new customer, your boss, or a key opinion former feeling positive about you? As a strategy for dealing with people who may be less well disposed to you, asking them to do something for you that may help you solve their issue is particularly powerful.

Tag Archive for: advertising