Ling Yah’s Post

I felt really uncomfortable when Parker Yablon told me he wanted to start a podcast 🎙️. I got even more awkward when he said we were going to lean into content creation 🎬. From cringeworthy TikTok mindset videos where I stare into the camera attempting my best Gary Vaynerchuk impression, to making absurd faces as cover photos for YouTube videos (Seriously, what am I doing…) I’ve tried it all. And trust me, I’ve hated pretty much every second of it. Content creation at its core has a simple principle. To make yourself “visible”. We all want our voices to be seen, heard and valued ✅. Our latest additions to Elevation Nation have helped me regain confidence in our voice and in our content. As experts in publicity and PR, Lydia Bagarozza and Bridget Aileen Sicsko specialize in not just finding your voice, but helping you scream 💥 it from the rooftops. Their company, Visibility on Purpose empowers small business owners to take advantage of the tricks that big PR firms provide, as they strive to build and share their voice 🗣️. As young adults across the country look to find summer employment, they are searching for ways to stand out and share that voice. While I don’t believe there is a silver bullet to visibility, I’ve learned from Bridget and Lydia that you just have to start in literally whatever way feels best for you. Whether it is creating a business card and sharing that with others (peep my post from a few weeks ago), to starting to create content specifically for the company you want to work at 📋. Young people are finding more and more ways to stand out, make their voice heard and land the job. Hear how PR experts and yours truly think you should navigate amplifying 📢 your voice in our latest episode.

Life: (See gif below) Me: Scrambles to make a post to keep engagement up because I didn’t schedule anything for today 😵💫 That’s the post. This week, client work took priority over my social media engagement. This week, family and personal affairs took priority over my social media engagement. Did I fail by not having scheduled or “backup” content in my vault for weeks like this? Yeah, probably. ... Question for you guys: Do you have vaulted content to supplement organic posts? If so, what is your strategy? I listened to a podcast today that recommended a 3-day split: 1. Brainstorm Day 2. Content Day (produce the writing) 3. Production Day (record and schedule) Perhaps this strategy will go into effect next week. ________ Gif is of a man in a suit pretending to set off a chaos grenade. #engagement #contentstrategy

LinkedIn isn't worth your time, you say? Many people have shared this thought with us, questioning its value. ✖They find it boring. ✖They find it overly formal. ✖They think it’s for company updates only. ✔They’re wrong. Ironically, everyone has a story worth telling, yet so many overlook the potential of sharing it here. The common misconception? → That LinkedIn's purpose ends with posting. Yes, your personal journey is key. But your vision should be expansive. My entry into LinkedIn was not solely for storytelling. I had a larger ambition: 🚀 Launching a podcast. 🚀 Developing a newsletter. 🚀 Looking at direct response marketing. For me, LinkedIn was the springboard for establishing credibility, presence, and influence. And if I didn’t grab that opportunity with two hands a couple of years ago.. ..I’d be leaving valuable money on the table today.

Podcast guesting not only integrates seamlessly with your overall marketing strategy... It actually puts it on "steroids". Long form pieces of content you can share with your cold outreach leads, email list, etc to increase trust; Short videos to add to your social media content or ads (your best, most authentic content "validated" by a third party--the hosts); Increased network of referral partners (the podcast hosts that see you in action and spend 1 hour with you); Access to new audiences without spending money on ads (the podcast hosts' audiences). Literally, multiple wins out of each interview. If this is not the dream marketing scenario, I don't know what is! #podcastguesting #marketingstrategy

Highly Demanded Skills in 2024 Promotion Promotions Understand your channels first. No lame-ass +100 promotion list here. Know your channels: You have your blog and Instagram for example. You can't just publish your blog to insta. So know what works over there. Turn it into a carousel. Maybe take the topic and record a little video for it. Use that on reels Create content with promotion in mind: When outlining your content, think about what section would work amazingly on your channels of choice. Give yourself as many chances to hit a homerun with your short version of your long form content. Be that blog to Linkedin, or Podcast to Shorts Create content with partners in mind: What could you make to make your partners look amazing and give them a reason to share it too? How can you talk about it in future events?: Think about how you can weave all the effort into future speaking events, guesting on podcasts, pitching it to newsletters etc. My favourite newsletter promo tactic? Reply to the newsletter for for a a couple weeks Be interested in what they're making. And then, when the time is right, send over something you've made that you thirik will benefit their audience Works more often than not. Just don't be a dick about it.

"We've lost so much of that original connection." This hit home for me when I listened to Social Posting Strategy on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. And it's because I practice and preach it. If you're getting frazzled about the algorithm and your impressions and engagement rate, you're not alone. Social media was never intended to be a numbers game. 🙅♀️ It was never intended for cold messaging and sliding into people's DMs. It started with connection and community-building at its core. For the sake of getting to know people with similar values and interests. This rings so true. White it's not LinkedIn, I look back on my 8-year book blogging journey on Instagram and I didn't grow my following to 14.5K by chasing numbers. I was just like, "Hey I read this book too and love how you captured this review and photo." Thus a bookish friendship was born. Or 14.5K bookish friendships. 🤣 So when you're feeling frustrated about the numbers and algorithm, just remember it was never about that. Recentre yourself and strategy with connection in mind and find joy from social media again.

I have no social media posts scheduled this week......and that's ok. Here's what I am doing instead. First, my only son and last kid graduated high school on Saturday 🎉 It was a week filled with sports awards, senior walk, senior luncheon, senior reception, graduation then the grad party. Ya girl, is EXHAUSTED! But so worth it. So I have no energy to do social media posts. Yeah, I can grab it from my content hub as I do have content ready to go complete with copy, hashtags, and graphics. Yes, I could have batched ahead, but instead, on weeks like this, I like to spend more time on engagement. So rather than posting, I am going to spend this week on coffee chat calls, responding to comments/DM's and truly connecting with people. Sometimes we focus so much on content we forget to be "social" on social media. However, social media isn't my only form of marketing. My weekly newsletter will still go out as will a new podcast episode. This is why you don't put all your eggs in one basket. I would love to know how you handle a busy season in your life.

The highs and lows of LinkedIn Yesterday I had something really cool happen to me. It seems LinkedIn took my episode of Drinkin’ on LinkedIn and featured in their primary video feed. 💥 BOOM 💥 Thousands of impressions and hundreds of minutes watched. Then I posted today’s episode and I think they punished me - lowest engagement of the 48 episodes to date. Things I learned: - Seeing a ton of views is cool, but the viewership wasn’t really in my zone; mostly random people outside the media business who would probably scratch their heads at my content - The actual engagement to views was shockingly low. I received the same number of likes and comments as my average post with much lower view counts. Not surprising given the random exposure to the larger audience. - Reminded me of a cardinal rule - niche, targeted audiences that are smaller and engaged trump random large audiences who wash over your content randomly. So, even though the Drinkin’ on LinkedIn is small and the view counts are (relatively) low, I am deeply appreciative when my content actually reaches and resonates with its audience.

💡 Create for Impact, Not for Likes 💡 Sharing your thoughts and ideas on social media can be daunting, especially if only 1-2 people leave you a like and they are related to you. But here’s the truth: it’s not about the likes. In my conversation with Charles Thompson on the ‘What’s Your Story?’ pod, he shared how he overcame this challenge. As someone who posts daily on LinkedIn, Charles stopped focusing on the number of likes and comments. Instead, he focuses on the one person his content might impact. 🌟 Key takeaway: In a world where people increasingly consume content privately (shoutout to Shama Hyder for that insight), public engagement doesn’t fully reflect your impact. Spend time with your community to truly understand if your content resonates. 🎙️ Listen to Charles’ full story to learn [Link in comments]: • How he shifted his mindset on content creation • Strategies to consistently create impactful content • The journey to becoming a top sales voice on LinkedIn Join in and share how you have focused on genuine impact.  #WhatsYourStory #NewPodcast #ImpactOverLikes #ContentCreators #CommunityEngagement #PersonalBrand

“We have 65k followers on the Exit Five page, and it drives nothing for us.” ^ quote from DG Dave Gerhardt on the Revenue Vitals podcast. (attached the clip to this post but the whole episode is def worth a listen) This sentiment hits hard. We’re certainly feeling it with the Common Room corp handle. To put things into perspective, our corp handle has ~double the followers as my account. And, we arguably publish better, more thoughtful, and more relevant content than what you’re reading now. Yet, when I compare reach and engagement, performance is approximately an order of magnitude less on our corporate handle. What gives? My hunch (and I think it’s a pretty good one) is that LinkedIn knows a couple things: 1️⃣ People like people, not a faceless logo. Posts from an actual human get more interactions and result in more time spent on the platform. 2️⃣ Brands have budget, people don’t. LinkedIn is following the same bait-and-switch playbook from Meta: Let brands build up a following. Shut off distribution Make them pay for it. === So, all of this begs the question: How do we get organic distribution on this channel? First, if LinkedIn rewards post from people, then you’ll need to do that or pay up. A few ways to make that happen: ↳ Internal advocacy Spin up an internal employee advocacy program. Have leadership lead by example. Encourage and reward those who post on their personal feed. Give them a helping hand and share learnings. ↳ Partner with creators A cheat code for distribution. Find creators who are aligned with your PoV. Make sure they reach the right audience. Partner with them to spread the word. ↳ Partner with champions and customer advocates Find champions who love your product. Talk to them. Amplify their voice and story. Inevitably, they will share their experience with your product. And be sure to reward them (even if it’s just a thank you) when they do.