I Did This And My LinkedIn Impressions Started Tanking 😰

I have 3 distinct things to share with you today:

1. The hottest tip on LinkedIn right now

2. The experiment I just started running (what made my impressions tank)

3. The viral element that is making waves right now

Hottest Tip on LinkedIn Right Now

The big secret is comments. I have started to see big LinkedIn influencers promote commenting.

Plus, LinkedIn now has a new feature where you can see comment impressions. So, the old idea of content quantity is back. Just that this time, it is less about posts and more about comments.

If you have observed my account, you will notice that I make a lot of comments per day. I don’t count and I don’t recommend you count.

This is because if you count, you will be drawn into the foolishness of making comments that don’t matter just for the sake of meeting your quota for the day. And that can be bad.

The type of comments you make also matters. My best advice for you is to add something to the conversation. Improve on the post by your comment. Or ask a thoughtful question.

Don’t blindly agree with a post. If you blindly agree and have nothing meaningful to contribute, just react to it and move on.

Here are some good examples of thoughtful comments:

Why My Impressions Started Tanking

When most people see their impressions tanking on LinkedIn, they are quick to blame the LinkedIn algorithm. They make all kinds of excuses and make up all sorts of theories.

The most popular smart-sounding theory of all of these is that LinkedIn is killing organic reach so that people can start paying to have their posts promoted and get a lot of reach.

That is not true.

Not like I heard from any LinkedIn staff or anything like that. But it doesn’t make much sense. Organic reach may be getting more difficult, but it is not because LinkedIn is killing it.

I’ll explain this again - social media platforms are now interest media. They are no longer social. There are still a lot of people on LinkedIn who don’t want to believe this. They are still celebrating follower count.

Meanwhile, I have experienced this brutally on Medium and learned the hard way. The era of follower count has ended. Now, it is the era of people who know how to make good content.

And this is something happening across all social media platforms. Just in varying degrees.

Okay, let me tell you why my impressions started tanking…

Remote work is the niche that got me viral. But I had no offers or jobs along those lines. It was just insights from my experience. I wasn’t making any money from it.

So, I decided to ditch the niche. Since I had insight on what worked, I decided to apply it to something that I an offer for. I decided to focus on something that would directly make me money for every time I go viral.

I relegated my remote work content, and started trying to niche around content.

And yes, my impressions began to tank. I started getting less than 200 impressions after 1 day again. But it was worth it. If the experiment worked, the money would be worth it. If it failed, it would make for a great content lesson.

After a few days I realized that “content” as a niche is too vague. Even though I was commenting a lot to try to stick to that niche, it wasn’t sticking. My LinkedIn feed was the obvious sign of that. The LinkedIn algorithm didn’t know what to feed me.

Whenever you are in a jam like this, look for the top creators in that niche and see what they are doing. I couldn’t find any LinkedIn top creator that is niche around “content” generically.

But what I found was that they were niche around "LinkedIn”. The moment I realized this, I made “LinkedIn” my niche. I know it sounds ironic, but content about LinkedIn on LinkedIn is what I discovered is best to promote this newsletter (which is my goal).

So, I got to work with LinkedIn as my new niche.

My impression numbers are down big. But I know it’s just a matter of time before a recovery. I also wanted to know how long the recovery would take. It hasn’t happened yet, but I will tell you when I have my first viral post in the LinkedIn niche.

I affirm my niche with comments, not posts. I only post once per day (mostly weekdays). So, that would be very slow for the algorithm to pick up. So, I have to use comments to fast-track.

There are two major problems with the LinkedIn niche:

1. The niche is saturated with a lot of big players who know how to play the game. (This is unlike the remote work niche where there are only a few big players)

2. There are lots of aspiring people at the lower levels, which means more competition

But I am not shying away from that. It is still a few days. And I will let you know how many days it took me to break out in that niche.

There is another problem I ran into. I wanted to keep my passion for remote work alive. I am still hoping I get some work opportunities along those lines. So, when I see a good remote work content on my feed, it is so tempting.

I recently decided to just start “liking” them and nothing else. But then, I found out it started to ruin my feed. Meaning that the LinkedIn algorithm has picked that up and wants to keep showing me all of that again. Sigh.

For now, I am sticking with promoting this newsletter with my LinkedIn account. But yes, I may revert back to remote work if I get some interesting opportunities along those lines. And yes, I had to stop engaging with remote work content altogether.

I will definitely keep you updated on these.

The Viral Element Making Waves

You probably know about the RACE framework already.

If you have forgotten, let me share a quick reminder of the viral content framework:

R - Relevance

A - Authority

C - Contrast

E - Emotional trigger

To refresh your memory about them, go read this article where they were explained.

From time to time, certain elements of these framework standout because of the state of things in the world. In my opinion, the most impactful is Contrast. However, the one that I find generating good traction for me recently is…

E - Emotional trigger

Honestly, I like to go there. Emotional content is quite cringe for me. But that is what hits home for most people.

That is what makes people want to engage. Educative content is great but it often doesn’t invite other people into the conversation.

I am a very private person and I still hold back significantly from sharing emotional stuffs. I cringe at most of them on LinkedIn, except it is something I can relate to. But when it is something I can relate to, I always feel like commenting. (But try to stay away if not in my niche).

Here is an example of a recent piece of content that is somewhat emotional that started generating some momentum for me (in my new niche):

Will I do more of it? Yes

Should you try emotional content? Yes!

Only share what you are okay with sharing though. Don’t overdo it. And yes, you will get mean comments. That’s just the hazard of the game. Don’t let it bother you too much.

If you are stuck, you know how to reach me

As a final tip, here is a DM experience I had recently. I showed someone this newsletter and they assumed it is to help people get jobs.

That caught me by surprise.

So, I had to define my audience more specifically. Just in case you noticed the change in the tagline, it is just to be sure that the newsletter is attracting the right people. Nothing is fundamentally changing.

I have been mostly engaging on the post of people who have something to say about LinkedIn. But now I’m going to try engaging on people that would be my ideal audience - which is people who sell B2B.

I would let you know which one works better for leads, and for reach.

If this has been helpful or you have a question, do drop a comment