Aware

Engaging on LinkedIn used to be seen as 'optional'. Now? Commenting within your ecosystem is NECESSARY, if you want to build your brand. Here's my quick guide to improving your outbound engagement — authentically, without looking like a spammer. I'll go over: 1. Which posts to engage with 2. How to organize your engagement lists 3. Benchmarks on how much engagement you should be doing 4. Whether and whne AI is helpful 5. How long comments should be 6. What to say in the comments themselves Commenting causes your engagements to show up in the feed. And it's a way of giving to others. To help people publicly, to build relationships. It also helps other people's posts do well, and you're adding a deposit to your stock in the ecosystem every time you do it. P.S. it also causes your own posts to perform better!

This is me after I’m finally done engaging on my most important connection’s LinkedIn posts. Until I started using Aware. The new tool my friend Alex Boyd recently built. Activity on LinkedIn is a huge part of our GTM strategy at Sales Assembly. Identifying, connecting, and meaningfully engaging with the right people. The engaging part, is hard. Commenting, messaging, building real relationships, etc. Why is it hard? It’s incredibly time consuming to do it right, and with the right people…without the support of crappy “make things worse” AI. Plus you rarely see the posts you actually need to see so you waste time in the endless death scroll (enough influencers and ads, amiright?) If you struggle with time and effectiveness of your engagement and in-feed activity… Then check out Aware. It’s a game changer. And it’s not AI, not some fad to replace human interaction. It helps you, the human, be better. And PROMOTE more genuine connectivity. DM me if you want an intro or wanna compare notes on LinkedIn strategy! #notsponsored #notaninfluencer PS this is also me waiting for my Bears to stop disappointing me…

Entrepreneurship is magic. In 2017 I had a very simple thought, and it changed everything: ↳ "What if I built this myself?" Back then, 'This' referred to a team. I didn't like some of the decisions that were being made about how I was supposed to run my sales team, since I had a CEO to report to. So I just sat down, suspended judgement, and logic'd it out: PREMISE 1: I am thinking of going into the growth business, where I advise other people and companies on how to grow theirs PREMISE 2: I have credibility, expertise, and interest in this area CONCLUSION: If those two things are true, I'm very likely to succeed in business Then I thought... → "Wait, what if I DON'T have expertise in growth, and I don't actually know what I'm doing? What if I fail?!" Fear crept in. But I stuck with it. Turns out, this was actually a really helpful thought, because it hit me: I could just rely on the magic of the market! ✅ IF I *DO* KNOW WHAT I'M DOING, my company will grow and I'll prove myself right ❌ BUT IF I *DON'T*... that'll prove I shouldn't be doing this at all and I will go back and get another job where I can keep learning As life would have it: Here we are. Companies I've founded have done over $12M in cumulative revenue, and counting. And I ended up building that team that I wanted. It's not only alive and kicking, it's thriving. RevenueZen is crushing it for its clients, and for its own growth, not to mention being an incredible contributor to Onfolio (the parent company as of 2024). Day to day? Aware is growing well, we're reinvesting in our customers and our product and our ecosystem. -- I've kept it pretty simple, these last 7+ years: → Experiment to see what works → Ditch what doesn't → Continuously improve And most of all: When I fall down, I don't just get back up to where I was before and carry on. I'm not simply resilient. No. When I fall down, I rise back up much MUCH better than before. Adopt this attitude and you *can't possibly* fail.

I've sourced ~$1M/yr in revenue on LinkedIn for the past 7 years. And I've shared a lot about HOW I've done that. Here's the free highlight reel of it: -- I: CREATOR TIPS 1. The ultimate commenting guide https://lnkd.in/ds5UE9Qn 2. There's no need to be 'first to comment' https://lnkd.in/draZVWWk 3. The LinkedIn routine https://lnkd.in/ehFcXViU 4. Extend your engagement beyond prospects https://lnkd.in/drf6JNSW 5. Myths you can disregard about what's needed for LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/d6S5cWGu 6. How to set up a topic-based feed https://lnkd.in/dpYqigca 7. Why you can't post and ghost https://lnkd.in/dBDjx7tT 8. Manage inbound comments at lightning speed https://lnkd.in/dh8bhuEW 9. Follower count is pretty irrelevant https://lnkd.in/dcpq5GD3 10. The ideal 'warmup routine' https://lnkd.in/d9aMNByi 11. How to see a clean view of who engaged with you https://lnkd.in/dEjiBMcW 12. How to evaluate your video content https://lnkd.in/dZNEADAt 13. The real definition of 'relationships' https://lnkd.in/d6J94Kpy 14. A clean view of social selling KPIs and benchmarks https://lnkd.in/d5VRga3E 15. How to write better comments: https://lnkd.in/dC-AyPnz -- II: LINKEDIN STRATEGY 1. The essence of social selling https://lnkd.in/dYwmcfRp 2. Why and how LinkedIn creates High Trust Leads https://lnkd.in/d-zRNkTw 3. Reach fluctuates, focus on revenue https://lnkd.in/ddrQ4RUr 4. The magic of second-order revenue https://lnkd.in/dke_-gQA 5. Why AI won't save you https://lnkd.in/d7HyUJuJ 6. Posting vs commenting https://lnkd.in/dD8GT45z 7. LinkedIn is not about building a funnel https://lnkd.in/dvWn9ywQ 8. Only book meaningful meetings https://lnkd.in/dUqaag_d 9. Going viral is a waste of time https://lnkd.in/dmxDfpPD 10. Easy way to generate post topics: https://lnkd.in/dNi3rSJQ 11. Two qualities of seven figure social sellers https://lnkd.in/dRxPQkFz 12. On "influencers" in general https://lnkd.in/dAvU7EfU 13. Question everything you read https://lnkd.in/dijvrE4u 14. Don't do LinkedIn like the influencers do https://lnkd.in/dTSYQe7U

The Incidental Lead vs. an Ongoing Growing Conversion Machine ... sharing my Strategic Engagement Roadmap below 👇 So many people understand that engagement is key for success Yet, this results in the same people leaving random comments The problem with that? • they loose precious time scrolling their feed • they never comment outside their bubble • they don't engage with potential clients • they don't find the most relevant posts • they always target the same authors • they don't support new creators Instead you want to do this! •  identify the most valuable post to engage with • support your own post with relevant engagement • have several easy-to-use list for different audiences • don't miss out on any relevant comment on your own post • reciprocate engagement from your most loyal ambassadors • spend 10 minutes leaving relevant comments prior to your post And that's where Aware comes in! Check out the Step by Step guide in the Carousel and sign up for your own Engagement Machine: https://lnkd.in/ehWVGJGx Thank me later! PS: I might do a live 30-minute webinar on how I use Aware and how you can get the most out of it! Are you in?

I analyzed 300,000 LinkedIn posts and found some INCREDIBLE data. Now, I can definitively answer the question: "What should you post on LinkedIn to maximize reach?" -- Before we get into it: I've long been a proponent of SMART usage of LinkedIn: → Posting AND commenting → Building relationships → Leading with insights not volume → Using media formats to match your message In other words: → No AI-generated fluff posts → Good hooks but no 'clickbait' → Not relying on selfies to get engagement → Avoiding fads and hacks that don't last And this analysis more or less proves I'm right. INSIGHTS (n=500): • 2nd most impressions (120M+) was someone who posts several times a day • 1st/Top impressions was someone who just got started in the last couple of years and posted 10x LESS OFTEN than the "many times a day" person • 3rd most impressions (96M) person posted frequently, but not even daily, and takes plenty of breaks • Quite a few people post more often than once per day, but have BARELY anything to show for it in terms of impressions and business growth. Ouch. Bottom line? Publishing a huge amount of volume LinkedIn IS one path to revenue, but tends to result in MUCH LESS REVENUE TOTAL, on a per post basis. The best ROI seems to be right around 5-10 posts per week. → If and ONLY if: it's high quality content -- Here are the averages by post format. IMPRESSIONS • TEXT: Avg 2485, Median 592 • VIDEO: Avg 3465*, Median 1120* • IMAGE: Avg 5312, Median 1233 • CAROUSEL: Avg 22215, Median 1606 (*excludes "video views" and watch time) Takeaways: Some uber-viral carousels really skew the average upward. And, the amount of effort required to create the content *tends* to correlate to an increase in reach. COMMENTS • TEXT: Avg 9, Median 2 • VIDEO: Avg 21, Median 7 • IMAGE: Avg 19, Median 6 • CAROUSEL: Avg 45, Median 9 Takeaways: Despite text "seeming" lower, remember that literally the top of the "average reach by post format" is one big influencer's text posts. They do even better on average than *her own* image posts. DO NOT write off text content, but explore other formats too. -- This is so incredibly interesting to me. Why? There's no obvious, clear causality such as "posting selfies gets you more engagement". Maybe. For some. But the "rules" can mostly get thrown out the window. What I'm seeing matters most is this: → Consistent velocity → Message clarity → Design quality → Strategic focus As for me? Look at that chart again. Aware had 692 posts in its database for my profile. I'm near the top of that "bottom clump", but still very much near the bottom of the graph. Few million impressions. Yet I've clocked in over $6.5M in revenue from LinkedIn. There are lots of people in the 'bottom clump' of Impressions/Reach, who nevertheless have also made millions of dollars in their career, have built wealth for themselves, are highly respected in their industry, etc. I'll sum it up like this: Don't chase reach. Chase revenue. ✌🏼

That spike? No, we didn't have a huge Black Friday sale. We migrated inlytics.io customers to Aware as part of the acquisition. Fun times. 🙏🏼

Time in nature is what increases your spiritual wealth. Who knows? Maybe you'll take the PTO that was supposed to be unlimited but you rarely make use of. Maybe you'll decide to finally grow your hair out. Maybe you'll do a corporate speaking engagement and look like "kind of a hippie", as one of the participants put it, and just smile because, he's right. Maybe you'll decide to turn your phone off, head down to that beach on the shores of a remote island, and just close your eyes for a few minutes to soak in the beautiful impermanence of this life. And maybe... Just maybe... When you get back to your desk and open your laptop... You'll smile, and see all of this - work, LinkedIn, tech, SaaS, etc - for the funny thing that it is. What is it? → a series of myths we've invented about currency, corporations, AI → "the cloud" as a bunch of hardware in a data center, not those things in the sky → "career" meaning, one of many roles none of which is necessary for human survival -- And, I hope. If you see all of this as "kind of a funny thing we all do". You'll take it 10% less seriously. At a deep level. If you do that - if you can see that this career thing is a game is to be enjoyed, but not something to trade your soul for: → You'll be better at it. → You'll have more fun. → You'll make more money. → You'll care less about losing money. So, maybe go outside this weekend. And spend a few hours doing something joyful that doesn't make you any money.

LinkedIn metrics 2024 YTD vs 2023: Comments Written +72% Comments Received +94% Coincidence? Nah. → It's both correlation and causation. Impressions +35% Engagement Rate +13% More comments helps you get more reach. It's just math. → As long as they're not spammy comments, of course. Multiple people have started really going all-in on LinkedIn in the last year or two, and they're crushing it. The "organic window" is open and remains open for those willing to work SMART. But there's one thing you have to know: → LinkedIn is becoming more of a "winners take more" game. It's less democratic. More reach going to a select few. The answer is NOT to give up. It's to be better. How? Simple but not easy. → More strategic. → More systematized. → More clarity of your message. → More effort into design quality. → More editing on your copy. Yes, you might need a consultant or an agency. Or if you're a content strategy pro, you might just need freelance help. I certainly have help with my content :) → The thought process and ideas are from me, but I get help with editing and design You also might want a tool to help you streamline all of this. → useAware[dot]co is certainly an option, it helps you do analytics, engagement, and post scheduling in WAY less time, and with better targeting Going into 2025? I envision the bar continuing to go up. Let's be ready 💪🏼

I analyzed over 13M LinkedIn posts and found a surprising stat: Aware users are getting 11% MORE engagement on their posts in 2024, than they were in 2023. Bad news? The median # of post engagements for everyone ELSE is DOWN... by -25%. Am I jumping to conclusions? First, let me be clear about a few things. SAMPLE SIZE → Our research team sampled millions of posts. Over 13M. This is not, however, "all LinkedIn posts". So I might of course be off here. FILTERED OUT "CHEAT DATA" → The Aware sample was filtered to remove anyone from the analysis who had incomplete data, to avoid being biased toward people who barely posted in 2023, since that would have been an unfair comparison, "look how much this user jumped" when all that happened is they started really posting only in 2024 yet we're comparing them vs 2023. What do I make of this? → Just being an Aware customer DOESN'T MEAN you'll magically get more engagement. Not at all. But it might indicate a few things: → People who use Aware take LinkedIn more seriously, and/or vice versa (this is very plausible) → Having a tool to do more and higher quality commenting helps posts get more engagement, if it's actually used (also plausible, because our usage rates are very high) This "checks out", to me. The overall anecdotal narrative I've experienced, and heard from many others, is that LinkedIn is getting more saturated. It also makes sense, given LinkedIn's revenue trajectory: → LinkedIn grew ad revenue 10.1% in 2023 y/y, and was forecast to grow 14%+ in 2024 y/y In other words: there's simply more advertising in the feed than there was, leaving fewer slots for non-advertisement posts. Classic social media! I'd do it too, if I were them. -- Ok, so what does this MEAN for you? I think it means you have two options: ❌ Whinge and complain about how LinkedIn is sooo hard now ✅ Just do what it takes to keep growing: up your media game, engage more, etc Posting and ghosting no longer works. The bar got raised. Are you adapting?