LinkedIn's Algorithm Didn't Kill Company Pages. Marketers Did...

Another article is doing the rounds saying that LinkedIn killed company pages.

It didn't, you know who did?

Marketers, and that's exactly why I love what ManyChat is doing on

LinkedIn right now, they've thrown out the rule book and I want to talk

about it in this week's episode.

G'Day everyone.

It's Michelle J Raymond back again for another episode listeners.

And we're gonna be talking about my favourite topic, as always, LinkedIn

Company pages, and it could be that I'm just getting ready to head to Social

Media Marketing World to speak on stage about five strategies that most people

miss when it comes to company pages.

So.

I have literally been in the zone loving it, living and

breathing LinkedIn company pages.

And I have to say that I have tried so hard this week to avoid taking the bait.

There's an article that's being doing the rounds in the feed and

it of course takes off and blows up because everybody goes, yeah, I agree.

It was from State of the Brand and essentially their whole argument is

that LinkedIn have killed company pages and we should all just go

and get our employees to post.

That's the very short, uh, summary of that total article

and I'm very happy to share it.

Honestly, there's not a lot of substance to it, but it certainly

has the clickbait headline.

I took the bait.

I've seen some posts on the opposite side, where some really cool marketers

that I admire for what they're doing with their own brands, have really read this

article and just said, this is rubbish, and they've kind of echoed the things that

I've been saying for such a long time.

Company pages, let's just say it one more time.

Are not the same as profiles.

They never have been.

They never will be.

And LinkedIn is a member's first platform.

So it absolutely makes sense, that your personal posts should do better

than your company page posts, and I am not here to tell you otherwise.

Anyone here that is a new listener, that's where we're at.

But I also want to remind you that that doesn't mean that

company pages are a waste of time.

There is more to building a brand than just posting content.

And often the page is the place where people land first.

And this is the thing.

It doesn't matter how they come to discover your brand, whether it is an

employee or it is your page, the fact is they exist and we need to get the

most out of them and squeeze everything we can not just to build the brand, but

obviously also to support the employees that are out there trying to do everything

they can, to grow your business as well.

That's all I'm gonna say on that article.

I'd rather focus on a company page that has caught my attention,

has blown up, all because they decided to throw out the rule book.

And I wanna talk about it because I think there's a lot that we can learn

and some comments that I received that really, in a nutshell gave me clarity

around why it is that so many people are too scared to take a chance.

I know that my intro to this podcast that LinkedIn didn't kill company

pages marketers did, is a little more clickbait than what I would

usually do, but if I'm being honest, I actually think it's the case.

And the reason I think it's the case is because somewhere along the line.

Marketers started just focusing on using the page to broadcast at audiences

and just talk about the business.

And when you just talk about the business and then you layer on top of that, they

don't have any clear points of view.

You layer on top of that that you are not in service of the audience,

and you layer on top of that, that there's nothing unique about what's

going out on your page versus all of the competitors in your industry.

Honestly, it's so boring that of course you don't get engagement.

And if you don't get engagement, then LinkedIn reads that as nobody's

interested and they're not going to waste valuable feed space on content

that doesn't keep people coming back.

And so when we keep that in mind, I'm not saying it's entirely your fault,

but as a representative of the business and hopefully someone that can listen

to this podcast and then go back and think, how can we do this differently?

Which is always what I want you to do when you listen to these episodes.

I want you to think about when was it that your page drifted away from the

strategy that you probably have somewhere and put a lot of effort into, and it

just became like I've spoken about in a few episodes prior, the newsletter

or bulletin board type of company page.

Now this is the thing.

I understand how it happens.

You know, someone from the business wants you to post something so you do that.

And slowly but surely that becomes the generally accepted practice.

But what I want you to think about is the impact that that's having on

your impressions and your reach versus what's going on in the home feed.

And there's a particular brand, which I mentioned ManyChat, whose company

page has thrown out the rule book, and I couldn't be happier for them.

I woke up and I love the new LinkedIn feed because it knows that I love all

things company pages, and so a post showed up on the topic of company

pages, which of course I jumped in to have a read, and it was the ManyChat

company page basically telling us we are throwing out the rule book.

That's it.

We are doing things differently and I'm gonna read it so that you have

an idea if you haven't seen the post.

And it literally says this, this is a company page, it's not

going to behave like one anymore.

We're breaking this profile on purpose in public while you watch and judge.

There'll be no big reveal nor polished rollout.

You can expect that we'll be in the comment sections more than our own feed.

We'll say things that we actually believe, not the things that survived legal.

We'll pay attention to what people are obsessed with, and

then we'll turn that into content.

Less, we launched something.

Less join our webinar.

Less meet the team smiling and arms crossed.

More about what creators, brands and influencer teams are

actually dealing with right now.

What's working and really what's not.

Breakdowns, not announcements.

Opinions you might hate to love or love to hate.

Some posts will hit.

Some will flop, some might be wrong, but we are posting them anyway.

Honestly, I think this should be the cry of every page that's out there

and they have been living this so much that the company page commented

on so many posts 'cause this thing took off and they were getting tagged

more than they ever have before.

And they commented so much that actually LinkedIn blocked

them from commenting even more.

And I don't know what that number is, and it's being reset and in

fairness to LinkedIn, I think that's to stop all of the automations

that are going on out in the world.

But this social team really took what they said and they did it.

I created a post to share with my audience because I honestly wish that most brands

would do exactly what they have laid out here, because this is how you stand

out, not by listening to everybody that tells you it's a waste of time.

On the flip side, not listening to everybody internally that thinks that

they know how to run the page better than you do, and I have empathy for all of

the social media managers, the marketing managers, and people running company

pages for themselves or other businesses.

I have the most empathy for you because I know what it's like to have great

ideas and not have the culture internally to be able to, you know, execute them.

And I saw that in the comments, and I've seen that with, you know, a former client

of mine who was doing a fantastic job, really creating great, funny content,

still aligned with the brand and the brand goals on a fairly dry subject.

And then the comments started coming in from colleagues, like, oh, should

you really be posting like that?

Oh, that looks a bit childish, and insert all the other comments.

And slowly but surely, she gave up and stopped posting.

And it broke my heart because this was a page that I used as

examples when I'm speaking or with other clients or in my posts.

That's how much I loved this page.

Somebody in the comments on my post said, I would love to do that,

but I'd probably get the sack.

Honestly, that broke my heart as well.

Like that's the reality that's going on in most businesses.

now, here's the thing that I wanna share.

Having a strong point of view.

Does not necessarily mean that you have to go and be contrarian and combative

and really look for fights on social, but having a unique tone of voice and action

plan to go out there and really make the most of the tools that you've got.

That's why ManyChat is winning.

They're getting involved in posts, they're adding to the conversation.

They're sounding human and not some sterilised version of the brand.

And many of you might say, but Michelle, in our industry, we can't do that.

There's no way that in finance or legal or tech, that we can go

crazy and just have a personality.

And of course I have every argument under the sun why that's not true.

But rather than try and convince you otherwise, here's an idea.

Why don't you go be the nerdiest, the most technical, the person who shares

everything to so much detail that really highlights your credibility and knowledge

and understanding of your industry.

You can get attention by being the most knowledgeable and techie.

You don't have to be the fun brand.

It's okay for tech and legal and finance and service industries to

also have fun, like we go to work and have fun with other people.

That's part of the attraction, I would hope, in actually going and

mingling with people in the office, your employees, your colleagues.

And so I want you to think about, okay, maybe you can't do what

ManyChat is doing because you don't have the support right now.

There's nothing stopping your brand from getting out there and commenting as

your company page on the posts of your customers, on the posts of your employees,

on the posts around topics that are aligned with your brand that you want to

be thought leaders on, and being thought leaders and being a known brand and having

fun, they're not mutually exclusive.

There is no one that says, if you have fun, we can't take you serious

that you don't know your knowledge.

It's all about having the right mix.

And it's been really interesting for me.

I, I've shared in, you know, quite a few podcast episodes recently that I've been

doing a lot of company page audit and strategy sessions, and honestly, marketers

for the most part I would say that all the effort going into boring company

pages is pretty much a waste of time.

You wonder why people aren't reading it or engaging with it and blame the algorithm,

but really in your heart of hearts, you know that even you wouldn't stop for

the content that you're putting out, that you don't really find it inspiring.

And so if this is kind of resonating and you understand, we can fix that.

We can create a plan together to make sure that you are actively out

there participating in conversations, as I call it, Page Advocacy.

And the ManyChat team.

Congratulations to all of you.

I know it takes a village to run that page it's not just one person.

To the leadership team at ManyChat.

I also congratulate you for trusting the smart people that you've hired.

And if you are out there running a team responsible for a team and somebody's

come to you with an idea that made you a little uncomfortable and you said,

no, there's no way we can do that.

And we certainly can't do it on LinkedIn 'cause it's the professional platform,

i'm challenging you to go back to that person and say, you know what?

Let's give it a go.

That's what we'd say in Australia, have a crack.

That's the Aussie spirit, and I'm encouraging you to have

a crack on your side as well.

You might find that all of a sudden your colleagues are engaging and

liking with your posts on your page like they never have before.

Why?

'cause they're happy to be associated with it.

So in life, sometimes we have to have a little risk, a

calculated risk to get reward.

And so that's the challenge this week.

As I wrap up today's episode, I can't wait to come and meet those

of you who are going to Social Media Marketing World in LA.

I am so looking forward to it.

It's the opportunity for me to talk shop with so many cool

marketers that are out there.

Ones that'll be coming to my session.

Of course, I'm giving away the Tim Tams and one lucky person is even

gonna score a Power Hour with me.

They don't know that yet.

Uh, but yeah, I can't wait to just get in a room with people

that are so willing to learn.

And I know that that resonates with people listening to this podcast

'cause you are exactly the same.

So.

If this resonates, make sure you reach out and let me know.

Did you give it a crack this week?

Cheers.