0:14 Darren: On this week’s Engaging Marketeer I’m going to cover something which I have kind of touched upon before, but it’s something that’s still going on right now. A lot of people are still doing it.
0:20 I’m seeing business owners falling for this mistake, and pretty much this scam—this con—so I want to cover it again, and I want to really lay down the implications of doing it wrong.
0:31 And that’s LinkedIn engagement pods.
0:38 Now when I mentioned this before, I pretty much talked about people going into WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups and posting links to their LinkedIn posts—their posts on LinkedIn—saying,
0:46 “Oh, can you give this some love, can you give this some comments, can you go on here and put some reactions to this because I want more people to see it.”
0:56 The theory is sound: when you post something on LinkedIn, the more engagement it gets in a short period of time, the more LinkedIn is going to say, “Oh, that’s a popular post.” It’s going to expand its reach beyond your network, so more people are going to see it, so you’re going to get more eyeballs on it, you’re going to get more engagement,
1:16 and you’re effectively going to get more followers, more business, that sort of thing.
1:19 So if you get more people to engage with it straight away, then it’s going to be good for you.
1:25 And there is a thing called LinkedIn pods.
1:28 You may have seen them.
1:31 You may have been invited to a LinkedIn pod.
1:33 You may have had somebody who runs LinkedIn pods talking to you, offering to sell you access to a LinkedIn pod.
1:38 Or you may even be in a LinkedIn pod right now.
1:41 And if you’re one of those people who actually runs a LinkedIn pod and it is your business, then please fuck off and stop listening to this podcast right now.
1:50 Because you are a dick.
1:53 That’s my honest and succinct appraisal of LinkedIn pods.
2:00 Here’s the problem.
2:03 So LinkedIn pods—you get a limited number of people who have access to each of these pods.
2:05 It might be 15, it might be 20, it might be 30—whatever.
2:09 It’s an arbitrary sod number that the person who runs the LinkedIn pod decides it’s going to be.
2:14 And each person who is in this LinkedIn pod will pay a membership fee.
2:19 They will pay a monthly or a weekly or an annual subscription fee to be in this LinkedIn pod.
2:25 And it’s probably a WhatsApp group.
2:30 And what happens is: you post your LinkedIn posts in that WhatsApp group—in that LinkedIn pod—for other people to click through to and comment on and engage with and share.
2:40 And you agree, as a member of that LinkedIn pod, that you will do the same for everyone else.
2:44 So when one member posts, you all click on their post and you engage with it and share it within the first few hours of that post going live.
2:52 Therefore, it gets more engagement, more people see it, its reach gets enhanced, and it becomes more successful.
2:56 The theory, as I say, is solid.
3:02 The problem, however—do you think LinkedIn is that fucking stupid?
3:07 I mean seriously, do you?
3:09 I mean, it is run by Microsoft, so there is a chance, yes—
3:12 But do you think it’s genuinely that stupid that it doesn’t know that the same half-dozen, dozen, 20, 30 people are reacting to the same post every single time?
3:22 That’s the first problem.
3:24 Yes, it bloody well knows that. Of course it does.
3:27 This kind of algorithm hacking has existed all the way back to the early 2000s.
3:33 I’ve been in this industry a long time—
3:35 Remember, I do have some experience of this.
3:38 We’re always—in the digital marketing industry—everybody is trying to game the system.
3:42 Everybody is trying to find a hack, a workaround, a way to get it to work better.
3:46 LinkedIn pods is just the latest way of doing that on LinkedIn.
3:49 And it’s not even that bloody new, actually.
3:53 It’s several years old, and it never worked then, it never fucking works now, but people keep doing it.
4:00 The second problem—
4:01 In order for your LinkedIn content to be seen by the right kind of people, as in your ideal target audience, your target clients,
4:07 the kind of people you want to do business with—you need those people to be the ones who engage with it.
4:15 They’re not the people in your LinkedIn pod.
4:19 The people in your LinkedIn pod are other business owners who will want their shit shared the same as you want your shit shared.
4:26 So rather than actually create quality, engaging content that people want to engage with,
4:30 they put any old shit out, put it in their LinkedIn pod, and then the same group of shits go in and engage with it.
4:40 That’s not really the way to do it.
4:42 Because all LinkedIn’s going to do—if it hasn’t even picked up on the fact that you’re in a LinkedIn pod, and believe me, it bloody well has
4:50 But if, let’s imagine a world where it hasn’t, it says, “Right, well this person posts their content on LinkedIn
4:55 and then five web designers and six digital marketing people have engaged with it in the first hour,
5:00 and they engage with them every single time they post.
5:02 Hmm, maybe their network, the kind of people that are interested in their content, are web designers and digital marketing people.”
5:08 No, they bloody aren’t, are they?
5:10 That’s not who you’re trying to reach.
5:12 You’re trying to reach somebody else, but that’s not who’s engaging with your content,
5:15 so that’s not who’s going to see your content.
5:17 It’s the wrong fucking audience.
5:21 Yet that’s how a LinkedIn pod works.
5:24 It doesn’t work.
5:28 Here’s what you should be doing.
5:31 Now this is totally free advice. Please use it.
5:35 You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but this will get you far better results than a LinkedIn pod.
5:39 So that you’re not one of those people who, when I have this rant at a networking group or online or in a WhatsApp group,
5:48 you don’t reply to me and go,
5:50 “Well we’ve done it before and it’s always worked for me.”
5:52 Has it really?
5:53 How much business has it generated for you?
5:55 How has it really worked for you?
5:57 No, it freaking hasn’t, has it?
5:59 You’ve had about eight likes on your posts—all of them from your LinkedIn pod.
6:02 That ain’t fucking real.
6:05 Here’s what you should be doing:
6:07 First of all, identify all the key influencers in the target audience that you are trying to reach.
6:10 The people that you want to engage with.
6:12 Do not send them connection requests.
6:15 Do not send them messages.
6:18 Do not send them pitches via messaging.
6:20 That’s how other twats do it. Don’t do that.
6:25 No. Follow them. Engage with them.
6:28 Comment on their posts.
6:32 Engage with their posts so they see your name.
6:35 They see you commenting.
6:39 They see you engaging.
6:41 Write your own content to be interesting for what they are looking for.
6:42 Do not write the usual shit that most people do.
6:45 And I’ve—you know, there’s one in particular I remember. He’s a web designer.
6:49 I say he’s one of our competitors. He’s not really one of our competitors.
6:53 He is a web designer in a nearby area.
6:56 But what he posts is—he posts articles about himself.
7:03 “Why I became a web designer. This is about me. Why I set up the business.”
7:08 Then he goes into his LinkedIn pod and says, “Everybody share this.”
7:10 And they all go and engage with it.
7:12 It’s absolute dogshit. No one’s interested.
7:16 It’s all about himself. Nobody cares.
7:20 Whereas if you post it about your target audience—
7:22 This is what your audience is looking for.
7:24 This is how your audience can help themselves.
7:26 This is how your audience can solve this problem that they’ve got.
7:28 That’s what they’re going to be interested in.
7:32 And if you are engaging with your target audience at the same time—
7:34 You are reacting to their posts.
7:36 You are following them.
7:38 You are engaging with their posts.
7:39 You are posting content that they are going to be interested in.
7:43 LinkedIn will know that the people you are talking to are the people who are interested in it.
7:48 That’s going to start getting your content in front of them.
7:52 Which is then going to start getting them interacting with your posts.
7:56 Which is going to get more of your posts seen by the people you want to actually have it seen by—
8:00 Not by idiots in your LinkedIn pod who know absolutely nothing about what you want and don’t care anyway,
8:05 because all they’re there for is to sell their own services to people, not to actually help you.
8:14 So the question at the start of this little ranty podcast—or in the title—was:
8:19 “Are LinkedIn engagement pods worth it?”
8:22 No. They are not.
8:24 They are a complete scam.
8:26 Do not join one.
8:28 It is a total waste of your time, money, and effort.
8:31 And all you’re really doing is telling LinkedIn that your shit is not worth sharing.
8:33 It’s only interesting for the same 10–15 people who comment on it every single time,
8:38 because they’re paid to or they’re paying to.
8:41 You’re just wasting your time.
8:43 Create content that is useful to your target audience.
8:46 Engage with your target audience.
8:48 Make sure your target audience sees your content—
8:50 Not people in your LinkedIn pod.
8:54 I hope that’s been useful.
8:56 If you disagree with me—I don’t care.
8:58 Please let me know in the comments, because I would love to hear from you.
9:03 And if you run an engagement pod yourself on LinkedIn, then do one.
9:05 I don’t want to hear from you. You’re not worth it.
9:10 Thank you for listening to The Engaging Marketeer.
9:11 I will catch you on the next podcast.
