One thing that I love to do inside my business, and in life, if I’m being honest is analyse things!  People, things, ideas, thoughts – I just love listening, observing and analysing. This is not in a bad way trying to find faults or anything, but in a positive “always learning” way.

I am absolutely a lifelong learner. I love reading (*ahem listening) to a good book, mostly business related, sometimes not, or listening to a podcast or reading articles, blogs etc. I try to absorb as much information as I can, to learn new things and see what I can apply to my business and life!

And in the spirit of learning I wanted to share with you 3 things I learnt from a single LinkedIn post I did.

I’m sharing this with you because there’s lessons in what I discovered – lessons for me and perhaps for you too.

Firstly, some background about the LinkedIn post I made these discoveries from. It was by far my most popular recent post – not the best ever, but the best in Covid-19 with over 3000 views, 50 comments and many likes and reactions.

I did it on a whim – not really thinking too much about what I was putting up there at the time. I just thought I had a good question to ask and I thought perhaps I might get one or two potential guests from the responses for my podcast!

And the post was this:

“If someone were to interview you, what topic would it be about?”

Now – here are the discoveries that I made from that post!

1. Peoples favourite subject is themselves

And me writing that is not a derogatory thing, it’s just a reality.  Ask people what they do, and they will tell you.  Ask people what they are best at, and they will tell you.

Lesson:  If you’re short on engagement or content, think about how you can ask a question to engage people by asking them about themselves!

2. Some don’t know the answer.

Some people who left a comment said they did not know what they could be interviewed about.

LinkedIn is a professional platform, and therefore about business doing business with business.

Basically – some people didn’t know what their elevator pitch was!

An elevator pitch is being able to tell someone what you do, why you do it and who you do it for, in the time taken to ride an elevator – basically in a few sentences.

It’s totally fine that people don’t know their elevator pitch – I so get that – and I’m not looking at it from that perspective for this post.

Instead, I’m looking at it from a content perspective. Perhaps I can put out some more content to help people articulate what their interview topic/elevator pitch is.

So that’s me putting my marketing hat on – there’s content right there for me in the future, by listening to what the market is telling me.

Lesson: If you don’t currently have an answer for your “elevator pitch” – or if you have 100 different answers to that question, then have a go at creating your unique selling proposition (USP).

And to help you in this, my Podcast Episode 4 – was all about knowing and owning your expertise – it’s worth a listen and there’s a great little unique selling proposition exercise in that podcast too! 

3. LinkedIn is still my favourite (and best) platform

If you have been following my journey for a while, you’ll know that I have been putting in a big focus into Pinterest, and I am doing this by engaging an expert to assist me (a shout out to the super wonderful Kate Wilkinson!).

I have also been trying hard to turn up more often in my Instagram stories and feed.  Honestly, I do find it a battle as Instagram is just not my favourite platform – but I am powering through!  It’s worth the effort as my Instagram is definitely building and giving me leads.

I actually put the same “interview” question post I referred to at the start of this blog on Instagram stories, and I didn’t get anywhere near the same result as on LinkedIn.

Yes, there’s lots of factors that would contribute to that, but the fact that my posts consistently do better on LinkedIn, and analysing this particular post reinforced that, clearly, my people are hanging out on LinkedIn.

Lesson: Although I won’t stop putting my energy into any other platform (that would be silly!), the different social media options are clearly serving different purposes and goals within my business. The “interview” post just reinforced what’s best for my business when it comes to the goal of building network connections, building expertise and having social media serve its purpose inside my business.

Now – a little side note! Of the 50 odd people who commented on my LinkedIn post, about 60% were already connections – so that gave me the opportunity to start a conversation with the 40% of people who didn’t know me or weren’t connected to me prior to this post. That was a big thing for me – new connections – new conversations!

So, my questions to you after my 3 little discoveries:

1. Do you know your elevator pitch? Do you know what you would love to be interviewed about?  Of all the people who do what you do, why should someone choose you – choose to spend their money with you – that’s the big question at the end of the day.
2. What social media platform is best for your business?
3. Do your social media platforms help you reach the goals you set for them? Do you have goals around your social presence?  If not, why not?

Hopefully there is some gold in there for you when you jot down your answers to these three questions listed above.

There was certainly some for me when I took time to analyse that “interview” post – which is why I thought it was worth sharing with you!

I’d love to discuss further your thoughts on this – are you a member of my Like Minded Business Owners facebook group? If not, please come over and join, the community I’m growing there of business owners is awesome, it’s such a great place to bounce ideas, get feedback and encouragement!

Otherwise, please leave a comment or send me a DM on Instagram, or an email to jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenn Donovan is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners.  Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.

With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)

Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast