Podcast Blog #9: Jason Campbell and Mark Metry - How to Grow Your Business on Linkedin (Superhumans at Work by Mindvalley)
Jason Campbell and Mark Metry — Superhumans at Work by Mindvalley
Do you have a Linkedin? If you applied to college or a job recently, you probably do. But are you using it to its full potential?
Mark Metry, the founder of GrowCasts, speaks to how people fall into the trap that because Linkedin is a “professional network”, you have to be overly professional to use it, and that scares people away from jumping in.
But after hearing over and over again from people he met how great Linkedin is, Mark took the leap. And now he has over 90,000 followers.
Here’s my recap of Jason Campbell’s interview with Mark as part of the podcast Superhumans at Work by Mindvalley:
Overcoming social anxiety and becoming a Linkedin influencer (3:20)
Like many of his Linkedin posts, Mark started the interview by sharing a personal story.
Mark was extremely shy growing up. He struggled with social anxiety, always sat at the back of the classroom, and felt invisible. But in 2015 and 2016, he began to break out of his shell. He discovered meditation and started working to grow his career. In conversations with business leaders as he started his podcast, each of them mentioned the importance and value of Linkedin. So, he decided to take a chance. The #LetsGetHonest challenge was trending, so Mark filmed a 60-second video where he spoke up about his social anxiety. And that was the beginning.
Over the years, he has doubled down on the platform. Linkedin has led him to his greatest career successes — his first big podcast guest, first speaking engagement, first Fortune 500 client, a feature on Forbes, and a TEDx talk.
The important thing to know is Mark wasn’t well-established in his career before he began posting on Linkedin.
But, why Linkedin? As Instagram and TikTok grow, many expect those to be the more important platforms. But Mark learned that when you get hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, not much changes for you. But when you get hundreds or thousands of interactions on Linkedin, you build relationships. That’s because of the people you find on Linkedin — entrepreneurs, executives, founders of companies, creators, and more. People with influence to help grow your career.
It’s not uncommon for companies to have policies about what their employees can and cannot do on social media, or it may even be banned entirely. Except for Linkedin. Linkedin gets a free pass because it’s used to grow the business itself through recruiting or sales. And with those goals comes higher quality content. People who are career development-oriented may be more likely to focus on personal development as well.
Three Major Elements to Success — Set Up, Consumption, Creation (14:50)
1) Set up - This does not mean you need professional equipment to be successful. In fact, Mark almost recommends the opposite. You can record professional videos, but you’re also fine to just record on your phone. People fall into the trap of avoiding creating content because they feel like they don’t have the right equipment. So, go for the set up that will get you to execute as consistently as possible. If a professional camera means it will take you an hour to set up and you don’t have time for that everyday, but you could record a video on your phone in 15 minutes every day, do that.
2) Consumption - What should I be consuming to make the most of Linkedin? People tend to follow a smaller number of people on Linkedin, so you’re more likely to see the people you respect and can learn from. Instagram is overwhelmed with ads and a complicated algorithm that is hard to filter to what you’re looking for, whereas LinkedIn is more narrow and easier to find what you’re looking for. If you find something isn’t valuable to you in your feed, there are buttons to easily make adjustments to get more relevant content. There’s good and bad on every platform, but that’s easier to control on Linkedin.
3) Creation - What should I be producing? Mark breaks this down into three categories:
a) Expertise — what would someone hire you for?
b) Your story — anything from your personal experience, lessons, values.
c) Collaborative content — interviews, live streams with other partners.
Mark recommends that new Linkedin users focus more heavily on videos than written content. Posting videos establishes your credibility and trust because you’re literally showing up to film.
How to Make Connections on Linkedin to Grow Your Business (28:00)
Consistency is key to driving engagement on Linkedin. If you look at posting a video every day as daunting, do a different cadence, just keep it consistent. This way, it’ll be easier for you to stick to when it’s scheduled into your week, and readers will come to expect your content on a regular basis.
Anyone who spends a lot of time on LinkedIn and does sales knows the buying power on LinkedIn is incomparable. It’s not 18-year-olds like Instagram, it’s CEOs and entrepreneurs.
To capture their attention, build a path for your buyer. Not every post should have a direct call to action to buy your product or subscribe to your services, but there should be an easy path to get there based on the content you’re sharing. When people click on your profile, make sure there is a path to where they can buy something from you. There, you can also include social proof and the results your customers have achieved to validate your product as valuable to the market.
Make your outreach personal and helpful so it feels human. Mark uses voice messages to make sure his outreach feels personal.
Go on LinkedIn with the intention of building a professional network, there’s no better place to be.
End (43:43)
Jason Campbell and Mark Metry — How to Grow Your Business on Linkedin (Superhumans at Work by Mindvalley)
0:00 | Intro
3:20 | Overcoming social anxiety and becoming a Linkedin influencer
14:50 | Three Major Elements to Success — Set Up, Consumption, Creation
28:00 | How to Make Connections on Linkedin to Grow Your Business
43:43 | End
Links & Resources
Jason Marc Campbell
Mark Metry
Mark Metry's Book: Screw Being Shy
Ronnie Gyani
