Best of LinkedIn: Social Selling CW 07/ 08

00:00:00: Brought to you by Thomas Allgaier and Frennis, this edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on social selling in Weeks Seven & Eight.

00:00:06: Frenis supports enterprises with enablement and insights providing data-driven sales intelligence flexible support team augmentation and data quality improvements.

00:00:15: so Social Engagement turns into a measurable pipeline.

00:00:18: Welcome to the deep dive.

00:00:19: We are looking at a landscape today that has, you know fundamentally shifted under our feet.

00:00:24: Really?

00:00:25: Has I mean?

00:00:25: we're taking a close look at this state of BDB social selling in early twenty-twenty six here and Looking through the stack of insights we've curated from week seven and eight if there's one overarching theme is That the old post-and-pray method isn't just inefficient anymore It's actively hurting your brand.

00:00:41: yeah totally.

00:00:42: we are seeing This hard pivot for what i'd call tactical posting.

00:00:47: Like just getting content out to fill up a calendar?

00:00:49: Right, exactly.

00:00:50: moving from that to systematic positioning which

00:00:53: you know sounds fantastic in a boardroom but for the people on the ground...the sales reps..the marketers there's a lot of anxiety right now reaches down The old playbooks are failing and everyone is kind of asking what did I do

00:01:06: wrong?

00:01:06: And the reality is you didn't do anything wrong!The environment has changed.

00:01:10: so today we're gonna look at the AI algorithm reset.

00:01:13: why content is now revenue infrastructure, the big shift from broadcasting to engagement and uh...the double-edged sword of employee advocacy.

00:01:22: Let's start with a thing that keeps everyone up at night which is the algorithm I feel like.

00:01:27: every year we hear that the algorithm changed but the intel we have for week seven suggests this isn't just a tweak it's a complete overhaul.

00:01:35: It really is.

00:01:35: Alex Calhoun flagged this immediately.

00:01:37: he noted that LinkedIn has essentially replaced the old ranking system with a completely new AI model, its no longer just popularity contest where accounts your likes.

00:01:46: So what exactly is accounting then?

00:01:48: Well Its reading... Calhoon explains that The AI now reads you content.

00:01:52: but and This Is the critical part..It also judges Your profile to decide if You actually have authority To speak on That topic.

00:02:00: That sounds incredibly invasive but also kind of smart, I guess.

00:02:04: Unedibaga actually compared this to TikToks for YouPage style.

00:02:08: She says the feed is now grouping users by similar personas.

00:02:11: Yes that's The Interest Graph concept.

00:02:13: Christina Castro had a brilliant breakdown in her posts.

00:02:30: No,

00:02:32: and that's where James Keele's analysis gets really interesting.

00:02:35: He went deep into the technical weeds mentioning that technologies like Three Sixty Brew and LaM A-three are powering this whole thing.

00:02:43: LaM a three is an open source large language model right?

00:02:45: Correct!

00:02:46: And because it's in LLM...it understands semantics.

00:02:49: It understand context.

00:02:50: Keel points out to be AI looking for semantic alignment.

00:02:54: Meaning what?

00:02:54: Exactly, in a practical sense.

00:02:56: Meaning if your profile says Cybersecurity Specialist but you're constantly posting about baking sourdough bread or just generic motivational fluff the LLM spots that disconnect?

00:03:07: I see

00:03:08: Yeah and it creates what Keele calls A Visibility Vacuum.

00:03:12: So the AI essentially says... You

00:03:16: disappear!

00:03:17: You have to stay on your lane If you confuse the bot..you lose the audience.

00:03:21: That feels a bit restrictive though doesn't?

00:03:23: humans are multifaceted, but I guess for B to be selling you absolutely need that clarity.

00:03:30: If we have to write for a machine now how do we actually do that without sounding like robots ourselves?

00:03:35: Jasmine Ollich provided really practical checklist exactly this.

00:03:39: he calls it SEO on LinkedIn.

00:03:41: Since an LLM is reading your post, you have to structure it so the machine can digest it easily.

00:03:47: What's this specific tactic there?

00:03:48: Act of verbs imperatives say things like do-this or analyze that.

00:03:52: It helps the AI.

00:03:54: categorize the advice You're giving.

00:03:56: but his absolute biggest tip was about images.

00:03:58: He says you must add ALT descriptions.

00:04:01: Usually we just think of a LT text for accessibility purposes which

00:04:04: is vital obviously But Aleach points out that the LM uses that text.

00:04:08: actually see the image.

00:04:10: If you post a complex chart with no ALT text to the AI, it's just a blank space.

00:04:16: Wow!

00:04:16: Yeah

00:04:17: if You describe It The AI understands the context and then distributes it To the right people.

00:04:21: that is A massive hack.

00:04:23: I've Been Ninety percent of People Completely Ignore That Field.

00:04:25: They

00:04:25: Definitely do.

00:04:27: He also mentions visual structure, you know breaking up the text so that AI and human can scan it more easily.

00:04:33: Speaking of timing in Structure Christina Castro dropped a very specific warning about the ninety minute window The

00:04:39: golden hour-and-a half.

00:04:41: Is really that strict?

00:04:42: The data strongly suggests trajectory is largely determined right at first.

00:04:47: ninety minutes.

00:04:48: If don't get engagement specifically Comments in that window the AI marks it as low quality and halts distribution.

00:04:57: That creates a massive amount of pressure for salesperson.

00:05:00: You can't just schedule a post to go into a two-hour client meeting.

00:05:04: you have to babysit.

00:05:06: It's a core part of the workflow now,

00:05:07: okay?

00:05:08: So machine wants semantic alignment and structure But eventually human has to read this stuff.

00:05:13: if we are all optimizing for law may three aren't We gonna end up with a sea of generic here or five tips kind of content.

00:05:21: That is the exact risk.

00:05:23: And that leads us nicely into our second theme, which is content as revenue infrastructure.

00:05:29: if everyone sounds exactly the same you lose.

00:05:32: Simone Brett Marotti was very clear on this in the source material.

00:05:36: she said relevance beats volume.

00:05:39: we used to think just post every single day.

00:05:42: Now she's saying if it is not relevant, don't even

00:05:44: bother.".

00:05:44: Because the metrics have totally changed, Lilich Gold has highlighted this... It's about dwell time and completion rate.

00:05:51: Like did they actually read?

00:05:52: Did

00:05:53: they get to very bottom?

00:05:54: Goldist notes that If you can get twenty-five percent of readers on the last line your reach jumps significantly!

00:06:00: If people click see more then just scroll past.

00:06:02: The algorithm interprets that as clickbait And kills their reach instantly.

00:06:06: So you hook them and hold.

00:06:08: But how do you hold them if your just spewing dry technical facts?

00:06:12: You don't.

00:06:12: My golly Daru argues that AI cannot commoditize personality.

00:06:17: The posts are winning right now, the ones holding that dwell time Are the one's who're polarizing or share hard won personal lessons.

00:06:25: Polina Strecker had a take on this That I thought was hilarious but also very true.

00:06:29: She said politeness is death of reach.

00:06:32: It'a bold statement.

00:06:33: she's right.

00:06:33: She basically says to have balls.

00:06:36: If you're hedging every statement with, in my opinion or one could possibly argue.

00:06:42: You are dead on the water.

00:06:43: Indifference is worse than disagreement

00:06:45: Because it creates friction.

00:06:46: Friction create comments and comment signal relevance to AI.

00:06:51: It's a feedback loop if your lukewarm invisible.

00:06:54: So have an opinion.

00:06:56: But its not just about content itself.

00:06:58: We saw a lot of chatter as well.

00:07:01: Dennis Shedlicka and Troy Johnson & Johnson was referencing Josh Edum here.

00:07:06: Both emphasize that the profile is where The Trust Is Verified

00:07:09: because you might catch their attention with a hot take in the feed,

00:07:13: but then they go straight to your Profile To see if You're actually legit.

00:07:15: there's Your landing page

00:07:17: Exactly.

00:07:18: And Eric Zimmerman added A detail That I think it's gonna Sting for some of the newer folks listening.

00:07:22: He Calls It the five hundred Club.

00:07:24: i saw that he points out that If You have Fewer Than Five Hundred Connections Linked In Displays the Exact Number on Your Profile

00:07:31: Like,

00:07:32: eighty-seven connections.

00:07:33: And in the world of B to B sales that creates an immediate credibility gap.

00:07:37: it signals you are either brand new or just don't have a network.

00:07:41: It screams tourist

00:07:42: Completely.

00:07:43: Once hit five hundred plus?

00:07:44: Just says five hundred Plus!

00:07:46: Its major psychological threshold.

00:07:48: It implies your established and industry.

00:07:51: Zimmerman's point is before being thought leader You need fix foundation.

00:07:56: Get to five hundred.

00:07:57: Its basically hygiene factor.

00:07:58: Okay Moving over to theme three.

00:08:00: We've talked a lot about posting, but Alistair Driscoll says we are getting it all wrong by treating LinkedIn like a megaphone.

00:08:06: The Megaphone Fallacy!

00:08:08: Look at our new award or...we just launched this minor feature.

00:08:11: Driscolle notes that most sales reps are just blindly broadcasting company news

00:08:16: and nobody cares.

00:08:17: Nobody?

00:08:18: Parker Naiman.

00:08:19: Warden has the hot take I think changes the whole resource allocation model for sales teams.

00:08:25: He said commenting is greater than posting

00:08:27: Greater Than Posting.

00:08:28: That feels counterintuitive given everything we're told about content being king.

00:08:32: Content

00:08:32: is awareness, commenting as pipeline.

00:08:35: Warden argues that when you post You are essentially waiting for people to come to you.

00:08:40: When you comment your entering the room where The buyers already Are.

00:08:44: But there's a right way and wrong Way To do this.

00:08:46: obviously No Knee sand distinguishes between fake And real social selling.

00:08:51: here

00:08:52: We've all seen the fake stuff Great posts thanks For sharing Or

00:08:55: the absolute worst Insightful content clearly written by a bot.

00:08:59: That is the death knell, real social selling is adding a unique perspective maybe answering an objection in the comments or actually contributing to debate at hand?

00:09:08: You mentioned bots and we need pause there because Michelle J Raymond and Bianca Colowitz were screaming from the rooftops about this week.

00:09:16: seven and eight.

00:09:18: automation is highly dangerous right now.

00:09:20: It's not just dangerous it being actively hunted.

00:09:23: LinkedIn is severely penalizing bot comments.

00:09:27: Liam Darmity mentioned this too, he noted that LinkedIn will actually remove automated comments from the most relevant sort view entirely.

00:09:34: Think about tech we discussed at the beginning.

00:09:37: Lam A-three.

00:09:38: It can identify generic LLM generated comments instantly.

00:09:43: So if you are using a tool to scale your engagement You're literally paying money to be filtered out.

00:09:49: So you really have to do the manual work.

00:09:51: But that brings up the scalability issue.

00:09:53: if I'm an enterprise sales director, i can't just clone my best reps.

00:09:57: how Do I operationalize this behavior?

00:09:58: Michael Kerson shared a fascinating case study from HubSpot on This.

00:10:02: they didn't Just tell their reps To go be social.

00:10:04: They built A rigid system.

00:10:06: What

00:10:06: did That actually look like in practice!

00:10:07: They tracked Social metrics with The exact same rigor as call logs or email open rates.

00:10:12: They integrated it directly into the daily workflow And the numbers were staggering.

00:10:17: Yeah, in fifty days they booked two hundred plus meetings and generated one point five million dollars in pipeline.

00:10:23: One-point-five million in less than two months just from operationalizing their social engagement.

00:10:28: It proves that the ROI of Social isn't a ghost.

00:10:31: it's real but only if you treat is as true discipline not at Friday afternoon hobby.

00:10:36: Richard Vanderblom provided great daily routine for this.

00:10:40: Yes He suggests morning listening Before you post anything.

00:10:44: spend time listening to what your prospects are posting then move to strategic engagement and Then publishing two or three times a week.

00:10:52: It's a specific rhythm.

00:10:54: I love the morning listening concept.

00:10:56: it stops You from being the guy who walks into a networking party?

00:10:59: And immediately starts shouting about himself.

00:11:01: We all know that guy.

00:11:02: don't be that guy exactly.

00:11:04: okay theme for.

00:11:05: we've talked heavily About the individual rep, but what about the broader brand employee advocacy

00:11:12: or as I like to call it, the human firewall.

00:11:14: Gareth Wax called Company Pages Museums

00:11:17: polished quiet and totally empty.

00:11:20: Serge

00:11:20: Boulayev's data firmly backs that up.

00:11:22: he found personal profiles get five hundred sixty one percent more reach than company pages which makes

00:11:27: perfect sense when you think about It.

00:11:29: we trust people.

00:11:30: We don't trust corporate logos.

00:11:32: so this strategy is pretty clear.

00:11:34: Get your employees to post.

00:11:36: Niall Ratcliffe pointed to Semrush as the absolute gold standard here.

00:11:52: And they encourage real humor.

00:11:55: They use means, they act like human beings.

00:11:57: Luciano Trujillo suggested gamification is key here.

00:12:01: His team saw acceptance rates seventy-three percent above average simply because he turned advocacy into a friendly internal competition.

00:12:08: However and this the part of The Deep Dive where we need to have very serious reality check There's massive risk that Eric Ianello raised.

00:12:17: It's

00:12:17: the nightmare scenario for CEO.

00:12:20: You spend significant time building up your employees Personal brands.

00:12:24: you give them the audience.

00:12:25: You effectively make them industry influencers

00:12:28: and then you treat them poorly And

00:12:30: they leave, but they don't just leave quietly.

00:12:33: Enelo's sites aligned and pylon as specific examples of this.

00:12:38: In those cases, top talent left and took directly to LinkedIn to air their grievances.

00:12:42: They

00:12:43: basically burned the house down on their way out.

00:12:45: they detailed The burnout.

00:12:46: they detailed the toxic leadership.

00:12:48: And because the company had spent years validating these exact people has trusted truth-tellers?

00:12:53: The audience believed them immediately.

00:12:56: so the brand equity that built turned into a massive sales objection, literally overnight.

00:13:01: Imagine

00:13:01: a prospect looking at your software and then seeing a viral post from your former top rep saying don't sign with them.

00:13:08: the culture is completely toxic.

00:13:09: that deal is dead?

00:13:11: That's terrifying!

00:13:13: It really underscores that advocacy isn't just a marketing distribution channel it's a mirror.

00:13:18: if you're internal culture has rotten Advocacy will amplify that rot to the whole market.

00:13:23: You cannot mask a bad culture with good social selling anymore.

00:13:26: The human firewall works both

00:13:28: ways.".

00:13:28: So if you're going to deploy this, you better be a place worth working for!

00:13:33: Now... For the companies that are good places to work but just have incredibly busy subject matter experts Patrice Orina's Lerma suggested A Ghost Writing Workflow

00:13:43: Which is very pragmatic middle ground.

00:13:45: Not everyone as natural writer If can capture their expertise and package it ethically.

00:13:50: It helps them participate without adding to burnout.

00:13:53: Finally, let's talk metrics.

00:13:55: How do we actually measure success in this new landscape?

00:13:58: We hear a lot about the SSI – The Social Selling Index.

00:14:02: Is This Real or is it just a vanity

00:14:04: metric?".

00:14:05: It's definitely controversial but Umi Dalazada and Shanshan Thompson argue that its unnecessary diagnostic tool tells you if your are hitting four core pillars brand, people insights and relationships.

00:14:17: But Una Adibaga had a crucial clarification here that I want to highlight.

00:14:20: she said SSI doesn't control your distribution

00:14:23: right.

00:14:23: having the perfect score of eighty doesn't mean the algorithm suddenly loves you in boosts your posts.

00:14:28: however she notes it acts as a spam prevention metric.

00:14:31: what does that mean practice?

00:14:33: It means if your SSI is suspiciously low like In the single digits, this system might flag you as a bot or low-quality account.

00:14:41: So you need to keep it at a healthy baseline just to ensure your content even gets a chance to be seen!

00:14:55: The

00:15:06: lazy era of LinkedIn is definitively over, the algorithm now smart enough to detect semantic relevance and penalize spam instantly.

00:15:14: You have to go deep in Be Specific.

00:15:15: Staying your lane at ALT Texts To Your Images And Engage With Real Balls.

00:15:20: Remember what Sebastian Auer noted his post?

00:15:26: It's about selling with values!

00:15:28: Organic customer acquisition comes from genuine value not cheap growth hacks.

00:15:35: That feels like the right place to land.

00:15:36: It's definitely harder work, but as those HubSpot numbers showed it clearly pays off which leaves you a thought I want leave with.

00:15:45: if we're told be polarizing and have balls to stand out what happens when AI gets so good at mimicking that authentic polarizing tone?

00:15:54: We can't tell difference anymore!

00:15:56: That is scary though.

00:15:57: where does trust go then?

00:15:58: Exactly

00:15:59: something to chew on If enjoyed this episode.

00:16:01: new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:16:03: Also, check out our other editions on account-based marketing, field marketing channel marketing mark tech go to market and AI in BDB Marketing.

00:16:11: Thanks for joining the deep dive.

00:16:12: see you next time.