Best of LinkedIn: Social Selling CW 13/ 14

00:00:00: So we

00:00:22: are really excited to get into this deep dive today because B-to-B social selling is, well it's going to a massive upheaval right now.

00:00:29: Right and if you're a B-To-B marketing professional joining us today You already know the struggle.

00:00:34: I mean trying to separate actionable strategies from generic platform fluff.

00:00:39: It's exhausting.

00:00:41: Oh completely exhausting?

00:00:42: You probably tired of wondering why your outreach just isn't in the market anymore.

00:00:45: Exactly So today's deep dive is your shortcut.

00:00:48: We're looking at the top social selling trends across LinkedIn from calendar weeks, thirteen and fourteen to show you how the rules have fundamentally shifted.

00:00:56: Yeah!

00:00:56: And we are going break this down into four core themes.

00:00:59: First The AI and Algorithm Reset Because If You Are Invisible Nothing Else Matters.

00:01:05: Then We'll Look At Conversion Systems Profile Discipline.

00:01:09: Finally Team Selling.

00:01:11: Let's start with that algorithm reset.

00:01:13: I like think about old algorithms.

00:01:15: your favorite local coffee shop, you know?

00:01:17: You walk in.

00:01:17: Your order...you pay....you wait!

00:01:20: The system is totally predictable.

00:01:22: Right the menu board tells exactly what to expect.

00:01:25: But imagine walking into tomorrow and suddenly the barista won't even acknowledge unless your outfit perfectly matches the origin country of the coffee beans.

00:01:33: Wow

00:01:34: yeah

00:01:34: and you can't pay with money anymore, You have to like initiate a highly relevant conversation With someone by the pastry case just To get your coffee.

00:01:42: It'd be absolute chaos.

00:01:43: Just so roomful of people shouting their orders in an espresso machine totally baffled.

00:01:48: And that feeling Of disorientation is exactly what's happening on LinkedIn right now.

00:01:52: There's this quiet rollout of A new AI model That practitioners are calling Three Sixty Brew.

00:01:58: Yeah The three sixty brew era.

00:02:01: We aren't just guessing about this.

00:02:03: Roger Baszler-DeRocca actually did some phenomenal research confirming it, he dug into RSIF.

00:02:08: Oh!

00:02:08: RSIF?

00:02:09: That's the open source database for pre-release technical papers.

00:02:12: right

00:02:12: Exactly He found actual papers from LinkedIn.

00:02:15: engineers cross referenced them with VP statements and verified at all.

00:02:19: So This new AI architecture is a documented reality

00:02:23: which means the era of engagement bait is just completely dead.

00:02:27: Maxim Carl pointed this out recently, he noticed that real expertise and hands-on stories are actively replacing those you know generic recycled carousel hacks.

00:02:36: right because the old system was so easy to game a carousal worked because every click to the next slide logged as high engagement.

00:02:42: great it tricked the dwell time

00:02:44: exactly.

00:02:44: but three sixty bruise way smarter.

00:02:47: Rodina Polinke noted that the algorithm now heavily prioritizes saves and true dwell time over simple likes.

00:02:53: I mean, like takes a fraction of second but saving a post?

00:02:55: That shows real human intent.

00:02:57: To really prove this, Sarah Clay ran this fascinating test.

00:03:01: She posted an off-topic cat video which usually farms engagement anywhere on the internet.

00:03:07: Oh yeah!

00:03:07: The ultimate social media cheat code

00:03:09: Right But it got her lowest interaction rate in years.

00:03:12: but then In that same week she posted a highly specific LinkedIn strategy post and It was her highest engagement of the quarter

00:03:21: because of what the algorithm calls semantic coherence.

00:03:24: This is huge, three-sixty brew cross checks your post against your actual profile.

00:03:29: Wait so it reads you're background to see if you are qualified for posting about this topic?

00:03:32: Exactly!

00:03:33: It asks does that person actually have expertise in talking about this?

00:03:37: So when Sarah posted a cat video The AI saw her BtoB profile Saw massive mismatch and just intentionally suppressed their reach.

00:03:45: Wow...so

00:03:45: you were actively penalized.

00:03:47: If you aren't semantically coherent

00:03:48: You are which means we have to take control of what the AI thinks of us.

00:03:52: Andre V recommends actually manually retraining your feed, like aggressively unfollowing people to clear out the AI slot.

00:04:00: And just a quick note for everyone unfollowing doesn't sever the connection.

00:04:03: so there's no awkward social fallout

00:04:05: Right exactly!

00:04:06: So you clean house and then only save posts that matter with extreme intention.

00:04:13: Okay let me unpack this first.

00:04:14: second though If we actively unfollow everyone outside our strict niche, aren't we just building a massive echo chamber?

00:04:23: Aren't we optimizing for the machine at the expense of discovering diverse ideas.

00:04:28: It's really valid concern if you're on the platform just for personal education.

00:04:32: sure an open feed is great but we have to look this from a strict BDB sales perspective.

00:04:37: right

00:04:37: pipeline generation

00:04:38: exactly A diddy-naggy tracked the data on this post.

00:04:41: three sixty brew and a highly calibrated smaller network massively outperforms, large disengaged one.

00:04:49: if you want to close an enterprise deal You don't need a football stadium of random people.

00:04:53: You need a conference room with six engaged decision makers.

00:04:56: The algorithm rewards you for building that focused conference room.

00:05:01: I Love that okay?

00:05:03: So we have the attention of the right people but visibility doesn't pay the payroll.

00:05:08: Let's move to our second theme.

00:05:11: Conversion systems over vanity metrics.

00:05:14: Yeah, this is where we shift from followers to funnels.

00:05:17: Josh S said it perfectly Followers are not leads.

00:05:21: He outlined a six-step system that prioritizes serving overselling and really utilizing two of you MOFU MBO FU content which

00:05:30: stands for top middle and bottom Of the funnel.

00:05:32: We hear those acronyms all the time but applying them to a social feed as well.

00:05:36: It's tricky

00:05:36: It is, and most people only post top of funnel stuff.

00:05:39: Broad industry observations And then they're shocked.

00:05:41: when nobody asks for a demo You have to move them down.

00:05:44: Top of Funnel For Reach Middle Of Funnel With A Specific Framework.

00:05:47: Bottom Of Funnels with Direct Case Study Lead Magnet.

00:05:50: You actually need to invite them in.

00:05:52: Speaking of that Carolina Pazma shared this great reality check.

00:05:55: She talked about the stupidest thing she used as seller.

00:05:58: Oh The

00:05:58: cold DMs.

00:05:59: Yes Spending hours grinding out cold DMs to strangers while totally ignoring warm leads who are already engaging with her content.

00:06:08: It's

00:06:08: like ignoring people waving checkbooks at you so that they can go knock on a stranger door!

00:06:11: Exactly, she advocates working in strict five-level lists.

00:06:15: You start within bound and leave your response to those within one hour And

00:06:24: when you do finally reach out the medium matters SO much.

00:06:28: Christian Krauss broke down his process for video DMs, and he's getting a massive twenty-five to thirty percent response rate.

00:06:35: Okay wait let's pause there.

00:06:37: Thirty percent.

00:06:37: I mean, traditional text-based cold outreach gets what?

00:06:40: Like two or three percent?

00:06:41: Thirty percent is insane!

00:06:43: It's totally an outlier but his method explains it.

00:06:45: He actually walks outside while recording these short videos and acts as a pattern interrupt.

00:06:49: Oh because the buyer just staring at walls of texts all day inside in office.

00:06:53: Right suddenly they see real human walking under blue sky...it breaks the corporate trance Plus.

00:06:59: eighty seven percent of human communication is nonverbal.

00:07:01: Video accelerates trust in way text can't

00:07:04: And data supports this completely.

00:07:07: Dennis Debis analyzed seven thousand sales conversations.

00:07:11: He found that social selling gets an eighty-two point two percent reply rate, but it takes about four point four days.

00:07:17: Wow yeah.

00:07:18: and a direct pitch Gets a fifty four point five percent reply Rate taking about three point five Days.

00:07:24: so the takeaway is clear use Social Selling for small lists in big deals And Direct Pitches For Big Lists In Small Deals.

00:07:30: That's A perfect strategic split.

00:07:32: But here's where it gets a bit overwhelming to me.

00:07:35: Recording personalized videos outside, managing the five-level list... doesn't that take an impossible amount of time?

00:07:41: It feels like hand crafting artisan coffee for a line of one hundred customers!

00:07:44: Well thats'a thing.

00:07:45: you aren't supposed to serve the hundred people in line You only served the five who want to buy whole franchise.

00:07:50: Ahhhh Targeted accounts

00:07:52: Exactly!

00:07:52: Krauss suggests doing this just for five target account per week.

00:07:55: That is about twenty five personas.

00:07:57: Your research outline and record all them in bulk.

00:08:00: Its high leverage not volume.

00:08:01: Okay, so let's say you send the perfect video.

00:08:04: They're intrigued and they click your name.

00:08:06: If they land on a confusing profile all that trust is just gone.

00:08:10: Which brings us to our third theme?

00:08:13: Profile & Positioning Discipline.

00:08:15: Yes Your profile is no longer a digital CV.

00:08:20: It's a B-to-B sales asset.

00:08:22: it's a pitch deck.

00:08:23: Yvonne Botang stresses That your profile has To match your content perfectly.

00:08:28: Right, she says your headline needs to show exactly who you help and how.

00:08:31: Your banner is like a visual billboard And your about section shouldn't be a resume.

00:08:36: it needs to focus entirely on the reader's problems.

00:08:39: That's the visual side.

00:08:40: But there's also a hidden technical layer that is blowing people's minds right now.

00:08:44: Joseph Tannis brought up the SSI The Social Selling Index with secret metric the secret metric.

00:08:48: A lot of people don't know this but if your SSI score is low LinkedIn secretly caps your connection requests like they will physically throttle Your outreach to a hundred requests week instead of the max two hundred.

00:09:00: wait

00:09:00: even if you're paying for a premium sales navigator license.

00:09:03: Even then it directly controls.

00:09:05: You weekly limits

00:09:07: now.

00:09:07: Daria Shulipova did clarify something important about this.

00:09:10: She pointed out that SSI does not determine your visibility to recruiters.

00:09:14: That's still based on keywords and job titles.

00:09:17: right

00:09:17: but from B to be sales an outbound volume.

00:09:20: It is absolutely vital.

00:09:21: Okay, let me play devil's advocate.

00:09:24: Is the SSI score just this like gamified vanity metric LinkedIn invented to keep us clicking?

00:09:30: or does it actually measure sales capability?

00:09:33: Well, it's a platform metric sure but it measures The exact behaviors that lead to sales completing your profile engaging with insights building relationships.

00:09:41: So whether you liked the gamification are not it physically restricts Your volume.

00:09:45: You have

00:09:46: to pay the game.

00:09:49: Okay, let's move to our final theme.

00:09:51: Team selling and market reality.

00:09:53: because the best B-to-B marketing right now isn't a solo effort anymore.

00:09:57: Not at all!

00:09:58: B-To-B buyers are changing fast.

00:10:00: Timothy Hughes noted that sixty eight percent of btb buyers pick a vendor before they even start a formal search.

00:10:06: If you aren't influencing them early You've lost.

00:10:08: And Hughes dropped this massive insight on how your researching.

00:10:13: We're moving from SEO to GEO Generative Engine Optimization.

00:10:17: This is

00:10:17: huge!

00:10:18: LinkedIn is now the number one-sided domain for professional queries in LLMs like chat GPT, so when your employees post they are literally feeding the AI engines that answer your future customers questions

00:10:30: which is why employee advocacy is so critical now.

00:10:33: Stefan Wetzel shared that employee brand ambassadors reach eight times more people than company pages.

00:10:39: Eight

00:10:39: times?

00:10:40: That's incredible!

00:10:41: And Jody Leon added that this works even in highly regulated industries, it actually outperforms paid ads because it builds native trust.

00:10:49: Chad Johnson had a really stark warning for sales leaders about this.

00:10:52: he said treating LinkedIn as optional right now is like ignoring gravity.

00:10:56: your competitors are out there shaping the market narrative without you.

00:10:59: It's true but y'know Eintraskar did give us a bit of a mathematical reality check on all this.

00:11:04: LinkedIn has one point three billion accounts, but only about three hundred million are active monthly

00:11:09: and Of those only one percent actually posts content

00:11:12: Exactly plus.

00:11:14: Stacy Wong reminded everyone that not every when you need is even on linkedin.

00:11:18: You still need email voice mails an in-person visits.

00:11:22: It has to be omni channel.

00:11:23: Let me press you on that one percent stat though.

00:11:26: if only one per cent of users actually post aren't we just spending all our time talking to other marketers and creators?

00:11:31: Like, how do we know the actual buyers are even looking.

00:11:34: That is a big fear right but trust God says you have to love the lurkers that ninety-nine percent they're reading their saving there taking screenshots putting them in slack

00:11:45: dark social

00:11:46: exactly.

00:11:47: oh thats why three sixty brews focus on dwell time over likes.

00:11:50: it's so critical if finally measures that silent majority

00:11:54: The buyers are there.

00:11:55: They're just taking quiet notes.

00:11:56: that is such a powerful perspective.

00:11:58: It really is and you know if we pull all this together it leaves us with kind of provocative thought to mull over as AI models like chat GBT increasingly rely on our posts for answers.

00:12:09: Are we approaching?

00:12:10: A future where we aren't writing for human buyers at All, or we just writing to persuade the AI agents that the humans will eventually consult?

00:12:17: Wow optimizing for the AI so the AI recommends You-to-the-buyer.

00:12:22: That Is Something To Think About.

00:12:23: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:12:27: Also check out our other editions on account-based marketing field marketing channel marketing Martek go to market and AI in BDB Marketing.

00:12:34: Thank

00:12:35: you so much for joining us And be sure to subscribe So you don't miss the next deep dive.

00:12:39: We'll see ya next time.