I just had a moment that made me go wow. And this is about LinkedIn. I've been looking into LinkedIn growth recently. So I found this thread on X on Twitter. I'm gonna read the introduction to the thread and then tell you why I said, wow. The introduction is, and it's from this guy, Matt Barker. The introduction is, and this is from March 3rd, 2023. The introduction is, last January, I started on LinkedIn with 800 crusty corporate connections. I struggled. Two months later, I only had 1,285 followers. But then something changed. I grew from 1,285 followers to 4,069 followers in eight weeks. Here are the exact eight steps I took to three X my followers. Steel this. Okay, so I looked at this and I said, you know, that's cool, but 4,069 followers, it's not that many. I have 3,226 followers. My friend Avni, who was just on this podcast, has 25,000 followers. And this guy is making a thread about going from 1,200 followers to 4,000 followers. So I said, here's an easy way to check if this guy knows what he's talking about. How many followers does he have now? So I searched Matt Barker on LinkedIn and I found him. And now he has 143,000 followers. And I saw that and I said, wow. Now his tactics could have changed since he wrote this. But I know a bit about LinkedIn growth. I just don't spread myself super thin. I'm focused on SEO TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. And if I didn't have strategies to reuse my content across TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, I would only pick one of those. But I don't have to choose because I'm so easily able to reuse content. Short form mobile video is used everywhere. But I've been taking an interest in LinkedIn recently. I've been seeing how people get these top voice badges, top copywriting voice, top resume, writing voice, top marketing voice, top SEO voice, top engineering voice, et cetera, et cetera. And I've been looking at how people are growing on LinkedIn. And something I'm noticing is that people are just using similar styles of copy. And this thread from Matt Barker, who is now at 143,000 followers, is a good example of that. So that's what I'm gonna share on this episode of the show. And then I'm gonna share how some guy got the LinkedIn top voice badge in just five days. That's what you are getting on this episode of The Edward Show, episode 358. This episode is all about LinkedIn. So we return to Matt Barker's thread. Here are the exact eight steps that Matt Barker used to three access followers. By the way, now I am seeing, he posts very frequently, posted 10 hours ago, posted one day ago, posted two days ago, posted another two days ago, three days ago, four days ago. So it looks like he's posting once or twice a day. He gets reach. He gets a lot of reach too, this impressive. Okay, so this is what he says. This is part one of his thread on how he grew on LinkedIn. He said, "I added a call to action "at the bottom of all my posts to follow, "hit my profile bell, and tag my profile name in the post. "This made it really easy for new readers to follow me." So at the end of the post, he says, "Follow me, tap my bell, it's a bell emoji. "On my profile, he tags himself, Matt Barker. "You will be notified the second I post." And then he uses hashtags, hashtag LinkedIn tips, hashtag solo printer, hashtag digital marketing. So he stresses using call to actions. Now I see he's selling a course. And at the end of all of his posts, and he's posting once or twice a day, he has a call to action with a link to his course. Every single post has a call to action at the end of it. Every single one that I'm seeing, I'm trying to look for one that doesn't have a call to action. And he's still using, here's another one. Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed this is recent. Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed this, one, save it. Two, repost it to share with others. Three, comment with your favorite takeaway. Then hit follow, and he tags himself, Matt Barker, for more posts and copywriting and growing a one person business. He has a picture of himself in a nice apartment. So he's still using this call to action saying, "Follow me." And he's giving directions that make the post more viral. Save it, that's gonna be a positive algorithm factor. Repost it, another positive algorithm factor for LinkedIn's algorithm. Comment with your favorite takeaway. Comment another positive factor for the LinkedIn algorithm. So cool, and so everyone of his posts have a call to action at the end. I so rarely put call to actions at the end of my LinkedIn posts, and now, from learning this, I'm gonna start doing that. I just assumed that if I write something good, people will follow me, but he always puts call to actions. I mean, he has 143,000 followers. All right, number two, he says, I started almost every post with a customer problem. This got me followers whose problems I can solve, perfect. So customer problem, and he gets followers whose problems he can solve, that makes sense. So here's an example of how he starts a post with a customer problem. He says, how to make your LinkedIn headline, stop the scroll in 8.23 seconds. Use this writing framework, steal it here, and then there's an arrow pointing down. Number three, I shared my solo printer progress in public in LinkedIn posts, inbound leads, followers, views, et cetera. People love to learn from those one step ahead of themselves. So his example is, this is from a LinkedIn post, my inbound leads on LinkedIn by month since I started posting in January. January zero, February two, March 15, April 20, May five so far. So he's doing build in public on LinkedIn. Number four, I changed my target audience from marketing managers and strategists to busy B2B service solo printers. By far, the most important thing I've done to date, I took time out to review my inbound contact and then started calling them out in my content. Wow. So an example is, solo printers don't stress about posting 100% original content. LinkedIn creators steal a lot. It saves time, save time, and start stealing like a pro. So he calls out his audience right at the beginning there. And I can see that he's still doing that. The biggest mistake founders make writing online. That's one recent post. Another one is LinkedIn experts. Comments are where the magic happens. And he's doing, he's also doing build in public. He even shares a flop. He says, last Sunday I wrote an email newsletter, but it flopped big time. I was bummed out and it affected my day negatively. I promoted my new paid newsletter 15 minute content and got one sign up. That's it. Here's three reasons why I'm still celebrating and why every small win matters. And that post got 221 likes and 186 comments and three reposts, crazy. Number five, I committed to providing one actionable writing tip every single morning. My followers can put it into practice that same day and improve their writing. The example he gives is cheat code for more views on LinkedIn. Optimize your headline structure, take mine, address a problem, and then there's a space to address that problem, give context, then there's a space to give context, and then you put a reason to see more. To click the see more button on LinkedIn, to unfold the rest of the post. Number six, I invested time into emulating other creators headline structures and found one that works for me almost every time. The framework that he found is the framework that I just read, address a problem, give context, reason to click read on, and then he gives an example of this framework. The example is B2B founders ask how I work as a LinkedIn ghost writer. One common question is how do I keep authenticity? Here is how I work with you. And then there's an arrow pointing down. So the address a problem is B2B founders ask how I work as a LinkedIn ghost writer. The context is one common question is how do I keep authenticity? And then the reason to click read on is here is how I work with you. Number seven, I began templatizing other creators posts and using them for my own topics. This gave me almost sure fire engagement, knowing others had succeeded with the format. He has an image, LinkedIn templates. Number one, educate me. Number two, entertain me. Number three, challenge me. Number four, motivate number five, engagement. Number six, hooks. And then the last one, I DM'ed, called, and struck up deeper relationships with a lot of my network. This is the most important tactical thing that you can do to grow on LinkedIn. Friends support friends. It's mutually beneficial for us all. So he was literally DMing people on LinkedIn to just say, hey mate, just wanted to say, I love the content you're putting out. The writing is great and the content itself is probably the best I see at the moment. So he's sending that to a bunch of people. And then a lot of people appreciate it. The people that he sends it to say, like thank you, your content is great too. And then he gives it a TLDR, a too long didn't read. Number one, added call to action to posts. Number two, started all the posts with a problem. Number three, shared progress in public. Number four, laser focused my target audience. Number five, gave one actionable tip daily. Number six, copied successful hook structures. Number seven, created proven post templates. And number eight, DM'd and networked like hell. Man, that was great. That's from Matt Barker, so great posts. Wow, and Matt Barker, he has top copywriting voice. But how did he get that top copywriting voice? How did he get that badge? And now I'm gonna read a very short post from R LinkedIn, the LinkedIn subreddit. And this post is called, "How I Got the LinkedIn Top Voice Badge in Just Five Days." So this person got one of those badges in just five days. How did this person do what I'm gonna tell ya? Here's what the post says. Ever wonder how those LinkedIn top voice badges are earned? I also had the same question. LinkedIn posts AI generated articles called collaborative articles covering over a thousand skills. Then they invite LinkedIn users who have relevant skills in their profile as a quote unquote expert to contribute to those articles. How can we contribute? Once you receive that invitation, you can go to those articles and add comments with your insights. The top 5% of contributors who get the most number of likes for their comments receive the top voice badge. I've gotten this invite so many times and I always ignore it. Like I said, I'm not focused on LinkedIn, but I've gotten it so many times. And here's why I think I've gotten it. I think I've gotten it because I do the basics. I fill out the information on my LinkedIn. I have a bunch of skills. Other people put skills for me. So you can get your friends to put skills for you and you can get your friends to give you recommendations. My guess would be that's all you need and then have a bunch of connections as well. And my guess is if you do that, you're pretty much good to go to get invites. But this person got the badge in five days. So the person goes, oh wow, how did you do it? In five days, how? And the author says, I followed a unique strategy. When I went to my industry, resume writing, most of the articles have 20 plus contributions. I knew it would be difficult for me to compete on ethical strategy. I nitpicked articles with less than three contributions and wrote comments with the best advice I could ever give. The secret is when others were writing paragraphs, I wrote short and sweet answers with bullet points. For example, if it's an article about a marketing resume, I wrote, these three steps always work for me when writing a marketing resume. One, two, three. I kept writing only three to four comments per day for four days. This was in December, 2023. This person did less work and got more results. And then the ending of this post, the sweet surprise. I woke up on the fifth day to see myself among the chosen few awarded the top resume writing voice. It wasn't just about the volume of engagement, but the quality and impact of my insights, usually top voice badges reassess every 60 days, but now it's 130 plus days. And I'm still a top voice because of the quality of my insights. To anyone aiming for their top voice moment, remember pick your skill, dive deep, and let your expertise shine. The badge might just be a post away. This person's name on LinkedIn is meth-sara-benorag-ama. And I'm gonna put this person in the description. For this podcast, and this is episode 358 of "The Edward Show." I thought this one was really good. Some really actionable, really concise, and clear insights in this one. I learned a lot while reading this. So I hope you learned a lot too. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. Honestly, I got so many optimizations, just so many best practices from this. Thought it was very valuable. I will talk to you again tomorrow.
