HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
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Tips on how to create LinkedIn videos that attract customers with Melvyn Tan
- I guess my ability to reach that level with LinkedIn videos was primarily because I decided to focus on the audience. I think that’s what makes a difference.
- Without being very clear about what is it that you offering, what is it that you want to give people, what kind of value you’re giving to them, it’s going to be really, really difficult for people to pay attention to you.
- The process I went through was basically this. The first thing was, I have certain keywords that I think are my superpowers or my skills, something that I can offer. I decided that I type in those keywords into LinkedIn and see what comes out.
- I enter keywords on LinkedIn and then I look at what content comes up, and then I look at which content are the ones that resonate more with people.
- I paid attention to video content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments. After doing that research for about two months, I realized that there are three types of content or message that people generally pay more attention to, and it resonates with them.
- People love content about mindset. Whether it’s a shift in terms of perspective or this whole idea about growth mindset.
- Another type of LinkedIn video content is how you can help people grow their business? Whether it’s in the form of a marketing strategy, or content strategy or pricing strategy, whatever the case may be.
- Then the third thing that I found was that once you become known on the platform, and people know you, you’re not someone new. Once people know you, then the third type of content that does really, really well, is the type of content where you share with people some insights, or you give them a peek into your personal life.
- But personal content must be able to relate back to business principles or learning that can be applied in the professional context itself.
- The other thing that I did was, after looking at all this content, you start noticing that there are certain people, whose content tends to resonate better with other people. These people could be like the influencers, for example, people who are a little bit more popular on the platform.
- Engage with the content of people who have got a huge following.
- But the truth is, I think any serious business people who want to get on this game, I think they should just start with whatever they have. Because along the way, you’re definitely going to find that some of the tools outlive what you intend to do, and that’s where you can upgrade.
- What I’m excited about is, the first thing I’m just so excited that I got access to the LinkedIn Live feature. It’s a feature that requires you to apply.
- What I always tell people is that you really need to do your research, you really need to prepare, and it’s even, highly magnified on the live channel because people can tell if you are not well prepared.
- The bad advice that I hear these days on LinkedIn or on this platform itself is to be in a pot. For those of us who are not familiar with what the pot is, is that you have a group of people who come together, and when you put up content, you would support each other’s content.
- The reason why I see them, it’s because they comment on somebody else’s post. Quite often they leave either with the comments, or useful comments or they ask a really great question or they’re just being helpful in answering questions where other people have. That brings up their visibility.
- I would say, in 2019, the thing that one should really do is to leverage the comment function because that’s how you get visibility in 2019.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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Doug: Well welcome back, listeners to another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. Today in studio all the way from Singapore, I’ve got Melvyn Tan, joining me in the studio. Now, Melvyn, I connected on LinkedIn quite a while ago, he had reached out to me and we subsequently set up a phone call and had just an amazing conversation. I was so impressed with how smart and how giving Melvyn was. At the time I said, you’ve got to get my podcast into your schedule and we’ve got to get you on the show.
After months of trying to get our schedules to align, Melvyn’s here to share with us today. I just want to give a little bit of background on Melvyn. Melvyn is someone who has all the technical and all the education behind him, but he also puts in the work. He rolled up his sleeves. Before he started consulting and helping people with their business strategy and their marketing strategy on LinkedIn, he spent an entire year, produced 184 LinkedIn videos in 2018 after doing two months of research. Two months of research did 184 LinkedIn videos, I think makes him more than qualified to share with us today.
I’d like you to welcome Melvyn Tan, from Befinity Media to the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast today. Well, hey, Melvyn, I’m super excited to host you today on the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast. So welcome.
Melvyn Tan: Thank you very much, Doug. It’s a pleasure. It took us a while to set this up. I’m really, really privileged to be speaking with you right now.
Doug: Well, the way that we started speaking was quite interesting. Because you are a very giving person. You reached out to me on LinkedIn, and I often talk about why social media doesn’t work, it’s because people aren’t being social. You’re just the opposite. We connected and then we had this great conversation after we connected.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah, absolutely. There was a way I know social to be. It’s beyond just having another connection. I really, really like to reach out to as many people as I humanly can possibly do that. Sometimes it’s just not possible, because I’m on the other side of the world. So, time difference and all that creates a little bit of a challenge here.
Doug: Well, you do. You are on the other side of the world, but you’re in a beautiful place.
Melvyn Tan: It is.
Doug: Now, why don’t we just dive in? Do you want to give our listeners a little bit of background on what you do? We connected on LinkedIn, and that seems to be one of your many superpowers. Do you want to share with our listeners who you are, what you’re working on?
Melvyn Tan: Right? Well, it depends on how far back we go. I’ll take it all the way to 2002. So, 2002 was when I decided to start out on my own, being an independent consultant for small and midsize businesses here in Singapore. Primarily, what I do, is I actually advise the small businesses how to write a business plan so that they could use that business plan to either raise funds through equity or debt.
That was pretty much what I did for like two years before I pivoted and went into consulting for schools. When I talk about schools here in Singapore, they are public schools. Our schools here run like a corporation. In other words, every school has got a vision, mission values, and they have KPIs and they have goals. Teachers being teachers, that’s not something that they were taught when they went to school to be trained as a teacher.
I come in, and I basically help them with that. Fast forward, 14 years later, I had a good run. I work with many of the schools here. 14 years later, I decided that I wanted to do something different. The trigger was basically my daughter, who was my second child. When she was born, I decided that I want to make sure that I want to be around for her when she needs me.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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So, two things I did, one was that I quit smoking. That’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. After smoking for more than 20 years, I quit smoking just like that. The other thing that I did was that I decided that what I was doing was basically trading time for money. Because being a consultant, you have to be there to do the work.
I look for other ways to earn that income. I heard all these nice things about how you can make money on the internet. I said I don’t think it’s so difficult. So, let me try and figure that out. Now, it turns out, it was more difficult than what I thought it would be. After listening to many, many episodes of Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast, I decided that I just have to do something that is different. That’s when I went back to being really, really self-aware of what I’m good at.
I found that what I’m good at was LinkedIn videos. That’s when I went into LinkedIn because, at a point in time, LinkedIn just launched their native video function. I went to LinkedIn and I decided to make a video almost every day. As they say, the rest is history because I invested the entire 2018 in making a total of 184 videos. In those videos, primarily, my main focus was, how could I make a video that people want to invest time in to watch and that can help their business?
That was the primary question I have for myself every time. I guess my ability to reach that level on LinkedIn was primarily because I decided that the focus was not on me, the focus was on the audience. I think that’s really what makes a difference between 2018, and the previous years that I’ve tried to do so many things, and it didn’t work.
Doug: That’s amazing. I just don’t want to gloss over that. You spend 2018 and you recorded and shared 184 LinkedIn videos.
Melvyn Tan: That’s right.
Doug: That’s amazing. What’s interesting is, I’m listening to you say 2018, you did that last year and how many LinkedIn videos. I saw a picture of you with Gary V., which must have been really cool to meet him. My wife and I had a chance to meet him when he was in Vancouver. We bought tickets for a dinner that he was speaking at. He’s all over LinkedIn and video LinkedIn and video now. But it seemed like just the last six months. Maybe he was watching you and he picked up some tips.
Melvyn Tan: I don’t know but the truth was, I’ve been listening to Gary Vaynerchuk for a while. One of the things that I made a promise to myself was that, if I hear him say a particular platform three times, I would for sure want to check it out. Because when I was listening to all this content previously, he has been talking about Snapchat and Instagram, all that stuff, but I’ve never heard him talk about LinkedIn.
Doug: I’ve heard him talking about LinkedIn recently. I see him on Twitter pushing it. Okay, you haven’t heard him talking about LinkedIn.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah. That was like in 2017, I have not heard him talk about LinkedIn. When he came to Singapore, and that’s how I got the picture with him. When he came to Singapore, he talked about LinkedIn. Subsequently, he spoke about LinkedIn two more times. That was when I decided that, hey, that is a platform that I need to check it out. Because, if you ask most people, they say, “Yeah, I have a LinkedIn account. I just put out my resume, and I look for jobs on LinkedIn. But to think of LinkedIn as a place that you create content and you get people to pay attention to what you have to say. Through that whole process itself to build a relationship as well as to turn some of them into clients, it’s unheard of, as recent as 2017.
I thought that the platform was really interesting, because in the last couple of years, or 18 months or so, I think LinkedIn has changed dramatically.
Doug: Yeah, I agree. I think the conversation right now is that LinkedIn, and opportunities on LinkedIn now is where Facebook was, like five years ago. There’s that opportunity to get in there while the platform has been around for a while, is maturing, and you’re seeing like you said, more multimedia.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah.
Doug: I want to go back to something you said. You said that when you started creating content that you wanted to focus on content that would be engaging and serve your audience. Do you want to expand a little bit on that?
Melvyn Tan: Yes. When I first started creating content, I started on YouTube. What I wanted to show on YouTube was, because, at that point in time, it coincides with that one-year sabbatical that I took with my family. We took a year off, and we decided to travel with my two kids. We spent six months in Europe and six months in the US. During that time, one of the things that I really wanted to do was to document the entire travel journey of my family.
The video, was fun for me to watch. But for someone else to watch it, I don’t think it’s going to be as much entertaining. It didn’t get much traction. Over time, what I did learn is that, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to invest their time into watching or paying attention to what you have to say, there has to be something for that. Unless it’s going to help them solve a problem, or to help them save money or save time, be more awesome, its got to do one of these things. Otherwise, people are just going to turn you off because there’s just so much noise on the internet, on social media that everybody is getting fed up with some of the platforms.
Without being very clear about what is it that you offering, what is it that you want to give people, what kind of value you’re giving to them, it’s going to be really, really difficult for people to pay attention to you.
Doug: Yeah, you’re so true. It’s so true. There is more and more noise on LinkedIn as well. As we’re both fans of Gary V., he says, there are all these platforms out there, and they work really well, till marketers come along and ruin them.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah.
Doug: I’m looking at a LinkedIn message I got today that came in about 5:58 AM. I had one that came in … Well, actually, I got two today and I had two from the same person yesterday and they are offering prospecting at scale on LinkedIn. I’m thinking dude, whoever is doing here stuff is reposting and cutting the same stuff and sending to me over and over again. There’s nothing there other than hey, it’s a brief introduction. I can help you. Click here.
Do you want to just share, maybe a specific example? Because I’m really intrigued by what you said. You said that you did these 184 LinkedIn videos and you want to see what people are engaging with. What was your learning there? What did you learn that people engage with in terms of your content?
Melvyn Tan: I think on LinkedIn, what I did was I actually did two months … I actually sat down and did two months of research before I started making the video. The process I went through was basically this. The first thing was, I have certain keywords that I think are my superpowers or my skills, something that I can offer. I decided that I type in those keywords into LinkedIn and see what comes out.
Once I put in those keywords, I look at what is the content that comes up, and then I look at which content are the ones that resonate more with people. You get more engagement, more likes, more comments. I pay attention to that type of content. After doing that research for about two months, I realized that there are three types of content or message that people generally pay more attention to, and it resonated with them.
The first one, it’s basically about mindset. People love content about mindset. Whether it’s a shift in terms of perspective or this whole idea about growth mindset. People just love it. Because a lot of time, it’s like, you read the label from the inside of the jar. Sometimes you need someone to give you that different perspective. Sometimes the perspective means that you would have to unlock or replace what you used to believe with something else now. Which can be very hard for certain people. The mindset part really works very very well. So, that’s one type of message.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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The second type of message is of course, how you can help people grow their business. Whether it’s in the form of a marketing strategy, or content strategy or pricing strategy, whatever the case may be. As long as it’s about strategy to help people grow their business, that’s something that people want to pay attention to. Then the third thing that I found was that once you become known on the platform, and people know you, you’re not someone new. Once people know you, then the third type of content that does really, really well, is the type of content where you share with people some insights, or you give them a peek into your personal life.
Here’s the thing where it’s a little bit of irony. People say that well, on LinkedIn, shouldn’t you be talking about professional stuff and not personal stuff? In fact, there’s one video that I talked about that you should talk about personal stuff, but of course not what I add, whether I go shopping today. Not that current stuff. But personal stuff, but at the end of the day, you must be able to relate back to business principles or learning that can be applied in the professional context itself.
Doug: Yeah, that makes sense.
Melvyn Tan: I spent two months doing the research, looking at what kind of content does well. That’s one of the things. The other thing that I did was, after looking at all this content, you start noticing that there are certain people, whose content tends to resonate better with other people. These people could be like the influencers, for example, people who are a little bit more popular on the platform.
When I started, the main strategy was really, now I know what kind of content to create. The other part is that I also know that I should be engaging with the content of these people who has got a huge following. When you do that innovatively, if you leave a thoughtful comment, or you start a conversation, or you ask really, really good questions, that’s where that person will start paying attention to you. Over time, that’s how you build a relationship with that person and you can then take it to the next level.
Doug: But what’s interesting is, I think, with both those comments that you’ve mentioned in terms of, first of all, building relationships with the influencers, you said over time. Before that, you said, I did two months of research. To me, that’s, that’s like, wow, that’s a ton of research. But I’ve looked at your background and your resume and what you’ve done. You’ve got the analytical and business skills and the knowledge to do that.
Listeners what I think what I’m hearing is that you don’t just fire up your camera today with nothing to say and just go live and have a conversation. It takes a little bit of planning because, you have a goal as a business owner, and that’s to, at the end of the day, at some point, drive revenue from that.
Melvyn Tan: Absolutely.
Doug: Before you do anything, you need to have that plan in place of who am I going to target? What am I going to say? What are they interested in? What problems am I going to solve? How am I going to make their life better? That takes a little bit of planning.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah, absolutely. In a sense, that whole advice about just get started, just start, just do something. I think to a certain extent, yes, but to a certain extent, no, because if you keep thinking about oh, do I have the right gear? Is my head good? If you pay attention to all those things, then you would never get started. So, just start.
But the other thing is, I think you also need to put in … What we talking about here, it’s at the end of the day, it has to contribute to my business goals. If you go into a business, I think it would be irresponsible of you as a business owner to yourself not to do that amount of research and just do whatever that you think you want to do, which at the end of the day, may work well for some people, but I will say that’s fine few between.
Doug: I was looking at some of the stats that you’ve got in terms of one of your posts on LinkedIn. I didn’t know what the numbers were, I’m not sure how much they’ve changed. You published a post in 2018 that said that there are 500 million users on LinkedIn, and 61 million are senior-level influencers. That’s a huge audience.
Melvyn Tan: It is.
Doug: Now, in terms of that personal content, what’s interesting was about six months ago, I changed the style of my email newsletter that I send out to my subscribers. I went from very technical teaching tactics to more personal and giving people a glimpse of my personal life and my family and the stuff that we were doing. But to your point, then tied it into teaching.
I knew it was a big risk, because it was a big shift in the direction, and I expected that people would unsubscribe and some people didn’t like the content and they unsubscribe, which I was fine with. But what I noticed was the engagement went way up, and the interaction and the personal notes I got from people because it was more relatable went up as well.
In terms of people getting started, what would you say? You’ve said, spend more time doing research on your keywords and your content than wondering what outfit to wear, how nice your hair is, and get started, which is really funny, because … I don’t know whether it’s a guy thing, or not. I’m a techie, geeky guy. I’m always looking for an excuse to buy a new tool or a new piece of equipment, and that can often slow people down.
Is this something that people can start just using their mobile phone, using their iPhone, or their galaxy or whatever they’ve got?
Melvyn Tan: Yeah. If you asked me, I’m guilty of that as well. I don’t know like you say, it could be a guy thing. I get seduced by WOW, let’s just look at this gimbal, and let’s look at this thing and that. But the truth is, I think any serious business people who want to get on this game, I think they should just start with whatever they have. Because along the way, you’re definitely going to find that some of the tools outlive what you intend to do, and that’s where you can upgrade.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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One of the things that I made a promise to myself is, if I’m not going to buy a tool unless one of the clients is paying for it, I’m not going to buy it out of my own pocket. That’s how I acquire all this gear over the years and now I’ve got quite a fancy set of gear. It wasn’t done like one day, just sit down on amazon.com and just go click, Add to Cart. It doesn’t happen that way.
Doug: Good for you. That’s the way that I look at marketing tools as well. One of the things I do with all my clients is I have a testing budget. That gives me an opportunity to test. We have a baseline of what we’re doing for them for advertising. We might take five or seven or 8% and test new stuff. But like you said, that gives me an opportunity to test new techniques, new tactics, new media, while somebody else is paying for it. They receive the benefit of it, but in the long term, all my clients receives the benefit, because now we’re learning new stuff, and we have new tools in our toolbox.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah, absolutely.
Doug: What are you most excited about in the next six to 12 months? There’s lots of stuff going on. I really appreciate your work ethic for the research that you did, and then this grinding out that year of not going out to produce revenue, but going out to figure out, what people want, and how can I serve them? What are you excited about?
Melvyn Tan: Yeah. What I’m excited about is, the first thing I’m just so excited that I got access to the LinkedIn Live feature. It’s a feature that requires you to apply. Right now, it’s still very few people are aware of it because some people ask me, is it a paid feature? Is this something that you pay to do? Once and for all, let’s clear it on your show itself.
First and foremost, anyone can apply for it. You do not have to have a premium account in order to apply for it. Anyone who has got a LinkedIn account can apply for it. So, that’s number one. Number two is you do have to apply for it. LinkedIn is not just going to come to you and say, there you go, you have the beta access to the LinkedIn Live feature. You got to apply for it.
The next thing that you got to do is just wait. Because unless you’re a micro-influencer or an influencer, they probably reach out to you. But for me, I waited for three months before I got access to the feature itself. One other thing is that it was quite funny because I actually got access to the feature before I got the email. Someone I knew on LinkedIn, actually got the email before she got the access. So, it was quite funny.
Anyways, in the email itself, it says that you have to at least do one live video every fortnight, otherwise you might lose that feature. They really want to keep you on your toes. It’s not like we’re going to give it to you and then you do not use it, then they might take it away. Which is a little thing that I always tell my son. I say that “Well if you do not use that talent that God has given you, then He’s going to take it away.”
Doug: That was my favorite conversation with my kids. I have three kids and now I’ve got two grandkids. It’s like, we’ve all been blessed with different gifts and talents, and they’re gifts. I would share the parable of the talents. You use them or lose them. Don’t bury them and store them up. Take the risk and go use them and increase your harvest.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah, there you go. Anyone can apply. You need to apply for it, and you just have to wait. Now, once you get access, it’s a little different from Facebook and Instagram whereby you can directly broadcast live from the app on the mobile or broadcast directly from the page when you’re on the web. For LinkedIn, you actually have to use a third-party tool to broadcast. For that, you got to pay. It’s not exactly free to use. Of course, there are some free tools for you to use. But, there are limitations with all free tools.
This is a long answer to your short question. What I’m really excited about is the live video, because I think it’s something that, if you say videos scare people, I think live LinkedIn videos are going to be even scarier. Everyone thinks like they are trained actors or speakers because once you have the camera, you can just go and speak whatever you want. It doesn’t work that way. Even the most professional actors and singers and speakers, they have to rehearse, they have to warm up, they have to do all this thing to prepare themselves before they go on a show.
What I always tell people is that you really need to do your research, you really need to prepare, and it’s even, highly magnified on the live channel because people can tell if you are not well prepared. That’s what I’m really, really excited about in the next six months itself because I think it’s going to dramatically change the way that I have been leveraging the platform to give not just myself, but also the people that I work with that extended exposure if you will.
I think LinkedIn Live is something that I’m absolutely absolutely going to invest my time and resources into in the next couple of months. We’ll see where it goes with it.
Doug: Well, it’s been interesting watching LinkedIn transition and all the changes. They don’t get as much attention often as Tik Tok or Snapchat or whatever the new buzz is, I just see it’s just a solid in the background and the business is building, and there’s more and more functionality. I think it’s going to take marketers some time to, like you said, to make that shift. One of the questions you said was mindset. Can they get out of the mindset that just posting pictures is the way to use LinkedIn and understand the need to have engaging content and now move to video?
Melvyn Tan: Yeah.
Doug: LinkedIn Live, how long have you been approved? Did you say you just got approved?
Melvyn Tan: Yeah, I just got approved. If I remember correctly, I’ve only done three live shows. The first one was, I was so excited. I was like a little boy. I saw that I have access. I was like, okay, I’m not going to care, I’m just going to jump into it and do my first live show. I was just going to talk about my entire journey on LinkedIn because it’s such a fascinating story that I can never get tired of talking about it. I’m not so sure about the people who are listening. But I just enjoy talking about that whole journey, because it’s just so surreal.
Then one of the live shows, I actually feature a nonprofit here in Singapore, because they put up a concert whereby they have all these young children with disability, putting up concerts. You would think certain people with certain disabilities would not be able to sing or dance. But when I went to that concert, they would just blow me away. I knew that I had to feature this group of people because they are not getting that level of media exposure and that support that they ought to be getting. I just want to use it for a good cause. That was one of the LinkedIn videos that I did.
Doug: That’s amazing. What’s your plan moving forward then at LinkedIn? Are you going to do regular lives, or what are you thinking?
Melvyn Tan: I’m going to do regular Live, I just have not decided what is the frequency it’s going to be? Once again, it’s like back to 2018 where I’m going to do lots of experimentation. That’s what this whole process will be. The other thing was, I’m actually also collaborating with a few other LinkedIn live broadcaster. One of the key thing that we make a pact was that we want to make sure that people are using LinkedIn live in a way that it’s beneficial to everybody in this community. Because could you imagine if everyone goes on Live and they just broadcast things that are time waster or just promotional stuff, or just things that are not relevant to what you should be putting up on LinkedIn? Then it would just ruin the entire platform itself.
Since I am one of the few people who have got the beta access, I really want to be one of these people to set the benchmark or set a standard for what kind of content you should put up on the Live channel itself. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m definitely going to do a lot more teaching. Because, there’s just so much I’ve been learning in the last couple of months and I just want to teach. The best way that you learn is actually to teach. That’s one of the things that we’re going to do and of course, to showcase people in a way to give the voice to the voiceless. That’s one of the other things I want to do as well.
Doug: That’s really cool. Good for you, like you said. I don’t have any doubt that people are going to take advantage of the platform and put all sorts of stuff up. But the audience will decide what’s valuable and will follow content producers and people that are giving like you are. Then the other people will just be tuned out because this is more advertising noise and self-promotion.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah.
Doug: I’m just going to take a Tim Ferriss question. Now, I know that we’re Gary V. fans, I don’t know if you’re a Tim Ferriss fan as well.
Melvyn Tan: Borderline.
Doug: Borderline.
Melvyn Tan: Yeah.
Doug: Well, one of the questions I liked in his book, is that what some of the bad advice that you hear about what you do? When people are talking about hey, I want to market on LinkedIn, what’s the bad advice you hear?
Melvyn Tan: The bad advice that I hear, and this is contextual because I think if you asked me that question in 2018, my answers would have been different. The bad advice that I hear these days on LinkedIn or on this platform itself is to be in a pot. For those of us who are not familiar with what the pot is, is that you have a group of people who come together, and when you put up content, you would support each other’s content.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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The whole purpose of it is to try to leverage the algorithm so that the algorithm sees your post as being beneficial, and then it serves that post to more people. That’s the whole idea behind that. Nothing wrong with having a few people who really enjoy and can benefit from your content to do that. Nothing wrong with that. But if we do that for the pure reason of just trying to gain the algorithm, then, at some point in time, especially in today’s context, people would be able to tell whether the reason why that content is doing well, it’s because they are engaging in the pot or not.
I would say one of the things that you really want to stay away from in 2019, it’s to join an engagement pot. No offense to anyone who is in one, I just refused to participate in one for the very reason I just said. For those of you who are asking, well, then how do I get people to pay attention to me because I’m putting out content, but no one is paying attention to me?
My response to that is that in 2019, I think putting out content is important. But leaving comments and leaving thoughtful comments is even more important. I have a few people who are my connections, they hardly post content, but every day when I fire out the app, they are one of the first few people that I will see the names, and they’re one of the first few people that I will see.
The reason why I see them, it’s because they comment on somebody else’s post. Quite often they leave either with the comments, or useful comments or they ask a really great question or they’re just being helpful in answering questions where other people have. That brings up their visibility.
I would say, in 2019, the thing that one should really do is to leverage the comment function because that’s how you get visibility in 2019.
Doug: It’s funny. I think you’re only the second person I’ve heard that’s mentioned that. Because if you look at the influencers are the people you wanted to build a relationship with, and when you think of giving back to them in their community. So, leaving a thoughtful comment or a good question, not a hey, who should I use for this service? I’m in this space type of self-promotion comment. It also raises your visibility to all the other people who follow those influencers. Because I know when I go on to LinkedIn, and I see a post, I’ll often scan through the questions and comments at the same time. As you said, that’s exposure to an audience that’s already following a certain influencer.
Melvyn Tan: Yep. That’s right.
Doug: So, two questions, and I’ll let you get back to your day. First question is, who’s one guest do you think I absolutely have to have on my podcast?
Melvyn Tan: Right. One guest that you absolutely must have on your podcast, I think the guy … Well, let me make sure I get his name. His name is Rob Balasabas I hope I didn’t butcher his name. I think he’s based in Vancouver as well. Why is he a great guy? It’s because he is also very, very giving. He is also leveraging a platform to give to the community.
Of course, we all know that Rob works for this company called Thinkific. Thinkific sells the learning management system, that web hosting learning management system. But the thing is that because of his whole makeup, his whole archetype, his whole personality. Rob is one guy that you really, really want to get him on the show, because he’s able to give your audience so much value. I’m sure he’s going to be able to share with your audience, why creating an online course is probably one of the best things that you can do. If you have that knowledge, the experience, and the expertise to teach people what you do best. So, yeah, he will be one guy you should have on your show.
Doug: Well, excellent. That only took me like 30 seconds to find him because he’s in your LinkedIn connections, and we both are connected to him. It’s Rob and his last name’s a B-A-L-A-S-A-B-A-S, the social media community. There we go. We found him. So, way to go LinkedIn. It’s funny because I go to LinkedIn so often when I’m searching for something. For me, I also use LinkedIn as my buying guide. If I’m looking for a service, I’ll go search there first, and I will look at my connections before often I’ll go to Google looking for something.
Melvyn Tan: Right. Okay.
Doug: Last question, where can people connect with you and learn more about what you do and how you may be able to help them or point them in the right direction to their marketing journey?
Melvyn Tan: Right. I am on LinkedIn, and my handle is Melvyn.me. That’s the same handle across all my social media channels. The other place that they could find me, it’s my company website. That’s befinity.media. I’m giving the website a revamp in the next couple of weeks. So, that’s something that people will want to check out.
Doug: Well, excellent. I just want to say thanks for taking the time today. I really appreciate you.
Melvyn Tan: My pleasure.
Doug: I’m so excited that we finally got a chance to connect because we’ve been talking on and off for a while. I know you’ve been busy, and I’ve been busy, but here we are. I think you left a lot of value for our listeners today.
Melvyn Tan: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Doug: There you go, listeners, if you didn’t get the feeling that Melvyn is a giving guy who’s very, very smart at what he does. I just want to reassure you that I had a great connection with him. I really appreciate what he does for his business and how he’s growing, and how he put in the work. He’s not just somebody who said, “Hey, I’m going to become a LinkedIn expert.” And put the name up. He went out and he spent an entire year and produced 184 LinkedIn videos.
I’d suggest, go over take a look at his LinkedIn profile, check out his company web page and reach out to him. That is another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. I look forward to serving you on our next episode.
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HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
HOW TO CREATE LINKEDIN VIDEOS THAT ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
I paid attention to content that gets more engagement, more likes, more comments.
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Get in touch with Melvyn:
- Website – Benefity Media
- Melvyn on LinkedIn
Find out more about Melvyn:
Links to other related podcasts:
VIDEO TACTICS TO IMPROVE SALES AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
HOW TO CREATE AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT WITH BRANDED VIDEO CONTENT