[Quick Hits]: AI for LinkedIn, The Red Sneaker Effect, and SEO
Breaking convention by not giving a damn!
In this special edition you’re getting not one, not two, but three key insights from inside our swag bag. So, let’s get to ‘em.
Insight # 1/ Use AI for your LinkedIn Headline and Summary
Here’s one I’m pulling from Andy Crestodina. Your LinkedIn headline and summary are important areas of your profile. And if you haven’t touched them in awhile…well maybe it’s time to clean things up a bit.
Here’s how to start.
Go to your AI tool of choice and ask it to suggest improvements. This alone cab bring you some quick wins.
You’ll need to give the prompt a lot of detail about you. Crestodina recommends including your job titles and detailed job descriptions. Oh yeah, it’s also helpful to add character limits and guidelines. Here’s a sample prompt:
You are a personal branding expert, skilled at crafting LinkedIn profiles and resume cover letters. The following is a LinkedIn headline and About section for [NAME]. Your goal is to improve this profile. Suggest 5 alternative LinkedIn headlines of no more than 220 characters each that are both memorable and keyword-rich. Consider incorporating a unique value proposition and professional specialty.Then write a draft of a new, improved LinkedIn About section of no less than 2500 characters. Focus on structuring it with a clear narrative, showcasing achievements with quantifiable results, and including a call to action.
Take a look at the response. If you’re not impressed, there are two likely reasons.
Your response may be off on voice and tone. If that’s the case, you’ll need to coach it more. Start asking for revisions. It’s not reasonable to expect amazing results from a single prompt.
So, go back in and ask the prompt for the following:
- Rewrite using a [MORE/LESS] formal tone.
- Rewrite using shorter words.
- Rewrite making it friendlier, more approachable and less self-promotional.
- Here is another LinkedIn profile. Use this as a guide for style, voice and tone.
Now, if your response is light on details, you need to give it more data. Tell it more about yourself or give it your resume.
The shorter your current LinkedIn profile, the less training data the AI has to write a better LinkedIn profile. As with the other use cases in this article, AI often requires more data than you think.
The quality of the output from AI is relative to the quantity of the input.
Like me, a lot of LinkedIn users don’t update their profile often, so the first response will be a big improvement. But don’t stop there. Keep talking to the AI and the output should keep getting better.
Final point.
You are not looking for final copy from the AI results. This is only a draft. Once you get it you’ll want to add your own touches. Change up the formatting. Add emojis. And pull back on wording that doesn’t feel like you. As Crestodina points out “a lot of what AI writes tastes like water.”
But by the time you’re done with it…it will taste like a fine wine! That line was written by AI. 🙂
Insight #2/ The Red Sneaker Effect In Marketing
For this one, I’m pulling from Katelyn Bourgoin and an interview with behavioral scientist Richard Shotton.
What is the Red Sneaker Effect?
It’s breaking conventions and signaling you have status because you don’t give a damn.
Example: You’re at a business conference. All of the attendees are in some form of business casual. And then you notice someone in a hoodie and flip flops and hasn’t combed his hair. Turns out this guy just sold his company for $200 million and so he is dressing any way he wants.
This is the Red Sneaker effect. You can break the conventions because you have the credentials to do it.
And when you break conventions…you stand out. Remember Kim, at the Met? Or Lady Gaga with the meat dress?
They broke convention. They stood out.
So, how are brands using the Red Sneaker Effect business?
It stars by deeply understanding your customer base and developing messaging that resonates with your audience.
Check out Patagonia and their Don’t Buy This Jacket Campaign.
Perfect for the Patagonia crowd. And according to Bourgoin, sales were up 30% after running this campaign.
Can you think of anything *more* unconventional than a marketing campaign that says ‘don’t buy this’ ?
And it worked, sales were up 30%!
Here’s another example from REI. Remember their anti Black Friday Sale?
They used this to specifically take a stand against other retailers.
Another tactic is by going retro. Take the mobile phone category. The common messaging is all about high tech. The more bells and whistles the better.
So, Samsung went the other way. Introducing the Flip Phone Retro.
It tapped into a mood and a vibe and sales outpaced expectations.
So, your job is to think about the ways you can go against the grain.
True, it’s not always easy. And it should always be a little bit scary. Because if it’s not…then you probably aren’t pushing things enough.
But it’s out on the edge where the big results live.
Insight # 3/ How long does SEO take to work?
SEOis a critical channel in today’s marketing mix. Why?
Because it’s something you can own. Social media platforms are important…but it’s kind of like building a house on sand. At any minute things can change and your business could take a hit.
SEO on the other hand can keep driving traffic to your site month after month. Year after year.
But a lot of the marketers I talk to don’t really have a good handle on SEO, specifically how long it takes to start seeing results.
Well, I’ve got some good stats for you that will shed more light on this topic.
Neil Patel just published a very interesting article on how it takes SEO to start returning results.
Patel’s study looked at 42,391 sites actively focusing on their SEO. And here are the findings.
- In the first 6 months, they saw an increase in organic search traffic by 11.4%.
- In the second 6 months, they saw an increase of 9.58% over the first 6 months.
- And in the second year, they saw an increase of 49.4% on average over the 1st year.
- In year 3 they saw an increase of 30.7% over year 2.
- And in year 4 they saw additional growth of 13.5%.
Check out the graphic below.
What was even more interesting is Patel looked at the top performing sites. These were the 138 sites (out of the 42,391) that were driving in excess of 10,000 organic views per month. These are the best of the best.
And three things jumped out that helped explain why these 138 were so much better:
1/ These sites focused a lot on updating content. Instead of creating new content, these top performers spent the majority of their time updating the content already produced. Smart.
2/ They focused on their brand. They used multiple channels to continually message to their audience about the problem they are helping their customers solve and how they are different than their competitors.
3/ The sites were fast. They have fast load times on both desktop and mobile. The speed thing is something Google has been emphasizing for some time.
To wrap, SEO is a killer channel…but you need to give it time. And keep in mind some of these tactics to turbo-charge your SEO performance.
That’s a few random gifts from our swaggy baggy. Which one did you like best? Maybe share with a friend or colleague if you found value.
Until next time – keep pushing those comfort zones!
