Uplift Live 2024 was the first UK event of its kind.
An event focused entirely on LinkedIn – the business networking platform with more than a billion users worldwide.
Team Tubb went to the inaugural Uplift Live in Birmingham to network and learn from the experts.
Here are some of our highlights.
The Event
Uplift Live 2024 took place at Millenium Point in Birmingham on Thursday 22nd March.
The event was organised by John Espirian, Jeremy Freeman, and Gus Bhandal and featured 8 expert speakers from the UK, Europe, and North America.
Delegates also ranged from across the UK and overseas, and from a broad spectrum of industries.
The agenda left plenty of time to network over the break periods, and a nutritious lunch was provided too.
Uplift Live Morning Sessions
LinkedIn Company Pages
Louise Brogan was the first speaker and she encouraged us to take a closer look at our own LinkedIn company pages.
She said they were a good way to market our businesses, with 40% of LinkedIn users engaging with pages organically.
Some of the takeaways included:
- Putting keywords in our company page tagline to help the right people find our businesses
- Pinned videos and posts to show what we’re most proud of
- Images, documents, videos, articles, and ads are great for engagement
- Notify employees every 24 hours when a post has been made so they can engage
- Invite connections to follow your page and create up to 5 newsletters
Louise said that company pages improve brand awareness and opportunities, and your employees can help to drive that engagement through the page.
Nigel Cliffe followed Louise’s session with a presentation about how to get more from our searches on LinkedIn.
By using clever Boolean expressions, he showed us how we can filter down to the potential prospects we’re looking for.
Ethical Stalking
Mark Willams, aka ‘Mr. LinkedIn’, talked to us about ethical stalking on LinkedIn, as a way to find customers and collaborators.
The first thing you should do is read their profiles, making sure to pick out any key details. Then look at the recommendations – both those given and received.
See where they’ve previously worked and see if they have a connection to someone in your network.
For those you already have a relationship with, ask them:
- What are their values? And what evidence are you basing it on?
- Decision-making preferences
- Previous behaviour
He also explained what helpful associates are and how they can be engaged to provide increased visibility to your target, making them easier to reach.
How to Be Noticed, Remembered and Preferred
John Espirian presented his top tips on how to become noticed, remembered, and preferred on LinkedIn.
When it comes to our personal headline, you have 120 characters to use to grab the attention of those looking at your profile.
It should be interesting, informative, and intriguing in a 40/60/20 split.
Your banner is a critical visual space on your profile. So remember to update it regularly to promote your current offers.
Content
He said appointment content was important for visibility. That is content that you post regularly at any given time of the week. It can be photo posts, documents, live video, or serial podcasts.
Content receives better engagement when it contains hooks. Hooks are conversation starters and icebreakers that get people thinking. They can also appear in your ‘about statement’.
Don’t be afraid to create your own vocabulary as a way to be remembered.
Influence
John believes that transparency builds credibility. Therefore if you’re selling a service, you shouldn’t be afraid of listing ballpark figures in your marketing.
The simpler the language you use, the more effective your posts will be at reaching your audience. Analogies can further that bridge to understanding.
Comments are better than reposts when it comes to visibility. You’re not only extending your own audience but supporting the content author.
To satisfy the algorithm, you should comment ten times more often than you post.
Lastly, embrace the power of surprise and try something different once in a while to keep things fresh for your audience.
Uplift Live Afternoon Sessions
LinkedIn Live Videos Don’t Have to Be a Hollywood Production
Gillian Whitney kicked off the first session after lunch with her guide to live video on LinkedIn.
Here are some of her tips when it comes to video:
- Include captions – most online videos are viewed with the sound off
- Live video is easier because you don’t have to worry about getting the perfect take
- Live video is authentic, there’s no AI involved, and you can have a party in the comments
- Live sessions have on average 12 times higher engagement
If you’re doing a live video broadcast and it’s just you alone, It’s best to post on your personal page.
However, if you’re broadcasting with a guest, it’s recommended you do this on your company page because your team can be administrators for your company page.
Live videos must be at least 10 minutes long but can be up to 4 hours. You should prepare and promote your live video ahead of time to encourage live engagement.
If you’re starting out with video broadcasting, you should be a guest on other users’ live streams to get a feel for it.
Gillian’s 7 Tips for Live Broadcasting
- Use the right technology – you can record using Zoom or a similar tool
- Fast and stable internet connection (5-7mbps)
- Strategically promote your live broadcast
- Create talking points in your broadcast for soundbites and storytelling snippets
- Connect with your audience through the comments
- Be resilient and expect the unexpected as anything can happen during a live broadcast
- And repurpose the live stream as future content – thinking strategically
Looking at LinkedIn from the Inside Out
Kevin D Turner took a sideways look at why LinkedIn works the way it does. And, more importantly, how this helps us to plan our content strategy.
LinkedIn is a platform designed for businesses and is worth $17Bn. Its product is us, the users – and the sale of our data to recruiters. It also makes money through advertising revenue.
It’s based on the principle of the six degrees of separation – the theory that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else through six or fewer connections.
However, LinkedIn only shows you the first three levels of connection. The other three levels are hidden.
Only LinkedIn for Recruiters allows you to search the whole database, but that comes at a premium.
To get around this, and the top limit of 30,000 maximum connections per user, LinkedIn created followers. Followers can view your content but otherwise have limited access to your profile.
New Up and Coming Features
When LinkedIn rolls out new features, they do so in five waves, increasing in size each time. They do this to limit the impact of any service failures that may occur during the rollout.
75%+ of the users don’t realise there are new platform features for over two months.
So, if you do discover a new feature in the wild, be sure to share it with your audience.
Advice for Discoverability on LinkedIn for Recruiters
Tiina Jarvet, a recruiter and headhunter based in Belgium, provided advice on how to optimise your LinkedIn profile to be easier to find.
She explained how recruiters use the search function in LinkedIn Recruiter to find the type of candidates they’re looking for.
Her presentation featured many cartoons that she drew herself to illustrate the points in her presentation.
From Pitch to Purpose: LinkedIn Social Selling
In the final presentation, Richard Van Der Blom explained how success on LinkedIn comes from knowing how the algorithm works and using it to your advantage.
Richard believes that you should find a frequency you can keep to, and be sure to measure your outcomes.
Conversion comes through building trust. Firstly, identify your prospects, engage with them, and then reach out to them with your unique value proposition.
For better engagement in your comments, Richard advises you to use a minimum of 12 words. Interesting comments spark conversation and debate, resulting in more indirect comments.
Tagging a user or a company in your comments can increase your reach. However, links are frowned upon and can result in being penalised by the algorithm.
Richard gave a number of great tips for getting the most out of your posts on LinkedIn:
1. Adapt your content to your sales funnel:
- Create awareness and spark conversation
- Build trust
- Support clients and facilitate ambassadorship
2. Who publishes content on LinkedIn
- 1% publish a minimum of once a week
- 23% of members don’t publish but engage using the engagement buttons (like, celebrate, support, funny, etc.)
- 57% of members belong to the ‘silent community’ who do not publish or engage, but they do scroll.
3. The algorithm measures the dwell time of the silent community, by looking at:
- Time spent on your post
- Clicks on “see more”
- Time spent after clicking “see more”
4. Ingredients for the perfect post include:
- Including a ‘scroll stopper’ (picture or different font in your post)
- Trigger your audience in the first three lines
- Choosing the right format (good formats include: multi-image posts, native video, polls, and PDFs)
- Use a call-to-think (CTT) or call-to-feel (CTF)
The longer you hold someone’s attention, the more likely they react and comment on your content. This is why it’s good to include a few images, not just one – each picture is a click.
Uplift Live 2024 Summary
For its debut, Uplift Live 2024 was incredibly well organised, and pitched at the right level.
There was something there for everyone, with plenty of tips and best practices to take away.
The attendees came from all sorts of different industries and backgrounds, proving that LinkedIn is a platform for any digital business.
Therefore it’s definitely the sort of event that many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) should be considering for developing a better marketing strategy.
Did you miss out on going to Uplift Live 2024? Will you be going next year?
Let us know if you think an event like this could help level up your LinkedIn marketing?
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I'm a small business owner, technical writer and blogger, with 15 years experience in corporate IT. I frequently attend MSP peer groups and create content relevant to IT service providers and business owners.
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