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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A where we

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Speaker 1: ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.

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Speaker 1: Are Michael Thompson and good morning Natalie McDonald.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael.

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Speaker 1: Today. Our question is one It's a very loaded question,

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Speaker 1: this one how should businesses be using LinkedIn? And it

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Speaker 1: is loaded because I know about your background, right you

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Speaker 1: are not just a business journalist, and that you've been

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Speaker 1: working with us now at Fear and Greed for a

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Speaker 1: few days and we'll be working with us for a

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Speaker 1: few more days to come. You have had quite a

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Speaker 1: long career at LinkedIn as well as other places. You

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Speaker 1: spent seven years at LinkedIn, is that correct?

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Speaker 2: Yep, seven years.

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Speaker 1: And you were doing kind of a lot of business

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Speaker 1: journalism and reporting as well, and you saw a lot

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Speaker 1: of change, I suppose in the way that people are

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Speaker 1: using LinkedIn, which is such a massive, massive platform and

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Speaker 1: has grown and grown and grown in recent years to

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Speaker 1: the point that I think that the stats from a

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Speaker 1: couple of months ago was that I think eighty of

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Speaker 1: the top one hundred CEOs in Australia were all on LinkedIn,

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Speaker 1: and there has been a rise in the number of

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Speaker 1: CEOs who are using it for kind of official communications really,

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Speaker 1: and this is kind of a new trend, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, But as I say, seven years at LinkedIn, so

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Speaker 2: it's something that myself and the fantastic editorial team that

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Speaker 2: I was a part of have really been plugging away

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Speaker 2: at it for a while, you know, trying to create

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Speaker 2: that daily use case and trying to really expand the

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Speaker 2: vision of LinkedIn beyond just being that CV platform. It's

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Speaker 2: a knowledge parketplace. It's where you go to give and

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Speaker 2: receive information that you need in order to make smart

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Speaker 2: decisions about your career.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and this is the thing that since leaving LinkedIn,

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Speaker 1: you are working with us. You've also just launched a

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Speaker 1: new business called working at It and you can check

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Speaker 1: it out online working at it dot com, dot au.

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Speaker 1: And it is really trying to answer this question as well,

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Speaker 1: in part the question that we're looking at today of

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Speaker 1: how businesses should be using LinkedIn and how can they

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Speaker 1: use it and how can people within businesses use it

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Speaker 1: to develop their own careers and their own profiles as well.

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Speaker 1: So big picture, how should businesses be using LinkedIn?

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Speaker 2: Prolifically? Would respond no, but really, you know how businesses

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Speaker 2: look to present themselves how they look to engage with

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Speaker 2: the world and engage with potential partners, engage with potential customers,

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Speaker 2: engage with potential talent is more important now than ever,

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Speaker 2: and really putting a stack in the ground and saying

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Speaker 2: we care about the same topics that you do. Let

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Speaker 2: us show you. And that is really where businesses need

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Speaker 2: to be at. I think the evolution that we've had,

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Speaker 2: as you say, you know eighty percent of the top

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Speaker 2: CEOs are using LinkedIn now, but more broadly as far

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Speaker 2: as going through the pandemic, going through work from home,

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Speaker 2: going through rising cost of living crisis, and all of

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Speaker 2: these changes are bringing our professional and our personal selves closer,

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Speaker 2: and businesses need to be capitalizing on that. LinkedIn is

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Speaker 2: an opportunity for them to build trust, to have influence,

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Speaker 2: to start conversations, to get engagement, to also attract the

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Speaker 2: best talent and position themselves as employers of choice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and we have seen that then with those bank

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Speaker 1: CEOs for instance, like Matt Common from Commonwealth Bank, Andrew

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Speaker 1: Irvine as well, and the CEO of Zero as well

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Speaker 1: in recent months kind of talking about either results or

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Speaker 1: talking about acquisitions and going through the reasons behind it,

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Speaker 1: and so it suddenly feels like there's a great deal

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Speaker 1: more accessibility. But they are big, big companies and this

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Speaker 1: is something that kind of those right down to small

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Speaker 1: business as well, which leads me to the question. You

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Speaker 1: might think that, okay, big business, big banks things, they've

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Speaker 1: got full teams that are able to help with this.

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Speaker 1: Smaller businesses, how do you do it? How important is

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Speaker 1: it to be a really kind of polished face of

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Speaker 1: the company in terms of what you in what you

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Speaker 1: put out there on LinkedIn.

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Speaker 2: That's a fair question. I mean you say, in terms

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Speaker 2: of big business. One of my favorite leaders in Australia

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Speaker 2: that I've always referred to, former as AT CEO Shane Elliott.

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Speaker 2: He even in retirement now, it shares a lot of

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Speaker 2: his book recommendations. He loves books, he loves reading and

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Speaker 2: he loves sharing that, which I think is a really

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Speaker 2: fantastic example of leadership and content done in a genuine

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Speaker 2: and authentic way. But to your question around small businesses,

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Speaker 2: it's really a case of switching the conversation. Obviously, you

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Speaker 2: want to be demonstrating that you've won an award, but

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Speaker 2: it's so boring, no to see like a photo of

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Speaker 2: the award on your desk, like.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic if I see one more post that begins with

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Speaker 1: I am thrilled to announce and flow on from there exactly.

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Speaker 2: That, But no one learns anything from it. No one

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Speaker 2: learns anything, and you're not positioning yourself for future. It's

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Speaker 2: like a good Oh, you won something, So flip it around,

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Speaker 2: think tangible, values, led actionable. So rather than saying I'm

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Speaker 2: so thrilled to announce that my team won, you start

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Speaker 2: with how do you build award winning teams? And here

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Speaker 2: are some of the mistakes that we made along the way,

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Speaker 2: And you put three points in there about how you

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Speaker 2: built a team that did go on and win an award,

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Speaker 2: or vice versa. Something else might be here's the work

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Speaker 2: that goes behind the scenes putting together an award winning

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Speaker 2: marketing campaign. Here are the three priorities that we have,

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Speaker 2: or even because everyone loves a bit of a car crash,

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Speaker 2: here are the three mistakes that we made along the way.

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Speaker 2: So really flipping that conversation round and as I say,

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Speaker 2: making it purpose driven, making it values driven, and making

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Speaker 2: it something that someone else can actually learn from, because

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Speaker 2: suddenly you're saying so much more about who you are

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Speaker 2: in the market.

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Speaker 1: Can I just say that one of the most effective

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Speaker 1: posts that we have done from Fear and Greed on

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Speaker 1: LinkedIn was not about any particular news story or any

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Speaker 1: milestone that we've had in podcasting. It was a behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes look at some of the technology that is used,

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Speaker 1: and it was just a short video of kind of

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Speaker 1: everything that happens in the studio when you turn it on,

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Speaker 1: and just talking about how big a role technology plays

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Speaker 1: and getting it out there. And that really connected with

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Speaker 1: people because it wasn't just your normal kind of oh,

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Speaker 1: look what we've done with another milestone, or this has

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Speaker 1: kind of happened. It's just and suddenly I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 1: all right, it doesn't need to be a polished kind

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Speaker 1: of studio lights and full kind of hair and makeup

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Speaker 1: in order for it to resonate. Often kind of perhaps

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Speaker 1: that more rustic approach can actually connect the authenticity.

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Speaker 2: And this is what me, myself as a professional and person,

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Speaker 2: am all about. I in my content talk a lot

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Speaker 2: about being a mum and being a working parent, and

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Speaker 2: that has enabled me to build a really big platform

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Speaker 2: and become a trusted voice and is now me as

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Speaker 2: an individual alongside obviously business content known for in the market,

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Speaker 2: and so that's really what I would recommend to small

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Speaker 2: businesses as well, rather than looking at it from the

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Speaker 2: big picture brand stuff, because that will come. But look

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Speaker 2: at your employee generated content. Pick a couple of brand ambassadors,

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Speaker 2: as it were, and again, don't be tokenistic about it.

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Speaker 2: You know, really have a look at who are individuals

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Speaker 2: that are doing great things or who are being recognized

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Speaker 2: in industry or align with the narrative that you're wanting

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Speaker 2: to put out to the world, and put your energy

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Speaker 2: into those and let them be your ambassadors.

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Speaker 1: In that case, then should businesses be giving employees more

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Speaker 1: freedom to post, to talk about what they are doing,

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Speaker 1: to kind of give a bit of an insight into

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Speaker 1: their jobs in order to really capture that authentic feel

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Speaker 1: for a workplace.

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Speaker 2: I think something that organizations could be doing, maybe not

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Speaker 2: necessarily handing over the reins altogether, but looking at almost

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Speaker 2: an employee engagement strategy. So looking at if you've got

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Speaker 2: research or an event, or you've done had someone come

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Speaker 2: in and do an internal talk, maybe share some example

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Speaker 2: copy that they could put up or maybe be putting

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Speaker 2: into your weekly town hall meetings or a weekly email

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Speaker 2: that your CEO sends out examples or encouragement or prompts

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Speaker 2: to be taking those to LinkedIn, encouraging them to learn

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Speaker 2: more about how the platform works, more about things like

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Speaker 2: LinkedIn news on there, and how to be engaging more

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Speaker 2: so actually be sort of skilling up teams because that

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Speaker 2: in turn empowers them and they become your brand ambassadors.

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Speaker 1: Okay, then how do you balance the idea of the

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Speaker 1: personal brand of individuals with the business brand? Then is

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Speaker 1: there a risk that by encouraging your employees to become

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Speaker 1: ambassadors that they almost become the face of the business

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Speaker 1: where it should be the leader who is the one

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Speaker 1: that's kind of out there.

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Speaker 2: But I think in those instances it becomes a yes

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Speaker 2: and not an awe kind of thing, because also what

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Speaker 2: you're telling to the industry, what you're telling to potential collaborators, partners, customers,

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Speaker 2: is that you are encouraging your team to be bringing

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Speaker 2: their whole self to work and that you are creating

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Speaker 2: an environment in which these individuals are able to thrive,

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Speaker 2: They're able to reskill or grow or develop. And that

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Speaker 2: says an awful lot more about you than a photo

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Speaker 2: of a trophy on a desk is going to do.

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Speaker 1: Okay, last question because we are running out of time,

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Speaker 1: and this one goes from the the biggest business is

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Speaker 1: right down to the smallest of small businesses in this country.

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Speaker 1: How important is it to have a content strategy in

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Speaker 1: terms of what you are putting out there, to actually

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Speaker 1: plan it and make sure that really what you are

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Speaker 1: posting is actually helping to build your brand.

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Speaker 2: It's also a case of looking holistically, so looking at

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Speaker 2: your own content, so your website, and then also doing

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Speaker 2: a bit of an audit perhaps of your social media

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Speaker 2: content and so not just LinkedIn, maybe look at your

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Speaker 2: Instagram accounts as well, and take just for starters, perhaps

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Speaker 2: your exec team is your exec team on the same page,

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Speaker 2: is the narrative and the content that you're putting out

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Speaker 2: there or actually kind of messaging the same thing. So

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Speaker 2: almost work backwards and also consider it a bit of

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Speaker 2: an audience development activity as well. You know who you're

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Speaker 2: targeting is a business, so start there and then work

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Speaker 2: backwards in terms of what does content look like to

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Speaker 2: engage those people and to activate those people and to

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Speaker 2: have those important conversations.

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Speaker 1: I think we have comprehensively answered the question of how

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Speaker 1: should businesses be using LinkedIn, though, I suspect we could

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Speaker 1: probably discuss this for another hour or two. What do

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Speaker 1: you think?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got got a bit more in the tank.

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Speaker 1: You probably do, all right. Thank you very much, Natalie,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Michael. That was Natalie McDonald, Fear and Greed

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Speaker 1: journalist and the founder of Working at It dot com

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Speaker 1: dot Auhead along to the website and see more about

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Speaker 1: what Natalie is talking about. If you've got something that

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Speaker 1: you would like to know that you'd like us to

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Speaker 1: delve into on this podcast, then please send through your

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Speaker 1: question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or at Fearangreed dot com

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Speaker 1: dot au. I'm Michael Thompson and this is Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed Q and A