What Ten LinkedIn Audits Revealed

[00:00:00] Andrea Jones: 10 LinkedIn audits later, and I am excited to bring you the results of our annual LinkedIn challenge inside the Mindful Marketing Lab. I had the pleasure of auditing 10 of our members' accounts, and I wanna share with you the things that everyone got right and some of the things that they're missing so that you can learn from these audits as well.

[00:00:20] Uh, welcome to episode 351 of the Mindful Marketing Podcast, where we help you with simpler. Smarter marketing strategies. We're gonna get into those LinkedIn audits in a second, but first a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the All In One podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this ride here show.

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[00:01:28] All right, y'all. The patterns are patterning. I'm excited to share the results of these audits. I love doing these every single year. It's an opportunity for me to not only teach LinkedIn, but to analyze, uh, accounts and give really. Specific results. Um, and we had a mixed skill level this year. We had some absolute beginners, some newbies to LinkedIn, some people who were just starting on the platform for the first time.

[00:01:54] And we had some people who had done the challenge with me time and time again. I think this was my seventh year hosting [00:02:00] it. And so it was really interesting to also. See the things that they changed over the years, and so I wanna bring you that in this episode. My goal is to help you sharpen things up without you turning into a hustle machine, without you turning into those bro marketers on LinkedIn who are just spouting off their own ideas.

[00:02:17] This isn't about. Faking it for the algorithm. Okay. I think the overarching thing that I noticed is that the more you can show up with clarity and consistency, the better it is on LinkedIn, and in fact, it'll help you stand out versus blending in with all the chat GBT recycled material that we're seeing on LinkedIn.

[00:02:39] So the first thing I wanna talk about is LinkedIn profiles and some of the common mistakes that I saw on LinkedIn profiles as I was auditing these accounts. I will say, my caveat to this is I did use chat GBT to help me with this. So I know AI is a little bit of a touchy subject, but if y'all want the BTS, the behind the scenes of how I designed this [00:03:00] episode, I.

[00:03:01] Recorded these audits in Loom. They were all about three to seven minutes each. I took the transcripts and I put all 10 transcripts. I think there ended up being 11 in total into Chachi, bt. And I said, can you help me find the commonalities and the mistakes and the, um, improvements and the suggestions I made in these videos?

[00:03:20] So as you see me looking at data in my notes, I'm looking at this material even though I was the one who also did the, uh, audits as well. Cool. All right. So first one common mistake, um, is your banner image. Okay? When you're looking at your profile, you have that beautiful header, that beautiful banner image.

[00:03:38] One of the things that you wanna make sure is that that image is readable, not just on. Top, but on mobile as well. And if you have too much text or if the text is too cluttered or if the text is too small, it can be really hard to see on a mobile device. A lot of times when we're editing our LinkedIn profile, we're on our computers.

[00:03:57] If you're anything like me, type me on [00:04:00] my phone is not for me. I do not like it. I avoid it at all costs, and I will type on my computer before I type on my phone. I would use voice, voice to text before I type on my phone. It's just I don't like it. So. When you're looking at your mobile device, I want you to make sure that as you're editing your profile, you actually pick up your phone and you look at that profile via mobile as well.

[00:04:20] Okay, so your banner photo has to be clear, crisp, have a promise statement. You can use Canva to design it and put text up there, but I want you to make sure that text is clear and easy to read. Next on the profile, a lot of people aren't using your one profile link. Now, this is new, relatively new in the past, I wanna say 18 months or so, LinkedIn added the ability for you to put one link in your profile similar to the link that you used to get on Instagram.

[00:04:47] I know it's five links now. Okay. But we had our one Instagram link. Go to the bio, click the link. You have that link now on your LinkedIn profile. So if you have not looked at your profile in a minute, go over and add a link [00:05:00] there to your profile. That link also sometimes shows up in other places as well.

[00:05:05] So for example. If you're scrolling through your LinkedIn feed and you see someone leave a comment, they can see a bit of your headline, and sometimes they can see that link as well. So for me, I have it linking to my everything page on my website, which has all my free offers and my paid offers all in one page.

[00:05:22] So if someone's new to my world. If they can just download something for free and they're in one of my funnels and it's great, right? And so that's for me. If you have one lead magnet, put it there. If you are a consultant, put a link to book a call with you. Make it really easy for someone if they're looking at a profile to take that natural next step to working with you.

[00:05:40] And then the other common mistake that I saw comes with the headline itself, and this is something I talked a lot about in the LinkedIn challenge. When you do not have a clear result or a transformation in your headline, it can be very challenging for people to understand what it is you do. Sometimes we get a little fancy with [00:06:00] the headline.

[00:06:00] Okay. Like money manifestation coach. Okay. Actually that was, was pretty clear. Um, money manifestation, arbitrator. I'm just making up stuff at this point. You catch my drift. When you're thinking about your headline, that's the text that people see right when they land on your profile. Now, LinkedIn is gonna try to put your job title.

[00:06:21] Okay, whatever you said your last latest current job is. LinkedIn's gonna put that there. So if you're. CEO of dog treats unlimited. It's gonna say CEO of dog treats unlimited. So I want you to go click edit on your profile and say you can keep CEO of dog treats unlimited if you want, but I want that transformation.

[00:06:40] Um, serving the greater Niagara area with healthy, non-processed dog treats for people who care about their pets. You see how there's a transformation in that statement. Now you do get, I believe it's 220 characters and you get even more on mobile. So use all [00:07:00] of that space to tell us more about what you do in that headline space.

[00:07:05] A few other things to think about with your profile is. Stick to one core message. Um, sometimes we have multiple businesses, multiple brands happening. There's nothing wrong with that, but I do want us to really focus in on one core message. For me, it's mindful marketing. It's the new era of marketing. I want that to be my focus.

[00:07:26] Yes, I talk about other things. Yes, I talk about a lot of other things, but if someone were to come to me and get the first impression of me, that's what I want their first impression to be. I also want you to think about that headline statement as well, and the fact that that headline statement also shows up in the feed.

[00:07:45] I mentioned this earlier. When you're scrolling through the feed and you leave a comment on someone's post, part of your headline shows up there, it says, Andrea Jones, mindful marketing strategist. Social media, mindfulness or whatever it says, that introductory statement is very [00:08:00] important. So for me, I may wanna start off with simpler, smarter, smarter marketing for busy people.

[00:08:05] Then put mindful marketing strategists. 'cause that part may get cut off, right? So you think about the first couple of words and how that will show up in the feed and then start testing it yourself to see what comes up. You may even wanna remove some of those words. So sometimes I, I was seeing in the audience, people say.

[00:08:24] I help busy people. You don't need the I help. You're wasting characters. Okay, so remove the I. You can even say helping. Okay. Helping instead of I help helping busy people. Or just start with the end. Helping busy, busy people with what? Marketing. So I'm gonna start with that. Simpler, smarter marketing for busy people.

[00:08:47] So you're removing the I help altogether and it's not needed. Alright, next for the profile, you have so many other places that you can optimize. When you're thinking [00:09:00] about your about section, I want you to pull in that benefit and transformative statement from your headline. Into your about your summary section as well.

[00:09:08] Okay. Expand upon it. You have so much space there to talk about what you do. Use it all up. I saw a lot of people starting that about section with the I help again. Okay, so not only do I not wanna see that in your headline, I don't wanna see it in your about section as well. A lot of times we use too many I statements anyways, when we're looking at brands, when we're talking about our, what we offer, because that is a natural place where we start.

[00:09:36] That is the first draft. I don't want you to take the first draft though. I want you to edit it down so that it accurately reflects what you do to the person reading it, not to you. Okay, so instead of saying I help, I would say, are you, are you a busy person who wants to learn how to use marketing? The [00:10:00] solution to that is a simple strategic method, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:10:03] Right? We're removing the I from that and we're focusing in on the other person. In addition to that, with your about statements, we really fo wanna focus in on the emotional transformation. Okay. Give people a deeper reason to hire you. If they're looking at that about statement, they're interested, right?

[00:10:22] They're interested in what you have to do. LinkedIn doesn't make this easy, so they clicked a few times to get here. Okay, give on something. Um, I kept seeing a lot of people use really tactical things. So for example, um, if you are as someone who helps, let's say. You're a money, I'll use a money Mindset coach again.

[00:10:43] Um, they would say, you know, I have a six month coaching program. You can put book one-off, um, packages. Um, but if you're unsure, book a consultation call with me. And that would be their about section. And there's nothing wrong with that specifically. But before someone gets to the [00:11:00] spot where they're comfortable booking a six month coaching package, we need to connect with them on an emotional level.

[00:11:06] Because as humans, we make decisions based on our emotions. Plain simple. That's just how it works for most of us. We make decisions based on our emotions, so we need to meet them where there are, where they are, and especially for something as sensitive as like a money mindset coach, a lot of times there's a lot of feelings around it.

[00:11:24] We don't want someone to say You're cheap. You need to raise your rates because you're cheap, like that feels like an attack. Instead, we wanna say something like, Hmm, are you completely booked out and you're still not making the money that you wanna make? Okay, now people are like, huh? I am in that spot.

[00:11:43] So now they're curious, okay, if I'm completely booked out and yet I'm still not meeting my financial goals, what is the next step? The next step is you may be experiencing a money mindset challenge. Here are the signs. If you wanna talk about it further, let's [00:12:00] book a consultation call. Do you see how that leads the reader to water?

[00:12:04] It leads them to the solution instead of. Starting with the solution, you have a money mindset problem. You need me. It's kind of like, okay, back off. You're saying, Hey, here are some of the things you may be experiencing right now. You may be feeling this, you may be thinking this. You may, your life may look like this.

[00:12:20] If that's the case, I have the solution. I'd love to help you. Okay. And so having that emotional transformation. Is really important in those about sections. It's just a simple reframe, and I'm saying this with love because I know I did all of these audits. It's not that these were missing completely, I just thought they really could be strengthened, um, along the lines.

[00:12:40] Okay. Um, one of the questions I like to ask about the, about section is, does my ideal client feel seen and heard? Okay. Do they feel seen and heard before you introduce who you are and how you help? Does my ideal client feel seen and heard? So you, the person listening to this [00:13:00] podcast, you are most likely a, you own your own business, okay?

[00:13:05] Or you work in marketing, okay? You are busy, you have a life, you have kids. Maybe you're going back to school. Maybe you're taking care of your aging parents. Maybe you have chronic illness, maybe you have some sort of physical, mental disability. You have a lot going on, so following a lot of the quote unquote traditional marketing device is not working for you because you do not even have time.

[00:13:30] To one, learn it and then two implement it. Okay. If that's you, I just made you feel seen and heard. I hear you. I feel you. I'm actually right there with you. Okay. I've got two kids. One is just turned one, the other one's almost three years old. I. I work 12 to 15 hours a week. I do not have time to be messing around.

[00:13:52] Every single thing I do in my business has to be very intentional because I don't have time. Okay? So when I'm talking about these strategies, I'm [00:14:00] outlining them because I know you. I feel you. I see you, I hear you. Now let's work on it together. Okay? Then I can introduce who I am and how I help. So. We wanna do that.

[00:14:09] The last thing I wanna say about the about section is that, and this goes for a post as well. I kept seeing this, break it up so that it's skimmable. I know we learned in school to write in paragraphs. We learned what paragraphs are. It's like a couple of sentences, right? I forget that. Don't use fragments, don't use phrases.

[00:14:27] Forget all of that. I want us to break it up because social media moves at a very, very fast pace. We're all skimming, we're skimming and moving on to the next. Have y'all seen the internet? It's like endless amounts of entertainment and education. Okay, so we wanna get on with the entertainment and education, and then we found you.

[00:14:46] So you gotta get to the point. You gotta make it easy for us to understand and the point, and usually that means it's. Spaced out in a way that makes it easy to skim and easy to read. Okay, so that may mean using [00:15:00] fragments. It may mean using phrases. Um, it may mean using bullet points. I love using bullet points.

[00:15:06] Um, all of those things can make your about section easier to read. Alright, next I gotta talk about content. Okay. Content on LinkedIn is not that different from content in other places, except I feel like, because the assumption around LinkedIn is that it's a little bit more buttoned up. We're missing some of the personal storytelling and every time I collect these posts.

[00:15:32] So for y'all who are in the Mindful Marketing Lab, you know, every single month I do my, what's a Scoop session? I highlight posts that are working well across social media. Because I'm scrolling, I'm seeing, I'm observing. One of the things that I keep. Emphasizing time and time again is that personal Storytelling with emotion is what works the best.

[00:15:52] Okay. Personal storytelling with emotion works the best. Yes. We can say Join my money mindset coaching program, but [00:16:00] we gotta start with personal storytelling with emotion. It doesn't have to be your own personal story. We can personalize it though. Okay, so I'll use a personal story as an example and a personalized story as an example.

[00:16:12] So a personal story. If you're a money mindset coach, you could say, you know, I used to have, I used to own a business where I had this challenge and that challenge until I raised my rates and I actually was able to not only free up my time, but make more money in the process. That's a personal story. A personalized story would be like.

[00:16:31] I was watching the Barbie movie the other day, and here's what Barbie said, and that relates to money mindset in this, that, and that way, right? We don't have to share personal life details if you don't want to, but we need to have some emotional tie and emotional connection with the reader. Remember what I said about the internet?

[00:16:48] It's a bottomless pit. It's like bottomless mimosas over here, okay? It's a party, it's a fun time, and then you come along with your seriousness. Okay? So what's gonna break that up enough for someone to pay attention to [00:17:00] it? There are two other things that I also saw working really well content-wise in these audits.

[00:17:06] One of them was celebrating wins and celebrating others, so just celebrations in general. Anywhere where someone can say congrats or congratulations still works well on social media. You have to use this with intention. I do not want us making up. Things. Okay. But for example, I just celebrated 11 years in business this year.

[00:17:26] Thank you. Thank you. And when I post about it, a lot of people said, congratulations. This is a great type of celebratory post. So anytime you can celebrate business anniversaries, launching new products, or celebrating others, like, I wanna take a moment to thank this person or that person, especially if you can tag them.

[00:17:44] That works really well. The last style of content that I saw working really well for these audits is sharing your personal values, um, especially in this day and age 2025. I don't know what is happening in the world right now, [00:18:00] but we are all going through it. Okay? It is so emotionally, politically, and socially charged right now.

[00:18:07] That sometimes it feels like navigating social media is a minefield, so I want us to share our values in a way that helps people understand where we are and also acknowledges what the heck is going on in your communities. Okay, so for me, I just sent out an email this week, actually last week. Which was about what I'm seeing in marketing right now.

[00:18:35] There's a lot of heaviness. Um, there's a lot of weight to it. I've been talking about this a lot with my, my closed community, and I'm starting to talk about it more in public now because I'm recognizing people think that this is just business as usual and it's not. Businesses are hurting right now. It marketing is hurting right now.

[00:18:56] Especially with the rise of ai, my marketers are like, [00:19:00] do we have job security right now? And so I'm talking a lot about that. How do we navigate this changing landscape? That's a value of mine that I'm gonna continue talking about, and I'm gonna continue talking about ethical uses of AI as well. Okay. So that's it.

[00:19:17] On post. I will also emphasize skimmable. Okay. Long paragraphs. It's not it. We don't wanna read the whole Bible here. We want to skim, get the bullet points, get the main point, and start with the hook if you can, because LinkedIn is gonna like truncate your post and you gotta hit like that. I think it's read more or see more to see the whole thing.

[00:19:36] All right. Lastly, I gotta talk about engagement. The most common piece of feedback. That I saw the biggest area improvement in all of the LinkedIn accounts that I audited was that everyone was posting more than they were engaging. Almost everyone, almost everyone was posting more than you're engaging.

[00:19:56] And with LinkedIn it's a little bit different 'cause I can actually look at [00:20:00] your, your account and I can see the comments that you're leaving. Okay, so I can see that you posted, you know, five times this week and you only left two comments. Commenting as much as you're posting, if not more, is actually gonna help you grow your LinkedIn account faster.

[00:20:16] Okay? So if you need to pull back on content, do that. The LinkedIn algorithm is actually like Chef's Kiss. Amazing. When I think about. Um, LinkedIn's algorithm compared to something like Instagram. I'm always like, thank GBU for LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn, you post today and then like a week later people are still commenting on it, whereas on Instagram you post today, maybe tomorrow, maybe two days later, people are commenting on it, but most posts are like, it's, it's gone long, gone by the end of the week, so I want you to post less.

[00:20:50] Comment more when we're thinking about engaging strategically. I also want us to try to make sure we're actively growing our communities every [00:21:00] single week. So for a lot of the audits, I was giving them the goal of finding one new person a day to connect with. So if you have, you know, let's say you have 15 minutes a day to spend on LinkedIn.

[00:21:13] Um, for as far as engagement goes, and then you have about 30 minutes a week for content. Okay? So I want you to write one post in that 30 minutes. Just text only. Don't worry about graphics, don't worry about images. One text-based post, that's your post for the week, and then 15 minutes a day. I want you to find one comment and find one new person to follow.

[00:21:32] That's it. And you will see drastic improvement in your account if you can maintain that consistency. Now, my consistency here is just a suggestion. Okay? You can, you set the rules. Maybe you only can do this, uh, one post a month and you have 15 minutes a week. To to network on LinkedIn. Fine. You set your consistency, but I want you to make sure you're diversifying who you engage with.[00:22:00]

[00:22:00] The other thing I noticed when I was looking through engagement. And this is the algorithm's fault on LinkedIn. Once you start liking and commenting on one person's post, they're always at the top. LinkedIn is like, oh, you like this? You must love it. And so you have to think a little bit harder. Scroll a little bit farther to diversify, but I want you to diversify who you're engaging with.

[00:22:18] And this is strategic as well, right? So I want you to think about if you are. Commenting on the same person's post, that community is gonna see your comments. Okay? And I want you to test this. Scroll through LinkedIn. You'll start seeing not only the people you follow, but the people who commented on other people's posts.

[00:22:38] You'll see those in your feed as well. And so your posts will show up in other people's feed even if they don't follow you. Your comments will show up in other people's feed, even if they don't follow you once you start deploying this strategy. Okay. The other thing I want you to think about as you're commenting and engaging is I want you to think about [00:23:00] audiences who are similar and adjacent to yours.

[00:23:03] Okay? Not just your biz besties, not just your friends, not just the people you know, but I want you to think about communities that are adjacent to yours. So an example I like to use sometimes is Pat Flynn or an Amy Porterfield. Okay? So a Pat Flynn or Amy Porterfield. We have. Similar-ish, similar-ish beliefs in business, let's say, especially Pat Flynn.

[00:23:28] Um, but they don't really touch. Marketing or social media that much. It's mostly like business building or creating assets. And I'm like the afterwards, like, okay, now you've built your business. You need to market it. Then I come in, right? And so if I were to start this strategy, I would look at Pat Flynn and go, let me start commenting on not just his posts, but the people who comment on his posts.

[00:23:53] I'm gonna start building connections with them because his people. Probably could be my people too, right? So I want you to [00:24:00] start thinking about it a little bit that way as well. All right. To wrap this all up, I want you to think about this specific thing. LinkedIn. LinkedIn strategies, or any social media strategies at all.

[00:24:14] It's not about going viral. Okay. This is not the plan. The plan is to find your people. Find the people who will get to know you, trust you, like you, work with you, and become your super fans, your advocates. These are the people who are like, yes, Andrea, all the way. Anything she puts out, I'm here for it.

[00:24:36] Those are your people. That's who you're looking for. And the only way to find them is through one relationship at a time, one connection at a time. Now, if you're in the middle of your LinkedIn glow up, I gotta invite you to join us in the Mindful Marketing Lab. We're all figuring this out together. One of my goals this year with the lab members is to really teach you all how to find your [00:25:00] own solutions.

[00:25:01] And I am there with you every step of the way. One of my biggest, my favorite things about the lab is you get unlimited support. So if you come in and you're like, Hey Andrea, can you look at my LinkedIn? I'm probably gonna make you a Loom video. Okay. Usually I charge $500 for this level of one-on-one support, but it's all included in the Mindful Marketing Lab, so head on over online, dre.com/lab.

[00:25:22] The link will be in the show notes. I will see you then. I'll be back soon. Next Tuesday with another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. I have Adam Constantine coming on the show. We had such a fun conversation. He actually gave me a lot of ideas. So stay tuned for that. I'll see you then. Bye for now.