Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone: Insights from a Week of BTS Sharing

Fun Experiment, Easier than I Thought

Creating behind-the-scenes (BTS) content on LinkedIn for a week was an interesting experiment. As a service provider who decided to use social media for business, I often found myself overthinking the content I put out. Questions about its authority, relevance to my audience, and whether it aligned with my professional image often plagued my mind. However, this special project challenged those doubts and allowed me to delve into a more spontaneous and personal approach to storytelling.

In the past, I plan my content weeks in advance, rarely sharing personal anecdotes or experiences. But this week was different. It pushed me beyond my comfort zone, encouraging me to share glimpses of my daily life and routines.

Three Interesting Insights:

Creativity is a Muscle: Throughout the week, I realized that creativity truly is a muscle that can be exercised and strengthened. I found stories in the mundane, drawing connections between my daily activities, leadership principles, and entrepreneurship. While I don't intend to maintain the same level of content production consistently, this filter of creativity is something I intend to hold onto.
Embracing Decisiveness: When I worked full-time as an MD, I prided myself on being decisive. However, transitioning to solo entrepreneurship brought about a wave of indecision and second-guessing, especially regarding content creation. This week, I adopted a more decisive approach, drafting and sharing content without hesitation or overthinking.
Accountability and Consistency: Setting out to create additional content for the week, I hadn't decided on the frequency or volume. I knew I wanted to post something daily. Surprisingly, this flexible approach allowed me to adapt my content strategy organically, posting stories in the morning, actionable insights in the afternoon, and reflections in the evening. However, I learned to prioritize self-care when needed, as demonstrated by choosing a nap over additional content creation on Friday.

While it's too early to gauge the full impact of these BTS posts on my business (as of posting this, I've had a 185% increase in profile views), the positive feedback received thus far is encouraging. Reflecting on this experience, I recognize the importance of consistency and goal-setting in my entrepreneurial journey. By challenging myself to step outside my comfort zone and embracing spontaneity, I've gained valuable insights into the power of storytelling and the potential of social media platforms like LinkedIn. Moving forward, I'll continue to honor moments of reflection, allowing them to shape my future content endeavors.

Thank you for joining me on this journey of exploration and growth. Your support and engagement have been invaluable, and I look forward to sharing more insights and experiences.

Updated February 23, 2024

Now that a week has passed, I wanted to share the LinkedIn Statistics. Please keep in mind this year, I got the Top Voice Badge, and a perk that comes with it is LinkedIn Premium. I have never paid for LinkedIn Premium. From what I have seen so far, it doesn't have that big of an impact on the visibility of my content. It has a more significant impact on the content I engage with from other connections. Last week, I also posted everything natively. That means I didn't use my regular third-party scheduler to post and share a comment.

Here are some additional insights:

LI Week 7 Content Performance

I typically post three times a week. Last week, I posted almost three times a day each weekday and added pictures, a carousel, or a poll. Most of the posts were personal and story-based. Though there was a massive uptake in engagement, I was a lot more excited about the DMs I received. Most of my paying clients do not directly engage with my LinkedIn content, but other connections engaging with my posts mean that their connections are likely to see it in their feeds. Your connections and followers see your activity on LinkedIn.

Top Performing Posts

Here are the top-performing posts from that week. Please keep in mind that people continue to engage with this content now. Some quick thoughts:

I am not surprised that my announcement post got the most engagement. In my experience, connections are excited when someone announces a milestone. The picture probably helps. Most LinkedIn gurus mention having an image can increase engagement.
I was surprised that the post with the second most impressions was related to Usher. No picture, but good polls tend to get engagement. This post was different for me. I don't usually post about recent events, which helped with engagement, but the idea popped into my bed while relaxing in a yoga position, and I had to share it. As you can see, there was little engagement beyond the poll itself.
If I had included that I was a six-figure coach, that might have helped to get a bit more engagement, but that is not my brand or business. Once again, this poll post probably got more visibility because of poll engagement. Even though fewer people took the poll, the number of impressions is close to the Usher post.

Impressions

The number of times my content was displayed on someone's screen varied throughout that week. This is why I commented above about my Top Voice Badge having less of an impact. 'Good content,' aka content that gets engagement quickly, will be displayed more. The dip in this graph is similar to the dip above. The two go hand in hand.

New Followers

I don't have a large 'following' compared to most LinkedIn Top Voices. My interest in LinkedIn isn't to have a large following, but it is clear that more people followed me at the beginning of this journey than at the end of the week.

Connection Positions

This is more interesting to me. As a leadership and culture advisor, knowing that people connecting with/ following me are my ideal decision-maker, ideal client, or ideal connection avatar is more important.

I am not surprised at the results of this experiment, and I am grateful to have access to a platform like LinkedIn, but I will only be doing it again if I am doing a launch or have a clear call to action related to my work. I started my business when I was 'young' and needed a relevant network that was willing to invest in or recommend me. LinkedIn helped me build that. Though I post content publicly, I am not interested in visibility. Right now, my strategy on LinkedIn is to engage with content that is thought-provoking but relevant to my ideals, learn from my connections, and, most importantly, invite my ideals to join me off of LinkedIn to my monthly #PeopleBeforeStrategy Roundtable.

Here are all the BTS Links for the Week: