1,000 DMs > millions of impressions.
For those of you planning to spend a lot of time on this platform next year, I have two pieces of advice.
1) Start an insights program at your company (I can help, hit me up)
2) Make the key metric for that program inbound DMs.
Everyone looks at their impressions, followers, and reactions. You can debate the value of each of those metrics (personally I think impressions are super wonky these days) but hey they're easy to find and can be useful.
But my personal favorite impact metric is 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗠𝘀.
What does that mean?
Meaningful: message must be asking a question, starting a conversation, etc. Don't count spam or salesy crap.
Inbound: Don't count DMs you start yourself, obviously.
I think this is a better judge of tangible impact than the standard metrics. If someone has taken the time to DM, you've sparked a real thought in their heads - and isn't that ultimately the goal of your content?
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀
LI makes it a little tricky to keep abreast of these conversations since they aren't included in any of the basic analytics reports. But you can get a download of your full DM history in 5 steps:
1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. 2. Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown. 3. Click the Data Privacy on the left rail. 4. Under the How LinkedIn uses your data section, click Get a copy of your data. 5. Select "messages" as the data type you’re looking for and hit Request Archive.
You'll need to analyze the resulting csv (build a chart in Excel or wherever). Probably better to track individual people rather than total messages (since some conversations go deep). You can add a new vs known split which allows you to see if you are receiving DMs from the same cohort of folks all the time or if new people are hitting your LI inbox.
Then it's all about growth over time.
Side bonus - orienting around meaningful conversations helps soften the blow when you hit an impressions slowdown. Keep at it!
#insights #linkedin #growth
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