May: Being relevant, videos in the DMs and commenting when you can't create

Hello! Welcome to Ignite Confidence, my monthly newsletter on LinkedIn. Thank you again to all of my subscribers both old and new. I'm so pleased you are supporting me on my newsletter journey.

What to expect in this edition:

• Tips, insights and strategies to help boost YOUR confidence: Thoughts on how to be relevant for your community and some questions to get you thinking.
• Changes to LinkedIn and what they mean for YOU: Attaching a video to a DM from your desktop. No longer just available on the mobile app.
• Q&As: Answers to questions you've asked (either through the DMs, via the comments or from coaching or training sessions I've run) and, of course, real-life stories. What to do when you haven't got time to create content.

Tips, insights and strategies to help boost YOUR confidence

Earlier in the month, I went to my first You Are The Media (YATM) Creator Day down in Poole, where the theme was being relevant.

What holds us together?

A community. And a community becomes stronger when it engages in activity together. I like to describe LinkedIn as a community.

In a community, we should be giving and receiving in equal measures. The idea of a great community is one where you can achieve two things:

• You contributed: You made someone's day richer, whether through a conversation, a question or a shared moment in the DMs, or in person.
• You received: A new idea, a moment of clarity or a connection you didn't see coming. You never know where your next business idea or collaboration will come from.

A couple of examples of giving are:-

• Commenting on posts
• Giving a recommendation
• Reposting someone's post (remember, for no personal gain)

I'd like you to think about a couple of questions which were posed to us at Creator Day:-

• Where in your work (or life) are you truly interlocking with others, not just connecting, but supporting and being supported?
• What ideas (or people) have 'held' you when things felt uncertain and how are you 'holding' others in return?
• Are you sharing yourself to fit the kind of community you want to be part of, or are you still trying to go it alone?

These questions will help you reflect on how you show up, who you support and who supports you as you continue to grow your LinkedIn community.

Here is a link to a video that was created to explain the theme, it is really powerful and I hope will ignite a spark and make you a little more confident when it comes to creating content for you and your business. It will get you thinking about how you show up and are relevant.

• Know your purpose - who you help and how you do it - that transformation you bring
• Tell your story - share why you do what you do
• Keep showing up - LinkedIn is all about consistency, even if you can't create content, you can still comment

Let me know what you take away from watching it. You can watch it here.

I've already bought my ticket for Creator Day 2026. If you'd like to come along, then here is the ticket link (early bird is £145 until 30th May. Don't hang about!

Changes to LinkedIn and what they mean for YOU

A new feature has been released which gives us the option to send videos in the DMs.

• In the past, you could only send a video via the DMs in the mobile app, but now you can do it via desktop. So if you have videos you use with clients or prospects, then this is a really handy new feature. It doesn't need to be a video of you talking as I know not everyone likes being on camera.
• I've said it before but will say it again, alot of the magic on LinkedIn happens in the DMs, so this is a great new addition.

If you don't have a video you could send, think about what you could create - even a behind-the-scenes video of you doing what you to, to explain the creation process.

Update from the ever-helpful Kevin D Turner is that the max limit of a video you can attach is 20 MB.

Q&As: Answers to questions you've asked (either via DMs, comments or from coaching or training sessions) and real-life stories

I'm struggling for time to create content [insert your situation - half-term/holiday/something else], what can I do?

• Engage by commenting instead of creating content —visit a client's or ideal client’s profile and leave a meaningful comment on their latest post. Try to write at least 12 words and showcase your expertise or experience, but add value, don't hijack the post.
• Endorse someone for a skill. Go their profile and scroll down to the skills section and click on endorse for skills that you have seen in action. If you've just been to a conference and seen someone speak, maybe they have speaker as being a skill.
• Write a recommendation for one of your connections. If you're not sure how to do this, I wrote about it in a recent post you can find here.

I even wrote a post to answer this question earlier in the week, which you can read here.

Commenting shouldn't replace creating and sharing your own content but it is a great way of still showing up and supporting your community.

But it you are here to showcase your expertise and ultimately make sales then creating content is a fantastic way of showcasing your expertise.

Out and about in June:

I'm away for the latter part of June, but before that, here are a few events and learning opportunities coming up:

• 3rd June - Connections Club Networking at the beautiful Delapre Abbey here in Northampton.
• 5th June - Business Expo in MK, it's FREE to attend and you can register here
• 10th June - Atomicon Marketing Conference in Newcastle, I have an affiliate link if you fancy coming along. An amazing line-up of speakers runs as a two-track event, but everything is recorded.

Until the next one, click the bell on my profile you will receive a notification when I post. Let's chat in the DMs or meet for coffee if we're local to each other.

Marianne x

P. S. If you enjoyed reading my newsletter, I reckon you’ll love my email newsletter. 'Ignite Confidence' gives you the highlights...'Get LinkedIn Confident: Navigate like a pro' gives you so much more. Get on my email list.

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If it's half-term for you this week, I hope you were able to get some well-deserved downtime. For me, it has been foot-up all week, which has made keeping up to date with work a little tricky.

Marianne x

Marianne Avery has postgraduate diplomas in Marketing and Direct Marketing, a member of The Inner Hub for Social Media Managers, Espresso+ for LinkedIn nerds with over 25 years’ experience in contact centre agency, client-side, and corporate consultancy roles. She is a LinkedIn trainer and confidence coach and the lead LinkedIn trainer at TechPixies.

Find out how to work with Marianne at https://www.marianneavery.co.uk/