The LinkedIn Confidence Gap for Public Relations Pros

Emily Page (00:00):
Before social media and personal brands, influence looked very different. It wasn't measured in followers or engagement, but in quiet acts of service that changed lives. One of history's most powerful examples of that kind of influence came from a woman whose light guided both soldiers and the future of modern medicine. Florence Nightingale

Doug Downs (00:30):
They called her the Lady with the Lamp. Long before there were hashtags for healthcare heroes, Florence Nightingale walked the halls of a military hospital in Crimea, a lantern in her hand, checking on wounded soldiers, one by one. The year was 1854. The British Army was losing men not to battle, but to infection and disease. Florence brought with her a radical idea for the time that clean water, ventilation and hygiene could save lives. When she arrived, death claimed almost half the patients. Within months, she reorganised the wards, demanded sanitation reforms and cut the mortality rate from 42% to two. She collected data, meticulously charted it and created one of the first examples of evidence-based policy in modern medicine. Her work inspired the founding of the world’s first secular nursing school and transformed public health.

(01:31):
Yet Florence Nightingale was deeply uncomfortable with attention. She refused public appearances, avoided photographers and declined statues in her honour. When the government tried to recognise her with a medal, she asked that the funds be spent on better hospital supplies instead. She once wrote that fame was the most nauseous kind of burden. She wanted her work remembered, not her name, and that humility became her legacy.

But imagine Florence in today's world where the quiet expert is often drowned out by louder, less informed voices where influence is built not only on results but on visibility. In this age, her message might have been lost in the noise. Perhaps she would have posted charts on hospital reform or reflections on leadership in crisis. She might have shared lessons from the field not for attention but to build understanding. Yet if she stayed silent, the reformers with fewer facts and stronger followings would have shaped the conversation. Instead, her lantern, once lit in hospital wards across continents, today that same light would need to shine on a digital stage to guide the next generation of leaders. The world has changed. To influence now, you must also be seen. Today on Stories and Strategies we explore what it means to be visible without being boastful in an age when attention fuels impact. Would Florence Nightingale even be on LinkedIn? And if she were, would she ever post?

(03:25):
My name is Doug Downs

Farzana Baduel (03:28):
And my name is Farzana Baduel. Our guest this week is Jo Jamieson joining us today from London. Hi Jo

Jo Jamieson (03:35):
Hi there. Thanks for having me.

Farzana Baduel (03:36):
How are things north of London?

Jo Jamieson (03:40):
Well, like any good British person, I'm going to have to make a comment on the weather and tell you it's pretty damp and drizzly here. It's been raining all day.

Doug Downs (03:48):
Kel pre.

Farzana Baduel (03:49):
Yeah, exactly. My dog's super grumpy. Now, Jo, you are the co-founder of a specialist consultancy that empowers individual leaders and communicators to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator strategically, transforming PR professionals into visible, influential voices. You bring deep expertise from working in PR and technology agencies, and now you are helping others to sharpen their presence so they're not just publishing content but building relationships. Your work has a clinician to move people from hiding behind the brand to being confidently seen in a noisy world.

Doug Downs (04:25):
Oh, make the magic happen for me, Jo, I want to, when I post on LinkedIn, I want copious follows and likes and comments, and I am dying to hear about this. You have said that the real reason a lot of us don't post on LinkedIn isn't time or skill, it's confidence, right? What's driving that hesitation? How can communicators start to overcome the fear of putting themselves out there without being criticised in a cancel culture?

Jo Jamieson (04:54):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're quite unusual in that we work almost exclusively with individuals rather than brands. So we don't really go near brand channels, we just work on a one-to-one basis helping people to develop their strategy. We might do some training, we might even do ghost writing for people. So we generally work with business leaders and business owners, and when they come to us for help, they often say that they don't have time for LinkedIn or they're not quite sure what to write. But actually, when you unpack it, it very often comes down to a lack of confidence and we find that that's particularly acute with PR people. Certainly we can write, we can do it really quickly. So those stumbling blocks that might exist for some business leaders shouldn't exist for PR people, and yet we do all of those things under the cover of a by-line for somebody else.

(05:53):
So typically we're writing for a stakeholder or a client and actually writing something and putting our own names to it is something that feels quite scary. It's quite hard to put your head above the parapet in that way, but my feeling is that it's really vital to build and maintain your personal network. PR is a people business through and through, and if we nurture our networks, then new opportunities will arise, whether it's your next client or your next hire or your next role for yourself. But if you don't develop that network in a really intentional way, then there are fewer opportunities out there. I think to a degree, we all have to get over that kind of cringe factor that we feel around putting ourselves out there.

Farzana Baduel (06:44):
A little bit about authenticity. Sometimes you come across these LinkedIn posts and sort of like, my cat died over the weekend and this is what it taught me about B2B marketing, and you see these clumsy segues and I wanted to talk about authenticity versus bringing your personal side to your content, and there's often confusion between the two. How could PR professionals really strike that right balance between bringing personality into their content but without oversharing or losing professionalism?

Jo Jamieson (07:18):
Yeah, I think we saw a real rise in the amount of personal content that was being shared on LinkedIn during COVID, during the lockdowns when we couldn't get out and see other people. So we kind of came together on social media. We were all sort of sailing similar boats through the same storm, and it became perfectly acceptable to kind of share the chaos of what was going on at work and at home. But fast forward a few years and we're back to in-person meetings and we've got return to office mandates and all the rest of it, and there's been a bit of a backlash against that personal content. And as you say, there are some really clumsy segues between my dad died or my cat died and this is what it's taught me. So I think many people feel it's not the place for sharing that kind of personal story, but I do think there's still a dire need for content with personality, and I think there's a bit of a difference.

And to kind of illustrate that point, I'm working on a Sales Navigator project for a client where we're targeting senior marketing professionals in the tech sector and 95% of what they're writing is read this white paper that has come from my business or look at these insights from my boss in some trade magazine or come to this webinar, and it's dull, it's horrendously boring, and they're doing it to tick a box for their employer, but it's not telling their network anything about themselves. So what's their point of view? What do they actually think? What's going to make the people in their network want to work for them? Because it sure as hell isn't that. So I think that there is real scope for content that is about your thoughts individually, not those of the brand. And we can definitely add personality without getting too personal.

Doug Downs (09:11):
I'm a big believer that women are judged way differently than men and more harshly. A woman is too harsh or she's too soft and there's no Goldilocks there, and men get the benefit of the doubt. To succeed here, you have to put yourself out there. In this case, we're talking about LinkedIn, but in general, you've got to put yourself out there. So particularly for women, how do you put yourself out there so that you're noticed and not be seen as showing off?

Jo Jamieson (09:40):
Yeah, I've seen a couple of reports lately that I found really interesting. There was some Socially Mobile and CIPR research here in the UK that revealed that while two thirds of PR professionals below director level are women, only 46% of senior roles are held by women. So there's this sort of exodus, quiet exodus in midlife. I think it's absolutely tragic that women that are at the top of their professional game just kind of vanish in a sense. I'm one of them. I left the PR industry world in my forties, in my early forties once I'd had two kids. It was just too difficult.

And I think many senior women are feeling quite vulnerable for various reasons in midlife. Lots of us are sandwiched between kids that still need us and parents that maybe need us a bit more. There's perimenopause, there's a sense of feeling somewhat invisible anyway, I think, with all of these competing demands on your own time and maybe not having enough time to yourself or maybe, I saw you covered, Farzana, on the weekend, spun that comment about somebody doing some CIPR research being called grandma in a meeting.

Doug Downs (11:04):
As

Jo Jamieson (11:04):
Jenny Manchester. Yeah, that's it. Jenny Manchester. Yeah, I used to get called mum in my mid-thirties in an agency, and I think it was a term of endearment. I like to think so, but I'm not sure I'd like to be called grandma, that's for sure.

Doug Downs (11:17):
Nobody's calling me daddy at work, I can tell you that.

Jo Jamieson (11:21):
No, exactly. So I think it is hard for women, and I think actually making a decision to be visible is harder for women anyway at any age because of that fear of judgement. And we talked about this last week, I'm reminded of that America Ferrera, that iconic speech in the Barbie movie about how women can't win. And in this case, to paraphrase, we've got to be visible or we'll be overlooked, but we mustn't brag, but we must be performative, but we mustn't be too much. There's this kind of sense that we can't quite win and that further erodes confidence.

But I think that women have so much to give, particularly in later life, in terms of knowledge and experience and empathy and understanding and advice. And in a world where I feel like kindness is in short supply, really in many respects, we need good people to be visible and we need good people to stand up and be an example for a younger generation of future PR leaders, if you like, that are coming through, because we can't be what we can't see.

Farzana Baduel (12:34):
That's such a good point, Jo. A lot of people have sort of dived into LinkedIn, two reasons. One is you've had exodus from X and then all of a sudden, well, where do we go? And they've sort of moved into LinkedIn. And then the second, those people who are nervous to write or don't have the time or don't have the headspace, now they've got ChatGPT and the other LLMs, and they're producing all this content on LinkedIn. What practical advice would you give to someone who's listening, who knows they need to do more on LinkedIn, but they just don't know the basics? How many times should they post on LinkedIn a week? What's too much, what's too little? What do the algorithms favour? Where do you lose points from the algorithm? Can you game the algorithm?

Jo Jamieson (13:25):
Okay, I think, well, the first thing I would say is be strategic about it. So if you were doing this for a client, you would determine aims and objectives, you would look at audiences, you would create content pillars, you would measure, you would treat it like you would any other kind of PR programme. And I think that you need to do that for yourself. It's not that comfortable, perhaps. And I think when we start using the terms like personal brand and building your personal brand and so on, people are quite uncomfortable with that. But if you think about it as just raising your professional profile, then that's the way to do it.

That planning bit is a really vital part of being intentional about building that profile. So that would be my starting point. I think keep adding to your network. You never know where those opportunities are going to come from. So absolutely connect with people after meetings, connect with people that you've heard speak at events, perhaps connect with people that are talking about some of the same issues that you are talking about.

I don't get hung up on, to your point, Doug, earlier on about the metrics in and of themselves. I think you can have tens of thousands of followers or connections, but you can't maintain meaningful conversations with all of those people. So I think it's about connecting with the right people that are within your wheelhouse, if you like. So I would say absolutely keep building that network.

And then I would be thinking about how to develop that network by commenting a lot on other people's stuff.

Doug Downs (16:07):
How do I drive them to my white paper though, if that's my whole thing, is I'm trying to drive them to my website or my web? I've heard if I put the link in and I'm pulling people out of the social media app that the algorithm smacks me on the backside and diminishes my views or impressions.

Jo Jamieson (16:25):
LinkedIn doesn't love links any more than any other social media platform because they really want

Doug Downs (16:28):
It's linked out when you do it.

Jo Jamieson (16:31):
Yeah, they want to keep you within the platform if possible. So I would always say when you are uploading video clips and so on, to do that natively rather than sending people off to YouTube or Vimeo to watch the stuff. We do use links, of course we do, because sometimes it's just about making it as easy as possible for the reader to engage and access the information you're trying to share. So there are different ways of doing it.

You asked about formats, Farzana, and I definitely think it's worth mixing things up a bit. Short post, long post, articles, video and video, none of this stuff needs to be professionally produced. In fact, I think sometimes that can be a bit of a turn-off to people because people like that natural, authentic content. They like to see the faces of the people that they have worked with or that they'd like to work with. It is much easier to engage with somebody on a human level if you're seeing their face and you can hear their voice. And it doesn't matter if it's just an iPhone video or a snap taken at a show or an event. People are much more, it's a kind of human nature thing, people are much more likely to engage with that.

Doug Downs (17:48):
Jo, really appreciate your time today. Thank you. This was fantastic.

Farzana Baduel (17:52):
Jo, in our last episode, our guest, Tina McCorkindale, she left a question for you.

Tina McCorkindale (17:59):
So I love to ask the question of what keeps you up at night? That's my favourite.

Jo Jamieson (18:05):
I'm not going to lie. It's the perimenopause, I think. I've never had trouble sleeping. Yeah, exactly. I think most women my sort of age will probably subscribe to that. I've never had a problem sleeping and I go out like a light, but I wake up in the middle of the night and things go round in a loop, whether it's work, children, parents, whatever the thing is. So yeah, it's not particularly enjoyable, but here we are.

Farzana Baduel (18:30):
Are you quite disciplined? Because when I wake up in the middle of the night, I just get my phone out and then I open

Jo Jamieson (18:36):
Instagram.

Farzana Baduel (18:37):
I know, and it's really bad. And then before you know it, it's like five in the morning. Yeah.

Jo Jamieson (18:42):
No, I leave my phone downstairs. I do.

Farzana Baduel (18:45):
Oh, good tip.

Jo Jamieson (18:46):
Yeah, leave that downstairs. And I have an old-school Fitbit for a silent alarm in the morning, so I don't get tempted. I do pick up my Kindle and read a bit, and that's generally the way, and just kind of try and switch my brain off from whatever loop it's got itself into and do it that way.

Doug Downs (19:02):
Okay. Your turn, Jo. What question do you want to leave behind for our next guest?

Jo Jamieson (19:05):
Oh yeah, well, on that note actually, on the reading note, I'd be keen to find out what book the next guest has read that has changed the way they think or behave this year. This year.

Doug Downs (19:18):
Okay. Okay. For me, and I've mentioned this to Farzana when we spent time together in London, Yuval Noah Harari, I think it is, his book Nexus, on how gradually AI is going to at least dominate humanity, if not wipe it out. And I know that sounds almost comical, but when you read the book, oh my gosh, the arguments are there.

Jo Jamieson (19:42):
I will look it up. Brilliant. Thank you, Jo.

Doug Downs (19:45):
Thanks, Jo.

Farzana Baduel (19:49):
Here are the top three things that we got today from Jo Jamieson. Number one, it's about confidence rather than just content. Most people don't post because they fear posting and they fear that exposure. It's not actually because of a lack of ideas. Jo urged that we should be building confidence and seeing visibility as actually part of our professional duty.

Number two, she taught us that personality really cuts through, and you don't have to overshare to demonstrate your personality. She drew a line between authentic personality and personal confessions, encouraging posts that show individual thinking, not your private life.

Number three, strategy beats frequency. Treat your LinkedIn like a PR campaign, have goals, engage with intention, post about once a week and focus on smart commenting over daily posting.

Doug Downs (20:46):
Separate note for you, I was going through not just our podcast but some of our competitor PR podcasts in a podcasting tool called Rephonic. And within there it estimates what the tone of each podcast is like. And for many of our competitors, it indicated, I'd never seen this before, a political leaning just from the tone of the conversations. And many of them lean left according to Rephonic.

Farzana Baduel (21:13):
And what about us?

Doug Downs (21:14):
No designation whatsoever. So presumably they either deem us to be neutral or they haven't heard anything that leans right or leans left. I was boosted by that.

Farzana Baduel (21:26):
Wow. I like that. Yeah, I absolutely like that because I think people are looking for a space where they don't have other people's political leanings rammed down their throat, and everything is so polarised. Actually, I'm really happy that we've created a space that doesn't push one side or the other, and I love that.

Doug Downs (21:46):
If you're leaning towards sending a message to our guest, Jo Jamieson, contact info in the show notes. Stories and Strategies is a co-production of Curzon Public Relations, JGR Communications and Stories and Strategies podcasts. Thank you to Gold Star producers David Olajide and Emily Page. And if you liked this episode, forward it to one friend if you could. Thanks for listening.