Voice notes for business development: All I’ve learnt so far

The following is a reprint of a blog originally posted on LinkedIn in April 2021

It’s been a couple of months since I switched to sending voice notes on LinkedIn and what a fascinating couple of months it has been! During that time, I have expanded my use of voice notes on LinkedIn and must have sent several thousand of them covering a range of topics; as such it has given me fascinating insight about my own behaviours and those of others.

Considering that LinkedIn is integral for so many of us, I thought I would share my top 11 findings (yep 11!) on the whole process of using voice notes to drive networking and business development:

1. The biggest thing stopping me from sending voice notes was me — I realised I had so many assumptions around how they would be received and who I should/shouldn’t send them to. Ultimately this all proved to be mostly in my head, and I discovered pretty much everyone welcomes getting one, so I no longer put filters on my use of them
2. It takes time to get into your voice note groove — I’ve discovered that lots of things impact the “success” of the voice note. Things like length, tone, words I use, whether I put in questions or statements and much more have a bearing on whether I will get a response. I have been experimenting a lot with these and have come a long way in a few months
3. Your mood affects the quality of the voice note — listening back to my messages can be a bit cringey but massively helpful and I realise that when I’ve been in a bad mood or distracted then this comes across in the voice note. Subsequently these bad mood notes are the ones less likely to be responded to
4. The impact of a voice note is massive — people seem genuinely surprised to receive a voice note, usually not realising that there is the functionality in LinkedIn. When I have subsequently spoken with them, they reference it a lot
5. Responses vary but it does lead to a lot of conversations — people either respond very effusively (with many attempting to send their own voice notes back) or give a straightforward thanks, they very rarely ignore the message. As a consequence I have secured a much larger amount of zoom coffees each week
6. People who you don’t know do not expect you to only want a zoom coffee — they think if you have gone so far as to send a voice note you must want something, once you assure them that’s not the case then most are more than happy to catch up but there are still a few cynical ones
7. Some people need chasing even when they agreed to a zoom coffee — this has proven to usually be for capacity related reasons and nothing personal so I don’t give up unless they specifically tell me to
8. People use their private email addresses for zoom coffees — this is a strange one but I notice more and more people ask me to send the invite for the zoom coffee to their private account. I’m not quite sure why (is it because they feel they are doing something naughty?) but there are a lot of folk still using hotmail and yahoo accounts it seems
9. Having a good follow up system is key — I get so many responses nowadays that lead to a whole host of zoom coffees that I had to develop a slick process to schedule, send out reminders, chase folk and keep a log of who I have spoken to. In the early days I didn’t have this and it was a nightmare
10. There is a case of too much of a good thing — I have occasionally sent too many voice notes in the same day and as a result scheduled too many zoom coffees for the same day; this not only left me stressed but it meant the quality of each interaction was lessened
11. You definitely stand out but this won’t last — like a trendy restaurant, there is always a shelf life for some new piece of marketing; I fully expect that as more people start using them then their impact will diminish. Oh, and there can be a case of you yourself using too many voice notes with the same person (I usually only do the initial message as a voice note and then swap to regular messaging after that)

So, that’s it. A few findings on the delights of voice notes. I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you haven’t experienced them yet, then don’t worry you’ll be receiving one from me very soon I’m sure ;)

Faris

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ