How to Get Started On LinkedIn and Grow Your Personal Brand in 2025: New Data and Content Insights With Founder Ivana Todorovic

Ready to make 2025 the year you say YES to becoming visible and building your LinkedIn presence?

Each episode of the Own Your Lane® Personal Branding Podcast highlights one of the four steps of the Own Your L.A.N.E. personal branding roadmap to help you gain clarity, confidence, and a clear path to growing your influence and impact.

L: Launch Your Vision – Lead with clear intention and purpose
A: Assert Your Difference – Define what uniquely sets you apart
N: Navigate Your Presence – Shape your personal brand foundation
E: Elevate Your Authority – Grow impact and influence with publicity

This week, we're focusing on step "E-Elevate Your Authority" with host Michelle B Griffin and expert guest Ivana Todorovic, founder of AuthoredUp, to discuss the latest strategies, data, and roadmap for positioning yourself on LinkedIn and beyond in 2025.

Here’s a sneak peek at what we covered:

• What’s working now: The most effective strategies for growing your LinkedIn presence.
• What doesn't work anymore: Outdated tactics that no longer deliver results.
• Content formats gaining traction: Discover the content types currently getting the most engagement.
• The roadmap to personal branding: How to confidently jump-start your personal brand in the new year.

Tune in for the full conversation and get actionable tips to kickstart your LinkedIn strategy for 2025.

LINKS
Own Your Lane Newsletter Article on This Interview with All the Tips Your Need to Know
Michelle B Grifin on LinkedIn
Ivana Todorovic on LinkedIn
AuthoredUp Website

Ready to Own Your Lane? - The Brand Leaders® Podcast

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Transcript

Michelle B. Griffin:
Welcome everybody to this week's episode of Own Your Lane. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin, and I'm thrilled to kick off the new year by talking about how to create and grow your personal brand on LinkedIn. So, I'm thrilled to welcome back to the show for the second time, founder of Authored Up, Ivana Turunek.

Ivana Turunek:
Michelle, thank you so much for having me again. I'm really excited to share what’s changed in the past year and a half.

Michelle B. Griffin:
We are so excited you're here because a little over a year ago, you were on the show, and it's one of my top-downloaded episodes on the podcast. But then you and I were chatting last fall, and you were like, "Michelle, I have new research coming out." You just told me before we went live that anytime in the last, what, three months, you’ve been able to capture new research and new data. So, I want to dive right into it because a lot of people are really ready to get out there and get visible, build and boost their personal brand. But before we do, I want to set the record straight. I had a lot of people go, "Michelle, Authored Up is amazing, and I use it too," and a few people said, "Michelle, I want to use Authored Up, but I'm a little concerned." So, is there any safety issues? Because there are some tech issues out there with other platforms. Can you set us straight?

Ivana Turunek:
Authored Up is, I cannot say the only tool, but it is, that we know, the only tool that is not doing any kind of automation on LinkedIn. So, what does that mean? It means that we are not impersonating you in front of LinkedIn. For example, you have tools where you can log in, and you can get, let's say, the last 100 comments, or you can get the last 10 people that reacted to your post. To do that, the only way is basically, we need to take your cookie, and your cookie is your username and your password. In order to avoid any kind of automation, we never touch your cookie.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Okay, well, we're safe then! And that's what I told everyone, but I needed you to explain it better for me. I've used Authored Up ever since it came out about two years ago. You're in the category of content creation and LinkedIn analytics. Is that how you would describe what you do?

Ivana Turunek:
We are the tool for regular people. From the moment of your idea for a LinkedIn post to understanding what works for you. We’re trying to capture the whole funnel, the whole flow for you. We are not targeting LinkedIn influencers. We are targeting people like ourselves who aren’t influencers but just want to develop some personal branding on LinkedIn.

Michelle B. Griffin:
I love that positioning because a lot of tech targets influencers, but we want you and I—especially with my work on personal branding—to help more people be seen, recognized, and share their unique brilliance out there. So, let's jump right into it. There’s a lot of new research and data. Let’s talk about it, and we'll also talk about how to position yourself with the work we both do, helping people get on their way. What's the big change? What do you see?

Ivana Turunek:
First of all, because we were doing research every couple of months, right now we have a dynamic intelligence tool that we built internally, so we can do it daily. Obviously, it’s hard to report daily, but what we see is, in the last two months, what was expected is that the impressions plateaued—they are even down. We are talking about average and median numbers. So, for example, if you were getting 1,000 impressions per post in September, in December, you’re good if you are between 650 and 700. There are two reasons: First, most people are taking time off LinkedIn. They are not there. But we believe that even more important is that those who are on LinkedIn—who go to the feed and scroll—are not engaging enough. They won’t post ten comments; they might post maybe two. They won’t react; they’re just there to get some news, understand what’s going on. They spend less time in the feed, even though they open LinkedIn a couple of times a day. So, impressions for all content types, for 98% of people, are down. We believe this is ending right now. We already see daily numbers that are starting to go up, and by February, it should get back to where it was a few months ago—not years ago. The heyday, the "gold rush," is over.

Michelle B. Griffin:
But I tell everyone, listen, it doesn’t matter if the reach is down. I consider your profile and even your company page like a personal brand website. It’s your launching pad to building connections, relationships, and getting media attention, speaking, etc. It’s not about being done with LinkedIn. No, it’s where business conversations happen. It’s the only social media site and community networking place of its kind. So, we want to find the best way to be there.

Ivana Turunek:
Exactly. So impressions are down, but the good news is they’re kind of coming back. What else do you see that we should know about?

Ivana Turunek:
We also see changes in the content types that are being pushed on LinkedIn right now, especially for 2024. As you know, LinkedIn launched a new feature related to video content, primarily on the mobile app, which we call a "TikTok-ish" type feature. We see that video content is being pushed a lot. How we identify this is that, before, it was only available in the U.S. and a few other countries. When people in the U.S. are awake, you get literally like three, four, or five times more impressions than you would in other regions. It’s really pushed. However, engagement is very low. For example, your typical engagement rate for all posts is 1-2%, but when you post that kind of video and it’s pushed in the video feed, your engagement rate goes down to 0.1% or even lower.

Michelle B. Griffin:
So, people are watching but not engaging as much?

Ivana Turunek:
Yes. And another thing we see is repetitiveness. Content creators—like influencers—prefer video. It’s also super easy for them because they can create the content for other platforms like YouTube or TikTok and then just push it to LinkedIn. But for regular business people who are there for B2B, making conversations, meeting people, they are not really willing to make that type of content.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Agreed. It’s tough to go from on the sidelines to posting a video. That’s a big ask, and most people don’t have the time or inclination for it.

Ivana Turunek:
Right. So, what other content formats should someone focus on if they just want to start getting visible on LinkedIn this year?

Michelle B. Griffin:
It has to be tested, right?

Ivana Turunek:
Exactly. Yes, video, especially that format, is doing great. But for impressions, you can also get a lot with polls. If you're talking about personal life and struggles, you’re going to get impressions, but will it convert into any kind of conversation? What converts people from the post to your profile is "how I" content. Personal business experiences, struggles, things you’ve learned—those work really well. Even though you might not get impressions, if it’s written well, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it has to be your content. If it’s good content, you will get a lot of people visiting your profile, sending DMs, and responding.

Michelle B. Griffin:
So humanizing the brand and focusing on your unique perspective, "how I see it" versus just "how-to" content?

Ivana Turunek:
Yes, exactly. The "how-to" content is oversaturated now with AI tools. If it’s something that could be easily found on Google or via AI, it won’t be remarkable.

Michelle B. Griffin:
I absolutely agree with that. What’s your take on using visuals with text posts, not selfies but just a visual?

Ivana Turunek:
If we’re talking about visuals, if there’s your face in the image, those visuals perform better than if it’s just a random picture. If you’re presenting something like a handwritten note, or a graph, or even an Excel table, it’s about adding value that will stop people from scrolling. And yes, if you’re at an event, it should include your face with other people. Please don’t tag a hundred people when you go to the event, but it’s okay to tag a few.

Michelle B. Griffin:
I love those event posts! Because we can’t go to all these industry conferences, whatever industry you’re in. I love seeing pictures of people speaking, or maybe a few people tagged. You can say, "Here’s something I learned," or "You won’t believe this." It’s an easy way to get out there.

Ivana Turunek:
Exactly!

Michelle B. Griffin:
Now, let’s talk about carousels real quick. You know, they had their heyday and have been up and down. But now they’re works of art compared to the simple Canva ones I used to do in 2020-2021. What’s your take on carousels?

Ivana Turunek:
Carousels still work when we compare the typical impressions for text posts versus carousels. Carousels are still getting more impressions, 20-30% more. However, the question is: How much time do they take to create, and what energy do you invest? Whether you can create three or four great text-and-image posts in the time it takes to make one carousel.

If you’re doing a carousel, make sure it’s valuable. If you’re just posting something like "top five books I read this summer," it’s not going to perform well. Everyone is doing that, and it’s easy to copy. But if you want to show a process or flow—something that’s hard to present in a text post—then a carousel is the content type to go for.

Michelle B. Griffin:
That’s great insight, Ivana. Let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far and position ourselves to get going in the new year.

Ivana Turunek:
Most people struggle with their expectations and results they hope to get in one month, three months, or whatever. One thing that I truly believe doesn’t work anymore is getting 10 templates for posts but not frameworks. Frameworks are okay; they help you communicate your idea. But templates where you have square brackets to fill in, many people were selling that for hundreds of dollars, and I really avoid that.

It’s better to learn to get your style rather than mirror someone else’s style. LinkedIn has thousands of people doing the same thing, so trying to copy them isn’t going to get you far. And third, have a big focus on different topics. For example, if you’re a consultant, but you see a specific topic trending, write about it. Stay on top of current topics but don’t chase the quick wins.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Exactly! Stay in your lane, focus on what you want to be known for, and don’t compare yourself to others. When you do that, you’ll start to become the go-to, and your confidence will grow.

Ivana Turunek:
Absolutely. And remember, it’s okay to make mistakes. Perfection isn’t the goal—authenticity is.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Right! Let’s now focus on commenting. It’s an easy way to get started. You might not feel comfortable posting yet, but commenting is a great way to start.

Ivana Turunek:
Yes! Start by commenting on posts. It’s better than scrolling aimlessly. Try to be consistent, and you don’t need to be genius. A couple of sentences about what you think on a topic can work.

Michelle B. Griffin:
So, don’t just scroll—be intentional. Go find five people you like and start commenting. It’s an easy way to get into the groove.

Ivana Turunek:
Exactly. And as you do that, your confidence will grow, and you’ll eventually feel comfortable posting.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Definitely check out Authored Up. I’ve sent so many people your tool on how to write a really good "About" section. You still have that on your website, right?

Ivana Turunek:
Yes, it’s a free tool. No login, no email sign-up required. Just go to our website and type in your "About" section.

Michelle B. Griffin:
I’ll put a link in the comments and on the podcast. It’s such a helpful tool!

Ivana Turunek:
Exactly. It’s a great way to improve your profile.

Michelle B. Griffin:
This has been tremendous, Ivana. Tell us where we can find you.

Ivana Turunek:
You can always find me on LinkedIn, and if you have any questions, drop me a DM. We’re also on the Authored Up company page and website.

Michelle B. Griffin:
Coming up in March, I know you have a report coming out. It’s going to be huge.

Ivana Turunek:
Yes, we’re preparing it. What I’ve shared today is just the first part. The full report will be out at the end of March.

Michelle B. Griffin:
I can’t wait to see it! One last tip to leave people with—what would you say to them as they head into the new year?

Ivana Turunek:
When you think it’s time to stop, please don’t stop—keep going!

Michelle B. Griffin:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me here today, Ivana. And thank you to everyone who joined us live or on the replay. Go put yourself out there—you have a brand to build, a message to share, and people to impact. I’ll catch you next time. Take care, everyone!

Ivana Turunek:
Thank you, Michelle. Bye!