Informed: the podcast for LinkedIn® users

Welcome to episode 196, this week I chat with personal branding expert Jennifer Holloway about the article that LinkedIn bring out every year highlighting the most used words in LinkedIn profiles.Click on the image above to view the full articleTakeaways from our chatSome words (such as passionate) are overused in profiles without much thought going into whether they are true or not A better way to interpret this list is not to avoid the words as such but to demonstrate that you are ‘passionate’ or ‘motivated’ by the way you describe what you do. Let the reader make the conclusion themselves. Storytelling can be a great way to demonstrate qualities without having to directly tell someone you are an ‘expert, ’strategic’ or ‘creative’ Are you using a buzzword because it is one you commonly use or are you just falling into the trap of using it for the sake of it? Jennifers advice on writing a LinkedIn summary; Show credibility with hard facts Explain your personal brand by explaining what drives you and explaining your values Give the reader a ‘relationship hook’ - something about you that reveals your personality and allows for a more personal connection. LinkedIn profile headlines are still the most keyword sensitive part of your profile but only jobseekers need to be highly focused on profile optimisation. Never make personal statements without answering Janet Morans questions ‘So What and Says who?!’ A good technique to use if you are struggling to write your profile summary is to get a friend to write if you - this won’t be what you will use but it can really help to get you started. Thanks again to Jennifer for her time and ideas. You can find out more about her from her LinkedIn profile (link in image above) or by going to her website https://www.jennifer-holloway.co.uk/This weeks question comes from Mahan Tavakoli“Hi Mark, I am a newer listener to your podcast and really enjoying the content and your style.  So much so that I have downloaded all available past episodes from ITunes and going through them one at a time. Anyway, I have a question and not sure if you have addressed this before or not.  If it fits what you are looking to cover on the Podcast, I would love to hear your thoughts about it.  I am writing a series of articles (on leadership and organizational development).  Should I first publish them on LinkedIn and then on Medium and put on my blog… or should I publish them elsewhere and post links in LinkedIn or is an all of the above strategy viable?   Most of my target audience is on LinkedIn but want to know your thoughts about best approach to a blog posting strategy.”   My advice is that you are probably best posting your content as an article and on your blog at the same time. Your latest Article becomes a part of your profile and has a longer shelf life than a post. You will need to promote your article via engaging and interesting posts - not just ‘have a read of my article’ - try to introduce the subject matter and ask questions to start a conversation. You can refer to the article with a link but the post needs to resonate with people in its own right. Never try to promote your external blog via LinkedIn, it simply won’t work as the algorithm will suppress the distribution of any post containing an external link.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 195, I had planned to cover a different subject (The dangers of automation - let me know your thoughts on that!) this week but then I got an excellent voicemail question from Giles about the differences between following and connecting and decided to cover that subject in more detail.But before that…… Interesting Stuff I Saw This WeekFind the Right Words to Land the Right Job More on this in next weeks episode! The Most Popular Jobs and Companies for College Graduates The top job is also the highest pay! ($95k) Insight Global - a fast growing IT recruitment business Why I changed my LinkedIn profile from Andrea to Andrew She was taken more seriously and less patronised when a man! The algorithm started suggesting connections to higher level men at well-recognised companies. Fascinating experiment …..could be worth a try! LinkedIn Updates Have you noticed the new font? Summaries and headlines may need to be adjusted. New changes to groups may be having some positive impact on groups One manager reports a 10x increase in engagement Unfortunately the changes seemed to have messed up all other notifications! You can now see your own activity in one click, rather than having to go to your profileLinkedIn are clearing ‘moving the furniture’ on desktop at the moment, so many things are not working - especially @mentions and notifications. I also found that only half the comments on one of my posts were showing when I checked on mobile. Suggest you keep an eye on mobile at the moment until things settle down. Connecting and FollowingAs I mentioned, this subject was instigated by a question I received from Giles; Definition: Following someone means that you could see their content and activity in your feed (articles, posts, shares, likes and comments). You can follow anyone on LinkedIn provided their setting allow this.You can follow up to 5000 people who are not your connections. To follow someone simply click on the 3 dot ‘More’ menu at the top of their profile or look for the Follow button on the Activity section of their profile.ConnectingA connection is a follower and someone you follow by default. You can unfollow a connection at anytime from the ‘More’ menu. You are allowed up to 30,000 connections.The difference with a connection is that, as well as their activity you are able to see and filter their connections (dependant on their setting), send messages and see their full contact info including their primary email address.Now to Giles questionFirstly let me address the question of blocking.This is the only way you can prevent him from following you He will not be alerted to being blocked He will then not be able to find you on LinkedIn, or vice versa The bigger question is whether a competitor following you is a problem or not?What harm can come from him seeing your activity - assuming you are not giving away commercially sensitive information? Following you may make him realise he is way behind and may, in some way intimidate him. A greater threat would come if he started commenting and engaging with your postsThis brings up a wider point;The ethics of competition on LinkedIn;Is it ethical to provide advice and demonstrate your knowledge on a competitors post? Should you ever ask for a competitors view via an @mention?When to follow and NOT connectA complete stranger whose content you find interesting A competitor A prospect or intermediary who you wish to engage withObviously 1 and 3 may be pre-cursors to connecting.Following has been around on LinkedIn for years but still most people just connect, it’s beginning to be understood better but we still have a way to go. When I talk with people who are more familiar with other social networks, I explain the mechanics of LinkedIn as being like a blend of Twitter, where you follow and Facebook where you connect (friend). On LinkedIn you can do either! This weeks question is also about following and comes from Nigel Willis Nigels first question refers to following Influencers such as Bill gates. Influencers have become known for posting some decent content but never engaging with comments, this somewhat flies in the face of the point of content in my opinion! I’m not surprised you want to unfollow Bill and as far as I know it will not cause you any issues with the algorithm. In terms of the second question. You can’t specify that you wish to see a certain type of content from someone that you are following but you can select to follow topics. Unfortunately LinkedIn do not allow us to see a list of Topics, we have to wait for them to suggest them although searching for content can often trigger the algorithm to suggest a Topic relevant to that search. You can also unfollow people to clean up your feed You can also search for content and follow people who write about subjects that interest you.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Join Sandra Long, a LinkedIn trainer and author of 'LinkedIn for Personal Branding', as she dives into the world of personal branding. She highlights the importance of authenticity in crafting your professional image and shares practical tips on building a clear personal brand. Discover how blending personal and professional personas can enhance your online presence. Sandra also discusses the benefits of personal branding for corporate environments, urging professionals to overcome hesitancy and embrace authenticity.

Welcome to episode 193 and a very happy and prosperous new year to you all. I trust everyone had a fantastic break over Christmas.Towards the end of last year I conducted a survey of LinkedIn users to see how behaviour had changed on LinkedIn. I had a sense that the results would be interesting……and I wasn’t disappointed!In this episode I will go through the results with you but before that…. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week LinkedOut: The 7 Stages of Grieving a Breakup LinkedOut Update: what to do if your account is restricted?New LinkedIn FeatureInvitation Sorting You can now sort your received invitations. This is probably only going to be useful for people that get a lot of invites or get behind with dealing with them but it’s good to see an improvement anyway.I think an additional catergory of “customized with a message” would also be helpful as, when I do have a lot to go through, I always prefer to read those with messages first. Magnet Posts It would appear that the ‘magnet’ post feature has been improved in that you no no longer need to have any of the skills you specify in your post - as previously covered in episode 189, this makes much more sense! Thanks to Jillian for the heads up on this I still don’t have the feature but if you do and have been using it, I would love to hear how well it has worked for you. Interesting PostThanks to Carl for sending this one in.This is actually pretty easy to do yourself, but only if you have access to a Sales Navigator or Recruiter account. For some reason the url’s on those interfaces ignore the customised version and show the original source url with your number in itThe 2017 LinkedIn User Survey ResultsWe had 780 responses in total, thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the questions. One of the questions asked for the date you signed up to LinkedIn…one person apparently signed up in the year 1800! This individual apparently signs into their account on a weekly basis but has only managed to amass 8 connections in all that time - in addition they have 0 followers so presumably all 8 connections have chosen to unfollow them!! Fortunately this was the only spoof entry we received.The average number of connections was 2178 The average number of followers was 2748We had five people who had reached the maximum 30,000 connections.The highest number of followers was 205,000 (11,658 were connections) and equally impressive was someone who had 165,231 followers including only 1903 connections!As for the rest of the questions, the full results can be seen below;Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 192 and a very merry Christmas to all of you.There has been very little news about LinkedIn this week but I did native the following two related articles; Interesting Stuff I Saw This WeekWhat we got right — and terribly wrong — in our 2017 predictions The 50 big ideas for 2018LinkedIn are, as always, keeping very tight lipped about their plans for 2018 so I thought it would be fun to take a stab at what I think the likely trends for LinkedIn in 2018 will be. LinkedIn in 2018 Increased use of #Hashtags. Hashtags re-emerged in 2017 but next year they will become mainstream and ‘trending hashtags’ will become an important feature that we will all be using extensively by the end of the year. Livestream Video. This one has been on LinkedIn’s roadmap for a while and I predict 2018 will be the year it is finally implemented. Native video will be fully rolled out by the end of the first quarter and I believe Livestream video will start to become a feature (mobile only) by the middle of 2018. As with Native video it will take a while for users to figure out the best way to use Live streaming so I don’t expect it to have a big impact in 2018…but it will start to roll out. More spam. As the number of users increase and spammers (not just cowboys but also the uneducated) start to realise that they risk big fines due to the GDPR legislation (effective from May 2018). LinkedIn messaging and InMail will become a more widely used tool for spammers. LinkedIn Hangouts. #LinkedInLocal will continue to grow and people will start to see the benefits of meeting their connections face to face…but not every business operates locally so LinkedIn will respond to this need by introducing a live video hangout feature - this will use the same platform as Livestreaming and be closely linked to the New groups feature. New Groups. I know that LinkedIn are working on a complete re-design of groups and this will be implemented during 2018. Expect to see something completely different - possibly even renamed and rebranded that will include the hangouts feature mentioned above. Increased Engagement. This was the big surprise of 2017 and LinkedIn users will continue to learn that broadcasting content without attracting comments is a waste of time. Expect more and more comments on posts and articles as content producers get to grips with better quality (engaging) content. Engagement Analytics. Following on from the increase in engagement I predict that 3rd party tools will appear that allow you to find and assess people based on their comments and Likes as well as their content. Voice commands. 2018 will be the year of Alexa type voice controls everywhere and it will become so mainstream that LinkedIn won’t be able to resit getting involved. We could see voice commands on the mobile app such as “search for marketing managers in Birmingham, united kingdom” or “accept my new invitations”. Personal Branding. This will become more important next year and more and more people move away from corporate employment and become self-employed experts in their field. Another possible trend is that corporates may move away from ‘enterprise/corporate brands and encourage employees to develop their personal brands on behalf of the company. LinkedIn Stories. Stories are big on Snapchat and Instagram and are now becoming more popular on Facebook. LinkedIn have a long tradition of adopting popular features from other social media platforms and I see stories as being no different. Native video, text and image posts can be combined and collated into stories. Expect to see this as a new feature in the second half of 2018.Please note that ALL the above predictions are total guesswork on my behalf. I have no inside knowledge on what might actually happen! What do you think of the above predictions? Can you think of others?Thanks to everyone for contributing to the 2017 LinkedIn User survey.I will compiling the results in January and expect to announce the results on either the first or second episode of 2018.If you didn’t get time before, way not help out now by taking a few minutes to answer the questions below;That’s it for this week and for this year!We will be back with the first episode of 2018 on January 13thHappy ChristmasHappy Christmas to you all, enjoy the break, open time with your families and switch LinkedIn off for a week or so!See you next year.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 191, this week I’m going to cover a topic I tackle almost on a daily basis at the moment…..How to know what subjects to post about on LinkedIn.But before I get onto that…… Interesting Stuff I Saw This WeekThe Crappy Handbook of LinkedIn Profile Pics LinkedIn Top Voices 2017: The must-know people inspiring today’s professional conversations Stay on Top of In-Demand Skills with New Notifications #LinkedInLocal I originally covered the LinkedIn Local phenomenon in episode 166 when I interview Erik Eklund who was a founding member of this movement along with Alex Galviz, Anna McAfee and Manu Goswani. Since then the founders have been joined by Ryan Troll and Brian Almeida to form an organisation that co-ordinates LinkedIn Local meet ups throughout the world. They have now set up a new website Click on the image above to visit the websiteIf you are thinking of running a LinkedIn Local event in your area then take a look at the website to understand how you go about it.Please Do The Survey! And if you have done it….please share it widely!I was aiming to get to 1000 responses by Christmas but at the time of writing, I’m still below 500! It has been much harder than I expected to get people to complete this short (5 mins) survey but I really feel we need to get at least 500 to make the results viable.So please share the link http://bit.ly/Linkedin2017 with your LinkedIn network, Twitter and Instagram followers and Facebook friendsIf you haven’t yet done the survey, here it isThis weeks question also forms the main topic for this week;I hear you talk a lot about techniques for posting which is very useful but my problem is ‘what’ to post about. Any tips?I get asked this question so much and I also regularly have to tackle the subject when I am working with customers that are currently posting promotional content.Here are my guidelines; The McFly Syndrome - It’s all about you…STOP SELF PROMOTING! This includes talking about events you have organised, new members of staff or awards you have won. You might not see it as such but others only see this as self promotion. These posts are OK occasionally but need to dominated by less selfish content. Understand your relevant followers. You don’t need to ‘speak’ to all your followers but you must focus on gaining a deeper understanding of what interests your followers; > What motivates them > What frustrates them > What worries them > What excites them > What content do they read? > What sort of posts are they Liking, Sharing or Commenting on Experiment with different subjects. What works and what falls flat. Try not to make too many assumptions and judge by results. People on LinkedIn are much less ‘stuffy’ than you think! Try people orientated content and use stories where possible. Think about light, fun subjects as well as subjects that people are likely to have strong opinions about. The ‘gold standard’ measurement is comments.These guidelines refer to content rather then technique. You can learn more about technique, plus some other content tips in episode 178Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 190, it seems that many people are talking about the mysterious LinkedIn algorithm, myself included! I can’t believe how many of these people are still blaming the algorithm for the poor performance of their content, it’s not the algorithm folks, it’s your content!……But before I get stuck into that, here are a few things I came across this week Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week People Are Flooding LinkedIn With Strange Stories. We’re Calling Them Broetry. 7 Next-Level Sourcing Tips From the Master, Glen Cathey Can Linkedin Save Slideshare? LinkedIn Plans Improvements, Including Changes To SlideShare New LinkedIn A.I. Is Now Judging Your Content. Sorry, What Content? Native video problems A number of people have been seeing error messages on native LinkedIn videos this weekIt would appear that simply refreshing your page often sorts this out, if not then try clearing your cache. Blaming The Algorithm I enjoy the challenge of ‘outsmarting’ the algorithm as much as anyone, more than most probably but I really think that people are getting a bit carried away with it’s importance.Let’s be clear - Content will always be king!I recently came across this post from someone complaining that the algorithm favoured posts over Articles - the argument seems to be that he spends longer crafting an Article so the algorithm should reflect that…..what?!!I checked back and he hadn’t created any posts linking to this article so how did he expect people to find it? It’s also worth noting that Article ‘views’ are not the same as post ‘views in the feed. All the algorithm does is reflect what it sees as being interesting and engaging amongst LinkedIn users. Yes it initially decides how many people see a post and that is important but that alone won’t ensure many people see your content - the most critical factor is how people react to it and for that to happen you need to write interesting content. Interesting does not equate to ‘interesting to you’ or ‘appropriate for LinkedIn’ it means it need to resonate with your followers. Do you know what resonates with your followers? Maybe you do but you don’t ‘approve’ - well thats up to you but don’t blame the algorithm, blame your followers….or dare I say it….take the blame yourself!My observations are as follows; People prefer short form content on LinkedIn People don’t always want to talk about business, lighter subject matter is surprisingly popular Posts are seen on our home page and with one click that does not require opening a new page we can read more…that is just more user friendly Posts should gain the attention of a reader within the first 3 lines - the spacing argument is not proven and makes no sense to me. It just needs to be long enough to trigger the ‘see more’ and good enough to motivate someone to click on it.So rather than blaming the algorithm, perhaps it’s time to start taking notice of what your followers really want and providing them with that? Competition Winner In episode 181 I interviewed PR expert Janet Murray and she kindly offered a free 60 minute PR strategy call with a lucky winner of a free prize draw.This was some weeks ago but the responses have been dripping in ever since so I haven’t made the draw until now.And the lucky winner is……..(drum roll)Mark Barlow from Dirty Marks Cleaning services. Mark runs a window cleaning service as well as being an online marketing strategist!Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 189, not much news this week but I do have a couple of new features to share with you and a cool thing plus I feel the need for a rant!…..more later. Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week‘LinkedIn degrees’ from global providers ‘could leave UK behind’ Russian accused of hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox to be extradited to US Oops: LinkedIn country subdomains SSL cert just expired New FeaturesDouble tap to LikeThis new mobile feature is copied straight from Instagram and is definitely aimed at millennial who tend to move through their streams much more quickly and ‘thumb tap’ rather than finger tap as us ‘oldies’ tend toNew Magnet PostsThis feature is in the early stages of roll out so you may not see it yet but it’s a good one!When you create a post on a mobile app you now get the option to specify to send it to the homepage of (and potentially notify) followers who have specific skills - via a magnet icon. By tapping on the magnet below you are given the option to pick up to three skills.This means that the distribution of your post will initially only be to targeted followers - it may of course reach further as they like or comment on it.When you receive such a post in your feed you will see which skills you have that match the specified ones and you are encouraged to ‘Add your thoughts’The only problem is that the skills you pick have to be skills that you also have on your profile. This seems like an unnecessary criteria to me and will result in people adding false skills to their profile just so they can target people they are interested in.You can tell these posts said because the skills specified and those you match are clearly identifiedAll that said, it’s a great new feature and hopefully we will all have the opportunity to use it soon. Are You Stuck In The ‘Content Marketing’ Past?Whilst conducting some research this week I was stunned by the amount of people that are still wasting time and resources in posting external links.Its a waste of time….virtually no-one see’s it!I’m somewhat puzzled by this. Do these people not care that there is zero engagement and views?Maybe I’m wrong and they are getting huge numbers to their website….I doubt it!It seems to me that it is taking people a long time to shift their habits from the ‘share relevant content to build trust’ into ‘build trust through engagement.I suspect much of this is just people who have set up automatic sharing via aggregate and scheduling tools so they don’t really notice - the problem is that it messes up their ‘ranking’ with LinkedIn algorithm making it harder to reach many people, even if their posts are better.Maybe it’s just extremely hard for people to break long established habits? The ‘post interesting content and bring people to your website’ mantra has been around for a long time but does it really work?I personally found that it didn’tWhat do you think?Are you still posting links?If you want to post a link you need to do it manually as I showed recently in this videoEvernote Business Card ConnectingThis isn’t actually a new, just something I had forgotten existed! I was reminded by someone about it this week, I honestly thought the feature had disappeared when LinkedIn severely restricted access to third parties but I was wrong.This is a great tool to use when at a physical networking event.This video shows you exactly what to doBefore you can use this you need to make a few adjustments to your Evernote app and account.This feature is only available to Premium Evernote usersGo to Account > SettingsNow tap on CameraNow tap into ‘Business cards’And now you will see the option to connect the app with your LinkedIn accountYou can’t customise the invitations so I would only use this whilst you are actually with the person but it can be a great way to ensure that you always quickly and efficiently remember to connect!How can I see who is following me?This feature is exactly the same on desktop and mobile but it’s not where you would expect it!Go to your profile and scroll down to your activity and you will see a blue link ‘Manage Followers’ next to the number of followersThe following list will always start with your followers (as opposed to connections who are followers). If you see the option to follow them back then you know they are not a connection, scroll down until the option ceases and it states that you are already ‘following’ these will (mostly) be your connections.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 188, this week I had some very sad news, one of the clipper race crew was swept overboard and tragically lost his life - devastating for his family and also extremely unnerving for all the other crews. I can’t begin to imagine how they carry on from this.It highlights just how dangerous this race is and impressed on me even more just what Brendan Hall had to go through when he won the race previously.Brendan incidentally released his new speaker showreel this week;I had an interesting chat with Stoke School student Tim Collins who has been using LinkedIn along with some of his friends recently and has been impressed with the authenticity and kindness shown to him by LinkedIn members……(give it time Tim!). You can hear that interview later in the episode but firstly.Interesting Stuff I Saw This WeekTrends in marketing investments: LinkedIn starts to establish status? Women Are Reminding People That LinkedIn Is Not A Dating Website Following "Creepy" Messages LinkedIn pledges $10 million for affordable housing. A charitable act or protecting their own interests?New FeaturesSome people have reported seeing a new design to the search page. This is clearly of on LinkedIn annoying A/B tests but doesn’t it look awful?You can now embed posts into your website, just as I have done several times in this post, including the video below. This can be done on anyone’s posts including your own but isn’t available to everyone yet (roll out). Simply click on the 3 dots as seen below and then copy the HTML codeLinkedIn are now officially launching their new ‘Career Advice’ feature which is closely allied to the mentoring feature. More in this video;What You Saw On LinkedIn This WeekThis could become an interesting new feature if you get involved! The best way to improve the quality and reach of our content is to observe other successful posts. So why not use LinkedInformed as a place to share any great posts you saw last week.I really liked this one sent in my listener Carl this week.I can’t wait to see how that develops!So from now, when you spot something interesting, take a note of the url and send it to me. That way we can all learn from each others feedsMy LinkedIn SurveyI announced this last week and I was terrified that my target of 1000 respondents was going to be too hard to reach…..I might have been right!Over the last week I have managed to gather 300 respondents but that leaves me woefully short so…. I NEED YOUR HELP!Please take a few mins out of your day to complete the survey and then share it with your network.A Millennial’s view - LinkedIn is Authentic, collaborative and refreshingly ‘real’Listener Anna McAfee pointed out to me a video posted by 3 school kids made while they are waiting for parent evening to start. The person that posted it was Tim Collins, so I thought it would be interesting to get him on the show!I really enjoyed hearing what an 18 year old makes of LinkedIn, especially in comparison to Facebook (old and dated) and Instagram (lacks authenticity)This is Tim’s Video postI love the way he was brave enough to know that is was far from ‘perfect’ or ‘professional’ and post it anyway…….if an 18 year old can then why can’t you? (assuming you have video)And this is the post he referred to when talking about ‘it’s about who you know’No questions for this week. Please feel to drop me a line or leave a voicemail of you want your question featured on the show.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

Welcome to episode 187, this week we are back to the normal format after a few weeks of interviews. I would really appreciate your help with compiling a survey of how LinkedIn users have changed their behaviour over the last 12 months or so. More of that later but firstly……Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week60% users from Russia remain on LinkedIn after year of blocking Creating Your Resume Just Got a Whole Lot Easier with Microsoft and LinkedIn New FeatureActive status is coming to your home page feed. We are used to seeing the green dots in messaging but they will soon be seen elsewhere on LinkedIn, which is a great move.There does seem to be some confusion as to what each one means so just for clarity; A green dot means that person is active on LinkedIn (desktop or mobile) A green circle (Jo below) means they have push notifications enabled on their mobile app. This will also show in profiles, here you can see that Kate (featured in episode 185) is not active but does have push notifications enabled on mobile.You can adjust your settings for active status if you wish under ‘privacy’ in your settingsI had this for about 2 weeks but it has disappeared again now, it’s a great feature though and I’m looking forward to it becoming permanent once they have completed their testing. How many profile views do you get? I’m amazed to see how many Gretta gets!Posting External Links - New MethodI saw this Article from Andy Foster and decided to make a video post about it.The bigger question is whether posting links at all makes any sense. Maybe the content marketing / bring people to your web site method is no longer the best way to generate new business? What do you think?LinkedIn Search ResultsWhen searching LinkedIn you will get results from anyone that meets your criteria but they won’t all be visible to you, however there are some people beyond your 3rd tier that are still visible. Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.