Building Authenticity and Influence on LinkedIn

WEBVTT

00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.388
Today we have an awesome episode.

00:00:02.388 --> 00:00:12.967
We're talking about some weirdly specific and awesome LinkedIn tips and strategies, and we have a great guest to help us talk through that.

00:00:12.967 --> 00:00:14.089
Sam, welcome to the show.

00:00:14.089 --> 00:00:16.153
Thank you very much, glad to be here.

00:00:16.153 --> 00:00:23.862
So why don't we start off by you taking just a minute or two to share a little bit about who you are and what you do?

00:00:23.882 --> 00:00:25.565
Sure to share a little bit about who you are and what you do.

00:00:25.565 --> 00:00:25.664
Sure.

00:00:25.664 --> 00:00:39.345
So I'm a LinkedIn coach, specifically for entrepreneurs, founders and teams that are trying to get more out of LinkedIn, whether that's on the content building side or the sales messaging side or anything like that In the industry we call it.

00:00:39.345 --> 00:00:40.947
How long have you been active on LinkedIn?

00:00:40.947 --> 00:00:48.654
Because a lot of people have had an account for 10, 15 years, but not that many people are actively involved in the LinkedIn community.

00:00:48.673 --> 00:00:55.441
So I've been active on LinkedIn for about four and a half years, and when I got started I didn't really know what I was doing there.

00:00:55.441 --> 00:01:00.680
I had a couple of brothers who told me hey, sammy, you should get involved in LinkedIn, start posting over there.

00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:03.564
I said look, I I've worked for a job.

00:01:03.564 --> 00:01:09.933
I don't have a college degree, I don't know how I would be able to kind of help anyone on there.

00:01:09.933 --> 00:01:19.469
And I decided well, if I'm going to get started on LinkedIn, I'll just try to learn as much as I can about the platform and then also be as encouraging to people as I can.

00:01:19.469 --> 00:01:24.786
And little did I know that was the best possible strategy and it's been a wild ride.

00:01:24.786 --> 00:01:27.530
I've gotten to work with some really cool people and I've learned a lot.

00:01:30.394 --> 00:01:30.694
Awesome.

00:01:30.694 --> 00:01:34.174
Well, why don't we jump right in?

00:01:34.174 --> 00:01:35.379
We're ready to be inspired.

00:01:35.379 --> 00:01:42.993
Why don't you share a story or two about working with some of the biggest influencers out there?

00:01:43.274 --> 00:01:43.474
Sure.

00:01:43.474 --> 00:01:55.686
So when I first got started on LinkedIn, I'd been posting kind of sporadically and then I wanted to find out more about how kind of bigger influencers on LinkedIn really got going.

00:01:55.686 --> 00:02:12.447
And so what I did was I did this massive kind of project where I said I'm going to look at these major LinkedIn influencers, I'm going to scroll all the way down to the bottom of their content and I'm going to see how many times did they have to post to really gain traction on the platform.

00:02:12.447 --> 00:02:29.301
So it was a very laborious process where I was literally counting all these different posts and seeing how many likes they got and how many comments, and the purpose of the post was to show, hey, all these people are seen as kind of overnight successes, but it wasn't an overnight success For several of them.

00:02:29.301 --> 00:02:34.252
They had to post 100, 200, 300 times before they really got traction.

00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:36.407
That post kind of blew up.

00:02:36.407 --> 00:02:43.674
I had written an article with that and it caught the attention of some really cool people, including Justin and Jennifer Welsh.

00:02:43.674 --> 00:02:45.762
Justin is ranked kind of.

00:02:45.762 --> 00:02:49.235
There's a big list, it's called the Favicon top 200 list.

00:02:49.235 --> 00:02:54.800
Justin Welsh is ranked right now as the number one creator on the platform, and so he and his wife reached out to me.

00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:04.235
They had put together a LinkedIn community and they wanted me, I guess because I was doing pretty well with my own posts and I think I just had a generally friendly vibe.

00:03:04.556 --> 00:03:09.912
I don't even really know all the reasons but they reached out to me and asked me to be their community manager.

00:03:09.912 --> 00:03:17.223
So I got to work with them for a while and that just kind of spiraled into a bunch of other things that ended up happening down the road.

00:03:18.466 --> 00:03:18.725
Nice.

00:03:18.725 --> 00:03:23.050
I think that overnight success doesn't really happen.

00:03:23.050 --> 00:03:30.264
You have to stick with it for a while to sort of get success as an influencer.

00:03:30.264 --> 00:03:35.093
I just got a very interesting email from LinkedIn this week.

00:03:35.093 --> 00:03:57.251
It said you've been on the platform for 18 years and it was sort of like my report card for this year that the last 12 months that I had gotten like 600 connections in the last year was like one of the stats it shared with me and it had some other engagement stats about how many people had viewed my posts over the course of a year.

00:03:57.953 --> 00:04:24.305
But 18 years I've been on LinkedIn and I recently also figured out that you could go in on sort of the account settings area of LinkedIn and download your entire account history since the beginning of time as a user and I did that and that was really fascinating because it gave me all of my many thousands of connections by date over the years.

00:04:24.305 --> 00:04:27.052
It gave me every message I've ever sent on LinkedIn.

00:04:27.052 --> 00:04:38.350
It gave me every post I've ever liked on LinkedIn and it put it all in like this huge zip file and I was like wow when I realized how much information they keep about me.

00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:40.593
There's a lot here to unpack.

00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:42.466
Yeah, that's really impressive.

00:04:42.466 --> 00:04:44.086
That's a cool feature that they have.

00:04:44.086 --> 00:04:55.091
You can just down literally everything about yourself and it's it's a really good idea because for a lot of everything's on LinkedIn it's most people's main business social media platform.

00:04:55.091 --> 00:04:57.968
So if you lose it somehow, that would not be good.

00:04:57.968 --> 00:04:59.615
It's good to have all that stuff backed up.

00:04:59.615 --> 00:05:02.004
But yeah, 18 years, that's very impressive.

00:05:02.004 --> 00:05:04.252
I don't know that many other people who've been around for 18 years.

00:05:04.252 --> 00:05:04.713
That's very impressive.

00:05:04.713 --> 00:05:06.439
I don't know that many other people who've been around for 18 years.

00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:09.906
Well, my daughters always remind me I'm very old.

00:05:09.906 --> 00:05:12.293
They tell me I'm older than the Internet.

00:05:12.293 --> 00:05:23.836
But tell us some of the tips and tricks that you've used to to get traction for yourself and the clients you coach on LinkedIn.

00:05:24.221 --> 00:05:24.440
Sure.

00:05:24.440 --> 00:05:26.387
Well, it really depends what somebody wants to do.

00:05:26.387 --> 00:05:27.870
There's really two main people.

00:05:27.870 --> 00:05:29.802
I guess three are on LinkedIn.

00:05:29.802 --> 00:05:35.084
There's entrepreneurs and businesses that are wanting to grow their presence.

00:05:35.084 --> 00:05:39.903
There's kind of all the neutral people, where they're in a job, they're not looking for a job, they're chill.

00:05:39.903 --> 00:05:44.322
Most of those people don't, most people on LinkedIn don't even.

00:05:44.322 --> 00:05:48.273
Some people don't even know there's the social media side to it.

00:05:48.273 --> 00:05:55.009
They just know there's the profile, which is kind of an online resume, and then the third group of people are all the job seekers.

00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:56.846
So it really depends a lot.

00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:02.552
If you have a business, if you're trying to grow, there's kind of two main aspects to that.

00:06:02.552 --> 00:06:08.245
There's your content and then there's the sales messaging side, kind of the funnel side.

00:06:08.245 --> 00:06:16.420
Really, I break it down into you've got your content, you've got your profile, you've got your sales messaging or just conversations that you have with people.

00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:20.408
You don't even need to necessarily deem it as sales messaging.

00:06:20.408 --> 00:06:33.886
So what a lot of people do is they'll do all the sales messaging and you anyone can make business, can make money on LinkedIn even if you don't have a good, complete profile or if you post content.

00:06:33.886 --> 00:06:35.509
But I think it's a lot harder.

00:06:35.509 --> 00:06:37.021
I have a lot of people reaching out to me.

00:06:37.021 --> 00:06:44.747
That are sometimes people who tell me they can do the same thing for me that I do for other people, which is interesting.

00:06:44.747 --> 00:06:57.283
And then I'll go to their profile and it's like okay, well, you're telling me that you can help me with organic reach, but you haven't posted in three months and it looks like you last worked on your profile six years ago.

00:06:57.283 --> 00:07:01.834
So it's kind of the no like and trust thing.

00:07:01.834 --> 00:07:09.401
Well, it's hard for people to get to know you unless they're interacting with you, and the easiest way for people to interact with you is through your content.

00:07:09.401 --> 00:07:17.603
People can like you, can have a good profile and people can like you kind of right away and in your messaging.

00:07:17.964 --> 00:07:20.471
I think a lot of people are able to kind of get that across.

00:07:20.471 --> 00:07:25.276
Hey, I'm sending out great sales messaging, I'm sending in the DMs.

00:07:25.276 --> 00:07:32.084
There's always some resistance there, but if you're really good at it, if you kind of perfect that process, you can get people to like you.

00:07:32.084 --> 00:07:33.771
But then the trust factor.

00:07:33.771 --> 00:07:38.947
I think it's difficult for people to trust unless you're really kind of building up that reputation.

00:07:39.889 --> 00:07:46.533
One of the things that's great with posts is that if you're posting frequently and people are commenting.

00:07:46.533 --> 00:07:51.677
All of those comments kind of act as mini reviews, at least if they're positive comments.

00:07:51.677 --> 00:07:59.887
You put out a post about the subject matter that you're an expert in and then people will walk in and comment like, hey, thank you so much for sharing, I love your post.

00:07:59.887 --> 00:08:17.353
Nobody has information like you do, and so if you're sending out, if you're trying to build up a business using LinkedIn and you should 80%, I think, is the stat that I saw recently 80% of B2B business is done through LinkedIn and a ton of B2C business is done through LinkedIn.

00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:31.980
So if you're trying to build a business that has any kind of web, internet presence or anything like that, where you're getting customers online it's not if you own an auto shop right, that's in a small town LinkedIn probably isn't the best for you.

00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:42.368
But if you're trying to do D to C, direct to consumer, b to B or any kind of consulting or marketing practice or anything like that, you need to be on LinkedIn.

00:08:42.368 --> 00:08:49.952
And if you can build up your content, the advantage of that is that people will see hey, okay, people actually trust this person.

00:08:49.952 --> 00:08:55.913
So what they're sending me in their message is valid and I can probably actually do business.

00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:59.568
So what's the best content strategy for LinkedIn?

00:08:59.568 --> 00:09:03.322
I've seen some people say, oh, you should post something every day.

00:09:03.322 --> 00:09:13.576
I've seen people say you should post frequently, but you should also spend a lot of time commenting on other people's posts, because the longer than that gets a lot of posts.

00:09:13.576 --> 00:09:17.191
I've seen some people saying, oh, now you should post videos.

00:09:17.191 --> 00:09:23.652
What broad advice do you have for people if they want to launch a content strategy?

00:09:23.831 --> 00:09:30.145
Sure, so there's probably the most popular message on LinkedIn right now is to be consistent.

00:09:30.145 --> 00:09:47.465
I'm not against being consistent, but I'm more after being persistent, because I've seen quite a few people where they post every day consistently and then they get burnt out and then they don't post for several months or a year or something.

00:09:47.465 --> 00:09:54.772
And I think it's better to be persistent where, hey, choose a strategy that lets you do something for a long time frame.

00:09:54.772 --> 00:09:58.043
I'm four and a half years into a 10-year commitment to LinkedIn.

00:09:58.043 --> 00:10:11.907
Four and a half years ago I decided that I was going to be serious about LinkedIn for 10 years and I'm not even halfway through yet, but I'm still here, whereas a lot of people who started posting around the same time that I started posting they're nowhere to be seen.

00:10:11.907 --> 00:10:15.442
So if you can just be persistent with it, I think that's the way to go.

00:10:15.543 --> 00:10:16.325
Video is great.

00:10:16.325 --> 00:10:19.673
Video does a really good job of giving you kind of.

00:10:19.673 --> 00:10:22.663
It helps people see that, oh, this is a real person.

00:10:22.663 --> 00:10:24.767
That's the advantage of video.

00:10:24.767 --> 00:10:29.315
It doesn't always get the most views, although LinkedIn, I think, is trying to push it right now.

00:10:29.315 --> 00:10:41.333
For most business owners I would say one post a week would honestly be great One of the great advantages of LinkedIn is that you have your main text and then you have your accompanying media.

00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:43.967
Now you could also have a plain text post, so that's one style.

00:10:43.967 --> 00:10:47.159
Have your accompanying media, now you could also have a plain text post, so that's one style.

00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:53.592
But you have memes and GIFs and infographics and carousels and long form and short form video and all these different styles that you can add.

00:10:53.592 --> 00:10:59.847
So I think it's a good idea to kind of keep a lot of different media additions to your posts.

00:10:59.847 --> 00:11:11.965
It used to be back in the day LinkedIn was primarily just text posts, and some people still do really well with just text posts, but I think more and more people want to see a little bit of flavor kind of going around.

00:11:11.965 --> 00:11:18.571
And I would add that it's going to challenge people as a content creator to learn a little bit more of that multimedia side.

00:11:18.610 --> 00:11:31.293
I would say that, as long as you're being persistent, as long as you care about people, the commenting is good, not just because it helps with the algorithm, but because LinkedIn is a reciprocation platform.

00:11:31.293 --> 00:11:35.591
So if people are going to be commenting on your posts, you should probably be commenting.

00:11:35.591 --> 00:11:42.423
You should be commenting on other posts, in my opinion, even five or 10 comments a day will get you really really far in the platform.

00:11:42.423 --> 00:11:50.967
And that's different on LinkedIn compared to a lot of other platforms, because I'll have people come to me and say hey, I just basically want someone to kind of run my social media for me.

00:11:50.967 --> 00:11:54.668
I don't want to have to really be involved, I just need someone to build my brand.

00:11:55.091 --> 00:12:12.109
And I'll say you know, having someone else build a brand completely apart from you or almost completely apart from you is already really hard, but it's probably harder on LinkedIn than any other platform because there's just such a community on LinkedIn.

00:12:12.109 --> 00:12:25.072
People want to be engaged and get to know each other and the advantage with that is that if you're someone who is starting from the very bottom and you say you know what I'm going to care about the community on LinkedIn and build it up, you can do really really well in a short period of time.

00:12:25.072 --> 00:12:33.897
Whereas I've seen really famous people come to LinkedIn and they don't get engaged with the community and it's kind of like hey, we don't care if you're already famous or not.

00:12:33.897 --> 00:12:38.890
If you're not going to be part of the community or LinkedIn, we don't want to have anything to do with you.

00:12:38.890 --> 00:12:43.927
So you kind of get an advantage over even big stars that come to the platform.

00:12:43.927 --> 00:12:47.573
You kind of get an advantage over even big stars that come to the platform.

00:12:47.573 --> 00:12:49.417
Just choose a strategy.

00:12:49.417 --> 00:12:50.839
Care about people, be persistent.

00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:52.261
And then, over time, review the data.

00:12:52.261 --> 00:12:52.702
I like it.

00:12:52.702 --> 00:13:05.179
So, when you work with some of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn, what have been some of the strategies that you've worked with them on that have been the most impactful for them?

00:13:05.659 --> 00:13:05.799
Sure.

00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:10.791
So like when I was working for Alex and Layla Hormozy, for instance.

00:13:10.791 --> 00:13:19.024
When I got that job, one of the big things in the interview was well, how are you going to build up their brand or LinkedIn and do all of this other stuff?

00:13:19.024 --> 00:13:23.940
And the thing is, every person on the planet already has a brand.

00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:25.322
Everyone already has a brand.

00:13:25.322 --> 00:13:26.524
Everyone already has a brand.

00:13:26.524 --> 00:13:30.830
It's what you're known for, it's your values, it's your character, that's your brand.

00:13:31.291 --> 00:13:34.595
And so some people that brand isn't well known online.

00:13:34.595 --> 00:13:36.961
For other people it is.

00:13:36.961 --> 00:13:42.533
For the influencers of Alex and Layla Hormozy, they already had an established brand that was well respected.

00:13:42.533 --> 00:13:49.869
So what I told them is all I want to do is take that well respected brand and have it reflected on LinkedIn.

00:13:49.869 --> 00:13:53.730
There is no need to kind of change things up a whole lot for them or anything like that.

00:13:53.730 --> 00:14:01.841
I did get them involved some in the community by having them do some live streams and that kind of thing, but that didn't change their brand or anything like that.

00:14:01.841 --> 00:14:05.144
So really, it's for these bigger influencers.

00:14:05.144 --> 00:14:13.554
It's LinkedIn's not that tricky if you just think OK, let me just do what's already working, what people already respect about me, and put it on.

00:14:13.596 --> 00:14:13.956
LinkedIn.

00:14:13.956 --> 00:14:19.000
No-transcript.

00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:19.135
That makes sense.

00:14:19.135 --> 00:14:30.244
And how do people translate networking on LinkedIn to winning business and taking their career to the next level?

00:14:30.244 --> 00:14:34.407
What have you seen has worked for people in sort of that process?

00:14:34.407 --> 00:14:36.087
How many connections do they have?

00:14:36.087 --> 00:14:50.379
I have 10,000 or 20,000 connections and a lot of people spend a lot of time posting content and creating content on LinkedIn.

00:14:50.379 --> 00:14:55.688
How do people translate that into winning business or taking their career to the next level?

00:14:56.315 --> 00:15:04.429
It's hard to get people to trust you if you're only ever reaching out to people because you want something from them, even if it's not expressly stated.

00:15:04.429 --> 00:15:13.590
So the way to get around that right is to just become known as a super giving person on LinkedIn.

00:15:13.590 --> 00:15:18.067
So if you put out really good content, that's a good way to kind of add value right away.

00:15:18.067 --> 00:15:22.034
I'll occasionally just introduce people from my network.

00:15:22.034 --> 00:15:29.336
I'll say, hey, this person is cool and in this industry and this person is in a similar industry, I think they would be good friends.

00:15:29.336 --> 00:15:30.705
Maybe they could connect on something.

00:15:30.705 --> 00:15:39.428
So I'll just make these kind of introductions all day long sometimes and there's not necessarily any direct benefit that I get from it.

00:15:39.428 --> 00:15:42.418
And I'll tell the same thing to people who are looking for jobs.

00:15:42.418 --> 00:15:53.261
If you're looking for a job on LinkedIn or any other social media site, you have to show enough value upfront for people to take you seriously.

00:15:53.261 --> 00:16:10.798
And so what I'll tell people for LinkedIn is there's probably 10 million or more financial consultants on LinkedIn I think there's more in that field than anything else and a lot of them are kind of really kind of professional and polite and everything.

00:16:10.798 --> 00:16:11.360
That's great.

00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:18.264
But the problem is that it's almost like there's 10 million clones of the same person on LinkedIn and it's hard to stand out.

00:16:18.264 --> 00:16:44.476
And so I'll say look, you have to have something that when people hear about you, it blows their mind when people are, when people hear about something that you've done, or, if it's not something that you've done, it's something that you can do for someone else industry and you say you know what?

00:16:44.476 --> 00:16:48.289
I'm going to put together a resource that is really worth three or four hundred dollars, but I'm going to give it away for free.

00:16:48.289 --> 00:16:54.296
So let's say, somebody looks at your profile you can see your profile viewers or comments on your post or something like that.

00:16:54.296 --> 00:16:58.626
You can reach back out to them and say hey, I noticed that you were viewing my profile.

00:16:58.626 --> 00:17:03.775
If you need help in this industry I'm an expert in this industry I'd be happy to help you.

00:17:03.775 --> 00:17:07.410
Maybe you don't need to call yourself an expert, but something around that.

00:17:07.912 --> 00:17:13.288
I put together this custom resource that I give to people in this industry.

00:17:13.288 --> 00:17:15.214
It's worth literally $300 or $400.

00:17:15.214 --> 00:17:20.286
And you can literally quote the different line items of why it's worth that much.

00:17:20.286 --> 00:17:24.982
I want to give it to you for free just to show that I want to provide some upfront value.

00:17:24.982 --> 00:17:27.669
So that could be your wow kind of moment with people.

00:17:27.669 --> 00:17:42.625
It could be something you've done, it could be people that you've worked with, it could be this amazing resource that you've put together, but something where people literally their minds kind of explode and they think, oh my gosh, this person displays so much value, I've got to talk with them.

00:17:42.625 --> 00:17:49.201
And if you don't have that, it's going to be really hard to get the right kind of conversations flowing on LinkedIn.

00:17:51.376 --> 00:18:03.230
I think that is amazing advice, because when I think about personal branding, a lot of people focus on tactical things like the headline on your profile and how you describe yourself, and I think those things are important.

00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:04.090
But I really like the headline on your profile and how you describe yourself and I think those things are important.

00:18:04.090 --> 00:18:08.644
But I really like the next level thing of how do you stand out.

00:18:08.644 --> 00:18:20.923
You really have to blow someone's mind with the value that you can provide to them in advance of asking them for something that's really interesting, because it is competitive.

00:18:20.923 --> 00:18:26.307
Out there there are tens of thousands of other people doing similar things to what most people do.

00:18:26.307 --> 00:18:28.261
It's not like people don't have a choice.

00:18:28.261 --> 00:18:37.709
So you have to really find a way to stand out and that challenge to do something that blows people's mind is, I think, a great one.

00:18:37.709 --> 00:18:39.883
How you do that great question.

00:18:39.883 --> 00:18:46.640
I'm sure it'll vary by the person, but have you seen people put that into practice and get big results?

00:18:48.125 --> 00:18:51.856
A lot of the bigger influencers on LinkedIn have something like that already.

00:18:51.856 --> 00:18:59.982
They have some kind of either free webinar or and you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be free, it could just be very affordably priced.

00:18:59.982 --> 00:19:06.357
Ryan Musselman he does webinars that are affordably priced and things like that.

00:19:06.357 --> 00:19:15.615
One of the ways you could do it is I'm starting to do a new thing where, after I post, I'll say hey, if anyone wants to come talk to me, you can pay literally a dollar for 10 minutes.

00:19:15.615 --> 00:19:19.742
I'm on this app called OWL where people can just call in and talk to experts.

00:19:19.742 --> 00:19:28.298
So, just as long as it's just the perceived value is so much higher than the cost, it works.

00:19:28.298 --> 00:19:36.788
So it could be free or it could be $50 or $100 or something like that, but where it's literally just the key shouldn't be.

00:19:36.788 --> 00:19:46.561
I don't think it works for things that are priced like $1,000, right, but where it's just such a small number that people wouldn't even really think of that as an obstacle.

00:19:47.023 --> 00:19:48.227
But yeah, people do it all the time.

00:19:48.247 --> 00:19:53.050
You can look all over LinkedIn and people have amazing free resources and things.

00:19:53.050 --> 00:19:58.003
In fact, I've put together the world's largest collection of LinkedIn free resources.

00:19:58.003 --> 00:20:03.804
So I kind of found all of those people and put all their free resources together and I made that a couple of years ago.

00:20:03.804 --> 00:20:05.949
But I'm working on the new, updated edition.

00:20:05.949 --> 00:20:11.146
So if somebody is interested, feel free to reach out and I'll post it and hopefully you can see it.

00:20:11.146 --> 00:20:13.383
But just get something like that going.

00:20:13.383 --> 00:20:19.173
And then, additionally with that, if you want to have little mini things where you're like hey, I have this sheet.

00:20:19.173 --> 00:20:28.970
Like, I have a sales messaging sheet that I can send to people, Things like that where you've got your massive kind of big free thing or super value thing, and then some little things.

00:20:29.329 --> 00:20:32.711
The advantage of the little things is, let's say, you're in conversation with someone.

00:20:32.711 --> 00:20:34.032
Well, most of us are.

00:20:34.032 --> 00:20:45.500
We're trying to respond to a bunch of emails and messages and text messages and all of these kind of things, and it's a little bothersome, even if it's a service that we may eventually use or like.

00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:50.037
We'll have it so that every time you communicate with someone, you're like hey, just so you know.

00:20:50.037 --> 00:20:51.641
I asked I'll do this.

00:20:51.641 --> 00:20:54.146
I just did a free profile review for you.

00:20:54.146 --> 00:20:56.277
I recorded it, I'll send it to your email.

00:20:56.277 --> 00:21:05.468
And you do that kind of thing over and over, where people are like, oh my gosh, okay, I have a new message for this guy which means I'm going to get more additional value and it just it's.

00:21:05.468 --> 00:21:09.797
No one else does it like that For the most part that technique.

00:21:09.797 --> 00:21:13.086
I don't know that many people who use that, but that technique works.

00:21:13.086 --> 00:21:17.165
I can personally attest from using it myself that that works really well.

00:21:19.134 --> 00:21:19.615
Interesting.

00:21:19.615 --> 00:21:28.528
A lot of people have said, if you want to connect with somebody, just go to their profile and comment on a few pieces of their content to sort of get their attention.

00:21:28.528 --> 00:21:38.932
Sure, I think that works, but that's sort of a less exciting way to get noticed by people than what you just suggested.

00:21:38.932 --> 00:21:40.193
So you know.

00:21:40.193 --> 00:21:41.273
In contrast, I like that.

00:21:41.273 --> 00:21:47.038
Let me ask you what is your favorite and least favorite thing about LinkedIn?

00:21:48.603 --> 00:21:48.823
Okay.

00:21:48.823 --> 00:21:59.924
So my favorite thing and I've touched on this a few times is that there's such a strong community on LinkedIn and some people may not recognize that strong community because it's almost like there's two levels of LinkedIn.

00:21:59.924 --> 00:22:05.622
There's kind of the 70 or 80% of people on the platform that almost never go to the feed.

00:22:05.622 --> 00:22:07.606
They don't understand the social media side of it.

00:22:07.606 --> 00:22:15.619
If they do go to their feed, it's full of job announcements and work anniversaries and just kind of like stuff from the top.

00:22:15.619 --> 00:22:23.641
0.001% of LinkedIn influencers, which tends to be cheesy, and they don't know about this super active creator community.

00:22:23.641 --> 00:22:27.126
Once you get into that super active creator community, it's amazing.

00:22:27.126 --> 00:22:28.328
It's just everyone.

00:22:28.328 --> 00:22:31.540
Most people are just encouraging each other all the time.

00:22:31.540 --> 00:22:36.136
You can get great advice and it's just a really cool place.

00:22:36.136 --> 00:22:37.337
You know there are.

00:22:40.501 --> 00:22:48.990
I would say that LinkedIn themselves don't do a great job necessarily of listening to their active members.

00:22:48.990 --> 00:22:51.056
You know I'm not.

00:22:51.056 --> 00:23:01.084
I'm very thankful for LinkedIn as a platform, but it almost seems like one of the requirements of working for LinkedIn is that you can't actually have experience using their app.

00:23:01.084 --> 00:23:02.565
Is that you can't actually have experience using their app?

00:23:02.565 --> 00:23:17.166
I think in the whole time that I've been on LinkedIn, I've had one little survey that's popped up in my email, which I was happy to answer, where LinkedIn was asking some questions, but by and large they don't really ask for feedback from their active user base.

00:23:17.654 --> 00:23:24.444
And then, additionally, it would be really cool to have some kind of tipping feature or something where people on LinkedIn can monetize their content.

00:23:24.444 --> 00:23:30.843
Every other major social media network platform has something like that now and they're not really offered on LinkedIn.

00:23:30.843 --> 00:23:40.630
The other side is that LinkedIn is probably the easiest platform to form deals and to kind of make money monetarily kind of right from the from the start.

00:23:40.630 --> 00:23:47.763
But it would be nice to have some kind of little like hey, I appreciate this post, here's a dollar, that kind of thing that would be cool.

00:23:47.763 --> 00:23:48.857
So kind of.

00:23:48.857 --> 00:23:55.558
That's probably my kind of least favorite part is that LinkedIn doesn't they just kind of put out new features?

00:23:55.558 --> 00:23:57.161
They don't really ask for a lot of advice.

00:23:59.106 --> 00:24:05.419
Yeah, I haven't seen that they're very customer driven in that way over the years.

00:24:06.285 --> 00:24:13.957
They make money from their recruiter and they premium as well, but if they didn't have the feed then a lot of that stuff would be a lot less effective.

00:24:13.957 --> 00:24:26.288
So I don't think they understand how essential the feed is to making money from these other offerings that they have money from these other offerings that they have.

00:24:26.309 --> 00:24:29.137
What do you think about the AI features that LinkedIn has released over the last year?

00:24:29.137 --> 00:24:35.193
Given Microsoft's investment in OpenAI, it seems like they've been all focused on AI on LinkedIn.

00:24:36.116 --> 00:24:37.981
I've done more ghostwriting in the past.

00:24:37.981 --> 00:24:39.646
I still dabble in it occasionally.

00:24:39.646 --> 00:24:44.152
I'm doing a lot more consulting now, but I like to do things kind of by hand.

00:24:44.152 --> 00:24:46.976
The AI features are good.

00:24:46.976 --> 00:24:48.998
There's levels.

00:24:48.998 --> 00:24:58.925
Okay, the bottom level is someone who has no idea what they're doing in terms of posting or reaching people on LinkedIn and they're just not doing a great job.

00:24:58.925 --> 00:25:00.689
Then that next level is using AI.

00:25:00.689 --> 00:25:09.086
So AI is great for people that are new to the platform, who maybe they're super smart in other areas but they're not a great writer and link.

00:25:09.086 --> 00:25:18.957
That AI can kind of take those features and run with it and they can at least get some stuff out, because that is a disadvantage for people who don't have writing as a natural skill.

00:25:18.957 --> 00:25:20.888
So AI can really help in that.

00:25:20.950 --> 00:25:57.448
Now, given that everyone should still go in and edit their AI posts and there's other little AI features as well but then anyone who's spending a decent amount of time on the platform, if you can, I would recommend to either not use AI too much or to use it really intentionally, like, okay, you put together a post and you say, okay, I'm going to put this into chat GBT, chat GBT, give me some suggestions and then, if you think there's specific suggestions that you can add, add those suggestions, especially for CTAs or hooks or things like that.

00:25:57.448 --> 00:25:59.131
So it's really.

00:25:59.131 --> 00:26:07.816
I think the AI should be used as a tool, and it's a tool that works for certain things, right, like it's hard to eat spaghetti using a hammer, right.

00:26:07.816 --> 00:26:13.038
So you got to use the tool for what it's meant to be.

00:26:13.038 --> 00:26:18.092
But if you're brand new on LinkedIn, you're like I'm just scared, I'm having a hard time getting started.

00:26:18.644 --> 00:26:23.738
Use AI for a few months to get you going, but then really kind of finesse it after that.

00:26:23.738 --> 00:26:25.307
That would be my suggestion.

00:26:25.307 --> 00:26:27.613
So I think it's helping people.

00:26:27.613 --> 00:26:35.982
The AI comments are a little cheesy because I've seen people who just leave the AI comments.

00:26:35.982 --> 00:26:38.130
I'm like you know, you got to try.

00:26:38.130 --> 00:26:45.577
You got to try in these comments because people can still tell pretty well what is AI and what isn't AI, at least from LinkedIn.

00:27:05.776 --> 00:27:18.863
I think the AI comments have given the feel that the platform that are sort of products of the advertising, of let everyone have a free account and, you know, do make billions a year from advertising.

00:27:18.863 --> 00:27:24.425
What do you think about that dynamic advertising?

00:27:24.425 --> 00:27:25.167
What do you think about that dynamic?

00:27:25.167 --> 00:27:28.675
I've literally had some people tell me that they get so turned off by it they want to like be off the platform.

00:27:28.675 --> 00:27:30.967
Have you felt that that's increasing?

00:27:30.967 --> 00:27:32.592
Are you not as bothered by it?

00:27:32.592 --> 00:27:36.250
I'm just sort of curious what you what you think about the user experience from that perspective.

00:27:36.412 --> 00:27:39.221
Yeah, it's, it's a concern, for sure.

00:27:39.221 --> 00:27:40.625
I am bothered by it.

00:27:40.625 --> 00:27:44.737
I also look into alternative social media platforms.

00:27:44.737 --> 00:27:51.788
So I'm big into LinkedIn, but I've also worked on Facebook and other platforms and then Glassdoor, the website Glassdoor.

00:27:51.788 --> 00:27:54.876
They also have a social media feed that they're putting together.

00:27:55.365 --> 00:28:15.059
So there's some other competitors that are coming out to the field and that's really good, because LinkedIn has been a monopoly for a really long time and it hasn't been good for LinkedIn and it's led to them basically making decisions with impunity of whatever they want is going to go up, whether it really helps their content creators and their readers or not.

00:28:15.625 --> 00:28:19.516
So I'm a fan of there's some competition that's entering the space.

00:28:19.516 --> 00:28:31.314
I'd encourage people to look around and hopefully, I think eventually LinkedIn will kind of get the hint of like oh OK, we actually'd encourage people to look around and hopefully, I think eventually LinkedIn will kind of get the hint of like oh okay, we actually have to listen to our creators, we have to listen to people that are actively using the site.

00:28:31.314 --> 00:28:43.907
But yeah, I think it would maybe be good if it did cost a little bit to post, but then at the same time, I want a tip feature or something enabled so that people can get that back.

00:28:43.907 --> 00:28:50.672
So maybe $10 a month in order to post on LinkedIn, but there's a tip feature enabled so you can make that back and more.

00:28:50.672 --> 00:28:51.934
So it's not really.

00:28:51.934 --> 00:28:55.130
As long as you're putting out good content, you're going to get that return to you.

00:28:56.432 --> 00:29:04.553
I don't know if you've seen the Reddit group and Reddit, you know, after going public this year has gained in popularity.

00:29:04.553 --> 00:29:07.397
Have you seen the LinkedIn Reddit group?

00:29:07.397 --> 00:29:17.328
Linkedin lunatics and how they sort of poke fun at people who post sort of some of the more inappropriate or cringy things on LinkedIn.

00:29:17.328 --> 00:29:17.951
Have you seen that?

00:29:17.951 --> 00:29:20.017
I'm just curious like what you think about that.

00:29:20.017 --> 00:29:20.567
What advice?

00:29:21.452 --> 00:29:22.317
do you give?

00:29:22.317 --> 00:29:24.728
Seen it not being featured there I have seen it.

00:29:24.728 --> 00:29:30.247
Sometimes they're they're making some posts that are just in good fun and they're all fine.

00:29:30.247 --> 00:29:43.471
Sometimes they post really brutal stuff, just really inappropriate, and you know, just making people fun of people with families and just kind of like you can't drag, you can't be dragging families and stuff into this.

00:29:43.471 --> 00:29:47.132
There's a line they definitely cross it.

00:29:47.132 --> 00:29:50.759
I'll share a story because I am on LinkedIn lunatics.

00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:55.953
Back when I was working for Alex Hormuzi, they really kind of went into me on that.

00:29:55.973 --> 00:30:07.732
So and just in terms of making fun of me and they've made fun of a lot of my friends and stuff With LinkedIn nobody really hides behind a username.

00:30:07.732 --> 00:30:10.097
People post publicly.

00:30:10.097 --> 00:30:13.155
So Twitter's a little bit differently, because you can not.

00:30:13.155 --> 00:30:17.731
Everyone that's posting on Twitter is using their real name and everything, but pretty much everyone on LinkedIn is.

00:30:17.731 --> 00:30:21.528
I mean, I'm all for making good fun.

00:30:21.528 --> 00:30:23.114
I think they go too far.

00:30:23.114 --> 00:30:29.472
In fact, you know, one time I was looking at this, this post, they were making fun of me and just being really kind of brutal.

00:30:29.472 --> 00:30:32.872
Some of it I was laughing at Some of it I was like, come on, that's a little too far.

00:30:33.444 --> 00:30:39.388
And I started looking into this one guy and he said that he knew me actually and I was like what, that's crazy, so that's crazy.

00:30:39.388 --> 00:30:48.375
So I started looking into some of his comments on LinkedIn and a lot of them were really negative comments across other different platforms and that kind of thing it seemed.

00:30:48.375 --> 00:31:08.015
But then I went to this one thing where he was on, I think, like a suicide support group and this guy was saying like I just don't want to keep going today and the guy who had made fun of me said, hey, man, I can do it and you can do it to just keep going.

00:31:08.015 --> 00:31:09.286
And it kind of like took me back.

00:31:09.286 --> 00:31:29.440
I was like, oh, I was just thinking this guy was complete jerk, but here he is encouraging another person not to end his life, who he probably has the same struggles, and it kind of opened my eyes for a moment and I was like, okay, well, it's more nuanced, it's more complicated than just what you see.

00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:41.337
Kind of immediately I see a lot of those guys as jerks, but just because they're jerks doesn't mean that they don't have any redeeming features or that they're going through stuff just like you.

00:31:41.786 --> 00:31:43.130
And I think what it is is.

00:31:43.130 --> 00:31:45.476
They see the LinkedIn lunatic people.

00:31:45.476 --> 00:31:52.013
A lot of them see it as just a way to kind of blow off steam, and it's anonymous and they probably don't think they're really hurting anyone.

00:31:52.013 --> 00:31:56.773
I think they do hurt some people, but it's complicated.

00:31:56.773 --> 00:31:59.494
It's just one of those things where nobody is one faceted.

00:32:00.105 --> 00:32:15.464
So and I think that goes with the LinkedIn lunatic commenters and it goes with the people that they're making fun of, cause it's hard to you put up one post and people think they see your entire character and everything about you and it's like no, it's really hard to do that on social media.

00:32:15.464 --> 00:32:19.316
You have maybe 20 lines of content that you can put up.

00:32:19.316 --> 00:32:28.855
It shows a very limited view of what your your opinion is on any one subject, and so we just all need to give each other some more grace.

00:32:28.855 --> 00:32:37.351
I'm going to give the LinkedIn lunatic people some more grace Hopefully they give me a little bit more grace and and some of the other people that post actively on LinkedIn.

00:32:37.351 --> 00:32:41.528
But you know, that's kind of a little bit of a kind of threw me off.

00:32:41.528 --> 00:32:45.116
I was like, oh okay, let me, I'll just chill out about this a little bit.

00:32:46.586 --> 00:32:51.238
The thing is is that it's the Internet and that's sort of what you get with discussion boards on the Internet.

00:32:51.238 --> 00:32:54.535
Sometimes people have trouble with where that line is.

00:32:54.535 --> 00:33:15.836
I think some of it isn't good and fun and some of it probably does go too far too far, and probably some people not necessarily you, but some people post things on LinkedIn that are really probably not appropriate for LinkedIn and potentially deserve to have someone like let them know that, but I don't know if mocking them is the best way to do that either.

00:33:15.836 --> 00:33:19.153
It's just an interesting time we live in.

00:33:19.354 --> 00:33:35.086
I've posted probably a thousand times on LinkedIn for myself around there, and so I've posted probably a thousand times on LinkedIn for myself around there, and so I've probably put up multiple posts that are either contradictory as I learn, and kind of have different opinions, or maybe it wasn't the best post or you know comment or something to put up on LinkedIn.

00:33:35.086 --> 00:33:40.519
So yeah, I mean, nobody's perfect on LinkedIn, we're all trying to learn.

00:33:40.519 --> 00:33:41.846
I think it can provide some insights.

00:33:41.846 --> 00:33:42.916
I think for most people, don't go look on LinkedIn.

00:33:42.916 --> 00:33:43.261
We're all trying to learn.

00:33:43.261 --> 00:33:43.721
I think it can provide some insights.

00:33:43.721 --> 00:33:46.352
I think for most people, don't go look on LinkedIn.

00:33:46.352 --> 00:33:49.277
Save yourself a little bit.

00:33:49.277 --> 00:34:02.255
Don't go on that site, because if you're used to being on LinkedIn and using the language of LinkedIn, it's going to throw you for a wild ride going over to an anonymous Reddit group With LinkedIn.

00:34:04.678 --> 00:34:07.250
I'll go back to what I said before Just be persistent with it.

00:34:07.250 --> 00:34:09.632
It's an incredible site.

00:34:09.632 --> 00:34:10.494
You can learn a lot.

00:34:10.494 --> 00:34:21.231
If you're looking to learn anything specific about LinkedIn, find a creator that talks about LinkedIn in a way that you really connect with.

00:34:21.231 --> 00:34:26.757
So some really good people are John Asperian and Andy Foote and Karen Tisdale.

00:34:26.757 --> 00:34:28.711
I've gotten some great stuff from Luke Matthews.

00:34:28.711 --> 00:34:35.014
Jose Vales has some excellent advice, mick Adams I could keep going on for a long time.

00:34:35.014 --> 00:34:41.474
Some really great people Find that person and then really dig through their old posts.

00:34:42.175 --> 00:34:48.472
That's my advice, because if you're just waiting for them to tell you the advice that you need, then you're kind of just waiting on the back end.

00:34:48.472 --> 00:34:50.911
It's going to take a while, but they have all their posts.

00:34:50.911 --> 00:34:59.411
You just go down and explore their posts and that's the best way, I think, to learn and there's some great books out there and everything too but just get involved in the community.

00:34:59.411 --> 00:35:08.764
And the easiest way to get involved in the community is to find a LinkedIn creator or someone that you really like and get to know the other people that are commenting on those posts.

00:35:08.764 --> 00:35:11.050
That's kind of how I got started.

00:35:11.445 --> 00:35:13.592
This guy, junaid Iqbal, based in New York.

00:35:13.592 --> 00:35:14.514
He's a good friend of mine.

00:35:14.514 --> 00:35:21.396
I started connecting with a lot of people that he knew and then, once you're plugged into one of those communities, everyone kind of knows someone.

00:35:21.396 --> 00:35:30.269
So just reach out to people that you think know people.

00:35:30.269 --> 00:35:41.929
I make introductions myself all the time and so if you're like, well, I really need someone who can help me with the hooks or the CTAs or just kind of building up a good structure or reaching out, how do I find the right clients, just ask people and people will make referrals, like you wouldn't believe.

00:35:44.614 --> 00:35:45.376
I love that advice.

00:35:45.376 --> 00:35:53.463
I am going to link to your website and your LinkedIn so people can get in touch if they like to chat with you more about this topic.

00:35:53.463 --> 00:35:58.235
Really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights and being on the show today.

00:35:58.235 --> 00:35:58.838
Thanks, Sam.

00:35:58.858 --> 00:35:59.659
Thanks, eric, I appreciate it.