LinkedIn is the world's largest B2B (Business 2 Business) platform with over 660 million users. The platform is 227% more effective for lead generation than Facebook or Twitter. The question is how do you make sure your profile stands out, is searchable and once found positions your expertise effectively.

My guest this week is Jo Saunders reveals how to make a great first impression, increase your visibility, amplify your authority and become a true influencer. If you want to unlock a new lead source for your business, this episode is for you. 

00:00:00:09 - 00:01:14:28
Paul: Hi it's Paul McCarthy and welcome to a special edition of the markets club podcast. We have all been impacted by the coronavirus. It has brought our world literally almost to a standstill. Now I know that I've had lots of conversations over the recent days and weeks with business owners who are incredibly fearful. They are really anxious about the future of their businesses and their ability to survive this period. It's going to be a trying and testing time for all of us. There's no doubt about that. But we've also been inundated with messages information communication from just about every media stream available that focuses obviously on the virus what the virus is and how it spreads and what we need to do. And many people have been forced into isolation businesses where people will congregate have been forced to close their doors certainly here in Melbourne in Victoria and around the globe. We're watching as cities closed down to try and contain the spread of this pandemic.

00:01:15:00 - 00:03:00:14
Paul: Now of course with this sense of doom and gloom and the negativity that is sort of providing around this whole conversation and what are we going to do to get through this I think that we need a place where we can come for respite from all this negativity and that's what I want this program to be. For you a place where you can govern for a ray of hope get some practical ideas and strategies. We do need to keep moving forward. We do need to keep our eye on the ball here and we're going to have to change an incredible right. We're going to have to adapt our ways if we're going to make it through this. So I want to make this show all about helping you to do that. I'm working around the clock at the moment on a whole bunch of resources and tools that will be free that I'll be making available to business owners who want to get some practical advice that they want some support and they also want a break from all of the negative conversations they want to place where they can come and start to focus on what they can do rather than just thinking about all the things that have been lost. And we're gonna need to move pretty quickly. And my goal is to really help you shore up your business and make sure that we can do everything possible to sustain you through this really difficult period and also to make sure that you're in the best place possible once this Corona crisis comes to an end and it will come to an end at some point. And we want to make sure that you're still standing at the end of that and that you're not just standing that you are absolutely primed and ready to take advantage of the new economy that sits in front of you.

00:03:01:03 - 00:04:26:28
Paul: And so that's going to mean being proactive it's going to mean that we change some of our strategies and tactics and the things that we're doing in our business and we might be making big pivots in our businesses to be able to get through this period and also to thrive on the other side of it. But that is my aspiration and that is what I'm going to be dedicating the marketers club podcast to moving forward. Now our episode today was obviously recorded prior to the level of crisis that we are facing at the moment but I think that the conversation is one that's relevant. It's about how you can make the most of LinkedIn and start to improve your. Visibility and your ability to influence and kept attention on LinkedIn. And I think that's going to be just one of the many many strategies and online platforms that we're going to keep improving and working on to help you get through this. So let's dive into the intro and get into this show and help you to start building a new strategy a new platform for making your way through this crisis and getting ready to be in a great position to take advantage of the new economy when the crisis breaks.

00:04:27:00 - 00:04:44:04
Warick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast the show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success. And now here's your host Paul McCarthy.

00:04:44:06 - 00:06:28:10
Paul: Welcome to Episode 30 of the marketers club podcast. I am your host Paul McCarthy I'm here more than ever before to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. Great to have your company again for another episode and we find ourselves in really uncharted waters today. The spread of the corona virus has really left so many businesses reeling so many people around the world reeling unemployment lines are growing by the second. Business owners incredibly fearful and anxious about the future of their company is wondering what they're going to be able to do to stay afloat and really as I said from the intro to this program not just today but over the coming months is going to be absolutely dedicated to providing you with a ray of hope with some ideas and strategies practical things that you can do that are going to help you to get through this and also that I think it's absolutely imperative that we keep our focus on some of the proactive things we can do so that when we get to the other side of this crisis we are in a position to take advantage. We are ready to move. I don't think anyone could be blamed for having their you know being caught napping with this. No one saw anything of this scale coming or at least no one that I knew that was talking about preparing or being able to prepare for such a devastating blow to the world economy as this virus has proven to be. But we nevertheless need to stand tall in the face of this adversity and we need to work together provide each other with support and that's what this show is going to be dedicated to helping you do.

00:06:28:14 - 00:07:33:29
Paul: Now this episode was recorded some time ago with my guest Jo Saunders who's a LinkedIn specialist and Jo's gonna share with you some ideas and insights about how you can get your profile up to speed high and create more influence and visibility for your profile and start to build relationships online. And obviously in the face of growing isolations that people are being forced to adhere to. We're going to need to be able to be more nimble and get online and start to find new ways of doing business so LinkedIn invariably will be one of the many tools that will need to be better at using that we're going to need to improve the quality of our presence in these environments so that we can develop meaningful business relationships that we can continue to be able to win business do business and make it through this time and be ready to take advantage when this time comes to an end and life goes back to some form of normality for all of us. So I want to keep you waiting any longer. Let's dive into my conversation with Jo Saunders.

00:07:34:01 - 00:07:38:14
Paul: Jo Saunders welcome to the Marketers Club Podcast. Great to have you on the program.

00:07:38:16 - 00:07:40:27
Jo: Thanks for having me. Looking forward to chatting about LinkedIn.

00:07:41:03 - 00:08:28:00
Paul: Yeah well it's an area that is of great interest for a lot of people obviously social media is an area that's of great interest but clearly we want to be able to use our time wisely we want to be able to generate results from our activities in our various social platforms and LinkedIn is perhaps the world's number one B2B platform so I think that with a lot of business owners listening to this program it was great to get an expert like you on the line to share with us some insights about LinkedIn so I know that obviously the first stage for us in any platform is we've got to increase some visibility and that's something that you are very focused and passionate about helping people to do that. So how do we go about it. How are we going to increase the visibility that we get on on LinkedIn.

00:08:28:02 - 00:09:36:00
Jo: Good question. Well it all starts with your profile if you don't have a profile that matches who you are professionally then obviously you're going to be visible for the right reasons but to be visible is there are two types of visibility is obviously being seen and is being found by being seen. I mean you know if you deal with that side of things when people say that when people find you are you visible in the terms of your profile branded is it well optimised Is it complete. And if you think about being found you got to think about the words the words you're using because you might call yourself the one. Well you would call up the rockstar marketer if we stopped just thinking people were looking for that you know if you call you if you call you call yourself the rockstar in your industry or the you know this is something obscure gurus are people searching for that job and even understand what that is. So that's the impact of visibility because you're being too clever. So if I use myself I mean LinkedIn what I do people are searching for that but calling myself linked in demystifying people are not searching for demystifying. People don't want to demystify LinkedIn but that's what I do. So I've got to be really careful how I position myself so I'm not being missed by word.

00:09:36:02 - 00:09:56:13
Paul: So one of the issues we can have is and try and be too clever by. And this is a mistake I say a lot of people making in their marketing is there they're trying to use clever language to separate themselves to create a point of difference. But the problem is the market isn't looking for that thing so therefore you become invisible to the very people you're trying to attract. So that's what I'm hearing you say.

00:09:56:27 - 00:10:24:09
Jo: Absolutely. I mean my new word is connectfluence. That's actually what I do now. No one's looking for that word. I've googled it. There's not much there's not much of a foot footprint but that's an entirely new book. That's good. That's the name of my keynotes that I've got to then if I'm going to use that word as part of my brand I've got to explain it and unpack it using key words and phrases that people use. So what are people actually searching for. What problem. Are they actually solving otherwise. Yeah people is going to connectfluence. I don't need any that that is yet.

00:10:24:11 - 00:10:36:25
Paul: I don't know what that is. I don't know what it does so well if we start in terms of creating visibility what are what are some of the fundamental things that we need to do to improve our visibility on LinkedIn to be found.

00:10:36:27 - 00:12:36:22
Jo: Some people using Linked In to find people. Some people are still using google to find people. So you want to be optimizing your profile for both because you don't know what you linked in profile to show up. Now if you're using LinkedI n quite quite frequently you profiles fairly complete chances are your profile will ranking Google for your name. Now my name's pretty popular. I don't I say common. It's popular you know. But if you if you look for Joe Saunders I pretty much dominate the first page of Google for me for my name. So there are many other people on the page and LinkedIn ranks number two after my Web site. And the reason that happens is you know it's comes comes from your profile comes from having to optimize profile. Now if the Your name is in your profile you're not putting your name within other sections of your profile but it just knows to look there. Now if we talk about in LinkedIn itself with if people are searching for you by name because someone's recommended you then you want obviously your names going to come up. And it depends on how competitive your name is. But if you think about what you actually do which is what people are more likely to be searching for you want to make sure that your your headline which is that piece of text under your name I call it a position statement you won't make sure that's optimized and it's including the words of the problems that you solve. So rather than calling yourself the you know the number one leading blah blah blah with 50,000 connections which was you know some people position themselves about how popular they are or how big their network is people won't find you. You've got to be thinking about those words like the problem you know so on yours for instance you've got you know you've got Australia's leading small business marketing specialist. So people looking for small business marketing specialists. They're gonna find you hopefully. And you've also got author mentor, speaker. So that the modes of delivery keynote speaker say someone's looking for business marketing keynote speaker. You know that's that's why it looks so LinkedIn looks first to the headline. That's the most important piece of text on your profile.

00:12:36:24 - 00:12:45:15
Paul: We might be better Joe than to focus first on the problem that people are solving so we'd be better off to focus on the problem they're trying to solve rather than the process of what we do.

00:12:45:17 - 00:13:23:11
Jo: Well a bit of both. I mean if you've got the problem you solve is how you position yourself like it. Because we've built with marketing people looking for marketing aren't they. But if you if your business is. I mean if you if you fix if you're electrician people are going to look for electrician that's easy but if you're something like a business consultant you need to add more context. The mistake I see people make particularly in small business is they put their title. So they're the business director they're the partner they're the owner the founder. People don't care about that. It's not what they're looking for. You can tell your story and say that that's what you do. You founded your company but you want to talk first about that problem.

00:13:23:13 - 00:13:25:15
Paul: Know that is the thing they're looking for.

00:13:25:22 - 00:14:35:02
Jo: Exactly. Yeah. So that's number one thing. And then you need to make sure then that those words appear throughout your profile in different areas. So you've got the about section which is probably most difficult piece of content to write because you've got you've got 2000 characters to tell your story. You know I've come up with a bit of a framework to write about yourself because some people find it easier to start going into the you know their achievements first. I'm the number one best selling author of Connect Florence hasn't been published yet but let's I that. No one cares. No one knows what it is. It's not about them. I always encourage people to start with a statement about the problem you solve or a question to get people thinking. You want to intrigue them enough so they click that see more link and read the entire profile know the about section and you want to talk about the problem you solve you know how you solve it the services you provide and then go into why you so the why you is really important but it's not the first thing they should be saying you know if you've won awards you are an award winning publisher are you or you know you've you've got a certain credential that's important you need to put that in there. Absolutely. But not the first thing. You know it's like earning the right to to your own horniness.

00:14:36:00 - 00:15:11:09
Paul: We always talk about the order and seek information is really important in terms of it's just the same as unlocking a vault if you like that you need the right things and the right combination to open it. So even if you have the right elements or the right numbers if you don't know the sequence and the door doesn't open so the same strategy is clearly in play here that we need to be able to articulate what matters to the reader first and then to communicate our credentials later when they've decided that we sound like the sort of person that could help them solve their problem.

00:15:11:13 - 00:16:14:27
Jo: Absolutely. And then the other thing with that and it applies the entire profile is to write with personality. Some people think I think oh LinkedIn you know it's like a resumé. It's a bit boring it's gonna be very professional. Well yeah it does have to be you know you want to be professional but you also want it to be you. So writing your voice. So writing the first person because that's easier for people to connect to you because all that connection if you write in the third person. So if I was to write Jo Saunders is blah blah blah blah it sounds like someone else has written it which they may have done but it's better to be in your voice that people get that step closer in and it sounds like you're actually there and then adding a bit of. Also to add to your story. I mean people consume information in various ways some people like to read. Some people like to watch listen. Obviously we're on a podcast now so you know for those people that want to consume you know through voice or through audio then adding links to things like links to podcasts links to videos and your profile so people can have that different experience with you because people connect people when people when they get here or see them it's just a different level of communication.

00:16:15:16 - 00:16:39:14
Paul: Well they say that the video is so important to us from our social media point of view and that it's the preferred way that people want to consume their information and in fact they perceive that people are going to be watching almost exclusively video content online in the not too distant future. So from your point of view as a LinkedIn specialist How important is video to our profiles.

00:16:39:16 - 00:17:38:06
Jo: It's certainly getting to be more important LinkedIn is always the last platform to you know to sort of add some features like for instance lives streaming video was introduced last year to only a small group people and it's being rolled out really really slowly. Video is where it's going video and in short snippets works well on LinkedIn particularly in the home feed. Now we're talking about so not nearly the profile but on the profile itself. Having having an intro video to who you are. Now I've got one on my profile but I did it about three years ago. It's time for an update. It's way too long. It's about four minutes which is way way too long. No one has a lot of time to watch something so it's getting to the point you know if in credit video in sort of 30 to 90 seconds to introduce you you are what you're passionate about what problem you solve. And that's really important. Unfortunately LinkedIn doesn't give you many metrics or analytics on your profile so you can't initially see who's watched things unless it's linked to to youtube youtube metrics but you don't know where it's come from necessarily.

00:17:38:08 - 00:17:56:27
Paul: If our first goal is visibility we've got to get this profile fired up get it optimized and just to clarify for people it goes they're not super techie and when we talk about optimizing a profile what exactly are we saying. What what causes it to be optimized

00:17:57:08 - 00:19:01:17
Jo: Optimized. Yeah great. A big one is the words. I mean if we talk about you know if you've got a website you've got SEIU Web site it's the same as your profile you need to make sure the words are throughout your profile in your headline in your About section in your experience section and the skills section having the words again there. So you want to be making sure that whatever the word is you want to be known for all the thing you actually do the problem you solve having those words in there and having people say endorse your skills because you're giving signals to linked in that this is what you're about and it's going to help you get found. And of course then the other part of visibility is content on a regular basis talking about those things are keeping your keeping your footprint really really tight. So it's clear what you're about. If you were to say well it's a web developer obviously talking about web sort of stuff but if you start talking about the importance of being healthy in your you know healthy mind or healthy body might confuse your audience as to why you're talking about that say it's linking it back to what you actually do is important. So it's clear where that all fits together.

00:19:01:19 - 00:19:54:00
Paul: There's no doubt from my point of view that I see a real commonality of issues for people in business and it sounds like they're making the same mistakes where they're linked in and one is trying to tell people too many things about the full body of work they can do instead of zero in on the thing they want to be famous for. And then as a consequence they're content not getting tight enough that they're going off the reservation too many times and not staying on message on brand. So clearly to drive the visibility of our LinkedIn profiles we need to make those two distinctions we need to know what we want to be known for and then to continuously create content around that so that it really builds. Which probably leads us to the next point that I know that you teach people a lot about in terms of their LinkedIn which is their credibility. So how do we how do we drive and create more credibility for ourselves on LinkedIn. What are the credibility drivers.

00:19:54:02 - 00:21:12:04
Jo: Well credibility, couple of things if you look at your profile it's things like having skill endorsements but I'm having recommendations on your profile for what you actually do. And many people don't ask for them if you sit back and wait for people to recommend you is just not going to happen unless someone's just you know it's part of their process. But most people don't give them freely because it's just not what they do. So asking for them. So if you've just delivered a piece of work to a client project ask them for it. And don't just ask for a recommendation. Ask with the framework because otherwise you're giving someone a problem. So rather than saying Can you recommend me you know scrap that. That sort of template of message and ask them questions. So I always say you know what was the what was your biggest takeaway from working with me. Well what was your biggest outcome. Why should others book me that sort of thing so ask them a couple of questions that they can easily answer that will frame the response which helps you and helps them. And then of course that gives you credibility and your profile and do it like they do on a regular basis cause you want to have them. You don't need to ask. If you ask 100 people today and you know 50 percent of those people did them they will you profile the same time and only the most recent to a seen. They're not they don't hit the news feed or anything like that so it's good just to sort of make it a habit and do it on a regular basis so they are constantly being added to your profile.

00:21:12:06 - 00:21:29:10
Paul: What sort of frequency would be ideal. Would we be looking to add a new couple of recommendations every month every quarter every week how often should we be aiming to have somebody complete a recommendation review that goes on our LinkedIn profile.

00:21:29:12 - 00:22:23:17
Jo: Well depends how you work and if if you're if you're working on a long term project and it's your previous full time on a project then obviously you're only going to be asking at some point when the clients really super excited about something you've done or when you finish the project. But if you if you're working on multiple things I'd recommend as long as you're doing it maybe once a quarter that's will be a good good aim. As long as you have enouch clients to ask depending on your business your type of business you could but you could make it part of your process so that part of the off boarding of the client you know your invoice you might do the final invoice for whatever outstanding deliver whatever you need to deliver and then ask for a recommendation or maybe or maybe it's mid project where you've just delivered something and you can tell that they're super excited. I call it the peak of excitement. Ask that points while they remember how excited they are about the thing you've just done. Otherwise they're going to focus on we've just finished there's the invoice. If that's how you work you know the most

00:22:25:04 - 00:22:31:28
Paul: Social proof is important. What other things or other factors do we need to take into account for. Credibility building on LinkedIn.

00:22:32:02 - 00:24:13:17
Jo: Well the big one then is is content because that helps you build your authority in what you do. So publishing regular content around your top area of expertise. Now this is you know you could go crazy. You could set up a whole schedule load a content you know in the post five times a day to linked in. I don't recommend that because that's a lot of noise and a lot of work for yourself with a lot less payoff. It's much better to post a couple of really really thoughtful pieces adding a lot of value each week. You post twice a week you might decide to post on a Tuesday or Thursday. Timing's not so important because LinkedIn won't tell you what time of day people are online but it's about when you do post make sure that you are available to comment back on any interaction not straight away but you know it within that sort of couple hour period because you want to make sure that that's all happening which will increase your visibility overtly then because you when you share content your first level connections may see it depending on the algorithm depending on their network size and various things. And are they interested in your content or is linked in pushing it but when you first level connections and comment on your content they're exposing it to their connections which are your second level if they comment they're exposing it to the third level which actually build your influence then. So the other thing I talk about is influence. So if you're creating that content and engaging people then you're reaching more people which actually increases your visibility increases your credibility and your influence at the same time so now a quick tip with content this is something I recommend. I would say for every piece of content that you share you should engage with at least 10 other people. Otherwise you're talking at your audience not with them.

00:24:13:27 - 00:24:18:04
Paul: So talk to us a little bit more about that. So how does that look. How do we do that.

00:24:18:06 - 00:25:11:24
Jo: Yeah. So I think I mean by engaging I mean commenting so say it's say today on posting an update about something I won't do it. I would just pick some people and just randomly comment. I pick people that I actually. I'm building a relationship with but I'm looking down for it that sort of spread of me talking at and talking with because a post is essentially talking at your audience you're dropping a piece of content. It's a one way conversation. But then the way you write that piece of content you're asking a question. Making sure you're inviting their input. Sharing your insights but also making it more of a collaborative type of post. But then once you've done that looking for those people. So if if if you were a potential client of mine or you were a referral partner of mine that knows people that would need my help. I would then invest some time in commenting on those sorts of people. So if you were a What's the type of person that would listen to his podcast let's pick an example.

00:25:12:01 - 00:25:20:21
Paul: Oh well there'll be a lot of service professionals lots of people being whether they're accountants bookkeepers. So let's pick one of those.

00:25:20:23 - 00:26:24:15
Jo: Let's go with accountant that's a good example. So you're an accountant. Shared an update something. Maybe it's around business growth. Some some general tips that an accountant would better provide some insights into. Then what you do is look at other people either your clients potential clients or other people that would refer business so maybe a bookkeeper might refer business to an accountant a financial planner a mortgage broker. You'd take time to then engage with those people and not just saying great post. Because that doesn't add any value at all. That doesn't give you any credibility but adding something intelligent to a conversation where you can add value and it's relevant because that way your you're exposing yourself to not just them but to their network and yet you're being of service rather than being salesy. So it's it's not it's a case of going into a post and going oh well I've got a blog on that and linking to it. That's a little bit of news jacking kind of. It's about adding some value. You might share something that was in your blog you want intrigue people enough to check you out. Then they might look at your profile they might connect you.

00:26:24:24 - 00:26:41:23
Paul: Just to be clear Jo has a strategy rather than always is pumping content out at people. We're talking about watching what other people in our networks are saying and then commenting and providing value and adding to their conversation or a conversation that they started.

00:26:41:25 - 00:27:05:26
Jo: Yeah absolutely. Because that's where that's where the true value of Linkedln is. It's not about what you say it's you know from your pursuit from your profile. It's about how you engage with people and that helps you build relationships and bring people to you. So that's like the things I talk about I mean visibility is one of them that increases your visibility because you're reaching people that are not in your network right now potentially and you're inviting them to join the conversation.

00:27:05:28 - 00:27:46:21
Paul: So one question I have in terms of the list of people that we're building and who are getting visibility with. You just mentioned about connecting with you know 10 other people and engaging in people who may be partners or potential clients. So just in terms of selection of who we accept into our networks do you have a strategy or a suggestion for how we go about that how do we know that where should we be accepting everybody who asks, should we be filtering some people out because it's a waste of time and energy. How do you approach or what's your advice to your clients in terms of who we accept and who we don't in our LinkedIn networks.

00:27:47:02 - 00:29:02:14
Jo: That's a great question that always comes up and it's different for everybody. So for me I might accept someone who's got a bad LinkedIn that's what I do but you know I've got some criteria so I probably accept maybe maybe two thirds of requests this, a lot of poeple I say no to I say ignore because you can have a maximum of 30000 connections on LinkedIn and then you fall and you can't extend that. But people can follow you. So there's connecting and following the two different things. So connecting is a is a two way relationship. If we connect I'm connected to you you're connected to me we can message each other. If you follow me it means you're subscribing to my updates essentially but I'm not subscribing to yours and we can't message each other. So that's that's I just want to clarify the difference. But in terms of connecting because you've got 30,000 you I think that's a lot of people it's going to take me ages to get there but as you get more visible and people start sort of coming to and finding you you'll find your connections growing. And I don't want to have 30,000 connections because it means every time if I'm at 30,000 and I speak in a large conference I can't accept any of those ideal clients in the room. So I don't want that. And that's why I say no to people. And it's not they never know you say no you say ignore and it just disappears. But it's important to be strategic strategic for your business.

00:29:02:16 - 00:30:45:03
Jo: So I've got clients that only connect to people they know people they've met people they've worked with now depends on you know your type of business. If you only work in a very small geographical area in a very tight industry then you might just accept people in that industry or people that know those people. So I would say you know I think that who the decision makers in the organizations you want to work with who who are the stakeholders so beyond that but also who are the influences of those people. Because if you understand the power of LinkedIn and the three degrees you it because you're connected to your first level connections you've got to the second level through the first and then the third level so three degrees deep. So if you understand the power of that keeping your first level connections growing it consistently at the right people means you're reaching into their their network and now depending on. Obviously you don't know their connection strategy but you've got access to people that may be your ideal clients as well. So it's having some some criteria. So think about is it a geographical location. Is it an industry limitation. Is it things like Have they got a profile photo. Have they got information. Does it look a bit dodgy if it feels wrong. Generally it is because there are fake profiles. One thing to know if you do let someone in and they're not a fit and they start spamming you because that's the thing I think people do you can easily remove them but don't just feel it also limited to people in your industry because if someone's in a site it is of use accounting again accountants you'd be you'd be obviously connected to your clients connect into people you'd like to work with. You know maybe you're an accountant in and you work with mining oil and gas technology but you also might want to connect to people who know these people. So it might be looking at well do they live.

00:30:45:05 - 00:31:43:08
Jo: You know if you're based in Sydney do they have also are there based in Sydney or do they know connections in Sydney. You you don't know. You don't even know who they're married to. Maybe their partner needs your help so it's it's being a little bit open to who are they you know maybe they're a uni graduate and they're looking to get into your industry so there might be someone maybe you're in it. You could be employing people down the track maybe you're looking for mentors or mentees leaders in your space or people that published a book on the topic that you talk about or you specialize in people that speak so you know professional speakers and trainers and authorities in your industry because they might know people and this is this is we get a bit clever. So if you connect to someone who's a you know the world leader in your space and you get to know them you can you can add comments to their content and essentially you're riding on their coattails but you're doing it in a very respectful and authentic way. So you're you know you're adding your thoughts to it and continuing a conversation but you're reaching the audience which is your audience potentially.

00:31:43:13 - 00:32:32:01
Paul: So it's as a chance for us to showcase our knowledge base to showcase our talents and skills by adding value through other people's conversations and as you say not trying to steal their audience away or doing this hijacking of their content by saying Come to my blog or any of those sort of jammy strategies. So that's part of it. So the final piece to touch on is around this idea of influence and how we create more influence because obviously the vast majority of business owners who are investing space and time into LinkedIn are doing so because they'd like to use it as a sales channel. But But I'd like to generate leads and do that. So how do we maximize our influence and they had opportunity to create sales leads and business through LinkedIn.

00:32:32:03 - 00:34:55:04
Jo: When you say that creating sales and this is I think a mistake people make they're going there and try and sell so their posts are very sellsy they buy my stuff. My latest workshop his money book is this real estate agents. He's my next home open. That's not what linkedIn about it's not about you have to earn the right to be to promote something so it's adding constantly adding value and being of service and showcasing your personality using you know using video. So if you can share videos in your content of YouTube you speaking about what you speak about and it might might even be a voice over Some of you know some sort of visual maybe some slides just to get that content across. But it's about investing in relationships and that's the thing it's really hard to manage on LinkedIn because I'm going to use a term that I got from a client only couple of weeks ago. So I would say you know created a list of your ideal clients that you're connected to or or you want or you want to build a relationship with you'd like to connect to and map out a process as to how often you're going to have those touch points with them within your create influence with them. Now one of my clients calls it his funeral list and I said What do you mean funeral list. He said I've got a list of people that would come to my funeral if I died in business I thought Okay interesting. But that's a nice way of looking at it or not telling you that it's the people that matter in your world because that's what you want to influence because if you can do that strong relationship with these core people then they're going to become ambassadors for you naturally they're going to recommend you and you've probably seen this yourself Paul where people want you want your sort of help on a particular social media where I was asking a question and people start tagging you and saying Yeah you know you need to speak to Paul he's he's the rock star marketer you know you know if you're an electrician and someone's got or needs some help they'll start taking you say this is person you need to speak to if you're running your business coach. This is you know you've worked you know you're always adding value to people and it's not just your clients it's going to be people that see your content they see the difference that you're making because it's about. Making it you know making an impact in the world. And that will create influence. Now the other part of influence I mean this public influence and it is this relationship building that is the private side of things. So I took I mentioned about sharing content and engaging with content that's all public. People can see that. But then you've got the private relationship building by messages now keep it just within LinkedIn and one once hit.

00:34:55:06 - 00:35:36:12
Jo: I've been sharing with a lot of clients it's been quite successful. Is using audio messages which is quite interesting we're talking about that on a podcast which is audio because audio does works really well. So it's so much faster to to speak than it is to write a long winded message and it's easier to listen than it is to consume often. So recording an audio message within the Linked In app. Now this is only available on the phone but you know you go to someone's profile you click at the very bottom there's a little microphone and you get a record button and record your message. You got a minute to say something. That helps you create influence because then you can convey your personality your passion as well as the thing you're actually saying.

00:35:36:14 - 00:35:50:12
Paul: Great! I love it. It's a nice protip we're going to start doing some audio messages and how is it delivered as an as a message with in linked in that they there they get some sort of message that they've got an audio message to listen to or has it delivered to them.

00:35:50:14 - 00:36:39:24
Jo: Yeah. So in your when you go to your app and you can listen to it on the phone or desktop you just can only send it from phone you get this little blue line you click on it and a plays so obviously you need to have ability to listen or you know if you're on the move having headphones but you just yet. They just listen to your message. So I do this to touch base. Now if I talk about sales because if you're looking to sell something if you send a text message with you know I've got a workshop coming up I'd love you to come they might read that as very salesy me because I'm reading it in a tone that they don't it's not yours but if you do an audio message and I feel like I'm coming to Melbourne next month and I might say yeah I'm coming to Melbourne. I'd love to catch up. By the way I'm running a workshop. If you're interested or know anybody is let me know. You know you can say it in a much more casual way than you can when you're writing a text because it just sounds salesy sometimes.

00:36:40:15 - 00:37:15:08
Paul: And that's obviously a big issue for a lot of people is they going too fast they're trying to go for the throat and grab a sail and as you say the platform is just not really designed for that. So we really need to be of service we need to be as you beautifully put it earning the right to connect with people and for them to pay attention to us and that when they're ready to consume that we've given them a pathway to do that rather than just pushing out sales messages because I sense that is a complete waste of people's time and energy just to be hitting people with sales messages all the time on LinkedIn.

00:37:15:14 - 00:38:00:07
Jo: Oh absolutely. I mean there is there are some third party tools that can automate it. If you if you're looking to automate your Linked Inand you know I'm going to say spam spam connections with message mass messages that's you doing it wrong. And there are some some some people teaching those strategies and there's agencies that do all for you. But I mean I've received some I've been invited to events where I know the person inviting me. I've spoken on stage with them but yet they their message is very vanilla and very much a salesy message. And you're hitting missing the mark. I'm not going to come to your event because sadly to selling to me run out saying something personal and personal takes time. It does. So that's the day of the pay off. But if you take the time to build relationships and you do in a personal way it's just much more valuable.

00:38:00:15 - 00:38:29:15
Paul: I think it's great advice and I think it will help us to enjoy a lot more success with our LinkedIn if we're going to invest the time and energy into LinkedIn we best do it correctly to see the results at the end rather than trying to do the short shake strategy and go for quick sales which are unlikely to ever come our way. So Jo I'm sure that we could talk all day about all of the mechanics of of Linked In and that's the area that you spend all of your time helping clients to succeed in. So what's the best way for them to reach out and learn from you.

00:38:29:17 - 00:38:39:13
Jo: Well of course is Linked In there quite a lot. You got wildfiresocialmarketing.com You'll find all my offerings and you're very welcome to Connect me on LinkedIn.

00:38:40:13 - 00:38:51:29
Paul: Certainly the web address again is wildfiresocialmarketing.com Thank you so much Joe for taking some time out of your schedule to share your LinkedIn wisdom with us make us a little smarter than we were.

00:38:52:01 - 00:38:54:00
Jo: No problem at all. Always have fun with this stuff.

00:38:54:04 - 00:40:06:24
Paul: It's great talking to you so I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Joe Saunders and that you've now got a list of practical things that you can go and do look at your LinkedIn profile if you have an established one that you might want to think about building one if you've got one to go there and make sure that it's ticking all the right boxes that you are making yourself easy to be found and that you are positioning your expertise as an expert in the relevant field so that you can start to build conversations grow relationships with people and more than ever we're going to need to start to develop these quality relationships if we're going to make our way through this period of time in our history. So I really hope that you will get busy being proactive. You know there is no end to the negative messages. The doom and gloom stories that are coming and really want this platform to be one where we're going to start to shift the focus we're gonna be a bit of a circuit breaker if you will for all this negativity and stop let's move ourselves into a different headspace. Let's start to think about okay well lots of things feel out of our control right now. But what can we control. What can we purposefully start to do.

00:40:06:26 - 00:41:22:14
Paul: That's going to move our businesses forward. And this is just one of the many simple strategies that we could start taking. The reality is for a lot of small business owners that in the face of a diminishing workload they actually have a unique opportunity to really get down to developing their marketing like they never have before. You know many business owners that I meet you know always too busy to get to this stuff. Well now maybe the silver lining here is that you have a chance to really get all your marketing in line get everything right so that as this crisis comes around you better position than you've ever been in the past. So we need to work on two levels we need to be doing things that are going to keep you going for now. But make sure that we're taking advantage of this time to ensure that you are ready to hit the ground running and go fast. When when the opportunity comes again to be a thriving business. So that's our goal. And I'm going to keep delivering episodes for you filled with practical ideas. I'm going to start to also give you access to a whole range of other tools and resources that are going to help you through this period.

00:41:22:26 - 00:43:36:09
So next week is going to be a dedicated episode to helping you through the change process and introducing to you a range of tools a whole bunch of things that will be free for you to get access to that are going to help you to move forward. So I'm absolutely here in your corner. So I know that one of the issues that can come through a period like this is a feeling that you're on your own. I can promise you you are not. I am here with you. And if you're hurting plays reach out to me I'm here to help you and and do anything and everything that I can to make sure that you can get through this period. So we're gonna be introducing a range of tools and ideas so you can look forward to those. As I say working harder than I ever have to try and get all of these things done and ready for you to help you through this period. I really appreciate you. I am there for you. I really want to be you know the person that you can turn to through this period that's gonna help you to do proactive things things that are going to help your business sustain and then ideally really thrive in the new economy. And that's where I'm going to keep my focus on. So if you need a break from all the negative talk and the doom and gloom stuff around Corona then that's what I want the market as club podcast to be for you. So please continue to listen to the program share it with other business owners that you know they need a hand to let's work together to really create a supportive community of business owners that are really in each other's corner and helping each other to get through this tricky time. I really hope that you are able to keep yourself safe you and your family your friends that you stay safe that we do listen to the advice and that we do all the things we can to make sure we're not causing this pandemic to spread any further but stay safe out there make sure that you look after yourself and really look forward to joining you next week with another episode of the market as club podcast. Until then I wish you all the very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives take care and bye for now.