This week on the If You Market podcast we speak with Rachel Simon, CEO and Founder at Connect The Dots Digital. We discuss techniques for developing yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn, which according to Sky does not include posting videos about how awesome you are and how much money you can make.
Rachel works with company founders, subject matter experts and executives to expand their network and develop themselves as thought-leaders while increasing trust with their buyers, resulting in an overall impact in revenue.
Subscribe to the If You Market Podcast on iTunes: www.goo.gl/nfMMtW
Youtube: https://youtu.be/wtHRdxvSGhs
Contact Rachel Simon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rksimon/
Web: www.connectthedotsdigital.com
Connect the Dots Digital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect-the-dots-digital/
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Transcript:
thank you for listening to the if you
00:12
market podcast I’m your host Sky Cassidy
00:14
and we’ve got our lovely co-host Carla
00:16
Joe Helms with us here today
00:18
and know and we’re gonna be talking
00:20
about LinkedIn techniques for Thought
00:22
leadership with Rachel Simon rachel is
00:25
the founder and CEO of connect-the-dots
00:27
digital she works with company founders
00:30
subject matter experts and executives to
00:32
expand their network and develop
00:34
themselves as thought leaders while
00:36
increasing trust with their buyers all
00:38
on the LinkedIn Rachel fantastic to have
00:41
you on today thanks for joining us
00:42
thanks for having me so LinkedIn thought
00:45
leadership loved the topic before we
00:48
jumped headlong into that can you um
00:49
tell us a little bit about yourself what
00:52
your company does and how you got here
00:54
absolutely um so you you in reading my
00:58
bio that sums up a lot about what my
01:01
company does can’t connect the dots
01:03
digital is a managed service so we work
01:07
with industry experts really subject
01:10
matter experts yours company leaders in
01:15
their LinkedIn profile to help them sort
01:19
of connect with the right audience of
01:21
figuring out who are their targets and
01:23
are they connected to them and if not
01:24
let’s do some strategic outreach helping
01:28
them really showcase their expertise
01:30
through great content so developing that
01:32
thought leadership and then building
01:35
relationships with those contacts
01:39
through personal messaging by
01:41
interacting in posts and various ways it
01:46
really all to build trust so that when a
01:48
knee does arise that expertise is sort
01:52
of known by the audience and can shorten
01:57
the sales cycle and sort of help kind of
02:00
get that sale a little bit quicker than
02:03
through other traditional means I’ve
02:06
been doing this for about three years I
02:08
come from a very non marketing specific
02:12
back
02:13
I did a lot in nonprofit and community
02:16
building so I’ve taken a lot of the
02:18
things I learned in working in the
02:20
nonprofit world as far as being
02:22
authentic really valuable and having to
02:26
do a lot with a little and kind of it
02:29
informs what I do now would connect the
02:31
dots digital sometimes it’s really great
02:34
Rachel from an outsider coming in you
02:36
can see things at a different
02:37
perspective and you talked about you
02:41
know genuine authenticity from your
02:43
background I think that’s always a
02:45
refreshing thing that marketers b2b
02:49
marketers can look at because we’re
02:51
always having to tell the news story
02:55
right and we could get sold for us and
02:58
you know having to be authentic
03:00
refreshes it puts you in present time so
03:02
I think that’s great oh yeah thank you
03:05
and you know honestly coming from a
03:06
non-profit where you you know I did
03:10
marketing and nonprofit and I helped
03:11
build one nonprofit social media
03:13
strategy really from the ground up when
03:16
I started working in the for-profit
03:17
world and with other companies you know
03:20
conversations of what listening tools
03:23
are you using and what are you using to
03:24
automate X Y & Z and I was well I worked
03:28
in non-profit so the listening tools I
03:30
use where my ears and my eyes like
03:32
there’s no money for those things so you
03:34
really have to learn how to do a lot of
03:36
things you’re a guerrilla yet
03:38
organically and that organic aspect of
03:45
sort of reaching out to people I think
03:46
there’s a lot of power in that you know
03:49
that can be coupled with some other
03:51
automation yeah agreed
03:52
so Rachel this isn’t just one aspect of
03:56
of your job or of your business this
04:00
this is kind of what you guys do is that
04:02
what I’m getting this is your correct
04:04
focus we are yes so we’re really trying
04:08
to do one thing and one thing really
04:10
really well you know generally clients
04:13
although other needs come up so such as
04:16
I have a client that I’ve been working
04:18
with and they related SEO and sort of
04:21
more pay-per-click support and so I have
04:25
a lot of great
04:26
well that I can make referrals and
04:28
introductions to but I have kind of done
04:31
the jack-of-all-trades we’re sure I’ll
04:32
do this that the other and decided that
04:35
I really want to do one thing and really
04:37
focus specifically in one area because
04:41
there’s lots of great people that could
04:42
do the supportive work yeah when people
04:45
ask what you do and your answer is I
04:46
don’t know what do you pay for that’s
04:48
never a good sign
04:50
what do you need whatever anything okay
04:56
so now focusing specifically on LinkedIn
04:59
I know building we had a guest a couple
05:02
a couple years back that was all about
05:07
thought leadership and creating thought
05:09
leaders on social media in general are
05:12
you guys focus specifically on LinkedIn
05:15
I mean that’s the topic today but is
05:17
that the single platform that you’re
05:20
focused on or do you get more general
05:23
yes so I really am focused on LinkedIn
05:26
you know however some clients have
05:29
multiple social media platforms that
05:32
they are working with and you know
05:35
obviously content can be used in a
05:36
variety of ways but there’s something
05:40
special about showcasing that expertise
05:44
on LinkedIn and you know when I mean you
05:48
know kind of great reason why it’s so
05:51
important and such a great platform it
05:53
is the number one site for b2b content
05:56
so it is people are coming to LinkedIn
06:00
specifically because they know that
06:03
there’s valuable meaningful and credible
06:06
content
06:06
now what shopping there’s that I think
06:08
wait there’s another site for b2b
06:09
content I mean I I guess you know I
06:16
definitely see lots of companies who
06:19
feel like they have to have a Facebook
06:21
presence if they’re b2b I personally
06:24
don’t recommend that I don’t think a lot
06:26
of b2b companies are buying and selling
06:28
because if they see something on
06:30
Facebook I will interrupt you on that
06:32
one range on on tell you because all of
06:34
our clients are b2b and it is really not
06:37
for buying and selling you’re right
06:39
but most b2b companies do have an effect
06:43
on the end-user and the consumer so for
06:47
reputation wise court of public opinion
06:49
when they actually show and it’s really
06:52
for PR purposes but they have a Facebook
06:55
page to really connect with those
06:58
influencers that affect the audience’s
07:01
of their clients you know and what they
07:03
ultimately do that’s where Facebook is
07:06
valuable yeah I can see that and it’s
07:08
definitely like for brand awareness but
07:11
you know oftentimes especially the
07:14
smaller companies where resources are
07:15
are limited if you have to pick a couple
07:19
I would definitely put my focus on
07:22
LinkedIn versus some of the other
07:23
platforms out there I would – for sure
07:26
yeah and sometime I mean everyone I
07:30
think Facebook has its its role in sort
07:33
of the business world but I know about
07:37
you I feel like now my facebook feed is
07:39
just clogged up with ads like tons and
07:42
tons of ads and it’s starting to get
07:44
kind of frustrating as a user but it’s
07:49
really glutton isn’t it yeah yeah so
07:52
anyway you know again back to with
07:54
Legion I think that the piece where I
07:57
really that value add is the fact that
08:02
we don’t have to sift through garbage
08:04
content like you do on some other social
08:07
media sites it is for the most part
08:11
content is really credible and and has a
08:15
inherent value when people are posting
08:19
it yeah and it’s surprising out of all
08:22
the millions of users and out of all the
08:25
millions of decision-makers the little
08:28
amount of content that is actually
08:31
online and it’s a it’s a wide open like
08:34
canvas right for b2b companies is that
08:37
right what are those stuff so um you
08:40
know there’s about 500 million LinkedIn
08:43
users about half of those are I think
08:47
what will you call active users you know
08:49
so who are looking at
08:50
platform once at least once a month but
08:53
even of those only about 3 million are
08:56
sharing content on a regular basis so
08:58
that’s a very small percentage of the
09:00
overall use and even a small percent of
09:03
the of the you know more active users so
09:07
there’s less noise to sift through yeah
09:11
a lot of opportunity to show expertise
09:15
in a quieter platform versus other ones
09:20
I have I actually did some research on
09:22
this episode I know everybody listening
09:23
is gonna be shocked but I looked up some
09:26
numbers Rachel and it’s funny I had the
09:28
exact same number you have done on the
09:30
number of users and but then I broke it
09:33
down some more just to share some
09:34
general stats with people on LinkedIn
09:36
scope and I guess I’d say at this point
09:39
that as far as I know Rachel is is not
09:42
working for LinkedIn this is just the
09:44
platform that she and most b2b people
09:46
agree is the main place to go to for
09:49
this kind of stuff it’s gonna sound like
09:51
we’re doing an ad for a fur link did at
09:53
some point here but in b2b I think we
09:55
already all know that a cocktail party’s
09:57
people are confused they say LinkedIn
09:59
that’s that joke that’s that’s something
10:01
that’s like a Dilbert comic right no no
10:03
if you’re in our world this is this is
10:05
where it’s at but so the 500 million
10:07
users yes but in the u.s. there’s about
10:11
a hundred and fifty hundred fifty-one
10:12
million profiles now you talk about
10:14
active users that’s really important
10:17
because in my business one of the things
10:18
we notice is how many not only active
10:20
users but real users all these kind of
10:22
platforms have this many users but then
10:24
a percentage of them I think on LinkedIn
10:27
possibly more than other platforms a
10:30
percentage of them aren’t real profiles
10:31
they’re people maybe who created profile
10:33
and left and it just sits there or
10:35
people who you’ll see the same people
10:39
have multiple profiles because they lost
10:41
their access to it and just created a
10:43
new one they got a new job and didn’t
10:45
have the email they created it with and
10:47
so they created a new one over and over
10:49
again or then you have a quite a few
10:51
actually it’s a big problem Lincoln’s
10:53
head lawsuits with companies on this
10:55
that create massive amounts of fake
10:57
profiles so we see about 150 million
11:00
u.s. profiles which would be if they
11:03
were all real pro
11:04
a hundred percent of the working
11:05
population in the US and we know that’s
11:08
not true so then minutes on this now
11:16
this is the kind of thing we just know
11:17
here anyway so I’m kind of cheating
11:19
calling it research but we do this
11:21
research all the time I’m not going to
11:23
take that much credit for it so we what
11:26
we’ve estimated here is that there’s
11:27
about 40 million valid u.s. profiles
11:29
which is 27 percent of the of the total
11:33
u.s. profiles so it’s actually a pretty
11:35
it’s only about a quarter of the
11:37
profiles that are really valid profiles
11:39
so you mentioned the percentage that
11:40
that post is small but the percentage
11:44
that our actual real profiles are small
11:46
compared to the total yeah profiles
11:49
that’s still a huge number of profiles
11:50
that’s still a ton of people when you’re
11:52
thinking the b2b market and who’s
11:54
actually on LinkedIn so it’s it’s still
11:56
massive but the overall numbers aren’t
11:58
quite what they seem on the surface and
12:00
it’s you know twelve percent of the US
12:03
population that’s a huge number 23
12:05
percent of the workforce on LinkedIn
12:06
that’s a huge number an interesting
12:10
thing is how many people are coming on
12:11
to LinkedIn all the time as well if we
12:14
have what 1.3 million u.s. profiles
12:18
added per month on LinkedIn roughly
12:20
right now I’m sure it fluctuates from
12:21
month-to-month but that’s about 350,000
12:25
using the same metrics we have here
12:26
valid profiles a month that means people
12:29
are creating a lot of invalid profiles
12:31
every every month if we assume that
12:33
valid profile number holds true the the
12:38
number of births in the US per years
12:40
around four million which at 350,000
12:45
valid profiles per month and four
12:47
million babies born in a year we have
12:50
more profiles being created on LinkedIn
12:52
in a year than we’re having new births
12:54
which means it can’t really keep up that
12:56
pace so either Lincoln’s growing rapidly
12:58
because it hasn’t fully matured with the
13:01
number of the workforce being on
13:03
LinkedIn or there’s even more profiles
13:06
on LinkedIn that are that are not the
13:09
valid people or valid profiles on there
13:12
or that are abandoned or whatever it is
13:14
so just some kind of general numbers
13:16
that are out there
13:17
you hear a lot of band in them what do
13:19
you think right I actually I think
13:22
you’re right I think a lot of people
13:24
well probably two things like you said
13:27
sky some people forget their credentials
13:30
and just don’t maybe know how to find
13:35
them again you know that you can like
13:37
reset your password or they don’t know
13:38
what email address they created some
13:41
people think you have to create a new
13:43
profile for every new position I’ve
13:45
actually sat with somebody recently and
13:50
literally on the phone together it took
13:53
over almost an hour to help help him
13:56
find an old profile and merge the two he
13:59
had you know didn’t know you can merge
14:01
duplicate profiles which if you don’t
14:05
know you can surprise so if you have two
14:08
profiles you can merge them a percentage
14:10
of the people listening just started
14:11
logging on the linkedin saying number
14:15
one for the episode already I do think
14:19
there’s probably a fair amount of user
14:20
error but I also do know that I have a
14:24
someone that I know who works for a
14:26
company where they do exactly what you
14:27
said they create these fake profiles and
14:30
they use them to do automation sales
14:33
outreach and yeah right that’s a there’s
14:38
companies that that’s their whole
14:40
business is LinkedIn legion and they
14:42
aren’t using their own profiles and I
14:44
would I talk to people about this before
14:46
and said I estimate that every company
14:48
with probably over 50 employees has
14:53
LinkedIn profiles for fictitious people
14:55
that they use just like you have a
14:57
receptionist or an assistant that
14:59
doesn’t actually exist and half the
15:01
salespeople have multiple profiles
15:02
because they have their assistant that’s
15:04
not a real person and that’s what I
15:05
think a lot of this comes up so there’s
15:06
malicious companies creating profiles
15:08
but there’s also people creating
15:10
profiles for specific uses that are not
15:13
them but they’re them there let’s call
15:15
it you know somebody writes a book under
15:17
another name you don’t say that it’s
15:18
that it’s fake or bogus people are doing
15:21
that to an extent I’m kind of the take
15:23
away two feet from your original point
15:25
though is there are a ton of real people
15:27
and real profiles but it’s underused
15:30
like linkedin is still
15:31
a very you know it’s a pond that’s
15:34
teeming with fish and people aren’t
15:36
really taking full advantage of it and I
15:38
think that’s kind of why it sounds like
15:39
you uh you specialize on LinkedIn
15:42
because there’s so much opportunity
15:43
there because there’s so many people but
15:45
they aren’t as active as they could be
15:47
they’re not taking full advantage of
15:48
this profile or this platform that we
15:51
all have just access to as a playground
15:53
absolutely and I think knowing that
15:56
we’re also up against lots of fake
15:59
profiles out there all the more reason
16:03
why when I’m engaging with my clients
16:06
and in the work that I’m doing it is so
16:08
important that it always feels like the
16:10
actual person who is even if I’m helping
16:13
manage their LinkedIn profile it’s that
16:16
right I want it to be authentic and be
16:19
authentically their voice and what they
16:21
would be doing if they had the time to
16:23
do with themself well you know I think
16:25
they say that across all social media
16:27
platforms but I see it the most on
16:29
LinkedIn because you are dealing with
16:31
higher educated people decision-makers
16:34
and they really do are they are there to
16:37
connect right so I think it’s even more
16:42
expected on LinkedIn than it is on other
16:45
social media channels yeah I agree
16:49
yeah it’s coming they’ll watch out there
16:50
are a ton of companies out there right
16:52
now that are doing LinkedIn lead
16:53
generation and oh I know I’ve done a lot
16:55
of research in the area they’re gonna
16:58
turn people off people are gonna get
17:00
like when somebody reaches out to you
17:02
now you kind of assume well we do in
17:04
Finley generation but we don’t turn
17:06
people off automated become commoditized
17:10
watch out right there’s a lot of
17:13
automation out there there’s a lot of
17:15
and I mean I’ve seen some really bad
17:17
ones I like to use this example of one
17:20
of my clients as I was like looking
17:22
through his request to connect you know
17:25
connection requests what dear mister it
17:29
literally fed dear mr. or miss oh yeah
17:36
that’s that’s a robot that is awesome
17:39
that is awesome
17:40
a terrible job
17:42
that’s like one of the worst automation
17:44
it’s not even necessary like you don’t
17:46
have to say mr. or miss you could just
17:47
say dear so-and-so or I tell people
17:49
don’t say dear real people don’t say
17:51
dear sky
17:56
that’s my new bumper sticker real
18:01
content yeah so we’re talking about all
18:05
these accounts and so forth and this is
18:08
when the sort of defies logic in other
18:11
areas but it’s really very interesting
18:13
in LinkedIn tell us why long-form
18:16
content gets the most shares on LinkedIn
18:21
that’s a really good question so
18:24
LinkedIn just absolutely loves long-form
18:26
content it wants you to sew it with a
18:29
couple of caveats it really wants it to
18:32
be like unique long-form content so
18:36
ideally even though I do you know
18:40
sometimes add clients to repurpose
18:42
content that maybe as a peer on a blog
18:44
on LinkedIn through LinkedIn publisher
18:47
yeah LinkedIn really likes it to be like
18:49
the firt in one place that you publish
18:51
long-form con so they it they hide like
18:56
they it gets highlighted to get searched
18:58
a different audience and I like to use
19:00
this I’ve been doing lunch and learns
19:02
lately about thought leadership and I
19:04
one of my slides was talking
19:06
specifically about publishing and I use
19:08
myself as an example so I had written a
19:10
blog post on you know some just basic on
19:14
why you should post content on LinkedIn
19:16
and I published it on my website and I
19:18
shared the link you know through my
19:21
company page and then I shared it as
19:23
myself I got two likes one was my
19:25
husband that’s a required like he has to
19:28
like everything I post on LinkedIn yeah
19:31
I about couple weeks later repurposed
19:34
that same content and I got 96 likes
19:37
like three common six shares it was a
19:40
completely different response to the
19:42
same content so you know I challenge
19:46
people just to try it out and see if you
19:49
have some content that you can you know
19:51
expand in a longer form and see what the
19:54
response is like and see if it hits do
19:56
people you know if you’re seeing more
19:59
second and third degree connections that
20:02
are interacting with it it’s being
20:03
served up to a completely different
20:04
audience versus who’s in your network so
20:07
are you saying basically that LinkedIn’s
20:09
monogamous or they want you to be
20:11
monogamous oh my god if you put it
20:13
everywhere they’re kind of not too
20:15
thrilled about it they just want you to
20:17
have your content with them yeah they do
20:20
they do but I mean you know you’ve got a
20:23
limited amount of time and it’s
20:26
important to be able to repurpose
20:27
content so right I I do recommend that
20:30
if you do repurpose content that if it
20:33
goes on your website you wait three four
20:35
weeks to share it on LinkedIn through
20:38
you know publishing it you know again
20:40
copy you can copy and paste it and I
20:41
like to include a link to the original
20:43
oh so not post on LinkedIn first and
20:45
then to your site you can put it on your
20:47
site you just have to have a time period
20:48
between yeah that was recommended to me
20:51
wait wait wait I missed it LinkedIn
20:54
comes first then the website needs to
20:57
come first okay that’s what I do wanna
20:59
mess up your SEO on your website
21:02
yeah and again you know Google also
21:04
doesn’t love it when content is
21:06
duplicated all the time so if you can
21:08
make it a little bit different or maybe
21:10
you could you know include a shorter
21:14
version and then click to read more
21:16
there’s a lot of ways to play with it
21:17
another good way to publishing is let’s
21:20
say you’ve found a great article that
21:23
requires more than like a two sentence
21:25
you know putting it in context to post
21:29
the link you can write three four
21:31
paragraphs really flesh out why you know
21:34
what you thought was valuable from the
21:36
article or maybe you disagree with it
21:38
and include the link to the original
21:40
piece and publish that so you have a lot
21:42
of there’s a lot of opportunity of the
21:44
various types of content you can do a
21:46
case study you can do you can do photos
21:49
you know or images infographics there’s
21:52
a lot to play with but it’s it’s an
21:56
interesting tool to experiment with to
21:58
see what their responses like what if
22:01
you posted a shorter version on your
22:03
website with a link to the longer
22:06
version that’s exclusively for LinkedIn
22:09
uh in that particular post so you still
22:12
have authenticity you still have it on
22:14
your website you still have exclusive
22:16
content on LinkedIn what do you think
22:19
about that yeah I mean I think that
22:21
again it’s all an experimentation and
22:24
you know I’m not a website expert so I
22:26
would never I don’t want to speak to
22:28
what the SEO implications would be for
22:31
that but you know some companies it’s
22:34
more important that they get that you
22:36
know that organic search for their site
22:38
versus if you know you’re not giving
22:40
like a lot of people are not typing in
22:43
your website and coming up on you know
22:44
the first page of Google if that’s not
22:46
as important to you but what’s happening
22:48
on LinkedIn is more than I just think
22:50
you have to work do it whatever makes
22:52
most sense for what your strategy is but
22:56
again experiment and see but it is an
23:00
interesting tool and a lot that it’s
23:03
also you know we talked about how
23:06
LinkedIn is underutilized in general
23:08
publisher is even more underutilized so
23:11
like a from the stat that I was working
23:14
off of you know again thinking about
23:17
putting them in a context of what the
23:19
actual users might be but if only 3
23:21
million users are sharing content weekly
23:23
only about 1 million or ever publishing
23:26
content when you say publisher publisher
23:28
you mean people publishing original
23:30
content correct so if you’re looking at
23:32
your you know page you’re looking at the
23:35
LinkedIn newsfeed and at the top it’s
23:37
got the right let me just make sure I
23:39
say it exactly correctly hold on at the
23:43
top if you want to post something it’s
23:46
gonna tell you share article photo video
23:50
or idea so the little the first little
23:52
button you could click says write an
23:55
article and if you click on that it
23:56
takes you to the page like the web page
24:00
within LinkedIn where you can write an
24:02
article right so it looks different
24:04
versus if you want to post a link you
24:06
just pop the link in a regular post
24:08
who’s saying you’re always much better
24:10
off writing an article then taking the
24:12
same long-form content and putting in a
24:14
post yeah play with it and if you can
24:17
add a photo you excellent
24:18
another good tip so I want to jump back
24:20
to we’ve kind of been flying or
24:22
linked in here back to the thought
24:25
leadership and LinkedIn in general
24:27
that’s that’s your guys focus it’s what
24:30
you do over there can you just for
24:33
people listening or saying okay what’s
24:34
that leadership and what’s LinkedIn
24:36
maybe um maybe a little bit past that
24:39
but why is it important to develop that
24:42
leadership like who would want to do
24:44
this in Y okay so the real value of
24:47
developing thought leadership on
24:50
LinkedIn is that it showcases you as an
24:52
expert in what you do
24:53
so everybody I’m sure it’s connected to
24:57
someone on LinkedIn that you’re like
24:59
okay that guy knows everything there is
25:01
to know about financial plan right or
25:03
that guy is the commercial real estate
25:05
you know guru hearing wherever you live
25:09
so you want to help develop yourself
25:13
should be top of mind like that with
25:17
whatever your area of expertise what the
25:18
LinkedIn version of when you know
25:20
somebody you’re like oh that guy likes
25:21
eggs you know it because of Facebook or
25:23
something like that they’re obsessed
25:32
with it
25:32
so yes it is that you you are known for
25:36
what you know and again it’s by
25:40
consistently posting content that talks
25:44
about your area of expertise you know
25:47
that’s a really important word I mean
25:49
today you have to differentiate yourself
25:52
and so content and being an expert is
25:55
the way to do that right but you said a
25:58
really important word it was consistent
26:00
there has to be a rhythm there has to be
26:02
consistent information that’s coming out
26:05
and you know Google really rewards that
26:07
too I mean that is part of the algorithm
26:09
to really reward someone that has high
26:13
quality I’m authentic you know
26:16
vendor-neutral content that is
26:19
consistent right and and I see when
26:22
you’re talking about that with LinkedIn
26:24
they have a very similar algorithm yeah
26:27
so that consistency is can be
26:30
intimidating and generally when I have
26:33
you know my recommendation is people
26:36
posting three to five times a week and
26:37
sometimes people’s eyes like bug out of
26:39
their heads thinking oh my god I think
26:43
that happen but being seen as in a
26:48
regular consistent basis in the newsfeed
26:51
is extremely powerful and valuable so
26:55
you know it doesn’t have to it doesn’t
26:58
have to be overwhelming if you make a
27:01
plan so just like if you were starting
27:04
an exercise routine you know you don’t
27:06
go run a marathon you know on the first
27:10
day you’ve ever run like you don’t you
27:12
don’t say you know what I’m gonna do get
27:13
in shape I’ll run a marathon you hear
27:16
you make a plan you’re like okay well
27:18
I’m gonna run a mile and then I’m gonna
27:21
run two miles and then I’m gonna run
27:23
three miles you work your way up and you
27:24
make a plan and that’s really what I
27:26
recommend is you make a plan think about
27:29
all the content you have at your
27:31
disposal so does your company have you
27:34
know do you work for a company that has
27:37
a LinkedIn page where they post content
27:38
regularly if so there’s your first place
27:41
to look then I’m gonna share it I’m
27:43
gonna kind of scrape some people off as
27:45
far as this right off the bat and saying
27:47
if you don’t have something to say then
27:49
come back when you do kind of come up
27:52
with something of value to say because
27:54
the LinkedIn will people will recognize
27:57
if you’re just slinging you know if
27:59
you’re slinging garbage because you feel
28:01
like I need to make you know ten posts a
28:03
week so let me just if you’re throwing
28:05
fluff out there that’s not really gonna
28:07
gonna help you either throw on garbage
28:09
it’s got to actually be good content so
28:11
if you feel like you can’t do it or if
28:13
it’s too much work then no other people
28:15
will do it that’s fine
28:16
and if you you’re saying people like oh
28:18
my god that three posts a week or
28:19
whatever it is that that’s work if this
28:22
isn’t gonna be your job then don’t do it
28:24
but that’s your job you don’t say oh my
28:25
god I have to go to work every day
28:27
that’s children it’s the job if you want
28:32
to be a you know an influencer if you
28:34
want to be a thought leader on LinkedIn
28:37
or in your field at all then if three
28:39
posts a week scares you then you know
28:42
the world needs Dick’s diggers to you
28:45
it’s a good point and I think you’re
28:48
right I I think we often also see people
28:51
that every other posting very self
28:53
promoting things I shy away from that I
28:56
really needs to be informed by what is
28:59
your audience going to find valuable so
29:01
you know you might be the greatest you
29:05
know financial planner in the world but
29:07
telling people all day long hey I’m so
29:09
good at this you should work with me
29:11
okay I gotta jump in again because this
29:13
is I’ve started seeing more of this on
29:14
LinkedIn and it’s I hate it’s there’s so
29:22
many sales and marketing people doing
29:23
the handheld from my phone videos saying
29:26
hey I’m awesome you want to be awesome
29:28
like me listen to me here’s how you
29:29
become awesome reach out to me I don’t
29:31
make you awesome I do lead gen on
29:33
LinkedIn and I’m awesome and you can be
29:34
awesome stop it people it’s it’s
29:37
pathetic we don’t want to see you
29:38
walking around the Lamborghini and
29:40
pretending to open the door and then
29:41
seeing the owner in the background
29:42
running up saying what are you doing in
29:43
my car
29:44
pretending like you have all this great
29:45
success to try to make success knock it
29:47
off it’s so annoying
29:49
that might work on Facebook but here on
29:51
LinkedIn its business-to-business you
29:53
need real content you have to actually
29:54
provide some value stop making these BS
29:57
I’m so great
29:58
come you know I’ll teach you how to be
30:00
great to videos I agree I think if
30:04
you’re gonna do a video answer question
30:07
yeah it’s not authentic it’s where
30:08
you’re talking with the authenticity
30:09
people in business-to-business see
30:11
through the fake stuff you can’t be
30:14
asked them can’t you know we sell to
30:16
marketers we can’t use get marketing
30:18
gimmicks on marketers they’re you know
30:20
see right through it
30:22
it’s inauthentic they know right away
30:23
this rash of videos over the last year
30:27
or so people doing that it’s so annoying
30:29
you gotta stare at their face whether
30:32
it’s the sliminess be yeah so years ago
30:39
like years and years ago my first job I
30:42
was sitting in a presentation by a
30:45
marketing guy here
30:47
Lana and one of the things he talked
30:50
about has always stuck with me and my
30:53
queen if you’re listening 20 years later
30:56
here we go
30:57
he said you should always be thinking
30:59
about from the point of view of who’s
31:01
who you are reaching out to what what’s
31:05
in it for me meaning like what are they
31:07
why would they want to hear what you
31:09
have to say and so I think that what’s
31:12
in it for me
31:13
me being the consumer or whoever is the
31:17
business that you’re reaching out to is
31:19
so important because you want them to
31:24
look at you like you have something
31:26
valuable that they need and that you
31:29
understand their pain points and can
31:31
speak to those challenges and so you
31:34
could talk all day long about how smart
31:37
you are and how great you are but you’re
31:39
the customer needs to needs to think
31:41
that you need to understand that you can
31:44
help them and that you understand what
31:47
they need out there and I think that
31:49
that is always sort of stuck with me
31:51
through you know every job I’ve ever had
31:55
and every sort of outrage I’ve ever had
31:57
to do and I think it makes a lot of
32:00
sense on LinkedIn is talk to the your
32:03
audience in a meaningful and valuable
32:05
way that will resonate with them yeah I
32:08
scroll down to my LinkedIn profile here
32:10
well while you were talking real quick
32:11
two out of the first five posts that
32:14
show up are these faces I can’t hear
32:18
what they’re saying I know they’re just
32:19
saying I’m awesome at sales and
32:20
marketing and business it’s it’s insane
32:24
so I think if you’re trying to build
32:26
thought leadership on LinkedIn
32:28
maybe it’s successful I don’t know I
32:30
feel like it’s it’s garbage I’ll throw
32:35
it out there as a teaser Rachel you can
32:37
tell us after the break if that’s a
32:38
technique and I guess as long as the
32:41
content is good so video yourself
32:43
sitting in your car in traffic on a
32:47
surfboard talking whatever it is long as
32:49
you have something of value to say every
32:51
time I hear one of those it’s just a con
32:54
job is what it sounds like so we’re
32:56
gonna jump to break real quick
32:58
we got Rachel Simon here with us
33:01
cassadee carla jo helms our PR expert
33:04
and co-hosts are here and when we come
33:05
back we’ll talk more about LinkedIn
33:08
techniques for thought leadership and
33:09
get a lot more into that thought
33:11
leadership and I’ll be grilling you for
33:13
some of the secrets of your business
33:15
here right HEIs Bill Cates I’m president
33:23
of referral coach international and the
33:25
shortest line to relevance to getting
33:29
someone’s attention is a recommendation
33:31
from someone else they already trust we
33:34
help you multiply your best clients and
33:36
reach those hard to reach clients so
33:38
reach out to us at referral coach comm
33:41
/resources referral coach calm
33:43
/resources let’s start a conversation
33:46
see if I can help okay welcome back from
33:53
the break this is the if you market
33:55
podcast
33:55
I’m your host sky Cassidy I’ve got Carla
33:57
Joe Helms our lovely co-host here with
33:59
us and we’re speaking with Rachel Simon
34:01
of connect-the-dots digital they
34:04
specialize in LinkedIn thought
34:06
leadership development Rachel glad to
34:09
have you back let’s jump right back into
34:11
it we’ve been talking a little bit about
34:12
it but we haven’t really got down to
34:13
specifics on the thought leadership part
34:16
for LinkedIn can you touch on that and
34:18
kind of I mean we talked about why
34:19
people would want to want to develop
34:21
this but just maybe a getting up and
34:26
running somebody wants to do a couple
34:27
things to get going we talked about
34:29
content I’m sure that’s the main thing
34:30
but they want to develop themselves as a
34:32
thought leader on LinkedIn where should
34:34
they start and what steps should they go
34:35
through okay so as we were talking about
34:37
before the break that planning piece is
34:40
really important so thinking about where
34:43
where what content do you have at your
34:46
disposal you know again if your company
34:48
is posting how the LinkedIn page and is
34:51
posting content on a regular basis that
34:53
can be the first place you look to for
34:56
content to share so you can see what’s
35:00
your company sharing you can share it
35:04
and put it in your field frame it based
35:06
on what you are trying to convey and
35:09
that is a simple sort of step one of
35:12
where to find content
35:14
additionally what other information and
35:17
content do you have at your disposal so
35:19
have you written articles that can be
35:21
shared or repurposed like we talked
35:23
about in a long form you know publishing
35:26
content published on publisher
35:29
what about slides from PowerPoint
35:31
presentations graphics images
35:34
infographics so sort of taking inventory
35:37
of where you have content that you’ve
35:41
created or sort of is generated from
35:43
your company so this was I was gonna say
35:47
this is a joke but then I started
35:48
thinking wait
35:48
Carla Joe might cut me off this this
35:50
might be real obviously you need good
35:53
content in your area of expertise but is
35:55
there any upside to occasionally
35:58
humanizing yourself with you know
36:00
Facebook s content like baby photos and
36:03
stuff like that so I’m LinkedIn I mean I
36:08
really try to keep it I’ll be up it up
36:10
it’s like professional as possible that
36:12
being said you know I think travel
36:16
photos have a place they’re showing a
36:19
little video personality I’m not a huge
36:22
fan of you know quotes and memes on
36:25
LinkedIn but that’s just me you know if
36:27
it is inherently you somebody’s
36:31
personality to show that to share those
36:34
go for it I think it should just feel
36:37
like it is who you are but I think that
36:42
you know some stuff some kinds of
36:44
content sort of feel more at home on
36:46
Facebook or Instagram versus right so
36:50
maybe a dusting here and there of a meme
36:51
or something but if all you post is
36:53
memes then that’s just gonna be who you
36:55
are and nobody goes to meme guy for
36:56
advice correct yeah yeah I mean you know
37:00
to put up like a Friday funny or
37:01
something fine go for it but yeah
37:05
sprinkle those guys in there all right
37:07
speaking of which we’ve got the fu
37:09
market they will come site we we post
37:11
out stuff regularly marketing Marvin
37:13
cartoons and whatnot anybody listen and
37:16
go check that out
37:16
woo shameless plug you got a do it
37:19
so you know another really good place to
37:23
find content to post is obviously
37:25
external contents so you know number a
37:27
really nice place is the LinkedIn
37:29
newsfeed so spending a few minutes every
37:31
day maybe 10 minutes in the morning and
37:33
10 minutes over lunch scrolling through
37:35
to look for articles that jump out at
37:39
you you can save them now used to only
37:42
be able to save articles on your mobile
37:44
on the mobile app now you can save them
37:46
on the desktop too which is really good
37:48
there’s like a little generally like in
37:51
the bottom right there’s a little tab
37:53
you can click and it saves articles so
37:56
you can just collect content to share
37:58
when you need it
38:01
industry newsletters so if you if
38:04
there’s a couple emails that you
38:06
subscribe to within your industry that
38:08
provide really good content that’s a
38:12
good place to look for to share articles
38:14
so if you’re sharing them do you need to
38:16
repurpose in comment or can you just say
38:18
hey there’s a great article and I mean
38:21
it’s not like someone else’s article you
38:22
can specifically share but if you’re
38:24
gonna do the write an article thing you
38:26
can’t just copy and paste their article
38:27
you can you can cut you can share the
38:30
link and then put your own two cents I’m
38:33
really when I talk about sharing I mean
38:34
more of like sharing it as a link Oh so
38:38
can I take people’s videos where they’re
38:39
talking about how awesome they are
38:40
and do like Mystery Science Theater
38:46
commentary my content I want all
38:59
political debates to be done that way by
39:02
them I wanna watch Mystery Science
39:04
Theater critiquing them while they’re
39:06
doing it I think the world would be a
39:09
much happier place if that happy one
39:11
would watch the debates you can even get
39:13
like guest critique errs past presidents
39:15
you know comedian work it out a little
39:17
bit come on Comedy Central
39:21
so anyway when you’re sharing if you’re
39:24
sharing articles from you know external
39:27
sources just put it put it in your Frank
39:30
put the context I really also
39:32
waita if you don’t know what to say this
39:34
happens a lot you know you find an
39:36
article and then you spend like 20
39:38
minutes going okay what do I say how do
39:40
I fit what am I supposed to say pull a
39:42
quote from the article asked a question
39:44
make it simple don’t overthink it
39:47
because chances are the first thing that
39:50
you thought about to put it into context
39:52
was probably spot-on perfect and then
39:55
you spend 20 30 minutes just yeah they
39:57
over perfect right resting it out about
39:59
it yeah so don’t don’t don’t stress it’s
40:05
gonna be fine
40:06
you can do this and Google Alerts is a
40:10
good place to set up to find content so
40:13
if there’s some keywords you can set up
40:15
a Google Alert and Google will serve you
40:17
whatever it finds based on those
40:19
keywords but really just there’s a lot
40:23
you have more content at your disposal
40:24
than you know it’s just a matter of
40:26
organizing it you can do a lot of
40:28
counterpunching basically you don’t have
40:30
to come up with a calendar and just
40:31
here’s all my ideas that I’m gonna fill
40:32
up you can take other people’s stuff and
40:35
kind of counter punch off it comment on
40:36
it right or right up on someone else’s
40:38
write-up that kind of stuff exactly and
40:40
it’s actually really good to do that
40:41
particularly let’s say there are
40:42
specific people in your industry that
40:44
are that already are known as thought
40:46
leaders and influencers maybe you want
40:49
to be noticed by them commenting on what
40:51
they are posting sharing what they’re
40:53
posting that’s a good way to make that
40:55
happen you take someone else who’s a big
40:57
thought leader and you do the after show
40:59
of their articles right baby there are
41:02
thought leader because people like what
41:04
they say and share their contract that’s
41:06
how you become known as an expert in
41:11
your industry so you want to kind of get
41:14
on that train media it really helps that
41:18
content cuz it is long form and people
41:20
do have to have it broken up with
41:21
subheads but I was reading something I
41:24
think it was there was like like the the
41:26
stuff that got shared the most were if
41:28
you had like up to 8 images like that
41:31
seems like excessive to me but I thought
41:35
that was interesting no on you’re
41:37
talking about in published like if
41:39
you’re publishing an article things that
41:40
have a lot of images well on LinkedIn I
41:43
think it was a LinkedIn staff
41:45
statu I mean you know I think again I
41:50
generally would recommend you know the
41:53
majority of activity on LinkedIn being
41:56
posting typically posting like a link or
41:59
something in the on the LinkedIn
42:02
newsfeed and then maybe once or twice a
42:05
month doing something that’s long-form
42:07
content that you publish I mean you
42:09
can’t do three to five posts a week that
42:12
are long-form I think that’s
42:13
overwhelming but I you know mix it up a
42:18
little bit speckle those in and and keep
42:21
the long-form content for something that
42:24
really is meaningful you know versus you
42:28
found a cool article about whatever
42:31
topic you know right want to be posting
42:34
about so a healthy mix of the two I
42:36
think it’s good okay and piggybacking on
42:39
other influencers content so
42:41
specifically doing write-ups about what
42:44
they wrote up about not necessarily a
42:47
bad thing no I I would say sharing their
42:51
articles so and you see something like
42:54
say thinking about who’s like like okay
42:56
will you stuff goat in since he’s a
42:58
well-known marketing expert if Seth
43:01
Godin posts an article or shares a link
43:04
to his blog you know in LinkedIn which
43:06
he does almost every day you share it
43:09
and put your two cents on it so if you
43:12
know based on whatever the topic is well
43:15
Seth Godin gets a huge I mean he’s such
43:18
a huge following so that is you know his
43:23
content already is seen as credible and
43:26
valuable so you’re sharing content that
43:30
will be seen as credible and valuable to
43:32
Europe Network whether or not they
43:33
follow him so that that I think would be
43:36
the best sort of in the marketing world
43:39
a good example to share you know and
43:42
then let’s say he does post something
43:44
that you really have a lot to say about
43:46
then that would be an opportunity to
43:48
maybe write a longer form not rebuttal
43:52
but longer form content that you might
43:55
want to publish
43:57
and then you could always link to the
43:58
original content that he shared so you
44:01
could do it a couple different ways but
44:02
okay I think that something that I do
44:08
personally and recommend to do is that
44:11
if there are specific people in your
44:13
industry that you want to connect with
44:16
their kind of those goal people for you
44:19
but you’re not quite ready to send a
44:20
request to connect you know to them
44:23
follow them just start stalking Allah or
44:26
follow yeah not stop following yeah
44:28
follow um they get a notification that
44:30
you follow them you’re gonna start to
44:33
see their content in the newsfeed you
44:34
can start interacting with their content
44:36
so that you they start you start to
44:39
build that relationship like on it on
44:41
the very ground level and you know
44:44
eventually if you kind of continue to
44:47
work that you can send that request to
44:49
connect and hopefully they would accept
44:50
it first was getting it out of the blue
44:52
right so we’ve talked a ton about
44:54
articles post content obviously super
44:57
important in this but as a couple of
44:59
things I want to make sure that we get
45:01
to your profile joining groups making
45:04
connections and also just kind of who to
45:07
expose yourself to can you select that
45:12
specifically and then maybe even
45:15
advertising on LinkedIn using paid ads
45:18
versus trying to get so I threw out a
45:20
lot there but let’s start with the
45:22
profile itself a minimum amount of
45:25
research actually made a bullet point
45:29
profile if I had to say the most
45:32
important part of your profile is have a
45:35
photo it’s really important to have a
45:37
photo photo take a note sorry yeah a
45:41
professional photo I like to have a
45:45
cover photo too because it is an
45:48
opportunity to show a little bit of
45:50
personality like my cover photo is from
45:54
my family’s trip to California over
45:57
spring break and it’s in Monterey
45:59
because that is just the most beautiful
46:01
place and I someday hope that we can
46:03
retire there that’s my choice of cities
46:06
in California if I could live anywhere I
46:08
live in LA
46:09
Monterey’s amazing I want Monterrey so
46:13
your photos are important people just
46:15
want to see a smiling face and they want
46:17
to see who they’re connecting with I
46:19
think it’s also generally there’s an
46:22
assumption often that if you don’t have
46:23
a photo that you’re not a very active
46:25
user so whether that’s true or not that
46:28
is the perception so have a photo I
46:31
would take it a little bit farther even
46:33
if you don’t have I mean we look at
46:35
profiles and we train our guys here
46:37
certain things to look at because of the
46:39
high volume of fake profiles to
46:42
disregard if they don’t have a job
46:44
history if they don’t have a certain
46:46
number of connections if they don’t have
46:47
a photo those are just all signs it’s
46:49
not a real profile or they’re not active
46:53
so don’t bother to reach out to him on
46:55
LinkedIn important very important you’re
47:02
right and if they’re not if they have
47:03
like 20 you know connections they’re
47:06
clearly not that active so the other
47:10
really important piece I’ve actually
47:11
been talking about this one a lot is
47:13
your headline so your headline will
47:16
default to whatever your current job and
47:18
title is unless you change it the
47:22
headline in one somebody should be able
47:25
to look at your headline and know your
47:27
industry and what you do in one quick
47:31
you know snap so that’s your LinkedIn
47:33
elevator pitch right there
47:34
basically yeah and it goes with you
47:36
every single where every single place
47:38
you go I’m like do so if you comment on
47:40
somebody’s post your little headline
47:43
shows up you know in the comments under
47:47
your knee I’ve seen some stupid stuff
47:49
I’m sorry but this guy is somebody and I
47:58
have a lot of health care clients
47:59
somebody who said they wear the Jerry
48:01
Maguire of health care wait I like that
48:03
yeah like that 25 or 20 years old it’s
48:09
sort of outdated and then some people
48:12
have really political ones I think
48:13
that’s definitely generally an only
48:18
no no business it isn’t no no yes just
48:21
don’t do it
48:22
don’t go there unless you’re a
48:24
politician and then that’s your area of
48:26
expertise but if you’re not don’t do
48:28
that
48:28
the real one of the main reasons why I
48:31
really emphasize the headline is that if
48:33
you get a request to connect from
48:35
somebody and it says you know consultant
48:38
at whatever company well who cares I
48:42
mean a consultant you could just doesn’t
48:45
tell me anything about what light of
48:48
like what’s your area that’s right right
48:49
what kind of consulting do you do so
48:52
that means if I’m I’m considering
48:54
connecting with you I have to click into
48:56
your profile I’ve got to read through
48:59
your job description I don’t want to do
49:01
that I want to know what you do unless
49:02
your companies NASA and your Leland musk
49:04
don’t you don’t need advice on being an
49:09
influencer I wanted to be succinct and
49:13
very clear is this person someone that
49:15
is a value to me and can I you know are
49:19
they in an industry that makes sense for
49:21
me to connect with some people will
49:23
connect with anybody others won’t so
49:25
your headline is just so so important
49:28
for that reason you talk we’re talking
49:30
about connections let’s jump straight
49:31
over that should you be proactively
49:34
reaching out to anybody and everybody
49:36
connecting with everybody when you
49:38
connect I guess I’ll fill in the blank
49:40
on this one but don’t connect with
49:41
people unless they know you already and
49:43
it’s a formality and not say something
49:46
in the connection I get random
49:47
connection requests they don’t say hey I
49:49
thought it would be nice to talk about
49:50
XYZ or anything it’s just connect with
49:53
me for note okay I assume you’re a bot
49:55
and I’m just gonna delete you and then
49:58
if you actually come to me legitimately
49:59
in the future I already have a you know
50:01
I already have you on my blacklist yes
50:04
so okay a couple of things about
50:05
connections some people will connect
50:07
with anybody others are a little more
50:09
discerning I’m somewhere in the middle I
50:12
definitely agree that if you don’t
50:15
personally know the person you should
50:17
always include a message I do like to
50:20
focus on second-degree connections
50:21
because I think people are more open to
50:24
connecting if they see that you have
50:26
people in common particularly if you
50:28
have a lot of people in common
50:29
you know if I see somebody and have 25
50:32
connections in common and their general
50:35
and there are actually people who I know
50:37
I’m more likely to say yes
50:39
that’s a really great prep I have gotten
50:41
connected to some really powerful
50:43
contacts through second degree you know
50:48
they were second-degree connections I
50:49
didn’t even think about that yeah I
50:51
think that you know it’s just really
50:53
hard to send something out to someone
50:55
you have no one in common with and
50:57
expect a response I mean I I think but
51:01
some people may disagree I don’t know
51:03
that’s just not I can disagree with that
51:06
if it’s very very targeted and you know
51:08
you can speak to their pain point and
51:10
you’re speaking within it for me and you
51:12
make a valuable connection first before
51:14
you do anything like that I mean that
51:16
has proven to work but randomly without
51:19
those points that we were all talking
51:22
about before and what you just mentioned
51:24
now I think it’s a really bad idea right
51:26
and I’d say as long as you’re you’re not
51:28
sending it just blank when when you get
51:31
that option as you say do you want to
51:32
say something with this request say
51:35
something even people ask to connect me
51:36
they say nothing they’re dead to me if
51:38
they say hey I want to sell you this
51:40
software and I’m looking for that or
51:41
maybe interested in it I’ll connect and
51:43
talk to them but you can’t just say
51:46
nothing and then hope the person is
51:47
gonna connect and and it may work
51:49
occasionally but usually the people who
51:51
do that you probably don’t want to talk
51:52
to anyway and they’re probably
51:53
understand what you’re saying yeah
51:55
that’s true I mean I there was someone
51:57
that connected with me must have been
51:59
back in March and I never responded to
52:04
me after we connected and then emailed
52:08
me recently and it was you know was a
52:11
form email and I might have considered
52:14
it was some charity or something that
52:17
they were really interested in or you
52:19
know getting support for and I might
52:22
have been more interested in it but it
52:24
wasn’t you know that authenticity wasn’t
52:27
there right such an Eric LinkedIn lead
52:29
generation machine obviously never
52:31
engaged with me again until they wanted
52:35
something right later many months later
52:37
so it was a little bit of a faux pas
52:39
you were in their cadence and they
52:41
you’ll be in their cadence again if you
52:43
bonded they would have kept trying to
52:44
sell to you it’s it’s that generic
52:45
machine that is going to hinder Lincoln
52:49
eventually but right now it’s a right I
52:51
think I think they’re gonna crack down
52:54
yeah I think I think it started off with
52:58
you know so sort of to get back with our
53:01
follow up and I was like oh my gosh do
53:03
they miss somebody and then I went and
53:05
looked I was like yeah yeah I got one
53:07
from somebody you know they sent a very
53:09
long message but it was like in this
53:12
they they were talking about something
53:15
like I’d love to talk with you that
53:17
you’re you’re also in the field and it
53:19
was in marketing but it was like nothing
53:21
I do at all like you know more website
53:23
based stuff and I’m like did you even
53:25
look at my prayer talking about so you
53:30
know another really important thing and
53:32
this is something here’s another little
53:33
secret LinkedIn tip is that you can
53:38
download basically everything you’ve
53:41
ever done unlinked in so you have access
53:44
to all your data on LinkedIn and if you
53:46
you know you go through if you’re
53:49
looking at like settings and privacy
53:51
under your under your account and you
53:54
you get through you get to it through
53:55
the privacy tab you can download all
53:59
your connections any invitations you’ve
54:01
ever sent or received all your activity
54:05
you know I mean the sky’s the limit it
54:08
is really why would you do that so the
54:12
one that I think is the most important
54:14
to download is probably at least three
54:17
to four times a year maybe you do it
54:19
quarterly are your connections so
54:21
chances are most people join LinkedIn
54:23
you know ten years ago or whenever or
54:27
and you know you connect with anybody
54:29
you’ve ever known anyone you’ve ever
54:31
worked with your next-door neighbor or
54:33
your second cousin and then you kind of
54:35
forget about all the people that you
54:37
have accumulated over the years and I
54:39
think the majority of people probably
54:41
you know have between five hundred and
54:44
two thousand connections depending on
54:46
how old you are and what industry you’re
54:48
in well if you don’t look at those every
54:51
once every couple of months you may be
54:53
missing out on people who are
54:55
potential targets for your industry
54:59
people that can connect you with other
55:01
people people that are just good to
55:04
reach out to on a regular basis you also
55:07
they realize that of the 500 plus people
55:10
in your network
55:11
very few are your targets so you need to
55:13
start building up your your connections
55:17
in a more strategic way so it is a
55:19
really important tool that you have at
55:22
your disposal you also get people’s
55:23
email addresses so I’m gonna get brown
55:26
this point because I do that quarterly
55:27
so I feel good about that thank you good
55:31
job I’ve got a homework now I don’t do
55:34
that I was wondering is there anything
55:35
in that download that’s not when you
55:37
view their profile that’s not there like
55:39
you said the email address I that might
55:41
be in there see contact information so
55:45
you get when you download your
55:46
connections you get name first last
55:49
company position email ding connected
55:52
that’s the content you get one thing you
55:55
don’t get which is so annoying from
55:57
LinkedIn it made me so mad you can’t
55:59
download peoples occasions I did find a
56:03
company based in California that can’t
56:05
even worry about that math sucks
56:06
actually
56:06
so I found a company in California
56:09
hopefully they’re still around that can
56:12
we can send them your download and they
56:14
will add a location for a very
56:16
reasonable fee is it called mountain top
56:19
data cuz that’s my company and we do
56:20
that I’m sure those are companies that
56:26
do that that’s really important I’ll
56:29
tell you what I’m like one of my clients
56:31
is um they are a telemedicine company
56:34
and they have clients all over the
56:36
country and when I did that for the CEO
56:39
who has thousands and thousands of
56:41
connections his his like mine was blown
56:44
he’s like oh my god
56:46
do you know how important this is that
56:47
now we know where my contacts are
56:49
located so that we can we can look at
56:53
them regionally versus based on what
56:55
health system they’re attached to like
56:57
it was so help yeah and I would say
56:59
there’s a handful of companies that does
57:00
it do that
57:01
my company mountaintop data check them
57:03
out we do that we can append that sort
57:05
of information be careful when yeah when
57:07
you look at company
57:08
to do that some companies will give you
57:11
the location based on what’s in their
57:13
system for that contact some will
57:14
actually look at LinkedIn and fill in
57:16
the location but some when they look at
57:18
LinkedIn get it from the contact and
57:21
some get it from the company that
57:24
contacts at which generally does not
57:26
give you the same location especially in
57:28
large companies it gives you the company
57:30
headquarters location not there that
57:32
individuals location so be careful for
57:35
that when when looking at location
57:37
appending type stuff yeah but that’s
57:40
good good to know it’s really it’s very
57:42
helpful so I wish LinkedIn would be nice
57:45
another I’ll throw something out here as
57:48
long as you’re giving out LinkedIn kind
57:49
of tips downloading in connections is
57:51
great one off to do that I’m a little
57:55
torn on whether I should share this or
57:56
not even but the part of the research
58:01
you did for the good of the podcast I’ll
58:03
let everybody know um especially if you
58:06
tend to accept people who you don’t know
58:09
or don’t have any relationship with on
58:11
LinkedIn make sure you change your
58:13
privacy settings so that and it looks
58:16
like Rachel I’ve seen that you’ve done
58:17
this most people don’t they don’t know
58:20
this exists in that there’s situations
58:22
where this can actually be bad for you
58:24
but anybody you connect who can see all
58:26
of your connections and that can be bad
58:30
in business you don’t want them knowing
58:32
who all your connections are you can
58:35
change that in your privacy settings so
58:36
they can only see I think none of them
58:39
or people that you’re also connected
58:41
that you guys share as connections I
58:42
would change that well wouldn’t that
58:44
like wouldn’t that prevent connecting
58:48
with someone that you were connected
58:49
with they can still see it when I look
58:51
at a contact if it’s second-degree but
58:53
what this will prevent them from being
58:55
able to do is sound I’m connected with
58:57
which Rachel Simon and I want to go see
59:00
all her all the people she works with
59:02
and I want to steal them people will
59:05
will steal your business this way they
59:07
will drill into your contacts and say
59:08
here’s your you know here’s your rolodex
59:11
on LinkedIn and they can take your
59:13
rolodex and that can be very dangerous
59:15
if you connect with random people your
59:18
competitors will come to you and they
59:19
will take you
59:20
your clients from you or at least know
59:23
who you are doing business with and
59:25
every time you create a new contact they
59:26
can see it and they know who you ad
59:28
every day and that’s just information
59:31
you don’t want shared out there yeah it
59:33
is definitely worth to kind of do a
59:35
privacy overview on LinkedIn to make
59:38
sure the other thing a lot of people
59:40
talk about is turning off the viewers of
59:43
this profile also viewed Wow because
59:45
then people directly to your competitors
59:48
so I’ve definitely seen quite a number
59:51
people recommending to turning that turn
59:53
that yeah also it’ll you know enable
59:55
sales people to dig in where you don’t
59:57
want them and I’ve noticed here this is
60:00
a it’s a weird one a little off subject
60:01
but it can also just be creepy guys are
60:05
terrible and you’ll see women’s profiles
60:07
and then you’ll just see completely
60:08
unrelated people because there’s a high
60:11
enough percentage of guys on LinkedIn
60:12
apparently just clicking on photos of
60:14
attractive women so you’ll get just
60:17
really yeah but next time you I mean
60:22
look at a profile look over the right
60:23
and you’ll see
60:24
oh wow why these people have nothing to
60:27
do with each other except for oh they
60:28
all kind of fit a certain look and
60:30
that’s it I know I figured this out but
60:33
we had a guy in our company who we kept
60:35
doing that he’s just spending a lot of
60:36
time clicking on women’s Pro and then I
60:40
started noticing on the side oh wow
60:42
that’s why when I’m looking for another
60:44
connection in this company these people
60:45
aren’t related it’s it’s more difficult
60:48
to network with attractive women because
60:50
in stalkers let me write that down okay
61:03
so the profile we dug in quite a bit on
61:06
the profile that should be very helpful
61:08
for people what about the making
61:10
connections we’ve kind of touched on
61:12
some do’s and don’ts there groups
61:13
LinkedIn groups I want to hit on yeah
61:16
groups is interesting um so I think
61:20
based it really depends on your industry
61:23
and sort of that like the how valuable
61:27
are the grapes so some you know in some
61:29
industries in some groups it’s like
61:31
nothing but host
61:34
riposte of some promotional posts I
61:37
don’t think that’s very helpful
61:38
it hits a group where there’s actual
61:40
dialogue people are asking questions and
61:42
there’s an opportunity for you to engage
61:44
and answer then go for it like get
61:47
involved and really spend some time on
61:49
those groups that it’s really gonna be I
61:51
think a case-by-case basis depending on
62:01
you
