91. LinkedIn Makeover w/ Donna Serdula: Engagement, Authenticity & Target Audiences (part 2)

Welcome to part two of our personal and professional branding series on LinkedIn with Donna Serdula, world-renowned LinkedIn expert. 

In the previous episode, we started exploring the secrets of LinkedIn, and how it translates into success online. Today, we delve deeper to understand the balance between passive and active engagement on LinkedIn, especially when you're first starting out.

We talk about how to advertise your product or service (or yourself) on LinkedIn, without turning it into a sales platform. Donna sheds light on how to find and engage with your target audience, all while maintaining an authentic presence. She shares insights on how to foster meaningful conversations, turn followers into potential customers, and leverage LinkedIn as a potent tool for growth.

Donna Serdula is the founder and president of Vision Board Media, a professional branding company that helps individuals and companies tell their unique stories on LinkedIn and beyond.  Bringing dynamic brand storytelling to the masses and empowering people to dream big – that’s the ink in her pen. It's her Website LinkedIn-Makeover.com where she and her team of over 20 writers and coaches help people collide with opportunity and transform their lives via future-forward career branding.

She has authored two editions of LinkedIn Profile Optimization FOR DUMMIES. She's shared her LinkedIn expertise at global conferences, presented keynotes and workshops, and featured on a number of high-profile news outlets.

Donna's website: http://www.linkedin-makeover.com/
Donna's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todonna

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to part two of our personal and professional branding series on LinkedIn with Donna Sardula, world renowned LinkedIn expert. In the previous episode, we started exploring the secrets of LinkedIn and how it translates into success online. And today we delve deeper to understand the balance between passive and active engagement on LinkedIn, especially when you're first starting out. We talk about how to Advertise your product or service or yourself on LinkedIn without turning it into a sales platform. Donna sheds light on how to find and engage with your target audience, all while maintaining an authentic presence She shares insights on how to foster meaningful conversations, turn followers into potential customers, and leverage LinkedIn as a potent tool for growth. Welcome to Upskill Talks, I'm your host, Michelle Shaw, lead Upskill at Upskill Community. Upskill Talks is a podcast for leaders, leaders who are actively seeking innovative and creative ways to interact. Lead themselves and others in every episode through real life stories and enlightening conversations, we will explore the challenges and opportunities real leaders face in today's everchanging workplace. We will present you with real strategies. For you to leverage your soft skills and produce transformative results. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let us begin. One of the things, let me go to emerging leaders. Let me go to higher ed students coming into the workforce. Let me go to that place and as a starting point, and we see, Emerging leaders, higher ed students, young professionals, afraid to put an image on LinkedIn. We still see that I am not comfortable to put my picture up. I am not comfortable to put myself out there really is what that says. And at the same time, I would like to connect with Donna to learn about LinkedIn, but I am not comfortable to put myself out there. How do we help someone get over that hurdle? We tell them that you have value. And you're worth it. You have to put yourself out there. If you don't, nothing's going to happen. And, and truthfully, when I read through my feed, my LinkedIn feed, the posts that I love the most are those from those who are just starting in their career. And they're talking about the things that they're struggling with, and they're talking about their challenges, and they're asking for advice. And to me, that's, That's, that's wonderful. It's wonderful to see that and it's wonderful for us to, to be able to lend that helping hand and, and, and pop in there and give them some advice and give them some ideas and mentorship. So, I know and I'm going to tell you a secret. I'm going to tell you the secret. That is a secret. Those who are emerging leaders, those who are students, those who are just coming up in their career, maybe they're not as seasoned and they feel. Is my, is my position, is my opinion worthwhile? Do I truly have anything to add? Is what I have to say worthy? Guess what? Those of us who have been in our careers for 20, 30 years, longer than that, we have the same thoughts. You're not alone. All of us feel like, are we worth it? Should we be putting our, our, our, should we be opening our mouths? We all feel that way. It's not just those who are students. And so. I will say this. LinkedIn is the nicest network and it's been the nicest network forever. It really has been. There is something about this platform. I think it's because it's professional, but go ahead. Put something out there, talk about something, raise a topic, raise an opinion, talk about a trend, a news item, something that you've noticed, something that's interesting, something that's intriguing, something that inspires, something that motivates. It could be a book, it could be a quote, it could be, have fun with it. Put it out there. And I will tell you. Rarely will you find someone who, who, who gets on the platform and tries to cut you down. It just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen often. It doesn't happen often. In fact, the opposite happens, Donna. I know I was in a conversation with leaders quite recently. And one of the things that we, we talked about was that. We gain a lot of value from the students, the emerging leaders highlighting the challenges that they're having because we're on the solution side. We're trying to find solutions to those very problems. For instance, in your, in your programming, when you know the challenges they're having in LinkedIn, that allows you to identify solutions within your programming to meet those needs. So I really liked when you said. They add value and they need to know that they add value that they add value to us because you highlight for us where the challenges are, where the gaps are, what we're overlooking, what we're not noticing because we're too going too fast or whatever else. So I really believe that that piece that you shared around the value that they bring, even with the questions that they ask, even with the sharing of their, their unique challenges, that's value added for us to understand. How else can we show up to serve, to help with these problems and so on? What are your thoughts? I agree. I absolutely agree. It's, it's, it's a, it is a platform and with, with LinkedIn, it's important that you decide upon a cadence, a schedule, and you say to yourself, I'm going to post once a week, I'm going to post three times a week. When you post twice a week, it's all good. It all works. It could be once every two weeks, but, but post and post consistently. If you post just once, then you're complaining. But if you're posting and you, you are. You, you're, you're, you're giving opinions, you're providing value, you're inspiring, you're complimenting, you're trumpeting, you're promoting, and you're doing this consistently. When you do raise a trend or an issue, then it's, it's being helpful. If you do it just once, then you're, then, then that's when it gets hinky. Yeah. And you are flagging up something that's, I think, um, something that is to be considered when we're thinking about LinkedIn. It is a community. It is a professional community. And so it's not just to come and chime in when you have a problem, but to be part of the ongoing conversation. And that's where you will be. As you said, you'll be honored, respected, considered if you are trumpeting and promoting and inspiring and doing all of this when it's your turn to raise a challenge or raise an issue, then certain that community will embrace that and be there. But if you're only popping in. Um, well, I have a problem now. I don't care about anything else here, but this is my problem. That may be, um, not the most appropriate approach. Might not be well received. Might not be well received. So one, one question that we have for you is this understanding. Why is networking on LinkedIn more important now than ever? You know, I can't say that it's more important now than ever before. It's been pretty important for quite some time and it really has been, you know, it's who doesn't love the ability to sit there on your couch and scroll through your newsfeed and network and connect and make a difference. without having to, you know, get in your car and drive to a networking event or drive to a user group meeting or drive to a conference. It's, it's, it's, it's a lovely ability to have where you can be present in a virtual type of setting. That, that is a wonderful thing. At the same time, I don't want to give people the impression that you get on LinkedIn and you don't have to show up again. You know, it is, it's just, it's another arm to. Your brand and to, to networking. I'm really glad you touched on that because one of the things that I, I wanted to chat with you a little bit about was how does one leverage this online LinkedIn presence and bring that to land? On land. Yeah, you know, for the longest time I used to say success on LinkedIn is getting off. And, and I, I do think there's, there's still so much truth to that we don't want to hide behind, you know, the send button the post button, the connect button. It should be an extension, and it's something that we build upon. And. With LinkedIn, you have your network and you have something to give you. You can post, you can provide your comments and you can engage. And that's, that's a good thing. And it does work work and it works very well, but at the same time, you know, don't give up the other. Ability to go in person or get on the phone. I mean, there's so many times people say, Donna, can you introduce me to so and so? Can you introduce me to so and so on LinkedIn? Yeah, I can do that. But why don't you just call them? They'll pick up. Introduce yourself. I think you might be pleasantly surprised. Yes, because we're locked into LinkedIn land and some people would like to get out occasionally and get some sunshine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that's, that's great. Um, because one of the things that people sometimes we have to. Really encourage others that this is not the be all and end all it's a part of a package when we're talking about branding and that leads me to the conversation on branding because we interface with a lot of leaders, whether they are business owners, um, lead in business or other organizations, and they want thought leadership. They want to be known. For something they want to have this brand on LinkedIn. How does one get to that place? Starting from I just have a LinkedIn profile up. I rarely click the like button and I'm nervous about even clicking the like button, I will definitely not comment on anything. Because I'm still hiding. I'm still not comfortable to come out. So I may like something and that's a risk, but I'm definitely not going to comment. How do you come from that place to becoming a thought leader in your area? If it's at all possible, it is possible, it is possible and it goes back, you know, to what I was saying earlier, which is you need to first have goals and strategy and topics you need to be that you need to get clear and, and niche into what you want to be known for. And maybe not. What you want to be known for right now, but maybe look ahead into the future and say, this is where I'm headed. This is where I really want to start focusing my attention because otherwise sometimes we get very pigeonholed. Um, but understand, you know, your topics, understand what it is that you have to add. Then you have to optimize the profile. People are going to check you out. You cannot leapfrog that step. And I get it. It's hard to write about yourself. It's not easy. I recognize that, but this is how you can, you control how others perceive you. This is how you define yourself. And this is how you're seen. So it is an important aspect. You need to get that branding and the positioning correct. Future forward. Again, we don't want to over brand ourselves for where we are if we want to move out of that role. So really think in terms of how we want to be perceived, not just right now, but into the future. You need to have that network. If you don't have a network and you start posting, it doesn't matter how great those posts are, no one is going to see it. So, again, Really look at your network. Do you have 100 people? That's a good start. Do you have 300 people? That's a better start. Do you have over 500? Now we're talking. So really, really drill in and start connecting and following and, and making those inroads, because without them, It's, it's like broadcasting in a dark closet in the middle of nowhere. You need to have, you need to have that, but, but now, now you have these things, right? You have your goal, you have your target audience, you know what your hashtags are, you know what your keywords are, you know, your topics, you have a great profile. You've spent the time you've connected with people you've, you've got, you've got. Posts that are populating your feed. You're feeling good. Well, the first thing you don't just start shouting, you don't go to a strange land and start trying to have conversations right you have to learn the language. And so I would say for the first week. Scroll through the feed and don't do anything other than just read and and ingest it and just see what, what, what is intriguing to you? What do you like? What's calling you? What's catching your eye? And really take note of what is successful because it lands successfully for you. Once you do that for a week, maybe two weeks. Then the next step, again, it's not a posting, it's not posting at all. The next step is now starting to engage and comment and see how these people react. Once you do that again for another week or two, then let's start to repost. Let's start to curate the feed through things that we've already found that's doing very well. Now, now, now you should be pretty literate, right? You should be rather fluent at this point. And so now is the time when you want to start to create content. And I don't believe that you need to create content every day. I think to say to a person, to be a thought leader, you need to create content every day. It's a wonderful thing. But very few people have that, have that ability. It's, and it's not sustainable, at least not in the very beginning. So figure out what that cadence might be. And maybe it's twice a week, maybe it's once a week, but when you do create that content, I want it to be the best content that you've got. I want it to be content that is specifically written to your target. audience. It's about your topic. It's about your, your knowledge. And it's, it's giving, it's, it's educating, it's adding value. That's. That's when things are going to get good. Thank you. Thank you. Lots of nuggets of great value in that. I love how you took us from start by reading, like in, you know, reposting before you post curating, acknowledging, connecting, just walking through that process and not just going in and shouting to the empty room. I really liked that, that metaphor. I think that's very, very helpful. So you talked a lot about. First, optimize the LinkedIn profile. Can you talk to us in that same vein? What does it mean when we say optimize your LinkedIn profile? To optimize, you want to collide with opportunity, right? That's really what it means. You want to collide with opportunity. You want to be that person who never has to look for a job. Jobs find you. Opportunity just, just seems to intersect. And the way, the way that happens is you look at your profile. And you think in terms of the needs of your target audience and you think, how can I align myself to that future state? How can I answer people's questions? How can I really showcase that I am that perfect person for whatever that opportunity is that you want? And it's creating that content, but really being very deliberate in terms of. If a person is searching for someone like you, what are those keywords? What are they typing in looking for someone like you? Because most people don't know you exist, unfortunately, but it's true. But they know that there's a, there's. pain points that they need a resolution on. There, there, there's services that they need. There's, there's providers, there's whatever it might be. What, how would a person define that? How would they look for it? And once you, you recognize that, utilize those keywords. organically, contextually in your narrative, then the algorithm will pick, pick out that profile, serve it to those, to those search results. And, and that's when you get found. That's when you collide with opportunity. I like it. I really like that. Colliding with opportunity. That's, that's a really, really awesome, awesome piece. And so when we are on LinkedIn now, we've built up the confidence to develop this profile. We're now connecting, we're moving back and forth. What is brand leadership? What is thought leadership on LinkedIn? What does that look like? Sound like show up? Like, how do we get to that? And that's, that's your posts. That's getting in there. It's posting. It's having those conversations. It's, it's Having a tribe of people that you are interacting with who are interacting with you that are looking forward to what you have to say, and they're supporting you and they're promoting you, that, that's the important part. It is, it's finding that group, it's finding those people, it's putting your information out there in a manner, and doing it consistently. I think a lot of times people think, Oh, I'll just, I'll just post when I, when I want to post when, when, you know, the time feels right. The problem is it's, it doesn't ever really happen that way. So you have to almost schedule it in and say, I am going to be posting, I'm going to post. Every Wednesday at 9 a. m. I'm going to post every Friday at 3 p. m. Probably not Fridays at 3, but the idea is there. Be consistent, and you may not have anything to say. You may not have anything to say that day, and that's okay. That's why we have chat GPT. Get help. Get help. Find inspiration. If it's not coming to you, seek it out. Yes, yes, yes. And that brings me to the question. What types of posts are more successful? I don't want to say most, are more successful on LinkedIn than others? How do we, how do you design a successful post? I know that that changes, but some of the strategies to design successful posts more often than not. Well, I will give you two shortcuts. I'll give you two shortcuts. I use shield app to track my, my analytics on my posts and I have found consistently Even now, believe it or not, if I put out a poll, those posts always do like three times the amount of impressions than other posts. So, put out a, use, do a poll, put out that survey, ask people what they think. There is something still, still about that type of a post that does very well. I'm not saying do it all the time, but pull that thing out and use it and use it in a... Smart way, ask a question, just, just the fact that people have to click on it, fuels the algorithm and those posts always do well. The other post that always does well is one, you need to always write a little bit more because you want the see more link, clicking the see more conveys to LinkedIn, Oh, there's, there's something good here. So don't go too short, not too short, but just enough to get that see more link. And then if you can include. An image. Those image posts, again, do really, really well. In fact, if you do a PDF and a person can click through, that's not, they just recently stopped the carousel post. Everyone thinks that's a carousel post. It's actually a document post. That's the real terminology. But those, they do very, very well. So, polls, selfies, documents. You're golden. Tell me about selfies. Because. So it's really important that we, that I, that, that you brought, you touched on that because we talk about LinkedIn as sort of this professional network in place. And there are a lot of people who feel like selfies have no place in a professional network in place yet selfies do very well on LinkedIn. So how do you place selfies in a professional networking system and get it to do well? It's hard. It's hard. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to lie here. I, myself, I struggle. I struggle with it. It's like, this doesn't feel right. But those posts do very, very well. Why do they, why does it, it doesn't matter if it's professional. It doesn't matter that it's queer oriented. People are drawn to the human face. They want to connect with you. They want to know who it is that they're, they're, they're, they're reading, they're connecting to, they're, they're engaging with. And so I say, I say if that's, if that's what it needs, that that's what's, what's going to help people get their message seen and heard. Do it, but do it as professionally as possible. You know, don't do it to the lowest common denominator. Do it because maybe, maybe the image itself is, is, has other value to it. Maybe it's you holding a book. Maybe it's your products and services. Maybe there's an illustration that's, that's helping. Yeah. People like pictures. Yeah, that's, it's the most incredible thing. It's, um, I think one of our most successful posts ever was. A post that I shared from a wedding I attended and it just, I couldn't even believe it. I literally shared it because one person asked me to share it with them and I, on, so they could link it because they were in the, yeah, that was just that. And then I was. It was real. It was authentic, right? Yeah. And yes. So was People wear that magic, they see it. Yes. I just, I had on Sari and the person said, share that with me. Share it on LinkedIn. I wanna share it with someone. And I literally just did it. Talked a little bit about the wedding, and that post went crazy. And so then you wonder though, if you're talking about something, let's say if you're talking about time management, well, why do you need a selfie? This is, this is the question. Why do people want to see. A selfie of someone to learn about something like how to optimize your LinkedIn profile or how to organize your activities for more impact. Again, I feel that it's the idea that we were saying earlier, which is don't show up on LinkedIn when you have one thing to give. You know, you want to, you want to always be there, you want, you want your presence to, to reverberate and ripple, not just once, but because you're, you're always there and you're always giving. And so, the way I look at that is, this post might be a text post, this post might be a selfie, this post might be a poll, this might, this post might be a video. It, it, I. If it's just selfie after selfie after selfie, we do start to hear that song, Oh, you're so vain. You know, one, one selfie, and then, you know, uh, uh, an illustration of the point, uh, the document posts that, that provides even more value and tips and tricks. Now we're talking. Now you're a thought leader. You're not just a one trick pony. Okay. Okay. This is really good. This is really good. Thank you so very much, Donna. You're really giving us a lot here. I'm making lots and lots of notes on my page. And so what I'm, what I'm hearing, um, you say is something that I talk a lot about and I just, I'm going to share it and then we can talk a little bit about it is LinkedIn is not the networking. LinkedIn is not networking in itself. It is a tool or a medium for networking. So LinkedIn showing up on LinkedIn on its own is not. That's not networking, that's sort of your positioning yourself for, for it, but that's not how it works. I typically say it's like showing up at the starting lineup for a race that positions you to be able to run in the race, but you haven't run the race. So just being on LinkedIn does not mean you're networking or that you are participating in this professional community in any meaningful way. And so I wanted you to touch on that a little bit more because there are a lot of found people who say, yes, I'm on LinkedIn. Okay. I'm on LinkedIn. That means I'm done. Box checked. I'm good to go. How do you address that? Next week we will be wrapping up this conversation with a focus on founders, business owners, and entrepreneurs. This part is for you. Donna will be talking about how to use LinkedIn as a tool for networking and promoting yourself or your business in an authentic, non salesy way. We'll also be debriefing on the exclusive LinkedIn tips and the truth about engagement on LinkedIn that she shared with us off air. That you do not want to miss. Thank you for listening to this episode of Upskill Talks. We bring you new episodes every Monday. Please take a moment to subscribe. Leave a five star rating and a written review at Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify, Google podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Don't forget to share Upskill talks with other leaders like yourself, so they too may gain the skills and insights to produce amazing results. Please go to upskill community.com to review show notes, and learn how you can join a community of leaders from across the globe. Collaborating to lead in a more meaningful and impactful way. I'm your host, Michelle Shaw, and again, thank you for joining me on this episode of Upscale Talks.