My Weekly Marketing

The LinkedIn Strategy Your Small Business Needs with Kayla Ihrig

• Janice Hostager • Season 1 • Episode 129

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If you’ve written off LinkedIn as just a place for resumes and recruiters, this episode will make you think again. Writer and LinkedIn strategist Kayla Ihrig joins me to talk about how small businesses and service providers are quietly building traction—not through flashy posts, but through genuine conversations and a profile that speaks clearly to the right people.

We cover why comments can be more powerful than content, what updates make your profile more discoverable, and how to build a high-quality network that leads to media features, referrals, and clients. If social media has felt noisy and exhausting lately, LinkedIn’s simpler, slower pace might be exactly what your business needs.

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Janice Hostager:

I'm Janice Hostager. After three decades in the marketing business, and many years of being an entrepreneur, I've learned a thing or two about marketing. Join me as we talk about marketing, small business, and life in between. Welcome to My Weekly Marketing. Let me ask you this. When you hear LinkedIn, what do you picture? Maybe recruiters, resumes, lots of people you used to work with? All corporate, right? If so, you're not alone. A lot of small business owners, I think, totally overlook LinkedIn, or they feel like it's not worth their time. And I must confess, I was one of those people, even though I am in the B2B space. But really, LinkedIn has become one of the most powerful platforms for service-based businesses to get in front of decision makers and their dream clients. That's why I brought in today's guest, Kayla Ihrig. Kayla is a LinkedIn expert who knows how to use it in a powerful way. She's gotten media features, clients, and even snagged a book deal by posting on LinkedIn. Not only does she use the platform for herself, but she turns to LinkedIn to find experts for articles that she's writing for publications such as HubSpot, Success Magazine, and others. Now, I know you might be thinking that you don't need to look at another social media platform, but before you check out, listen to this episode and decide if LinkedIn maybe isn't worth it for you to look into. Here's my conversation with Kayla. Hey, welcome, Kayla, to My Weekly Marketing. I'm so glad to have you here.

Kayla Ihrig:

I'm so glad to be here. Thanks, Janice.

Janice Hostager:

So, how did you discover the value of LinkedIn? A lot of small business owners, I think, think about LinkedIn and they think, "Oh, it's for corporate - the corporate world," or "It's for job hunting", or whatever. But tell me a little bit about how you figured out the value i n LinkedIn.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, if you have only used LinkedIn as an employee, yeah, it can feel like a kind of a creepy meetup of all your ex-colleagues when you open it. That it's just can feel uncomfortable whenever you've been self-employed and you've left that world. So I totally get that it doesn't feel like the cool place to be for a lot of entrepreneurs. But I started posting on there just kind of out of curiosity. I think that a lot of people who do marketing tire of certain platforms. It's kind of an emotional cycle where you're like really feeling Instagram for a while and then you feel burnt out on the, you know, every platform has its kind of headaches and you kind of- and then you try something new - not that you give up, but you just keep testing different mediums. And that's how I got into LinkedIn. I was enjoying it as a break from Instagram for a little while. And I, of course, I had all my old colleagues there. And that was, you know, you look and you think I'm not really interested in what I'm seeing. Then if you spend more time - and not that I didn't have great ex-colleagues, let's just make sure that's clear. But you don't want to hear about old work projects whenever you've left the company for years. And then I discovered this whole other side of the algorithm where people were creating content for LinkedIn and building whole businesses and brands and finding clients. And it was so authentic in that I just fell in love. And that was back in 2022 that I got really invested. And it's still one of my favorite platforms online.

Janice Hostager:

So you mentioned like publishing on LinkedIn, and I'll get to that in a bit. But when I think of social media, and typically when I work with my clients, I really focus on social media and the awareness stage. Not that it can't be used for other parts of the funnel or what I call the Trail to the Sale, but is that still the case? Like do you use it most often in the awareness stage, or do you use it in consideration or the closing? And I you I know you use it a little different way too, because of your job, basically, or your business.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah. To market my business, I used LinkedIn really is relationship marketing. So it's less about publishing content that targets people at different phases and points of the funnel, and more about meeting people and making connections with. I look at three groups of people that I recommend you connect with: thought leaders, peers, and potential clients. And the engagement there is much more impactful. The commenting, the DMs, the hopping on coffee chats. That's a term you'll see on LinkedIn, a 15-minute video chat. That is where it's much less about posting and much more about the conversation.

Janice Hostager:

Interesting. So is that like a feature within LinkedIn, a coffee chat, like a video call?

Kayla Ihrig:

It's not. It's actually just a part of LinkedIn culture as it's developed.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. That's interesting. So, what do you feel like is really working now on LinkedIn? Like are there shifts or trends or something that are really working a lot?

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, comments are the big secret, if you could call it that, on LinkedIn. That, posting your own content has a lot of value and it has its place and it's important. But commenting is bigger than your posts ever will be. So whenever you comment, whenever you post your own content, let's say you'll your- those posts will get hundreds, maybe thousands of impressions. But whenever you spend that same period of time commenting on other people's posts, those will get tens of thousands of impressions. And LinkedIn actually tells you how many impressions your comments are getting. It values comments so much.

Janice Hostager:

Oh, that's interesting. Because yeah, I think that's true. You kind of get on LinkedIn, and I might throw a thumbs up at somebody who got a promotion or, you know, whatever, or celebrated a birthday or something like that. But I think you're right. And I think the problem that I had personally with LinkedIn and when I'm working with clients is that people don't check it quite as often as they do, say, Instagram or Facebook, or some of the other places that they have friends and family on, right? So they tend to check it maybe weekly or, you know, sometimes honestly, I'm not a huge LinkedIn user. So it might a month might go by before I, you know, go on and start scrolling on there.

Kayla Ihrig:

A lot of people are like that. Yeah.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah. So do you feel like is there enough traffic on there to kind of make the time for LinkedIn?

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, you're actually touching on something that I think sets LinkedIn apart in a big way from other platforms, and that's that LinkedIn is huge, but it is not crowded. People are not producing content on LinkedIn in the same way that they are on any other platform. So I think the number is, I think it's less than 1% of users post daily. And a lot of people post on their Instagram stories on other social platforms daily. That's a huge percentage of people who are engaging in that way. So LinkedIn is a stage with a huge audience and not that many people at the mic, if you like to think of it that way. And you can see this reflected in the algorithm that you'll see posts that are old. Every once in a while, the algorithm is testing something, and I'll see a post that's like 12 weeks old on the feed. And that's because there's not enough content to fulfill, to satisfy the demand.

Janice Hostager:

That's really interesting. And I think, you know, that's that's a good point too, is that we tend to gravitate toward the really popular platforms, knowing that our post gets very little, especially from a business page, it's gonna get very little engagement, unless we're a big have a big following and so on, or really learn to work the algorithm, right? So the thing that I think we need to keep in mind is that it's a really big pie. So even though only a small percentage of your audience might be on LinkedIn, that's still a lot of people, right?

Kayla Ihrig:

Yes. And you might be noticed by other people that are potential clients as well. I use LinkedIn to get clients. I'm a marketer and an SEO writer and a journalist. So I use LinkedIn to find clients and I also use it as a writer for these publications. For example, I write a lot for HubSpot, and I need to find experts to feature in stories. And I use LinkedIn, it's my best tool for finding people. But a lot of people's accounts are not optimized. They're not, you know, if you are an SEO writer, you need to say that in your profile so I can discover you. It's also a search engine. And then your profile is a landing page for what you do. And even if you haven't used your account lately, I bet you would be shocked to see how many people have looked at your profile. LinkedIn will tell you that number in the last 90 days. I think- I would encourage everyone to go check that number after they're done listening. And you might be very surprised how many eyeballs a stagnant LinkedIn profile is getting you. And even if you just improve your profile today to be a little bit more, I mean, you can even forget attractive, just current. Is it reflecting your current offers, current freebies? That is a huge leap forward in what you're doing with that real estate.

Janice Hostager:

So I want to ask how to optimize a LinkedIn profile. Like what should we be looking at? And also, I what- years ago I was told that you need to have 500 connections to even get found on there. Is that a myth or is that true?

Kayla Ihrig:

I want to say that's a myth. I've actually never heard that myth.

Janice Hostager:

Oh, okay.

Kayla Ihrig:

LinkedIn has been shifting away from connection count and more towards follower count. So if you switch your profile from like a normal individual profile to a creator profile, LinkedIn will allow people to follow you. And that's something I recommend everyone does because you'll get a lot of connection requests from random people that you don't need or want to accept. But collecting followers from people who are interested in your work, that has value. Although followers are not the end-all be-all, I think people love to celebrate how many followers they have on platforms. But I feel like with LinkedIn, I'm bragging about how few followers I have and how much I've gotten with that. Like with under 4,000 followers, I've gotten clients, media features, a book deal, friends. I mean, I feel like I would like to think I'm like living the LinkedIn dream and I'm doing it with a small account and I've never gone viral. I think that's just the opportunity at hand that everyone has.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. So talk to me. Tell me, first of all, about how do you optimize your profile? What should be on everybody's profile that they might not be doing?

Kayla Ihrig:

Straightforward keywords. Sometimes you'll see a tip to call yourself like instead of just saying that you're like an HR manager, it'll be like an HR wizard or something and be kind of cute. Don't be cute. You can't find people. No one knows whenever I'm looking for HR. And I these are specific examples because I have written so many articles where I need really specific experience. I want someone who's managed teams, someone who's overseeing, you know, venture capital, and all these cutesy descriptive uh job titles, yeah, they lose you opportunities. And focusing on not the amount that you write, but just being descriptive. It's kind of like it's not bad to approach it like a resume, whenever you think of that. Like, what did I do in this role? What results did I get? Just keep it simple. I think that that's the biggest mistake people make is that they say way too much or they start telling like a narrative when people aren't reading your job descriptions. But it does help add keywords to your post. And if someone from the media like me is looking, I do look to see, oh, okay, they did manage paid ads, they did manage team, they did oversee 100 million in venture capital. You need to have some quantifiers on there, but your job description or your past experience is not the biggest thing to focus on, but you should fill it out. So you look like a real person. There's a lot of fake accounts on LinkedIn. Those are actually one of the three questions I ask whenever I'm looking for someone to feature in the media. I'm asking, are they real? Do they actually have the experience that I need? And um, oh gosh, what's the third question? Now that's embarrassing. I have them written down. Oh, and it can I contact them? Because not everyone checks their LinkedIn every day. I'll get messages from people. I'm like, I really need to get a response by end of day tomorrow if you want to be featured in this magazine feature. And three months later, they're like, oh man, is it too late? Yes. Yes, it's too late. So having your email and your contact info. I know people think that they're gonna get spammed if they add their personal or their work email. Spammers can get your email anyway. So you might as well be open to the authentic opportunities that come by.

Janice Hostager:

That's a really good point. So, what about business pages? Like, so I have a personal page, of course, and then I have my business page, and I feel like it doesn't get the engagement at all that my personal page would get. You know, if I didn't update on my personal page, it's gonna get a whole lot more engagement. Do you feel is that just my perception, or is that actually the way it is?

Kayla Ihrig:

No, you're right on the money. People are much more interested in what individuals say than what companies say. That's kind of inherent. I think a lot of us feel that way. Like Bill Gates, sure, tell us what he's saying. But Microsoft, who's gonna read that? It's a lot less compelling. So I would not focus at all on a business page and focus on you and your personal brand. So that's what you're really pushing. And it's not your business, you know, it's you as the individual that stands in front of the business you've created and not pushing your business. Like sometimes people will put in their name, you know, Kayla Ihrig, founder of Writing from Nowhere. It just be Kayla, you're that's me, by the way. That's what I'm referring to. Just be yourself. And also don't put stuff in the name section anyway, beyond your name, or your account can be suspended because people don't, they don't want you stuffing in your your company. Oh I put an emoji in my name, and I could have had my account accidentally suspended for that. I didn't, it didn't happen to me, but one of my friends worked for LinkedIn and she told me, uh, you can if it didn't happen, you can leave it there, but don't add another emoji. Because it can be, yeah, that can be an issue.

Janice Hostager:

Interesting. Okay, okay. So, what mistakes do you see that a lot of small business owners are making on their profiles that maybe push away potential clients?

Kayla Ihrig:

I think that they're failing to share the really big questions, like answer those big questions first. What does this person offer? Oh, they're a social media market agency, but which platforms and how do I see their packages? It needs to be very easy for people to see what do you do and how do I get in contact with them about it? So having a freebie, if you have one displayed really prominently on your banner and in your headline, and then the first link in your feature, or maybe you want to skip the freebie and it goes straight to discovery call. Having that really clear what should someone do if they want to work with you? Don't make people guess or struggle.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah, it cuts down on the friction if you have something available right there. So they don't have to go find your website page, click over to it, see what's on your site, and try and find something just to find out more about you. That's a really good tip.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah. And the featured section, I should say, it's like the pinned posts on other platforms. So those are the top links that you have. And um that also your banner, those are the prime real estate on your account and your headline, just to kind of outline the terminology. So the headline is an addition to your name. So whenever you comment on someone's post, or whenever you comment at all, whenever you show up on people's feeds on the home feed, you're gonna have your photo, name, and your headline.

Janice Hostager:

Okay.

Kayla Ihrig:

So for example, my headline is "Kayla Ihrig," um, "Freelance Writer," "Get a free LinkedIn audit." So I do LinkedIn audits from the perspective of the media helping people be more attractive for these features. So that's my- I display that very prominently, but you can put that whatever you want in writing your headline.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So it's basically your your title.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah. And it's not a job title. I mean, you can say founder of something, but I focus on, for mine personally, what am I doing? I'm a writer and I might be reaching out to you because I'm writing and I want to feature you. This is how I use LinkedIn. So that's how I've shaped it. But it can, it should reflect what's most important to you right now. And the headline can and should change. It's not chiseled in stone, and it's very normal to update that as you have new offers.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. Okay. So just kind of going off on a brief tangent here, as a writer, if let's say I want my business to be picked up by somebody who's looking for a quote from a marketing strategist, for example, how would I make my profile attractive to that? Just keywords alone? Or is there, should I be following reporters?

Kayla Ihrig:

You do not have to follow anyone. I would want to be really clear on the fact that this is a real profile. I know I said that earlier, but I don't think people realize how many bots, bots are everywhere. How much, what percent? I don't know, what percentage of social media is just bots now, but it is sophisticated. I once had an entire email exchange with someone that was a bot. And uh I knew that it was a bot because they replied to a very complicated email in like 30 seconds with a whole response. I knew only AI could write that fast. But they had websites, they had a LinkedIn, it was very compelling.

Janice Hostager:

Really?

Kayla Ihrig:

So that is where um I'm I'm really looking. And to see if you're real, I really like to see multiple pictures of you. So not one super glossy headshot. I appreciate seeing multiple photos. And if you go on LinkedIn and you haven't been there, you don't hang out there normally. You'll probably be surprised by how many selfies you see. Just a casual picture. Like a casual picture of you working at your computer on a Tuesday gets more traction than headshots because it feels very real and it makes people feel like they really know you. If they see a new picture of your face every week, it's almost the feeling like your colleagues. I like that to me is the feeling being self- you know, whenever you're self-employed long enough, you are happy to see the same people hanging out of the virtual water cooler.

Janice Hostager:

Right. Um, so are is there a place to add photos other than the profile photo or just to rotate the one photo that you have each week or every so often? Is that what you're saying? Or are there places?

Kayla Ihrig:

I would say in your posts, post pictures of your face. Whenever you're sharing updates or just trying to uh talk, you know, initiate conversation, starting that kind of relationship building, like the posting side of LinkedIn, which again should never be, it shouldn't even be 50-50 with commenting. It should be less than 50% of what you're doing if you're trying to use the platform. I would encourage you to try to post pictures of your face or your workspace. It doesn't have to be your face. I'm connected with um quite a few uh marketers, I think mostly of women who wear burkas and there, I don't see their face, but I see their work, I see their eyes, I see their workplace, I see their breakfast, and I still feel very connected to them because they're sharing bits of them. So if you're shy or you're not a selfies person, it's okay. But I would encourage you to share some part of your week or day.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. So that's really different from how it used to be. Even a few years ago, it was like, okay, when you're on LinkedIn, you need to be buttoned up. You know, it's like don't be taking a, you know, a selfie and putting it on there. You need to have a professional image taken and it needs to look all spiffy. But I love what you're saying, though, is that, and this is one thing that I always say to my B2B clients is that no matter if you're working with a corporation or not, you're still working with people. And people relate to people. And so that's kind of what I hear you're saying is that it doesn't matter if who it is that you're talking to, you want to be talking to a human being.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yes, absolutely. And you said something that I think segues beautifully into uh don't use AI. Don't use AI to write for you on LinkedIn. People don't like it. They can tell. We can tell right away. And it's not the M-dash. As a writer, I just want to say that M-dashes are normal to use. I'm afraid to use M-dashes now because everyone assumes it's ChatGPT, but you know why ChatGPT uses M-dashes? It's because it trained on journalism and journalists use M-dash.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. Yeah.

Kayla Ihrig:

It's a personal vendetta that I just had to get out there.

Janice Hostager:

No, I am a lover of M-dashes myself. And um, I have noticed that too, that people, or certain words too that Chat GPT has started using that I used to use. And now I'm afraid to present something like that for that same reason. So that's kind of funny.

Kayla Ihrig:

We're the real victims here.

Janice Hostager:

Right.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, some people will use bots though to comment for them. And it's just really bad. And people block you because nobody wants it on their feed. So just as a little warning, yeah.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah, yeah. And actually, yesterday I was on LinkedIn and I had a DM from somebody that said they wanted to get a contract. They wanted a proposal. Yes. That's the word. Um, and uh so I started digging in their profile a little bit. And this was somebody who lived apparently lived in LA and worked for Gucci. And I was like, I don't think so. Gucci's not looking for a proposal from somebody, you know, in Austin, Texas. So yeah, so yeah, you're absolutely right. There it's easy to spot people who are not real people if you know what to look for. And this definitely just didn't feel right to, yeah, trust your gut, you know.

Kayla Ihrig:

To address why some people use AI on LinkedIn, I think some people feel like they are not well spoken enough, articulate enough. If you're not a native English speaker and you're engaging in English, first of all, respect. And second of all, no one is nitpicking at all.

Janice Hostager:

Right.

Kayla Ihrig:

So that's what I see in the media world where people are, I tell people, you know, I need a quote, but it can't be AI, you have to write it. And then they a lot of people use it out of insecurity. Like they wrote it and then they told ChatGPT, please make it sound better. And you don't need to, first of all, it's not making it sound better. It's making it sound generic. And second of all, it's what you say is good enough. I think people feel really insecure. And it is, it's like walking into a networking event where you don't know anybody, and then you just like walk up to a circle of people and chime in. And it will feel uncomfortable at first, and a part that will go away whenever you do it, because you'll get to know people and they'll get to know you. And it it'll be authentic and it'll feel like real people that you know, and it won't feel scary forever.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah, yeah. I think it goes back to that time where LinkedIn was a very buttoned-up place that you really had to talk professionally, write professionally, because you were being judged, especially by recruiters and such, you know, they want to know that you're articulate enough to be able to put a paragraph together. And I've met some CEOs who cannot put a decent paragraph together, you know, that really struggle with that part of it. Not that they don't have other gifts, but I 100% agree. I think you turning Chat GPT, people can tell for sure. And it probably doesn't do you any favors in the long run.

Kayla Ihrig:

And it atrophies your skills anyway. I think one of the big reasons you'll see a lot of people say that they started writing on LinkedIn every day just to improve their writing. To become a better copywriter. It's instantaneous. As a, I mean, if you focus, if you if any part of your job involves writing to persuade people to do something, LinkedIn's the place. You can write every day and you see, is it performing well? Is it not? Are people engaged? Do people react to? Are people commenting? I mean, it sharpens you uh incredibly. It's like copywriting class.

Janice Hostager:

Right. Okay, okay. So let's talk about that a little bit. Now there's LinkedIn publishing. Is that what you're referring to, writing on LinkedIn?

Kayla Ihrig:

Whenever you publish a post. So not writing an article, but just making a post whenever you open up the home feed and it says like, hey, what are you thinking or whatever it asks you? And then you can post a picture, a poll, et cetera. Carousels. It has all the formats that other social platforms have. But I would encourage people to start with real photos of themselves or what they're doing and some text.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. Okay. So do you post different content than you would say on Instagram?

Kayla Ihrig:

I do. It's very casual on LinkedIn. Um, that is my focus. It's focus on conversation. Um, people know the people who I'm connected with already, because I've been active on the platform for years, they know what I'm about. And it's really about people, I think, just remembering who I am and my work. And a lot of marketing or connecting people is just remembering that people exist. And a big payoff of LinkedIn is peer-to-peer networking, where back in the day I used to be a Pinterest marketer, and I still do Pinterest marketing, but it's not alone. It's only like as a part of a larger brand strategy for clients. And people would tag me, oh, Kayla knows Pinterest, you know, that peer-to-peer of people pulling you into conversations. I think the peer-to-peer group is one of the most important. I would not focus exclusively on down, not down, but you know, when down the food chains are wrong, came across wrong. But there's like thought leaders, peers, potential clients. And I would say that thought leaders and peers are gonna be a really fruitful place for you. And potential clients will come, but you're not like fishing for them with every post.

Janice Hostager:

Right, right. That's where it gets kind of annoying when you have a lot of people that uh ask to connect with you and then immediately send you a message to do business with them kind of thing, too. So I think that's another reason why, you know, I've been kind of turned off by LinkedIn is that people will just blanket everybody that's on their list or that is in their follower list with uh trying to make a sale and it feels icky, right?

Kayla Ihrig:

Yes, it is icky.

Janice Hostager:

So if someone doesn't want to post every day, right? I'm assuming that most people, most of us don't post every day. I shouldn't assume that, but a lot of us don't have time to post every day on any of the platforms. How often should they be posting realistically?

Kayla Ihrig:

I think that if I would say comment as many days of the week as you can, even if it's for five or ten minutes. And posting, you could post once a month just to show that your account's active in that way. Posts are not going to be the huge thing. It's not gonna bring the masses to your profile the way commenting will. And I actually pulled up a nice quote here. I know I've talked about commenting a lot. It probably sounds like I'm droning on, but Jasmin Alic is one of the top LinkedIn creators. And he recently shared, I wrote this down. Whenever he was growing his account, he spent 95% of his time supporting other posts when he was growing. And he described the result as an unignorable presence.

Janice Hostager:

Interesting. That is a great quote.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, and he's very cool, and everyone should follow Jay right away. I will have a link to creators who are active on the platform who you can follow and learn from and engage. And those comment sections are going to be full of other people who are active on the platform and interested in connecting.

Janice Hostager:

That's that's a great tip. Because I'd never I'd never thought about that before. Like the commenting part of it. Yeah. So would you say that original content, not necessarily repurposing content that you're putting on Instagram, for example? Like on Instagram, when I have a new podcast, I might put a video of our conversation today. Is that something that you would or wouldn't post on LinkedIn?

Kayla Ihrig:

I think that if you're already active and on LinkedIn, it's fine to post that kind of content. But if you haven't posted anything in a long time and then you suddenly drop a carousel with like 10 tips to improve your website privacy policy page or something, people are gonna be like, huh? What does she talk about? Because people have just forgotten. And uh, it's a little bit like sending an email, whenever you haven't sent an email to your list in a long time. Everybody has probably made that mistake at one point where they're like ghost to their list for a year. Or maybe I'm it's just me.

Janice Hostager:

No, yeah.

Kayla Ihrig:

Okay, it's not just me. Good. And then you email it, and then immediately, like, four people mark it as spam, and you're like, no, no, no. You double opted in. You just forgot who I am, and now you're uncomfortable because I'm promoting something.

Janice Hostager:

Okay, one last question, and then I want to go to like a rapid fire quiz here for you. So if you could give listeners like one LinkedIn quick win that they could apply right away this week, what would that be?

Kayla Ihrig:

Go update your profile and make it look like a landing page for whatever you want to book now more than anything. What is your top priority? Make your profile your landing page for that.

Janice Hostager:

Awesome. Love it, love it. Okay, let's see here. Uh LinkedIn Rapid Fire Round. Okay, here we go.

Kayla Ihrig:

I'm excited.

Janice Hostager:

Deep breath. Okay. What's one underrated feature that on LinkedIn that most people aren't using? Pulls. Mmm. Great. Great way to get engagement, right?

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, it's fun. It doesn't even have to be super serious. It could be about when you're working. I did one once. You know, do pets or do they help you make working from home better or worse? That was like one of my top posts of the year. Just getting people to engage in the comments, sharing pictures of their cat.

Janice Hostager:

Love it. Great idea. Connection requests. Do you include a note or no note?

Kayla Ihrig:

Always include a note and don't send it from your phone or it automatically sends without the note. Send it from your computer.

Janice Hostager:

Oh, really? Okay. Even if you know, let's say I just met somebody and I know them.

Kayla Ihrig:

If they actually if they definitely know you, I would say to let it go. But if this per if it's cold, you always need. Yeah. And let people know what you do in those connection requests as well. If I can elaborate a little on that. Say, like, hey, I see that you do personal branding. I'm, you know, an SEO writer. I'm really working on my personal brand right now. So I'm really excited to learn from you. It tells them about you without making it about you.

Janice Hostager:

Love it. And it it also elevates their status.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yes. And always making it clear. I'm excited for us to learn from each other. Yeah. I always think make it clear that it's mutually beneficial, that you're not looking to take from them. Like you're not going to send a connection request and then immediately be like, hey, can I can I talk to you about this thing? Don't approach people with your hand out.

Janice Hostager:

Right, right. Yeah. Get ready to give. Okay. The biggest link LinkedIn myth that you wish small business owners would stop believing.

Kayla Ihrig:

Oh, it's like a digital resume. And it's very stuffy. It's fun if you follow the right people. Give it a week of curating your feed with the links in the description, and it will feel friendly and fun.

Janice Hostager:

One type of post that you wish people would stop making on LinkedIn.

Kayla Ihrig:

Oh gosh. Press releases. Well, oh, I I don't think anyone in your and maybe none of your listeners are. I guess people who share comp- who share company press releases like copy and pasting the text as a post. I think that's a little..

Janice Hostager:

It doesn't really benefit them and just turns people off. Yeah. Hashtags. Worth it? Not worth it?

Kayla Ihrig:

Not anymore. Not anymore. There's a big study of the algorithm, and posts with hashtags got less reach than those without. And I wish I could remember the name of the person who did the study. So I'm sorry I can't attribute that correctly. But yeah.

Janice Hostager:

Good to know, okay.

Kayla Ihrig:

2025, they're not recommended.

Janice Hostager:

They're gone. Okay. But still SEO.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yes. Making it clear what you're talking about.

Janice Hostager:

In the post, is SEO-

Kayla Ihrig:

In the post too. Yeah, five tips for your website. Five things your website's privacy policy page is missing. Right? That those are keywords. It's not always like smacking people in the face with the topic. It's also just clear, like clear language uses keywords naturally. So don't, if that feels overwhelming, don't overthink it.

Janice Hostager:

Okay. One simple way to get more engagement on your post this week.

Kayla Ihrig:

Comment for 15 minutes before you post. Kind of prime the algorithm and then continue. Like if you were had 30 minutes, I would say comment for 30 minutes, post, comment for 15 or sorry, for 15 minutes to make 30 minutes total.

Janice Hostager:

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. A LinkedIn trend that you think is here to stay.

Kayla Ihrig:

Oh, um, short form videos, I think, are probably going to stick around. They were on the platform, then they were gone, and now they're back. So I think they'll probably be here to stay.

Janice Hostager:

One thing that you should never do in a LinkedIn DM, which I have an opinion on this one.

Kayla Ihrig:

Oh, I wonder if we're thinking the same thing. Um pitch people right away. Oh, I know. Pitch people on the service that they offer. I just got pitched on SEO services. It's 30 seconds. You'll see I also offer SEO services. We could have been friends, we could have been peers, and now I feel like cheap. Cheap DM.

Janice Hostager:

And this might be your own, but your favorite success story of someone that's growing their business on LinkedIn.

Kayla Ihrig:

Oh gosh. It's hard to think. I know if anyone, I've referenced him a couple times out, but Jasmin Alic, he goes by Jay, he's a great success story that he was, I think he was a high school teacher in Bosnia. And now he's one of LinkedIn's top voices. And he even did a like a tour in the US where he, like flew to the US, and like went around and had LinkedIn meetups all over the country. And I went to Bosnia and I met him. I was just traveling there and he drove three hours to meet me. He was just the most I thought on any other platform, if someone said that they would meet me from like Instagram, I'd be scared. We're gonna meet in a public place. It wouldn't feel comfortable. But yeah, I think yeah, Jasmin Alic is probably the great success story. Yeah.

Janice Hostager:

That's really interesting. You connected with him on LinkedIn in advance, and then you reached out to him because you were in Bosnia and you're like, "Hey!"

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah.

Janice Hostager:

Wanna meet for coffee kind of thing?

Kayla Ihrig:

I found Jay- I was featuring him as a source and one of an expert source of one of my HubSpot articles or GoDaddy, one of my GoDaddy articles. And then we just stayed connected and kind of chatted and commented back and forth for years. And then I sent him a message that I was gonna be in Bosnia. I think he said, like, "Oh, on Tuesday, I'll be there." And he said, "Where?" Uh and I told Mostar, he said, "I live on the other side of the country, but I'll be there." And he, well, I don't know how if it was the other side. But he drove for hours to come and it was fun. He took me and my husband out for lunch, and then he drove us around and showed us the sights.

Janice Hostager:

That's awesome.

Kayla Ihrig:

LinkedIn's magic. It's pure magic.

Janice Hostager:

Yeah, love it. Where can people find out more about you?

Kayla Ihrig:

You can find out more on my LinkedIn profile. Everyone can send me a connection request. Let me know that you came from the podcast, and I'll accept. I don't accept podcast or requests with no note if I don't know you. So just say hi. And on my website as well, writingfromnowhere.com.

Janice Hostager:

Love it. Thank you so much, Kayla. I have learned a lot. And I know my listeners probably have too. So I appreciate you taking the time.

Kayla Ihrig:

Yeah, thanks for so much for having me. This was a lot of fun.

Janice Hostager:

I don't know about you, but I'm going to be going right back to my office to be logging into LinkedIn to check my profile and commenting on more posts. And by the way, if we haven't connected on LinkedIn, please look me up. I'd love to connect with you there. I hope today's conversation showed you just how much potential is waiting there for small business owners like you and me. If you love this conversation, don't forget to hit follow on the podcast so you never miss another episode. And hey, share this one with a business friend who could use some help on LinkedIn too. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats. For more information about anything we talked about today, visit myweeklymarketing dot com forward slash 129. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.

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Janice Hostager

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