How to build a presence on LinkedIn with Leeann Bassett

Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the online Course Creator Show. I have a very special guest on the show today, and this guest is actually someone that has already appeared on the show twice before. So you may have already met her or listened to us, uh, chat on this podcast before. Her name is Leanne Bassett, and she is a LinkedIn trainer and social media consultant who helps business owners and professionals build their visibility and, and credibility online. So you may have already heard Leanne on this podcast in episode 31, where we talked about how Leanne went from no online course to four successful launches. And also episode 96, which actually wasn't that long ago, where we spoke about how Leanne used one repeatable system to launch multiple online programs. So you may have gathered from that that Leanne is someone who has launched online courses and worked with me in the past. Yes, she is a past client, but I am very happy to have her on today to actually talk about her area of Expertise, which is LinkedIn. So let's dive into it. So good to have you here, Leanne.

Speaker B: Thanks, Louise. It's nice to be here. Nice to see you.

Speaker A: Yeah. And it's so actually, like, I'm really excited to be honest, to have you on, to actually talk about, instead of your journey with online courses, actually talk about your expertise. Because I just feel like you have so much to share with me and my audience around, um, using LinkedIn in business. And it's definitely something that I feel like I should be doing more of. So, yeah, I'm going to use this to my advantage and ask you as many questions as possible.

Speaker B: Ask away. Ask away.

Speaker A: So, Leanne, let's kick off by. I'd love it if you could Talk about why LinkedIn. Why do you love LinkedIn? Why? Is it because it used to be a more general social media consultant? Why are you, like, all in on LinkedIn now?

Speaker B: Okay. Um, so, yes, I used to do a lot of Facebook and Instagram. I still kind of dabble in that. And I still do have Facebook and Instagram pages for myself, but I chose to just focus on one platform and then share my content to those other platforms. So my platform of Choice now is LinkedIn. And there are a few different reasons around that. Firstly, I got a little bit tired of all the. Just. It felt like every morning I'd wake up and there'd be a new email with a meta update and something that was changing on either Facebook or Instagram. And then I got disillusioned with the really low reach and engagement, and I just started to get frustrated with it and decided that there must be a better way. And so I started doubling down on LinkedIn a couple of years ago. I'd always used it, but never really focused on it as my main source of, um, communication and relationship building and business leads. So, yeah, those are the main reasons really that LinkedIn, that I've moved from Facebook and Instagram to LinkedIn. But I just find it the difference is that people go onto Facebook and Instagram, I think mainly to just doom, scroll, you know, learn some things, get inspired. And the algorithm is really set up to keep us on Facebook and Instagram for as long as possible and to show us as much as possible so that they can, at the end of the day, show more ads to us. Whereas the LinkedIn algorithm really values engagement and conversation. So it will show your posts to more people if you start getting people engaging with it. So if people are commenting and you're replying to those comments and having little conversations, LinkedIn will decide, oh, this is creating people talking to each other. It's good discussion. We going to show it to more people. Whereas on Facebook and Instagram, your post gets posted, it goes through the newsfeed, if people don't see it, then it just disappears. So the difference, I think, with people going onto LinkedIn as well is that they go on there a bit more with a sense of a business sense about them because they know it's more of a business platform than Facebook and Instagram. So they're more going on to find out what their peers or their colleagues or what's happening in the industry, um, find out interesting things, connect with new people, um, build relationships with the people that they've already got. So I think people have a different mindset using LinkedIn, um, just passively, even if they're not posting. I think even when they go to check LinkedIn, they have a different mindset to Facebook and Instagram. And because LinkedIn makes its money through the premium subscriptions as opposed to advertising, you are not inundated with just annoying ads that you get on Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker A: So I didn't know that that's really.

Speaker B: They still do LinkedIn ads and LinkedIn ads are expensive. They start at $15 a day. So it's not a cheap platform to advertise on, but it's a really good platform if you have a high ad, if you have a high budget for ads, um, and if you know what you're doing. So whereas Facebook and Instagram, you can get started for like three or five dollars. A day. And that does make, it can make a difference.

Speaker A: I more mean like around the algorithm that their business model is actually making money from their premium subscription. So, like their, uh, I guess their goals, uh, are different than on Facebook, where it's just about serving as many ads as possible. That's. Yeah, that's really interesting.

Speaker B: And so I think with that in mind, the quality of content is much better because people are, you know, people are wanting to talk and have those conversations. And in fact, one of the best ways that people can get started on LinkedIn is just by commenting on other people's posts. Um, and there's a new feature now which is going to come out in the last six months or so, where you can actually see how many impressions your comments have received. So your comments get shown to people both within your network and like, if I comment on one of your posts, then the comment that I made gets seen by your network plus my network, not Everybody, maybe about 20 to 30% of those people. But often the comments can get just as much, um, reach or as many impressions as an actual post.

Speaker A: Yeah. Cool.

Speaker B: So I think that that's somewhere that a lot of people sort of, they don't use the fact that they can be commenting, they just think they have to be posting. Whereas I think a good strategy to get started is just by commenting on other people's stuff and you get a feel then for how LinkedIn works, um, rather than having to feel like you've got to jump in and start creating your own original content straight away.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. That's a really good place for people to start, do you think?

Speaker B: I think commenting, and I think also being aware that when you do comment, what's gonna happen is people will see your name pop up and they'll read your comment and they might go, oh, who's this person? And then click on your profile and check you out. So you need to think about your profile as like your digital storefront. Or, um, I describe it in my workshops as like you've been at a conference and everybody's walking around the conference and they've got all their conference displays set up really nicely with colorful pictures and call to actions and freebies that you can take away with you. And you don't want to be that conference table that's just got a sort of old tablecloth and a couple of business cards scattered on it. So. So, uh, what that means is that you really want your LinkedIn profile to be set up in such a way that if someone lands on it they can see exactly what you do, who you serve. You might have a link on there to your newsletter or maybe you've got like a free freebie that people can download. Um, you want to have all that set up so that you're making that really good first impression rather than giving the impression that your shop's closed or you know that you're not around anymore. M. Uh, so when you start commenting, just know people will visit your profile and you want your profile to look as good as possible.

Speaker A: So optimizing your profile would be a good step as well to get started.

Speaker B: Making sure you've got a, uh, up to date profile image. I always suggest something within the last sort of two to three years. I recommend that you remove the background image so that's just your head and shoulders, and then take one of the colors from your brand and put that as your background color. Because your image turns out to be about this big in the feed and so you really want to stand out. Um, and then making sure you've got a banner that's really clear as to the problem that you solve for people. Um, a really good headline. You can have a little name. You can pronounce your name. There's a little 15 second snap where you can do the name pronunciation, which is really nice. Um, then you can, if you're on the premium, you get a customized link that you used to have one on the free, but they've got rid of that just in the last couple of months. Um, making sure your about section is not written like an old resume that's full of just really boring stuff, but more written in a way that you talk about how you can help people and what's in it for people working with you or connecting with you. I always like to add a little bit at the end of my about section that if you've kind of read this far, here's some other things we can talk about. Because when you're making that new connection request, it's quite good to be able to say, I think I put in there that I've lived in California, in London, and I've got a couple of dogs and like, what activities that I enjoy doing. And I have had people reach out to me over that. Which is much nicer than just reaching out and saying, hey, buy my stuff.

Speaker A: Yeah, so it's a good way like that, More personalized.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And then having some recommendations on there as well. I'll often look at someone's profile and the most recent recommendation would be like 2014 and you think, well, goodness, have they not worked with anyone since then or done anything good? So I think having some up to date recommendations, um, is really important as well.

Speaker A: How do, how do you go about that, getting up to date recommendations? Like, what do you tell your clients to do?

Speaker B: Um, well, you need, first of all, you need to be a first level connection with that person. So you then need to go to the recommendation section on your profile and you need to, depending on your experience, it will come up. It will draw on your actual experience that you've got on LinkedIn. So if I was going to ask you for a recommendation, I would, um, click on Recommendations. Click on, um, ask. Request a recommendation from you, and then it will ask what the position was at the time, whether you reported to me, whether we worked together, whether a client of yours or you're a client of mine. Um, it's got a whole lot of different options. So you select that and then it brings up this kind of standardized note where you get 3,000 characters actually. But the standard thing is like, hi, Louise, could you please write me a recommendation? And that's. So I recommend to people that you delete that and you think about maybe two or three things that you would like the person to reference in the recommendations. So whether that's, we work together on this project or I helped you with this and this is the transformation that you've found, um, from working with me. And then give them that and say, I'd love it if you could write me a recommendation around our work together, specifically on how I helped you with blah, blah, blah. Um, I'd really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Thanks. And then they get a notification and it comes up, um, you then comes onto your. Once they've written it, it comes onto your profile as pending. So you do need to go in and check that, um, it doesn't automatically get put on your profile. So you can choose, you know, if they write you a bad one, then you could choose not to put that on your profile as well. Okay.

Speaker A: I love it. Thank you, Leanne. That's very specific.

Speaker B: And you can also, if you have, um, I'm pretty sure it's a premium feature, not a free feature, but we do also have a featured section in our LinkedIn profiles and you can actually feature some of your recommendations in that featured section.

Speaker A: So that's premium only.

Speaker B: I'm pretty sure that's a premium. Premium one, yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. Do you need, do you recommend people to have premium or just, I mean, starting out? They probably don't need it. Right.

Speaker B: I think starting out. I'm sorry, my dog's just going crazy. I think starting out, you definitely don't need it. I would wait until. I would get started by making sure your profile looks really good and commenting on other people's content.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: And then if you decide you want to start being more visible and posting more consistently, then it can be useful. Um, if you know somebody that has a premium subscription, you can ask them for, um, they can actually send you a link to. You can get like a referral link where if I sent you the referral to sign up for a free month's trial, then, and you paid once the month was up, then I would get a free month.

Speaker A: Okay. So you can refer other people and you can.

Speaker B: You just get 10 of those referral things. Uh, and then once they're used up, they used up. So that's one way of doing it. LinkedIn will also offer you the option of trialing it for free. Um, they will ask you for your credit card. So I recommend that you do make a note on your calendar to check and maybe cancel it at the end of that 30 days. Otherwise they will invoice you. Um, what else? Don't take up the premium one until your profile's looking good because it will show you who has viewed your profile. So again, get that profile looking nice. Um, then you can be connecting with people that will be messaging people that have viewed your profile. Um, what else is there? The other thing about a premium is that you get a little blue call to action above your name in the feed with a clickable link that will either take people to your services or your website or booking a course call, um, or viewing your portfolio. So that's a quite cool premium feature. The other thing that you get with Premium is that you get your banner at the top. Instead of just having one image, you can have it scrolling through. So you can have like little videos or little, like, like a carousel that moves on by itself.

Speaker A: Okay, so it sounds like, definitely get started, optimize your profile and then look at going premium if you're going to

Speaker B: be posting regularly and wanting to really grow your network. But I fluctuate between the two. I only ever pay for one month at a time. You know, if I go away on holiday or something, I just turn it off, back onto free. I've just recently put it back on to premium. Um, I'm just going to see how that goes for a couple of months and then turn off again.

Speaker A: Yeah, sounds good. Okay, so what another thing I want to ask you about was like people's perception of LinkedIn, right? It's like this is where you set up like a CV type profile and you know, when you're in corporate everyone, it's really the only social media that's really used in the corporate world by everyone. I mean obviously. As for me for example working in marketing, we were using all of the platforms for work but for a general person who doesn't work in marketing, you're more likely going to have a LinkedIn profile. Right? But where does LinkedIn sit? So obviously LinkedIn is a very corporate audience. But where do you think LinkedIn sits for people who are maybe listening to this and thinking, well I don't have a corporate audience, I'm maybe there in like direct to consumer, like they're a health coach or something like that, you know, they're selling um, something that isn't related to business. Is LinkedIn worth looking at for that type of person or is it just for people operating in the business space?

Speaker B: Well firstly I might like just bust a couple of probably myths there. I think that people LinkedIn is not just a corporate um, platform anymore. It used to be that people saw it like that because it was like for job seekers but now I like to look at it as like an online networking event. So there's not just corporate people on there. In fact I would say that it's used less by corporate people and that they are not so good at posting regularly because they're uh, comfortable, they're in a job, they don't think they've got anything to talk about, they don't want to look silly in front of their peers and colleagues and they, they just, they probably haven't updated their profile for a while and they just consuming content. So they're the ones that I would put into that lurker category. So they're probably going on there every day to find things out but they'll never post themselves. Whereas if you can look at it as more of a networking event where you're going on there to build relationships, meet new people, get in front of, you know, have new opportunities, learn from experts, share your expertise, then I think that's a much better way of thinking about it because at the end of the day we are all consumers. Everybody that's on LinkedIn is a consumer of some sort. I mean yes, we might have professional businessy jobs but uh, we still buy stuff. And so I think for people like health coaches and um, I mean people in those sorts of industries like facilitators coaches, um, business coaches. LinkedIn is the best place to be. It's. For me, it's way more. The relationships I've built on LinkedIn are way more meaningful than the relationships I have on Facebook and Instagram. I mean, yes, I have got some, meet some really amazing people on Facebook and Instagram, but because of, I guess I try and post two to three times a week on LinkedIn. I'm on there every day and you get to see stuff from people all the time. And I, I look at it as a slow motion networking event. So you might do a post and you do a post like this morning at 9:00', clock, and then I might see Your post at 1 o' clock this afternoon, our time, and then I might leave a comment, but you might not see that comment till 5 o' clock at night. So then you'll reply to my comment. And if it was an interesting comment where you ask me a question, I might not see that till tomorrow morning. And so the conversation happens very slowly and then nothing will come from that. That would just be a conversation that we have. And then you might post again the following week, and then the following week, and then the following. And then finally you might post something that really is a call to me to want to reach out, to work with you. So by that time I feel like I've already got a relationship with you. I really know you, like you, trust you. We've already had some communication backwards and forwards. And then it's really easy for me to sign up and say, hey, Louise, you know, like, I've got this happening, I really want to work with you. Um, whereas I think so, yes, I think if you can go onto LinkedIn thinking about it like a slow motion networking event and behave on the same way that you would behave at a networking event, it's just very slow.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Does that make sense?

Speaker A: Yeah. So it's like actually about being consistent, having a strategy, building a relationship with people and over time you'll start to see it impact.

Speaker B: Yeah. I had a lady reach out to me yesterday who had booked, uh, a call with me and I had no idea who she was and we weren't even connected on LinkedIn. Um, but then when I spoke to her, I said, how did you find out about me? She said, well, I've been following you, so following is different to being connected.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: Um, so she sees my post, but I don't see anything of hers. And she said she'd been following me for a while and she's ready to get her LinkedIn profile sorted out and become more consistent. So booked in to see me. So that's kind of how it works. Because although the people that comment and like your stuff are probably not going to be the people that will end up working with you because they are still finding out about you. They're not, they're not commenting, they're just lurking or observing and reading your stuff, reading what other people are saying, reading your responses and learning about you. The people that comment and like are uh, typically the ones that have already worked with you and have a relationship with you. And that's something really worth remembering. That you could do a post that might have a thousand impressions and it might have like 30 or 40 people like it and maybe five or six comments, but then there's still another 900 and something people that have still seen your post. Whereas you don't get that on Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker A: No. You don't at all.

Speaker B: No.

Speaker A: So do you think that LinkedIn can be used in any niche? Even those more lifestyle niches?

Speaker B: Oh, absolutely, definitely. I think with the product I think you need to be perhaps a little bit more careful because you can't just get on there and say buy my stuff.

Speaker A: Is it more about like an E commerce business? Is it more about like positioning yourself as the founder of that company, like thought leadership, that kind of thing?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I guess if you're. I think about when I'm working with my clients, I get them to think about maybe four different areas of expertise that they want to be known for.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: Or for. When someone says their name like Lou, they go, oh, she's the online course launching person or Leanne, like she's the LinkedIn and AI person. So then in your content you want to be focusing on those specific things, but sharing your expertise and your experience. Maybe it's like answering frequently asked questions, maybe it's educating people about something, maybe it's sharing some kind of behind the scenes thing or maybe lessons that you've learned or what you're working on at the moment or customer success stories, that kind of thing. Um, works really well on LinkedIn and I think that's how you can position yourself. So if you're a product based business, you can still talk about your products and how you got about making them. How about your business and your expertise as opposed to just buy my stuff?

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: If that makes sense.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally. That's one thing that I've noticed on LinkedIn especially is that, I mean, I guess it doesn't really work on Facebook and Instagram anymore either. But it's more kind of a, uh, like the behind the scenes posts where you're way more personal, they work so much better than like the more business orientated posts, if that makes sense.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, I think now with, you know, AI being such a big part of everything, videos are doing well. I'm not sure that videos are necessarily doing any better on LinkedIn, to be honest, but LinkedIn are really pushing them.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So they're saying that they're doing better. Um, I think my videos do, depending on what it's about and what I look like. I did one with a black and white filter the other day because I had these awful spots on my face and lots of people watched that. But I think it was more because it was the black and white rather than color which I normally have. Uh, and maybe it's because of what I was talking about. Um, but I think those more personal posts are definitely, they do really well, but you don't want to be too personal. And also they can be a bit, I think, a bit cringy if you do them too often. I would do maybe one of those sorts of posts a month, but more focus on how you can help people. If I think if you go onto LinkedIn with like a service mindset where you're sharing your expertise and you're helping people in their business, giving them quick wins, um, that, that content is really well appreciated as well.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So one thing I really did want to talk about in this episode was content. And like, if someone's listening to this and they're wondering, okay, I want to give LinkedIn a shot. I feel like it's an opportunity that I'm not making the most of. And you know, they've now know that they start with commenting and they uh, just get involved in the platform and they optimize their profile, that kind of thing. When it comes time to post, what are like, do you have like maybe like three different types of posts that they could try, that they could get started with that work on LinkedIn, but maybe a little bit different to what they do elsewhere. Obviously you're not creating like reels or, you know, what do you think about uploading reels that you're creating From Instagram to LinkedIn? How do they go?

Speaker B: I don't think they go as well because it's quite different.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's different content. Right.

Speaker B: The reels feel different. There's sorts of videos that go, well, you know, LinkedIn would be just a face to camera video, uh, where you're talking maybe for 30 to 60 seconds.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Um, that can work very well. Just about one thing. And I always suggest to people that they have like a hook, um, a middle, an ending and a call to action with their videos. So you just don't feel like you've got to solve the world's problems in one video. Uh, just keep it short, just talk about one thing. Um, I think people are appreciate that a lot more than big, long, waffly sorts of things. And certainly don't start with the whole hi, I'm Leanne la la la. Because people will just stop listening. So maybe save that to the very end, um, or partway through the video. Um, what else? Carousel posts do really well on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: You have to upload them as a PDF as a document. There's no option to upload it as a carousel. Um, but you create them in canva and then you download them as a PDF and then you upload them as a document. Um, the reason they do well is the dwell time. So LinkedIn will, the algorithm will also judge you on how long people spend reading your content. So if they just scroll through then that's not going to count as much as if they pause and then they're swiping through reading your carousel post. Um, so I would try and do one, at least one carousel post a month and I save that for really kind of, I guess that's more high value content. Maybe like five things that you need to have set up well on your LinkedIn profile and then on each card I'll have one tip and then I'll have like a summary and then I'll have a call to action. So I try and save those carousel posts for really good content. And if you can put a photo of you on the front, uh, and the hook on the front, like what it's about, what's in it for the person watching or reading. The other sort of content that does well is like if you're out at an event, for example, you can then tag some people that you meet at the event, maybe take some selfies with those people, maybe take a photo of the speaker that you listen to and um, maybe m make a couple of notes on your phone about key things that you got out of listening to that speaker. So you can do like a post event post after the event post, um, and upload three or four photos. And the beauty of uploading more than one image is one image they just have to scroll through so they're not really stopping, Whereas if it's about, it has to be four. So more than three, four images or more, you get that little plus button. Then people will stop and want to click that button and look at the other photos. And again, that counts as an interaction or like it's more time that they're spending reading your post. Um, I was working with a client today who's, um, a barrister, and we were talking about how taxing it is to when you're taking lots and lots of cases and how nice it is, how important it is to take time out. And we talked about going for walking or she said that actually you can't help thinking about all the cases. You wake up at 3 o' clock in the morning, but when you're out with the cows or on the beach or with a dog or in the garden, they're still thinking about it. And so we posted, we had a photo of each of those things because they went with the post. So rather than doing something curated in Canva that's got lots of text on it and looks quite salesy, those sorts of things go really well too. Okay, Just kind of photos off your phone. If you can find photos on your phone that you can somehow relate back to business or give an analogy or something like that, that works really well.

Speaker A: So kind of like a storytelling style.

Speaker B: Storytelling works really well. Absolutely. Storytelling would be, but just not the same kind of story. Not that kind of. You know, I started with nothing and now I've got this. Like they were quite big about a year ago and some people still do them. But, uh, yeah, I would focus more on helping your clients with useful information and talking about what you do and the transformations that you give people.

Speaker A: Well, there's only so many times you can share that big kind of hero journey story. Anyway. You need to have a story every week related to your brand.

Speaker B: I think having a strategy is really useful. Um, I would typically suggest to people that they try and post twice a week. Once a week is good. It's better than nothing. So if all you can manage is once a week, then just post once a week. Um, I'd also recommend that you post at a time where you have got time to reply to any comments, because the more people are commenting, I think LinkedIn have said that if you get over 10 comments in the first hour, then your post will be seen by over a thousand people. So by you replying to those comments, you're amplifying your reach. So rather than just posting like on Wednesday night and not bothering checking until Saturday, where you've. We kind of miss that window of opportunity.

Speaker A: Um, yeah. Uh, one of the things, I don't really know much about the LinkedIn algorithm really, but I have noticed that the whole kind of many chat commenter, keyword kind of thing is quite big on LinkedIn at the moment. Would you say?

Speaker B: Yeah, some people are using that. I personally don't like it myself, because I don't like it. I think it just feels a bit like bro marketing.

Speaker A: Yeah, it, um, does.

Speaker B: And the mini chat doesn't even work on LinkedIn. It's not like on Instagram where you can comment it and you can set it up where m. It will then automatically DM you. It doesn't work that way.

Speaker A: And so do you have to manually reply?

Speaker B: You still have to manually do it. And so I think for me, I would rather just say, look, if you're interested, send me a message.

Speaker A: Yeah, I just have noticed that and I wondered what you thought of it.

Speaker B: Yeah, I personally don't like it. I mean, I guess it's another form of the clickbait or engagement bait, where people, you go, oh, you know, give you my top 20 social media AI prompts, you know, comment yes, please. And then they all go, yes, please. And then that shows it to more people as well. It's another way of getting more engagement. So, yeah, I personally never use that. I haven't used it and I don't recommend it for my clients, but that doesn't stop other people from doing it. It just. I don't like it.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a real Instagram strategy and it's just interesting to seeing people replicate it on LinkedIn.

Speaker B: What kind of works on Instagram, because you've got manychat that will do that for you.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, totally. Um, yeah. And I remember when we were working together and you're putting your program together, you actually did a webinar based around this whole LinkedIn for lyrics thing. And you did mention that earlier, but that's actually like from the types of users that LinkedIn have identified, isn't it? Like the LinkedIn for lyrics thing, didn't LinkedIn kind of say people that use the platform? I'd love for you to talk about that.

Speaker B: Yeah. So there's over a billion users of LinkedIn, which, interestingly, I also heard the other day on a podcast that there's over 1 billion users of ChatGPT already, which is pretty phenomenal. Um, anyway, so LinkedIn then break it down into different groups of users. So they've got like the Power users. And these are people that um, and I would consider myself a power user because I'm on LinkedIn every single day. I'm replying to comments multiple times a day. I'm posting my own original content three times a week. Um, I'm quite engaged in sending messages, connecting with new people. And then you've got people who will be reposting other people's stuff. Now a lot of people fall into this category and they think that they really, you know, they're active on LinkedIn by reposting other people's stuff, but they typically don't do anything original of their own. Mhm. Then you have got the people who are uh, liking and commenting but again won't create their own content. So they're actively engaging in other people's stuff but not sharing anything about themselves. And then you've got the people that fall into that silent audience. And silent audience is much nicer a way of saying, Lucas. So the silent audience are the people that make up that 950 impressions on a post that has a thousand impressions with 50 likes. So they're the ones that I would recommend to my clients that you actually make your content for your silent audience because that's where your next customers are going to come from. Ah.

Speaker A: Uh, I love that. Yeah. So it's not so much about who's engaging, it's about who's seeing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And people can get disillusioned because they can do a post and it will get like one or two likes, but they still might get three or 400 impressions. And so you can't sort of judge it just on likes on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Yeah. What about sharing links on LinkedIn? Like, does LinkedIn, does the algorithm hate links or. They're not so phased.

Speaker B: It's not as bad as Facebook. Like I've read a, uh, Facebook haven't outrightly come out and said don't post links, but if you have a look at a, uh, Facebook page like the New Zealand Herald, you'll notice that they never post a link in their post anymore. It's always in the first comment. And that's because Facebook don't want you sending people off the platform because then they can't advertise for them anymore. So on LinkedIn you can put a link in your post. If you do, you get this tiny wee little. It's like a, like a, I don't know, on a Facebook ad, you know how they come up like a small rectangular image, um, with the link in it. And I don't think that looks very good. So what I would do is I would create the post without the link and I'd just add an image, like add a photo or something you've created in Canva and then post it. And then you can go back in after you've posted it and you can edit the post and then you can put the link in. But you've still got that nice big image which takes up the full on your screen. It takes up most of your phone screen. Um, or uh, sometimes I'll put the link in the first comment. But the problem with doing that is sometimes if you got lots of people commenting, that gets lost and then people can't find it. So I would recommend that you do the post without the link. Post it, go back in and put the link and you can also, also write, you can also see the link in the first comment or in the comments below. So you could put it in the post and in the comments if you wanted to.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, cool. I love that little tip. Okay, so I love what you've shared so uh, far. And so really if people want to get started, it doesn't really matter what niche you're in. It doesn't matter if you're not like say if you're an interior designer or something.

Speaker B: Like interior designers do really well. I'm like dud.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Like the market is even though they're business minded, they're still people. Yeah.

Speaker B: And the other thing too is that there's some markets are more saturated than others, so something like interior design. There aren't that many interior designers using LinkedIn because they're mostly on Instagram and Facebook. So that's a real opportunity for someone to stand out on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, cool.

Speaker B: M and some of my accountants and lawyers, I mean most, most of them have got like maybe like a company page if they work for somebody else. But there's not many accountants and lawyers like as individual people doing very good job at all on LinkedIn. So again, it's not easy to stand out and people go, oh wow, they look really good.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. That actually reminds me, I forgot to ask you one important question was how would you use LinkedIn? And this is obviously something that you do. You've actually done this yourself. How would you use LinkedIn for launching? Like, how do you use LinkedIn in a launch?

Speaker B: So what I've done is I, the first thing I do is I create like a LinkedIn event. Mhm. Um, so that people get notified that you've got an event and I would put the link to sign up as my sign up my registration page for my launch. So they automatically. Yeah, from LinkedIn they get that. And then if anyone says that they're going, you know how you can click going or attending the event? Yeah, I would message that person and just say, hey, just so you know, it's not a physical event, it's an online event. This is the link for you to sign up. Um, I would then go through and do what you taught me to do, which was to have, you know, my plan, the build up plan, the pre launch content, then during the launch and then afterwards. It does feel a lot. It is hard showing um, up every single day, feeling like you're not spamming people and because the way the LinkedIn algorithm works as well is that you can often see a post from like a week or two weeks ago mixed up in your current feed. Whereas you don't get that on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker A: No, not at all often. So 12 hours.

Speaker B: I don't necessarily post every single day on LinkedIn just for that reason. Um, and then at the end of it I'd always do like a thank you for being patient with me that this was, you know, I did have to do a lot to post this last week. Um, and I'd give a little update, you know, when the doors are closing or if you get nice comments from the webinar, for example, you could post some of that. Um, I have posted the replay before on LinkedIn, but I'd always make sure I go back and take that down like the replay page. Oh, okay, yeah, take that down after, you know, when the door's closed. Make sure you take that LinkedIn the replay down off LinkedIn.

Speaker A: So you'd upload it as a, uh, video or just.

Speaker B: No, just the link to the landing page that I'd put an image. I uh, don't just put the link in because then it just comes up small and I talk about the replays here. But I'm quite conscious that lots of people who haven't signed up might watch that. So I'll only leave that up for a couple of days.

Speaker A: Yeah, I did that with my podcast. Actually the last time I did a launch is put the replay on the podcast, but I only left it up there for the open cart, period. So essentially the same thing, but on LinkedIn.

Speaker B: Uh, yeah, but you don't have LinkedIn stories on. You don't have stories on LinkedIn like you do on Instagram. So maybe if you have quite an engaged audience in a launch. Depending on where your ideal audience is, it could be that using the stories on Instagram and Facebook are quite good for doing little videos and adding that link where they can click through. Um, as well. Um, what else? I did run LinkedIn ads once, but I don't know how. I think Facebook ads, to be honest, were more effective for getting people to sign up than LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Yeah, I believe the same thing if you're in a launch situation, even if you're m. They are expensive, for sure.

Speaker B: Yeah. Although LinkedIn targeting is much better. Um, I, you know, I don't. LinkedIn ads are not my specialty and you can easily spend a lot of money on there with hardly any result if you're not doing them properly. So I've just, I've just focused on Facebook ads and just promoting it on LinkedIn, um, and getting people to sign up organically from that.

Speaker A: Yeah. And do you think you've had, you know, because I know that you've had, as your coach, you've had great success with Facebook ads for your launches. Um, do you think that you've also pulled in a lot of people from those organic posts on LinkedIn over the many launches that you've done?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. And I think the other thing now is because I've got, um, I've got about two and a half thousand followers on LinkedIn, which is, you know, a lot for me, not a lot for lots of people. But I guess I am, because I am quite consistent and visible and I have established my sort of personal brand. I guess people do know who I am and what I do, so that when I do go to do an offer, more people may sign up organically because of that. But then you've also got all the freebie seekers too, who'll just come on and learn what they can for free, which, you know, we all do that. So, yeah, there's. There's a bit of that and then there's a bit of actual clients. I mean, I have had people who have become clients or brought my online course. A lot of those people are on LinkedIn because, you know, the LinkedIn Learners Lab. I guess that makes sense to them to buy it.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I. Yeah, and I also guess, like, from, uh, like an omnipresence point of view, a lot of these people could be following you on LinkedIn, but then they've seen you on LinkedIn, but then they're also, like, using Facebook, so they're on Facebook as well, and then they see an ad pop up from you and they're like, oh, there's Leanne, she's talking about LinkedIn. I'm gonna sign up. So.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I would, on the Facebook ad, on my landing page, I would have, um, you know, thanks for registering for the webinar. And then make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn so that then we're connected on LinkedIn as well, so you get that carrier across. So they might have seen me originally on a Facebook ad because most people use more than one platform 100%.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So, uh, you know, they've probably seen the Facebook or Instagram ad and then follow me on LinkedIn and then they maybe build that relationship on LinkedIn as opposed to Facebook.

Speaker A: Yeah, so true.

Speaker B: I've had some great clients from that, like more, you know, bigger companies, people that work for businesses, you know, they might work in the M marketing team, but they see me on Facebook and then they end up working with me through LinkedIn. Mhm.

Speaker A: Yeah. I just think it's so important to also remember, like you said before, like everyone is still a person with interests and you know, someone from a bigger company still might find you on like Facebook for example, or anywhere. Yeah.

Speaker B: I was working with a real estate agent yesterday and she's just establishing herself, um, and she wants her market to be people who are moving to retirement villages. And we did have a conversation about that, that target audience are probably more likely to be on Facebook. But she said, yes, it's probably their sons and daughters who are on LinkedIn who will learn about what I do and then encourage them that way. So I thought that was quite a good way of thinking of it. Rather than just focusing her efforts on Facebook, she actually wants to build it with maybe the kids of those parents on LinkedIn first.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so one last thing. I know that you have been diving into AI and all of that stuff and it's like a, a new area of interest for you that you, that you've bought into your business. How do you like, what are you recommending to people terms of AI and LinkedIn? Like how you, how are you personally using AI to help you with LinkedIn and either you or your clients?

Speaker B: So the first thing I would say is don't connect up to something that replies. AI bots that reply to you everywhere.

Speaker A: I don't like it.

Speaker B: Don't do that. And also, if you've got a premium LinkedIn account, it gives you the option of even some suggested responses and they just sound really bad. So don't reply to comments unless it's you personally replying, um, how am I using it? So I have. Well, one of the ways that I use it to be honest is I will, I'm much better at talking than I am at writing. And so I will talk my thoughts into my AI and say, okay, this is what I'm thinking about or this is a client has just asked me this question and talk my answer in there. And then I'll just ask the AI to tidy that up, keep my tone, make it sound like me and that will be my post. So I use it that way. I'm just saying my thoughts, but instead of me writing them down, I'm just getting the AI to fix it. Um, but not fix it in a cringy AI way, just fix it, make Leanne sound better. Um, and then what I've also done is I've built some custom GPTs within ChatGPT, um, which the client works through. There's three of them. So the first one is that it's your ideal client kind of avatar. And so we talk through, ask you a lot of questions about who your ideal clients are, what makes you different, the high level strategy stuff like what their pain points are. And then we have a, I have another one so that spits out who you're talking to, what they're interested in, what you should be talking about. Then I've created another one which is about your voice and so we can find out like how you want to sound, how, how you speak, the sorts of words that you use, the things that you don't want to say, um, some customer success stories. Um, yeah, all sorts of different things like that. And then we put those two, the results of those two into my um, like I guess I call it, it's like your social media planner. Um, and what I've created in there is a whole lot of different post formats and this is based on the work I've done as a social media coach over the last eight years, the posts that work. So the AI will then write those social media posts for the person, for their audience and their voice. So that's pretty cool.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that.

Speaker B: Um, yeah, I mean and recommend, um, I've got a site recommends images and photos and things like that to use as well and asks uh, questions for engagement. So yeah, I'm using, using that with my clients a lot now and they are loving that. And so I'm doing both the done with you with my client, do it with them. And then I'm just about to package that up and sell that as A separate kind of online thingy that they can do by themselves.

Speaker A: Oh, we have to watch out for that.

Speaker B: I'll go back through and use all our launching stuff.

Speaker A: Yeah, cool. I, um, love that. It sounds really good. And on that topic, where, uh, can people find out more about you? How can people work with you?

Speaker B: So my website is faceupnow co NZ faceup Now being Face up now to the fact that you need to be on social media and now using AI as well. Um, so. And it's also the acronym for fun, because I do try and make stuff that I do with my clients fun. So Face up now is my website. Um, and then you can connect with me on LinkedIn. And my name is spelt funny. It's L, E, A M and then B A, double S, E, double T. So, Leanne Bassett, I'd love to connect with you. If you do connect with me, make sure you tell me that you had, you know, heard this podcast with Louise. Um, and hopefully you learned something.

Speaker A: Yeah, great. Um, definitely check Leanne out. I feel like every time I go on LinkedIn, I see one of your posts and you have so much engagement, and I'm like, how does she do it?

Speaker B: It's just from being consistent and it's just from creating content that's helpful to my audience.

Speaker A: Yeah, amazing.

Speaker B: And just being myself as well. And, yeah, just being okay with just being me.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, there's a lot to learn there for everyone that wants to get onto LinkedIn, so definitely check Leanne out. I will add all that, all of the links to what she just shared in the show notes as well. So definitely jump over there. The link to that will be below. And yeah, Leanne, thank you so much for coming on today. I learned a lot about LinkedIn. You have maybe convince me that I should give that platform another shot.

Speaker B: Totally should. You absolutely should.

Speaker A: Yes. Maybe that's my next project. But yeah. Thank you so much for coming on today. Uh, thank you for listening to those who are here, and I will see you on the next episode. Bye.

Speaker B: Bye.

Speaker A: Thanks, course creators and go getters. You're incredible, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you haven't done so already, make sure you hit subscribe in your podcast app so you don't miss an episode. If you'd like to find out more about what I offer, head across to LouBlakely.com. see you next time.