May 28, 2024 • 48 mins
Unlock the full potential of LinkedIn with us! Today, we are joined by Beverly Smith, founder of Career Success Strategies and LinkedIn expert. With her expertise in LinkedIn, we’re diving into how LinkedIn can help you grow your business, sharing tips and essential strategies to make the most of this powerful platform.
From why you should be using LinkedIn to how to maximize your LinkedIn profile and attract your ideal clients effectively, we will be diving into surprising tips that you will want to incorporate into your LinkedIn strategy. And don’t miss out – stay tuned until the end for a special discount on Beverly’s amazing services.
Connect with Beverly Smith
Website: https://cssar.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverlydsmith/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CareerSuccessStrategies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Saunders (00:01):
Today we have an awesome episode ready for you
.
We're talking to a LinkedInexpert, Beverly Smith.
She's going to help youunderstand how LinkedIn can help
your online business grow, withtips including why should we
use LinkedIn for our business,and many of the statistics she
gave me shocked me.
I was super excited to hearthese statistics.
(00:21):
Also, whether you should useyour personal profile or your
business profile when you're onLinkedIn, and the answer here
might surprise you as well.
How to maximize your LinkedInprofile.
She gives us great tips onactionable steps around how to
maximize your LinkedIn profilethat I'm definitely going to
revisit mine and review, andalso, finally, how to attract
(00:44):
your ideal client on LinkedIn.
This episode is so jam-packedwith great nuggets you're going
to want to listen to it andlikely come back and listen
again with pen and paper, solet's dive right in.
Welcome to the eCommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
(01:04):
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry,
and even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place, so sit back, relax
(01:30):
and let's dive into the worldof e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the e-commercemade easy podcast.
Today, we have a special guestthat I met this past year and
her name is Beverly Smith.
She's an expert in LinkedIn andwe're going to be diving into
some great business tips foryour online business
entrepreneurs on how to utilizeLinkedIn to your best ability.
And first off, though, I wantto start off by giving you a
(01:53):
little bit of backgroundinformation about Beverly, so
I'm going to read her biobecause I don't have it
memorized, and so here we go.
Beverly Smith is the founder ofCareer Success Strategies,
which specializes in helpingsenior and executive
professionals with their resumes, linkedin branding and job
search strategies so they canland their career or their
(02:14):
dreams.
She is also a LinkedIn topvoice in job search strategies.
Beverly also uses her knowledgeand expertise to help business
owners establish themselves andtheir businesses on LinkedIn
through hands-on, one-on-onecoaching.
Known for building successfulbusinesses, she previously owned
a staffing and recruiting firm,which was selected the 2022
(02:37):
Arkansas SBA Women-OwnedBusiness of the Year and a
finalist for Arkansas businesspublishing group staffing
business of the year in 2021.
Beverly and her husband, michael, live on a farm in rural
Arkansas where they raisechickens and Berkshire pigs
using permaculture farmingmethods.
I had to read that one slowly.
(02:58):
She enjoys running, running,crocheting and spending time
with her family, and we aregoing to link to some ways to
connect with Beverly in the shownotes.
So be sure to check those outwherever you're listening or on
the eCommerce Made Easy podcastwebsite, and also stay tuned to
the end, because Beverly isgoing to share with us a special
(03:18):
discount on some of herservices.
If this sounds like somethingyou need help with, all right,
so welcome Beverly to ourpodcast.
Thank you so good to be herewith you, k.
Yeah, so a little background.
Beverly and I met via a mutualgroup.
We're in with Tracy Beavers, anonline group, and we've kind of
(03:39):
hit it off as friends sincethen.
She's got some great knowledge.
She's super helpful and alwayswilling to help out wherever she
can, so it's great to haveBeverly on our show today.
Awesome, I'm excited, yeah, solet's first get started with why
do you advocate that businessowners should build a presence
(03:59):
on LinkedIn?
I know some people arewondering is it worth my time to
build a business on LinkedInand build a business presence
there?
So can you go over some of thatfor us?
Bevery Smith (04:10):
Yeah, sure.
So I think it's common thatwhen we think of social media
and building a business, wethink of Facebook and Instagram
and probably Twitter and I X andsome of those more traditional
platforms, and we tend to thinkof LinkedIn as being, oh, it's
(04:31):
for job seekers and obviously,with my background in staffing
and now working to help peoplewith their job search and with
resumes, obviously it is areally good place for me to be,
but what I discovered is it's areally good place for business
owners to be in general.
Number one is there's like over7 million people on this
(04:52):
platform and I did a LinkedIntraining last week through
LinkedIn itself and they weresaying they were given the
statistic that there were 7million users.
I was like that is unreal andthey had just rolled over to 7
million.
So they were given thestatistic that there were 7
million users.
I was like that is unreal andthey had just rolled over to 7
million, so they were toutingthat.
So it's kind of cool, but ontop of that, so only 4% of
(05:15):
people, 4 to 5, I've heard twodifferent statistics, so we'll
just say 4 to 5% of people thatuse LinkedIn are what I would
call I don't want to say activeon the platform, but they are
the ones that are actuallyposting and putting out content.
So you have a wide openopportunity here on LinkedIn.
(05:41):
If only 4% are putting outcontent, you know, it's just
wide open.
I personally have found that thealgorithms are a lot better on
LinkedIn than anywhere else.
So when I post, my post islikely to live a little bit
longer and, depending on what itis, some posts get different
(06:03):
traction.
But I'm just checked mynotifications before we jumped
on and you know somebody hadcommented on a post I did like
three weeks ago, so I thoughtthat was kind of amazing and it
was something too that I noticedreally before I started really
studying LinkedIn is that youdid tend to get a little bit of
(06:24):
better traction with thealgorithm.
The other thing I will add hereis statistics show that your
average income for users ofFacebook and Instagram tends to
be in that 40 to 50 range 40 to50,000 a year range.
Instagram tends to be in that40 to 50 range, 40 to 50,000 a
(06:46):
year range.
Linkedin your users, youraverage income, tends to be 100K
plus, and so we're talkingabout people with money to spend
, and that is important whenwe're trying to sell things on
LinkedIn and to make a living,as we want to be targeting
people that can actually affordto buy our product.
So your audience is here, Iwould also say, too.
(07:13):
The other thing that I havefound is and I heard this too on
this training I did last weekLinkedIn users come to the
platform to learn, so it is agreat place to share your
expertise, to educate youraudience, to talk about what it
is you do with your products oryour services, and not
(07:38):
necessarily, as you know and youand I have been in the same
group with Tracy it's not likeyou're sell, sell, sell, but
you're putting out content thatis educational and informative,
and people actually want to seethat stuff on LinkedIn, and you
very rarely see a lot ofpersonal things, but it is more
(08:01):
educational, more businessoriented.
That being said, it is some ofmy personal content that does
very well, and so what's kind ofneat about LinkedIn is you can
mix that in.
People like to see that behindthe scenes, they like to know
that I'm on the farm.
Some of my farm posts get great, great pictures.
(08:22):
Matter, are you still there?
Carrie Saunders (08:24):
I'm still here.
Okay, good, we you're locked upfor a second sorry about that.
Bevery Smith (08:29):
so I was.
What I was saying is, um, oneof one of my posts that I just
checked on that did so well, waswhen I did a few about two or
three weeks ago, and it was thepost of our new berkshire
Piglets.
They like to know that behindthe scene, you know what's going
on in your life and what's coolis you could take those behind
(08:51):
the scenes stuff and you can.
If you formulate your contentright, you can always tie it
back to business in some way.
So it's just a great place tobe and I think, even if you
still are going to put all yourweight into Facebook, you really
are doing yourself a disserviceif you don't build on LinkedIn
(09:13):
as well, and LinkedIn is prettyeasy to build on, which I'm sure
we'll touch on later.
Carrie Saunders (09:21):
Wow, actually, I'm actually shocked by some of
those statistics and it's makingme.
I do post on LinkedIn,obviously for our business, but
it's making me think, wow, Ikind of really need to focus on
that one a bit more thanFacebook, cause we tend to work
with the business owners and thepeople who have, you know, the
money to invest in their websiteand in our businesses and I'm
(09:42):
thinking, wow, I'm I, wow, I'mkind of treating LinkedIn as
kind of like a side thing.
Like you know, I do it, butit's not like where I'm really
focusing on and I think you'vejust changed my mind.
I'm going to focus on it a lotmore.
That, just it totally makessense.
I agree, I originally had in mybrain that LinkedIn was mostly
(10:03):
for job searching and thingslike that, but I have actually
reconnected with some olderclients that used to use the
software that we build with andyou know, maybe seven, eight
years me.
They thought, oh, we reallyenjoyed working with pieces
engineering.
Maybe they can help us withthis new business that they're
working for via linkedin to howthey connected to me, because
(10:32):
that's just what they knew to doand we connected on linkedin
before he left that company weworked with him with.
So yeah, I yeah, I, I need tofocus on linkedin more Yay.
Bevery Smith (10:44):
So, top of mind too, I mean, had you not been
posting on LinkedIn and thingslike that, or not even just even
you know, making it a littlebit of an afterthought you
probably wouldn't have foundthem.
So this could be opening updoors.
So, and we'll talk a little bittoo, I'm sure, later about
(11:04):
building an audience as well.
Carrie Saunders (11:08):
Yeah, that's a great point.
All right, so this is, I know,something that's super confusing
for a lot of people, whether Imean, I know people ask these
questions a lot on Facebook andthey also ask it on LinkedIn,
but should business ownerspromote their business through
their personal profile orthrough their business profile,
and what's the advantages?
Bevery Smith (11:27):
Yes, okay.
So the short answer is both.
The simple answer, though,carrie, is you want to do it
through your personal profile.
People want to connect withpeople, and they're more likely
to engage with you, a person,versus you, your business.
(11:48):
So, that being said, I wouldstill tell you, at the very
least you need to create abusiness page.
So like when you go to theexperience section on your
profile and you put in your workhistory Well, if your business
(12:10):
or the company that you'veworked for previously is on
LinkedIn, it will give you theopportunity to select that
company and link you up to it,which hence the name LinkedIn.
And so it's kind of neat,because if you don't have it
there, it's just going to be agrayed out little icon, and it's
not very attractive.
(12:31):
And if you will, at the veryleast it's so easy to do create
a business profile, put yourlogo up there and just put in
the basic information.
It's social proof.
So when they go to your pay, orwhen they go to your profile
(12:52):
and they see, they go, scrolldown to your experience section
and they're looking.
And especially, you know, ifyou're just getting into
business too, this is going togive you some credibility.
You're not going to look likefly by night.
Oh, you know, we're not reallysure about her.
You know it looks like she'shad all these jobs.
Is she really in business?
Is this a side hustle?
(13:12):
And here's the deal.
There's a lot of people onLinkedIn with side hustles, and
that is great.
And if you're listening to thisand this is a side hustle for
you, that is great.
You still need to be here, andI am.
I guess what I'm saying is thisis for both whether you are a
side hustle or whether this isyour full-time gig.
You need a business page.
(13:34):
So just for that social proof.
And secondly, you're going topost primarily from your
personal page.
You're going to post primarilyfrom your personal page, but you
can definitely use that contentover on your business page as
(13:54):
well.
And like what I would tell you,just getting started, on your
business page, you know there'sa place for you to put in your
website and any other contactinformation that you want to
give out.
I just wouldn't overthink it atthe time.
And if you don't feel likeposting over there, you know, at
least put some basicinformation about this business.
But you can definitely takeposts that are doing well on
(14:24):
your personal profile and thengo post them over there.
So if you were to go back overto career success strategies, my
page you'll see I try to posttwo or three times a week over
there, you know, but it's not abig strategy.
Where it's going to be importantis, let's's say, down the road.
(14:45):
I do all my live streamsthrough my personal profile
right now, but let's say thatdown the road.
For whatever reason and there'sa couple of people I follow
that actually got their start inthe e-commerce business,
actually got their start in thee-commerce business and she has
(15:06):
built up her business pageenough that she can do her live
streams through her businesspage and she has reasons for
wanting to do that.
I think there's a little bitbetter reach maybe there to
others, but again, you'll needto be established to do that.
(15:26):
So in order to be established,you got to start somewhere.
So do it now, focus on yourprofile and then, you know, put
some content over there when youcan.
Carrie Saunders (15:37):
I know one thing I do to try to get a bit
more reach on my business pageon LinkedIn is I will share a
post from my business page to mypersonal.
That way people can see likethe connection there.
Is that something a good ideato do occasionally?
I?
Bevery Smith (15:53):
think it's a great idea.
And the other thing too is onyour business page you can go
and invite people to follow you.
Very much like the Facebooksituation.
And you know you mentionedFacebook.
It's kind of I think it's aLinkedIn business page is
probably a little bit betterthan a Facebook business pages
(16:13):
right now.
But if you remember a few yearsback on Facebook, it was like
you better have a Facebookbusiness page, kind of for the
same reason, that whole socialproof thing.
But yeah, I really do like thatand I use that same strategy
with my Facebook business pageas well, as I'll take whatever I
(16:33):
post over there and I'll postit over to my personal page and
you can even go vice versa aswell on that.
Carrie Saunders (16:43):
Yeah, I know I like to try to speaking of the
being able to invite to to yourpage on LinkedIn.
I try to, once a month, utilizethat because you can invite up
to 250 people on your freeLinkedIn, if I remember right.
So I try to, at least once amonth, invite 40 to 50 of my new
connections.
At least once a month, invite40 to 50 of my new connections
(17:04):
right, and a lot of them willaccept it.
So I feel like it's good topromote both, because I do agree
, you're going to get differentreach from each side, sure?
Bevery Smith (17:10):
sure, and I also think too, if I remember
correctly, if the people oncethey accept, um, that gives you
more credits back, um, so, um,you can continue.
You might, you might check.
But I think I really likedsomething.
You said you do that once amonth.
So I think if you just put onyour calendar, I was like this
is going to be a monthly dutythat I do and I'm going to
(17:32):
invite it, then you know it'sgetting done and um, then you
don't have to worry about youknow it taking up a lot of your
time or anything like that.
Carrie Saunders (17:43):
Yeah, I tend to do it on a once a month on a
Friday late in the afternoon,when I'm kind of brain dead,
don't want to think too much.
I can just click that buttonand start inviting people.
Good idea, right?
Let's jump on to the nextquestion that we have.
So I know, when people arestarting out on LinkedIn and
they may already have a LinkedInprofile or they, you know,
(18:04):
might decide after this podcastinterview to create one what are
the most important pieces of aLinkedIn profile that a business
owner should complete to makesure they have credibility and
are standing out, and thingslike that?
Bevery Smith (18:18):
Sure, I think this is a good question because I
think when you go to yourLinkedIn profile, there's
obviously a lot there for jobseekers as well, and you don't
need to get lost in that rabbithole.
So, as a business owner numberone, your profile picture this
is extremely important.
This does not need to be aselfie.
(18:41):
Please don't take this in yourcar.
Don't take this and cut yourspouse out of the side or your
frat buddy or whatever.
You know whoever you'restanding at.
Don't wear your tux either ifit's your wedding picture.
You know this needs to be aprofessional headshot and you
(19:04):
know it's so easy to get onedone and just invest in that.
Just know that that is aninvestment.
I know for me personally andhere's a tip that I would
encourage people to do is builda relationship with a
photographer friend.
Mine is a running buddy of minewho is a school teacher, and
(19:26):
her side hustle is herphotography business, and I,
once a year, get not just aheadshot, but I get just a
series of pictures that I canuse in creating my content,
series of pictures that I canuse in creating my content, and
(19:46):
so it is the best money that Ispend because it makes it easy
for content creation and thatkind of thing as well.
So, number one, your profilepicture.
Number two would be yourheadline.
So that is the little verbiagethat is below your profile
picture.
It is automatically going todefault to your most recent
position unless you change it.
(20:07):
So real easy to change.
Real important that yourheadline be attention grabbing.
So this is where I think someof the stuff that you and I
learned in Tracy's class is veryhelpful.
But you want to think about um,you want to think about things
(20:33):
that is going to be eye catchingabout your business, and so if
I were you, I would researchother business owners that are
on the platform and look attheirs, because I advise
business owners to do thisdifferently.
Versus a job seeker.
For a job seeker, these arekeywords that are searchable, so
(20:56):
you may want to have somekeywords in this as well, but
you know, founder at BCSEngineering, I probably wouldn't
start my headline off with that.
I want something more attentiongrabbing than that, Like, what
problem do you solve?
And make it interesting, andy'all, I've seen some really
(21:17):
cool ones, because I invested ina course that I took with lead
generation on LinkedIn and theycan be really neat.
So what's interesting and Iknow we're going to talk a
little bit about this down theroad but when you're in your
feed and you are looking atcomments to somebody's post,
(21:39):
that headline not all of it isthere, but the first line of it
is pretty much there.
So if it says something like10X your sales, I'm going to be
going okay, I haven't known moreand I'm probably going to click
on that person's profile justto see who this is and what
(21:59):
they're 10xing and how they canhelp me 10x this or that.
So just keep that in mind.
So headline is number two.
Number three is your coverphoto.
So that's that long photoacross the top.
Do not leave it the LinkedIndefault and do not leave it the
LinkedIn default.
This is a wonderful piece ofreal estate for you to tell a
(22:24):
little bit more about what youdo and who you are, who you
serve.
Don't put too many words in it,though, because if it's too
wordy, first of all, if you'rescrolling on the phone, it's
going to be hard to read, so youwant to keep it really simple.
(22:45):
You also want to make sure thatwhen you set it up, you want to
check and see how it does lookon your phone, because your
profile picture might cover upparts of your work.
So be careful when you createthis, and you can make these
very easily in Canva.
Canva has the right dimensionsfor you.
(23:06):
Also, LinkedIn has some defaultones, but I wouldn't recommend
them.
I would say you know this isagain.
This is an opportunity to tellwho you are.
You can put your contactinformation.
The only thing about theLinkedIn cover photos is they're
not clickable.
So, unlike like Facebook, ifyou click on it and it pulls up
something you know, likeinformation about the picture,
(23:27):
it's not like that.
And if you change yours onFacebook regularly, it's going
to show up in your feed that youchanged it.
This one's not like that, but Iwould still recommend updating
it.
But I would still recommendupdating it.
Some people say quarterly.
I don't know that.
I would say that often.
Do it if your business changes.
(23:50):
Do it just every once in awhile just to refresh.
But that would be my third one.
And then the fourth thing is docomplete your about section If
you don't do anything else.
I mean, I do feel like you needto have some experience in
there, but click that aboutsection Again.
The first few lines are goingto be visible on your profile
(24:13):
and then they'll have to clicksee more.
So make sure whatever you putis not.
You know I started out doingthis and then I started doing
this and then I helped this.
You want to talk about a painpoints that you solve and you
want to be really appealing.
Again, you know, it's kind oflike that 10X, your sales kind
(24:36):
of thing.
You want to talk about aproblem that you solve and how
you can fix it.
So, if y'all want, go look atmy about section for ideas.
Great place to put in emojis,though you can't.
You're going to have to copyand paste them in.
You can't just like type themas you go.
So, but definitely you want tobreak up that text, make it easy
(25:01):
to read, and those are probablythe main things.
So, again, profile picture,headline cover photo and about
section, and I put them in orderthere, but honestly, you need
all four of them Absolutely.
Carrie Saunders (25:16):
I would agree with that.
And actually now, now I'mlooking at mine over here on my
other screen and I was like,well, I have more than just
partner business engineering.
But that's the first thing andyou had made a really good point
that I didn't really even thinkabout that.
When you're commenting onsomebody, you do see that that
starting of their line mine,because it's better than than I
(25:38):
would say it was maybe a year ortwo ago.
But now I want to rewrite itbecause I'm like I can.
Bevery Smith (25:43):
I can optimize this one even better absolutely,
and I just rewrote mine aboutthree weeks ago, so this is
something I would tell theaudience as well as let this one
evolve as your business evolves, as you get better especially
like, if copywriting is not yourthing, you know, play with it.
And as you explore, keep aswipe file of ones that you like
(26:08):
and just use those forinspiration as well.
Carrie Saunders (26:13):
That's a good idea, All right.
So next, here's something Iknow I struggle with.
So how do you find the right,how do you find the clients,
Like, how do you find your ideal, the right clients on LinkedIn?
I struggle with this Sometimes.
Sometimes it's a hit, Sometimesit's a miss it you know how
could I do this better?
Bevery Smith (26:30):
Yeah, definitely.
You need to first of all be veryclear on who it is you're
looking for, because if you'rejust going out there targeting
everybody, it's not going to beworth your time, and so I'm
going to make the assumptionthat our audience that's
listening to us knows who theirideal client is and already
(26:53):
speaks to them.
So if you're doing that, thenthis makes the step a whole lot
easier.
So you want to strategicallyconnect with people that are
your ideal client.
Let me kind of back up and sayif you're new to LinkedIn and
you're going to go and build aprofile after listening to this
(27:15):
podcast, then connect with thepeople that you know in real
life.
I mean connect with everybodyyou know in real life.
Just to start buildingconnections.
You want to make sure thatyou've got over 500 connections
at least to start getting somevisibility, and honestly I would
try to inch that up towards athousand, but I'm going to stay.
(27:39):
Once you connect to all yourreal life people, start
strategically connecting withpeople and don't connect with
people that are not your idealclient.
Do that strategically.
I mean, there's going to betimes where like for example,
(27:59):
for me, I'm very selective onwhat resume writers I connect
with.
I initially connected to awhole bunch of them, but then
that was all that was showing upin my feed.
And then what I have found is,when I'm very strategic about
who I connect with, linkedinstarts serving me up more of
those people.
Here's someone based on yourother connections that you might
(28:21):
be interested in connectingwith, and so when you go to that
my Network button, you aregoing to have the opportunity to
connect with people from yourschool, which I would definitely
go through and give those alook over and see if any of
those make sense for you toconnect with.
(28:41):
They're going to have peoplefrom your community and then
there will be influencers foryou to connect with and things
like that.
So one of the things that I dois sometimes there's people that
I'm interested in like I'minterested in because I want to
see their content and thingslike that I follow them instead
of send them a connectionrequest.
(29:03):
So you can always do that andthey may come back and send you
a connection request and that'scool.
Then you can decide and justbecause somebody sends you a
connection request, if it doesnot make sense, don't connect
with them.
I mean, it's not a popularitycontest.
You're not going to hurtanyone's feelings if you never
connect with them.
(29:25):
Another thing that's realimportant when you're sending
out your connections, reallystudy their profile and so you
can go to their activity andlook and see and it may say you
know, mary Jane has not postedrecently.
Okay, fine, I'm still going toconnect on that activity or
(29:46):
click on that activity because Iwant to look over and they'll
say posts, comments, reactionsor maybe a few more, depending
on how active they are on theplatform.
I always go to that reactionsbutton.
If Mary Jane is liking people'sposts, she's reacting and so
(30:08):
that tells me and then I canlook and see how that post is
and get an idea.
So if she likes someone's postlast week, she's on the platform
.
If she likes someone's post twoyears ago, she's not on the
platform.
And the reason I tell you thisis depending on what version of
(30:28):
LinkedIn if you're paying forLinkedIn or if you are using the
free version you have a limiton your connections and you want
to be strategic on using those.
If you are using the freeversion I believe it is and I
was trying to.
Last I checked it was only 10.
(30:51):
You can send out up to 10messages with each connection a
month and I think you've gotsomething like 200 connections
that you can make.
So and that's fine, and you canstill connect without sending a
message and there's a goodchance people will connect back.
(31:13):
When they connect back, thenyou can message them and
LinkedIn doesn't dock you forthat and I would.
I would message them and saythank you for accepting my
connection request.
I noticed that we both attended,you know, arkansas State
University and you knowsomething like that.
You know Arkansas StateUniversity and, um, uh, you know
(31:35):
, um, something like that.
You know just something toengage them or you can ask them
a question.
If it's especially, you know,if it's relative, don't go into
cell mode.
But here's something that Ilearned very recently and some
training I did and I thought wasgenius by engaging with them in
those direct messages, they'remore likely to see your posts in
(32:00):
the feed, in their feed.
So that's really cool.
So you want to do that, youalso.
The other thing is, if anybodycomments on your posts, you
always, always want to respondto them and if you can keep the
conversation going and you cankeep it going with asking them a
question back, make sure thatyour posts have some sort of CTA
(32:21):
that gets them to take anaction, and it doesn't have to
be by my thing, it can just bedrop a heart in the comments.
I see Mel Robbins doing thisall the time.
It'll be like drop a heart inthe comments.
I see Mel Robbins doing thisall the time.
It'll be like drop a heart inthe comments.
Another way to find your peopleis go to influencers like a Mel
Robbins.
If your audience is followingher, go there and interact with
(32:47):
her posts.
You know, leave comments I get.
When I do that, I will all thetime get people that want to
connect with me because I'm afellow follower and things like
that, and so it's a greatstrategy to go and look for that
.
And as you begin to grow yournetwork and you're engaging with
(33:09):
the comments in your feed, youcan look at people that are
responding to other posts andmaybe they're a second degree or
a third degree connection.
Then they might be your idealaudience too, and so that's when
you can go and you can haveconversations with them.
(33:29):
You can send them a connectionrequest and then again, when
they respond back and say, hey,I really liked the post, I
really like what you had to sayon such and such as post, that
was really interesting.
So that's just some of the waysthat I use to develop my
audience.
I strategically connect withpeople weekly.
(33:53):
I try to do it daily butsometimes it just doesn't work
out for me to do that.
But I strategically connectweekly.
It's not, like I said, apopularity contest, so I'm not
trying to blow up the number ofmy connections.
It's more important for you tohave 500 highly engaged,
targeted connections than it isto have 500,000 people that
(34:15):
could care less who you are.
Carrie Saunders (34:18):
I totally agree with that.
I actually really love that.
I think this is thisconversation is really making me
want to make it a habit onFridays to really connect with
people.
I feel like that's something Ican do weekly, so that's why I
picked Fridays.
So I feel like Fridays aregoing to be my social media day,
particularly for LinkedIn.
I'm going to focus on it more.
I'm going to.
I love your strategies on howto find the perfect person
(34:41):
because you know we work withspecific shopping cart platforms
and with WordPress, sosometimes that's a hard thing to
search.
So kind of our niche is whatthey use, not necessarily what
they sell.
So that's a little bit hardersometimes to find the right
people, but I feel like if I'mstrategic about making sure that
I'm doing these connectionsregularly whether that's weekly
(35:03):
for me or monthly for somepeople, depending upon where
they are in their businessmaking sure you have that you
want to always be growing youraudience because you never know
who is going to be on your newconnection list and you never
know who who you might'veconnected with, who they know
that might actually need whatyou have.
It may not be them that needsit.
You know there's such.
I've found that if there's somesomething that draws me to
(35:25):
somebody and I feel engaged withthem and I want to have
conversations with it, many,many times it's because they
know somebody that that would,that would work well with me, or
or I can learn from them.
Could be either way, but I findfollowing your gut on who to
connect with is is honestly areally good idea too.
Bevery Smith (35:44):
Yeah, you know.
It's.
Something else too I think isreally important is when you are
in your feed and you're lookinglike.
So you may have a post show upin your feed that I commented on
, and it may be nobody that youknow, but what it's going to
(36:08):
show up is at the top, as youscroll through your feed.
At the top it's going to sayBeverly Smith commented on this
and or like this, and then thatcan trigger you to go oh, I know
Beverly, I'm going to go andsee what she had to say, and you
could scroll down and then youknow, maybe it's a post that has
(36:30):
20 or 30 comments.
Well, my goodness, that couldbe a whole new world for you to
go in and look at and say, maybeyou know, let me look at these
people.
So there's going to be.
It can be a little bit of astrategy, it can be a little bit
of time to do this, but I thinkonce you kind of get in the
(36:53):
habit of doing that, and also,too, the more you strategically
select who you're going tofollow or who you're going to
connect with, and the more youstrategically comment on posts
and things like that and engagewith it, then LinkedIn's
(37:13):
algorithms are going tounderstand what content you want
to see in your feed.
So one other tidbit I will addfor your audience is before you
post, make sure that you do whatI call priming the algorithm.
And the way you do that is youjust go strategically and engage
(37:33):
with the posts that are in yourfeed and what you're doing is
you're letting LinkedIn know I'mhere, I'm here, I'm not just
scheduled and this is justcontent that's going out and
whatever, whatever.
But LinkedIn knows that you'rea real person, you're really
here, you're on the platform,you're using the platform and
guess what?
They're more likely to boostyour post up to where it's going
(37:57):
to get seen more and to thesame point, don't jump off as
soon as you post it either.
So make that time that you post,give yourself a five minute
before and a five minute afterto stay on and engage with,
because if anybody startscommenting, you want to make
sure you comment right away andlet them know that, hey, I'm
(38:18):
here and you're letting LinkedInknow, and then you're more
likely to have to continue thepattern, like it's going to keep
your posts more engaged thatmuch longer.
So, real important.
Linkedin also does not like foryou to schedule, use a
third-party scheduler, butLinkedIn has its own scheduler.
So there's going to be timesthat I will go ahead and
(38:42):
schedule posts and try to comeback and engage, but if I can't,
I'm just like, okay, whatever,I don't for this time.
But most of the time I postmine, I have my content created.
I create it well in advance,and then I just go grab it out
of my project manager and put itin LinkedIn and then I'm there
(39:02):
and ready to go.
Carrie Saunders (39:03):
So just I actually really liked that last
tip, where you've already got itpre-planned.
You've, you know, kind ofblocked your time, probably to
create these posts ahead of timeso that you're not worried
about interacting.
And then what am I going to say?
And then interacting again.
You made you've just made yourtime so much more efficient
doing that, so I feel likethat's a really good time.
(39:23):
Efficiency too, and usingsocial media.
Bevery Smith (39:26):
I'm going to add one more thing about LinkedIn.
What's really cool is like okay, as opposed to Instagram, if
you go to someone's profile,like, you can really see all
their content, just if you justkeep scrolling.
You can do that on LinkedIn.
It's a pain in the rear to goback and you're never going to
go back on someone's feed orsomeone's activity post and go
(39:49):
back six or seven months and see, oh, did they repost this?
Is this something they've saidbefore?
So don't be afraid to recycleyour stuff and I think a
six-month timeframe is probablymore than you need, but it's a
good safety bet and you couldjust, you know, create content
for six months and then comeback and start reposting and,
(40:14):
and, and you may find too, asyou grow in your creation and
things like that, you're goingto probably tweak it just a
little bit, but I mean, you canuse the same image and
everything, and they're notgoing to know.
Carrie Saunders (40:28):
They're just not going to know that's a
really good point because I knewthat, I knew it would be hard
to like, go and see, like yourold posts, but I didn't really
think about it and that it'skind of a pain to be able to try
to find your old post, but Ididn't think about it as the
advantage, as the creator, thatyou can more easily and more
comfortably reuse your posts,because people aren't going to
(40:48):
remember three, four, five, sixor so months ago what you posted
.
It actually might just, youknow, subconsciously trigger oh
yeah, I was thinking about thatand I did want to act upon that,
and now I will because it wasalready subconsciously my brain
from a previous post, you know,months, months ago.
Yeah, I would also add to thatas well.
Bevery Smith (41:07):
If you're strategically connecting with
new people, every week you'vegot a whole new audience that
never saw your stuff six monthsago.
That's going to be seeing itand so and the better you get at
that, the more true that'sgoing to be.
Is that these people becausemaybe you've been DMing them and
(41:27):
things like that they're morelikely to do to see those things
.
So, and you can also repost ifyou have a post that does really
good, you can repost that aswell.
I see people doing that all thetime.
Carrie Saunders (41:43):
That's great.
So these have been some greattips, beverly.
I mean, I just I want tore-listen to this honestly and I
will, and you know, write downsome notes for myself, because I
just feel like I've been underutilizing LinkedIn for years now
and this is just going toreally help me.
I'm just so excited.
(42:03):
All right, so let's, I want youto share with us some great
ways to connect with you, incase people want to learn more
about you, and just so everybodyknows too, any links that she
says we're going to put in theshow notes too, so it's a bit
easier.
But go ahead and let us knowhow do we connect with you more?
Bevery Smith (42:20):
Sure, sure.
So obviously, linkedin isprobably the best place to find
me.
If you want to follow me onsocial and I'm actually Beverly
D Smith is my full link on there, though it does not say there's
not the D in the actual like onmy name on my profile.
(42:41):
So, and that is the best way onFacebook I have a business page
called Career SuccessStrategies and you can follow me
there Also.
My website is cssarcom.
It's kind of nothing fancy.
I actually converted my websiteover from my staffing business
(43:07):
was Career Staffing Services, soit was the same URL, so I just
converted it.
This was career staffingservices, so it was the same URL
, so I just converted it over,since I knew people already know
that and I just haven't donetoo much with my website right
now.
And if you want to email me,it's Beverly at CSSARcom.
Carrie Saunders (43:29):
Great, and then .
So Beverly has a special umoffer for any listeners too, if
you want to take advantage ofsome of our services.
So let us know about that,beverly okay.
Bevery Smith (43:40):
So this has been so interesting because I have
had several of my my circle offriends and connections reach
out to me and say, okay, whatare you doing on LinkedIn and
can you help me?
So I'm like, okay, let's justcreate a package for them.
So my package typically runs675 and you get three hours of
(44:03):
one-to-one coaching.
During that time and where wehelp you with setting up your
profile, we talk about all thesestrategies that we've talked
about.
I hope you build your audience,teaching you how to engage with
it, get your business page setup and basically I teach you how
to do these things and recordthe sessions and stuff like that
(44:24):
.
And so, for your listeners, ify'all will reach out to me and
tell me you found me on Carrie'spodcast, then I will give you
$100 off that session and wouldlove to help other people get
involved on this platformbecause it's such a beneficial
tool.
It's just really been obviouslyhuge for my business.
(44:48):
And I know some of you may besaying again well, you're in the
careers industry.
That makes sense.
I'm telling you I have workedwith, I took a, I took a, I
invested heavily in a lead.
Very few of them were in thecareers industry.
There was a lot of e-commercepeople, a lot of people in
direct sales that are using it.
(45:09):
It's a great platform and myclients that are business owners
that are working with me are inreal estate and insurance
currently.
So, yeah, just come wide open.
Carrie Saunders (45:27):
That's great.
Thank you so much, Beverly, forbeing on our show.
I'm super excited to take someaction steps with many of the
things you shared with us todayand I really appreciate you
coming on.
Bevery Smith (45:38):
Thank you for having me.
Keri Enjoyed it.
Carrie Saunders (45:40):
You're very welcome.
Well, I will see you moreonline, all right.
So wasn't that such a greatepisode?
I know I learned a ton from itand will be re-listening to it
and making notes myself.
Beverly really gave us somegreat tips on how to connect
them all together to reallymaximize our reach and
visibility on LinkedIn and makeit effective for us.
(46:02):
Be sure to visit our show noteswherever you're listening on
our podcast, or you can visitour podcast website at
ecommercemadeeasy easypodcastcom.
Forward slash 56 for thisspecific episode.
If you're watching on theYouTube channel, make sure you
hit that subscribe button and ifyou're listening on the podcast
, hit that follow buttonwherever you're listening.
And if you're loving mye-commerce made easy podcast,
(46:24):
I'd be thrilled if you'd rate usand review us on our Apple
podcast link.
Your readings and reviews helpme reach more listeners, just
like you, and empower morepeople.
Thrive in the online businessworld.
Thank you again for listeningand we will see you next week.
Today we have an awesome episode ready for you
.
We're talking to a LinkedInexpert, Beverly Smith.
She's going to help youunderstand how LinkedIn can help
your online business grow, withtips including why should we
use LinkedIn for our business,and many of the statistics she
gave me shocked me.
I was super excited to hearthese statistics.
(00:21):
Also, whether you should useyour personal profile or your
business profile when you're onLinkedIn, and the answer here
might surprise you as well.
How to maximize your LinkedInprofile.
She gives us great tips onactionable steps around how to
maximize your LinkedIn profilethat I'm definitely going to
revisit mine and review, andalso, finally, how to attract
(00:44):
your ideal client on LinkedIn.
This episode is so jam-packedwith great nuggets you're going
to want to listen to it andlikely come back and listen
again with pen and paper, solet's dive right in.
Welcome to the eCommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
(01:04):
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry,
and even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place, so sit back, relax
(01:30):
and let's dive into the worldof e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the e-commercemade easy podcast.
Today, we have a special guestthat I met this past year and
her name is Beverly Smith.
She's an expert in LinkedIn andwe're going to be diving into
some great business tips foryour online business
entrepreneurs on how to utilizeLinkedIn to your best ability.
And first off, though, I wantto start off by giving you a
(01:53):
little bit of backgroundinformation about Beverly, so
I'm going to read her biobecause I don't have it
memorized, and so here we go.
Beverly Smith is the founder ofCareer Success Strategies,
which specializes in helpingsenior and executive
professionals with their resumes, linkedin branding and job
search strategies so they canland their career or their
(02:14):
dreams.
She is also a LinkedIn topvoice in job search strategies.
Beverly also uses her knowledgeand expertise to help business
owners establish themselves andtheir businesses on LinkedIn
through hands-on, one-on-onecoaching.
Known for building successfulbusinesses, she previously owned
a staffing and recruiting firm,which was selected the 2022
(02:37):
Arkansas SBA Women-OwnedBusiness of the Year and a
finalist for Arkansas businesspublishing group staffing
business of the year in 2021.
Beverly and her husband, michael, live on a farm in rural
Arkansas where they raisechickens and Berkshire pigs
using permaculture farmingmethods.
I had to read that one slowly.
(02:58):
She enjoys running, running,crocheting and spending time
with her family, and we aregoing to link to some ways to
connect with Beverly in the shownotes.
So be sure to check those outwherever you're listening or on
the eCommerce Made Easy podcastwebsite, and also stay tuned to
the end, because Beverly isgoing to share with us a special
(03:18):
discount on some of herservices.
If this sounds like somethingyou need help with, all right,
so welcome Beverly to ourpodcast.
Thank you so good to be herewith you, k.
Yeah, so a little background.
Beverly and I met via a mutualgroup.
We're in with Tracy Beavers, anonline group, and we've kind of
(03:39):
hit it off as friends sincethen.
She's got some great knowledge.
She's super helpful and alwayswilling to help out wherever she
can, so it's great to haveBeverly on our show today.
Awesome, I'm excited, yeah, solet's first get started with why
do you advocate that businessowners should build a presence
(03:59):
on LinkedIn?
I know some people arewondering is it worth my time to
build a business on LinkedInand build a business presence
there?
So can you go over some of thatfor us?
Bevery Smith (04:10):
Yeah, sure.
So I think it's common thatwhen we think of social media
and building a business, wethink of Facebook and Instagram
and probably Twitter and I X andsome of those more traditional
platforms, and we tend to thinkof LinkedIn as being, oh, it's
(04:31):
for job seekers and obviously,with my background in staffing
and now working to help peoplewith their job search and with
resumes, obviously it is areally good place for me to be,
but what I discovered is it's areally good place for business
owners to be in general.
Number one is there's like over7 million people on this
(04:52):
platform and I did a LinkedIntraining last week through
LinkedIn itself and they weresaying they were given the
statistic that there were 7million users.
I was like that is unreal andthey had just rolled over to 7
million.
So they were given thestatistic that there were 7
million users.
I was like that is unreal andthey had just rolled over to 7
million, so they were toutingthat.
So it's kind of cool, but ontop of that, so only 4% of
(05:15):
people, 4 to 5, I've heard twodifferent statistics, so we'll
just say 4 to 5% of people thatuse LinkedIn are what I would
call I don't want to say activeon the platform, but they are
the ones that are actuallyposting and putting out content.
So you have a wide openopportunity here on LinkedIn.
(05:41):
If only 4% are putting outcontent, you know, it's just
wide open.
I personally have found that thealgorithms are a lot better on
LinkedIn than anywhere else.
So when I post, my post islikely to live a little bit
longer and, depending on what itis, some posts get different
(06:03):
traction.
But I'm just checked mynotifications before we jumped
on and you know somebody hadcommented on a post I did like
three weeks ago, so I thoughtthat was kind of amazing and it
was something too that I noticedreally before I started really
studying LinkedIn is that youdid tend to get a little bit of
(06:24):
better traction with thealgorithm.
The other thing I will add hereis statistics show that your
average income for users ofFacebook and Instagram tends to
be in that 40 to 50 range 40 to50,000 a year range.
Instagram tends to be in that40 to 50 range, 40 to 50,000 a
(06:46):
year range.
Linkedin your users, youraverage income, tends to be 100K
plus, and so we're talkingabout people with money to spend
, and that is important whenwe're trying to sell things on
LinkedIn and to make a living,as we want to be targeting
people that can actually affordto buy our product.
So your audience is here, Iwould also say, too.
(07:13):
The other thing that I havefound is and I heard this too on
this training I did last weekLinkedIn users come to the
platform to learn, so it is agreat place to share your
expertise, to educate youraudience, to talk about what it
is you do with your products oryour services, and not
(07:38):
necessarily, as you know and youand I have been in the same
group with Tracy it's not likeyou're sell, sell, sell, but
you're putting out content thatis educational and informative,
and people actually want to seethat stuff on LinkedIn, and you
very rarely see a lot ofpersonal things, but it is more
(08:01):
educational, more businessoriented.
That being said, it is some ofmy personal content that does
very well, and so what's kind ofneat about LinkedIn is you can
mix that in.
People like to see that behindthe scenes, they like to know
that I'm on the farm.
Some of my farm posts get great, great pictures.
(08:22):
Matter, are you still there?
Carrie Saunders (08:24):
I'm still here.
Okay, good, we you're locked upfor a second sorry about that.
Bevery Smith (08:29):
so I was.
What I was saying is, um, oneof one of my posts that I just
checked on that did so well, waswhen I did a few about two or
three weeks ago, and it was thepost of our new berkshire
Piglets.
They like to know that behindthe scene, you know what's going
on in your life and what's coolis you could take those behind
(08:51):
the scenes stuff and you can.
If you formulate your contentright, you can always tie it
back to business in some way.
So it's just a great place tobe and I think, even if you
still are going to put all yourweight into Facebook, you really
are doing yourself a disserviceif you don't build on LinkedIn
(09:13):
as well, and LinkedIn is prettyeasy to build on, which I'm sure
we'll touch on later.
Carrie Saunders (09:21):
Wow, actually, I'm actually shocked by some of
those statistics and it's makingme.
I do post on LinkedIn,obviously for our business, but
it's making me think, wow, Ikind of really need to focus on
that one a bit more thanFacebook, cause we tend to work
with the business owners and thepeople who have, you know, the
money to invest in their websiteand in our businesses and I'm
(09:42):
thinking, wow, I'm I, wow, I'mkind of treating LinkedIn as
kind of like a side thing.
Like you know, I do it, butit's not like where I'm really
focusing on and I think you'vejust changed my mind.
I'm going to focus on it a lotmore.
That, just it totally makessense.
I agree, I originally had in mybrain that LinkedIn was mostly
(10:03):
for job searching and thingslike that, but I have actually
reconnected with some olderclients that used to use the
software that we build with andyou know, maybe seven, eight
years me.
They thought, oh, we reallyenjoyed working with pieces
engineering.
Maybe they can help us withthis new business that they're
working for via linkedin to howthey connected to me, because
(10:32):
that's just what they knew to doand we connected on linkedin
before he left that company weworked with him with.
So yeah, I yeah, I, I need tofocus on linkedin more Yay.
Bevery Smith (10:44):
So, top of mind too, I mean, had you not been
posting on LinkedIn and thingslike that, or not even just even
you know, making it a littlebit of an afterthought you
probably wouldn't have foundthem.
So this could be opening updoors.
So, and we'll talk a little bittoo, I'm sure, later about
(11:04):
building an audience as well.
Carrie Saunders (11:08):
Yeah, that's a great point.
All right, so this is, I know,something that's super confusing
for a lot of people, whether Imean, I know people ask these
questions a lot on Facebook andthey also ask it on LinkedIn,
but should business ownerspromote their business through
their personal profile orthrough their business profile,
and what's the advantages?
Bevery Smith (11:27):
Yes, okay.
So the short answer is both.
The simple answer, though,carrie, is you want to do it
through your personal profile.
People want to connect withpeople, and they're more likely
to engage with you, a person,versus you, your business.
(11:48):
So, that being said, I wouldstill tell you, at the very
least you need to create abusiness page.
So like when you go to theexperience section on your
profile and you put in your workhistory Well, if your business
(12:10):
or the company that you'veworked for previously is on
LinkedIn, it will give you theopportunity to select that
company and link you up to it,which hence the name LinkedIn.
And so it's kind of neat,because if you don't have it
there, it's just going to be agrayed out little icon, and it's
not very attractive.
(12:31):
And if you will, at the veryleast it's so easy to do create
a business profile, put yourlogo up there and just put in
the basic information.
It's social proof.
So when they go to your pay, orwhen they go to your profile
(12:52):
and they see, they go, scrolldown to your experience section
and they're looking.
And especially, you know, ifyou're just getting into
business too, this is going togive you some credibility.
You're not going to look likefly by night.
Oh, you know, we're not reallysure about her.
You know it looks like she'shad all these jobs.
Is she really in business?
Is this a side hustle?
(13:12):
And here's the deal.
There's a lot of people onLinkedIn with side hustles, and
that is great.
And if you're listening to thisand this is a side hustle for
you, that is great.
You still need to be here, andI am.
I guess what I'm saying is thisis for both whether you are a
side hustle or whether this isyour full-time gig.
You need a business page.
(13:34):
So just for that social proof.
And secondly, you're going topost primarily from your
personal page.
You're going to post primarilyfrom your personal page, but you
can definitely use that contentover on your business page as
(13:54):
well.
And like what I would tell you,just getting started, on your
business page, you know there'sa place for you to put in your
website and any other contactinformation that you want to
give out.
I just wouldn't overthink it atthe time.
And if you don't feel likeposting over there, you know, at
least put some basicinformation about this business.
But you can definitely takeposts that are doing well on
(14:24):
your personal profile and thengo post them over there.
So if you were to go back overto career success strategies, my
page you'll see I try to posttwo or three times a week over
there, you know, but it's not abig strategy.
Where it's going to be importantis, let's's say, down the road.
(14:45):
I do all my live streamsthrough my personal profile
right now, but let's say thatdown the road.
For whatever reason and there'sa couple of people I follow
that actually got their start inthe e-commerce business,
actually got their start in thee-commerce business and she has
(15:06):
built up her business pageenough that she can do her live
streams through her businesspage and she has reasons for
wanting to do that.
I think there's a little bitbetter reach maybe there to
others, but again, you'll needto be established to do that.
(15:26):
So in order to be established,you got to start somewhere.
So do it now, focus on yourprofile and then, you know, put
some content over there when youcan.
Carrie Saunders (15:37):
I know one thing I do to try to get a bit
more reach on my business pageon LinkedIn is I will share a
post from my business page to mypersonal.
That way people can see likethe connection there.
Is that something a good ideato do occasionally?
I?
Bevery Smith (15:53):
think it's a great idea.
And the other thing too is onyour business page you can go
and invite people to follow you.
Very much like the Facebooksituation.
And you know you mentionedFacebook.
It's kind of I think it's aLinkedIn business page is
probably a little bit betterthan a Facebook business pages
(16:13):
right now.
But if you remember a few yearsback on Facebook, it was like
you better have a Facebookbusiness page, kind of for the
same reason, that whole socialproof thing.
But yeah, I really do like thatand I use that same strategy
with my Facebook business pageas well, as I'll take whatever I
(16:33):
post over there and I'll postit over to my personal page and
you can even go vice versa aswell on that.
Carrie Saunders (16:43):
Yeah, I know I like to try to speaking of the
being able to invite to to yourpage on LinkedIn.
I try to, once a month, utilizethat because you can invite up
to 250 people on your freeLinkedIn, if I remember right.
So I try to, at least once amonth, invite 40 to 50 of my new
connections.
At least once a month, invite40 to 50 of my new connections
(17:04):
right, and a lot of them willaccept it.
So I feel like it's good topromote both, because I do agree
, you're going to get differentreach from each side, sure?
Bevery Smith (17:10):
sure, and I also think too, if I remember
correctly, if the people oncethey accept, um, that gives you
more credits back, um, so, um,you can continue.
You might, you might check.
But I think I really likedsomething.
You said you do that once amonth.
So I think if you just put onyour calendar, I was like this
is going to be a monthly dutythat I do and I'm going to
(17:32):
invite it, then you know it'sgetting done and um, then you
don't have to worry about youknow it taking up a lot of your
time or anything like that.
Carrie Saunders (17:43):
Yeah, I tend to do it on a once a month on a
Friday late in the afternoon,when I'm kind of brain dead,
don't want to think too much.
I can just click that buttonand start inviting people.
Good idea, right?
Let's jump on to the nextquestion that we have.
So I know, when people arestarting out on LinkedIn and
they may already have a LinkedInprofile or they, you know,
(18:04):
might decide after this podcastinterview to create one what are
the most important pieces of aLinkedIn profile that a business
owner should complete to makesure they have credibility and
are standing out, and thingslike that?
Bevery Smith (18:18):
Sure, I think this is a good question because I
think when you go to yourLinkedIn profile, there's
obviously a lot there for jobseekers as well, and you don't
need to get lost in that rabbithole.
So, as a business owner numberone, your profile picture this
is extremely important.
This does not need to be aselfie.
(18:41):
Please don't take this in yourcar.
Don't take this and cut yourspouse out of the side or your
frat buddy or whatever.
You know whoever you'restanding at.
Don't wear your tux either ifit's your wedding picture.
You know this needs to be aprofessional headshot and you
(19:04):
know it's so easy to get onedone and just invest in that.
Just know that that is aninvestment.
I know for me personally andhere's a tip that I would
encourage people to do is builda relationship with a
photographer friend.
Mine is a running buddy of minewho is a school teacher, and
(19:26):
her side hustle is herphotography business, and I,
once a year, get not just aheadshot, but I get just a
series of pictures that I canuse in creating my content,
series of pictures that I canuse in creating my content, and
(19:46):
so it is the best money that Ispend because it makes it easy
for content creation and thatkind of thing as well.
So, number one, your profilepicture.
Number two would be yourheadline.
So that is the little verbiagethat is below your profile
picture.
It is automatically going todefault to your most recent
position unless you change it.
(20:07):
So real easy to change.
Real important that yourheadline be attention grabbing.
So this is where I think someof the stuff that you and I
learned in Tracy's class is veryhelpful.
But you want to think about um,you want to think about things
(20:33):
that is going to be eye catchingabout your business, and so if
I were you, I would researchother business owners that are
on the platform and look attheirs, because I advise
business owners to do thisdifferently.
Versus a job seeker.
For a job seeker, these arekeywords that are searchable, so
(20:56):
you may want to have somekeywords in this as well, but
you know, founder at BCSEngineering, I probably wouldn't
start my headline off with that.
I want something more attentiongrabbing than that, Like, what
problem do you solve?
And make it interesting, andy'all, I've seen some really
(21:17):
cool ones, because I invested ina course that I took with lead
generation on LinkedIn and theycan be really neat.
So what's interesting and Iknow we're going to talk a
little bit about this down theroad but when you're in your
feed and you are looking atcomments to somebody's post,
(21:39):
that headline not all of it isthere, but the first line of it
is pretty much there.
So if it says something like10X your sales, I'm going to be
going okay, I haven't known moreand I'm probably going to click
on that person's profile justto see who this is and what
(21:59):
they're 10xing and how they canhelp me 10x this or that.
So just keep that in mind.
So headline is number two.
Number three is your coverphoto.
So that's that long photoacross the top.
Do not leave it the LinkedIndefault and do not leave it the
LinkedIn default.
This is a wonderful piece ofreal estate for you to tell a
(22:24):
little bit more about what youdo and who you are, who you
serve.
Don't put too many words in it,though, because if it's too
wordy, first of all, if you'rescrolling on the phone, it's
going to be hard to read, so youwant to keep it really simple.
(22:45):
You also want to make sure thatwhen you set it up, you want to
check and see how it does lookon your phone, because your
profile picture might cover upparts of your work.
So be careful when you createthis, and you can make these
very easily in Canva.
Canva has the right dimensionsfor you.
(23:06):
Also, LinkedIn has some defaultones, but I wouldn't recommend
them.
I would say you know this isagain.
This is an opportunity to tellwho you are.
You can put your contactinformation.
The only thing about theLinkedIn cover photos is they're
not clickable.
So, unlike like Facebook, ifyou click on it and it pulls up
something you know, likeinformation about the picture,
(23:27):
it's not like that.
And if you change yours onFacebook regularly, it's going
to show up in your feed that youchanged it.
This one's not like that, but Iwould still recommend updating
it.
But I would still recommendupdating it.
Some people say quarterly.
I don't know that.
I would say that often.
Do it if your business changes.
(23:50):
Do it just every once in awhile just to refresh.
But that would be my third one.
And then the fourth thing is docomplete your about section If
you don't do anything else.
I mean, I do feel like you needto have some experience in
there, but click that aboutsection Again.
The first few lines are goingto be visible on your profile
(24:13):
and then they'll have to clicksee more.
So make sure whatever you putis not.
You know I started out doingthis and then I started doing
this and then I helped this.
You want to talk about a painpoints that you solve and you
want to be really appealing.
Again, you know, it's kind oflike that 10X, your sales kind
(24:36):
of thing.
You want to talk about aproblem that you solve and how
you can fix it.
So, if y'all want, go look atmy about section for ideas.
Great place to put in emojis,though you can't.
You're going to have to copyand paste them in.
You can't just like type themas you go.
So, but definitely you want tobreak up that text, make it easy
(25:01):
to read, and those are probablythe main things.
So, again, profile picture,headline cover photo and about
section, and I put them in orderthere, but honestly, you need
all four of them Absolutely.
Carrie Saunders (25:16):
I would agree with that.
And actually now, now I'mlooking at mine over here on my
other screen and I was like,well, I have more than just
partner business engineering.
But that's the first thing andyou had made a really good point
that I didn't really even thinkabout that.
When you're commenting onsomebody, you do see that that
starting of their line mine,because it's better than than I
(25:38):
would say it was maybe a year ortwo ago.
But now I want to rewrite itbecause I'm like I can.
Bevery Smith (25:43):
I can optimize this one even better absolutely,
and I just rewrote mine aboutthree weeks ago, so this is
something I would tell theaudience as well as let this one
evolve as your business evolves, as you get better especially
like, if copywriting is not yourthing, you know, play with it.
And as you explore, keep aswipe file of ones that you like
(26:08):
and just use those forinspiration as well.
Carrie Saunders (26:13):
That's a good idea, All right.
So next, here's something Iknow I struggle with.
So how do you find the right,how do you find the clients,
Like, how do you find your ideal, the right clients on LinkedIn?
I struggle with this Sometimes.
Sometimes it's a hit, Sometimesit's a miss it you know how
could I do this better?
Bevery Smith (26:30):
Yeah, definitely.
You need to first of all be veryclear on who it is you're
looking for, because if you'rejust going out there targeting
everybody, it's not going to beworth your time, and so I'm
going to make the assumptionthat our audience that's
listening to us knows who theirideal client is and already
(26:53):
speaks to them.
So if you're doing that, thenthis makes the step a whole lot
easier.
So you want to strategicallyconnect with people that are
your ideal client.
Let me kind of back up and sayif you're new to LinkedIn and
you're going to go and build aprofile after listening to this
(27:15):
podcast, then connect with thepeople that you know in real
life.
I mean connect with everybodyyou know in real life.
Just to start buildingconnections.
You want to make sure thatyou've got over 500 connections
at least to start getting somevisibility, and honestly I would
try to inch that up towards athousand, but I'm going to stay.
(27:39):
Once you connect to all yourreal life people, start
strategically connecting withpeople and don't connect with
people that are not your idealclient.
Do that strategically.
I mean, there's going to betimes where like for example,
(27:59):
for me, I'm very selective onwhat resume writers I connect
with.
I initially connected to awhole bunch of them, but then
that was all that was showing upin my feed.
And then what I have found is,when I'm very strategic about
who I connect with, linkedinstarts serving me up more of
those people.
Here's someone based on yourother connections that you might
(28:21):
be interested in connectingwith, and so when you go to that
my Network button, you aregoing to have the opportunity to
connect with people from yourschool, which I would definitely
go through and give those alook over and see if any of
those make sense for you toconnect with.
(28:41):
They're going to have peoplefrom your community and then
there will be influencers foryou to connect with and things
like that.
So one of the things that I dois sometimes there's people that
I'm interested in like I'minterested in because I want to
see their content and thingslike that I follow them instead
of send them a connectionrequest.
(29:03):
So you can always do that andthey may come back and send you
a connection request and that'scool.
Then you can decide and justbecause somebody sends you a
connection request, if it doesnot make sense, don't connect
with them.
I mean, it's not a popularitycontest.
You're not going to hurtanyone's feelings if you never
connect with them.
(29:25):
Another thing that's realimportant when you're sending
out your connections, reallystudy their profile and so you
can go to their activity andlook and see and it may say you
know, mary Jane has not postedrecently.
Okay, fine, I'm still going toconnect on that activity or
(29:46):
click on that activity because Iwant to look over and they'll
say posts, comments, reactionsor maybe a few more, depending
on how active they are on theplatform.
I always go to that reactionsbutton.
If Mary Jane is liking people'sposts, she's reacting and so
(30:08):
that tells me and then I canlook and see how that post is
and get an idea.
So if she likes someone's postlast week, she's on the platform
.
If she likes someone's post twoyears ago, she's not on the
platform.
And the reason I tell you thisis depending on what version of
(30:28):
LinkedIn if you're paying forLinkedIn or if you are using the
free version you have a limiton your connections and you want
to be strategic on using those.
If you are using the freeversion I believe it is and I
was trying to.
Last I checked it was only 10.
(30:51):
You can send out up to 10messages with each connection a
month and I think you've gotsomething like 200 connections
that you can make.
So and that's fine, and you canstill connect without sending a
message and there's a goodchance people will connect back.
(31:13):
When they connect back, thenyou can message them and
LinkedIn doesn't dock you forthat and I would.
I would message them and saythank you for accepting my
connection request.
I noticed that we both attended,you know, arkansas State
University and you knowsomething like that.
You know Arkansas StateUniversity and, um, uh, you know
(31:35):
, um, something like that.
You know just something toengage them or you can ask them
a question.
If it's especially, you know,if it's relative, don't go into
cell mode.
But here's something that Ilearned very recently and some
training I did and I thought wasgenius by engaging with them in
those direct messages, they'remore likely to see your posts in
(32:00):
the feed, in their feed.
So that's really cool.
So you want to do that, youalso.
The other thing is, if anybodycomments on your posts, you
always, always want to respondto them and if you can keep the
conversation going and you cankeep it going with asking them a
question back, make sure thatyour posts have some sort of CTA
(32:21):
that gets them to take anaction, and it doesn't have to
be by my thing, it can just bedrop a heart in the comments.
I see Mel Robbins doing thisall the time.
It'll be like drop a heart inthe comments.
I see Mel Robbins doing thisall the time.
It'll be like drop a heart inthe comments.
Another way to find your peopleis go to influencers like a Mel
Robbins.
If your audience is followingher, go there and interact with
(32:47):
her posts.
You know, leave comments I get.
When I do that, I will all thetime get people that want to
connect with me because I'm afellow follower and things like
that, and so it's a greatstrategy to go and look for that
.
And as you begin to grow yournetwork and you're engaging with
(33:09):
the comments in your feed, youcan look at people that are
responding to other posts andmaybe they're a second degree or
a third degree connection.
Then they might be your idealaudience too, and so that's when
you can go and you can haveconversations with them.
(33:29):
You can send them a connectionrequest and then again, when
they respond back and say, hey,I really liked the post, I
really like what you had to sayon such and such as post, that
was really interesting.
So that's just some of the waysthat I use to develop my
audience.
I strategically connect withpeople weekly.
(33:53):
I try to do it daily butsometimes it just doesn't work
out for me to do that.
But I strategically connectweekly.
It's not, like I said, apopularity contest, so I'm not
trying to blow up the number ofmy connections.
It's more important for you tohave 500 highly engaged,
targeted connections than it isto have 500,000 people that
(34:15):
could care less who you are.
Carrie Saunders (34:18):
I totally agree with that.
I actually really love that.
I think this is thisconversation is really making me
want to make it a habit onFridays to really connect with
people.
I feel like that's something Ican do weekly, so that's why I
picked Fridays.
So I feel like Fridays aregoing to be my social media day,
particularly for LinkedIn.
I'm going to focus on it more.
I'm going to.
I love your strategies on howto find the perfect person
(34:41):
because you know we work withspecific shopping cart platforms
and with WordPress, sosometimes that's a hard thing to
search.
So kind of our niche is whatthey use, not necessarily what
they sell.
So that's a little bit hardersometimes to find the right
people, but I feel like if I'mstrategic about making sure that
I'm doing these connectionsregularly whether that's weekly
(35:03):
for me or monthly for somepeople, depending upon where
they are in their businessmaking sure you have that you
want to always be growing youraudience because you never know
who is going to be on your newconnection list and you never
know who who you might'veconnected with, who they know
that might actually need whatyou have.
It may not be them that needsit.
You know there's such.
I've found that if there's somesomething that draws me to
(35:25):
somebody and I feel engaged withthem and I want to have
conversations with it, many,many times it's because they
know somebody that that would,that would work well with me, or
or I can learn from them.
Could be either way, but I findfollowing your gut on who to
connect with is is honestly areally good idea too.
Bevery Smith (35:44):
Yeah, you know.
It's.
Something else too I think isreally important is when you are
in your feed and you're lookinglike.
So you may have a post show upin your feed that I commented on
, and it may be nobody that youknow, but what it's going to
(36:08):
show up is at the top, as youscroll through your feed.
At the top it's going to sayBeverly Smith commented on this
and or like this, and then thatcan trigger you to go oh, I know
Beverly, I'm going to go andsee what she had to say, and you
could scroll down and then youknow, maybe it's a post that has
(36:30):
20 or 30 comments.
Well, my goodness, that couldbe a whole new world for you to
go in and look at and say, maybeyou know, let me look at these
people.
So there's going to be.
It can be a little bit of astrategy, it can be a little bit
of time to do this, but I thinkonce you kind of get in the
(36:53):
habit of doing that, and also,too, the more you strategically
select who you're going tofollow or who you're going to
connect with, and the more youstrategically comment on posts
and things like that and engagewith it, then LinkedIn's
(37:13):
algorithms are going tounderstand what content you want
to see in your feed.
So one other tidbit I will addfor your audience is before you
post, make sure that you do whatI call priming the algorithm.
And the way you do that is youjust go strategically and engage
(37:33):
with the posts that are in yourfeed and what you're doing is
you're letting LinkedIn know I'mhere, I'm here, I'm not just
scheduled and this is justcontent that's going out and
whatever, whatever.
But LinkedIn knows that you'rea real person, you're really
here, you're on the platform,you're using the platform and
guess what?
They're more likely to boostyour post up to where it's going
(37:57):
to get seen more and to thesame point, don't jump off as
soon as you post it either.
So make that time that you post,give yourself a five minute
before and a five minute afterto stay on and engage with,
because if anybody startscommenting, you want to make
sure you comment right away andlet them know that, hey, I'm
(38:18):
here and you're letting LinkedInknow, and then you're more
likely to have to continue thepattern, like it's going to keep
your posts more engaged thatmuch longer.
So, real important.
Linkedin also does not like foryou to schedule, use a
third-party scheduler, butLinkedIn has its own scheduler.
So there's going to be timesthat I will go ahead and
(38:42):
schedule posts and try to comeback and engage, but if I can't,
I'm just like, okay, whatever,I don't for this time.
But most of the time I postmine, I have my content created.
I create it well in advance,and then I just go grab it out
of my project manager and put itin LinkedIn and then I'm there
(39:02):
and ready to go.
Carrie Saunders (39:03):
So just I actually really liked that last
tip, where you've already got itpre-planned.
You've, you know, kind ofblocked your time, probably to
create these posts ahead of timeso that you're not worried
about interacting.
And then what am I going to say?
And then interacting again.
You made you've just made yourtime so much more efficient
doing that, so I feel likethat's a really good time.
(39:23):
Efficiency too, and usingsocial media.
Bevery Smith (39:26):
I'm going to add one more thing about LinkedIn.
What's really cool is like okay, as opposed to Instagram, if
you go to someone's profile,like, you can really see all
their content, just if you justkeep scrolling.
You can do that on LinkedIn.
It's a pain in the rear to goback and you're never going to
go back on someone's feed orsomeone's activity post and go
(39:49):
back six or seven months and see, oh, did they repost this?
Is this something they've saidbefore?
So don't be afraid to recycleyour stuff and I think a
six-month timeframe is probablymore than you need, but it's a
good safety bet and you couldjust, you know, create content
for six months and then comeback and start reposting and,
(40:14):
and, and you may find too, asyou grow in your creation and
things like that, you're goingto probably tweak it just a
little bit, but I mean, you canuse the same image and
everything, and they're notgoing to know.
Carrie Saunders (40:28):
They're just not going to know that's a
really good point because I knewthat, I knew it would be hard
to like, go and see, like yourold posts, but I didn't really
think about it and that it'skind of a pain to be able to try
to find your old post, but Ididn't think about it as the
advantage, as the creator, thatyou can more easily and more
comfortably reuse your posts,because people aren't going to
(40:48):
remember three, four, five, sixor so months ago what you posted
.
It actually might just, youknow, subconsciously trigger oh
yeah, I was thinking about thatand I did want to act upon that,
and now I will because it wasalready subconsciously my brain
from a previous post, you know,months, months ago.
Yeah, I would also add to thatas well.
Bevery Smith (41:07):
If you're strategically connecting with
new people, every week you'vegot a whole new audience that
never saw your stuff six monthsago.
That's going to be seeing itand so and the better you get at
that, the more true that'sgoing to be.
Is that these people becausemaybe you've been DMing them and
(41:27):
things like that they're morelikely to do to see those things
.
So, and you can also repost ifyou have a post that does really
good, you can repost that aswell.
I see people doing that all thetime.
Carrie Saunders (41:43):
That's great.
So these have been some greattips, beverly.
I mean, I just I want tore-listen to this honestly and I
will, and you know, write downsome notes for myself, because I
just feel like I've been underutilizing LinkedIn for years now
and this is just going toreally help me.
I'm just so excited.
(42:03):
All right, so let's, I want youto share with us some great
ways to connect with you, incase people want to learn more
about you, and just so everybodyknows too, any links that she
says we're going to put in theshow notes too, so it's a bit
easier.
But go ahead and let us knowhow do we connect with you more?
Bevery Smith (42:20):
Sure, sure.
So obviously, linkedin isprobably the best place to find
me.
If you want to follow me onsocial and I'm actually Beverly
D Smith is my full link on there, though it does not say there's
not the D in the actual like onmy name on my profile.
(42:41):
So, and that is the best way onFacebook I have a business page
called Career SuccessStrategies and you can follow me
there Also.
My website is cssarcom.
It's kind of nothing fancy.
I actually converted my websiteover from my staffing business
(43:07):
was Career Staffing Services, soit was the same URL, so I just
converted it.
This was career staffingservices, so it was the same URL
, so I just converted it over,since I knew people already know
that and I just haven't donetoo much with my website right
now.
And if you want to email me,it's Beverly at CSSARcom.
Carrie Saunders (43:29):
Great, and then .
So Beverly has a special umoffer for any listeners too, if
you want to take advantage ofsome of our services.
So let us know about that,beverly okay.
Bevery Smith (43:40):
So this has been so interesting because I have
had several of my my circle offriends and connections reach
out to me and say, okay, whatare you doing on LinkedIn and
can you help me?
So I'm like, okay, let's justcreate a package for them.
So my package typically runs675 and you get three hours of
(44:03):
one-to-one coaching.
During that time and where wehelp you with setting up your
profile, we talk about all thesestrategies that we've talked
about.
I hope you build your audience,teaching you how to engage with
it, get your business page setup and basically I teach you how
to do these things and recordthe sessions and stuff like that
(44:24):
.
And so, for your listeners, ify'all will reach out to me and
tell me you found me on Carrie'spodcast, then I will give you
$100 off that session and wouldlove to help other people get
involved on this platformbecause it's such a beneficial
tool.
It's just really been obviouslyhuge for my business.
(44:48):
And I know some of you may besaying again well, you're in the
careers industry.
That makes sense.
I'm telling you I have workedwith, I took a, I took a, I
invested heavily in a lead.
Very few of them were in thecareers industry.
There was a lot of e-commercepeople, a lot of people in
direct sales that are using it.
(45:09):
It's a great platform and myclients that are business owners
that are working with me are inreal estate and insurance
currently.
So, yeah, just come wide open.
Carrie Saunders (45:27):
That's great.
Thank you so much, Beverly, forbeing on our show.
I'm super excited to take someaction steps with many of the
things you shared with us todayand I really appreciate you
coming on.
Bevery Smith (45:38):
Thank you for having me.
Keri Enjoyed it.
Carrie Saunders (45:40):
You're very welcome.
Well, I will see you moreonline, all right.
So wasn't that such a greatepisode?
I know I learned a ton from itand will be re-listening to it
and making notes myself.
Beverly really gave us somegreat tips on how to connect
them all together to reallymaximize our reach and
visibility on LinkedIn and makeit effective for us.
(46:02):
Be sure to visit our show noteswherever you're listening on
our podcast, or you can visitour podcast website at
ecommercemadeeasy easypodcastcom.
Forward slash 56 for thisspecific episode.
If you're watching on theYouTube channel, make sure you
hit that subscribe button and ifyou're listening on the podcast
, hit that follow buttonwherever you're listening.
And if you're loving mye-commerce made easy podcast,
(46:24):
I'd be thrilled if you'd rate usand review us on our Apple
podcast link.
Your readings and reviews helpme reach more listeners, just
like you, and empower morepeople.
Thrive in the online businessworld.
Thank you again for listeningand we will see you next week.
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