On Air Coaching call with Veronica Sagastume of Fortified Accounting.

V is the CEO of Fortified Accounting, a Silicon Valley based business offering Accounting & Business Solutions for StartUps.

V had several questions for me including:

1. Since I have both a personal profile and a new business page, when I create content, when referring out my firm, team and services, should I say: We, Our, Us, not I, Me.

2. Should I create and publish the same type of content on my personal profile as on my business page?

3. What type of content would you recommend (posts, polls, videos, etc) to attract and connect with my ideal clients: Startup companies in the Software as a service industry in their first 3 years of business?

4. What should my business page profile focus on vs my personal profile.

If you would like to know the answers, then tune into the podcast today.

Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisebrogan

Find V at https://www.fortifiedaccounting.com/ or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Need to know what LinkedIn is and how to use it? Check out this video https://youtu.be/8YTuZ8ufitA

Have you ever had an on-air coaching call? Do you like listening to podcasts where the host brings on someone to coach them and answer their questions?

We have a series of podcasts coming up, where I help my on-air-coaching guests with their questions about using LinkedIn.

I invited members of my email newsletter to apply to come on the podcast, and have chosen some great guests coming up in the next few weeks.

For those who didn't get on for a whole show, I thought I'd take the time to answer some of their questions today.

Tune in to find out the answers to questions about Company Pages, selling fine art, switching out of corporate life into entrepreneurship and more.

to book your VIP session - https://louisebrogan.com/linkedinvip/

Podcast Episodes Mentioned

https://louisebrogan.com/moving-from-connection-to-client-on-linkedin/

https://louisebrogan.com/sellingwithcharm-with-reena-philpot/

There is something truly inspiring about hearing how people I’ve worked with have got on afterwards. So, in this week’s podcast I wanted to share some of these success stories with you all, as it’s a wonderful opportunity to hear how even small changes can make a real, measurable difference.

In this episode I will tell you about two women who I have worked with that have both had unbelievable success as a direct result of raising their profiles on LinkedIn.     

The first is a client of mine who’s based in the Maldives. wanted to use my profile review service to improve her visibility to her target audience. It was all the more important too given the devastation of the pandemic on the tourist industry. As a result of my session with her, she got back in touch recently to tell me about some money-can’t-buy coverage that she received from a global publisher. Thrilled is an understatement!

My second story is one of my ‘done for you’ clients where my team write the LinkedIn posts for you. We posted a good news story on the Friday, and by the following Monday it had more than 10,000 views and many many comments.

But success is not just about coverage, views or comments – it’s also about the real-life business impact. So, I’ve also got a great example of how one client’s work with me led directly to two, yes TWO, five-figure new business contracts. If you’d like help with your LinkedIn strategy and for me to create this kind of success for your business, then please get in touch and I will get straight back to you.

www.louisebrogan.com/workwithme  Thank you for listening, don’t forget to leave a review and tell me what you think.

This week’s podcast is all about a new feature that’s just launched on LinkedIn – it’s called LinkedIn Creator.

If you’ve never heard of it - or even if you have but have no idea whether it’s right for you - then listen up! I’ll be talking you through the who, where, what, why and how in this simple-to-understand breakdown of everything you need to know.

PODCAST PLAYER

Over the last 10 years, LinkedIn has really changed from where it used to be. Back then, you may have turned to LinkedIn to find a job and would have maybe updated your profile accordingly. Fast forward to today and there’s a small, but growing, group of people who are creating content on the platform, for the platform. For example, live videos, writing articles, blog posts and comments all intended to start conversations.

In this episode, I discuss who LinkedIn creators are, and how to judge for yourself how, and why you’re using LinkedIn to see whether you might fall into this category (heads up - not everyone will, and that’s totally fine!).

Once you’ve made that decision, track along with me to understand the three key elements that Creator offers:

1. Introductory card: what it is, where to find it, and what it should say about you
2. Number of followers: How to see how many you have and whether they’re visible and clickable to your network
3. Newsfeed prioritisation: How to ensure that what your followers see are the 5 or 6 things that you want them to read/watch

If you want to find out more about LinkedIn Creator, why not book in with me for a VIP session? The online session lasts for 3 hours and during that time we will go through your LinkedIn profile with a fine-toothed comb; working out what needs to change if you have an existing profile, or how to start from scratch. We also go through your settings to make sure your profile is optimised – which means that people wanting to work with you can find and connect with you easily. I also offer a monthly retainer option to support and help you achieve your goals on an ongoing basis (see the links below).

I work with clients all over the world, so time zone is certainly no barrier!

Please just get in touch with me to find the most convenient time and let’s get it booked in - my June diary only has a couple of slots available now, but I would love to work with you!

I’d love to hear what you think of LinkedIn Creator? Do you think it’s for you? Are you going to use it? Please do let me know.

Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to my podcasts, if you enjoyed it and found it useful, please give it an ‘A’. Thank you!

To view my youtube video on LinkedIn Creator, watch it here: https://youtu.be/Tq3tKJ5vJns

To see my LinkedIn VIP offering, all the details are here: www.louisebrogan.com/linkedinvip

Please see the overview of my monthly retainer package here: https://louisebrogan.com/what-does-a-linkedin-retainer-package-look-like/

In a podcast first this week, I’m co-hosting with my friend Crystal Collinson, which means for once I’ll be answering, as well as asking the questions!

Crystal is the principal of Crystal Collinson Interiors, a full-service design firm specialising in the design and decorating of everything from new homes through to commercial projects. She lives by the simple philosophy that “design should solve problems, not create them”.

She’s now putting her years of experience to good use, with the launch of her very own podcast – “The Productive Designer”, later this month. With it, she plans to educate, collaborate and motivate all interior design professionals to get to where they want to be.

In this episode I share my advice for how professionals such as interior designers like Crystal can get the most out of LinkedIn.

I offer my golden rules on..

1.     Optimising your LinkedIn profile

2.     Being selective with your connections

3.     How, when, and what to post

4.     Why you need to focus on building relationships, and not just business

5.     How to get your customers to find you

We also talk a little about the new LinkedIn Creator profile that’s in the process of being rolled out by LinkedIn. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s a way for people who create a lot of content (including LinkedIn live videos) to start conversations with their networks and audiences in new ways. It’s early days, but I’m excited about it!

Hope you enjoy this one!

MEET CRYSTAL

Crystal has her own site – theproductivedesigner.com, as well as her The Productive Designer podcast which launches later this month (available wherever you access your podcasts). Or you can connect with her directly on LinkedIn, or see lots of gorgeous examples of her work on Instagram at Crystal Collinson Interiors.

Crystal is the principal of Crystal Collinson Interiors, a full-service design firm specializing in the Design and Decorating of Model Homes, Sales Presentation Centre’s, Condominium amenity spaces and small commercial projects. Crystal & her team work with many of the GTA’s largest home builders.

After 18 years in the industry, Crystal has developed an approach to interior design that sets her apart, while setting her clients & trusted trade resources at ease. Running a full time interior design business while raising a family is not an easy feat. Crystal has the unique ability to be both creative yet extremely organized; keeping a handle on all the moving parts. Living by the philosophy that “Design should solve problems, not create them”.

As a self-proclaimed productivity geek, she has developed systems, process and hacks to work smarter…not harder. Crystal is the creator and host of The Productive Designer podcast-launching this month. The goal of the podcast is to educate, collaborate and motivate all Interior Design professionals to intentionally design the life and business they want.

CONNECT WITH CRYSTAL

Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Website

It’s an all-Irish line up on the podcast this week, where I’m joined by my good friend and client, Andrea Dermody.

Andrea is an all-round diversity and inclusion guru who’s built a thriving consultancy business off the back of a highly successful career in financial services. She works with organisations and individuals to reshape their organisational cultures to make them more inclusive. The result is that regardless of a person’s gender, background, socio economic experience, race or religion, they have the same opportunities of anyone else in that organisation.

Andrea’s passion for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is so infectious and it was an absolute pleasure catching up with her for this episode. So often a company’s D&I policy (if one even exists) is a mere box-ticking exercise where the focus is solely on compliance. Andrea and I chat about why this is ALL wrong, and how when companies move from the compliance space into the cultural space, it becomes a much better company to work at.

Andrea breaks the D&I challenge down into:

1.     The work the organisation needs to do around its systems, processes, policies and its culture. (This one is all about human connections – underestimate it at your peril!)

2.     The work that under-represented people can do for themselves - even for those introverts who might be scared to go it alone

I also loved hearing from Andrea about her work as part of the 30% Club – the group who’s objective is to get a representative 30% of women on boards. On top of that, she’s also part of the Dublin City University programme – a leadership and development programme designed exclusively for women. The programme covers building a personal brand, how you communicate and how you build credibility and confidence within your organisation.

And finally (yes, there’s more!) we talk about how Andrea is using my help with LinkedIn for business to expand her network and reach new clients. I’m pleased to say she’s loving the results already.

What are your top ten questions about using LinkedIn?  Let's dive in.

Connect with me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/louisebrogan

For your free guide - www.louisebrogan.com/download

Have I got a treat for you this week! I’m so excited to share this week’s podcast where I catch up with the absolute queen of sales, Nikki Rausch.   Nikki is the founder of Sales Maven where she teaches tangible skills that, when you take action and implement them in your own business, will give you massive results. Not only is she a sales strategist, she’s also a successful author of multiple books, podcaster and founder of the online Sales Maven Society.   In this episode we talk about how to pick up buying signals before you get a sale, and the right (and very wrong – clue: don’t mention Darth Vader) ways to connect with your targets on LinkedIn.   Nikki is a real fount of knowledge for all things sales and being confident. We talk about how to be assertive (but not pushy) and even how to deal with the knock-backs. Here’s just a taste of some of the other advice she shares…   1.     How to be a resource to people and offer them real value 2.     The importance of ‘pre-framing’ a first video or face-to-face conversation 3.     Why you need to have pricing on your website   I hope you enjoy listening to this one.     About Nikki You can find Nikki on LinkedIn or have a look at her website yoursalesmaven.com Exclusively for listeners of this podcast, Nikki has also shared her new e-book ‘Closing the Sale’ which you can download here: https://yoursalesmaven.com/ebook/

Have you seen some LinkedIn accounts with follow instead of connect on their Introductory card?

What does this mean and which should you have on your profile?

The default setting on LinkedIn profiles is to show the ‘Connect’ button. It appears to the right of your profile photo.

When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you are automatically following their content.

When you ‘follow’ someone on LinkedIn, you will see posts from that person in your newsfeed, but they will not see yours. When you follow someone but don’t connect, they are not following your activity on LinkedIn.

According to LinkedIn, your network should consist of people you already know. The follow option is to follow posts and articles from someone you want to hear from, but you don’t know.

For example, the above profile is the News Editor for LinkedIn News. So you may want to follow her articles on LinkedIn news.

Having a smaller network of people you want to engage with on LinkedIn usually provides a better experience than connecting with lots of people you don’t know.

How to build a powerful network on LinkedIn

One reason to choose to follow someone rather than connect, is if they are a thought leader within your industry and you want to keep on top of what is happening in the industry.

Examples of people you may want to follow – speakers, podcasters, authors, politicians.

• When you are connected, you can see each others posts in your feed
• Followers can see your posts in their newsfeed. If you want to see one of your followers posts, you can follow them.
• You can only send messages to people you are connected to unless you have LinkedIn Premium*
• You can only endorse your connections for their skills
• You can only recommend (or request a recommendation from) a connection, not someone you follow

*With LinkedIn Premium, you can send up to 15 ‘InMails’ per month to people who are not your connections.

If you wish to build a network of people to engage with on LinkedIn, then it is probably a good idea to keep your profile as ‘connect’ first.

If you wish to build a following of people who want to learn from you and read your content, then set your profile to Follow first.

How do you know what to post on LinkedIn?

How can you come up with ideas for content to market your business?

Tune into today’s podcast to find out!

This is something that a lot of people struggle with, and one of the reasons they hire me to help.

1. This is your business network so try to keep it professional
2. Be strategic – remember you want to win business on LinkedIn
3. Keep yourself on a time limit – don’t get distracted and end up spending too long on your LinkedIn

Remember the four pillars of using LinkedIn –

• Building a valuable network
• Getting your LinkedIn Profile up to date
• Sharing content that helps your audience
• Using LinkedIn Messaging to build on your relationships

Read more here 

Make sure you share content that relates to your role – in this example, Sarah Doherty shares a personal story as well as lessons about personal finance

Start with thinking about all the questions you get asked by potential clients. Write them down on a piece of paper and then under each one, find sub-topics. Keep an eye out for articles or stories in the media to share that relate to your topics. Work on writing your posts with the purpose of serving your audience. Start conversations with your network and you WILL start to get leads and inquiries directly into your inbox.

If you need help coming up with a strategy for your LinkedIn content, then do reach out for a strategy session: https://louisebrogan.com/workwithme/