Stop and imagine having the power to make one post that could open doors, spark connections, and drive your business to new heights. In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I’m diving into a social media platform that is often overlooked but has incredible potential for entrepreneurs and business owners AKA YOU!
The best part? You’re probably already on it, but not using it to its full potential. Tune in to discover some of the simplest strategies that could skyrocket your businesses visibility and impact, all with just a few intentional posts.
When you learn how to use this property, sky is the limit inside this platform…and it’s had a massive glow up on the front and back ends to be more friendly and give you an all-round better user experience.
Don’t miss out on unlocking the power of this platform for your business growth!
While you’re here, I have a new key marketing tool for you over on my website which you can access here: www.hayleyosborne.com titled: 3 essential posts your biz needs to get more people through the door – with templates & swipe copy!
This is a must for you implement into your business to optimise your social media and make the most of the platforms.
SUMMARY
0:00:01 Introduction
0:00:27 The Power of LinkedIn
0:03:05 Optimizing Your Personal Profile
0:08:27 Leveraging LinkedIn Business Pages
0:13:05 Strategies for Effective Posting
0:22:42 Avoiding Pitfalls and Expanding Reach
0:23:42 Conclusion and Additional Resources
Hayley Osborne
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I’m really glad that you are here listening as I’m just sitting here pre-recording some episodes, because, as you probably know, when this episode airs, I would have had a baby.
But I absolutely love being in your ears every single week with this podcast and bringing you really clever ways to be able to help you to have big growth inside your business, by creating marketing activities and strategies to do that with hopefully the least amount of time and effort on your part. And so I don’t want to miss that.
I’ve got so many things to cover off before the end of the year. Because really, when you think about it, right, I’m only doing one episode a week, and so that’s essentially 52 weeks in a year. So that’s 52 episodes, which isn’t really that many, and I don’t have that many anyway, because obviously we take short break over the Christmas period as a rest.
And so there’s so many things I want to cover that I wanted to continue to remain in your ears for that time that I get to meet my new little human. So apologies if I do sound slightly out of breath. It is because my lungs and all of that are being a bit squashed. But I am super comfy. I’ve got some water here. My house is quiet. My office is quiet. It’s very lovely. And so it’s such an opportune time to bring some goodness to you. And so today I really wanted to talk about something cool.
The episode is titled, a single post here could transform your business. And you’re probably thinking, Hayley, what are you talking about? What single post where could transform my business? And so that place my friends are LinkedIn.
Now, if you are not playing in this space, you should be, because it is growing rapidly, and it’s had a glow up recently, if you aren’t aware. So LinkedIn is kind of like the unsung, untapped, like hero of like the business marketing world, I guess because, you know, we are as business owners, from my experience, very much focused on Facebook and Instagram and obviously, you know, I teach all round marketing and help you to be able to have an optimized foundation and footprint, wherever people land when they try and find you, which means, like, your website, your own asset, your email list.
How are we growing that? What are we doing? But LinkedIn is really quite powerful, and it doesn’t matter what business you have, this is where you can really connect with your ideal client.
Honestly, it’s just it’s moving forward in leaps and bounds. And that’s why I wanted to bring you this episode today. Because if you’re not playing in LinkedIn, I definitely recommend that you start a content strategy in and around being consistent on LinkedIn, because it’s very powerful.
And so I wanted to take you through a few through a few things today, in and around that, and I know that I’ve been showing up more consistently on LinkedIn, especially the last six months, and it’s definitely proven to be like very well received, because I have people following me On LinkedIn that have been signing up for my database all year, which is really powerful, and I think it’s such a nice place to build a connection. It’s not like it used to be guys.
So LinkedIn was very, very corporate. It was, its purpose was for recruitment, and that’s about it, like, don’t. Get me wrong, it still is kind of, you can, you know, access, like jobs, and it’s, it’s a great recruitment place, but, you know, it’s got its perks that the other platforms don’t, and it’s super transparent too, right?
So if you don’t have a premium account, if you can’t see who’s looking at your profile or whatever, but if you pay to play, which isn’t that expensive, you can have full transparency of who is looking at you, why they’re looking at you, where they come from. You have a little bit with a free profile, but not as much as you do with a paid profile.
Now, I don’t have a paid profile, so I don’t care who’s looking at my LinkedIn or not, and those that do, I usually get the most beautiful direct messages inside LinkedIn, which I love. And so if you’re not doing that yet, I encourage you to move over to LinkedIn.
So today I wanted to talk about LinkedIn personal profile pages, LinkedIn business pages, and how to try drive sales to your business through LinkedIn. They’re the three things.
So hang around, because I really want to kind of extract those for you, so that you understand how it all works, and so it’s not kind of so foreign.
And honestly, LinkedIn change, and it’s changed for the better. So it’s, like I said before, let’s call it a glow up. It’s how to glow up, and it hosts more than 600 million professional profiles.
Okay, so that pretty much means an unlimited supply of network connections for you. And that sounds pretty good, because it’s growing by the day, its numbers are clocking away. But there are two halves to LinkedIn.
Okay, so there’s personal profiles and business profiles.
Let’s talk about first personal profiles. Okay, so your personal profile should consist of your personal capability statements, alright, so what you what it is that you do today, how you solve challenges, and it’s an opportunity to really personalize your professional brand as a personal brand, right, and showcase your personality, as well as showcase how you can work with people.
So you should have, you should, essentially, if you are not playing in LinkedIn yet. Go and have a look. And then I would encourage you to follow the bouncing ball with setting it up. So you want to have everything optimized, so you want to be you want to have a cover photo.
So lots of people don’t have cover photos in LinkedIn. It’s the most beautiful place to start, because, you know, you can put writing in it, and it does really showcase what you’re doing right now. So for me, I’ve got my profile picture and my cover photo, and the cover photo says digital marketing expert. It says social media strategy, marketing strategy, one on one, coaching, VIP days, membership.
So the VIP days are really important, especially advertising that in LinkedIn for me, because usually that is where corporate clients weigh in and work with me for the day.
On a VIP Day, if you are listening and you think, oh, Hayley, I need a VIP Day that there is all of the information that you need to look into that on my website, because that is pretty much like the bee’s knees of moving the trajectory forward in your business very quickly. And you know, it’s the perfect place for me to talk about it, in LinkedIn and everywhere else. It’s basically a full in person day for you, where you’ll get clarity, streamline your system, strategic direction and boost growth.
On this day, it’s for business owners, teams, entrepreneurs like if you’re thinking, I’m a small business, does it fit for me? Yes, it does, and it will focus on your growth. It is a luxury experience, right? With stunning food and drinks while upleveling yourself in your business.
And you know this is where the magic happens, and you step into the next level of you. So this is the perfect place for me to advertise this on LinkedIn, and it works. So just know that, and then you want to say who you are and what you do very quickly underneath your name in LinkedIn.
And you want your about section to be tight, okay, so if you haven’t worked on your messaging, if you do not have your transformation message down pat, you need to work on that. And that then goes in your about section, and you can have some solid calls to action in there as well, which is either a call to action for a lead magnet or your website as well.
So that’s kind of like in your about section, and then, you know, there’s an opportunity for you to have a bunch of featured links. So I’ve got all of the articles that I’ve. I’ve been in the last, well, forever, long couple of years, all linked as featured in my LinkedIn profile, because it builds street credibility, right?
So, you know, nothing says You’re amazing, like it being somewhere you know, as seen on dynamic business, inside small business, balance and grind is another one I’ve been featured in cos Business Builders, smart business like there’s a lot and so that is where I house it, because that builds credibility, and that is something that you should be working towards as well.
And then starting a newsletter is another really great way to be top of mind and be consistent with your audience on LinkedIn, and that gets emailed too, right? So if someone subscribes to your newsletter on LinkedIn, they receive an email when you create a newsletter into their email. So not only are you hitting your database with your hopefully weekly correspondence to nurture them. But you can also do it through LinkedIn, which is really clever.
So you could essentially write a direct email and then use that to create parts and pieces of your newsletter in LinkedIn. Or even if you write a weekly blog, my podcast goes in there as well. But even if you write a weekly blog, that can then be translated into a beautiful newsletter that sits in LinkedIn.
So that’s another beautiful thing to be able to have to optimize your profile. Then you need to list all your experience and where you’ve worked. Education skills are super important. If you don’t have any recommendations from people, yet I highly recommend that you start reaching out for them and also giving recommendations to and that’s kind of how you optimize your LinkedIn profile.
But I just want you to understand that you know you really need to be talking about how you solve people’s challenges. And then you know, something that I definitely have seen as you know, eye opening on LinkedIn in terms of posts, and you’re going to be like, what is that?
Hayley, the best performing posts on LinkedIn for me are the ones that are super Instagrammy. I know I told you LinkedIn how to glow up. So you know what I mean when I say super Instagrammy. So things like reels, where they have clever copy overlay, just really casual pictures.
Obviously, the media stuff does really well, because that’s kind of my capability statement without, you know, someone else saying you’re amazing is better than you saying it. And you know, the testimonials do really well in LinkedIn too, but it really should showcase your personality. And I think that because of the power of LinkedIn, because of the number of CEOs and people that are at the level to create change and move the needle for your business, so there’s a lot less red tape in LinkedIn, and you know, the approvals rest with the people that are interacting and liking what you’re putting out there.
And so I think that’s why it’s really powerful. In a single post in here could really transform your business, because people that have the authority to make change and move the needle, that is where they are. And so don’t think for a second that it’s just in business hours too. So most busy people that you might be trying to target in LinkedIn, they’re not on it during the day. So I tend to post around 10 o’clock in the morning. That’s my kind of time.
You have to have a look at the insights as to when your kind of time is and also think about the demographic of your target audience and what they do and what they’re doing throughout the day, as to your most opportune time to post. But there is definitely a target audience for every business owner in LinkedIn that I think if you’re not using it, you are crazy.
So they’re the things that a personal profile page should consist of.
Now, if we look at a LinkedIn business page, this is your corporate micro site, okay, so a LinkedIn business page is like and should exist like your mini website, okay? It lists where you’re located. It lists how people can get in touch with you. It lists your website, it lists your phone number if you want, and it has the ability to share stories in line with your brand values. And so I don’t post as much to my business LinkedIn page, although it does exist, and I do share content on there, but it is my per. Personal profile that is the leader of my LinkedIn presence. The business page is, you know, like the personal profile is like my Batman, and the business page is like my Robin, if that’s a good analogy for you.
And so the business page is a mini website, okay, which then drives people out of the platform and onto your website. Alright, so you do need both to coexist when you are running a business. However, like I said, I show up as my personal profile, and that is my thought leadership piece and my zone of genius. And the business page is a mini website, a micro site that represents your brand, and so that’s how you need to really define the balance.
If you didn’t know now, you know, and then you know, I did say this before, but I don’t want you to be fearful of not posting to LinkedIn because you don’t want to recycle content that’s been on your Instagram, but I think it probably needs a few tweaks when it comes to copywriting.
Obviously, remove all of the unnecessary hashtags they don’t need to be in LinkedIn like they do in Instagram, and then remove or tone down the static image that you might think about posting LinkedIn is different, although I still think you need to focus on a really strong hook as an opener to a written post. I do feel regardless, video is wonderful in LinkedIn, and then I would remove all the emojis. Okay, so that is kind of like my top tips for posting to LinkedIn.
So you can repurpose your Instagram and Facebook content for LinkedIn, but it does need to have a few tweaks with it, and then there’s massive benefits that come with getting seen on LinkedIn. So this is another place where you can earn trust, you know, from your audience, you can command premium prices in LinkedIn. You can sell more stuff in LinkedIn if you are there.
So if you’re just playing on Facebook and Instagram, why don’t you get a LinkedIn profile page to increase your sales? I think that’s wonderful, and you can grow your follower and subscriber numbers. You really do widen your sphere of influence by having LinkedIn added to your repertoire of platforms. Secure much more PR opportunities, because there is a place for links and PR to sit, and it is a credible source, right? It’s a great place for you to stand out from your competitors.
It is a very credible source to improve your SEO so your search engine optimization. It’s beautiful for getting more referrals, okay, because that’s what it’s for. It can help people to learn and do better, which is, you know, that’s my objective for having LinkedIn is, you know, I know that you are, as a business owner, the backbone of our economy. And so it’s my job, with my zone of genius, to inspire and help and, you know, educate as many business owners as possible to learn and do better, so that the economy is great. And so that’s why I play in LinkedIn.
That’s my objective, is to help as many people as possible. And then, you know, LinkedIn does help you to increase your website traffic, because it has live link, the live link ability in posts not like Instagram. You have to get really clever on your hook, line and sinker, which is, you know, the hook the story and the call to action, because the call to action cannot be a link. However, in LinkedIn, it can be a hyperlink over to your website, whether that is to download a free guide that you might have, whether that is to listen to a podcast or, you know, whether that is to just read a blog post, either way, it’s all traffic driving, which is really positive, which means that your website is getting more links, link clicks, which is, you know, pretty awesome. And so there’s so many benefits of getting seen on LinkedIn. So right now, what I would recommend that you do is post helpful things.
And when you post helpful things, LinkedIn likes you, and when it likes you, it amplifies your content to your audience, okay, and so your network grows. So you would notice that LinkedIn has a much larger lifespan of posts than what Instagram does and what Facebook does LinkedIn. Like lifespan is, I can’t even remember it’s, it’s either like four or 24 hours.
But. It’s a long time, much, much longer than Instagram and Facebook. So you see, over time with LinkedIn that your engagement clocks up, whereas Instagram and Facebook, it’s very fast. You only have a short amount of time in people’s ears. And then let’s not even talk about Pinterest, because I will be talking about that in some future podcast episodes. But that content strategy and the duration of the lifespan of a post in Pinterest is like four months. So that is coming to your ears very soon, because you need to know about that.
But you know, don’t discount LinkedIn in your strategy right now, I would invite all of your followers to subscribe to your newsletter. I would invite all of your followers to Like and follow your business page, because you can, and there is a space in LinkedIn where you have 250 credits in the free version of LinkedIn to ask your existing followers to like your business page, and you can do 250 send out requests every single month.
And so if you’re not utilizing that to reach more people, you guys are crazy because it’s free. And so I think that’s really important if you don’t know how to do that, and if you’re like Hayley, this sounds really good. I have no idea what I’m doing. You can book in a discovery call with me over on my website. It’s free. It’s 30 minutes with me for free, and we can have a little bit of a chat and see how maybe I could help you link in LinkedIn.
I do create social media strategies for LinkedIn, specifically because it is such a powerful platform to driving big results in your business. I have seen it firsthand, which is why I’m talking about it today, because it had to be spoken about. One thing to avoid in LinkedIn is the little thing we like to call the LinkedIn bubble.
And you know, to avoid that, you need to make sure you’re commenting on thought leader and industry experts in your field, lots of different people all the time, and so stay away from always commenting on the same people’s posts and liking the same people’s posts, because LinkedIn is very Good at continuing to serve you the same people’s posts, and so making sure you’re adding yourself to different groups and opening yourself up to new audiences is really important.
And you know, don’t overshare other people’s posts on your LinkedIn. Exercise your own thought leadership. That is where the most power is, what else do I want to say about LinkedIn? It’s you’re your most valuable source. And so you are your own secret weapon. In this platform, it strategically has two places for you to show up as yourself, which is double the increase in you know, coming up in search results in SEO, which helps your website. And I think it’s definitely a nice place for you to position your business very quickly and gain some traction. And so if you’re not using LinkedIn, I encourage you to do so, reach out to me.
I would love to help you. And if you are looking for more, I have a new free download. It’s called the three essential posts your business needs to get more people through the door with templates and swipe copy, okay, so with these three posts, you have the templates that you need to pull it together and the words so the captions you need to write to coincide with these three posts.
And these three posts are really important that you have across all of your social media platforms, and that they are pinned to the top in some way, shape or form. Okay, so that is a free download that is waiting for you over on my website. I hope that you’ve enjoyed listening to today’s episode, because a single post here really could transform your business.
So I suggest that you go and play and enjoy the ride in the process, and I will see you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe, so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday, and while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it.
Also, don’t forget to tag me @hayleykosborne over on Instagram and share this post with your audience so they can get learning too Sharing is caring. If you want more, head over to https://hayleyosborne.com/category/podcast/ for today’s show notes and links. Catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show you.
