Ep 86: How to Get Noticed on LinkedIn Workshop

Do you want the LinkedIn Playbook? Get it here.

Are you optimizing your LinkedIn profile to its full potential? Uncover the secrets to transforming your LinkedIn presence with insights from Sarah Noelle Block's LinkedIn Profile Optimization Workshop. From crafting an attention-grabbing strapline in your cover photo to creating a headline brimming with keywords, Sarah shares her expert strategies to help you stand out. Learn the art of storytelling in your about section, and discover how to showcase your lead magnets and core content effectively in your featured section.

Ready to elevate your LinkedIn content strategy? Sarah reveals a powerful pillar messaging approach focused on three key topics that spotlight your unique value proposition. Gain practical tips for constructing engaging posts with hooks, compelling stories, and strong resolutions or questions. Consistency is crucial, so you'll also hear advice on scheduling posts during creative bursts and leveraging habit stacking. Find out which types of content perform best with LinkedIn's algorithm, from text and personal photos to carousels and captioned videos, ensuring your posts make a significant impact.

Engagement is just as important as content creation. Sarah explains how engaging with others' posts can boost your impressions and profile views, offering tips on earning LinkedIn’s coveted top voice badge. She provides actionable advice on optimizing your profile with effective straplines and visibility tools. Plus, get access to additional resources like the Tiny Marketing Pod and LinkedIn profile makeover services. Don't forget to grab the LinkedIn playbook from the show notes for even more detailed guidance. By the end of this episode, you'll be armed with the tools and techniques to attract attention and generate leads through LinkedIn.

This membership is for B2B service founders struggling to market their businesses sustainably. We will help you build and maintain a lean marketing engine that helps you build authority and visibility with your dream clients, making it easy to increase your pipeline without burning out. Build your lean marketing engine and the systems to make it so damn easy for you to keep it up without a team or big budget.  Apply for the Club.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, hey, hey. This is Sarah Noelle Block and you are listening to Tiny Marketing. This is the uncut summer series, where you are getting the raw, unfiltered, unedited recordings from our interviews, webinars and workshops. So sit back, relax and enjoy the ridiculousness. Today I am sharing the audio from my how to Get Noticed on LinkedIn workshop. It was killer. I put this together because I put it together really, really fast because I had so many people asking me questions around LinkedIn. At that time, I was like you know what? I might as well put together a workshop and make this incredibly easy for people. So I'm sharing the audio from that workshop. Today. I had a full room, a full virtual room, which was nice, because I gave them about three days notice to sign up. So enjoy this episode and if you enjoyed it, you can go down to the show notes page where you can grab my LinkedIn playbook. It's amazing. It's seriously legit, amazing. All of the templates I have discovered along the way, all of the SOPs around LinkedIn prompts, everything that you could possibly need for LinkedIn and generating leads from it, is in that playbook, so don't forget to scroll down and grab that. All right, Enjoy.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Thank you everybody who joined me today. I know you had to decide very last minute if you're going to come or not, because I just started telling you guys about it. I just came deciding to do this after a lot of people were asking me similar questions. I'm like I should probably throw something together for you. So here it is. We're going to talk about the three things that you can do to get noticed on LinkedIn pretty immediately, and they're easy things that you can implement as we're talking right now. So the number one thing is your LinkedIn profile. So you guys get to look at my LinkedIn profile a lot over the next couple of minutes as I show you the anatomy of what you should include in yours. So first up is the strap line at the top of your in your cover photo.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Okay, we are recording.

Speaker 1: 2:28

I was like I better make sure we're recording. So the strap line should explain in just a few words exactly what you do and how you do it, so something that makes you special. It should be your value proposition and it should be short and snappy. So mine is biz dev meets content marketing, because it's just a little a unique take on content marketing to combine those things. So when you're creating your cover photo, the best way to showcase that strap line of yours is to have your cover photo as simple as possible. Just a couple of colors is perfectly fine in words, but have it in this exact design, like having your logo right there and your strap line on that end, because whether you're on a phone or on a computer device that'll allow people to read your strapline if you have it in this order.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Next up is your headline. So you want to include these pieces in all of your headlines. So so, so often I see just a job title and at whatever the company is, but that's not going to do it. You need to be able to pull people in, tell a little bit of a story and your value proposition with that headline, because no matter how they're viewing your LinkedIn profile, they're going to see that headline. It's on every post that you see. It's the first thing they see. So these are the things you want to include what you do, who you serve, your value proposition and your pitch. It's simple. So this one is mine and then anything if there's space, because you only have so many characters. Anything that adds authority is good to have in there Like I'll have my stats on my podcast there. But what you do, who you serve, value prop, pitch Definitely not job title at company. Now, remember, linkedin is also a search engine and people are using keywords to find you. So use the words that your customer is most likely to use throughout your profile. It's you basically want to do like. Think of your LinkedIn profile like you would. Any piece of content where you need to add that storytelling element with SEO. Seo always has to be a piece of it. Have questions, as we're going throw them in the chat. I'll look at them at the end.

Speaker 1: 5:14

The featured section so for anybody on here who doesn't have creative mode turned on, turn it on. It gives you a lot of extra features. That's how you're able to get the newsletters, that's how you're able to host audio events. And the creative mode. I think. Apps, I think everybody has access to it. You just have to turn it on. You get the features pushed out to you sooner. So what everybody else gets you get a year earlier. So this featured section, I like to be very strategic with it and have lead magnet on there, your fit call on there and any sort of like what your core content is. So it could be a community or if you have a podcast sending them to that. But sending them to those three things in the first three featured boxes on your LinkedIn profile will get them all of the stuff that they actually need, like how they can work with you, how you can get them on your email list and how they can be nurtured by you through your core content.

Speaker 1: 6:29

A lot of times I see a resume spit out on about sections. That's not what you want it to look like. You want it to be more of a story. You want to walk people through a journey. Walk people through a journey, think of like the hero's journey, where you start with a problem, the main character is going through some shit and he needs a guide to get him through it. So start with a hook, something that will pull them in, because when they go to your profile, they're only going to see the first couple lines of the about and they have to click more to see everything else. So make sure whatever is at the very top is interesting and gets them to click that, click more. So it could be a quote, it could be dialogue, a question, a bold statement, something controversial that will get them to say I need to know where they're going with this. Something to get them to see Click that, click more. And this is what the general anatomy should look like of the about section. So have that hook so people click more.

Speaker 1: 7:36

And then the pain and the benefit what pain is your customer going through and what benefit do they wish that they were seeing? Then showcase your authority and your unique solution. So authority could be how you've served other people in this way, how you, what is your unique like, the way that you serve in your unique way. And then the call to action. Call to action could be either DMing you or putting in your email address. Don't make it generic. Make it super simple for someone to be like okay, I want to work with her, what's the next step? So I do both. I say you can either DM me or you can email me at and then I give them my email address so they don't have to do a lot of work to work with me.

Speaker 1: 8:28

You can look at my LinkedIn profile the about section because I follow this exact formula for it. But that's the juice of it. You want to tell a story whenever you can and if you can walk them through an actual customer story, that's even better. Like, the beginning of my hook is an actual conversation I had with a customer and I always get comments about it Like did that really happen? Tell me more about the situation. So it's a conversation starter too.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Turn on the top skills and you can choose which ones of these like top skills. And under services, the little your skills that show up there. You need to be. You need to turn them on. Your skills that show up there you need to turn them on. And if you're a service provider, there is a special setting in LinkedIn where you could turn on services and you can showcase exactly what you do for your clients here in the experience section. Don't just list a bunch of stuff that you do the resume stuff Instead, tell a story. People are interested enough because they have gone through your about section. If they're going into the experience section, they're pretty committed to figuring out more about you. So tell them your origin story, how you ended up launching your business, how you transformed your employer with what you did. Did you come up with a framework? Did you come up with an amazing lead magnet that brought in X amount of conversions? Tell a story that gets people to understand the transformation that you can provide, and you don't have to say everything that you do in this section. It might seem like that, but you don't. You can do that in your company profile, but when you're telling a story about the transformation you have provided, you're giving them all that they actually need. They don't care about the what. They care about what you're going to do for them, like how you can solve their problem, not how you do it.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Pillar messaging strategy. When you're on LinkedIn, you're going to feel super repetitive following this strategy, but it works. You need to choose three things that you're going to talk about and stick to those three things. Make sure that they are related to what you do, and that's the only way you're going to become known for your thing and I might seem so boring to myself, because I've been talking about marketing when you have zero to two people in your marketing department for like six years and that's all I talk about. But people now recognize me as that person and they tag me when someone's talking about that, and that is the same thing that will happen for you, too, when you choose your thing and you stick to it. So it should all be. All three of those pillars should be related to your unique value proposition, your angle, what makes you different, favorite framework. So I'm sure you have noticed that LinkedIn posts all pretty much look similar. So, for reference or background on what I'm saying, I am part of the LinkedIn creator network, so I have a LinkedIn manager who tells me what works and what doesn't, and so this I'm giving you exactly what they're telling me works. Thank you, natalie. I'm glad.

Speaker 1: 12:39

The single sentence per line it works. Sentence per line it works. It gives you enough white space that it's really easy to read the story when you're scrolling through. So single line sentences or a single sentence per line Start with a hook. So, just like I was saying with the about, you want to start with a question, you want to start with dialogue. Start with a bold statement or something that's controversial, something that pulls them in, because once again, you're only seeing three lines at first. You have to hit that more and you have to interest me enough to click that more. Now, questions work really, really well Because if you want engagement, you want to make it as easy as possible to engage and if you're asking a question, then people know, okay, my comment should respond to that question, so that's the easiest one to encourage engagement. You want to tell a story, so you start with the hook and then the middle, the meat of the sandwich, would be the story that you're telling, some sort of teaching that you're providing for them, and then you want to end with either a question or some sort of resolution line that will pull people in.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Another great thing that's not on this framework but works really well is having that little almost signature at the end of your LinkedIn post where you say what I do, how you can connect with me other places, and all of that and LinkedIn has also said three hashtags on all of your posts works best. Now, as far as text video image there's, text is best in the algorithm text only If you're going to do images, usually images that are like a personal photo of you or casual do well, um, carousels. If you're going to do a carousel, make sure to download it as a pdf and upload it as a document, and that's the only way it works. Or it looks all janky and like um, like a collage. It ends up looking like a collage if you put it as an image, if you're repurposing from Instagram to LinkedIn, so that's the problem you just have to download it as a PDF and then video. I like to use video every once in a while to break up the feed. It does not do as well algorithm wise, but not a lot of people use it either. So if you do it every once in a while, it's a good way to get noticed and make sure your captions are turned on, because nobody's hitting that little line to unmute it. We're just reading the captions that, yes, it is recorded. I'll share it with you.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Another thing that people come to me a lot about is just the ability to be consistent with LinkedIn and how hard it is to show up all the time, and I freaking, I get it. Sometimes I feel exhausted at the prospect of having to show up Natalie feels me, but what I do to make it work for me is I have I use either micro habits and micro stacking or habit stacking. So micro habits would be like when I'm in a creative mode I will write all of my posts and schedule them out ahead of time. So I'll just do it all at the same time. I usually do it on my marketing Mondays. So quick, on my marketing Mondays I set aside four hours every week to do all of my marketing, including like my podcast editing, my podcast interviews, all of it. So at that same time I'm also doing all of my LinkedIn posts because I'm already in that mode and as I'm interviewing people, I'm getting ideas. So all my LinkedIn stuff happens then.

Speaker 1: 17:52

But if I'm lazy and I didn't do that, it's habit stacking that works. So I'll say when I'm lazy and I didn't do that, it's habit stacking that works. So I'll say when I'm making coffee, I'll post my LinkedIn post. Or when I'm doing my stretches during my work, my morning workout, that's when I'll do it. So stacking it on top of a habit that I'm already doing makes it a bit easier for me, and the habit stack that I do a lot with LinkedIn is the 15 minutes that I'm eating. My breakfast in the morning is when I'm commenting on everybody's posts. Then when I'm eating lunch, that's the 15 minutes I'm doing it in the afternoon and that's it. So it looks like I'm showing up all the time. I'm really not. I'm just scheduling it out and I'm showing up 30 minutes a day to comment and it takes me forever to write and finish a post. You can start drafting them Like when I'm feeling the spark, I put it in my Apple Notes and I start drafting it and then I'll copy and paste it over to LinkedIn and start editing when I'm feeling like it. But having those drafts already done and like available to me on my computer or my phone or wherever I have it, that helps a lot. At least I'm not starting from scratch.

Speaker 1: 19:12

I don't remember what I was saying before I was commenting or before I responded to that comment. Caitlin's with me. She does that To tell you that commenting is so important. I get more impressions and profile views from commenting on other people's posts than I do from writing my own posts. So if you're going to do one thing, then prioritize that. Prioritize commenting on other people's posts over your own. And it's okay if you're just choosing. I'm going to post once a week. Just choose like that. That is fine. Just be consistent. Okay.

Speaker 1: 19:58

Linkedin badge is the other question I get all the time. How do you get that top voice badge? So the only way you can get that top voice badge is by contributing to collaborative articles. So they're very specific articles in LinkedIn and you have to be the top 5%, so enough people have to say thumbs up. That was helpful for me that you are in the top 5% or above for your category. So that's how it happens. To get that choose one category to focus on. It annoys me to no end. I have multiple top badges and I can only showcase one. So just focus on the one instead of bothering with others, and then contribute to those collaborative articles within that one category. You need to do at least five to get in that top voice and they reassess it every 60 days. So keep up. Yeah, if you're getting those invitations, do it, but look for that one category that you're trying to get in, trying to get in. So, like I was saying, they reassess every 60 days. So you want to, at least once a week, go in and comment on five more within that category, so you keep up and the more engagement you get, the better you do so. Nobody else sees it but you. But you'll see what percentage you are of top voice. Like in content strategy, I'm top 1% content voice and that's based off of people who have said this is helpful and gave it a thumbs up.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Hot seats three things from you. If you haven't already, drop linkedin link in the chat um, when I share this out with everybody who's joined today, you should all get a copy of this. You'll also get the links. If you didn't get a chance to connect with everybody on here. If you haven't already, try out the Tiny Marketing Pod. That's my podcast that I produce every week and it's just like this messy and the LinkedIn profile makeover.

Speaker 1: 22:26

If you don't want to do this yourself, then you can have me do it. We'll do a one-on-one messaging interview, so me and you chitty chatting for about 60 minutes and then you'll get a messaging strategy on a page. You'll get the cover photo with the strapline, the headline, the about us, the experience, 30 custom LinkedIn prompts based off of that messaging strategy and your messaging, one pager. So that's $9.95. So that is an option if you're like you know what. This is a great webinar, but I don't want to do that myself, so that's a thing. Okay, let's get into hot seats. Does Raise your hand if you want to pull up your profile? Okay, can you share it in the chat? If you haven't already, let me scan real fast and I'll share it with the audience already. Let me scan real fast and I'll share it with the audience.

Speaker 2: 23:40

I was trying to raise my hand and I hit the wrong button. Sorry.

Speaker 1: 23:44

Okay, cool, I'll pull yours up too.

Speaker 2: 23:49

So mine should be up there Very top Say Shu yes, I found it.

Speaker 1: 23:54

I'm just going to pull up Denise's Very cops issue. Yes, I found it. I'm just going to pull up Denise's real fast too. Any other hand raises while I'm pulling up profiles. Let's see you, because not everybody's on the screen. More people showed up live than I thought. Thank you, all right, I am going to move. I'm going to share my screen. It is screen sharing. No, I didn't think so. All right, I'm going to try again. Yes, all right, awesome.

Speaker 1: 24:54

Okay, let's have each other look like a professional. Feel like a rock star connections. Oh wait, connecticut head one. Love your thing. I would move your strap line over here and I don't know. You don't need the headshots in the cover photo, so move this over here so people could see it from their phone or from the computer and remove the headshot, because it'll make it hard to see it on either device. People will get it. Look like a professional of a field. I would change your strap line to one. Make it clear that you're doing headshots and you don't need the domain name in there, because they'll be able to get to your domain name down here, but you can have something like an arrow that will show them where to go to your link. Do you use this hashtag?

Speaker 2: 26:21

I do.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Does anybody else?

Speaker 2: 26:26

That I don't know, I'm not sure.

Speaker 1: 26:31

You probably don't need it. It would probably be a stronger call to action to move someone towards your um, a lead magnet that you might have, or whatever. The next step is to book the. To book the headshot. It's valuable real estate up here because they're seeing it right away. Okay, one thing here is when you have the custom link instead of the button, it won't show up when you're creating content. So when you're posting, you'll have that button that shows up on your post in the feed if you have the regular button instead of a custom link.

Speaker 2: 27:18

But the button. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 1: 27:21

Yes, use the button, Then people can click directly to your link straight from your posts. You have the providing services, which is good. Providing services, which is good. Add in those elements I was talking about before. Have a lead magnet on there. Have whatever the first step is a fit caller, however, they work with you. And then whatever content you're producing regularly it could be like your top post, but it might be your website or your blog, something that will get them to closer to buying from you.

Speaker 1: 28:09

Okay, be about Like I lean into that rock star. Like look like a professional, feel like a rock star. You can lean into it more, like this header up here with the green and the swirlies doesn't give me rock star vibes. You can lean into that heavily. And here you could tell a story like how has this service helped people transform and feel? When I think of feel like a rock star, I think of like being unique and standing and standing out and being more of an authority that people look at, like, look to, and that's something that you would want to tell through story in in the about section.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Okay.

Speaker 1: 29:10

But I would start with you when you're making it really customer-centric, people will be able to put themselves in the shoes of the story that you're telling. So you'll feel relaxed and confident in your business portraits. You definitely won't feel embarrassed anymore when people go to your LinkedIn profile and they're like you're like cringing at the idea of someone going to it. So helping them understand how they'll feel and the transformation they'll feel from going like cringe to. I hope, I hope they go to it. I hope they see my new headshot Right. Okay, I hope you found that helpful. I will, uh share now.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Thank you let's see.

Speaker 1: 30:02

If it takes 20 minutes to share denise's profile like it did that one, I see thumbs up. Yes, I take that as a win. All right, you have your strap line in the right spot so people can see it no matter what, although it's probably like the height is too much where you might not be able to see it on all devices. I would just double check that it's mobile friendly. Let's see. I help leaders navigate change to create purpose-driven outcomes and greater life fulfillment. Just tighter, in a couple words, how you transform their lives. Or, yeah, exactly like how, how do you help them navigate change? Or what experience have they have? Why do they oof here like leaning into the pain? Why do they need help navigating pain? Okay, yep, um, okay, let's go into your headline. Boom, you have what you do right there helping companies, leaders and teams create purpose-driven outcomes and greater life fulfillment. So are you working with? Is it usually the company that's hiring you for that, or is it an individual? It can be both.

Speaker 2: 31:39

So that's where I didn't want to. Sometimes the leaders themselves will come to me for one-on-one. Sometimes the company hire me to do both coaching and recruiting. Okay.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Purpose-driven outcomes. Can you describe what purpose-driven means in this context?

Speaker 2: 31:59

Yeah. So it's when it's not just like, oh, I have this goal, but nobody can understand what the value of the goal is. It's really the outcome that the team they're desiring is, because it's going to help them do it right. So there's purpose. I talk a lot about high-performing team and what I call the culture of, and which is part of what I want to get into talking about, which is people and performance, and so when people understand their value and the purpose that they're providing, then they can make sure they get the outcomes that are driven towards with that purpose.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Okay, I would lean into the motivation for looking for you in this statement, like what is the pain that they're feeling? What transformation do they want to see? I like the idea of people and purpose, helping people understand their value in the workplace. I don't know if that's exactly your thing, but do you see what I'm saying with that?

Speaker 2: 33:10

Yeah, but that's the whole premise of a high performing team. They understand their value. Then they can be more motivated and engaged toward getting the outcomes that the teams desire.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Yeah like help your employees feel more valued and see the results skyrocket, or something like that. But leaning into what's triggering them, what transformation they want to have. Okay, I oh again switch this to the button so people can see it when you're commenting and when you're posting. Okay, oh, we have some mutual friends, just interesting. Um, oh, we have some mutual friends, just interesting. Um, it looks like you can still.

Speaker 2: 33:59

you still have the opportunity to turn on services to be able to highlight what you do yeah, I had that as a question of how you do that, but I can then look it up too. I don't want to take yeah let.

Speaker 1: 34:10

Yeah, it's, it's on the background and in like, in settings. I think you can turn on services. Okay, in featured I'll respond to that later. In featured you can. You can add so many of them, so I would go with three and have it go to your website, have it go to your lead magnet, have it go to your fit call.

Speaker 2: 34:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:44

About your background right now. So I would talk about the transform like pick, one of your favorite customers that you've worked with before and the transformation that you helped to bring them through and tell that story. Maybe start with the dialogue of like what triggered them in the first place and how they felt before what you did, and then how they felt after. That could be a good one. And then, towards the end of it, before the call to action, you'll want to explain what your process is or the framework that you go through, so people can understand the unique way that you do it. Create a company profile here. It's not super important to create content for that, but you'd want it because people usually go there as a landing page. How?

Speaker 2: 35:44

do I get to their website, or what's called creating a company profile? Yeah, create a company page. Oh, company page, okay, so I need to create a separate page, okay.

Speaker 1: 35:58

Yeah, it's really easy to do and you can add a lead form right on there. So all you really need to do is put in like a great about section in there your website. You can use the same photo and like headshot and cover photo that you have on your personal profile there, and then you'll be able to have a logo right there.

Speaker 2: 36:21

Okay, I was wondering how to do that. Awesome, yeah, super helpful.

Speaker 1: 36:25

Thank you, you're welcome. So it looks like you're highlighting your top skills, which is awesome, and once again, right here, I would lean into the story element of it. Start with the hook, pull them in.

Speaker 1: 36:40

Tell a story about how you ended up building this business, like what was your origin story if you were a superhero, that brought you to building this business and how have you transformed people's lives through it you're welcome okay, we are 10 minutes over, but I warned you the hot seats were going to be after, so if anybody does anybody else have questions, cause I can hang out for a couple more minutes Caitlin, who else has questions? I'll bounce. Remember, head over to the chat and follow everybody on here so we can all connect. You guys should be getting a like the recap of this so you'll get this video and you'll get the chat, so you'll have everyone's LinkedIn profiles and if you have any questions, hook up with me on LinkedIn. That's where I hang out and you know I'm there 30 minutes a day, so I will see your message.

Speaker 1: 37:57

All right, thanks everyone for joining. Thank you, bye. All right, gorgeous creatures, that was that. I hope you enjoyed the workshop and don't forget to scroll on down below to the show notes where you can grab the LinkedIn playbook. See you next week. If you enjoyed this episode, please, please, please remember to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and rate and review, but, most importantly, tell your friends, share this episode with a friend so other people know about tiny marketing and our uncut summer series. I will see you next week with another great one.