Can LinkedIn Get You Clients and Leads?
Can LinkedIn get you clients and leads? Can you really grow a brand and presence on LinkedIn. YES you can!
Jose Miguel Longo is here to share why you should consider using LinkedIn to grow your brand, who to connect with organically, how to use LinkedIn groups, how to network and how to drive engagement on your LinkedIn posts.
Connect with Jose:
Check out the Podcast: Life & Business Coaching for Millennials
Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post
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Full Transcription:
Alrighty ladies, you know, I love social media, but there’s one platform that I constantly ignored. I wouldn’t even look at the app, staring me on the phone. I really didn’t know what to do on this platform. And I’m talking about LinkedIn. Honestly, I had no idea what I should be doing on LinkedIn. I didn’t know how to build a brand or presence on LinkedIn until I met our amazing guest today. Jose Miguel Longo. Let me tell you, he will totally change your perspective on LinkedIn. He will change how you show up on LinkedIn. Get ready to create a LinkedIn presence and build your brand in an authentic way. Jose will teach you how to be relevant, how to get into groups, how to connect and network, how to drive organic engagement, how often you should be showing up on the platform, how to use key words, and most importantly, how to grow your brand.
I guarantee Jose is going to be your new LinkedIn best friend. Let’s dive in. Hey there, my boss, welcome to the social media for mompreneurs podcast, where we dive into personal branding, how to build our businesses on social media, learn some really cool marketing hacks all while balancing family life. And don’t forget we do it. The fun and easy way. I’m Alison Scholz, once a corporate marketing coordinator, a teacher, and now photographer and podcaster. And yes, I’m that boss, lady and sweat pants. Go ahead and hand out the kids’ tablets. Open those juice boxes, put on your comfy sweat pants and hiding your closet. Let’s get this party started. Hey Jose,
How’s it going, Alison, thanks for having me.
Yeah, I’m glad you’re here. And I am really excited to talk about LinkedIn because
I’m not going to lie. That is the platform that I have just been ignoring.
See the app on my phone and then
I scroll away from it. I think it’s the one that people probably find the most intimidating to jump on if they’ve never used it before. Yeah.
Well, before we jumped into all the goods of LinkedIn and how to create a presence and build your brand,
I would really like you to introduce yourself and tell us more about your business. Awesome. Yes. So my name’s Jose Miguel Longo. Um, my business’s name is coaching with Jose Miguel. I’m also the host of the life and business coaching for millennials podcast. So I work with all different types of clients, um, who are looking to find more purpose in life, create a better for successful future and really mass out into their career and find something that really is in their passion, in their wheelhouse and really deeper into their purpose. Um, so I’ve been practicing as a holistic life coach for past 11 years. Um, I’m a certified life purpose coach. And my day job outside of my business is actually I’m a director of career services at a college. So I’ve been in this work for a long time, helping people really discover, not just their purpose, but really finding what makes them tick into matching their values, their skills and their interests and to where they want to be in life. Um, so bringing all those things together, kind of play a good role. I also help people find a purpose when they’re looking to actually create a business. So sometimes people realize that they don’t want to work for somebody. They really want to do this on their own. So becoming an entrepreneur, what to do on their Chinese, either build a brick and mortar, or if they’re wanting to do an online business.
Well, that is so cool. Jose. I love what you’re doing and that’s so great that you are helping people find their purpose. Cause a lot of people actually put that on the back burner burner and they just feel like they have to get through Monday through Friday and just do a nine to five just to survive. And we forget about our ultimate purpose. So that’s so cool. Now I’m going to come out of the Gates with a loaded,
Why should,
Would we be on or consider using LinkedIn to grow our brand?
Yeah, so that’s a really good question. That’s a loaded one, like you said. So, you know, ultimately when LinkedIn first launched way back when in the late, you know, early two thousands, late nineties, I want to say it was like 2010. Maybe, maybe even earlier than that. It was the, it was known as the professional Facebook. Okay. Um, and so if you were the person who was looking to create a professional presence, you went to LinkedIn, um, and ultimately it’s still some of that, but it’s really where you can be your true, authentic self to engage in a networking platform. That’s not specifically for posting your opinion on politics and sharing what your kids are doing. It’s really a place where you want to connect with other likeminded people who are in the profession or industry that you wish to want to explore, or maybe you just want to be there and live in it.
And what people are saying, you can get your news, you can get sure. Um, four one, one, if you want to call it gossip or not, you can get pretty much anything from a to Z soup to nuts in LinkedIn. LinkedIn has really transformed itself to be an all inclusive, um, platform that allows people to combine their lifestyle, their career, their brand, their business, and then also ultimately any type of success. LinkedIn was also the very first social networking to have groups. And I say this because groups have existed for over 10 years. I have groups that I’ve had from when I started on LinkedIn, way back when, when I used to be a LinkedIn trainer, um, and I was active in those groups and some of these groups have 60,000, a hundred thousand people in them that are still very active, where you go in and you join the group, you engage and have conversations and you get noticed.
Um, another reason you might want to have LinkedIn is if you’re the person who is actively looking to start looking for a job, and maybe you’re not getting the best of luck with just applying to job search engines or job search platforms that aren’t delivering for you, the power of networking is the way to go. And LinkedIn is kind of like a spider web. When you connect on LinkedIn, you can identify people who are your first degree connections, secondary connections in surgery, connections, not depending on the type of profile and account, you set up meaning free or paid. You’re able to connect with first and second degree connections. If you’re looking to subscribe to LinkedIn premium, which is a paid service, you can connect with third degree connections and have messaged notifications. So when you harness the power of networking, you’re able to engage in your specific audience, connect to people in specific industries and then identify opportunities, whether it’s an opportunity to present and sell your business or an opportunity for a job. So lots of, lots of information there, there’s so much more to dig in deeper. Um, but it really, isn’t all inclusive. I’m going to keep seeing this platform for people to engage and find opportunity to learn and to either sell them, promote their business, or to be able to find the job. And I should say more career because we get stuck on the job, which pays the bills and the career that brings you life.
Oh, I like that. And I like how you said when LinkedIn first came out, it was more the professional version of Facebook. And that’s probably when I got on. And so that probably didn’t fit where I was at that time. But now we need to look at it more as online networking. And I really like that perspective so much better. Cause I’m already feeling different about LinkedIn just by changing that perspective. Now, who are we trying to connect with on LinkedIn, especially as entrepreneurs.
Yeah. So you want to build a client lists. You want to build the people who ultimately are on they’re seeking to learn about you and what it is that you’re offering. What is the problem we are trying to solve for your client, for your, you know, your Lola or your avatar, right? And identify the call to action. So when you’re looking at LinkedIn, it’s important to obviously show up and create this presence that you ultimately want to share and engage with. So whether it’s in the LinkedIn feed of the people that you follow, or the people you’re connected with engaging in the conversations that are in the chat, um, or in the comments sections, um, being able to create your own posts, your own articles and your own activities that are engaging. So the same idea that we think about, for example, Instagram, during engaging with people with either a video, a photo or some sort of quote, that’s visual, that someone can see what the image says, understand that connect like or comment and move on.
Whereas with LinkedIn, you have the same idea of visualization. However, there’s another layer of building a sense of community. That’s a foundation to how you’re building your brand. And it’s an, a larger platform. That’s ultimately this network. When you talk about like Instagram, for example, it’s one on one, unless you’re digging deep into the comments or the likes to look at your analytics. You’re not really seeing that in LinkedIn, you can’t. So you want to be ultimately engaging in mindful of who you’re speaking to, but you want to build a presence with the whole audience, obviously attract more followers and then attract more people to connect with you.
So let’s jump into Lee, a little bit of the tactical. When we want to organically drive, um, engagement and get, grow our community or grow
Our network circle. What
Kinds of posts should we be doing on LinkedIn? Cause I like how you’re comparing Instagram and LinkedIn because I know Instagram, but now I’m kind of like, okay, what do I need to put on LinkedIn? Because I don’t think they want to see
A funny mom meme. I don’t know if that would work. It could, but you have to know your audience, right? So authenticity is super important, especially when you, the biggest thing about social media and the biggest thing about people who are entrepreneurs in the online business world is you don’t have this brick and mortar of being able to connect with people in a way that you can get to know them as opposed to online. So unless you are able to build this connection where this person can say, Oh my God, that’s totally me. I see this person. I get it. You have to kind of build that relevance. So you start from like your profile. Your profile is where the first place someone’s going to go. Whether they find something that you posted that resonated with them and then to learn more about you. So when you talk about what you need to do, your profile, Instagram is three lines, right?
But you’re profiling thin. I always say as a resume that never sleeps, right? So you can put your whole dossier of everything you’ve done in your whole entire life, from your college coursework. If you went to college from certifications and training, anything you wanted to be. So if you want someone to know about you and who you are and what you’re there for, that’s where you show up. So what you post and engage with your activity is really for what you want people to that attract you to then connect with you. Um, so right now miling thin is blowing up in my messages because people want to connect and engage with me. People are sharing what I’m posting, even though I haven’t lived in LinkedIn, I took a break, right? Like we take a social media detox. I took a break from LinkedIn. It was a, it was a mild separation, but not quite a divorce.
And I, I took that break because I wasn’t ready to be on the platform the way that I needed to be and much like yourself, I wasn’t necessarily intimidated, but I needed to find what it was that I needed to go back in there and share it. I started to realize for me, personally, that I shifted from this professional persona of what my day job is to then applying it to my business. Because as a coach online, that wasn’t a part that I was sharing. So I had to bring it to life with the podcast. I had to bring it into life with what my background is. I had to bring it to life and engaging in conversations in the chats and engaging in conversations. And when I say chats, meaning in the feed of the people that I’m following or following me or the people that I’m connected with. And then jumping back into those groups are looking for new groups that are, are either life. Coach groups are groups about people who are entrepreneurs that are likeminded. Um, there’s huge networking sessions that people host live and they post them onto LinkedIn as videos it’s really transformed from what it was back then to this professional business, social networking platform. It really has changed.
So how often does it matter? How often should we be showing up on LinkedIn? Like, you know, usually the rule of thumb for like Facebook or Instagram, if you want to stay relevant and consistent it’s once a day, is it kind of the same thing?
I would say? Yeah, I would say three to four times a week. So you talk about, you know, doing one post a week or two posts a week, but then the rule of thumb is that when you post something, go ahead and comment on something else that someone else posted and engage with people so that they can see that you’re there so that they can see that you’re active and then go on into groups and start showing up in the groups. Um, being able to showcase that you’re present and you’re having these conversations is really critical to your visualization and your activity. It’s really easy to just say, I posted a video or I posted a new article or I posted a new meme or whatever you want to on there and walk away and be like, I’m going to wait and see what happens cause something’s going to happen.
I know it’s going to happen and nothing happens cause you didn’t show up. Um, so yeah, I mean, I would say three to four times a week is a really good rule of thumb to build that presence and visualization for people to know that you’re there, but then also commenting and the actual feed, you know, making new connections is also super important and powerful. The idea of building that network because you’re really there to network is what’s going to also help you show up more as well. So while you’re thinking about what am I going to post start searching for people who are likeminded that you would want to connect with and don’t just click the button to connect, send them a personalized message to say, Hey, I noticed that we’re in the same business type of world or where we have a lot of things in common based on what I saw on your posts. I would love to connect with you and your network and personalize that message to the person you’re trying to connect with super important.
So what I’m hearing is no posting and ghosting for sure. They there and engage and then almost use LinkedIn for, it’s not about us, but it’s about the community that we can find on there. So really get on there to serve and nurture your community and not just get on there, thinking you are just going to post something and then get something out of it.
Yeah. A hundred percent. So you’re, we always want to think about, what am I going to get out of doing this? If I’m spending the time doing it because time is money, right? But at the same time, you want to be fully engaged. And knowing that if you want a result, you need to show up. And so how are you going to show up for the people that you’re ultimately are trying to reach? So when we talk about, for example, your podcast, your podcast is a really good way to start showing up and showcasing. What is your podcast about? There’s probably a host slew of entrepreneurs out there who are online entrepreneurs that don’t know how to use Instagram by sharing your podcast and telling them who you are and how you can solve a problem for them with your podcast is how you show up.
So giving them the, telling them the problem I get it. Here’s what, here’s what I did. And then putting it in there and showing up and then engaging with people in groups. It’s almost like a step by step process. You create your posts, you put it out there, you made, you make your network aware of that, right? You make sure it’s showing up in the feed and then you go to a group or you go to someone else’s posts and you start to comment. I always like to compare it to taking an online course. And they way back when I started using online courses and used to be required that you created a post and then you went in comments into two or three other people’s posts. I always think of that analogy. When you talk about engagement and it’s, it’s the most basic level of engagement, because all you’re doing is reading information that someone else is posting. You’re absorbing the information and then you’re responding with your comments on whether you agree or maybe another thought process and really try to create some sort of connectivity.
That’s awesome. I love that. Now earlier you mentioned something about the profile and you can go deeper with your profile compared to Instagram. Do you have any like optimization tips? Are there any like big no-nos or like heck yes. When it comes to your profile.
So I’ll say this and people get really nervous. When I hear, when I say this, your, your, your profile is a resume that doesn’t sleep. I said that before you want to optimize your profile with the key words that are specific to your industry, specific to your brand and specific to what you’re wanting people to find in you, but, and here’s where the buck comes in. You want to make sure and your headline up in the top piece. So it’s your name? And then it’s like your job title or your headline or your header. If you want to call it that, that’s where you ultimately want to make sure that those key words show up. Because if someone’s searching for you, the most critical things are going to be on there. So for example, for me, I have my tagline. I help millennials in life, career in business, right?
So those key words, whether it’s the life career in business are the ones that I want to show up. What I want someone searching. Um, and that’s engaged, increased my engagement probably 10 times over in the last month when I just updated my headline, I didn’t go deep into my profile. I only went into my headline. I changed my cover photo. I changed, um, my, I put my business on there because that shows up the thing about LinkedIn is that when you make a change to your profile immediately, your network knows something changed and you have all these notes and congratulations and notifications that come through, which then starts to create more engagement. It starts to kind of make it more engaging. So gives you the opportunity to jump into that feed and show up.
Okay. So when we get off this call, I am going to go stock your page on LinkedIn and make sure that I optimize my profile because you just said like your, I help statement or your brand message. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I have that on Instagram. I need to make sure that I have that in my headline on LinkedIn. Like duh.
Yeah. And the thing of it is go ahead and search for people who like you can do. So like your thing is helping moms who are entrepreneurs maximize Instagram, right? The word maximize Instagram is a really good word. SEO is all over the place. It’s not just about your website, it’s in your resume. It’s in your LinkedIn profile. It’s in your, um, in your handshake. I’m so sorry. So used to my career world, but it’s in your Instagram. So like you talk about keyword optimization showing up in that way is going to be really important. So, um, I would search for people who are either like-minded entrepreneurs, maybe it’s a social media entrepreneur, a social media strategist, or Instagram influencer and see what their profile looks like. You’ll get to see if, how many people they’re connected to how many people are following them. And then, you know, okay, they’ve got 10 keywords. I need to add into my profile. I haven’t done my homework. I’ll be honest in my profile. Cause like, like I just mentioned, I only did the header. So that headline piece, I did the cover photo and then I added my business. I haven’t done the rest of it. But the key words in my profile that were there previously are still relevant to what I do.
And you’re still showing up each and every week for your audience. And that’s what counts.
I’m showing up with my podcasts. I’m showing up and engaging in other people’s posts. I’m showing up in the groups
And I want our listeners to understand when you said, go ahead and check out what other people are doing in like the same area or niche. And I know some people feel funny about doing that, cause they’re like, Oh, I don’t want to steal. And I always say, it’s not stealing it’s market research. So go ahead and do it
Stealing is if you copy and paste their, their actual job description or you copy and paste, maybe a freebie that they have as a download and then you use it in, don’t give them credit. And if you give them credit, it’s not sealing. You’re borrowing because then you’re giving the person credit who created it. So you’re not stealing in this case. You want to be able like people do it all the time. Let’s be honest. Like there, there’s not one idea it’s not original over another. Right. But what’s most important is that you’re adding value to yourself while someone else who’s successful. Why can’t you do the same thing? Why would you break your neck? Trying to do something else that’s already been done before, but ain’t broke. Don’t try to fix it.
Right? We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Absolutely not. Oh, Jose, this was so awesome. I feel like I’ve learned so much in just this quick half hour and I can’t wait to jump on LinkedIn and stock your account. I’m going to connect with you on there. And I want everyone else here to connect with you. So Jose, before we end, please tell us where we can find you or connect with you on social media.
So, so I’m on every platform you can think of. I’m I’ve I wasn’t social media way back when social media became social media, someone Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, um, you can just search at Jose Miguel Longo. So it’s J O S E M I G U E L aloe NGO. So all my name and, um, I have my website too. So you can always visit my website, which has coaching with Jose Miguel. And I have all my information relevant to me and the packages and the things that I do. Um, I couldn’t want to just throw in one plug that I’m working on creating a, so if anybody, if your, your OD, if there’s anybody in your audience who is looking to either update their resume or considering transitioning from one career to another, I’m working on a live LinkedIn building workshop that’s for mid career or late career individuals who really want size their resume and make sure it stands out.
So this is a live workshop. It’s the only time I’m offering it this year. It’s at the end of August. And then, um, it’s for only $47, which is a really no brainer price. But on my website, I offer a career search toolkit, which helps people optimize their resume cover letter and then an interviewing, um, success package. And then I’m also creating a LinkedIn master class, which is going to be, um, showing up on teachable in mid September. So people will be able to see it on the website, but also can connect to the podcast from you and be able to find that on there.
That’s awesome. And I will make sure that all of this is in the show notes. So listeners make sure you connect with Jose because he’s awesome. And thanks again for being on the show.
You’re so welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure and I appreciate it.
Thank you for tuning in today. If you love today’s episode, then please head over to iTunes, social media for mompreneurs and leave a review. Your review helps grow the show and don’t forget head to boss, lady, and sweatpants.com to grab all my freebies and hang out with me on Instagram at Alison Shoals. I’ll see you soon.
