Speaking and Communicating Podcast

Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating podcast. I am your host Roberta. If you are looking to improve your communication skills professionally and personally, this is the podcast for you. Today, I am joined by Daniel Alfon. He is based in Israel and he's here to share with us how to improve your LinkedIn profile so that it converts amongst other things.
00:25
Daniel has been a LinkedIn expert for years and what he's going to share with us today is gonna be very valuable. And before I go any further, please help me welcome Daniel. Hi. Hi, Roberta. Thank you very much for having me to speak in communication podcast. Thank you for being here. I've been waiting for somebody like you because LinkedIn remains a mystery for so many of us. First of all, just give us a bit of your background. At one point, Roberta, LinkedIn helped me slash my sales cycle 30%.
00:54
It was in 2006, two years after I signed up, because for the first time I could see the name of the person I needed to reach out to as a salesperson. And before that, we had to pay a lot of money to get all sorts of databases that were out of date. And it was like walking into a candy store. You could look at any corporation on earth and you can find the exact manager you'd like to approach. And that was the aha moment that led me to dig a bit deeper and to see what's under the hood.
01:22
And since you hit record, 100 people have joined LinkedIn, two people sign up every second. So it's a very powerful platform. Wow. So you say you approach people. Doesn't that sound a little aggressive for some, especially because it's a professional network. I think a lot of us work on actuals when dealing with LinkedIn profiles and people in there. You're a hundred percent right. But I have maybe two or three excuses I could give first. I wouldn't approach them on LinkedIn. They just gave me the name and then I would do something else.
01:52
And I was in sales. I had to call a number of people in order to offer them something. And that was the reason I did it. And my specialty is helping actually inbound leads using LinkedIn. But that was the first time I used LinkedIn professionally, just to find the name of the person. And then when I had a trade show or the exhibition or the event, you know, who is the right person you needed to speak with. So when you say inbound leads, what does that mean?
02:20
Let's imagine I've been recently promoted from a full stack developer into a team leader. I'm scared to death. I'm scared to death because up until that moment, I was judged based on the quality of the code I was writing. But for the first time, I have four subordinates all are looking at me. And this is the first time I've done this. And I understand that when we had the team meeting, I wasn't conveying my message in the right way. And I wanted to improve my public speaking.
02:48
So if I want to improve my public speaking, I need to find people who can help me gain confidence and learn how to convey the message and simplify the message, both in emails and written communication, and also when I speak with, you know, one-on-one like this, or one-to-many with my teams, with stakeholders, with my new managers. That's why I'm going back to the idea of...
03:15
people because I feel like a lot of us, even though we might have an idea of what we're selling online, the challenge becomes, do I still appear professional if I just message someone and connect and say, Hi, Daniel, I think you might be in need of this offering that I have. What do you think? Does this sound too aggressive? So the inbound usually means that when I look for content or look for specialists,
03:42
then I would find Roberta and I would see what exactly is she doing and could that be of help to me? And if I understand that your knowledge and your expertise could help me shorten my learning cycle and improve my public speaking, then you would get an email from you, you'll get something. And then I would introduce myself and ask, could you help me do that? And then maybe I would become a paying client. So inbound means making people contact you.
04:12
Okay, so they come to you, you know, aggressively going after them. And if you are specific, then you get the right sort of inquiries. We'll touch on that later because I think that's where a lot of the online coaches come in. But firstly, let's talk about just basic steps, initial steps to creating the kind of profile that will help people contacting you because I think that's a good place to be in. What are some of the first things you need to be cognizant of?
04:41
Excellent. So what I would suggest to Roberta are three questions. First question, who's your ideal reader on LinkedIn? LinkedIn has over 850 million users and could pick one sort of niche. Who would that niche be? Who's your avatar? Who's your ideal prospect? Or if you're looking for a new position, who's the hiring manager that could say Roberta, I need someone with your skillset, I'd like to schedule an entity. So question number one, who's your ideal reader on earth?
05:10
Okay, not necessarily all LinkedIn. And then if we could make that sort of people visit your LinkedIn profile, what action would you like them to perform? If I'm interested in public speaking and I'm bumping into your profile, what action would you like them to perform? Meaning maybe book a consultation call or something like that. The last question is, first was, who's your ideal reader? Second question, what action would you like them to perform? So let's say ideal reader.
05:37
someone who wants to improve their public speaking and they don't feel they have the confidence to do it. And the second answer is reach out to you and schedule a strategy call or something like that. So last question, are we providing those public speakers with the right information at the right time that would make them understand that Roberto is part of the solution. And that starts with the banner and the headline. The banner is the visual elements that
06:06
communicate that is next to your profile photo. And the headline is the all important text that's glued to your name. So if this is relevant to me as a potential public speaker or as a newly appointed manager, I'm more intrigued to see what exactly do you offer. And then I'm able to scroll down and maybe see examples of how you help people. And the more I read, the more I become convinced that you could be part of the solution and only then.
06:35
would I be able to actually reach out to you and say, let's try and schedule a call. So try to provide them with the right answers at the right time. So they understand why they need to reach out to you. And you do that obviously, not just with your profile, but your posts, the things that you post, your activity. Yes, but let me ask you this. Many people are worried about sharing and the frequency they need to share and how the algorithm, all sorts of things.
07:04
Can you try to guess what is the number one activity on LinkedIn? What is it that those billion users perform on LinkedIn the most? What is the activity that most LinkedIn users perform on LinkedIn? Take a guess. Is it posting maybe a link to a blog post about reading an article on something? Many people do that, but there's another action that people do even more than that. Posting a video?
07:32
That's a great answer to another question. No, even more common than this. Liking or commenting on other people's posts. I'll help you a bit. Based on LinkedIn statistics, the number one activity is visiting other people's profiles. Oh yes. And if you think of it, many of the actions that you mentioned, liking commenting or posting or searching.
07:59
either start or end with you visiting someone's profile. So before we worry about sharing and should we share it twice a day or once a month or whatever and how we share the algorithm, let's start with the basics. In mostly social media platforms, our profiles are not really important. People are driven to you by the content that you share. If we look at Twitter or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, then the content is what makes people cover you.
08:28
But on LinkedIn, most people will simply visit your profile to understand whether they're interested in following you or booking that call or asking someone else about you. Please make sure that your profile shines and answers those questions before you worry about sharing because sharing is not going to be seen by most of your network. So it's the profile that is the most important before anything else. Yeah.
08:56
Once if you have 30,000 connections, then it makes sense to share in a number in a consistent way. And that's fine. But if that's not the case, forget about sharing. Just look at your profile from your ideal prospects or your ideal readers eyes and ask yourself, am I answering their questions? If I was looking for someone who could help me polish my public speaking skills and I'm a new manager, will I understand that within five seconds?
09:24
LinkedIn is like you rightly said, it's a professional network. So that means people are using LinkedIn. Their state of mind is professional, business, conservative, slow. An image of yours that would be perfectly acceptable on Instagram with you, sunbathing on the beach would not be appropriate for LinkedIn. Okay.
09:45
The way you build your profile needs to take into account the platform you're using. And LinkedIn usually means we need to be more conservative, like we show up for work. Okay, we don't need to overdress, but if I'm not showing up for work in a bikini, then I wouldn't put it on LinkedIn because it would make most people go away and don't even read or don't even decide to engage with you. So the profile really is the most important thing before you even start thinking about posting. Right, man.
10:13
After you've got a stellar profile, step number one may be building the right sort of presence on LinkedIn, your profile. Number two would be to decide who you'd like to connect with. Step number three would be to decide about the content you'd like to share. And step number four would be either outreach or lead generation or applying for jobs or something that is more transactional if you'd like. And if you haven't mentioned content, I'd like to say something about content. Go ahead. Yes.
10:43
The best way I found to use content on LinkedIn is to put yourself in your ideal readers shoes. Let's say again, a newly appointed manager who feel their public speaking leaves a lot to be desired. And you ask yourself, what sort of questions are they struggling with now? How do I succeed in my new job as a manager? How do I make people respect me? Because I was a peer, like I was working next to you.
11:09
And now I need to define your deliverables or give you kudos. So ask yourself what sort of questions are they struggling with and Robert, if you're able to produce content that answers those people's questions in an educational, non-salesy evergreen way, then they're like you're to go the next step with you now, I understand that you know what I'm talking about and now when you say that you can help me.
11:37
improve my public speaking, I would be listening a lot more attentively. So don't start with your offer because no one will buy that. But do start showing them that you can help them move from stage A to stage B. And once they're thankful, tell them that there's a whole stage C and D you can help them go through. And to do that, all they have to do is maybe schedule a call with you. So not the aggressive salesy type of approach.
12:07
Right. It doesn't work and we don't like to be sold to, but we want to buy. Yeah, that's true. If I consume the content and I understand that you know exactly what trouble I'm facing, then I'm willing to buy. But you don't have to show me that I'm a fraud and say, I've got this offer, I've got that offer. You need to make me understand. You know so much about my challenges that you can certainly help me move from where I am to my next. Right.
12:35
A lot of people feel like my profile would be more credible if I have a certain number of connections. And so we just click connect, connect, connect. And a lot of people don't connect back. They don't accept the connection request. I've heard that there's a LinkedIn jail, meaning there's a certain number that where you keep connecting it, less than 20% of people connect back that they put you in LinkedIn jail, so to speak.
13:03
I don't know what they do to your profile, whether they stop you from connecting for a while. Do you know anything about that? What might happen is that your account will become restricted. In other words, when you next time you'd like to connect with someone, then LinkedIn will pop up a message saying, Roberta, you need to provide a person's email before we can send them the invitation. And that effectively blocks your outgoing invitations because in most cases you would not have that person's email.
13:30
So it's not a good idea to be in that jail. It's not a good idea to connect with people you don't know well. As a leader, the question we should ask ourselves is, am I doing the popular thing or am I doing what's right? Because let's imagine I'm looking at your profile and I notice that we share a mutual connection. In real life, what I would do is often reach out to that person and ask her, should I speak with Roberta? What can you tell me about Roberta?
13:59
So let's imagine the horror story and the best story. The horror story is Roberta who? And the best story is, oh, I worked with Roberta and I think she can help you very much because this is what she can accomplish for you. And you're responsible for the names of the people that we see as a mutual connection. If I'm looking at your profile and LinkedIn shows me the name of a mutual connection and it's Melissa Bonite.
14:28
and I ask her about you, then she will not tell me Robert Tahu. And you will trust my profile based on her recommendation? I will trust you as a person because she's given me information that wasn't anywhere on your profile. So the profile is great as one way to make me curious about you. But if I see names of people that are mutual connection of ours, what I think of those people will affect what I think of you. And if I ask them
14:57
and they have no clue who you are, I'm less likely to reach out to you. So quantity comes with a price. Why is it that managers forget common sense? Why do we have to be popular? We don't. Because that's a Facebook type of environment and Instagram type, the popular thing. You could say that on Facebook, you're not limiting the reach of your exposure and you're fine with connecting with people you know well, but on LinkedIn it comes with a price.
15:26
because you need to pick one either quantity or quality. So that's why they even restrict you at some point if you keep reaching out wanting to connect with people you don't know. And they don't respond back. I don't know, I feel like one moment LinkedIn is a professional network. But then there are times when people post things that are very personal. And I remember there was one comment on a post that said, doesn't this belong on Facebook?
15:54
because it had nothing to do with work it was more you know your personal stories and nothing to do with anything professional or work related is that wrong so to speak or are people just being petty so let's look at it from your perspective as a content producer and then as a content consumer okay why would you like to share this is this really you
16:18
Or do you think it would get some kind of exposure and likes, things like that? If you only post it for people to say, wow, Roberta, then I think that's the wrong reason. But if it's important for you to convey that message and you're happy with the price you might pay, then do it because that's the way you perform in real life. And that means you can do that on LinkedIn too. I don't think you need to create personality for the sake of LinkedIn. You have a personality.
16:47
Right. So if your personality is that way, then by all means, do it on LinkedIn. But as a content consumer, when you look at it, in many cases, you would be turned down, you would say, this is inappropriate. And one of the consequences of connecting with people you don't know is that your feed becomes almost irrelevant. It's people posting things you don't care about people you don't know anything about, and you're less likely to do something meaningful with that content.
17:15
Whereas if you connect it with people you knew well, you notice one of them has been promoted or has posted something interesting, then you could engage with that content or even reach out to that person. In the world's largest business and professional community, again, we need to be aware of the price. If we're doing things that are perceived as unprofessional, then people might either become blind to our content or to think less highly of what you do.
17:44
or to unfollow you or to disconnect or to report you. Okay, so reporting doesn't mean that you're not interested, but that person has written or shared something that is disrespectful or harassment or something like that. You don't have to share a lot, but if you share, please make sure it's gold. And it's professionally aligned. Yes, that would be ideal, yes. Okay. And then do you have any tips when it comes to your...
18:13
profile picture because it's a little circle. Do you have any tips, anything that you can share with listeners on how best to have that picture so that it makes your profile look good? With pleasure. First of all, why a profile photo? Users with a profile photo get up to 24 more views than people with no profile photos. Okay, so that means we need to have a profile photo. Otherwise, most people will simply not go and visit our profile because they...
18:42
assume it's not up to date. What works usually is you smiling with a headshot and as little background as possible. It could be a wall, like no vacation, no significant other, no pets, nothing that shows me that you have a life. Because I'm sitting at my desk and I'm considering working with you. And if you show me that you're in the Bahamas, I might think you don't really want to work.
19:10
Orbelta, maybe that was the only vacation you took in 20 years. It doesn't matter. I perceive that image and I immediately say, okay, maybe that's not the right fit for us. So be conservative. I don't need to think about your photo after I've seen it. Like a mainly criterion. If I forget about it and there's nothing extraordinary about it, I don't think, why was that dress like this? So why are you using something like that? Your photo simply needs to look professional and appropriate to the sort
19:40
clients you want to work with. Like an ID type of photo professional. Yes. What about recommendations? What do you think? Do they affect how people perceive you? Do you need to ask your network people who know you well to say, hey, please write me a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile. So yes, recommendations, they do carry some weight because someone who's written a recommendation has to write something just for you.
20:05
And it does make sense for you to stop and ask yourself, who are the people who I worked with now who could write a decent recommendation? And the recommendation would usually say, I've worked with Roberta for two years or four or three years and we've done A, B and C. And that's why you need to work with her. Okay, so it is important to go and approach those that you know in that regard. Yes, that would increase the chances of you getting professional recommendation. Okay, so that's something we also need to work on.
20:34
Do you know anything about LinkedIn creators? Yes. I remember the first time they emailed me, I created a video, I think they had thousands or hundreds of thousands of applications and they were just gonna have a select few. Do you know anything about that? And can you talk to us about it? Okay, so by now I think LinkedIn has enabled almost anyone to run LinkedIn live events, if that's what you refer to. Simply go to the homepage and start creating an event.
21:02
and you'll see that one of the options is a LinkedIn live event. And in the rare chance you can't, you can submit a support ticket and LinkedIn will usually grant it within 24 hours. So that shouldn't be a problem today, but you're right to say it was a gradual rollout, but today anyone listening to this can run a LinkedIn live video. There's something else you could do if you wanna be creative, you can add a video cover to your profile photo.
21:29
That would be a 20 or 25 second video that would replace your profile photo. And that could be you saying, if you've been recently promoted and you think your public speaking could be improved, please reach out to me. Almost like an ad. Yeah. The limits are really our imagination. And that's the limit. You see things that a lot of us did not know anything about. Just before we close, if you can just let us know three or four things.
21:57
key highlights on if you want to succeed on LinkedIn, if you want people to find you because you have this potential solution for them, do A, B, C, and D. Okay, great question. I'll try to mention four things. First, focus on the right things. Focus on your profile and not your company page. Focus on the quality of your network and not the quantity of your connections. Build your profile as a website and not as a CV.
22:26
Focus on content instead of advertising and invest time instead of money. If you stick to profile, quality, website, content, and time, consistently you will gain a lot more from LinkedIn. Wonderful stuff. And then what about the social selling index, the SSI? What are some of the things you can do to increase that? Why should we increase that? Because some coaches say you need to have a higher than me.
22:55
Is it 75% SSI? I need a better answer. Because a lot of us are in the dark when it comes to optimizing it that there's just so much noise out there on, I can help you optimize your LinkedIn. I can help you get leads on LinkedIn. What's your SSI? And they just throw this terminology around, especially for people who are not tech savvy. And that's the first thing they take and they go around. Daniel, please help me. What's an SSI? How do I equalize it? I understand. But my suggestion to you is that you
23:24
our audience here is to focus on the right things and that also includes the business metrics instead of LinkedIn metrics. Speaking and communicating podcast community, please listen carefully to this. What matters are not the LinkedIn metrics but the business metrics. Let's go back to something you said a couple of minutes ago, Roberto, and that's an inquiry call you'd like people to book or schedule with you. Each week you have two calls like these.
23:54
If you're able to use LinkedIn and instead of having two calls a week, you would have four calls a week. Then some of them will become paying clients and the business metrics are the ones you need to focus on and top of funnel business metrics are not necessarily related to LinkedIn because instead of saying at the end of the day, wow, my SSI score has moved from X to two X. You say, Hey, I now
24:22
gained $3,000 more thanks to having more calls with qualified prospects. So you don't need to understand the LinkedIn mumbo jumbo. You need to focus on your business. You know, you know that some of those inquiries you can translate into business and paying customers. And if LinkedIn enables you to drive more traffic to calls, then you will be able to convert some of them into revenues.
24:49
Forget about the LinkedIn metrics and focus on the business metrics. They're the ones that matter. My clients gain orders, downloads, and revenues, not connections, not followers, and not a better SSI score. In a nutshell, we've been focusing on the wrong things. Our race in finding the next shiny object in an earlier episode you released and I think that's very human. But the moment you think about it, then it doesn't make sense.
25:18
You don't say I want someone with a good SSI. You say I want someone who can help me achieve X. Whether that person has a low or high LinkedIn SSI doesn't mean anything. Not relevant. I think there's just so much noise as I said that we just end up focusing on the wrong things thinking that's where the results are going to be. You're right. Daniel, this episode is going to help so many of us who've been lost in the LinkedIn maze.
25:46
Thank you very much for spending your time explaining all these concepts to us. I think there's a lot that I personally am going to review on my profile. Thank you very much, Roberta. It's been a pleasure to be with you. That was Daniel Alfon, the LinkedIn expert. If anything, this episode has helped me personally to review a lot of my misconceptions about LinkedIn. And if we want to find out more on how you can help us, where can you find you? Danielalfon.com is the best place to go.
26:15
DanielAlfon.com. Thank you so much, Daniel. Thank you, Roberta. Have a great day. You too.