LinkedIn: Connect, Mastermind, Progress

[Andy Black]

Great idea @Andy Black this is a link to my profile

Darren Kirby - MBA - International Airlines Group (IAG) | LinkedIn

An accomplished IT & Security Director experience empowering business growth through… | Learn more about Darren Kirby - MBA's work experience, education, connections & more by visiting their profile on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Connection request sent.

Dayum... there's some serious folks in this forum.

 

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[andyhaus44]

Here's my LinkedIn. Feel free to connect

 

[Absar]

Hey @Andy Black.
Can you please write a post about getting leads from linkedin and clients?

I think it will help beginners like me.

 

[RudyR]

As far as owning the content that gets posted on LinkedIn. You can always request to do a mass download and they will email you a link for all your data. Which would include all comments, likes, shares, etc. Download your account data | LinkedIn Help

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey @Andy Black.
Can you please write a post about getting leads from linkedin and clients?

I think it will help beginners like me.

What stage are you at on LinkedIn?

Do you have your profile setup like a landing page if people check you out?

Are you commenting on posts you like and engaging with people?

Are you getting into DMs and maybe taking it to Zoom?


I'll come back and brain-dump what I'd do if starting from scratch on LinkedIn.

In the meantime I posted this to my Figuring Out LinkedIn thread:

Thought I'd share this to inspire folks.

A month ago I posted a 5 minute Google Ads tutorial to YouTube and it's resulted in a €1,500/mth client signing up (and paying) this weekend.

After posting to YouTube I off-handly figured I'd post it natively on LinkedIn and to my Facebook page (by natively I mean I uploaded the video to those platforms rather than linked to the YouTube video).

I replied to a couple of comments and forgot about it.

A founder PM'd me via LinkedIn a week or so after posting. He'd watched the video on LinkedIn, we ended up in PM conversation, then on a couple of Zoom calls, and he paid an invoice this weekend.

Looking at that video...

• 1,556 impressions
• 21 reactions (none were the guy who reached out)
• 8 comments (half of which was me replying to people, and none were the guy reaching out).

I believe our new client was already connected with me on LinkedIn, but we'd never interacted (I've 11k+ connections so that's not unusual).

I've attached below a screenshot of what I posted, and the post stats as of today.

I'll list my own actions below the screenshots.

View attachment 50713

Here's some interesting stats about the video:

View attachment 50714



My own observations/thoughts/actions:

• I didn't think a 5 minute tutorial video would be watched on LinkedIn, but posted anyway in case it might help someone. Who'd have thought it would have got 214 minutes viewed?
• Some people don't give reactions to posts, or comment, but they saw it and could link out or refer you on.
• It's a really concise tutorial that took me HOURS to create, but it's missing an intro and outro. I've been meaning to create an intro and outro and reloading to YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Maybe I can create a version worth putting ad spend behind?
• If you think it can help someone then publish it. You're doing people a disservice if you don't.
• I didn't expect to get a client out of it. I'm still a bit taken aback and will have a think about how to lean into it. I don't see anyone else posting tutorials like that on LinkedIn. Everyone is currently posting text, carousels, (business) memes, or talking head videos.
• I kinda think I should take LinkedIn a bit more seriously.

Here's the video:

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[ugudango]

They're not going to become clients, but I get to meet interesting people doing interesting things. Think of this as my "diesel and coffee". Those Zoom calls are like grabbing a quick coffee with someone in the building.

I really like how you put this. I love hearing about the lesser-known businesses or crafts, rather than the crypto blockchain web3 vegan organic drop-shippers. I will definitely start interacting with more people on Ln

If you guys would like to connect, here's my link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivandjukicdev
Currently my LinkedIn is set up more for recruiters as I've recently gotten into tech, but Id love to post more value there.

 

[Choate]

Think of these platforms as buildings where people congregate. Rather than standing outside with a megaphone trying to get people to come out, you could just go in and start talking to people.

I posted this yesterday on someone else's thread:

After posting the carousel yesterday and messaging everyone who engaged with it, I then messaged everyone from this thread about a tool someone shared with me that should help me create carousels better (Free Carousel Maker & Generator | aiCarousels.com).

I woke up to 18 messages in my LinkedIn inbox. I replied to everyone and now have 3 Zoom calls scheduled next week. One with someone I worked with over a decade ago and haven't messaged since 2012, and two with people who follow me that I've never spoken to.

They're not going to become clients, but I get to meet interesting people doing interesting things. Think of this as my "diesel and coffee". Those Zoom calls are like grabbing a quick coffee with someone in the building.

That's very hard to make happen when you're relying on a website and getting visitors from Google (which is also someone else's building).


I think it would help to reframe this.

I get to post content on someone else's platform in front of the people they've gathered together, whenever I want, however I want (within reason of course).

If I create content that people find valuable then those people will engage with it, and the platform will notice and try to get it in front of more people.

If I don't get "engagement" then that tells me my post or strategy wasn't good enough. I can then try again the next day (or sooner depending on the platform).

I get to run tests every single day that can bring me business, that makes me a better content creator, and that builds up a library of content that works and doesn't work.

The carousel I posted yesterday is from a text post I created last year. I "just" reformatted it.

From the feedback I got from those I thanked for Liking it, I'll make it shorter and maybe change the first slide to hook people better. I get to post it again in a couple of weeks, or even post it as a video.

When/if it works better, I can then repost to other platforms - after getting feedback from people who've read it and like it enough to engage with it. Oh, and by me asking for feedback I'm deepening relationships with them, helping them, and making my world a sunnier little world.

Does that help?

Thanks Andy. The reframing is indeed super helpful. Mulled it over for a couple days and tonight I'm back on board: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaschoate/. Have some work to do to bring this up to speed but will start connecting with you all on it.

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks Andy. The reframing is indeed super helpful. Mulled it over for a couple days and tonight I'm back on board: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaschoate/. Have some work to do to bring this up to speed but will start connecting with you all on it.

Awesome. Make sure you all connect and message each other!

 

[Absar]

I built a landing page for someone I found on Discord. I agreed to create it for him in exchange for a testimonial.
long story short, I got the testimonial from him but in the video, he showed the 'IMAGES' of the site I sent to him via drive while building it.
I'm quite reluctant to post it on LinkedIn and add it to the features tab there.
but I think something better than nothing.

here's the testimonial

what's your take @Andy Black

 

[Andy Black]

I built a landing page for someone I found on Discord. I agreed to create it for him in exchange for a testimonial.
long story short, I got the testimonial from him but in the video, he showed the 'IMAGES' of the site I sent to him via drive while building it.
I'm quite reluctant to post it on LinkedIn and add it to the features tab there.
but I think something better than nothing.

here's the testimonial

what's your take @Andy Black

What makes you reluctant to post it?


I'm thinking of posting a thread next week asking if anyone wants me to do some keyword and competitor research for them. I'd post my findings to the thread.

 

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[Singh]

Been using LinkedIn since 2018, post content almost daily since 2021 and has been a great help for inbound leads for my medical devices consultancy and also a great way to connect with others in the industry remotely

my profile: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/karandeepbadwal

 

[JJHemingway]

@Andy Black unfortunately I don’t have any insightful tips to share. Very much new to LinkedIn so Id love to connect with the fastlane community there.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-hemingway-ab66a5280

 

[Andy Black]

Been using LinkedIn since 2018, post content almost daily since 2021 and has been a great help for inbound leads for my medical devices consultancy and also a great way to connect with others in the industry remotely

my profile: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/karandeepbadwal

Dayum. Daily posting since 2021? Curious how you've kept that up.

 

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[Rauschmi]

Well, Here is my Linkedin:
linkedin.com/in/joshrausch

 

[Andy Black]

What are you doing this week on LinkedIn guys?



I want to post, comment, and message people - daily.

I read someone's post last week saying they spend a bit of time commenting and messaging people first to "warm up the algorithm". I don't know if that's true, but why not do it in that order.

Anyway, I checked my feed for 5 minutes, saw a carousel I liked the content and format of, replied to say thanks and add my piece, and then realised I could turn it into a post.

That seemed quite simple. There's no way I'd have sat down with a blank Google doc and come up with that story this morning.

Now I'll log off and get on with some work...



The reply to a post:



My edited post:



EDIT: I've just posted that to my Facebook page, Twitter, my email newsletter, YouTube community tab, and into the forum.

 

[ElDiablo]

Wow, it's genuinely refreshing to see people using LinkedIn in a different frame apart from the "corporate simping" for which the platform is known for.

I mean, I could conceptually understand that this platform is a powerful tool for many entrepreneurs wanting to create more connections and leads. Still, it feels way different when you get to know the people doing it from up close.

I'm aware that this is probably because most of my "connections" are people interested in their corporate careers, so they end up portraying themselves as the stereotypical LinkedIn user who is overly politically correct and is pandering to whoever is willing to give him a job.

It is an understandable action, but I can help to notice the inauthentic behavior.

No wonder there's a guy on YouTube whose channel's content is based around that premise and the monolithic perception of the corporate world.

I wonder if it's a whole different dynamic as an entrepreneur where, although you are still expected to behave professionally and have an agenda in mind, you don't have the pressure of doing everything in such a subtle way to get noticed by recruiters.

 

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[Andy Black]

Wow, it's genuinely refreshing to see people using LinkedIn in a different frame apart from the "corporate simping" for which the platform is known for.

I mean, I could conceptually understand that this platform is a powerful tool for many entrepreneurs wanting to create more connections and leads. Still, it feels way different when you get to know the people doing it from up close.

I'm aware that this is probably because most of my "connections" are people interested in their corporate careers, so they end up portraying themselves as the stereotypical LinkedIn user who is overly politically correct and is pandering to whoever is willing to give him a job.

It is an understandable action, but I can help to notice the inauthentic behavior.

No wonder there's a guy on YouTube whose channel's content is based around that premise and the monolithic perception of the corporate world.

I wonder if it's a whole different dynamic as an entrepreneur where, although you are still expected to behave professionally and have an agenda in mind, you don't have the pressure of doing everything in such a subtle way to get noticed by recruiters.

Do you still see that type of content?

I go absent from LinkedIn for months on end. When I return I often notice marked improvements.

Initially I left because my inbox was filled with spam every day by IT or SEO companies trying to sell me something.

Years later I logged in to find LinkedIn had tidied that up.

Then I got tired of the feed being full of the weird self-congratulatory posts. "I'm delighted to announce I've been nominated for blah, blah, blah."

Half a year later I've come back and my feed is full of more educational posts. Experts giving actionable tips, inspiring stories, or curated news.

These are the result of deliberate changes LinkedIn have made to the platform.

Granted, I'm seeing too many people giving advice on how to succeed on LinkedIn, but that's likely how I've trained the algorithm in the last two weeks. I'm consciously unfollowing LinkedIn Ghostwriters and Influencers, and replacing them with founders and techies (who also write well).

I don't see any posts from people with an employee mindset (not that I'm saying that's a bad mindset).

So train your feed by changing who you follow, get alerts from, what you like, what you comment on, what you Save, etc.

There's an argument that LinkedIn will be the platform with the longest longevity. People who value their career and businesses value the network they've created on there. I even got into DM with a guy who Liked the carousel I posted last week... and discovered the last time we DM'd was in 2012.

 

[Absar]

What makes you reluctant to post it?

Basically, The guy in the testimonial video pitched a company to manage their marketing, he outsourced the landing page thing to me, and I made the landing page in Systeme.io. but the guy couldn't keep up with the company and the landing page I made was of no use. It stays in my account on systeme on a free domain.

So what the guy says in the testimonial that the landing page generated sales and all is just fake.

 

[ElDiablo]

Do you still see that type of content?

I go absent from LinkedIn for months on end. When I return I often notice marked improvements.

Initially I left because my inbox was filled with spam every day by IT or SEO companies trying to sell me something.

Years later I logged in to find LinkedIn had tidied that up.

Then I got tired of the feed being full of the weird self-congratulatory posts. "I'm delighted to announce I've been nominated for blah, blah, blah."

Half a year later I've come back and my feed is full of more educational posts. Experts giving actionable tips, inspiring stories, or curated news.

These are the result of deliberate changes LinkedIn have made to the platform.

Granted, I'm seeing too many people giving advice on how to succeed on LinkedIn, but that's likely how I've trained the algorithm in the last two weeks. I'm consciously unfollowing LinkedIn Ghostwriters and Influencers, and replacing them with founders and techies (who also write well).

I don't see any posts from people with an employee mindset (not that I'm saying that's a bad mindset).

So train your feed by changing who you follow, get alerts from, what you like, what you comment on, what you Save, etc.

There's an argument that LinkedIn will be the platform with the longest longevity. People who value their career and businesses value the network they've created on there. I even got into DM with a guy who Liked the carousel I posted last week... and discovered the last time we DM'd was in 2012.

Oh, so the experience was even worse hahaha

I guess they needed better monetize the platform so they needed to make a purge of all the users that were spamming and saturating the platform with low quality content.

I hope they match profits with a professional environment in mind.

I read something similar about how LinkedIn was building itself to become the ultimate social network in the sense that inherently has real value besides advertising and promotional content, because of the kind of users at an individual and institutional level.

To be honest, I was fairly passive with the platform as I always used it as the “job board with a social media touch”, and hence my feed is one giant “I’m so excited to become X at X”, “X company shared the following post”, and “I’m looking forward to start my program X at university/college/online platform X”.

Time to change that.

 

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[Andy Black]

Basically, The guy in the testimonial video pitched a company to manage their marketing, he outsourced the landing page thing to me, and I made the landing page in Systeme.io. but the guy couldn't keep up with the company and the landing page I made was of no use. It stays in my account on systeme on a free domain.

So what the guy says in the testimonial that the landing page generated sales and all is just fake.

Post how you created the page, why you came up with the design you did, and what you recommend people do?

 

[Paul David]

(This isn't MY thread. It's for all of us to chat and mastermind about what's working and not on LinkedIn.)

LinkedIn is a great platform and I encourage you all to put some effort into your profile and network.

I've been on there for over a decade and I've had countless DMs with interesting people. I've help many, and many have helped me.

I thought I'd make this a chat thread where we all give tips about making the most use of the platform, and where we can post our profile so we can connect with each other.

I'm always stoked when I get a message from someone saying they're a fastlaneforum member. It's like meeting a tribe member out in the wild. So make sure you say you're a forum member when you connect with each other, and make sure you also follow MJ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjdemarco).

If you're on LinkedIn then drop your URL and any tips you might have to help others on the platform.

If you're not on the platform, then I'm curious why not.


Everyone's URLs:
I'll keep this updated.
Remember to make sure you say you're a forum member when you connect with each other!

1. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyblackjnr
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudyarodriguez/
3. https://www.linkedin.com/in/absar-a-82542028a
4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarthak-tyagi-b341ab275
5. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-dugger-law/
6. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nunovaz/
7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswaldron13/
8. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikkel-linskey-dpt-2848b3b9/
9. https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-völk-7b76ab276
10. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-wurtz/
11. https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-veitch-b14835218
12. https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijah-shin-b4653b144
13. https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielargueta/
14. https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenkirbyuk/
15. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhausmann
16. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivandjukicdev
17. https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaschoate/
18. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/karandeepbadwal
19. https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-hemingway-ab66a5280
20. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshrausch

PS: I do have a "Figuring Out LinkedIn" thread here that may have some nuggets amongst the rambling:

• Figuring Out LinkedIn

Yes Andy but nothing is ever going to beat when I happened to drop by a periscope live channel and it was you inside a pub.

Now that’s what I call meeting in the wild!

I miss periscope ha.

 

[Andy Black]

Yes Andy but nothing is ever going to beat when I happened to drop by a periscope live channel and it was you inside a pub.

Now that’s what I call meeting in the wild!

I miss periscope ha.

I remember that! That was crazy. I was just showing the live band in the local pub and on pops a forum member.

Yeah, what happened to Periscope? I guess all the other platforms give people the ability to go live now?

 

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[Andy Black]

I've a couple of calls tomorrow with people I've been DM'ing on LinkedIn. They liked my carousel last week and I replied to thank them and then wee conversations developed.

As mentioned before, I doubt they'll become clients, but this gets me back into the swing of talking to people.

I should probably record all these free calls and pull out snippets to post on LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

I just added a new question to my Calendly booking form:

 

[ZackerySprague]

Here is my LinkedIn.

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks Andy. The reframing is indeed super helpful. Mulled it over for a couple days and tonight I'm back on board: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaschoate/. Have some work to do to bring this up to speed but will start connecting with you all on it.

Hi @Choate ... This week I ended up repeating this "reframe" to a few people in LinkedIn DM, and on Zoom.

Given it seemed to help a few people I thought I'd post it to LinkedIn.

Let's see how it does!

I can always delete it tomorrow if it tanks bad or if I think it's not on-topic for my account.

Link to the post on LinkedIn.

 

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[Choate]

When/if it works better, I can then repost to other platforms - after getting feedback from people who've read it and like it enough to engage with it.

Love this in particular. Great way to refine the message through few iterations to see what works best.

 

[Singh]

Dayum. Daily posting since 2021? Curious how you've kept that up.

LinkedIn has a scheduling feature when you write a new post you will see a clock symbol in the bottom right of the dialogue box, So I basically spend 30 mins a week mapping out my content and then respond to the comments when it goes live throughout the day.

I also recycle old content that is a few months old and repurpose old videos in a different format. The trick with LinkedIn is to engage on others content this then puts your content into their feed and it becomes reciprocal

 

[Andy Black]

LinkedIn has a scheduling feature when you write a new post you will see a clock symbol in the bottom right of the dialogue box, So I basically spend 30 mins a week mapping out my content and then respond to the comments when it goes live throughout the day.

I also recycle old content that is a few months old and repurpose old videos in a different format. The trick with LinkedIn is to engage on others content this then puts your content into their feed and it becomes reciprocal

Great tips. I'm enjoy being in communities like forums and Facebook groups. Outward facing platforms like LinkedIn are a bit odd to me. I was wondering where the community part was in LinkedIn and I'm starting to think it's in the comments section.

 

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[Andy Black]

I just had an aha moment watching the first few minutes of a LinkedIn tips video on YouTube.

Broadly speaking Facebook is I, Instagram is You, LinkedIn is We.

My thoughts:

Facebook:
- I'm at wedding!
- I'm hiking.
- I'm celebrating my mum's birthday.

Instagram:
- Influencers inspire people.
- The best way they get their audience's attention is to use "You".
- "Have you ever wanted to ... ?"

LinkedIn:
- It's a community of peers!
- Are you a peer with your target market?

This makes so much sense now. I always tell people to be in Facebook groups of peers, "Be so good they can't ignore you" (Steve Martin), and eventually you'll start getting INVITED into groups of the markets you could serve.

My example is when I was invited into a Facebook group of 14k PT instructors by the group owner as the Google Ads guy, after we connected in a Facebook group of business owners all trying to grow our course memberships.

Soo... on LinkedIn, write for peers and join the community of peers? (I'm still figuring this out but it's starting to make sense.)

If you're a freelance web developer and want to pick up business owners as clients, then be a peer with business owners and write for them - as a peer.

Talk about your business struggles, successes, and learnings in a "we" fashion.

Weave what you do into your stories, but focus on helping your peers (business owners).

If you were to write really technical how-to posts the peers you're helping are other web designers.

I found when I talked too much about How-To do what I do then most of the folks who followed me were the people who wanted to do what I do (be a Google Ads freelancer).

When I post how-to content for business owners then I'm attracting business owners.

I knew this, but couldn't figure out how to position myself and what voice to use.

Being a peer with business owners / founders and talking from the perspective of WE makes so much sense.

Anyway, I'm still mulling this over so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm curious if this gave you a similar aha moment and what you'll do different going forward.

 

[Andy Black]

How're you all getting on with LinkedIn?

I've had a spate of Google Ads folks following and connecting with me. While I like chatting with peers, that wasn't my intention for LinkedIn. It looks like my content attracts peers rather than potential clients. I'll have to rethink this a bit!