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Gloria Russell: Hello, Dr. Bill. Thank you for the invitation. It’s delightful to be here with you.
Bill Lampton: Well, I hope this will be the first of frequent times because you have so much to offer as I mentioned in the introduction and I’ve known your work firsthand and know the value of it. I am a very frequent, several times a day user of LinkedIn and as many business professionals, I want to know if I’m doing the right thing or the wrong thing because if we’re on there all day long but we’re off target with what we’re trying, we’re not gaining ground, we’re losing ground. So here’s what I’d like to start with. Would you please identify and discuss two or three of what you see in your work as some of the most common mistakes we make? And I know they’re well-intentioned mistakes, but they still can be harmful. Give us two or three that come to your mind and then what should we be doing instead of each one of those two or three mistakes?
Gloria Russell: Absolutely. Thank you for that. Definitely, there are mistakes. We all make mistakes, but I tend to think of it more as most of the time it’s just that we’re unaware. So the first thing that I see is that people are treating LinkedIn like an online resume. And so a resume is something in its own right. LinkedIn definitely works well with the resume because there are a lot of things you can do on LinkedIn that you can’t do on your resume. The two go hand in hand. But on LinkedIn, rather than talking about here’s what I’ve done, we want to talk more about here’s how I help, here’s the outcomes that my clients achieve. And so staying within your topics of your business, we want to use LinkedIn more as a decision tool than a resume. So that’s one thing. The next, and oh, I’ve been talking about this a lot lately, Dr. Bill. I see people just not keeping up with their profiles. We all get busy and that a lot of times is at the bottom of the list. But what I find, we all grow professionally, personally, ourselves and in our businesses, but our LinkedIn does not always grow with us. And so I’ve been noticing a lot lately that people who really have been growing over the last say five years, they have so much to offer, but their LinkedIn still sounds like five years ago or maybe seven years ago. And so that’s not telling the true story and they’re missing a lot of opportunities. And so I have been actually posting about that quite a bit lately because I really feel that it’s something to be aware of and we can update that and make sure that we are talking about who we are today. I think the other mistake is more with the content. And so this can be the content on your profile, in your posts, even on your website. But when we’re posting, sometimes it’s either too technical, too salesy, or even too scattered. And what I mean by that is if it’s too technical, sometimes we get into a lot of verbiage that’s just a lot of jargon or words that or phrases that people don’t really understand yet. So we need to write in words and language that people will understand quickly. And then too salesy, we all know what that’s like and if you do the sales pitch too soon or too often, that’s really not a good thing either. So basically, if you’re doing the sales pitch too soon, probably what you’re really getting is a mental eye roll and that’s not good, that’s not a good place to be. And then what I mean by scattered, if we’re having conversations and we’re posting about unrelated topics, that’s not really serving us well either and it confuses the reader, they’re not sure what you’re about. So we want to basically stay in that lane, stay true to our topics. And LinkedIn doesn’t like it either, with especially with the new algorithm, they really want us to stay in our lane and talk about that what the particular role is that we are taking on within our industry.
Bill Lampton: All of those are very valuable points. One that I would certainly like to follow up on and give my observation on it, and that is your very pertinent point about being too salesy because people are not going to be so impressed, it seems to me by my own experience by what our credentials are, our clients. I mean this is a qualifier, but what they are going to be most impressed about on LinkedIn is how does it relate to what I need, how does it relate, how did this person’s services, how will they assist me? I’m not here just to admire somebody, I came here to really find who can can help me. And then I also want to reflect on what you said about unrelated topics. Over the last, I’ve been on LinkedIn, I’m sure maybe a dozen or more years, and over the last couple of years, I’m finding that there are many topics that are introduced there that have practically nothing to do with business or professional life and some people are thinking this is Facebook number two. And and that is not on point, as you say. I like what you said as well about this is not just a resume because a resume mostly centers on us, but LinkedIn should be pointed in the other direction. Now talking about salesy brings this up. We certainly have to present ideas and content, maybe videos, maybe podcast, that reflect our qualifications. But when you’re advising clients, Gloria, how do you help them draw the line between competence and cockiness because yes, we need to show the competence but what are some of the guidelines you would give us not to come across as as arrogant?
Gloria Russell: You know, Dr. Bill, I can’t tell you how many times I run into this with my clients, especially my clients from the Midwest, because we are taught from a very early age not to brag about ourselves. And they are worried about doing that when they’re online or meeting with people and I have to let them know that that’s not what this is about. We are, we have a service to provide and we don’t want to be invisible so we need to talk about it in some way, but it can be in a very respectful way. I look at it this way and and it’s a little bit like what you were talking about earlier. Arrogance keeps the spotlight on me, like I’m the greatest, I’m the best, how impressive am I, how impressive am I. But that is, that does not impress anybody. And confidence on the other hand, is when you shine the spotlight on the other person or on the client, because we want to know what they are about, we want to ask the right questions, we want to understand their situation, and let them know how we help, maybe something they need, it may not be, but we’re that outcome really isn’t part of the equation there, it’s just letting them know what we do. So when we present confidently, it’s not braggadocious. And really arrogance I feel like is trying to win the room often with rather pushy tactics, whereas confidence is trying to serve the room respectfully. There’s a big difference.
Bill Lampton: That’s a good distinction. Another point that I’m sure many of us wonder about and I’ve heard, I’ve heard different bits of advice on this. First of all, what’s the what would you say is the recommended frequency of our appearance? I on LinkedIn in the way of content or even comments. I see some people who either they’re working all night to to get their copy ready or they’re they’re just prolific during the day and they’re they’re on there almost ad nauseam. And then on the other hand, the other extreme would be somebody who publishes or comments two or three times a week. What what guidelines would you give us about the frequency?
Gloria Russell: Well, we hear for certain platforms like Facebook or or others that you should be posting constantly eight times a day. To me, that’s just exhausting and maybe it works for some people that way, but when we’re talking about LinkedIn, that’s not necessary. And anyway, I don’t think any of this should be stressful for a person. I typically will encourage my clients when they’re starting, to start with something that’s reasonable and sustainable. So that might be posting once a week, and LinkedIn is very happy to have you post once a week as long as it’s consistent and you’re sharing something relevant and something that is useful for your audience. You could post once a week, you could post three times a week or five times a week, LinkedIn is good with all of that. And the other part of it is, you also want to be commenting. And that’s kind of the giving part and that I I feel like there really isn’t an equal balance there. I feel like you almost want to be posted, post once, three times, five times a week, but commenting pretty much every day, five times a week. And that has to be a meaningful comment though, because you have to be giving value. In other words, some people may come to your post and and their comment is “great post” or it might be “thanks for sharing,” but that’s all there is, it’s really not helpful. And LinkedIn with their algorithm doesn’t think it’s helpful either. So if we’re going to comment, we want to do it properly and really share a meaningful comment that would probably be one or two sentences.
Bill Lampton: I have become more and more involved in commenting because you are supporting the work of others, you are aligning with it, and it’s very likely that some percentage of those people will see value in your work and eventually may not only comment but could even repost. Gloria, we’re going to come back in just a minute and we’re going to talk about something that I know you have advice about and that is what about video content for LinkedIn? We’ll be back in just a few seconds.
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Bill Lampton: Gloria as I mentioned, we we’re in the age of video. I I very well remember when the internet first came along and I I became active somewhere around 1997 or 1998. And at that time it was rather predominantly print and then along came audio. And now we have video available and as I’ve said often on the Biz Communication Show, we have easy access to produce video. 20 years ago we for a five-minute video we may have to hire a company to come in with their productive equipment, production equipment, and for $5,000 or more get a five-minute clip. But now our phones or iPads or whatever we can produce meaningful videos even without the assistance of anybody else. So because we have that access, what part should video play in our LinkedIn not only our profile but in our posting as well?
Gloria Russell: Yes, and here we are on video. Video does build influence and I think it’s because it can it can build trust faster. People can connect with your voice and your presence, which is wonderful, you know, rather than just your words. It can make you more memorable and perhaps more referable. So I think it’s really compounds across your your content. And what I hear from people is that sometimes they are and I know that you’ve heard this Dr. Bill because this is where you’re at, but people will say to me I I don’t want to be on camera, I don’t like how I look, I don’t want to be on video, I don’t like the sound of my voice. And so that’s fine if they don’t want to do it, however, it can serve them well if they can get over it and I was kind of like that too where I basically had to say but truly it’s really not about me so much as sending a message to our audience or our clients. So if I would challenge people to reach out to you if they’re having a trouble a little bit of trouble with that or maybe that’s a barrier for them. But I I feel like when we’re posting on LinkedIn, we have to remember that people learn in different ways and so it’s really to our advantage to have a variety of content and that would be some people like they’re they are very visual people, some people like to read, some people like long form, some like a quick short read, many different varieties of ways that you can post even to have a poll on LinkedIn. So I think it really is worthwhile to have a variety and video can definitely play a part in that.
Bill Lampton: I agree with you that many people are are reluctant to get into that and yet I remember many years ago when I first went into the communication business full-time and I was I was teaching the speech courses at the University of Georgia and there were so many students, of course that required course was one many students would have dodged if they could have, they didn’t want to be in front of a group. Yet we even back then quite a number of years ago we were videoing the students as they gave their eight to ten minute speech or so and almost without exception when the video went into playback and we were going to critique it they were quite surprised that they didn’t look as nervous as as they thought they would, that they seemed a bit more composed and just a few times doing that will assure a person. And one of the things I tell my students and I’m coaching students and I mentioned this on here often is I’ll give them a sheet of instructions Gloria and on there I’ll put “don’t try to be perfect” and I’ll misspell the word “perfect” and they say you didn’t spell that right and I say no but you got the meaning of it didn’t you, so that gets the point across. And video as you’re saying gives us a variety. I think now if we were on LinkedIn and were to use only print and no sound and no no no facial contact we would be way behind a lot of people. Switching topics you in our introduction we talked about how you help your clients bring clarity. Tell us how does that work?
Gloria Russell: Well, I think the whole the clarity is the key. So the whole idea is to look at your content and see if it is being received the way it is intended. And typically we will have a shift from a lot of times the content will be just describing the tasks and the activities that you do. And what we want to do is to focus on describing the outcomes, because that’s what people really care about, at least at first. What’s it going to be for me, what does that mean for me? So that is a huge shift that we have to take care of to begin with. And part of that is usually there’s very broad language and so we bring that together and instead of using broad language we create more client-focused language, that ideal client language, even using words that they would use, language that they would understand and relate to. And that’s where I think the clarity and the trust starts to show up. They see that we understand them. And the other thing is replacing some of those vague claims that we can hear and read across the content. We want to instead show some proof, which can be details, can be examples, can be recommendations. This is really a tremendous thing about LinkedIn, you can have recommendations there where people, other people are talking about you and letting the audience know how you help them or how you work, how easy is it to work with you, what is the outcome that they received. Those things are, I mean that’s just golden. And so when I work with my clients, basically I teach them some of the strategies that are important so that they can really make the most of that and do it consistently to try to get those recommendations. I think that makes a world of difference.
Bill Lampton: And we don’t just wait for recommendations. There are plenty of people who might support us on LinkedIn with a testimonial if we ask them. If you just assume people and if you ask people who you’ve dealt with professionally and it was successful, they’re delighted to be on there and in fact, I look at it this way that there’s a double advantage that’s one more place, a prominent place that when you make a referral, it’s another prominent place that your name appears and people might then check you out. One final question we have time for, Gloria, and that is you work not only not only with LinkedIn but with other platforms as well. When you’re talking to a client and you deal with LinkedIn and they want to look at other places where they can market their skills, market their services, market their products, what would be a couple of other places that you would recommend that they they align with?
Gloria Russell: Well, I would say first of all that there really is no right platform for everyone. So and there’s so many that yes, you do need to choose. If I could back up one step, I would say that the your kind of your home base would be your website and your email list because those are what I consider owned assets and you have control over your message and it’s not like someone’s going to pull the rug out from under you and all of a sudden your your site is gone. So I would really work on that and then if if you have a business like mine B2B, business to business, LinkedIn is definitely a place to be. And I think that’s that’s the rule, you would want to be where your clients are. So if your clients are on LinkedIn that is certainly the first place that you would want to be making some progress there. And then you also would like to look at places where your clients may be searching, that could be Google business profiles, it could be YouTube, and depending on your again your business and who your clients are could be Instagram. So you want to look at how it would be serving and where you would build that trust. And for me, it would it would mainly be LinkedIn and a little bit of Instagram for you, you you do very well on YouTube and that’s searchable that’s a wonderful platform and the video. So I think that’s really good. I think the thing that overwhelms people is that there are so many platforms and I just like to say you don’t have to be everywhere all the time and you don’t have to be into everything. Start with one and get very comfortable and and find a rhythm that you can that’s sustainable and that you can keep up. Once that happens, then you can decide to either increase your activity on that platform and or find another platform. But really, I feel like if people have two platforms that’s that’s plenty, some definitely will have more, but we I think we make it harder than it needs to be sometimes.
Bill Lampton: Yes, if we try to do six or seven platforms daily, that’s all we’re going to do and we will we will be so diluted and scattered that we won’t consistently build an audience. Gloria this has been fascinating and I I know all of us have learned plenty from your expertise today, we’re very grateful. So there are those I’m sure who would like to get in touch with you, give us your contact information that you’d like to share, please.
Gloria Russell: Well, I think the easiest way to find me would be on LinkedIn and I’m easy to find there, Gloria Russell, Russell Resources. I think it’s I think it says marketing content writer or marketing content creator, it’s very easy to recognize me and if people want to reach out there and ask for a connection they could just mention that they saw me here with you Dr. Bill and I’m happy to accept their connection and have a conversation.
Bill Lampton: Thank you so much and I’m happy to share my contact information after I encourage all of our viewers and listeners to follow up and get in touch with Gloria. My YouTube channel is Bill Lampton PhD, you’ll find this video there. I’ve been producing videos on YouTube since 2007, I encourage you to not look at the earlier ones, but over the last few years as I mentioned at the outset the Biz Communication Show has gone for we’re in our eighth year now spotlighting experts that all of us can learn from. And while you’re there be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. My website, since my tagline is Biz Communication Guy, quite logically my website is bizcommunicationguy.com and when you go there you can subscribe there to the podcast. I will welcome phone conversations at no initial financial commitment to just talk about your communication challenges and problems and see if I can help you with them or if there’s someone else who can that I know is competent. I need to mention too the co-producer of this program, Mike Stewart. Mike is a longtime marketing and technical expert and you can contact him at localinternetpresence.com. Gloria again with all the kernels of information that you’ve given us, how would you pull together in 30 seconds or a minute what you’d like to leave as maybe nuggets of information that we need right now?
Gloria Russell: Well thank you for that. I think really the the theme of the whole thing was clarity and clarity really is the key and trust is built in small steps. So we just have to remember that they don’t have to do everything and we don’t have to do everything at once. I have found that the most influential people are not always the loudest or the the most self-promoting but they are the clearest and they sincerely want to serve their audience. And so we can do that just by showing up consistently consistently with some pearls of wisdom and encouragement and that’s just what you do on your podcast Dr. Bill.
Bill Lampton: You remind me of one of the outstanding speakers in the National Speakers Association, he’s spoken in more than 50 countries now, Terry Brock based in Orlando Florida and Terry did a short video one time where he said too many people suffer from “I disease” and that’s not EYE, that’s I. So as we’re promoting ourselves on any platform as you said make it client-centered. Thanks so much to Gloria Russell for sharing with us those valuable tips and strategies today. Thanks to those of you who joined us on the Biz Communication Show and we encourage you to be with us again next week for a powerful guest who can help all of us with their tips and strategies.
