How to Best Use LinkedIn for Your Book Marketing - BM284

Susan Friedmann:         Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is known as the LinkedIn Whisperer. Brynne Tillman is the CEO of Social Sales Link. For over a decade, she's been teaching entrepreneurs, sales teams, and business leaders how to leverage LinkedIn for social selling. As a former sales trainer and personal producer, Brynne adopted all of the traditional sales techniques and adapted them to the new digital world. She guides professionals to establish a thought leader and subject matter expert brand, find and engage the right target in market, and leverage clients and networking partners for warm introductions into qualified buyers. Wow, this is just perfect. Brynne, what an absolute pressure it is to welcome you to the show. Thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Brynne Tillman:             Oh, thank you, Susan, for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you.

Susan Friedmann:         There are so many things in your intro that just speak to what I talk to authors about all the time, the right targeted market and leveraging clients and networking partners. This is perfect. So LinkedIn is a vehicle that's so many people know about, but yet I'm not sure that they're necessarily using it in the best possible way. And when you and I spoke for the first time, the first thing you said to me is, "Well, I think your profile could use some work." So let's start there. What are some of the most important components of your profile and why is your profile so important?

Brynne Tillman:             That's a great first question. And I think I want to start with every individual has to define what do they want to get out of LinkedIn? What is their goal? Who is their target audience? And ultimately what value are you bringing to that target audience? And once you've defined that, you can start to put your profile together.

                                    Now we typically work with folks that are looking to get a broader reach to a network. Sometimes it's in a sales or marketing capacity. Sometimes it's just about getting their word out. They want to convert their authorship into keynotes. Everyone has a different goal and they need to know what they want to achieve before they start building that profile. Once they know that, we need to look at all the elements of the profile in a way that reaches that goal.

                                    The first thing we need to do is define who we help, how we help them or who we serve in some cases, how we serve them, the results they'll get if they engage or work with us, and what it is that we do. Once we've defined that we can start to put together what we call a value-centric profile, which is moving and converting from a resume to a resource, where they're showing up with value. And so that the reader really leans in and typically five areas are covered.

                                    Number one, that the profile resonates with that audience. That they see immediately, this person works or engages with people like me.

                                    The second thing is that you create curiosity. Without curiosity, people hop, they don't have time. We want to make sure that our profile is getting that lean in.

                                    Then we want to teach them something new that gets them thinking differently about their current situation. So often when we're working with people in a business development role, we're attracting people that we want to convert to conversations. That's an easy thing to do. For other folks that may not be in a sales role, but they may be in promoting role, for example, if they're promoting a book or they're promoting a speaking or an event opportunity, the education around that is really what is the value the audience would get if they read the book, if they hired you as a keynote, if they went to an event that you were holding? Teaching them something new doesn't always have to be a skill. It could just be a way of thinking and that what you taught them, gets them thinking differently about their current situation, which would be, "I haven't read that book. I haven't heard that talk. I don't know that story. And they go, "Hmm, now that would be good in my life."

                                    And then we need the call to action. Now that we've got them excited, what should they do next? And it could be anything from: connect with me on LinkedIn, to download a free chapter, to whatever that might be. Lots of calls to action. That's really how you have to start thinking about your profile in a way that that profile is working toward your goal.

Susan Friedmann:         If I'm understanding you correctly, it's really starting with the end in mind. What do you want as a result of being up on LinkedIn? I mean, the idea of this should resonate with your target audience, knowing exactly who you're talking to, which is a subject near and dear to my heart, as you know, the whole aspect of niche marketing and really targeting in and knowing who it is and defining that target for yourself.

                                    Now let's talk about realistic expectations. What could I expect realistically, if I'm up on LinkedIn, my profile reads, it sort of attracts that curiosity that you want to know more? What are some realistic expectations?

Brynne Tillman:             Well, just the profile isn't enough. I mean, if you are out there, people are Googling you and they will find your profile, but it's a myth just because you build it they will come. We really do have to invite them. And a lot of that comes from sharing content, connecting with the right people, having the right conversations online, again, going back to whatever it is that you're looking to achieve. When you're sharing content, are you getting it in front of the right people, using the right hashtag, sharing it in the right groups, tagging the right people, getting it into the inbox of the right people? Are you promoting other people's content? Because that's how you'll build some credibility in the space.

Susan Friedmann:         All of those. Wow. I mean, we could go down each one of those avenues. Let's talk about sharing content. What is the right type of content that is going to help us forward our authority, our thought leadership?

Brynne Tillman:             I hate to say generally, because we have to know what the goal is. Why don't we make up a goal? Why don't you share with me one goal that we want to achieve with the content, and then I'd be able to share a little bit better on that?

Susan Friedmann:         Okay. That's a good one. I know that many of my authors are looking for speaking engagements or training opportunities in their field of expertise. How would the doors get opened for them other than just having the book?

Brynne Tillman:             Yeah, that's fabulous. There's so many things you can do along with that. The first thing I'd say is you've got to get on video. For speaking engagement, they want to see you. And right now I know that a lot of it is going to be Zoom. You can do it individually or you can do a free 20-minute Zoom where you're covering things and you've got lots of people that are watching or participating, but you've got to get samples of your speaking. Eventually when we're back in conferences, where you're going to be training in person, invest in having someone come in and video record you. You can get it edited relatively inexpensively, but you absolutely want to get on video if you want to be a speaker or trainer. A lot of it is test driving.

                                    The other thing is taking quotes from your book and creating images, taking tips from your book. And what I would typically do, have images branded. And then somewhere on that image, have page three, page 17, page 91. So they see the tip and then they can see what page that's coming from. You can make a ton of those and you could do a tip a week. You can interview people on a chapter. You could have a Zoom book club on a chapter where you discuss it, get that on video. And you don't have to share a whole hour, but you can create a 90-second quick look at what that book club look like. Talking about that chapter. A lot of it is getting the content that creates those experiences.

                                    Then making sure that you're engaging with the right people. Getting it in with the right groups. And some of that might be, "I'm going to go out and see who's hiring the keynotes," and we've got to engage with them. When they show up to your profile and if keynote is your goal or training is your goal, your headline is screaming that so people know. Now you've got video all over the place. They click through to watch and they experience you. The goal is that they go, "Oh, I want this for our audience."

Susan Friedmann:         Let's talk about the amount of content in terms of the timing. People always say to me, "Well, how often should I be posting something?" And I'm sure you've gotten that question a few times if not hundreds of times.

Brynne Tillman:             Yeah. Let's start with quality over quantity. A mistake that you can make is share a lot of content nobody cares about. They stop engaging, and then you disappear from their feed. Quality, make sure that everything you're sharing has a purpose. The next thing is don't share more than once every six hours because LinkedIn will bury your first post. I recommend engaging way more than sharing. Finding influencers, other keynotes that have spoken at events that you want to speak, engage with them because eventually they could be great referral partners with you and get you into opportunities. Some of that is really building a list of keynotes that have done the conferences or trained the clients you want to get into. And really start to engage with their content and putting your spin around their content. So the curation piece and the engagement piece is almost as important as the original stuff.

                                    Again, some people will have one original share a day. Some people have twice a week. I typically have one a day, but I do this for a living, but I have a lot of engagement. I'm engaging on other people's content with my comments and my thought leadership, because I want to build a tribe and a community around other people's communities.

Susan Friedmann:         Engaging with those influences. Can you go down that avenue a little further? Because I know that that's an important aspect because those influencers can absolutely help you, but then people often are a little reluctant. How do I speak to somebody like that or connect with them? How would you?

Brynne Tillman:             Yeah, that's a great question. The first thing is, remember these influencers shared content because they want engagement. It's not like they shared it and go, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this person put a comment on." They're thrilled. That's why they did this. They want the exposure. So as long as you're not really like kidnapping their content or saying anything negative and all of it is a positive spin, they're thrilled that you're engaging, number one.

                                    Number two, those influencers are engaging your prospects most likely. Make sure you're not just engaging with that influencer, but the people that are engaging with that influencer. Let's say, Susan is the influencer. You engage on her content and she's got 27 people commenting. And out of the 27, four of them are people you would love in your community and you think you could bring value to. We need to start a conversation with them. But the worst thing you can do is connect and pitch, connect and talk about yourself. So what do we do? "Hey, Jane, I see that you're engaging on Susan's content. I think her stuff is fabulous. Did you hear the podcast that she was on or that she hosted a couple weeks ago or she was on? It was on this, this and this. If you're interested, let me know. I'd be happy to send you a link." You're starting a normal conversation about a shared interest, about a shared person. Maybe it's you like this topic. "I came across a blog on the same topic by someone else. I'd love to share that with you."

                                    Don't start the conversation about you. About, "Hey, if you're looking for keynotes, I'd love to throw my name in the hat." Don't start that way. Slow down the outreach to speed up the outcomes. Start normal conversations with these human beings. It will lead to opportunities when the time is right.

Susan Friedmann:         I think there's this urgency: "I want something now." We need that instant gratification. So building that connection, there is sometimes that: "Well, let them know that I do speak." So there's that approach as well, but I love the idea of just even saying, "Well, if you're interested, I'll send it." Rather than just sending it and saying, "Hey, here's something that I thought you'd be interested in." Invite them to come back to you with saying, "Yes, I'd really love to hear Brynne's interview or Susan's interview."

                                    I also loved what you talked about earlier, and that was these ideas of content, Zooming a chapter, an interview about a chapter, not the whole book, which to me was a very different approach because we constantly talk about the book as a whole. Don't necessarily think of it in terms of just an interview on a chapter in the book. I love that idea.

                                    Let's talk about mistakes. I know that our listeners love to learn about mistakes. Brynne, you could probably write a book about the mistakes people make on LinkedIn, but what is some of the common ones that you want to highlight?

Brynne Tillman:             I'd say the first and worst mistake is the connect and pitch. We think that's a bait and switch. I want to connect with you. And now I want to tell you why I'd be a great keynote for you or a great trainer for you. Again, we've got to slow it down. That's a big mistake and it can blackball you really quickly.

                                    The other one is connect and forget. So I connect with all of these people, but they never start a conversation with them. That's not going to help either. It's certainly not as damaging to your reputation, but it's not going to convert to the opportunities that you're looking to get.

                                    Another one is random acts of social. I just show up and do things without any kind of plan or purpose. We can fall down some rabbit holes of content and activities that just never really convert. I would say those are the top three.

Susan Friedmann:         Let's say that, and I think I'm a good example, that perhaps I fall into that random acts, not necessarily of kindness, but of just putting content up there because I've got content and yeah, it goes on LinkedIn because that's another platform to put it on. What are the ways that I could change that around for myself so to almost like the new and improved version of Susan in this environment?

Brynne Tillman:             Well, we're going back to what are we trying to achieve, and it's really putting a daily cadence together. I have an ebook A Day in the Life of a Social Seller that talks through all the things that you can do on a daily basis. You don't have to do all of them and you have to decide which ones will help me achieve my goal. And then do them consistently just like any business development activity. And that's what this is. If we're looking to get trainings or keynotes, this is business development. We need to be purposeful. We need to have an approach. We need to have talk tracks and email templates. Otherwise, we can't start from scratch in every single thing and we need to have a purpose.

                                    One of the things that we can do on a daily basis is if you are already doing training, go look at who you've served and mine their connections. Identify who they know and leverage your relationships to potentially get introductions, referrals into other buyers. These are people that have already experienced you and love you, but leverage that in LinkedIn. So there are definitely activities that you can be doing on a daily basis that are the short game, which are introductions and referrals. And then the long game, which is the content and the engagement.

Susan Friedmann:         You also mentioned groups. Talk to us a little bit more about groups and how do you interact or what are some of the best ways to be involved in a group?

Brynne Tillman:             Groups are a little broken on LinkedIn right now. You can be in groups and you can share content and engage in groups, but I would say the communication of groups is poor. If you engage in a group, sometimes you're not notified the right way when other people engage. You've manually go back and check. There are definitely some things that are broken with groups, but there are groups that have half a million people in them. There are groups that are a ton of other keynotes that you can network and engage with, which by the way, is the perfect way to grow your business because they never hire a keynote for a second time. Like they do a sales kickoff and they have a keynote come. They're not going to bring them back next year, but they know who the buyer is of that keynote. They know who the decision makers are. And often they're even asked, who would you recommend? So building relationships with other keynotes and finding them in groups is a good way to go.

Susan Friedmann:         I love that reminder because yes, I'm very involved in the National Speakers Association, and that is absolutely the truth that you're right. You very rarely get hired to do the same event year after year. There are a few speakers who get it or get invited back maybe a few years later. Every year they need to find somebody new. And yes, they do ask the speaker for recommendations and referrals and often it's your colleagues. It's people who you know and you trust because you're making the recommendation and then your reputation is on the line as well, because you want to make sure that you refer somebody good.

                                    What else is important for us to know about LinkedIn? I mean, it's such a huge platform and there's so much to know, especially I'm assuming, because obviously LinkedIn is your business, that this is where you hang out all the time. If we were to make that a hangout because the right people are on there, what are some other things that we need to be doing?

Brynne Tillman:             I think another thing that we didn't really talk a whole lot about is nurturing your existing connections. That's a combination of making sure you're connected with everyone that you know, but also exporting your connections and identifying who it is that you should be talking to that you haven't been talking to you. There are lots of ways to re-engage. You can send a video message to your first-degree connection right from your mobile device. It's so personal. You just pick it up and message. You click the little plus sign and the video and just send a quick little, "Hey, Susan, I hope you're doing well. Your name came up on LinkedIn and I thought, boy, it's been a long time since we last chatted. Love to hear what you're up to. Looks like you're at a new company, ABC. I'd love to hear about it." And you just send that little video message and people are blown away that you took the time to do it. Things like that will start conversations where no cold call or email will get the same reaction.

Susan Friedmann:         In terms of time, up till now, I've found that social media it's a time suck often. How much time should we be spending on the platform?

Brynne Tillman:             That's an interesting question and it's going to be different for every person, and it's going to go back to what do you want to get out of this? One of the things I'll typically say is how much time are you spending in business development right now? What isn't working well? And let's replace that time with some LinkedIn. And then as we get successes, we can grow it more and more.

Susan Friedmann:         Yeah, I know that our listeners would love to hear how they could find out more about you and the services that you provide. Brynne, take it away. Let us know.

Brynne Tillman:             Oh, well, thank you. For speakers and authors and entrepreneurs, we help people through our e-learning and our group coaching. It's really inexpensive. It's $99 e-learning, $29 a month for group coaching. That's two coaching calls a week. You can find that at socialsaleslink.com/store. You can find me on LinkedIn. Let me know where you heard me and I'll make sure that we connect and engage in a real conversation.

Susan Friedmann:         Yes. For you, what would be the best approach that they just heard you on the podcast and they would like to connect with you? Would that be a good approach?

Brynne Tillman:             Yep. Come on LinkedIn, drop me a note. I am at my max of connections. So to accept a connection request, I have to disconnect from someone else. It's really important that you send a note because then I'll make you a priority as I'm kind of shifting my connections around.

Susan Friedmann:         Excellent. I better make sure that I'm a connection.

Brynne Tillman:             I think we're good Susan.

Susan Friedmann:         You think you make me one.

Brynne Tillman:             You're a high priority.

Susan Friedmann:         Oh, well, good. I'm pleased. Got to make sure that I'm in the right position.

Brynne Tillman:             For sure.

Susan Friedmann:         Brynne, you've given us some great wisdom. I know that there's a lot more that we can learn. So listeners make sure that you connect with Brynne. Go to her website. The website will be in the show notes and that you can get the most out of LinkedIn, especially if you feel that it's the right platform for you based on what your end result will be. Thank you. And thank you everyone for taking the time to listen to this podcast. I sincerely hope that it sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

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