Episode 176: 11 Ways to Leverage Curated Content on LinkedIn

Bob Woods  00:00

Hey everyone, welcome to making sales social live brought to you by social sales link. I’m Bob Woods and I’m joined by fellow LinkedIn and social selling professional also known as the LinkedIn whisperer. Brynne Tillman. Sup, friend.

Brynne Tillman  00:15

Hi, Bob. Hi, everyone. I hope you’re having a good Monday.

Bob Woods  00:20

Yeah, definitely. 

Intro  00:23

Welcome to making sales social live, as we share LinkedIn, and social selling training strategies and tips that will have an immediate impact on your business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me Bob Woods every week, making sales social live! This is the recorded version of our weekly making sales social live show. 

Intro  00:23

So for today’s episode, we’ve got a lot of points to cover. So we’re just gonna get right into things with “Ways to Leverage Curated Content,” we’ve got 11 of them. So like I said, we’re gonna get right into it. But before we get into the specific points, got a lot of general thoughts on this topic, Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  01:05

Yeah, well, first of all, sometimes curated content, which is ultimately finding other people’s content and using it and leveraging it is even better than original content. If we start sending original content to lots of people, they even if it’s really valuable, they often can see it as a pitch, even though it’s not! Using curated content, finding content that someone else published, that they’re going to find value in is a great way to start a conversation without coming across as salesy.

 Bob Woods  01:40

Absolutely. I yeah, I love that. I mean, we all know that when we send pieces out for ourselves of for those of us who do it, and if you don’t do it, you should be but you know, I would suggest that as, like a ratio, you should probably doing a little more curated content than then the self generated content, just, it just makes the self generated content 

I think a little more special. Like it gives it like that, you know, special episode of type of thing. But curated content is especially important when it supports something that you already believe. And then you can actually build on that and then show your thought leadership through how you build on it, and then bring out points that get brought up in the article itself.

Brynne Tillman  02:29

Yeah, So let’s start with number one.  

Bob Woods  02:33

So number one is post curated content and mention the author, their organization and the media outlet, and then ask your audience to share their perspective in the comments, which is something you should be doing no matter what but I mean, you know, definitely in this case, as well.

Brynne Tillman  02:49

Yeah. So where do you find curated content, so many places, you can Google it, you can look on YouTube, you can go to listen notes and find podcasts, around topics that are interesting to your target audience. Now you get a podcast exactly what Bob said here. You mentioned the hosts of the podcast, you mentioned the guests of the podcast, you mentioned the organizations that they work for. 

You mentioned if you know on a particular media, in this case it might be even if you did like on Spotify, but generally, it might be on Forbes or you know, wherever it is, and mentioned everyone that deserves a little shout out around that content.

Really great opportunity there and then as Bob said, mention in your text, I’d love to hear in comments, your thoughts on this topic, or if you agree and comment, let us know below. If you know, I’d love your put your perspective and comment in the comments below. So you’re encouraging them to engage.

Bob Woods  04:03

Absolutely, absolutely and one another really quick tip on this. If you want to get potentially items that you can curate sent to your email, Google Alerts, you can set up Google Alerts by keywords so that as this stuff comes down, you don’t necessarily have to go looking for it because Google will alert you when this stuff gets published.

And you know, it’s like boom, it’s almost brown. It’s not quite but it’s almost brainless. So number two, find content from influencers and thought leaders on LinkedIn and then engage with the calm with the commenters. you know, in other words down below the original post, then, again in that building, thought leadership kind of vein, offer additional insights from similar curated content. 

Brynne Tillman  04:54

This has started so many amazing conversations for me, you get to a post where you know, they’re attracting the exact people that you want to be talking to. So of course, you’re going to engage with the author, take a look at those commenters, and this is my little secret sauce or our little secret sauce is, let’s say Brene Brown and you don’t have to go that big. 

You could go influencer in your industry, right? But Brene Brown is the influencer and all these people are engaging. We know they like Brene. Brown, go find a podcast Brene was on, go find a topic that she’s talking about in that post by another influencer. 

So when you engage, you engage on the comments, and then you reach out to them and say, Hey, Bob! notice we’re both big fans of Brene Brown, I recently heard her on a podcast around X, Y, and Z. If you’re interested, let’s connect, I’d be happy to send you a link. Right? You can start to connect with those people through the conversation of that shared influencer.

Bob Woods  06:01

Absolutely. and one thing that I forgot to bring up earlier, we have an e-book that lists everything that we’re talking about today. So you can, you can have a memento of this podcast episode, it says, socialsaleslink.com/curatedcontent, again, socialsaleslink.com/curatedcontent with a D curated content and actually, you can use that with or without a slash, we’ve got that setup to where you can either have one word or curated slash content, or curated dash content.

That’s how much we think of everybody out there. So number three, take inventory of your connections. So there’s a couple steps here. So you’re probably gonna want the eBook just for this one alone. 

Take inventory of your connections, identify those you’d like to engage with, send a text or video message mentioning the content, the curated content that you’ve published it, and why they like it, and then ask if they’d be interested in the link. So you’re not actually sending the link? First, you’re asking permission to send the link, which is a very important part of this step, Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  07:13

Yeah, Absolutely and you know, I think that this is absolutely critical. In, you know, as we are sharing content that we take a look at all the people we’ve been ignoring, all in and how do we do this, you can export your connections, you can search by first degree connections. 

So, if you want to take a look at, I want to see all the CEOs I’m already connected to, you know, in a certain geographic location, or even in a certain industry and then engage. So the key here is that we’re asking permission, Right? So Bob, as a CMO, I thought you might get some value from a recent publication, I just read on how CMOs are making it in 2023.

Let me know if you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you a link. So, now that becomes in the inbox right of your curated content.

Bob Woods  08:11

Yeah, Absolutely. Absolutely. So rolling on with number four, finding content using industry hashtags, engage with authors and commenters and connect with them and then based on their insights, ask for their input on your posts. 

So, this is all about going out and actively discovering stuff that is on mainly on LinkedIn, you can use this on Twitter to have, you know, because people use hashtags on Twitter, and maybe Instagram, although it’s tougher to share stuff from Instagram than it is from an article that’s shared on Twitter.  

Brynne Tillman  08:48

Yeah, so one of the ways that I kind of would look at this is, let’s say you’re sharing content. I’m just gonna go with that. We’ll just have hashtag marketing tips. We’ll stick with CMO, right? Hashtag marketing tips and I want to curate content around that hashtag marketing tips, Right? 

So I can look that up and tons of content will show up and I can then engage with the author and the commenters and based on our engagement, we can either connect or send them a message and then say, you know, Really love your insights on this topic. 

Hashtag whether they say marketing, yeah, tips. Yeah, still marketing tips. Really, love your marketing tips. I recently posted a video, an article, a blog, whatever it is, on this topic. If you’re open, I would love your insights on my post. Let me know I’m happy to send you a link. Great way to engage there.

Bob Woods  09:57

Absolutely, So Number five, identify specific influencers and this is a really cool trick and search for your first degree connections who also follow them, and you can actually do this on LinkedIn with a specific search on LinkedIn and on normal LinkedIn.com too. And then you can reach out to offer content from that influencer and obviously, you’ll want to personalize that as well with a personal note.

Brynne Tillman  10:27

I love this. This is like magic. Most people don’t realize that there’s a lot of power in the search in the free version of LinkedIn and this is one of them, you can search if you go to the search bar and hit Enter, and then all Filters, you can click on first degree connections, and then go down to is it followers of and you could put in Brene Brown, Right. and then you could go down, you can drill down to CEO in an industry in a geographic location that follows Brene Brown, and you will get a list of your first degree connections. 

So if you’ve done this research to find this great book with a podcast that Brene was on, make the most of this reach out and say, Hey, Bob, see, we’re both fans of Brene Brown, recently heard her on a podcast. Here’s some takeaways let me know if you’re interested. I’m happy to send you a link. George.

Notice we’re both big fans of and it’s such a great way to use one piece of curated content. I think when I searched I had 185 people in my first degree connections that met the criteria of people. I’d want a conversation with that follow her. This is such an easy way to start a conversation with someone that’s not salesy.

Bob Woods  11:47

Exactly! Starting conversations that aren’t salesy, is what it’s all it’s ultimately about. Number six, interview your prospects on Zoom or LinkedIn live around a trending topic, and then use the content that you curate from that as the primary topic for discussion.

Brynne Tillman  12:06

Yeah, this is such a good one, Right? If you see, I actually did this with a very huge influencer, who I’m now going to be interviewing in July, because she’s really busy until then, but that’s fine. I got it on the calendar and this is someone first of all, that has amazing content and has amazing followers.

I think everything she does is awesome and you know, she puts up one video, and there are 10s of 1000s of engagement, you know, we know each other from engaging for quite a long time. So I reached out and you know, I said, I’d love to interview you, I think I actually asked for the podcast, which is fine. 

But you could if you don’t have a podcast, you don’t need one, you could just do a zoom interview, or run a LinkedIn live right and have a conversation around her content, the trend or trending, things that are happening in your industry, come up with something together. But you get to build a relationship with someone while promoting them and I think it’s brilliant. Yeah.

Bob Woods  13:09

Definitely a win-win situation there and that’s what we’re ultimately about when it comes to social selling in general, everybody wins. So, as a reminder, the ebook that accompanies this episode is that socialsaleslink.com/curatedcontent, that’s all one word curated content, social saleslink.com/curatedcontent. 

Number seven, use a trending article or topic that influences poll questions. So we’re getting to the LinkedIn polls. Now be sure to provide your voters with a link to the curated content that they may refer to so in other words, you published the poll and you’ll also have the link to the content in the body of the posts. So, the body is the part that’s before the post and are that’s before the poll, and then the polls below.

Brynne Tillman  14:01

Yeah, Perfect! So for example, if you are, we’ll stick with marketing trends, Right? So let’s say HubSpot publishes 77% of marketers are doing this year, go okay. Now what do I do with this? Right? So I take that curated piece and I go HubSpot mentioned HubSpot posted a study that claims 77% of marketers are doing X links to the post.

I’m curious what are the marketers doing in my network? So, then your poll is based on that topic. So you used a trending piece of content to create a poll. Couple things happened here. People are very interested because it’s a third party validation. It’s not like something you just want to know. But you know, you’re referring back to a third party. They don’t feel like it’s a bait and switch or I mean, it’s, you’re really curious about some content that’s out there. 

And you tend to get even more folks to engage. But the magic is just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come, the magic is you can send it to the inbox. Now, there’s two ways to do this. If you know them well, I’ll actually send it straight into even though everything else is permission based, to share links. 

There are two occasions where I say you may not need the permission. One is to vote on the poll. And the other is if you’re sharing their own content back with them. But in this case, you know, if you want to just go to this little paper airplane send and I go, Bob woods, Bob, as a CMO, I, you know, I would love your one click vote on this poll. Once it closes, I’m happy to share the insights I glean from you and your peers. Boom, the poll goes into his inbox, and he can vote right from their logic.

Bob Woods  15:58

Absolutely, absolutely. So number eight is create a newsletter. And here we’re talking LinkedIn newsletter. So LinkedIn now offers you the capability to do your own newsletter, which is great! Especially when you do it like this, you have links in there to curated Industry Insights, articles about that stuff, and other relevant content. 

So you don’t have to write 10,000 words, and which I wouldn’t do anyhow for a newsletter. But you get what I’m saying. You don’t have to create a huge amount of content to start a newsletter, you can actually use that as a way to link out to those curated Industry Insights and other relevant content.

Brynne Tillman  16:43

So I love this and Bob, I’m gonna throw in the slight ChatGPT.

Bob Woods  16:49

I had a feeling.

Brynne Tillman  16:51

Yeah. So, you grab a piece of curated content industry content, stick the link in ChatGPT. And say, give me one paragraph overview. So, now in your newsletter, you have the article, the author, the link out, but you have a one paragraph overview, so that your newsletter is not just links. 

Now read every one of those before you just copy and paste, make sure it sounds like you make sure it’s correct. Because ChatGPT has been known for like some mistakes. But yeah, it could be wonky, but generally, this is a very fast way. So you can even have like every week, if you wanted to do three top trends in marketing, or whatever it is that you do. 

And you just have these articles, three articles a week, and then your contact information at the bottom and then you could even say, if you come I love this idea. If you come across any content that you believe should be highlighted in this newsletter, stick a link in the comments. Absolutely right? And then you can curate from other people too.

Bob Woods  18:01

Absolutely, yeah, I love that. That’s great. So number nine is a way to get personal with the people who you might be fans of invite the creators and the influencers to a zoom interview or LinkedIn live event to specifically discuss content that they published.

I think this one’s really good because you can really get deep with someone who you happen to like or respect in the first place and as you interview them, it also gives you credibility, because you’re the person who’s interviewing them and in the questions that you ask, and there’s always going to be banter afterwards, you know, or even during the question,

You may have the opportunity to give an opinion about how you feel about things don’t I wouldn’t disagree with them. But you know what I’m saying, you know, have a conversation with them about it.

Brynne Tillman  18:55

Yeah. and real life stories. Yes, So let’s start with no matter how famous they are. They still want exposure. They still like exposure. So, is it.. can you.. Are you gonna get Gary Vee on LinkedIn live? I don’t know. But it can’t hurt to ask. 

So who have I had the pleasure of interviewing? Let’s see Bob Berg, the author of the Go Giver. Stephen Mr. Covey. We just did a podcast with why I reached out and asked if he had a new book. I’m, you know, that’s amazing. It’s called trust and inspire. 

I’m obsessed with it. I told him I’m obsessed with it. and like I got an amazing interview with him. So authors like they want that exposure. Even if you have a small network, many of them will say yes. I have built rapport with Jeffrey Gitomer, Jeb Blount, so many of these people.

Jeb Blount, I called out years ago when he said something negative about social selling and I said I want to debate this on your podcast and I wasn’t has done his podcast and now we’re buds. Right? So just take the risk to do it.

Bob Woods  20:06

Right! Yeah, It’s a leap of faith but you know, and like Brent said, it’s not going to work 100% of the time, but I have a feeling you’ll be surprised at how often it does work. So number 10, start a LinkedIn audio room. So, that’s a clubhouse type feature.

That is how is completely within LinkedIn, start one of those to discuss the topic based on a trending industry article. So this is when you are up on stage yourself. You can invite other people on stage again, just like clubhouse and just discuss the article and how it’s impacting whatever industry that you’re in.

Brynne Tillman  20:46

Yeah. Now, audio rooms are interesting. I have not run one inside of LinkedIn, I used to run Bob and I used to run all the time in the clubhouse. I have been in audio rooms, and there are a few people that get a lot of people, but they work hard to invite them. But here’s what’s really interesting is each of them have three or four other people that are like on a panel, and it works Really, really well!

So, they are all discussing topics and then people get invited from the stage. Now, where does this fall into curated content, invite someone to run an audio room based on their content, find that content that they’ve published, and you go, Oh! This would be a great topic and bring them in as a panelist in an audio room, Right? and promote it. 

But what happens is, you’ve got this real time conversation going, you get engagement from the audience. The key is you need to fill it the one problem. Well, there’s more than one problem. The major problem with LinkedIn audio rooms is they’re not easy to find. There’s not like an easy directory where I can search, what marketing audio rooms are happening this week. Right? and once they do that, I will definitely dive back in and do more audio rooms.

Bob Woods  22:05

Yeah, it’s a very uncluttered house, like when it comes to that you can find stuff. 

Brynne Tillman  22:10

Oh, Yeah, there’s no hallway. 

Bob Woods  22:12

Exactly! and finally, with number 11 and this one is kind of like the coup de gras. This one is like the ultimate. And that’s partnering with content creators who attract a similar audience is yours. Because not only are you generating, you know, great, great, great content and other things when you partner with them, you’re supporting each other by promoting and engaging with each other’s posts as well, which, you know, amplification is awesome. Wow! Just created and on my own. Yep, Well.

Brynne Tillman  22:48

I think we need to write that down amplification is awesome and I agree 100%. So, one of the things we can do is write who else is in your space, that’s not a competitor. That’s also creating content. Your curation piece is that you’re getting their content and amplifying it, their creation pieces, they’re taking your content and amplifying it. And I’m back to networking in person.

But there was a time where my whole business grew when I was a sales trainer. On networking. I was at every event every night, every morning, every everything. And I had a networking partner, and this was worked out so well. Her job was to get me conversations. My job was to get her conversations. So, if I happen to be talking with someone in the room.

I’m like, Oh my God, you gotta meet Debbie Hancock, you know, you got to meet her and her job was oh, my gosh, she got to meet Brynne Tillman. So, here’s what happens when I say to them, you need to meet Debbie. And Debbie comes over and has a conversation with them. 

She’s coming in at a higher level of credibility, Right? They’re more open to hearing what she has to say, because some third party promoted it. And that’s how I think of this content. If I promote, you know, someone else’s content.

 Let’s go Steve Steven, Steven Farber content, Right? He’s got some great content. I promote that. When my network sees it, he starts to grow his network through I curated his content and when he does that, I get visibility into his network. So, that’s like mutual curation, and has a huge impact on growing that network and attracting the right people. Alive in my lucky number.

Bob Woods  24:32

Eleven, and we are and we are done with the list of that if you want the accompanying ebook, it’s it’s socialsaleslink.com/curatedcontent. Again, that’s  socialsaleslink.com/curatedcontent. And thank you again for joining us on making sales social live.If you’re with us live on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter right now, we do this every week, so keep an eye out for our live set questions.

If you’re listening to us on our podcast and you haven’t subscribed already, go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button to access all of our previous shows and be alerted when new ones drop. If you’d like more info on our podcast, go to social sales length.com/podcast We do two shows weekly, this one and our making sales social interview series, which Brynne has referenced already, where we talk with leaders and experts in sales, marketing, business, and many more areas. So, when you’re out and about, make sure that your sales are…

Brynne Tillman  25:31

Social. Bye Guys.

Outro 25:35

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