Episode 55: Profile Refresh in 2022

Brynne Tillman  00:00

Woohoo! Hello, Bob woods.  ( Bob: Hello! ) And to the world. Welcome to Making Sales Social!

Bob Woods  00:11

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 Bill McCormick, Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods every week. Making Sales Social Live!

Brynne Tillman  00:28

We are at the beginning of 2022 still, right, we’re still in January and, you know, we’re talking about all of the things that we need to do to prepare to make 2022 the best year ever yet. And one of them is refreshing our LinkedIn profile because a lot of us haven’t looked at it in a while. Talk about why having a static profile might be a problem.

Bob Woods  00:54

Yeah. So I mean, you always want to be up to date with the message that you’re bringing to the people who are visiting your profile. And a lot of that has to do with not only what’s in your banner, picture, covered story, and all the sections that we’re going to be talking about. You just want to be current so that people know that you’re, for lack of a better phrase just still around, essentially, I mean, because there are a lot of times I go into people’s profiles, and I have to look at it and wonder when is the last time they’ve actually been on LinkedIn. So to have that profile refresh and really fresh and ready to go. It’s almost like a produce section. I mean, you know, they’re always bringing out new stock. So everything looks good and looks scrumptious to eat and stuff like that. I think it’s the same type of thing here, except for your LinkedIn profile. So you know that goes beyond the banner, your picture, your cover story. 

Brynne Tillman  01:53

Let’s talk about each of those. ( Bob: Yeah, yeah! ) Let’s start with the banner, right, your LinkedIn banner. I look at this, like a billboard, this is your digital real estate, where you can update this, with events that are coming up, we have, occasionally this podcast we want the world to know about so that’s our banner. But if we have a launch of a new product that becomes the image. It’s a digital billboard and I think it’s really important that we update this based on what message we’re trying to convey to our audience.

Bob Woods  02:29

Yeah. So I mean, I think it’s really important for people to think of the Banner as swappable for lack of a better term. (Brynne: That’s a good term. Yeah!)  So you can have like one standard one, that if you’re not promoting something, or whatever, you can have that up there as a standard. But if you have something coming up, get the information about that in there, especially because besides your photo, that’s literally the very first thing that people see when they land on your profile. And you know, being in real estate myself, once upon a time, I know that wasted real estate is bad real estate. So use that real estate to your total and complete advantage, what we would call highest and best use if there are any real estate people out there, they will know what I’m talking about. 

Brynne Tillman  03:16

And consistent branding ( Bob: Yes. Yeah )  Right, that it looks like your website that you’re using consistent fonts and colors and such. Let’s go to the next one. Such an important one, we all know this. A professional picture. Take a look, if your hair is different if you don’t have as much hair as you do in your picture if you know things have changed, right? Well, I mean, you know, I look at some of my old pictures where my hair is really short and I’m like, You know what, that’s an older picture, it’s time to update. So the goal really is that we look like what we look like, right. When people show up at our profile and in today’s world where we’re jumping on Zoom, you want to make sure that you really look like that photo.

Bob Woods  04:01

Exactly. Yes, I mean that literally, I did a profile makeover today, and that subject literally came up and it’s like, you know, you may want to do it, he looked pretty much the same, but it’s like, you know, yeah, if you have an opportunity, you may want to do it but if I look at it, I can tell that you’re the same person. That being said, there are a lot of times when I go into a zoom call, it’s like, “Oh, you look different” and you really don’t want to be like that. You really want to have what you look like as currently as possible as your profile ( Brynne: Yes, eye contact. Important )  eye contact is important. You know, sometimes straight on,  sometimes you want to, you know, do like a little news anchor type of thing you can do that by contact as long as it’s eye contact. 

Brynne Tillman  04:55

Yeah, you know this is our 24/7 networking meeting. We, these folks, and I don’t remember the statistics. You used to quote this a long time ago so it’s probably even more now. But it was like 10 times more likely … Do you remember that?

Bob Woods  05:09

I think it’s up to something like 22 times or something like that. And that’s not 22% it’s 22 times more likely.

Brynne Tillman  05:16

That someone will engage with you in your profile if you’ve got a picture.

Bob Woods  05:20

Right, because remember, your profile photo, along with your headline shows up everywhere in LinkedIn where you’re commenting,

Brynne Tillman  05:28

Yeah, how often should you update your photo? Take a look at your photo. If you still look like that. It’s fine. Right? You don’t have to update it often unless you change. Now, for example, if you get a whole like you’re wearing glasses, I have glasses, if you get new glasses, and now you’re showing up in the new glasses, I might change the photo. ( Bob: Depends on how different they are)  Depends on how different they are but I think that’s a great question. The next one is the cover story. You know this is a newer feature, talk about the feature, the cover story feature, and why this is something we should refresh in 2022.

Bob Woods  06:04

So number one, probably a lot of people out there don’t even know what cover story is. So rather than a refresh, this might be their first proverbial take at it. So cover story is where you can upload up to a 30-second video clip of yourself or have some type of content, it should probably be yourself but there are, you know, there are so many creative ways to do it. But anyhow, getting back to the main point, it’s about you talking about who you help, how you help them, the results you bring, and the services that you provide. That’s kind of the way that ( Brynne: In 30 seconds ) Yes, in 30 seconds. Warm, personable, smiling the whole shot, because this is your opportunity to communicate with someone in a way that text just can’t. And I think it’s a fantastic feature and LinkedIn is way under promoting it.  If you do have a cover story, you may want to go back and look at it and just think to yourself, “Does this still promote who I am? Does this still promote everything that I just mentioned?” Or, you know, maybe you want to update it for 2022. You know, happy 2022 with the full knowledge that you’re probably going to have to change it in about a month or two ( Brynne: Yeah, only if you’re committing ) Yeah, right, exactly. So I mean, almost, almost think of it as like a promotional video clip only in terms of how often you want to refresh it. So you know, just like your banner, you may want to address something specific in your cover story but that may only last for a short time. So all you know, just keep all this stuff in mind. You’re kind of becoming a promotion person to a certain extent, but it’s easy to promote yourself where it should be. 

Brynne Tillman  07:53

Well you know, I’m gonna pull back from the word promotion. And this is more like if you were to be an AI or a networking meeting, and you had a 30-second commercial. ( Bob: Yeah, yeah ) so they get to know who you are, connect with you. It’s not full-on promotion, right? Because I hate that. Like, I don’t want to… I really want to be a resource, right? And so in that 30 seconds, although it is your 30-second pitch so it is “Ish” promotion, but I just want them to connect with you as a person as a human being, and get them curious enough to keep reading your profile. I love that! ( Bob: Agree 100% ) Featured section, why is this important to update?

Bob Woods  08:36

The featured section is that section within your profile where you can bring in content from outside of LinkedIn. Posts from within LinkedIn and do it in a visual kind of way because there should generally be a graphic attached to it. We call it a scroll stopper. Because people as they’re scrolling through your profile, they’re going to stop there because it is visual. So you need to have good quality and in this specific case, updated up to the minute content. So it’s really easy to have older content in there that you haven’t thought about updating. While it’s you know, 2022 it’s probably time to go and look and see if there’s new stuff that you can put in there. It’s not necessarily pitchy but it’s very educational so that people learn more about what you do, and how you and your company can help them.

Brynne Tillman  09:35

I love that you mentioned this, but I’m gonna emphasize, you can actually connect one of your posts to the featured section. ( Bob: Absolutely ) So if you have a post that’s doing really well. You can even if it’s a poll or a blog post or a question or a quote image. You can connect that to your featured section and your viewers will see how much engagement is there. So there’s some credibility that goes to that as well. So I love that. ( Bob: Yeah, yeah! ) The About Section. Should my about be about me and my experience and my mission and my passion?

Bob Woods  10:14

I think we all know the answer to that which should be, No! It should be about talking to your audience, to the people who are coming to your profile to learn more about you. And this is way too broad of a definition. But essentially, it’s about how you and your company can help them the about section is not about you. It’s about them.

Brynne Tillman  10:38

Yeah,I love that. I love the way you said that too. You know, this is where we show up as a resource. I mean, the featured section, of course, you do. But here, if we start with you know, “I have 27 years experience…”  They’re bored, they’re going home, I don’t care about that yet. They might care about that. you have to earn the right for them to care about that. The way that you do that is exactly what Bob said, show up as a resource, a little fast formula. What is the challenge that your buyer is facing right now? What are some vendor-agnostic insights that you can add? Meaning there are tips that get them curious, thinking differently about their current situation, and going, “You know what, I never thought of it that way. That’s really interesting. That’s something that we’re not doing.”

Bob Woods  11:29

And also those tips should be something that they can implement on their own without reaching out to you, it shouldn’t. Those tips should not push directly to you because otherwise, you’re just going to confuse people and they’re going to see it, they’re going to see it as a pitch.  

Brynne Tillman  11:43

Great point! So if it’s “I help people do this” then they look like a pitch, but if it’s, you’re actually helping them, now you’re a resource, and you’re going to draw them in, right?

Bob Woods  11:54

Stop talking about helping people and just help people. 

Brynne Tillman  11:58

Yes, and that’s exactly… This is a great place to do that. That’s awesome, right. So stop telling people how you help them and actually help them,I love that. Once we’ve done that we could do a line or two about how we help them, right, we got to bridge it and a call to action. That could be something as simple as you know, if you’re challenged with this, or you’re exploring this, I’m happy to have a conversation and provide additional insights, even if we never work together. And then make sure your phone number’s there, your email’s there, or calendar link so that they can schedule. Otherwise, they’ll leave and not know what to do. So I love this, we have two more to go. Okay, I’m going to skip ahead because I want to land with experience, and so talk about updating your skills.

Bob Woods  12:46

So that skill section that you have there, and a lot of people don’t know this, it’s pretty heavily search engine optimized, or what we call SEO. So because of that, you want to list the skills that you have that you honestly have, obviously but at the same time, these skills should be the same types of skills that the audience that you’re trying to attract of your prospects or whatever you want to call them are looking for. And one of the really interesting things about skills is that while LinkedIn will suggest certain skills for you, you can put in any skill that you want to in there. You don’t have to go with just LinkedIn’s skills. So if you’ve got something so specific that I can’t even think of it, it’s only something that your people in your industry would be involved in or would be searching for. Put that sucker in.  

Brynne Tillman  13:39

So it’s interesting. Jack hovered, “Hi! Jack just said, great ideas in the featured section.” I just did a training this morning and used Jack as an example, on the Skills Section. So the skill section, he has all of the skills that he brings to the table, which are many. And when I bring up his profile, occasionally you’ll see his face and three others. And it says, “Is Jack Good at banking?” And I’m gonna say, “Yes, Jack is amazing at banking,” right. So those skills also will trigger what LinkedIn is going to ask you if you’re good at. So Jack, I endorsed you for that today in a live training. We also have before we go on… We have Sarah who’s updating her featured section right now. Michelle, in my featured section, you will find help on how to use LinkedIn. 

Bob Woods  14:43

That’s perfect. That is a perfect example of the types of content that

should be in there…

Brynne Tillman  14:45

Yeah, Love that. Love that. So our last one that we’re going to talk about is experience. Now I just want to start with this for a moment because over the years, Bob, you and I have been working for a dozen years now, a long time. We’ve been together. A very long time. No, I think maybe eight years, I think I added four for good luck. So we’ve been– And we have morphed the experience section over time, and where we are today. And by the way, you know, Bob does 99% of the makeovers for our company. So I should default to him on this, but I want to talk about it for a second. And we talked about this, as we kind of update the way we look at things, but LinkedIn about three or four years ago, created this thread. So if you were a teller, and then a branch manager, and then a commercial lender, your jobs are now threaded together, together under one company page, right? So we decided we’re going to update this whole section and leverage it in a way that can really help us. So this is where I want you guys to think about updating your profile and refreshing your profile. So if you have “I am a LinkedIn trainer as your primary role” But you are, you know, so you’re the CEO of your company, and you tell your story, and you connect emotionally, instead of say, maybe I never had another job at the company, you can still leverage those past experience features. But you can do this by highlighting solutions, like keynote speaker, coach, trainer, or industries you serve. So for Jack, it would be, you know, banks, credit unions, potentially, right, because that’s who he serves. So I want you guys to go out there and think about what are the either the solutions I provide, or the industries that I serve, and start to update your profile in a way that not only tells a better story about how you can help them, but it also helps your search engine optimization, because your title is one of the most indexed sections in LinkedIn, even from Google.

Bob Woods  17:17

So I think probably if you’re still kind of wondering, I’m not sure what they’re talking about. Go to Brynne Tillman’s profile on LinkedIn or my Bob Woods’ profile on LinkedIn. You’ll see that we’re actually taking advantage of a little bit of just how LinkedIn formats it as well because it’s almost going to look like bullet points underneath your main section there too, which I think is really cool. So you know, it’s going to be bullet point, industry, finance, industry, banking, or you know, whatever, essentially. So, just from a visual standpoint, all of this is going to tie together so that the people who are visiting your profile, your prospects will look down there, and no, hey, I’m one of the people that this person is speaking to.

Brynne Tillman  18:04

Absolutely. And Marcy asked, “How do I add a job and your own business in your experience section?” so you can actually have simultaneous experiences. So I am the CEO of Social Sales Link but I’m also the EVP of social selling at St. Meyer and Hubbard. Both are listed on my profile. So I have my own business and my other role was St. Meyer and Hubbard. So take a look at my profile, Marcy, see how I have that listed and you can certainly reach out to me if you have more questions.

Bob Woods  18:39

And actually, the same thing for you too Cassandra, because this is definitely a more visual thing that once you heard what we’ve spoken about, and you actually see how it’s done. You know, hopefully, that will connect in your mind and go,  “Oh, yeah, I see what they’re talking about now.” 

Brynne Tillman  18:57

Yeah. Hi, Cassandra. So Cassandra didn’t quite understand the thread, what I would say first of all you can certainly reach out but if you look at Bob’s profile experience. You’ll see it’ll say “CMO” and then you’ll scroll down and it might say, makeover specialist and then you go down, it might say coach, I’m not sure what his says, that’s probably, and there’s a line where it’s all connected. So I would say go take a look at that. It’s a huge, huge opportunity to get your message out. So thank you guys. This was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this. And Bob, as always, I love going live with you. ( Bob: Same here, same here. Glad to do it ) Yehey! And we’ll see you all next week!

Bob Woods

Thanks, everyone. Have a great day!

Brynne Tillman

When you’re out and about don’t forget to make your sales social.

Bob Woods  19:50

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