How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence

Well, good afternoon and welcome to Y2Y for the month of October. I'm really excited about today because today we're going to talk about maximizing your LinkedIn presence and the impact your yos can have on your profile. For those of you who are joining us for the term for the first time, I'm Dan Dominguez and I'm the Chief Growth Officer at the Y Institute. My why is to contribute to the success of others. How I do that is by challenging the status quo. And what I bring is solutions that make sense. Now this will make a lot more sense if you go to www.whyinstitute.com and discover your why and figure out why you do what you do, how you do it, and what it is that you bring. So before we get started, before we introduce our guests, I always like to start with the important thing. What are we going to talk about today? The nine whys. So everybody has a why and everybody should know their why. So the first why is contribute. People who like to contribute to a greater cause, make a difference, add value, or have an impact. If you're that type of person, you're the person that is the go to for everyone. The second why is trust. To create relationships based on trust. That is what drives people with the why of trust makes sense. This is the why of people who like to make sense out of things, especially if they're complex or complicated. The next why is better way. People who like to find a better way and share it with others. The next one is right way. These are people who like to do things the right way in order to get reliable results. You can count on them doing things right every time. The next why is challenge. These are people who like to think differently and challenge the status quo. The next one is mastery. These are people who like to seek mastery and understanding. They like to know things at a very deep level. Number eight is clarify. People who like to make things crystal clear and understandable. And the final one is simplify. People who like to decrease complexity. You can know these people because they communicate very simply. So I have Our guest today is Lanaire Johnston, all the way from New Zealand. Let me tell you a little bit about her. She is an internationally recognized LinkedIn expert and she's ranked number one in New Zealand in her specialty. She is the author of the book.

4 Powerful Strategies to Maximize your LinkedIn Success. She is a LinkedIn coach, she's a trainer, she's a marketing strategist and she's also the owner and chief copywriter at Word Wizard. Now her why, how and what are contribute, simplify and make sense. So I can't wait to hear from Lenare. By the way, if you go to www.whyinstitute.com to discover your why, don't forget to use the code Y2Y to get 50% off the Y discovery. We got to make sure we let you guys know about that. Linear. Sorry for the long introduction, but welcome. We are so glad to have you.

Thank you so much. And greetings from the bottom of the world to all our friends across the world. It's lovely to be here. Dan, thank you so much for the invitation.

And it's always afternoon for us. It's the next day. We're talking. This is back to the future. We're talking to Lanier in the future. A whole day ahead. It's tomorrow morning where you are, right? It is.

And I can tell you it's a beautiful day on tomorrow.

I will look forward to getting to the day that you are now.

It's odd, isn't it?

It's amazing. I love the topic of linkability. I love the topic of talking about how we use LinkedIn. A lot of the work that I do just due to the pandemic forced me to use social media. And the social media that I love using is LinkedIn because that's where my clients are. That's where executive coaches spend a lot of time. Now, all of them, most of them are really great at using other media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. But a lot of us kind of reside in LinkedIn, especially in my age group. I know that the younger generation really likes Instagram a little bit more and they do TikTok and all of those are important. But I think we start with LinkedIn because it's a business platform. Right. So I love that you're here to talk to us about that.

Absolutely. And you know, dan, I see LinkedIn as being more than just social media now. I see it as a business tool for every person who is in business anywhere, whatever they're doing, they need to have a professional presence on LinkedIn. And it's really important to your personal brand, whether you're a business owner, you're an employee, or you are an executive Coach. Being on LinkedIn is the place to be visible, to build your credibility and to build trust with your audience and the people that you want to do business with. The place to be the best place to be for business people, in my opinion. Well, I'm a bit biased. Let's be fair.

Well, you know, you're not just biased. You wrote a book about it. So tell us about linkability. What, what is linkability? Define it for us and then tell us what you talk about with those four powerful strategies.

Sure. Well, I think that the most important thing for being on LinkedIn, Dan, is to have a really good profile. And so that has to be compelling and eye catching. And these days, people see their profile profiles as much, much more than just their CV or resume. And so once you have a really good profile, the big question is, what do you do with that? How do you market yourself on LinkedIn or use LinkedIn to build trust and credibility and visibility? And those are the things that I talk about in my book. And so the four of those strategies are making sure that you connect to the right people in the right way and build relationships, publish really good quality content on LinkedIn on a regular basis. And there are lots of ways to do that, to engage well with other people and other people's content. And the fourth one is direct messaging. Now, I'm a fan of direct messaging on LinkedIn because I believe it is so much more effective and personal than sending somebody an email. And so I talk quite a bit about that in my book. And I really believe that in the days where we are now all online and very, very busy, that getting directly to the person that you want to talk to is really effective. And that's why I just love LinkedIn and the direct messaging that you can do on LinkedIn because you're much more likely to get a response than you are to an email. So those are the four strategies for linkability. And so if I was to define linkability, being linkable is someone who does all those things well, who has a good profile, who connect and builds relationships, and who publishes good quality content, not just promotional material, who engages well and also sends direct messages to people in a way that is personal. Because what I believe underpins any positive or successful activity on LinkedIn, Dan, is building relationships. And of course, that dovetails quite nicely into my particular why, which I'm sure we're going to be talking about. But I think that building relationships on LinkedIn is the key to itself.

I love that you said that because you and I came together through a common connection. Gina Ballerin, right. She was on our podcast for why Institute, did a fantastic job. She is a big fan of knowing your why. Her why is to make sense of the complex and challenging. And when we had her on the show, she talked about. She was. She couldn't believe how Many times she said the words, oh, that makes sense. And you really catch yourself doing that now. Your why is to contribute. And I think how we connected is you made a comment on something that I posted. Just you followed your own advice, you made a comment. And then I commented back. I think it was on something that Gina had posted. And the next thing we knew, we reached out and connected. We had a great conversation. I've recorded something with you. Now you're on why to y telling us about how to use your why operating system in your LinkedIn profile. So you really are. You know, I love it when people practice what they preach, and we believe wholly in that. So I love that you do it also.

Yes. And that is a very good example, dan, of how LinkedIn works. And in my own situation this time last year, I was a nobody on LinkedIn. Nobody had ever heard of me. I hadn't done anything except just doing my normal everyday activities on LinkedIn. And now people all around the world come to me to have help given for their LinkedIn profiles, for advice on working with LinkedIn. And I'm on all kinds of international lists, which really makes me feel great because it means that more people get to hear about LinkedIn from me and I can share why I think LinkedIn works and how best to make it work in their own businesses. So I'm a living example how you can go from a nobody to somebody in 12 months on LinkedIn. And it works exactly as you and I have just described our interaction. And I think that that makes a big difference. And of course, we've never met, Right.

We've never met in person, Right? So our relationship is a digital relationship created through LinkedIn. And so I really appreciate your expertise. You've been very generous. Like I said, we've recorded some snippets for you. We're going to record our show so that even after we air, people will be able to go back and listen and learn from you how to maximize their presence on LinkedIn. So, you know, I really enjoy taking you through the process line there of discovering your why, your how and your what. So your why is to contribute to the success of others. So you share my why. Now, how you do that, Your how is to simplify. So for those of you listening for the first time, notice we're using the nine whys. So her how is to simplify. So how Lanier contributes is by making things simple for others. And the world of LinkedIn can be a little overwhelming. So you help people simplify it and then you Help them make sense of it. That's what you bring. So the next question is obviously a little self serving, but I think it's really important. How has discovering your yos in general impacted the way you do things ever since you figured out your why, how and what?

It has made an amazing difference to me, Dan, because it's given me the confidence that what I'm doing is the right thing and how I'm approaching LinkedIn is the right way for me because there are a lot of people who do very similar work to me on LinkedIn but have completely different approaches. And so when it's very easy then to think, well, maybe I'm doing this all wrong because other people are doing it in a different way. But knowing my why, how and what has really made me realize that I am on the right path, I am doing the right thing, and I just need to double down and do it more. So I think it's the confidence of knowing that I'm on the right track and that has really made a big difference for me. And so of course, when you know that, that you carry that confidence into the rest of your life as well, so you carry yourself a little taller, you work harder to make sure that you are walking the talk, as you say, and really making sure that you're reaching out to people who you can help and not just people who you think might be able to help you. Because contributing is all about sharing information.

And helping other people to be able to make sense of the different things that LinkedIn does. Because as you say, it gets very complicated. And so I run a monthly free webinar, for example, where I share ideas about how you can link to LinkedIn better. And it's that kind of thing that fits neatly into my particular why, which is contribute. Now, I've known for quite some time that this is what I meant to be doing. So this is my purpose, if you like. And it's taken me, as you can see, I'm not 21 and it's taking me until my current age or a couple of years ago to discover that this is what I'm meant to be doing. I'm meant to be sharing information and that's why I'm here. And it just turns out that LinkedIn is the platform and the way that I can do that. So it really cements my own belief in myself and makes me realize that I'm doing the right thing for the right reasons and I'm doing it in the right way.

You, you said a lot there and I'VE heard that so many times when, Aaron, you know, often we look for.

Ways to verify that what we're doing is what we're supposed to be doing. And when you said that, you know that for you, it really solidified for you that you're doing the right thing and you're doing it in your own way. Right. We often say we believe that when you know your why, what you do has more impact. And we also believe that when you let others know what you believe, you're going to attract others who believe what you believe. And so I noticed you made a change in your profile and you let people know that your why is to contribute. And how you do that is by simplifying. And what you bring are solutions that make sense and that makes so much sense for what you do. But what's really interesting is that there could be another LinkedIn expert that might have a why of better way and a how of simplifying a what of challenge, and they would do it their own way. What we have found is if you tell people what you do. So if you just led with, hey, I'm a LinkedIn expert, I can help you use LinkedIn to your advantage, they're going to lump you in with that other person and say, okay, okay, then let's compare it. Who do we really want to hire? Who do we want to work with? Versus if you tell people why you do what you do, they're going to hire you based on whether that resonates with them or not. Have you found a difference in the way the clients you're attracting now that you're communicating from your why?

Yes, and it's not just the clients, Dan. It's also what I would describe as my tribe. You talked about other LinkedIn experts, and that is very true, because what's happened is that now I have a group of other LinkedIn experts around me who do do things differently, who do see things in a slightly different way from I can learn, but I consider these people to be my tribe and part of my group of people because they do what I do and that is they contribute. And so they share information from which I can learn. So not only am I attracting the right clients, but I'm attracting the right people who can help me do my why even better, who can help me get the information out there in a way that is going to help others. And so I really believe that you do attract the people that you want to work with most when you are doing LinkedIn or doing your why in a way that Works for you. And so by putting that first and foremost, I'm bringing in the right people. And I'm also bringing in the people that can help me do that even better. So it's a win, win, win, really in that sense.

I love that. And as a fellow contributor, you know, we always love win win, right? We want to help people, and if we can help others while helping ourselves, that's just a double cher. A lot of people say, well, our contributors, just the best people because they're always giving. Right? And what I have found is that each of the whys gives in their own way, right? People with the why of trust believe in building relationships based on trust. And so that's how they contribute because they build trusting relationships. Our founders why is better way. So he's always looking for a better way to do things. And is that all he's driven by? Well, the second half of that why is he wants to share it with others. When they find a better way, they share it with others. So that's how they contribute. Every why has their the way that they contribute to the world. And that's why it's really cool when you put the three together, contribute, simplify, and make sense. It's really how you contribute in three different ways. By making sense, by simplifying. You put it all together and you put together a great product that people can use. Now, I think I've asked a couple of the questions that I had on my list already. What about in your personal life, have you made any changes? Have you used it with your spouse, with friends? Have you communicated differently? And have you verified it with someone and said, hey, I found this out about myself. What do you think?

Yes, I have. I spoke to a close friend about it and her reaction was, duh.

As if I hadn't known it. Which I suppose again, you do know sometimes things subliminally. But yes, I've always.

Been a giver and a sharer, and I got that from my grandmother. It's really interesting when I think back about her and how she spent her life giving to other people in quite different ways than I do. But it kind of seems that that has come down through the genes, if you like. And so one example of that is that I'm a gardener, so I give away plants to people. And for a long time I was had a big orchard and a big garden. So I used to make a lot of jams and preserves and I would give those away as well. So those are the kind of other ways in my personal that I might contribute and I also have a number of girlfriends where we just sit and talk and that. Well, we've been in lockdown again here in New Zealand recently and so that's been a little more difficult to do, of course. But I think that contributing can be more than just giving. Contributing can be listening. It can be just being there for people when they need it as well. So again, I think that knowing this has really made me understand that I am. The things that I do, Dan, are the right things for me. They may not be right for other people and I'm not making any judgments, but I am saying is it, it's right for me and I'm doing the right thing. That just fits for me and it comes from my heart.

I love the way you express that. So thank you. I may use that clip.

You might see yourself on LinkedIn a few more times, Linare, even after the interview. So let me ask you this. You talked about using your why in your profile as you communicate. So there, there's a few different ways you talked about. You talk about using your why as in your profile when you connect with people, when you're publishing, when you're engaging with others, when you're direct messaging and on your company pages. So I'd love to give you the opportunity, take us through how do you use the why of contribute in every one of those areas? Let's, let's start with that one.

Yeah, sure. Okay. So that's a very, a very good way to do it. So contribute is my number one why. So what I do with the main area that I contribute on LinkedIn is through my publishing, Dan. So I share a lot of information about LinkedIn, updated information, new features, that kind of thing. But also just generally how to use LinkedIn because it's a very complex platform and so I share how to do that through my post, through my articles, through my videos. So that's the main way that I do the contributing. I also when I'm connecting with people and I send, I always send and I recommend this to everybody no matter what. Your why is when you are sending a connection invite to somebody, always, always, always send a personalized message that starts Dear Dan, hi Dan, hello Dan from there make it obvious that you've looked at their profile and just in some out and make it personal. So when you do that people are more likely to say yes and they'll connect with you. And then in your follow up message that says thanks for connecting, that's when you can add in your own why. So What I do is I will say to them, I often share information with my LinkedIn connections and on LinkedIn and I've got a whole lot of free resources. If you'd like to have a look at those, let me know and I'll send you the link. The important thing there is to not try and push it. You don't want to pay attention, to be salesy because that. Well, my vision of LinkedIn is not to do that. I'm the kind of person who likes people to come to me rather than having to reach out to people. If they want my services, if they want my help, then I want to make that available. But I don't want to push it down people's throats. So giving them the option to ask for that is then showing them that I am contributing, but I'm not pushing. So that's how I do that when I'm doing the connecting, when I'm engaging. That's partly engaging. Engaging on people's content, which is all about again, adding value, taking the conversation a wee bit further, asking questions so that the person who's written the post has an opportunity to showcase their talent a bit more or their skills a bit more. And in direct messaging, I use that again by sharing information with people. So I'll often send messages that say, we've got this free webinar coming up. It's going to be about X, Y and Z. If you'd like to know more about it, here's a link for that. Or it's going. Here's something I've just learned about LinkedIn that you might be interested in. Now, of course, as I said earlier, everything underpins all the thing that underpins Your activity on LinkedIn is your profile. So how do I show that I contribute on my profile? Well, I think that that's very subtle is the first thing. Again, you don't want to be bashing people's heads in. So what I do with that is I make sure that people on my profile on my Prof. Banner know that I have, for example, a membership site where I'm sharing more information on my headline. I talk about what I do, that I am a LinkedIn trainer and coach. And then people understand that if they follow me, hopefully they'll be able to see that I share information. But how do I do that at a practical level? Well, what I do is I pin to my featured section, which is the big visual section with those large thumbnails, any posts or articles or events I have coming up that are free, that people can look at and they can read. So the information that I share is really high up on my profile and people can easily see that that's what I do. In my experience section, I have a breakout section under my linkability company that talks about being a podcast guest or speaker, like on fabulous shows like this, where I can show people that they can go to to find more information, all of which is free. Now that's not to say that I don't have some products that are paid, otherwise I wouldn't still be in business. But my idea is to get show people that I know what I'm talking about with LinkedIn by simplifying it and providing those solutions that we've talked about. And I do that by contributing. So I like to build that trust, first of all with people so that they know that I share information that is useful, that is accurate and that is going to help them. So those are about. Well, there's the number of ways I think that you can show what it is that you do on LinkedIn, but those are the ways that I show that I can contribute. And I'm sure as soon as we finish recording, I'm going to think of half a dozen others.

Well, that's okay. We'll have to have you back is all we'll do. Okay.

Well, LinkedIn changes so fast, Daniel, that I think that if we had another conversation about LinkedIn, I'll be saying a totally different group of things, that's for sure.

If we have this conversation a couple of months from now, it'll probably be, I think so. Well, what question have I not asked that you want to make sure we get out and then there's information that's just waiting inside of you that Dan forgot to ask.

What do you want to share with our audience?

What I want to share, Dan, is the fact that no matter what your why is, you can make sure that people understand that on LinkedIn there are ways on your profile and in your activity to demonstrate your why. And I'll just give a couple of examples, if I may. One of them is trust, of course. So building trust on LinkedIn is important for everybody. But if that's your why, then there are some ways to do that. And one of the new ways to do that is five star review. This is a new feature that is being rolled out and it sits underneath providing services which in itself sits at the top of your profile in your introduction section. And so I love it because if you've got a whole range of 5 star reviews and why wouldn't you? Then people look at that and they can go, wow, this person knows their stuff and it's other people reviewing you. So that's that social proof that is so important these days in building trust. And people of course, do business with those that they know like and trust. So I think that that's one way that you can, that you can do that. And also if you, for example, want like Gina, our friend Gina that you were talking about, who likes things to make sense, then you can use your LinkedIn publishing to show that you can make sense of things. Now, in a way, this is something that I do too. So I take what is complex on LinkedIn and I then make it simple and publish content about that that makes people understand it really easily because it can be so confusing. And so what I do, my background as a journalist has helped me with this, but others can do this too is just to simplify what it is that you do and make it reachable or understandable for people. And I think that that's something that the LinkedIn platform allows people to do really, really well and helps the them stand out from others just simply by telling people what they know and helping other people understand it. So couple of ideas there around that.

I love that you use one of our taglines when you discovered your why you probably saw it. We help people get clear, stand out and play bigger. So when you get that clarity of knowing who you are by your why operating system, you can stand out and then you can play bigger. You can make a bigger difference by staying in the zone where you're really good, which you're really good at contributing by simplifying and helping people make sense. So I love that. Now you also have a membership site. I'd love for you to tell our listeners about your membership site. Lynnere sure.

Well, it's called the Linkability membership site and Dan, it's more of an encyclopedia, an online encyclopedia about LinkedIn. I share a lot of information about LinkedIn through my webinars and my publishing and my articles and posts on my website and a lot of other material too that that I might have shared on podcasts or done interviews with other people. They've interviewed me. So what I've done is I've collated everything into one central place called the Linkability membership site, where people can go anytime that they want to and download information that they want to know about. There is so much information out there about LinkedIn and it's really hard to know where to go to find information in one place. So the membership sites based on, on the principle of the three Cs. So that is talking about the content, it's the content festival, which is all this material and I've got more than 100 pieces of that. It's building a community. So we've got a group of people who are members who can help each other to be able to play bigger on LinkedIn, which is great. And then the third one is all about coaching and so we're doing monthly coaching with people who are members so that they can have one to one conversations with me about the things that are bothering them about LinkedIn, which is all really excellent because then I can share that information with other people as well. So linkability membership site is my latest toy and I'm really, I'm really pleased to have got it up and people seem to really like it and find it useful. And of course, Dan, it just fits into my.

Why? Right, well how do we get to that? What's the web address that we want to go to if somebody was interested in a membership?

Okay, so you go to WordWizard Co NZ, which is my business name, Word Wizard, WordWizard Co NZ membership. And that will take you to a page where there's more detail about it and explains a little bit more about what I do, what's on the site so that they know what they're letting themselves in for.

Fantastic. And you had an offer for our listeners we talked about.

Today.

Okay, well, I'd like to offer everybody a free month of membership for my site. And so you and I will talk about a code for that off here so that people can, we can talk about that and show people the code that they can put in and they'll get a free month for the, for the site. I'd love people to join us and then if they'd like to stay on after that free month, they're very welcome to. If not, then that's fine too. Thank you.

I love that we have a new social media manager at Y Institute and I'm going to have her take advantage of that because, you know, just about everyone who joins Y Institute is younger than me, so her generation is more on the Instagram, the TikTok, the Facebook and a little bit of Twitter. So LinkedIn is the one area where she'd like to get stronger. So I'm sure she will benefit from that three month membership and then joining you perhaps even after that. So I will definitely introduce her to that.

Fantastic. Dan, thanks so much. I've really enjoyed our conversation today. In fact, I always enjoy our conversation. So I do hope we'll have a chance to have another chat over other LinkedIn ideas and why institute ideas later on.

I love that line there. Let's continue to have these conversations. It's all about connecting. So you said it's content.

Community, community.

Coaching. Yeah.

So the three Cs, you know, I'm going to add connecting to that because.

I think it's a good idea. Yeah, I agree.

Thank you. Thank you for being on linen. What I'd like to do is remind everyone if you're. If you're listening, if you want to discover your why, don't forget to go to www.whyinstitute.com and use the code Y2Y and get your why for 50% off so that you can discover your why and get clear. Stand out and play bigger. And don't forget to go to Lanier's website, which we're going to put across the bottom of the screen. So it's www.worldwizard.co.nz membership and we'll put a code there for you guys to join and get that free month. So thank you, Lenare. Have a great morning and I'll have a great afternoon.

Thank you, Dan. It's been lovely to be here. Always lovely to talk with you. Thanks so much.

Likewise.