#131: How to Turn LinkedIn Into a Powerful Prospecting Tool

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Thank you for joining me for episode 131 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. Just a quick reminder that you can find details shown us to this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 1 31. So LinkedIn has come up in this show before. We've talked about this on and off. We've had an episode dedicated to it. And this is a social media platform that has been around for a long time. In fact, it's been around since 2002, which, gosh, in Internet years, it's about, what, 87 years or so. But one thing I've noticed over the past couple of years is that LinkedIn has become an incredibly powerful lead generating and prospecting tool for freelancers. And for freelance copywriter Steve Maurer, LinkedIn has been an indispensable tool in his business. Steve is an industrial, manufacturing and safety copywriter and he's figured out how to turn LinkedIn into his most productive and reliable lead generating vehicle. And in this interview, you're going to hear exactly how Steve uses LinkedIn. He'll explain what elements you have to have in place in order to make the best impression with prospects. He'll also detail his exact process for finding and connecting with quality prospects. And he reveals how he gets most prospects out there to accept his connection request and how to turn those connections into conversations, in those conversations, into clients. We get into quite a bit of detail here. Steve gets into his step by step processes, reveals his secret sauce, as he calls it, and I do believe this really is a wonderful secret sauce. So with that, please enjoy my conversation with Steve Maurer. Steve, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Ed, for having me on.

Well, it's great to have you and I'm excited about this topic because as you very well know, a very hot topic and one that's constantly changing and one that you're very familiar with. So I'm excited to hear what you have to share with us.

Sounds great.

So we're talking Today about using LinkedIn as a marketing strategy. But before we get to that, as usual, I always ask my guests to tell us a little bit about themselves. You know, specifically what you do as a copywriter, what types of clients you Work with how long you've been doing this and then also you have an interesting target market. Tell us why you chose that particular target market.

Okay. Well, I write mostly content marketing for industrial manufacturing, particularly in the electrical and safety field products. I've been doing that for. Well, I work with OEMs and component manufacturers and some small companies. Just this last Monday I was contacted by a software company in Colorado that creates software for equipment status monitoring and.

OEMs, by the way, just so people know.

Yeah, original equipment manufacturers. Okay. The big guys. So I have actually have written for small companies, medium sized companies and some fairly large companies. And so they're all out there and they all want content that, that by the way, includes blog articles. I'm working on some case studies, some white papers and things like that. It's, it's all content marketing. I've been writing since about October 2010. Started in the low paying content mills. My first article after six hours worth of work, pay me five bucks. So obviously that was not going to cut it. And I quit doing millwork in 2012 after connecting with American writers and artists and started going after personal clients. And at that time, and it's weird, most of them were internationals that contacted me because they were wanting to bring their products and services to the United States. They wanted somebody who spoke the language and so they, they sought me out or I was able to contact them. In fact, I live in northwest Arkansas and to date I've only had one client in my state and he's about 13 miles down the road from me. So even though I avoided that market at first and the reason I did was because I had been in that kind of zero in on your potential clients. I like to use the fishing analogy for it because I do that a lot. And your website is more like fishing for clients in an ocean. And you know, it's the Internet so big it's hard to get attraction from, from the right people. But on LinkedIn it's more like fishing on a. On Beaver Lake here in Arkansas. There's lots of water, but it has many coves and often with a particular kind. You're determined what you need and where you need to hunt for, for the fish to find what you're after. And it's the same thing on LinkedIn.

I like that metaphor. The phishing makes perfect sense. You can do both. You can go out and get very targeted and do some pretty amazing targeted searches. And then you can also position yourself in a way on LinkedIn that the right prospects will find you and reach out to you.

Yes.

So let's talk about a little bit deeper into this and how you use it in terms of the pieces that you feel need to be in place. Because I think a lot of people want to jump right into the tactical. Okay, can you give me a hack or a process for doing this or finding a great client or getting a client to notice me? But before we get to that, I think it's important to make sure that you have the right pieces in place. So what are some of the fundamental pieces that you have to get right in LinkedIn before you start using it as a tool, before it can actually start paying off for you?

Okay, yeah, that's a good question, because I know I was just in a class with a bunch of people who were seeing LinkedIn pretty much for the first time, and it can look scary at first, but really you only need three things to get started. You need a profile photo, you need a profile headline that's also called a tagline, and then your summary. That profile summary is going to be very similar to the about or bio page on your website. In fact, not that I'm lazy, but my profile summary is exactly what I have on my bio on my website. And so you can write it once and use it twice. As far as a photo, it needs to be friendly. You got to have a nice smile on your face and be looking directly at the reader. I've actually heard studies that said if you give that kind of wistful look off into space with your hand under your chin, it's actually less effective than having a direct on photograph of you smiling. And make sure you don't have any, anything too extraneous on there, like your dog or your cat or your kids or anything like that, unless it's important to your target market. A friend of mine, Pam Foster, has a dog in her profile header, but she writes for the pet industry, so it makes sense. A lot of experts recommend that you have a professional shot, and that's probably a good idea. But here's true confession time. My photo was taken by the professional seamstress in the room right next to mine. My wife took that. But every element in that photo actually has a purpose and just kind of as an aside, it's the same photo I use for Facebook, Twitter, my website. Anywhere that I show up, that's the photo that comes up. It's kind of a branding thing, but it's also keeps my Persona consistent everywhere. When people see that mug, you know, both the white one and the ugly one, they know it's the same guy. Sorry about that. It's just, you know, I've actually had people come up to me and say, hey, I've seen you all over the Net. And that's because I use the same photo everywhere. So that's actually smart. That.

That's smart. It is a branding theme because you're right. I mean, I could see that picture somewhere and I don't even need to. It could be blurred out and I know it's you.

And I may change the coffee mug sometime, but I don't know the second one. And now that's the first thing that people are going to see. So that's your first impression, so make it a good one. But the second thing they're going to look at is the headline or tagline. It should be written just like a headline. You have 120 characters including your spaces to write a headline. So you keep your keywords to the front because sometimes that gets truncated. In a few instances, when you post on a comment or an update, the entire headline might not show up, but you use that headline to show what you do and who you do it for. And I gave you an example of mine. Industrial manufacturing and safety copywriter need customers to hear and understand your message. I speak industry. And so there's some key words in there because this is used Google is or not Google, but LinkedIn is used for search. And when your target market is looking for a copywriter, they're not typing in copywriter. They're they're talking typing in whatever your. Their niche has to be like industrial manufacturing or industrial copywriter. So you have those keywords in there. And then it also includes a little bit of why I might be a good fit for the person reading it.

Yeah, you know, real quick point there, Steve. I've seen people. This seems like common sense, but I would say that most of the headlines that I see out there for freelance writers and copywriters don't take this piece of advice. They get way too creative with, with the, with that tagline, you know, corporate storyteller. Right? What does that mean? You know, so that might be kind of a nice positioning and messaging thing on your website where you have room to actually explain that. But if somebody's looking for, you know, an industrial copywriter or safety products copywriter, they're going to search using those words. And LinkedIn is going to. Their algorithm is going to place heavy emphasis, that headline right in those keywords being present.

And the other thing to remember, and I think I might mention this again later. But Google actually uses LinkedIn's database in its search results. And so use the same good practices you would use for Google here on LinkedIn. The two talk to each other constantly. And I've had many people find me on Google because it's took them to my profile.

Interesting.

Now, another thing, the last bit of piece and this. Oh, one more thing about those, those headlines don't use those little special characters. That's wasted real estate. So you see little hearts and stars and all that. Don't go there, just write a good headline. The third one, and this I see a lot of people don't use this as effectively as they could. And it's really a deal clincher because the summary is what talks to your, your target audience. It talks to that reader. You don't want just a laundry list of the services you provide. You can do that. I've seen a lot of it. I do have bullet points on mine, but there's a reason for that. But most of us here today are going to be our copywriters by trade, and we know how to structure an effective sales letter. And that's exactly what this is. It's an open sales letter to your target market. And so when you write it, write it like a dialogue, not a monologue. You'll find some of the first things I do on mine are ask questions, you know, why is this important to you? What does that mean for you? And then I answer them. And actually, when I wrote that, I actually had a picture of an ideal client in front of me and I was talking to that person. So write a summary as a dialogue and make it conversational. Don't get real stiff and formal on this thing. This person is reading that and you want to actually make them feel like they're talking to you, because that's what LinkedIn is all about, starting and continuing conversations between you and your prospect.

I think that's really, really smart. I have experienced things from the other side when I'm looking for someone and it's interesting to pay attention to. What goes through my mind is I'm reading some of these and you know, we as freelancers, sometimes we think that, you know, prospects are looking for the optimal person. Right? But I think that's a warp view of reality. I can assure you that many times they're just looking for someone who seems to fit the bill, seems to really understand what their world is like. So the moment they find somebody like you, for instance, Steve, and I've seen your profile, they're thinking oh, my gosh. Everybody else that I've come across seems either not focus, so they'll still write anything for anyone, or they're talking about, you know, three different areas that don't relate to mine, or they don't seem to understand my world. And the moment they come across yours, it's almost like they're so relieved they finally found someone. They don't need to dig as deep as you think in order to make sure you're going to be the right one. So it's almost like as long as you check out, they're willing to give you a shot. Of course, I'm oversimplifying, but that's kind of what's going on in their head. Not this, you know, really aggressive search effort that where they're going to put you through. Through the ringer.

Yeah, I've got a great example of that. I had a lady that found one of my articles that I wrote for a company up in Canada. It was a content marketing hub and that had a link on it to my profile. And she read my profile and then went from my profile, went to my website, and the next thing I know, I have an email saying, we need to talk. She says, my husband has. They have a business instructing other businesses. It's one of those coaching, executive coaching businesses. And she says, my husband can talk. Fantastic. When he, when he's talking to the people, I mean, he's warm, he's inviting, he gets along great, but when he sits down to the typewriter, he freezes up. And she said, you write like he talks. We need to talk to each other. And that started a great project, rewriting parts of their website and doing some blog posts. So what, what? A lot of prospects are looking for somebody who can do what they would like to do but can't. And writing conversationally is what they're looking for.

Excellent. So in terms, let's shift gears a little bit, or not really shift gears, but let's drill down a little bit into some of the specifics in terms of the way you find prospects in LinkedIn. Walk us through the different ways you do that, how you find them, how you get their attention, how you start a conversation with them. Can you give us an idea of what that looks like?

Sure. It's actually been an evolution. I started on LinkedIn, I believe, about four years ago, and I got fair results back then, but nothing spectacular. In fact, it was more of a game of cat and mouse. I'd search for someone or come across their profile and I'd view it and whenever I did that, they would get a notification that I was there and then some of them would come visit my profile to see who I was. And that was kind of game on. I sent a connection request or an InMail and I probably got somewhere between a 10 and 15% response rate. It was kind of hit and miss.

Response rate being what in that example.

Actually connecting with me and starting a conversation. A lot of them wouldn't even look or they wouldn't. They'd look and then not be excited about it. My, my profile was a lot different back then too. So it. I've actually rewritten my summary about seven or eight times now. The most of those strategies involve searching. Sometimes I would come across something in a newsfeed or most people will have a LinkedIn button on their website and I found a few through that. But my strategy still involves searching, but to probably a more precise degree. And the other thing, the connection requests are actually easier to make. Now if you did make one before, you had to answer all kinds of little questions like how do you know them, have you had lunch with this person? And all this kind of thing. And it was difficult. Either had to abandon that connection connection or lie about it so you could get a request out to them. But I did give you a link in a paper that I sent you that how to use LinkedIn effectively on search because using the LinkedIn search database is very similar to using the Google database. You'll use keywords and key phrases. You can also do what is called Boolean search, which means there are certain words that are operators. Like you can put marketing and director and all of your search results will have both of those words in it. You can. When I do a search, in fact I have one up that I just did and I have it up on my monitor. You can search for a type of company in your target market. That's one reason that having a target market really helps on LinkedIn because you can really get this thing granular. I just did a search result for electrical manufacturing and there are 10 pages, at least of 10 each. So there's probably more than 100 potential clients right there. When you do that, when you do a search like that, you're going to have some tabs at the top of the search page. It'll come in with the top, whatever that means. And then people, jobs, posts, companies, groups and schools. Obviously the one I want clicked on is companies because now it gives me all kinds of companies that I'm interested in. Some of these I'M already following some of them, I'm not. And that, that plays a vital, vital part. When you do this, you can find a specific person if you like. If you know somebody in that industry and would like to connect with them, you can actually type their name in. If they have a profile, it comes up. But most of what I do is searching for companies in my market. It's a huge database, I mean, huge database. And like I said before, Google trawls the LinkedIn search engine for results as well.

And by the way, we're going to include that link on some of the search tips in the show notes. So everyone, if you're wondering what we're talking about, it'll be there and you can check it out. So, so you, you, you have this huge list of companies, right? Because you clicked on the companies tab and what do you do so suddenly for that search term as an example, electrical manufacturing, bunch of companies in that tab, how do you even start searching or sorting through them?

Okay, you can sort down through those and there's also a little bit of extra information that kind of gives the size of the company in fairly round terms. Like the first one I'm looking here, it has 51 to 200 employees. The next one has 200 to 500 employees and then here's 1 to 10. But then the one I'm looking at right now has 10,001 plus employees. So you can actually target a size of company just right there. And, and, and, and whatever you, whatever. However big a company makes you feel comfortable, you can do that. If you want to work with small, you know, mom and pop shops, you can do that. If you want to deal for international companies, you can do that as well. I picked out one here called Molex, which I've used their products so it obviously would make, you know, three different.

Areas that don't relate to mine or they don't seem to understand my world.

And the moment they come sense for me to follow them and I actually haven't done that yet, I'm going to open that. Whenever you find this list and you can click on the hyperlink to their company page, which is different from a LinkedIn profile, be sure that you right click and open that in a new tab or window. That way you won't lose your search page and you can amplifying.

But that's kind of what's going on in their head. Not this, you know, really aggressive search effort that where they're going to put you through the ringer.

Yeah, I've go back and do the same thing. You can actually do several of these in a matter of 15 or 20 minutes. So it's not a real labor intensive process.

So you click on them on a new tab. Now you have the company page on a new tab on LinkedIn. The company page on LinkedIn.

Exactly.

What do you do? Is there a way to follow them?

Yes, right up at the top there is a follow button in the header of that company page. You can click on that and actually start following that company. And you can do the same thing with individuals. But it's also a good place to start your research. The next section is the about us and that tells you what they do, who they do it for and why that's important. Does it sound kind of familiar?

Oh yeah, yeah.

And it also will give company details like their website. This one happens to be headquartered in Lyle, Illinois. They've got a great example of that. I had a lady that found one of my articles that I wrote for a company up in Canada. It was a content marketing hub and that had a link on it to my profile. And she read my profile and then went from been around since 1938. So they're a very stable company. It gives me what their specialties are. But the other thing you want to scroll down, you may or may not get some additional insightful information. Depends on how big, how many employees they have on LinkedIn. But right down at the end is a list of their company. My profile went to my website and the next thing I know I have an email saying Winnie's updates on LinkedIn all in a row. And I can look at this one and I know these people are pretty active on, on social media because they had one today, they had one two weeks ago, they posted an update three weeks ago and then another one. So they're using LinkedIn two and three times a week in order to get their message out there. And that means they get it, they understand social media, they understand content marketing and that's a good fit for me. So I'm going to click that, that follow button before I forget and boom. When that happens, what now will begin starting probably in the next. Well, the next time they have an update is their update will start showing up in my news feed. And so every time they post something, it can come down in my feed. Now LinkedIn will populate your newsfeed. That's the first thing you get to when you log into LinkedIn. They will kind of populate it based on. On you need to talk. She says, my husband has they have a business instructing other businesses. It's one of those coaching executive coaching businesses. And she says my husband your profile but you have the ability to fine tune that with companies that you want to follow and the ones that are very active are great ones to follow and but you can, can look on their company page and kind of see how, how they post, how often they post and what kind of response they're getting. Can talk fantastic. When he, when he's talking to the people, I mean he's warm, he's anything. So after that you know I might scroll down and get more statistics and look them over. I might check out their website. But then it's the secret sauce now this is top secret. You gotta promise you're gonna print this out, read it and then eat it and never speak of it again. No. I hope a lot of people get fighting. He gets along great but when he sits down to the typewriter he freezes up. And she said you get to use this because it's so effective. So either from that company page or from my newsfeed I'll find one of their updates that I can make a relevant comment on and by relevant I'll explain that in a minute but just don't. Do you write like he talks. We need to talk to each other. And that started to do the standard fare of hey this was really cool. That does nothing great project rewriting parts of their website and doing some blog posts. So what you also will see a like button on their, their updates and many, many, many, many people click that thing and it means nothing. I've seen as many as 50 to 100 people like some of this companies. A lot of prospects are looking for somebody who can do what they would like to do but can't updates. I've seen some that number in the hundreds and thousands even and you can see who all those people are. But why waste the time? It's just alike. So the person who is actually monitoring their, their LinkedIn page and these companies do have somebody watching it and, and writing conversationally is what they're looking for.

Excellent. So in, in terms let's, let's shift gears a little bit or not really shift gears.

They will go down through and look for the comments and so stand out. I make them.

Let's drill down a little bit into some of the specifics in terms of you the way you find prospects in.

LinkedIn meaningful comment, you know, like not just great article or cool product. I really got a lot out of this. I'll go and Actually read the content that they're promoting. It's usually off site either on their website or maybe a press release in a. In a.

Walk us through the different ways you do that, how you find them, how you get their attention.

Digital newsletter or something. I will actually go and read it.

Mention how you start a conversation with them. Can you give us an idea of what that looks.

It takes a little bit of time but not much. You can read the article in five or ten minutes and find something worthwhile to comment about and then when you come back to this. And most of those links will take you in a new window anyhow. Or at least sure. It's actually been an evolution. I started on LinkedIn I believe about four years ago and I got fair results back then new tab. So you still have that, that, that update in front of you. I'll come back and I'll comment on that article and I'll say something that shows that I actually read it. That's what they're looking for and I've even asked questions there now nothing about but nothing spectacular. In fact it was more of a game of cat and mouse. You know, hey you use freelance writers. But sometimes I need some clarification. I'll search for someone or come across their profile and I'd view it and whenever I did that they would get on what they had or I've even done a little controversial comment or two here and there notification that I was there and then some of them would come visit my profile to see you know, who I was. And that was kind of game on and actually get some, some traction from that. But most of the time I just compliment on the article and kind of reinforce their idea. When I reinforce their idea and say yeah that's exactly right and here's why they now I sent a connection request or an InMail and I probably got somewhere understand that I understand their business and these are people they're looking for between a 10 and 15% response response rate. It was kind of also helps in that comment to tag them using the company's name and the easiest way to do that is start typing the AT sign and then start filling it in.

Miss and response rate being what in.

That example actually in their name the link to their company page will come up and it's in there and. And that's just connecting with me and starting a conversation.

Okay.

A lot of them wouldn't add notification that somebody out there really liked their stuff and we need to go even look or they wouldn't. They'd look and then not be excited about it to see who that is. You've raised your hand and so back to fishing. Your bait's now in the water so that.

That you're doing outside of that page.

My. My profile was a lot different back then too. So it. I've actually re.

Right.

Right. I. You can do that actually on that page or. Or when it comes down in your feed. It'll work either way.

Okay.

Because the thing in your feed is actually written my summary about seven or eight times now. The most of those strategies involved located on their company page. And sometimes it's a good idea to go back to that company page. I made a comment one time and actually had somebody come view my profile. But when I went back to the company page they had searching. Sometimes I would come across something in a newsfeed or most people will have a LinkedIn button on their website and I found a few through that actually thanked me and replied to my comment. And. And so you won't see that as it passes down through your feed, but you go back to that company page and you can find it.

I love it. I love it. And just to clarify. Not to clarify but I just want to.

But my strategy still involves searching but to probably a more precise degree. And the other thing underscore what you.

Said which is think of a comment that's meaningful and relevant beyond. Hey, great article. I got a lot out of it and I know, I agree with you. That's going to take a little bit of time.

I do think however, the connection requests are actually easier to make now if you did make one before, you had to answer all kinds of little questions like how do you know them? Have you.

Because I've done this many times, not in LinkedIn but with practice there's probably a half a dozen kind of categories that you will stick to.

You know, had lunch with this person and all this kind of thing and it was difficult. You either had to abandon that connection or lie about it so you could get a request.

And if you one more benefit like you said of being targeted with your market, if you know the market well.

And you stay on top of it out to them. But I did give you a link.

It'll be easy for you to think of some of these things because you'll be able to connect dots. You'll be able to explain how you.

Found it interesting or in a paper that I sent you that how to use LinkedIn effectively on search because using the LinkedIn search database is why you found that interesting.

Or why you like their approach or their thinking behind this.

Very similar to using the Google database. You'll use keywords and key phrase idea.

Or this launch or whatever and it.

You know, that's good. You can also do what is called Boolean search which means there are certain words that are operators like you can put marketing and director and all of your searcheries point and one thing that you can use a little bit of humor on there. You don't want any belly laughs or anything like that. But I had one for instance it was also have both of those words in it. You can when I when I do a search about LED lighting, which is one of my favorite kinds of lighting and it was a great article. In fact I have one up that I just did and I have it up on my monitor. You can search for a type of company in your target market. That's one reason that having a target market really helps on LinkedIn because you can really get this thing granular. I just did a search result for electrical manufacturing and there are 10 pages at least of 10 each. So there's probably more than 100 on how you save money and talking about the longevity and all that of LEDs. And I said man, I agree with every one of your points. Potential clients right there. When you do that, when you do a search like that, you're going to have some, some tabs at the top of the search page. I said let me add this one to a mix. To the mix. I use LEDs because I'm an old guy and I hate climbing ladders and this saves me from having to do that and it'll come in with the top, whatever that means. And then people, jobs, post companies, groups and schools. Obviously the one I want clicked on is companies because and you could actually see him chuckle and that's obviously a connection now. So you can, you know, you can use this in multiple ways. Just kind of don't get all hyper and excited about it. Just really have fun with it. But do, do post now, it gives me all kinds of companies that I'm interested in. Some of these I'm already following some of them I'm not. And that plays a vital some professional comments but a little humor now and then is not a bad thing.

Okay, so you've put it out there. You've made a relevant comment that it's obvious that you really took the time to read it bottle part.

When you do this, you can find a specific person if you like, if you know somebody in that industry and would like to Connect with them.

You think about it, what's next?

Okay, I can actually type their name in. If they have a profile, it comes up. But most of what I do is searching for companies in my market. It's a huge database every now and then. And when you do this using the. I mean, huge database. And like I said before, Google trawls the LinkedIn search engine for results as well.

And by the way, we're going to.

In comments, when you use this technique, as opposed to what I used four years ago, more than likely within a week, somebody is going to come view your profile because they say, man, this is a great comment. Who wrote that? And they want to come see who.

That link on some of the search tips in the show notes. So everyone, you're wondering what we're talking about, it'll be there and you can, you can check it out. So you have this huge list of companies, right? Because you clicked on the companies tab. And what do you do so suddenly for that search term? As an example, electrical manufacturing, actually helping.

Them promote their own company. And when that happens, it's time to start setting the hook. I'll view that person's profile and see who they are. And also if you go to the persons now, this is not the company page, but this is an employee of the company.

You'll go to their bunch of companies in that tab. How do you even start searching or sorting through them?

Okay, you can sort down through those and profile and there's three little dots next to the profile picture. There's also a little bit of extra information that kind of gives the size of the company in fairly round terms. Like the first one I'm looking here, that's actually a dropdown. And if you click on that, you have several options. One of them, which I use quite a bit, is to save their profile to a PDF. And so now I start building a prospect folder and it has 51 to 200 employees. The next one has 200 to 500 employees. And then here's 1 to 10. But then I'm. The one I'm looking may not be just that person, you know, the folder will be named for the company, but I'll start putting prospects and contacts that I come across. I'll put their PDFs in there. It's also time to start the connection process. LinkedIn has made it. You know, there's been a lot of changes in LinkedIn that people gripe about. I love them. And because they're making it so much easier right now, has 10,001 plus employees. So you can actually target a size of company just right there on me. When you connect now and, and whatever you, whatever, however big a company makes you feel comfortable, you can do that. If you want to work with small, you know, mom and pop shops, you can do that. All you got to do, in most cases, click the little connect button. But if that's not showing up, if all it says is inmail, go back to those three little dots because there'll be a chance to connect in there as well. So you can, if you want to deal for international companies, you can do that as well. I picked out one here called Molex which I've used their products so it obviously would make sense me to follow them and I actually haven't done that yet. I'm going to open that whenever you find this list and you can click on the hyperlink to get a connection even if you're there, three or four or five waves of contacts out from you. So that connection request box will pop up and it doesn't ask you a single thing. It doesn't care where you went to school, it doesn't care if you've had lunch with them, any of that thing. Doesn't even ask for the email to their company page, which is different from a LinkedIn profile. Be sure that you right click and open that in a new tab or window. That way you won't lose your search page and you can go back and do the same thing. You can actually do several of these in a matter of, you know, 15 or 20. Now what? You got to be careful here. You don't get trigger happy when that thing pops up. You can click send right away and they will get a connection request from you, but it will be the standard boilerplate request that LinkedIn has in there. You don't want that. I get those a lot. Hey, I'd love 20 minutes. So it's not a, not a real labor intensive process.

So you click on them on a new tab. Now you have the company page on a new tab on LinkedIn, the company.

To add you to my professional network and then their name and that's it. That works sometimes, but the whole thing about LinkedIn and any social media is you want to personalize everything. And so there's a link there right next to the send button that allows you to put in a personalized message on LinkedIn. Exactly.

What do you do? Is there a way to follow them?

Yes, right up at the top there is a follow button in the header of that company page. You can click on that and actually start following. It's real similar to what you teach in warm emails. You're not getting salesy, you're just asking for a connection. Hey, I noticed that we have this in common or we have that person in common. I'm expanding my network in whatever your target market. In my case it's a electrical field. Would you like to that company and you can do the same thing with individuals. But it's also a good place to start your research. The next section is the about us and that tells you what they do, who they do it for and why that's important. Sound kind of connect with me here on LinkedIn. You know, I'd be honored. You know, stroke it a little bit and say hey, have a wonderful day. Steve Maurer and my connection success of getting the that first connection has jumped from 10 to 15% up to now 50, 60 and sometimes more familiar.

Oh yeah, yeah.

And it also will give company details like their website. This one happens to be headquartered in Lyle, Illinois. They people who will connect with me when I send a request. So just that little tweak of knowing something about them, sending a good connection request and actually introducing yourself to them through your comments on their posts really increases your odds of making a meaningful connection. Wow. Been around since 1938. So they're a very stable company and it gives me what their specialties are. But the other thing you want to scroll down, you may or may not get some some additional insightful information.

By the way, this could be going just to kind of keep that sequence we were talking about. You saw who, who replied to your comment on that article, right? And now you look at their profile and then you send them in a connection. In that case, the, the personalized message is very easy. Great job.

Depends on how big, how many employees they have on on LinkedIn. But right down at the end is a list of their company's updates on LinkedIn all in a row. And I can look at this one and I know these people are pretty active on social media because again with.

That article, I agreed with what you said on that because you know, I have some experience there and I think you're on the right track. I'm expanding My Network and LinkedIn in the. Not in LinkedIn in. In the electrical manufacturing industry. I'd love to connect, I'd be on it if you're willing, etc.

They had one today. They had one two weeks ago. They posted an update three weeks ago and then another one. So they're using LinkedIn two and three times a week in order to get their message out there. And that means they get it. They understand social media. They understand, yeah. That you know, the more personalized you can make it, the better. I had I commented on a. An update from Banner engineering on the really exciting topic of cable E Stops.

Yeah, I'm very familiar with it.

It's.

Yeah, it's fascinating.

Stay in content marketing and that's a good fit for me. So I'm going to click that, that follow button before I forget and boom, when that happens, what now will begin starting probably in the next. Well the next time they have an update is their update will start showing up. So I made a really, actually a meaningful comment on that and sure enough, about two days later, here comes somebody from their company and he viewed my profile. So my connection request to him was I noticed that you viewed my profile in my news feed. And so every time they post something it can come down in my field. After making that comment on cable E Stops I said I'm really familiar with your pro. Now LinkedIn will populate your newsfeed. That's the first thing you get to when you log into LinkedIn. They will kind of populate it based on your profile but you have the ability to fine tune that with companies that you want to follow products and have actually used them. I think you guys do a great job in protecting people. I'm expanding my network in the electrical industry which I love to connect and bada bing, bada boom. The next day we were connected and I got a message from him saying, you know, I love that comment. We don't get too many comments on cable E Stops. No. And the ones that are very active are great ones to follow and but you can, can look on their company page and kind of see how they post, how often they post and what kind of response they get. It was nice to see and so they appreciate that kind of thing. And like I said, personalize that message, make it meaningful. I connected with one guy because we both had fishing in common but he was in Wisconsin and I'm in Arkansas and we actually connected. So after that, you know, I might using that, that line of reasoning, you know we, we have the same scroll down to get more statistics and look them over. I might check out their website and. But then is the secret sauce now hobby and now we're connected as far as businesses too.

So bottom line is, you know, it's like a one, two, three punch in many cases because you're following the company every once In a while when you see an update that you feel you can make a meaningful contribution to.

This is top secret. You got to promise you're going to print this out, read it and then eat it and never speak of it again. No, I hope a lot of people.

Get you make it. That usually gets a response. You look at that person. You send a connection request with a personalized message.

So you already get to use this because it's so effective.

So either from that have that comment that you've made. The request is personalized. No wonder your success rate is so high. But even if nobody responds company page.

Or from my news feed I'll find one of their updates that I can make.

Or even if you haven't found a comment or an article or an update.

Comment on and and by relevant. You know, I'll explain that in a minute. But just don't do the the standard fare of hey this was really cool. That does nothing that you can can.

Contribute to in terms of a comment.

You also will see a like button on their their updates and many, many, many, many people click that thing and it means nothing. I've seen as many as 50 to 100 people like some of this companies.

You can still look to see who works there in the marketing department for instance and use this personalized connection invitation. That still is something you could always do.

Exactly. Going back to the search box. You can fine tune that thing to find out you know a particular company or particular industry and people who have the title marketing directors or creative directors or marketing manager updates. I've seen some that number in the hundreds and thousands even actually get them and then use the cat and mouse like I used originally. But you can also and you can see who all those people are. But why waste the time Send them a connection request with something like hey, I'm a copywriter in the industrial manufacturing field. It's just alike. So the person who is actually monitoring. Do you ever use outside contractors for writing your marketing material? If so I would love to connect and you know it's you just turn their their LinkedIn page and these companies do have somebody watching it. They will go down through and look for the comments and so stand out. I make them take the pressure off yourself and have fun with this. This is actually for me like I said, it's a 1, 2, 3 strategy. It's automatic and sometimes it could work very quickly. Meaningful comment, you know, like not just great article or cool product. I really got a lot out of this. I was doing a test one time for an article, I'll go and actually read the content that they're promoting. And it's usually awful. I was writing and I did a comment early in the morning, and then because I can reach LinkedIn at work, I checked it at noon and somebody had viewed my profile. So I sent him a connection request, and by the next morning, we were connections and had already started talking back and forth. In fact, I found out that he was brand new as the digital marketing director in that company. So the obvious thing for me to do is say, hey, I congratulate you for your new job. If there's anything I can do to help you out in writing your content, let me know. And so we've had several conversations. So it's just, you know, after a while, becomes habit. And I check LinkedIn. Boy, I'd hate to think number of times I check it a day, anywhere from three to 10 times a day, I'll get in there first thing in the morning and I'll be in there. If I'm home working on my writing, I'll do it multiple times throughout the day, checking. Think number of times I check it a day, anywhere from three to ten times a day. I'll get in there first thing in the morning and I'll be in there. If I'm home working on my writing, I'll do it multiple times throughout the day checking company updates and connecting with people if I have to go to work that day at my company, updates and connecting with people if I have to go to work that day at my job, because I still have one of those, I can actually use it at breaks and on lunchtime and all that. LinkedIn is one of the few social networks that companies that you may work for won't block. Job because I still have one of those. I can actually use it at breaks and on lunchtime and all that. LinkedIn is one of the few social networks that companies that you may work for won't block. They'll block Facebook, they'll block Twitter, they'll block a bunch of these other social media sites. But LinkedIn is 100% business, and their company is probably on LinkedIn. And so I have rarely seen anybody block LinkedIn on a. On a company computer that you might be using.

Yeah, yeah. So it's one more reason why it's so superior for these purposes than some of the other ones. So, one, one quick stat, by the way, and this is not scientifically valid, but I have been paying attention over the past few weeks. The percentage of people who send me A personalized connection request, as opposed to the, you know, people clicking the button which automatically sends a connection request with no personalized message. It's about 10 to 15%. So think about the. In Apple, and I bet that that's pretty common, that that's. That. That I'm not far off from.

They'll block Facebook, they'll block Twitter. They'll block a bunch of.

Most people. See, think about what an impression you can make just by personalizing the message. You can't help yourself. We're all wired to respond to personalization. That alone, in a world where everyone else just wants to take the easy route, can really make you stand out, in fact. So that leads me to my next question, which is this tendency towards automation. We all want to make things easier, more efficient. I know that there's software plugins out there that can help automate a lot of this. What are your thoughts on that?

I don't use them. They stink. Actually, if you're playing the numbers game, which. And that's exactly what they promote with these plugins and software. If you're playing the numbers game, yeah, it makes sense. But you said that most of your connection requests were just the boilerplate request. And that's a lot of what these softwares and plugins do. They're just picking 50, 100, however many people and sending them the standard boilerplate message, maybe with one or two little modifications. And you can get a lot of connections that way. But what I found is that the ones that are personalized are the more lasting connections. And part of it. I'm a big fan of Dr. Robert Cialdini, and in his persuasion books, you know, he talks about the. And in his persuasion books, you know, he talks about the. The theory of reciprocity, that once you do something for somebody, you feel or they feel obligated to return the favor. And I think it's the same thing. On personalization. I have absolutely no problem the theory of reciprocity, that once you do something for somebody, you feel or they feel obligated to return the favor. And I think it's the same thing with denying or even just dismissing an automated response. They didn't put any effort into that. But if somebody sends me a personalized request, I at least owe them to actually respond back to them because they went to the trouble of personalization. I have absolutely no problem with denying or even just dismissing an automated actually writing something personal to me. And so I think that's. That's a lot of it. That you can't get out of automation. And I think what you're find in fact LinkedIn has some recent changes in their, their privacy policy and things like that. I think you'll find a lot of these automated softwares and plugins are going to get banned because they become more of a nuisance than they do actually a help. And people are going to go say, hey, I don't like that. And the last thing you want is to get blocked on LinkedIn by some, by a disgruntled member that can ruin your chances of working in the groups or anything like that. And so it just makes more sense. If you want a better connection, if you want a more lasting connection, then you talk to them. When I got married, I did not send my wife a tweet. It was personalized invitation to marry me. And it's worked for 39 years. They didn't put any effort into that. But if somebody sends me a personalized request, I at least owe them to. And so it's the same thing on LinkedIn. Personalization tops everything.

So I have one, one last question for you. It's something that we've kind of skirted over but it's, it's important that we address it because you have mentioned the changes that have been coming around and.

To actually respond back to them because they went to the trouble of, you.

Know, there probably will be more changes with Microsoft, Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn. How do you stay on top of all these changes? You know, how do you make sure that you understand what's new, how it can help you and so forth? Because that could be a full time job it feels like sometimes.

Exactly. And fortunately there are people out there who make that their full time job. And so that's all you have to do is follow the, the LinkedIn coaches. I know several of actually writing something personal to me and so I think that's, that's a lot of it accredited ones and actually talk to the three here. I've talked to Ted Prodromo, Bryn Tillman and Melanie Dodaro that you can't get out of automation. And I think what you'll find in fact LinkedIn has some recent changes in their privacy policy and things like that. Sometimes it's just been through email, sometimes it's been actually on the phone. But these people, it's their business to help people have successful LinkedIn experiences. And so I get their books, I will read their, their updates on LinkedIn and signed up for some of their newsletters. There's also one and I cannot remember his Last name but Greg at I think you'll find a lot of these automated softwares and plugins are going to get out of the UK is a very good expert on LinkedIn and the changes. And so I follow these people and obviously when something changes they will post an update about that and I get banned because they become more of a nuisance than they do actually get the news firsthand. In fact I know at least Ted the help and people are going to go say hey, I don't like that. And the last thing is actually on a team that LinkedIn uses whenever they're getting to make changes to actually test them out. So a lot of these people are, they don't work for LinkedIn but they are beta testers more or less for what LinkedIn is going to do. What is to get blocked on LinkedIn by some by disgruntled there again you mentioned Microsoft and I'm kind of excited about that. People think they're going to ruin it. I don't think so. I don't know what kind of changes. Of course SlideShare was the presentation part of LinkedIn. You know, when they acquired SlideShare then you could put these, these slideshows up on member that can ruin your chances of working in the groups or anything like that. And so it just makes more sense if you want to better connect on your profile. The biggest thing there was you almost had to use PowerPoint. You know, that was, that was the presentation software of choice to create these things and that's Microsoft. I honestly can't say this, so don't take this for gospel but it would not surprise you. If you want a more lasting connection, then you talk to them. Excuse me. If somewhere down the road a LinkedIn profile became part of your subscription to say Office 365. I haven't heard anything to that effect, but it would not surprise me in the least that they're going to up their, their game by, you know, giving you a subscription to that. When I, when I got married, I did not send my, my wife a tweet. You know, it was personalized invitation to marry me. And it's worked for 39 years. There's other, some other changes. As you know, LinkedIn has a lot of good training on it that you can take and if you are a premium member it comes with a package. And so it's the same thing on LinkedIn personalization top that's offered by Lynda.com and Microsoft uses Lynda.com to train. So I think you'll see a lot of good information there. Everything.

So I have one, one last question for you. It's something that.

Wow.

Well, Steve, this has been hugely informative and I can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing what's been working for you on LinkedIn and your wisdom. And I know people are going to walk away with some very practical things they can put into play right away. So thank you for coming. Coming on.

Thank you.

Where can listeners learn more about you? Where can they find out more about what you've kind of skirted over? But it's important that we address it because you have mentioned the changes that have been coming around and new and of course check out your LinkedIn profile.

Oh absolutely. And send me a meaningful connection request that's personalized.

Yes, please. There probably will be more changes with Microsoft, Microsoft's acquisition.

But you can also visit my website at www.mouth of LinkedIn.

How do you stay on top of all these changes? You know, how do you or hyphen.

Copywriting.Com now if you're on the, on the podcast listening, the easier way to get there is to go to www.stevescopy.com S-T E V E S C O P Y.com and that will redirect you to my main website. And then from there, Obviously I have LinkedIn badges on my, my website.

You can click how do you make sure that you understand what's new, how it can help you and so forth. Because that, that is, that could be a full time job it feels like sometimes.

Exactly. And fortunately there are people out there who make that their full time job. And so that's all you have to do is follow the LinkedIn coaches. I know several on that and that's a quick way to find me on LinkedIn. Or you could use a Boolean search as well for industrial copywriters. Also I do manage the American Writers and Artists Inc. LinkedIn group and you can find that at LinkedIn.com groups726097 and we'd love to have you there. You don't have to have bought any AWAI products to join the group. And we try to keep it very open. And you can ask all kinds of questions. You can ask the stupid questions because there are dedicated love it.

I love those kind of groups.

Accredited once and actually talked to the three here. I've talked to Ted Prodromou, Bryn Tillman and Melanie Dodaro.

Well, Steve, again thanks, thanks for coming on. This has been a wonderful chat.

Sometimes it's just been through email. Sometimes it's been actually on the phone. But thank you, I've enjoyed it as well.

The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launch launcher.com these.

People, it's their business to help people have successful LinkedIn experiences. And so I get their books, I will read their, their updates on LinkedIn and signed up for some of their newsletters. There's also one and I cannot remember his last name, but Greg out of the UK is a very good expert on LinkedIn and the changes. And so I follow these people and obviously when something changes, they will post an update about that and I get the news firsthand. In fact, I know at least Ted is actually on a team that LinkedIn uses whenever they're getting to make changes to actually test them out. So a lot of these people are, they don't work for LinkedIn but they are beta testers more or less for what LinkedIn is going to do there. Again, you mentioned Microsoft and I'm kind of excited about that. People think they're going to ruin it. I don't think so. I don't know what kind of changes. Of course, Slideshare was the presentation part of LinkedIn. You know, when they acquired Slideshare, then you could put these, these slideshows up on your profile. The biggest thing there was you almost had to use PowerPoint. You know, that was, that was the presentation software of choice to create these things. And that's Microsoft. I honestly, I can't say this, so don't, don't take this for gospel, but it would not surprise me if somewhere down the road a LinkedIn profile became part of your subscription to say, Office 365. I haven't heard anything to that effect, but it would not surprise me in the least that they're going to up their, their game by, you know, giving you a subscription to that. Then I think there's other, some other changes. As you know, LinkedIn has a lot of good training on it that you can take and if you are a premium member, it comes with a package that's offered by Lynda.com and Microsoft uses Lynda.com to train. So I think you'll see a lot of good information there. Wow.

Well, Steve, this has been hugely informative and I can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing what's been working for you on LinkedIn and your wisdom. And I know people are going to walk away with some very practical things they can put into play right away. So thank you for coming on. Where can listeners learn more about you? Where can they find out more about what you do? And, of course, check out your LinkedIn profile.

Oh, absolutely. And send me a meaningful connection request that's personalized.

Yes, please.

But you can also visit my website@www.mauer copywriting.com. now, if you're on the on the podcast listening, the easier way to get there is to go to www.stevescopy.com S T E V E S C O P Y.com and that will redirect you to my main website. And then from there, Obviously, I have LinkedIn badges on my my website, and you can click on that. And that's a quick way to find me on LinkedIn. Or you could use a Boolean search as well for industrial copywriters. Also, I do manage.