Ep 57: LinkedIn + AI - How to make it work to build authority

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If we use AI to write, are we losing our authenticity? Should we be using it everywhere? That's one of the things that we're going to be talking about today on Everyday AI. This is your daily livestream podcast, free newsletter, everything just to help everyday people, people like you and me to keep up with AI. Because there's so much going on. Make sure if you're hearing this on the podcast, please join us live because we bring a guest on almost every weekday, 7:30am Central Standard Time. So make sure to come join the conversation. So before we have a conversation today, which I'm extremely excited about, to talk about AI and LinkedIn, let's actually talk about what's going on in the world of AI news. There's a lot. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go a little faster today. So quick hitters, here we go. Google announced a new AI app called NotebookLM. So it is an AI powered note taking assistant. So this is gonna be interesting to check out. I don't know if it's gonna be kind of a replacement for Google Docs or if it's gonna be competing with Notion. So we'll, we'll kind of see and we'll be previewing that in the newsletter as well, so make sure to check it out. Probably the loudest AI news of the last couple of hours is Elon Musk has officially unveiled his new company, X AI. So obviously Elon Musk is the former co founder and board member of OpenAI. Tried kind of a little bit of a, you know, taking it over. Didn't work out. So he has started xai. So a lot of eyes on what Elon's going to be doing at XAI after taking over Twitter. But he's already catching a lot of heat for the early formation of this company, mainly because it is all male staff catching a lot of heat. So make sure to stay tuned because we'll be sharing about that a lot in the newsletter. Two other quick things before we bring on our guests. One, just an overview on meta. So meta behind the scenes, I don't think a lot of people are paying attention to what they're doing with all of their different AI models, but they did just kind of release word that they are going to be soon releasing commercial versions to rival, you know, OpenAI's ChatGPT to open Google to Kind of go against Google, Bard, Microsoft, all these other big companies. So Meta, Facebook, Instagram, you know, Threads, you know, so they're going to be rolling that out pretty soon. Last but not least, we have some news from China. Some AI regulation, but I think it's something that the U.S. could actually benefit from. As here in the U.S. we're talking about how do we govern AI, but China just released kind of its first AI governance, something we actually talked about on the show yesterday. But essentially generative AI services will need to obtain a license with the country's government in order to, to operate. So is that going to be the future of regulation or is that just going to be one other step of a, of a country wanting to, you know, get its share? I'm not sure, but it's going to be exciting to see how that plays out. So we already have some comments coming in. Very excited for all of you to join us and I'm very excited to bring our guests in. So let's talk LinkedIn and AI with Joshua B. Lee, the founder of standout Authority. Joshua, thank you for joining us.

Jordan, good to be here, man. I'm just sitting here, I'm writing notes of what you were just going over too. Cause I'm like a hundred percent get it. You know, you and I talked about Elon before. You know, you're talking about what Google's with notes. I'm like, Evernote just went down and then you're going China. I'm like, oh yeah. You know, most people didn't pay attention to the Vatican actually releasing a whole AI standards right. A couple weeks ago. So it's just, I'm loving it already. I'm already excited for the conversation. We haven't even got to the LinkedIn side, so. Oh.

So Joshua, so much like, like all the big names are have come out the last week, right? So we talked about, you know, meta going commercial Yesterday, anthropic release Cloud 2, which is supposed to be the biggest and best competitor in OpenAI. So much going on. But let's, let's actually turn to LinkedIn, you know, one of those social media platforms. I always joke it's like I'm not on social media except LinkedIn. But I mean, just tell us how have you used LinkedIn not even talking about AI, but you know, you've been working with big brands for many years. How have you used LinkedIn to kind of grow your business and to grow your reach?

Yeah, man. Jordan, look, here's the whole thing. I think most people continue to be able to sleep on LinkedIn. They forget that it's one of the longest running social media platforms out there. They just hit 20 years, right? So they've been around, they stood this test of time. So there's massive opportunity, but it's shifted. Right? It used to be the platform you go to find a job, post a resume. You know, it's a B2B platform. But I think most people forget about, and this is why we leverage it so much. It's not B2B or B2C. Business to business or business consumer. Right. That's just ways to diversify ad spend. I mean, I mentioned before on my first clients was MySpace. So I've been in this space for a long time watching these things kind of go around. But the biggest thing is everything's hdh, human to human, because every company is run by another human being. Most marketers forget that. And so that's why LinkedIn's so powerful. You have a massive platform of human beings that are well educated, have a higher income than most other social platforms, and four out of five people on that platform are business decision makers. So that's why the opportunity is when you're going in there to be able to not only connect with the right people for your products or services, but at the same time, where they're going and what they're doing with AI. I mean, Microsoft owns. If people are listening right now, if you don't realize that Microsoft owns LinkedIn and Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI. Dude, where they're going is insane. And so that's where we started, really kind of going through there and going, how do we not sell people? That's what the biggest thing with most people on LinkedIn. They go in, they go, dude, I get pitched every day. They're like, oh, hey, Jordan, you wear a shirt. Me too. Let's connect. And then two seconds later, two seconds later you get pitched and it's like, no shift that people don't want to go in and be sold anymore. Right. I mean, I'm not sure if they ever want to be sold. They want to. You want to educate, inspire and draw your audience and have them choose to work with you. And now more than ever with what they're doing with AI. Man, there's so much, so much opportunity for all of us to be able to leverage it as human beings and stand out better than ever.

Yeah. Joshua, it's funny, you know, you talk about just how little effort a lot of people sometimes put on LinkedIn, right? Like, hey, you And I both wear shirts now. Buy my stuff. Maybe AI will help that. But I think just AI in general. And actually, before I shift here, I want to throw up some comments because we already got people tuning in. So thank you. Val, saying, good morning. Nancy, keeping up. Thank you. A lot of people. Dr. Ross, Gerald, thank you guys for joining us. If you have a question for Joshua on how to use AI and LinkedIn, please drop it. But let's quickly talk, because I think it's a big issue, I think, about AI and LinkedIn, because so many people say, hey, as soon as you use AI, you are losing the authenticity, right? What's your take on that?

Here's the whole piece, right? I think the biggest thing is if you're copying, pasting. Yes. You're losing authenticity. That's 100%. Doesn't matter if it's on LinkedIn or any platform. What you're actually going through to be able to do AI is a resource of the tool. It's not a replacement. And this is the biggest thing that most people need to understand if you're going through, to be able to have it, write your copy. AI doesn't have emotions, right? As human beings, we make decisions based on emotion. And I'm sorry, man. Like, people go in like, oh, I don't. I don't make decisions emotionally. No, we all make decisions based on some degree of love or hate. We do not make decisions based on being indifferent. And right now with AI, I mean, it was before Jordan. I mean, like, content wasn't king anymore, right? Like, we've all been like, on a Friday night, and we're like, dude, there's nothing to watch on Netflix, man. There's. There's no, there's too much to watch because there's too many shows to be able to go through. So content's not king anymore. Quality is queen. Because that's what we're going to see right now more than ever on these platforms is the people that are leveraging it the right way to be able to use it as a tool, as a resource to do, to be able to help them design the content. But that also put their personal touch in there. Those are the ones that are going to really stand out and really going to start really drawing in that audience better than ever.

And I think that's probably where a lot of people struggle, right? Because they think of. They do think of AI as a blanket tool.

Right?

Let me put some AI on this. But, Joshua, you brought up a great point. You still need the personal touch. So how can you, given your experience, how would you recommend that people can properly tiptoe that line between using these great tools that these companies are offering but still giving that personal touch? How do people accomplish that?

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You know, you have to be able to take time to be able to understand who you are and what you stand for. Right? And this is the biggest thing. When we work with our clients over at San Out Authority, we spend the first month and a half just understanding their personal brand. Their who, their what, their why. Right? How, how do they actually go through? What are their, what's their tonality? Right? How do they, what are their mannerisms? How do we actually communicate? Right? And it's not just about who they are now, right? Personal brands. And the biggest thing about this is it's not about how you see how the world sees you, it's the overlap of how you see yourself and how those two overlap. That's what a true personal brand stands for. And when you take the time out to be able to do that, you can feed the algorithm and the AI the information it needs. Because look, everyone listening here, I mean some of y' all probably do, but I can go in and go, I put content out for the last 10 plus years so I can say write like Joshua B. Lee, right, and be able to go through, but not everyone can. So what are you feeding it to be able to understand? Like I've got different prompts that I'll use, Jordan, you know, to really go through and it's like my, like, one right here. Like, right, you are, Joshua B. A social media pro and LinkedIn expert that avoids jargon and takes a more fun conversational tone. Right? Being able to feed those things. Now, what it gives me back, I'm not just cut copy base again, I'm adjusting it as well, too, to be able to read. And so that's what people need to understand. And it's not just about the content. LinkedIn shifting. So it used to be we were seeing a big thing, viral contents, you know, the, the cat. Hang in there, right? Like, like, dude, you're getting a thousand likes. But what, what is it actually generating? LinkedIn's just shifted the algorithm 100% to go. We're going to focus on not viral content. We're not giving visibility of that anymore. We're actually going to give it to the people that are educating their audiences. Right? How are you adding value? How are you giving tips and education and really being able to provide value? And then they're going to go through that, and that's where we can use AI. You can use it to be able to find that information, go through your current content. Like, we'll go through my past podcasts, we'll go through content I've written in the past to be able to go through or have conversations. But this is what the big thing is, Jordan. Like, I think people are going to see this and go, oh, cool, I'm going to be an expert in AI. So I'm just going to ask Chat GBT to give me all these. Dude, if, if I was on here with you and I was the expert in AI and I just had AI write everything for me and I showed up on this conversation, you'd know really quickly that I was bullshitting. I mean, it's like.

Yeah, you bring up a good point. And I think it's important, you know, for people to, you know, because some people are saying, like, hey, can you share the prompt? But you know, what's, what's important? Like, like val, to answer that question, you know, you also have to understand the tool that you're using and the information that that tool has available to it, you know, so, you know, Joshua brings up a good point. He's. He's been working in the online space since the MySpace days. So if he tells ChatGPT, which has a knowledge cut off of 2021, to write like Joshua B. Lee, there's enough information out there on the Internet that ChatGPT can know it. But for most people, you don't have that, that wealth of information. So something I do want to talk about, Joshua, because I think you have some, some insight that a lot of us don't have. You know, because we think of AI and we automatically everyone shifts to, okay, what tools should I be using or can I use? You know, like, like Audrey asked, like, what tools would you recommend? But yeah, you have some insight into what Microsoft slash, LinkedIn is actually doing because they are bringing AI tools to the entire platform. So talk a little bit about that.

No, and this is that whole piece, man. I mean, how they're integrating is just phenomenal. I mean, like you talked about Elon with his new company. Well, that didn't come out of nowhere, right? Like, he bought Twitter not to own another social media platform, but to actually index the human algorithm of how we were actually interacting and be able to teach the new AI company how humans interact and how we actually go through them. Guess what? That's what Microsoft and OpenAI are doing with LinkedIn. So I mean, they're going to start going through and they're rolling out different tools from collaborative articles where they're having AI write these articles, hundreds of them, being able to go through on the topics that they want content on, right? They want to be able to index. And Jordan, I mean, before we even get to AI, like LinkedIn was a powerhouse for SEO, right? Like people didn't understand that all those aspects of what was you were putting, from your profile to your content to your comments now on LinkedIn were actually getting highly, highly indexed on Google. So, like I could take your blog from your website, put it on LinkedIn and I actually, I promise you I'll be, when I search on Google, I'll find your blog on LinkedIn before I find it on your own website. And so in that same scenario, that's what OpenAI and Microsoft are doing with LinkedIn. They want to index all the amazing information and be very tactical on it, to be able to grab that in and have human beings go through and add their knowledge to that article to be able to do an AI human integration, right? So they can really be able to get that, that side. So, yes, there's tools from being able to help post to right now, what we're seeing, I think a lot of people that have been on the platform for a long time, they're using AI to be able to go through and find sleeper people on LinkedIn or fake followers, right? So people want, I'm losing followers like crazy. Guess what? They're trying to really Be that platform that goes through go. Look, we want, we don't need to know if you got a million followers and 900,000 of them are fake. Right. Like we want to see the real people, what's going on and use AI as a tool to be able to help people really stand out. So from content to the con to the articles, writing your headline, another tool they're coming out with or they're actually launched already is being able to help write your resume. All these things are kind of coming into play. Jordan. So like that's that whole piece of what LinkedIn's doing. And I was just at their New York offices here recently and I mean like, dude, it's, we're on, we're scratching the surface of what, what they're going to be launching, like their main focus. I've never seen LinkedIn the longest I've worked with them. They're taking people from all different departments and bringing them in under this AI to really make sure that it's front facing focus for them and where they're actually taking LinkedIn and AI integration.

Yeah, there's, I think there's so many ways. And I love that you brought up the SEO piece. Right? Like, as someone that's been in and out of SEO for 20 years, I really, I really appreciate that because people don't understand that, you know, that if you maybe don't have a website that's bringing you in a lot of new business, new leads, if you are posting correctly on LinkedIn that can help you, you know, helps in discoverability. And I don't think people, you know, give, give LinkedIn enough credit for that. So very important to know. So, so I guess, you know, a lot of people probably listening or maybe, you know, if they're reading about this, you know, as we recap it in the newsletter today, they're going to be saying, oh my gosh, this is so much happening on LinkedIn.

Right.

You know, a lot of people, which is, it's funny, a lot of people don't even know the whole Microsoft LinkedIn. And then you throw in OpenAI. So it is really kind of a trio of different teams or platforms moving in unison. But a lot of people are going to say, okay, I want to be doing more of what Joshua is doing at that standout authority. I want to be using these platforms to get more. But it's so much all of this AI, these different ways they're integrating it. So what's your recommendation on how people can actually use all of these different tools and Features to grow first.

First and foremost, Jordan, it starts with your profile, right? Like people build. Unless you're looking for a job, your profile LinkedIn profile should not read like a resume. It should be your career journey or career story being able to go through. And of course there's AI tools to be able to go through. Like Jasper has a thing now to be able to write your bio on LinkedIn. It should tell a story being able to figure these things out. So like that's where everyone needs to start, right? Like how do you actually go through? One of the biggest things I want people to understand is especially when you're starting on LinkedIn, your headline is so key. Like we actually tell people to go I help X to achieve Y so they can have Z. Right? This is important because it identifies your audience, who you actually work with, right? I work with this. This is me or this is not me. What you do. The average person sells on service, right? No one buys a service. They don't care how the hamburger is made, they just care how it tastes. And that's that Z, right? The outcome of what you do. So these are things that you can actually use ChatGPT to go, hey, here's all the things. I want an XYZ statement and by dropping it I help X to achieve Y so they can have Z. And that's what's amazing with the AI. You can use tools like that. Hey, here's all the things that I do. I'm trying to create this statement and it'll help you stand out, right? That's. It starts with the profile. Because if you start creating content, engaging with people, having conversations because that's what it's all about. How do we have conversations that build relationships? Relationships create opportunity, not spamming a thousand people hoping to get the one sale because they can just piss off 999 people.

Oh gosh, please. If you are listening and you are one of those people that is just. The term is pitch slapping relentlessly. Just, just write down what Joshua just said there and you know, put on us on a sticky note.

All right. We have, we have some questions of questions in there. I mean, yeah, and you know the. Jordan, I wanted to make sure to like everyone I saw some questions going in there, like truly like content wise and stuff like that. I mean like create content. Like they've made that shift to algorithm. The one I want everyone to understand is too. It's the 102070 method of content creation. You can use AI to be able to help you do this as well. Too 10% personal, 20% around your company, right. Talking about what you've done, not what you can do. No one cares. If you can help them make seven figures, show them how you've helped someone else, then 70% other, add value, educate your audience. And so these are different pieces that I think people need to, from that statement and then how to actually create your content, especially using AI, when you start doing that, that's where your visibility will come out.

Yeah, huge. Like visibility is everything. I think on LinkedIn, you know, the more people that you can get your message out to, the better. It's something that, you know, all people, you know, want more visibility on LinkedIn or website or whatever it may be. Nancy asking Jasper, what's the scoop on that? So, you know, Jasper, Nancy, to answer the question is it's a generative AI tool that uses the GPT technology. You know, we talk on the show that, you know, a lot of people when they think GPT, they think, oh, ChatGPT, which came out seven months ago. But GPT technology has been Openly available since 2020, I believe Jasper launched, you know, the last week of 2020. So, yeah, there's a lot of other tools that have been using this, this technology for, for many years. But a good, a good question that I wanted to toss your way here, Josh, from What is the LinkedIn posting schedule or daily workflow with the platform? Right? Because I think when you get more AI, you just think, okay, I'm gonna do 20 posts a day now. Cause it takes 30 seconds.

Don't do that. Don't do 20 posts a day. Look, they're not looking to be able to have a whole bunch of content from one user, right? Like that's gonna actually hurt you, right? You wanna do the. What we look for is a minimum of three posts a week. Now, it's counterintuitive to every other platform out there, like Twitter. You wanna be posting three times a day. Hell, Threads, people are posting three times a minute, right? It's, you know, you have Facebook going through like, so people are going through like, you have the opportunity now on a platform to create content three times a week to a higher, you know, more educated, higher income and people that I can actually make decisions on a platform like this on LinkedIn and get indexed on chat GPT, right? OpenAI how they're actually leveraging it to not just be the expert, but the authority, because that's where we're actually going. So when you're creating content, think about that, like in the mornings too. We Usually look at about between 9 and 10am depending on where your either audience is or where you are in the world. Right. So look at those things in the morning and then really as you're kind of going through, look, I post every day, Jordan, you know, kind of going through and creating that content. But don't post. If you post the second post in a day, what we actually see is you need 10 times the engagement likes or comments. The get the same visibility. So you're not working smarter, you're working harder by putting out more content. And so that's where I want everyone to kind of think about being able to go through. Now it doesn't stop at posting. You know, if you think that I'm going to put up a post, I'm just gonna, hey, I'm waiting. Where's the money? Where's the people? Dude, that, that doesn't happen anymore. Right. One of the biggest things that we, we look at is you have to be able to draw in that audience. Right. Sales Navigator is an amazing tool to be able to do that with. And it's not just most people. Use it again for that pitching piece. This is your opportunity to be able to not cold pitch. We all hate cold call and cold email. So this is what I want y' all to be able to think about. What actions, what trigger points has someone taken? Did they look at your profile, did they engage in your content or did they post great content? Right? So we're spending our beginning days because you only get about a hundred invites a week right now because LinkedIn's limited that because the spamming. So go through that if it's your ideal audience. I'll pull it back one more, Jordan, because I think this is really important for everyone. Why does everyone in the world, no matter who you are, where you live, you know, what your background is, why do we all post online first and foremost, right? And I'll give it to you because I know we're limited on time to kind of going through, but I mean the reason why we all post is for those little hits of dopamine we all get when someone likes or comments on our posts. Then it's everything else because they give us validation. We put it out there. Like, is someone going to like it? Right? We've been conditioned over 20 years. So that's what I want you to think about when you're on LinkedIn every day. Go in, use a tool like sales navigator, LinkedIn, CRM system, it's a hundred dollars a month. And then go through, find the people that have posted content. Because the average person gets less than 1% engagement, you want to get Jordan's attention, like his post. Comment a post, then put, send a message out and say, hey, Jordan, man, I saw your recent, you know, event with Joshua Beely, man. Really got a lot of value. Just want to take it to two seconds out and say, thank you. Thank you. Creates stop gaps in people's patterns because the pattern online, the human algorithm is like comment, share, post, like, comment, share, post. When you appreciate someone for something they take for granted on a regular basis, it creates that stop pattern and allows you to be able to hear and have a conversation. So. Wow. Wow. Yeah, I know it's outside of AI, but we have to bring that human element in there because if you start using AI without that, you're lost.

You absolutely, you have to. But I think the important takeaway, at least for me, because I'm, I'm learning over here, I'm jotting down notes, is, is that, you know, you still have to do that, that hard work of supporting other people, adding in your, you know, it's, it's not just you putting things out to the world.

You got drawing your ideal audience. Yeah, exactly. You have to go out, find the people. That's your ideal audience, draw them into your world, and then your content backs you up as the authority and they, and that educates them enough that they have a problem. This is where that, man, it's, it's massive. It's huge. It works so well. I mean, we work with our clients. I mean, our clients have our program, their programs run anywhere from 5 to $50,000. We never spend any money on advertising. We're just doing organic marketing on LinkedIn and doing relationship building and being able to use AI to be able to do that same thing. Right. There's a tool. I know one person asked. Merlin is a great tool to be able to use because it allows content. But don't just hit. Because Merlin's got those, those first three, which is trying to remember. I think it's like positive reply, thoughtful reply, curious reply. Go in and write your own prompt. Use it. Don't just go in and hit the random things because I guess they'll go through and read and then make it the right way to be able to go through. Merlin is powerful to be able to go through. And I've gained thousands of followers just by going in and making sure that I'm engaging on people's content that already have a huge following that add value to this world and Align with what I do. And just doing that, five comments a day, will bring you massive, massive opportunity on LinkedIn. Yeah.

Wow. Wow. We could literally talk for hours because everything that Joshua is saying here, there's so much value. So if you are listening to this on the podcast later, make sure to hit rewind and also check in the show notes because we're going to be sharing a lot more resources about Joshua and standout authority. Joshua, we covered so much from content is queen. Quality is clean. Love that. Talking about sales Navigator using AI everywhere. Thank you so much for your time and your insights on Everyday AI.

Happy to be here.

All right, so just as a quick reminder and actually, you know, Val said this podcast needs to be reviewed and shared. Valerie, I agree. Please. Val. I agree. Please, please leave us, leave us a review on Spotify, Apple, wherever you're checking this out. And also as a reminder, go to your everyday. Com. Sign up for our free daily newsletter that we put out at about 11am Central Standard Time. Everything that Josh aired, there was a lot. There's so much many nuggets in there. Don't worry, we're going to break them all down for you, shoot you all the links of the things that he was talking about. So thank you for joining us today on Everyday AI. We hope to see you back tomorrow and every day. Thank you.

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