Leveraging LinkedIn for Lead Generation

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LinkedIn can feel confusing, spammy, and overly professional or boring. Learn how to understand this live networking platform and use it to achieve your goals in this episode with guest expert Britta Blanski.

Britta is an Employer Branding Strategist who helps find and share the common thread woven throughout your company in order to attract top talent and improve employee engagement. She is a Minnesota native living in Bologna Italy for 12 years, a teacher turned entrepreneur, and the mom to two personal superheroes.

Website // LinkedIn // Instagram // Your LinkedIn Guide

The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hi everyone and welcome back to the Badass Business Squad podcast. I am very excited, today I have Britta Blanski here. We are going to be talking all about LinkedIn. So for all of my agency owners, business owners, entrepreneurs who have not been diving into LinkedIn or have been showing up but kinda like, "I don't know what I'm doing, or if there's any point to what I'm doing," This episode is for you. So thank you Britta, so much for coming and joining.

Britta Blanski: Thank you, Katrina. I'm thrilled to be here, and something I really love and enjoy doing is demystifying the fears and misconceptions that we have built up around using LinkedIn. So I'm super thrilled to be talking about this topic today with you.

Katrina Widener: Yes, yes. I think that everyone listening are going to be able to get like a good insight and maybe an overlooked platform that they haven't been using for their businesses and for themselves. So I'm excited to dive in. But before we actually get into the nitty gritty, would you mind quickly just introducing yourself to everyone listening?

Britta Blanski: Absolutely, so I am Britta Blanski. I am originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and I have been living in Bologna, Italy now for just over 10 years. So that's my new home. And about three years ago I started my own side hustle as a virtual assistant. Which has now completely pivoted and now I am an employer brand and LinkedIn manager, consultant, and strategist.

And what that really means is... when people hear "employer brand", they're kind of like, "Wait a second, what is that exactly? What do they do?" So I help companies find the common thread that's running through all the different departments and division within, and help them share that story with the world and out on digital platform. So it's really finding your unique employer value proposition in sharing that story, and one of the best places to do that is LinkedIn. So how do we leverage your presence on LinkedIn to get your personal story out of your employees?

Katrina Widener: Thank you so much for explaining that, because even I was like, "Okay, what?" that was going to be my next question. I think that oftentimes when people think about LinkedIn, right, especially when you're owning your own business? You're looking at Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, "Should I do blog post? Should I do all of these things?" And LinkedIn seems to be that one that people are like, "I don't really know what to do here, so I'm just not going to do something."

I think it's often very overlooked and like you said, maybe has a ton of misconceptions around its use. So I was wondering if you could just start us off by talking about some of the really great parts of LinkedIn that people are really missing out on by not utilizing it or utilizing it to its full abilities.

Britta Blanski: Yeah, definitely. So I think most of us created a LinkedIn profile when we were just out of college and university, and we were like, "Okay, this is what I'm supposed to do when I want to land a job" and so you make a profile, and then it just sits there. And maybe you updated it if you went into corporate immediately after you graduated. And then now as a business owner you're like, "Well, I have this LinkedIn profile and it's supposedly the professional platform. Yeah, I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do on there."

And so you just let it sit there and then you're like, "Well, I should share about my business." But you're like, "Oh my goodness. all my connections are like high school friends or they're ex-coworkers, or is my ex-boss. I get really nervous and I don't think they want to be seeing me on LinkedIn." And so we just don't really utilize it, and maybe you like update your profile and you put your business on there and you say who you help and you say what you do, but you're not networking.

LinkedIn is a live networking platform. It's like as if you walked into a networking event and you're just standing in the corner and you're like, "Well, just because I'm here people are supposed to notice me and pay attention to me." Whereas if you go to like an actual networking event, I'm sure you know that that's not actually what happens. You have to initiate the conversation, you have to get visible, you have to get vocal, and you have to let people see you and hear you. That's what you need to do on the platform as well, and so we kind of need to get over this idea of like, "People aren't going to like what I share," and actually start sharing all about your business and who you help.

Because also when it comes to it, there are professionals on LinkedIn to do business. Like the whole point is, "Let's do business here. I can help you, you can help me. How can we collaborate? Let's get this started." And so if you're not getting vocal about it, you're simply missing out on opportunities.

Katrina Widener: That makes so much sense, and what you said too about like high school friends or college friends? I know maybe about a year ago I went into my LinkedIn account and I was like, "Okay, who am I connected with that I have no reason to be connected with?" I know I went to a college at Drake University, humongous pharmacy school, right? How many pharmacists did I have connections with that I was like, "We don't talk anymore. We do not like... we're not in the same connections. Why are these the people I'm connecting with on LinkedIn and not any of the people who I talk to on a regular basis or who are actually in the entrepreneur world?" So that makes so much sense.

Whenever we talk about a platform, there's probably a lot of things that people think about this platform that aren't true. Would you mind diving even more into that too? Just so that we can really help like you said, demystify those misconceptions.

Britta Blanski: Yeah, and I just want to backtrack one second. You don't need to remove anyone within your network. So even if you're like, "Well you know, now I am a coach and I have all these people in pharmaceuticals within my network." Those people actually might need some help on mindset, or they might have their partner who needs help with mindset or their friend, you know? And that's the whole point of the power of connection, is you never know who knows who, and if they like your post it goes out to their whole network and you don't know who's in their network.

Katrina Widener: Yeah.

Britta Blanski: And so that's why you want those people, even if they don't seem like they're ideal clients, them engaging with you is really powerful. So first of all I would just say, you don't need to go in and like remove people or block and be like, "No, now I have to like fill it all in." Just like let them sit there and then you can strategically start adding those people in.

So I think one of the first biggest misconceptions is that LinkedIn is serious. There's like so many creative entrepreneurs out there who love Instagram, they love TikTok. They love being able to use the music and video aspect and the different fonts and colors and all of that creative aspect of content that's getting put out. And it feels so natural to put it out on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook. But when it comes to LinkedIn they're like, "Oh no, that's serious like that's 'professional'. I can't say that." And I think that's one of like the biggest misconceptions. Particularly if you are a true creative, your work and your voice is really, really appreciated and people enjoy seeing something that's different on their feed.

Because the more you start showing up on LinkedIn and the more you start engaging, like based on the way that the algorithm works, what you interact with is going to start showing up more in your feed. And like if I was really interested in mindfulness or I was really interested in leadership, or I was really interested even in like health and nutrition, and I start interacting with people who share that kind of content? The people that they're interacting with too are going to show up on my feed, and then my feed is going to become more full of that type of content. So you can really curate, the more active you are, you curate the things that you're going to see when you log in, which makes it much more enjoyable.

Because another misconception is that it's boring. Like "I log in there and all it is, are these like random corporate updates with statistics here and there. It's a lingo I don't understand, like I just scroll over it. You just like roll your eyes because you don't understand anything." Whereas there are people who are sharing really high value educational content. Like if you want to learn something you absolutely can, and the more you interact with that? That will show up. So now it's not boring and you're realizing what you can share, and then if you're also adding like your creative, fun, funky, humorous side, that will also be very much appreciated and you will rise above some of that noise that's out there.

Katrina Widener: I love that so much and I'm glad that you first of all clarified like, "Yes, we don't have to delete anyone," cause I definitely did that. But also going in and talking about like having to be serious on LinkedIn, it makes so much sense that we can utilize it and really stand in who we are the same way we do on other social media platforms. But yeah, when I was in college or just graduating college it was like, "This is where you're going to be meeting potential employers. People are going to be checking out your LinkedIn when they decide they want to work with you." And as an entrepreneur, I've noticed that has kind of been replaced by my website, right? Most of the time the people who I work with either completely don't acknowledge LinkedIn as a marketing platform or as a way to get visible to their audience, or they do see it and they're like, "Well, I just post like something like once in a while there." And so talking about that I think is really, really helpful.

I have like a real question outta left field that I did not prep you for at all, but that's totally fine.

Britta Blanski: Go for it, I'm ready.

Katrina Widener: When we were talking about connections and you were saying like "Who you connect with, you'll show up on like other people's feeds if they like it because that's how the algorithm works," and all that kind of stuff. It made me think of what it's like one of my biggest reasons why I don't show up on LinkedIn very much, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that. And that's because I'm constantly being sold to in my dms on LinkedIn. And I know that like when I go on LinkedIn, I feel so annoyed when I have new connections that are coming up and I am trying to evaluate, "Are you just going to try to sell to me? Are you just going to try to sell to me? Are you just going to try to sell to me?" There's this whole other side of LinkedIn where I think that that maybe is a misconception that people have is like, "You're just going to get sold to all the time if you show up on LinkedIn more."

So I was wondering if you could kind of answer that for me or be like, "Okay Katrina, that happens, but there are ways to avoid that or there are other parts of it, et cetera, et cetera." Because that's like my biggest pain point with LinkedIn personally.

Britta Blanski: Yeah. So part of it definitely has to do with getting your profile optimized and being very strategic on how you're using your about section and your headline. The headline is a description right below your name, which can be 220 characters. And like you can get really creative with that. I would definitely say like in the beginning, if you don't have an optimized profile and you haven't really curated the content that's in there, people are definitely searching keywords and they're probably like the biggest, most common keywords that are very generic. So they just mass send out those spammy cold selling messages to you and you can tell who they are. The funny thing is that actually like the more involved and more active you are on platform, the less spammy sale messages you'll get. Like you might get one? I mean, I'm trying to think of my own inbox. I think the last time I got one was like a month ago. I don't even remember.

I'm sure many of like your listeners are used to Instagram DMs, I'm not sure if that's their most common platform and the one everyone's most comfortable with, but most of that conversation happens based off of stories. So you respond with an emoji and you're like, "Oh, that's nice." And you know, like it's pretty superficial. But on LinkedIn you don't have stories. So like, if you're really going to dive into a conversation with someone in their dms, it's probably based on a piece of content. And content is usually a little bit more thoughtful than a story most of the time, right? So if what you're putting out there is value based and like inspirational based and motivational based and someone reaches out to you, there's already going to be a little bit more meat in that conversation, which makes it easier to carry on.

So as soon as your inbox gets full of those kinds of conversations? The random cold selling message to you, that doesn't even phase you. You're like, "Oh, what?" Like you just ignore it, cause there's like no pressure to ever respond to anyone, right? Like it's nice to take the time and say, "You know, thanks, but no thanks." but also if they really are just like cold spamming, you can tell that they haven't looked at your content and they haven't looked at your profile. They're so far out of the ballpark that is just... it's not worth your time like we all have. So you just archive it, you just like delete it and you just move on. But you will notice that the more active you actually are, the less of those you get.

One, because you're not going to be pulled up in large, random, generic searches because your profile is very much curated. And then second, you are more active and so you have much more important, valuable conversations happening that those just aren't even on your radar anymore. So I hope that answered your question.

Katrina Widener: That definitely did. One thing I want to pull out from what you said that really connected with me that I want to remind everyone listening also of, is you don't have to respond to them. Because little Miss Katrina community person, people pleaser. I'm like, "I have to respond to every single person and be like, no, thank you." Or sometimes if I'm feeling really salty I'll be like, "Hi. I don't accept any cold calls on LinkedIn." As if they're going to be like, "Oh, well Katrina said I shouldn't cold call, so therefore I'm going to stop this moving forward." Like, no.

So I really appreciate that. I also find it really interesting that the more content that you create, it makes complete sense, the more optimized you are, the more content you create, the easier it is to make those connections and build that community. And so I was wondering if you would also kind of go into a little bit of detail for everyone listening of the type of content you would recommend people start putting on their LinkedIn. People who are just now being like, "Okay, I'm going to pay some closer attention to my LinkedIn." what tactics would you recommend? Or what kind of content would you recommend they start adding into their regular schedule?

Britta Blanski: Mm-hmm. That's such a good question and I'm glad you brought this up because it reminded me of something I had wanted to touch on earlier. It's so important and valuable to really project who you truly, authentically are as a person and as a business owner on LinkedIn. Because you had mentioned it from before the point when you were job seeking

Katrina Widener: Mm-hmm.

Britta Blanski: You know? It's this fear of surrounding like, "Oh, like I need to make a good impression." The ironic thing is like when we try so hard to be something that we're not, everyone ends up disappointed, right? So they think you're someone that you're not. You gave a false impression, and the same thing goes as a business owner. Like, you want anyone who's going to look at your profile, they want to know that what they see is what they're going to get. There's no surprises. So like, even your profile photo don't have a picture of you in like a dress shirt or sports coat or whatever, if that's not how you dress. Obviously you're not going to show up in sweats in your picture, but just show your natural personality. If you're going to hop on a discovery call with you they're not like, "Whoa. that's not the person I saw."

Yes, it's a professional platform, so we still want to be mindful. But there are absolutely people who are quite sarcastic, crude, funny. You can't really like swear on LinkedIn, like if you say fuck on a post in LinkedIn it will probably get flagged. But it's very like evident and obvious how this person speaks and talks. You can be yourself even if you're dancing. There's this career coach who's known for her like incredible high energy dancing videos. It's like totally her personality, so you know exactly what you're going to get. So this all goes to say like, don't think you need to rewrite your content for LinkedIn. Start by repurposing what you already have, and the same basic concepts apply where like you want the personal content where people know who you actually are. Are you a digital nomad traveling around the world? Are you a working mom? Not that you need to share everything going on in your life, but a lot of people share the struggles that they're going with because the marvelous thing about LinkedIn is that it's incredibly supportive. People are looking for that content that resonates with them. So share the personal stuff. Don't be afraid to put that out there.

Katrina Widener: Mm-hmm.

Britta Blanski: Value, so educate. If you follow certain people that you're genuinely interested in learning about the topic that they speak about? You can learn so much. I actually had someone tell me they had learned more on LinkedIn in like the last 18 months than they had at university. They're like, "Now I know what I want to do." You know, they left their corporate job that they had been in for 20 years. They started their own coaching business and everything they needed to learn about marketing, visibility, like whatever you could think of when it comes to starting your own business. As we know, it's a huge growth journey. People were sharing that value in their content on LinkedIn. So how can you practically help your clients, what is it that you do? And then sharing that transformation, you want the emotional side. You want to really reel them in and get them to... to resonate with what you're saying. And then you can kind of sprinkle in the humor post, you can sprinkle in sales.

90% of your content should really be like entertaining, and 10% should be sales. You have to try to think like... the whole point is getting visible so that those second and third degree connections, like the power of them seeing your content comes into play. So if lots of people resonate with a selfie or with a dancing reel or something that was like really valuable where they learned something and people are interacting with that? It's just going to go further out into the degrees of connection. So that's why you want to first build up that visibility... which is all related to what you offer, right? Like it's all connected. We know that. Like, if you worked on content strategy, nothing is just like randomly out there, right? It's all tied and connected.

Katrina Widener: Right.

Britta Blanski: And then you're like, "Oh by the way this is what I sell, or this is what I offer." So you drop those posts in there. And I think most people, you know, most entrepreneurs have that content already ready. They just haven't put it on LinkedIn because I thought it wasn't appropriate.

Katrina Widener: The advice that you gave and the comments that you made make so much sense too. It really has even my wheels turning because we talk a lot about Instagram or TikTok, Facebook, right? We talk about the pros and cons of different platforms, of showing up in different places, and I think what you said about those second and third degree connections, being able to see your content? That really being able to have it repurposed in a way that you're talking to the people you're connected with, but also that they're connected with. And that they're connected with, right?

And when we look at TikTok, I talk a lot about how it's super valuable because when you show up on TikTok, old content is getting repurposed all of the time. So you may have posted something a year ago but if the algorithm thinks that it makes sense for that audience member, they're still going to show it to them as if it was just created. I think so many people fixate on Instagram because it is like the hot topic, or it is the place that people really just assume they need to be showing up on.

But there are so many valuable assets to these other platforms that Instagram doesn't have. Instagram doesn't repurpose content, it's not evergreen. It's like a one and done. Instagram isn't someone that's going to, show your content to the people of the people that follow you, right? Like they've started doing suggested posts because you liked it, but those are not everyday people like you and me for the most part. So I think too, even just from a purely strategy, rational place, it makes so much sense to be putting that content out in a place where your reach has such a capability to grow in a completely different way.

So thank you so much for sharing all of this. I think my last question is just really going to be like... for someone who's been listening to this podcast episode and it's like, "Okay I understand, I really am valuing everything that you're saying, but where do I begin?"

Britta Blanski: Mm-hmm.

Katrina Widener: What would be like the one quick thing that you would say, "You know what, this is the first step and then you can take it from there."

Britta Blanski: Yeah, I always say to start with optimizing your profile, which that can feel overwhelming. But the things that are most important with your profile are first, check your profile photo. So make sure that it's up to date recent. Oftentimes LinkedIn has defaulted your profile visibility to be only within your network, or only to first degree connections. And you really don't want that gray anonymous image to be the first thing that people see.

Katrina Widener: Yeah!

Britta Blanski: So just double check and make sure that your profile photo is visible to everyone. So get that up to date. Update your headline. You can just go back to the basic formula of like, , "This is who I help, and this is the transformation." Doesn't need to be super complicated, and I always say add something personal in there as well. So just when people read that, it's the first thing they see. Especially when you comment or if you send a message, they can see the first like five to seven words, depending on how long the words are. So you want to make an impact with that. So get creative with it, have fun with it.

So profile photo, headline, and then double check your "about" section and make sure that it's written in the first person, and the first person means "I". So "I do this." Oftentimes if you haven't been using your LinkedIn profile, your profile is like " Britta or Katrina is a dah, dah, dah dah..." And it's so cold and it's so impersonal, so just... doesn't need to be complicated. If you have a website and you have an about section, take that and that's a great starting place. So those three things, and then I would just say start interacting. Like if you just do 10 minutes of commenting on people's content of your interests... So maybe your network needs a little bit of growth, it needs a little bit of curation. Just 10 minutes a day or, you know, even every other day start interacting. Because that's already going to get things moving for you.

Katrina Widener: Perfect! Thank you so much, Britta this has been amazing and I really appreciate it. I think we're going to be able to learn a lot from this. Also maybe everybody can go and connect with you on LinkedIn!

Britta Blanski: Absolutely! Thank you so much for having me as a guest.

Katrina Widener: Yes! Before we hop off, would you mind just sharing your information with everyone so where they can find you after the call, any links, et cetera, et cetera.

Britta Blanski: Mm-hmm, yeah. So the best place to connect with me, of course, is on LinkedIn. Just put in Britta Blanski and you'll find me. The name of my company is Britta June & Co. I am on instagram as well, I'm not as active there. The handle is @brittajuneco and my website is www.brittajuneandco.com so you can go at either of those places.

And if you do have my head to my website, there is a great freebie which is your LinkedIn guide, and so you can really cover more of the basics. It goes more in depth of what to put into your about section, how to engage some tips for writing your content, so it'll be a little bit more helpful.

Katrina Widener: Perfect! Well, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it.

Britta Blanski: Thank you.