A recent survey on LinkedIn shows that leaders who invest time in a social selling process create 45% more deals.
Social media platforms are a one-stop shop for finding your ideal customers. Social selling is not only effective because it builds long-term relationships with potential clients, but it allows leaders to meet customers where they are.
With many buckets of the social selling process, how do you know which practices will appeal to your intended audience?
Here’s a hint: you won’t find them on YouTube or through Google. Social Selling expert Monika Ruzicka Kenter is the woman for the job.
In this episode of Evolved Sales Live, host Jonathan Fischer sits down with Monika to discuss the step-by-step process for creating an impactful social selling strategy that focuses on providing value first.
Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn for more engaging sales insights and discussions! Happy watching!
Meet Monika:
Monika is co-creator and host of B2B social selling podcast "Straight to Business" & co-founder of Ready For Social, Thought Horizon's proprietary social selling/content distribution platform. She's used her expertise to help businesses, community organizations, NGOs, and not-for-profits profit by using social platforms more effectively.
Check out the transcription of this webinar episode below!
Jonathan Fischer 0:03
We're gonna go ahead and get rolling. Of course. Nice. So, all right, awesome. Hey, it's time for another episode of Evolve sales live. Welcome back. I'm Jonathan Fisher. One of the hottest topics in business today is social selling, but few seem to understand the topic in depth. What can you feasibly achieve on social platforms? What kind of content will appeal to your intended audience? Is there a particular cadence or methodology that works best? Knowing can make a big difference. According to LinkedIn, social selling index, leaders and social sales attract 45% more business than their peers and 51% more likely to reach their quota. Well, to help us build a step by step plan for social selling success is Monica Zika. Kanter. For nearly a decade now Monica has made herself a bonafide expert in the discovery and implementation of better social selling techniques. She's used her expertise to help businesses, community organizations, NGOs, and not for profits profit by using social platforms more effectively. She's also the co founder of ready for social, a proprietary social selling content distribution platform, and she loves to share her knowledge as a speaker podcaster and trainer. Monica, it's fantastic to have you on the show today.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 1:14
Hi, Jonathan. Hi, everybody. I'm super excited to be with you today. Thanks for that lovely intro.
Jonathan Fischer 1:21
Yeah, tell us a little bit more. So what really keeps you busy every day with this passion you have for better social selling?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 1:28
Yes. So I do spend a lot of time on LinkedIn myself. I do business development for our SaaS companies or social selling company ready for social. And I also spent a large part of my time training people, I think I've trained by now 2000 people, from CEOs to salespeople to marketing leaders on how to use social media, especially LinkedIn effectively. So my focus is b2b. And that's where I spend most of my time. So business development and training, heavily focused on LinkedIn.
Jonathan Fischer 2:06
Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense. So it really is a passion of yours clearly. So our topic today is a step by step plan for social selling success. And no, we're all excited to get into that. But before we do so, I'd love to hear what are you seeing as some of the biggest problems where our business development leaders are missing the mark on social in your view?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 2:25
Yeah, there's actually quite a few problems that are going on with regards to social selling nowadays. So maybe let me start just with a brief definition of social selling, because that's kind of actually related to some of the problems that you see. So social selling in the essence means that you are using social media as part of your sales or go to market approach. And it refers to people using their personal social media profiles, in order to connect with others show their expertise, and so on. But really, the idea of social selling is much more building connection, showing your expertise, sharing knowledge, educating your network, and it's not so much primarily being salesy. So ideally, obviously, generating leads and new deals, new business is a result that should come out of all your efforts. But one of the biggest mistakes that I keep seeing since I am working in this space, and especially since you know, the pandemic, is that people take the selling piece too literal. And you know, the common problem, I think that everybody knows nowadays was in any sort of decision making position, you get inundated with requests of people that try to sell you something, and a lot of people are getting tired of that. And one of the most frequent question I get from decision makers that I train on on using social media is how can I get rid of all the stuff that I don't want to see? So that's like burning the platforms a little bit for, you know, the real value add. So, you know, overly, being overly salesy and of course, there's nothing wrong with selling and people who aren't on those platforms. I mean, that's not to make friends. It's for business networking and for for growing everybody's business. So people understand that, but the problem is that very few people invest any kind of time before they reach out to somebody. So it's mass outreach to decision makers in a non customized way. So that's, that's one of the biggest problems that I see. So I'm being too salesy not being personalized. And the other thing is that there has been an explosion of content on social media on LinkedIn.
In since the pandemic, I think LinkedIn reported after the first year of the pandemic, that the amount of content had increased by 50%, since before the pandemic, and I'm sure it's now even more. And I think with regards to sharing content, also people need to be intentional and targeted with the content that they share, and not just blast content out there, because then people will stop following them. And they will not reach anything with regards to their content efforts.
Jonathan Fischer 5:34
So the picture you're painting is the space is getting more crowded. Like any kind of marketing effort, the more crowded the more difficult it is to get your distinct message heard. Yeah, there's a lot of scattergun approaches that are in place. I think we've all experienced that. I've even I rarely actually will unfollow somebody once a connection on LinkedIn with them. And a few times recently, I have and I kind of felt bad, but they were overdoing it. I think that must be what you're talking about with being a little too salesy.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 6:02
Yes. So it's it's one thing exactly. So people might unfollow you. And while that's an intentional act, that then a lot of people don't figure out on their daily basis. But what also happens how the LinkedIn algorithm works, if you keep sharing content, but people just scroll over whatever you have shared, LinkedIn learns that, and that means your content will be shown to less and less people in your network. And that's another thing that is very unfortunate, because you're sharing the content for people to see it. So sometimes less is more. And we'll get into the details of that later. I think, too.
Jonathan Fischer 6:40
Yeah, absolutely.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 6:41
And one thing, Jonathan, if I can mention that, I know like, in your audience, you have companies that are in the growth phases in the early growth phases of that company. So not super early startups, but maybe, you know, you you mentioned to me before, like Series B funding, or maybe looking to go public. And, you know, one quote, one, one thing that I observed from from startups is that, when it comes to social media, they do focus a lot on promoting their company brand and promoting their company page. But what is actually much more effective in terms of especially in terms of LinkedIn, and social selling, especially in the b2b space, is if you leverage your personal profiles, like if you are the founder, if you are the CEO, you get much more visibility and traction with your personal profile than with your company profile that has a limited amount of followers is not an established brand zero recognition out there. So that's another mistake that I see, especially in this space.
Jonathan Fischer 7:46
Well, and I can resonate with that you can take a look, even among your own connections, I would wager and anyone in the audience, I certainly can and an individual can post something and get, you know, X number of responses, let's say yes, couple of dozen, or maybe even several dozen, you can go at their company there with. And a beautiful, professional looking piece of content gets like three or four likes, right? And yeah, to see little people in the company.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 8:13
Exactly. The pull out there. Exactly. So the company page is important, I encourage every company small or large to have a company page on LinkedIn, because that's your credibility, that's your home on LinkedIn. And please do share updates from time to time to you know, show that your company is alive. But that's not where the impact is. And that's not where most of your time should go. Yeah, one last note of that, too. I think that's a little bit of a contrary view to many in marketing, who is when you have conversations there there, I think it's a shrinking portion. But a lot of marketers still are under the impression that it is more of a branding engine, that you can't feasibly really make sales happen in a way that is that could be driven by process that's easily replicable, scalable, but I think you're here to say the opposite is true if you have the right set of processes in place. So with that, as a segue, let's get into it. How do we build a really great plan for better success on social platform? Yes. So let me break it down into two different things. So first, what what can you do as a company? What are your steps from a company perspective? And then once you are like the designated person executing that be it like the CEO or another executive or a salesperson, what can you do them as specific steps. So if as a company leader or revenue leader, you are looking into getting social selling more integrated into your sales and marketing efforts? The first thing is that you of course, need to understand where are your clients on social media? Where can you connect with them? What kind of things do they care about? Those are typically things that you should already know and parts because you know who your clients are, but really map your clients, find them on LinkedIn and validate that indeed, you know, they are addressable there.
Some some people have, for instance, concerns with the public sector how far you know, can you address the public sector on LinkedIn, but that's another area which is very specific, but just validate that your target audience is indeed active on LinkedIn. And then the second thing is really be intentional in what efforts you want to invest there. Because LinkedIn can be a huge Time Eater, if you're not being intentional. So really make a plan of you know, who from your company should be active there, how can they be supported, if you have multiple people is there like a central person, somebody from marketing, who can provide the sales people with content, so established tools and processes, however simple or complex makes sense for your organization, but establish the processes that help your people be active. And the third thing, so the first thing is define your audience and objective? Second thing is establish the tools and processes. And the third one is for social selling, define who from your organization are the most appropriate people to show their face on social media? In terms of social selling, connecting with the audience? Is it the CEO? Is it maybe the CTO if you have a highly technical product? That's another consideration?
Jonathan Fischer 11:25
What are your thoughts on these other types of of titled roles that her sort of non conventional, like chief evangelist, does that? Does it have? Does it have legs to you? Or do you think that might not be as important that just comes to mind? You know, or is like it business development officer, or something has sales? Is that off putting? Or can you kind of get away with that doesn't matter much?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 11:49
Yeah. So there's different views on on that. So in my opinion, in my personal opinion, and what I consult my clients and what I basically see happening, it doesn't so much depend on what's your title, I mean, you can be transparent, there's nothing wrong with being in sales or business development, but your profile and all your efforts that you have on LinkedIn, let's say, let's take LinkedIn as an example should, you know not just be about you selling. So it shows it should be authentic, you can be a salesperson, but show yourself as an expert, show yourself as somebody who is offering advice and education to the audience. And to not just talk and every post that you share about how great your company is how great your services are. So it's much more about the authenticity than about a specific title, authenticity and value.
Jonathan Fischer 12:42
Makes make sense. Yeah. So you were laying out our plan. So for the for a company from the company side, we have the need to first first validate that your audience is there it is your addressable audience on LinkedIn, they may or may not be even in b2b. I mean, there's different. It's not it's different, every company makes a lot of sense. See what kind of support is going to be needed. This could be in the form of enablement, or a chief marketing person or what have you. What else do they need to have?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 13:07
Yes. And you also need to define what are the topics that you really want to stand for? I recently had on my own podcast, I had Mike Casey, who was the CEO of the clean tech communications agency called Tiger comment. He said, he called it nicely the whitespace. And I liked that term. So define your whitespace, which is what is the unique space that you can talk about on social media? And, you know, I think that's great, that, like, define that look at what your competitors are doing? And don't, you know, obviously, you will maybe talk about the same kind of topics, but what's your unique angle to that topic?
Jonathan Fischer 13:52
That makes sense. That makes sense. And that's going to structure what kind of support you offer your team? Exactly. From the corporate side that need to be in place to have it?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 13:59
Yes. I mean, with with all of that the content strategy? So you have an overall strategy, but also what kind of contents what kind of own contents Do you have? What kind of assets do you maybe have to produce? What content formats that your audience like to consume? Are they more the video people or the audio people? Or do you even have the capacity to produce certain key assets in all different formats? Because you know, people typically your audience, people typically prefer their format like audio or video reading. So find out what kind of content formats you can produce, and also what other contents you can share because you don't just want to talk about yourself other third party contents that you can reference that you can share your opinion on.
Jonathan Fischer 14:53
Great. Okay, and so from there, we segue into the individual producer. What would then be the elements for building? So whatever their title, my video chief evangelist or Business Development Officer or whatever it might be sales, sales professional extraordinaire will go that title, right? What how does how does she build her plan to be successful?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 15:14
Yes. So there's basically four elements, which in my presentation, so I like to present this four puzzle pieces that kind of grab into each other. And the first thing is, obviously, your profile, your LinkedIn profile, that's your home, on LinkedIn. And what's really important with the profile is that you write it in a way that it resonates with your audience. Don't make it too salesy. Don't make it too much about you know, how great you are in driving business and achieving quotas in developing markets. But write things in your profile that your audience cares about. You know, and then there's different pieces in your profile, like the headline, or the info, session, or the info section where you can write about yourself, use those to really use relevant. Also relevant terms, and descriptions that your people will resonate with. And also be authentic, like, write it in the first person form not about yourself, like, you know, somebody wrote it about yourself, but write it in the first person. Those are like some little tips around profile.
And then the second thing is make sure you have the relevant network. So you need to be at least at 500 connections. Otherwise, you know, whatever you do on LinkedIn is pretty much irrelevant. But beyond that, make sure you are connected with the relevant people in your target audience. So if you have more of an account based approach, of course, make sure that you are connected with everybody in the decision making unit and beyond. And if you have more of a one to many approach, then also make sure you build a relevant network in your target audience so that you get visibility for your content. And you can also listen to what your network is actually talking about what kind of problems they might be, you know, sharing on their profiles on their networks.
Jonathan Fischer 17:14
That makes sense. I think most people in their profile, it's, it's kind of like an evergreen CV slash resume at all times, like you're always looking for work, and it's not, it's never really treated as an opportunity to win an audience. Yeah, that really runs counter to I mean, I rarely see that it's otherwise on people's profiles. In my experience.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 17:34
Yes. So most people actually, as you say, have it written SSTV. Because everybody, you know, is potentially maybe gonna be wanting to be recruited by by somebody for the next job. But really, and I've spoken with recruiters about that, actually, you know, if you're in sales or business development, recruiters nowadays, understand the idea of social selling. And you know, it might even help you from recruiting point of view, if your profile really talks to your target audience, it doesn't mean you're not going to be considered for another position. But if it's just too much resume and recruiter style, it's not gonna resonate with your target audience much.
Jonathan Fischer 18:13
Yeah. Well, and then your network. So you, you, you sounds like you recommend I was going to maybe coined the term curate your connections a little bit, right? Yes, they really are relevant to you. I mean, I guess there's nothing wrong with having additional connections. But you want to be really intentional about that, what what comes next? Or what, what's the third of the four elements?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 18:30
Yes. So the third one is then the interaction with your network, that is a very powerful one. Because you know, so let me wrap up the three of the four, and then I will come back to the third. So this one is like interacting with your network. And then the fourth one is sharing content on your profile. Okay. So a lot of people believe when they start sharing content, that people are gonna notice it, and they are going to generate leads automatically, just because there's fantastic content on their profile. But it doesn't work that way. I mean, LinkedIn is much too crowded for that to just stand out with content alone. So one of the secret ingredients of LinkedIn, of every social selling strategy is to find key people in your audience in your especially in your prospects, and interact with the content that they share. Because that gives status like several things, it gives people appreciation, because they feel good that somebody interacts with that content. And the other thing is really that you get guaranteed visibility. Let's say if the CEO or CTO or any other executive or you know whoever you're addressing and your target audience is sharing content on their profile and you make an intelligent comment you ask an intelligent questions or offer some value add to whatever they have shared, you are going to be seen. If you post something you never know who sees it.
And that's really the relationship building part, I mean people out on social media to connect with each other and to have little conversations and exchanges. So the interaction is something that really is like my favorite thing to do almost on LinkedIn to like, go through my customers profile and see what content they post that I work with alerts and notifications, obviously, to make it more efficient, and then really get inspired by what they say and build relationships that way. And, obviously, that's what's all about, right, that is the that's the socializing of the social network. Exactly, exactly. And then it really depends, as I said, if you have like an account based approach, then you can be much more targeted, of course, with your interactions. If you sell one to many, then maybe it is a little bit more content and just growing your network overall. And then kind of you hope to be seen using the relevant hashtags relevant keywords in your content. If you sell one too many, you can't do this, like one on one interaction with people as much, obviously.
Jonathan Fischer 21:02
Sure, that makes sense. So it seems like the platform itself may be best suited when you do have sort of an account based approach to selling or maybe you have the kind of product that there really would just be the one decision maker, is that kind of what we're hearing.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 21:16
Yes. So that's really the sweet spot of LinkedIn. Yes.
Jonathan Fischer 21:21
So the interacting with, it sounds like that would be part of the fun of it, you're going to learn things as you're doing so and maybe even most critical of all, you're, you're leveraging the algorithm in your favor, since LinkedIn is built to make certain that you're sharing posts than with people that you interact with. Yes. So then how does that when it comes to sharing content? Are there some what are some best practices around that? I mean, should that be one by one by one as well? In light of what you just said? Or can you kind of send out something more broad, but what do you recommend?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 21:51
Yeah, so typically, it makes sense to post the content just on your profile. So it's there. And what LinkedIn does, once you share content on your profile, the algorithm takes that piece of content and shows it to a few people in your network, approximately 10% of people in your network, so not everybody in your network sees the content that you share. That's also a common misconception, I post something and all my network sees it No, doesn't work that way. So LinkedIn shows it to approximately 10% of people in your network. And then if you get early engagements, if people are interacting or commenting on your content, then it gets more spread out. And eventually, if you get lucky, it might go viral. But the virality is like rattle, kind of if you're not like an influencer with a lot of connections. But you know, you don't need to have hundreds and 1000s of likes and comments. But you need to be seen by the relevant people. But how do you make sure that your content gets seen by the relevant people, you increase your chances if you use relevant keywords and hashtags. But then what I do especially in the account based approach, you if you want certain people to for sure see your content, you can take your post and share it and a direct message with people in your network and just, you know, as a touch point, reach out through your top 1020 prospects and say, Hey, I shot this, I thought you might be interested, let me know if you have any questions, kind of like a casual touch point. And offering value.
Jonathan Fischer 23:18
Yeah, okay. So you do recommend going one by one vantage to draw some attention then to your posting, that makes a lot of sense. You don't do it with everyone. But I guess especially if you're going after some, some key accounts, make sure that hey, these five people or these three people over here are getting the message. Yes. So what about the content itself? Then are there? Is there a mix of types of compliments? Obviously, your content strategy is going to be coming to you from the team from what you shared earlier. But what else could you say in terms of deploying tactically on the part of the individual are there? Should they include some stories about their pet? Or their children are equipped they took along in the mix? Should that be? I guess it speaks to build, right? That's part of Content Strategy. But what are your thoughts on that?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 24:02
Yes. So there's varying opinions on that, and various things that work and you know, the LinkedIn algorithm changes all the time. So you can say, well, you know, dogs are no go or whatever it's like, you know, but in general, in general, nobody could ever say dogs may go about that.
So, basically, you should have a good mix. So we recommend our clients to have about 30% of their content, talking about their own companies, solutions, and so on 30%. And then the rest should be content that circles around your areas of expertise, maybe articles from relevant industry publications that you know, address certain things about the problems that you solve that talk about your industry, and then you add your thoughts on that specific topic. So that's the third party content. And then of course, you can mix in some content of you on.
And you know, I know some people like to post something that has nothing at all to do with business, that it's just for fun. And that really depends on your target audience how much that is accepted or not. If your audience is small, like the Instagram crowd in their private life, right?
Generation Z, they are very accepting to this kind of stuff on LinkedIn also to kind of topics like environment or social justice issues, women and business and this kind of things, right? Like, it depends on where your audience is interested. In general, anything that's, you know, acceptable in a business conversation is also acceptable on LinkedIn. But I wouldn't push the envelope too much in terms of personal content. I mean, don't post like, every week, something about like what you do in your backyard, or you know, about if you go on a bike ride that gets stressed too much? And what's the point? So ideally, ideally, find an angle of you know, it's there may be an inspiration in it for other business people, or can you like, somehow create a touch point with a business topic by what you're sharing? And one of my favorite things is also that a lot of people like to go to events, and just post a picture of themselves, hey, I'm at the event, they do get a lot of easy likes, because you know, people see them people know them, they give them a like, I do that too. But then in the end, what's the point? So when when you go to an event, rather write your top three takeaways, or what is the topic that interested you most? So always think about, why are you posting and are you offering some sort of value to people out there?
Jonathan Fischer 26:56
I like that a lot. Well, wow, we've blown through the time and we have our four elements, we have some marching orders for the company, what are some final remarks, you might make Monika wrap up in terms of a better implementation of social selling strategies?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 27:10
Yes. So one thing that is like the one of the most important things obviously, like proactively address your target audience through messages, so connect with people I am not a believer in in mail. So the messages that you can send to people who you are not connected with, I, I know that the way that LinkedIn makes money, I don't think it just works very well, because they look like marketing or sales material in people's inboxes. I believe in connecting with people and then writing intentional messages to the prospects to your client, to your target audience. And really leveraging the way that LinkedIn lets you get into people's inboxes into anybody inbox that you are connected with directly.Be smart about it.
Jonathan Fischer 27:58
Monica, you're equal to your building, I set you up as an expert on the top of the show. And I think we're all very clear that you are and how could our audience further glean more from your expertise in this vein,
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 28:10
so people can find me on LinkedIn? Monica Ruzicka, I don't know if you're sharing that in the show notes, but you might. And then our business website address is www dot ready for social all in one.com. And then you can find about more about the services that my company provides. So we are a boutique social selling company that provides everything from soup to nuts, basically when it comes to social selling, including for programs for large SMBs and enterprise so that's kind of our sweet spot.
Jonathan Fischer 28:49
Okay, well, excellent. Ready for social.com? Yes, well in a kind reminder to our audience. As always, today's show is sponsored by overpass.com Are you looking to hire a team of ready to hire remote sales professionals fast? There are 1000s of highly qualified sales reps waiting for you on the overpass talent marketplace as the world's leading solution for hiring pre vetted talent. Overpass makes building an unstoppable Sales Team quick and easy. Filter by industry and experience, interview, hire and begin your onboarding process in as little as two days. create your free account today@overpass.com.
Well, Monica, let's do some q&a. We have some great questions coming in from our live audience and we appreciate that as always, in no particular order. You mentioned earlier from one of our audience members that you should know what type of asset your audience prefers, whether that be written or video or what have you. What are some ways you could discover that is sort of a logical question. How do you find out what your audience is liking? Do you just kind of cross test are there other other methodologies you could employ?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 29:54
Yes, so I mean, you can I'm so that is certainly information on, on social I mean, excuse me, there's certainly information on Google where you can research, you know, what kind of age groups what kind of audiences prefer what kind of content be a video or written text. So that's one thing. But if you want to be more specific, yes, I would go by what I see more engagement coming in with my content. So you know, is it the written form? Is it very short post? Is it long posts? What does my audience and what is my audience engaged with?
Jonathan Fischer 30:31
Yeah, okay. It's as simple as that. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Go ahead. No, no, I said, it's as simple as that, or as complicated as that. Because you have to go and do the work and see actually, what what resonates with your audience? Yeah, I'm with you. As simple as that. Or as complicated as that. Yeah.
So. So combination, I guess would be an answer. Right? Good, good, solid research industry wide, but then you have some cross testing would make sense. And make sure you have those plugins, the technology working in your favor, to see where the engagement lies. And of course, you get the numbers on LinkedIn in terms of engagement as well. Yeah, well, what about technology? And that's another question came in from the audience. AI is out there. There's these auto responders, where as soon as I connect with someone, blink, here comes the next little message already. Are you a fan of those? What are your thoughts on leveraging technology tactically in social selling?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 31:20
Yes, so I do believe in leveraging technology to a degree. So for instance, we provide technology for sales teams, to make social selling more effective, and more efficient, where, and there's many of these technologies out there. So this is not about what I provide. But there's content platforms out there that if you have, you know, more than let's say, five or 10 people in your company that are participating in the social selling efforts, it makes sense to that some free tools, there are some paid tools, depending on what kind of service you're looking at. But having a content distribution tool where people can easily access the content. And that gives you some sort of aggregated reporting about what you know what your audience engages with, because otherwise, how do you get that out of LinkedIn from like five or 10 people, it's like how to compile. So that's, that's one thing that I personally believe. And I personally do not believe in these automated messaging tools. I think a lot of people are sick of them, you can see a lot of LinkedIn conversations of people that I just don't do it, honestly. I mean, let's say if you have a really huge market, and you don't care if you're like getting individual people upset in your audience, then okay, you know, there might be a ROI for using those. I'm not saying that, but just don't if you ask me personally, and from my professional experience, then artificial intelligence tools, I do believe in that that's something that we are playing around with that too, as well. There are tools that create content, social content, blog posts are something based on what resonates with the audience what works best. And I mean, why not, if you can write your your content differently with the help of AI, to make it resonate better with your audience, I don't feel there's nothing wrong with that. So for me, it's like, you need to have a good and for my standards, honest balance of technology, where it helps you. But it should never get in the way of the human factor. Because in the end, especially on social, it is people communicating with people. And I think once social media gets to automated, then, you know, LinkedIn is gonna or whatever platform, it's gonna lose its appeal, and people are gonna move on to somewhere else.
Jonathan Fischer 33:49
Yeah, love it. Here's a question from Joshua, he's asking, is it important to have your internal team engaged with each other's posts? So we didn't really talk much about that we had our one individual producer. What about her teammates? Should they and vice versa?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 34:04
Yes. So it is good if you have your teammates, so you're connected with your teammates. That's like, I think that's important connect with your colleagues and your teammates. And yes, it helps, especially in the early phases of a post because it's important for posts on LinkedIn to get early engagement after it's been shared. So yes, it's helpful to ask your colleagues or to just pay attention to your colleagues content. But obviously you do not want just to have your colleagues and internal people constantly commenting on your post. So don't overdo it. But yes, where you can help each other or leaving a comment on something but you know, it should be it should be somewhat meaningful.
Jonathan Fischer 34:47
Yeah, sense. Yeah.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 34:51
Better. So if I get if I can say one thing, so it's really important that you know what's really good if you have certain people in your external network outside of your company that you can develop this relationship. And oftentimes, it's an unspoken relationship, but you, you go to people's content and you see, you know, your client or your business partner, you get their content in your feed, and you like it, or you make a comment on it. And then naturally, they will return the favor to you. And that's also how the LinkedIn algorithm works. It favors this reciprocity. So yes, the internal team is great. But try to establish these kinds of relationships with people outside of your own company.
Jonathan Fischer 35:31
Yeah, that makes sense. Andrew asks, What do you recommend as a credible and respectful way to approach a new connection? I mean, we all like to go and add to our network, I'll see people that I just want to connect to. Do you have recommendations, as far as I'm sure, I'm assuming, gonna say should always good news, the added note feature? Don't just randomly try to ask for a connection, right? But what would you recommend around that?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 35:52
Yes, so my personal approach as that you always add a note that you take a few minutes and look at that person's profile and some of the content. And I guarantee you I mean, when when the person are not posting content, of course, you don't have any content to look at, but they will say something about them in their profile, you may know something about that company, you may know why you want to connect with them. Just like follow your own gut, basically, and writing in a few simple sentences, why you want to connect with them? Do you want to talk about them about business? Do you just want to add them to your network, because you're learning about a new subject area. And that's a simple, but I always take a minute or two, to look at people's profiles and get an inspiration, maybe make a compliment about something that they have chat.
I know there's other people, if you look at the one to many approach, that just go through lists of contacts, and just hit connect, connect, connect, connect, that's also something that works, right if you have a good profile. That's why not that that's a valid strategy. If you don't care about which specific people connect you back, but you say you just want to connect with directors of marketing in the US or in a certain region. Yeah, that's a valid strategy to connect with as many as possible, see who accepts your connection request and then do a personalized follow up. There's no harm in that. But I personally prefer the more personalized approach, investing a few minutes per person in into outreach.
Jonathan Fischer 37:32
Sure, that click click click approach might be good. When you're starting up a sounds like to maybe your profile is new, or you're in a new position, a new company or you have a new startup company. That could be maybe one tactic to employ sounds like what what are the possible risks I get? And it's something that I think a lot of us are not clear on? Like, we think about some of the other social media platforms, they have their whole monitors. And if you do something wrong, you'll get slapped on the wrist with a ruler. What are the rules at LinkedIn? If if I'm trying to overdo it too much?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 38:02
Yeah, so I think I'm not sure what the current post what the current limit per day per post is. I mean, sorry, the posting limit per day, we've had a client who, a couple of years ago broke that limit, and he got suspended on LinkedIn, I think it was 25 posts per day that he posted on LinkedIn. And then he got like, suspended by the platform.
Oh, my goodness, he got back and everything, but it's a process.
Typically, it doesn't make sense on LinkedIn, just from how the algorithm algorithm works to post more than once a day. Okay, so that's kind of a rule on LinkedIn, if you post twice or three times a day, nothing happens. But people might just start to ignore you. Because who can consume that much content that has some logos on LinkedIn, it's don't connect to many people in one goal. And it's a little bit ambiguous. I am not exactly sure of the exact figures. But it's like, you can find that somewhere on LinkedIn. If it's like 50 people per week or something. Don't go and go crazy and connect 100 new people in a day, because LinkedIn, even if you are just doing it manually, I have had VPs and large organizations who were completely legit and intentional and connecting with their clients that just moved on to LinkedIn and went through their Rolodex and just connected everybody. They got like suspended off LinkedIn, they had to provide the ID and explanations what they were doing. So don't do too much research on how what's the current like limit that LinkedIn allows you to connect? And don't use like crazy plugins. There's a lot of plugins that that you can use in LinkedIn through you know as productivity tools or something, and some are tolerated by LinkedIn, and some are not so if you plan on installing some plug in with your link
And then profile, do a quick research what people say, if that's one that gets you blocked or not. And then the obvious ones I mean, in terms of you know how you deal with people, of course, people lied and stuff, if people report you in a way that you know, you do something obviously wrong. That's, of course, like everywhere. Yeah, that's like a no, don't insult their mom, stuff like that. Exactly, exactly. And then, you know, the political and these kind of topics, that really depends, there are some networks, I mean, not network, I mean, platforms within LinkedIn, depending on your network, some, some networks tolerate more of, you know, you're sharing your opinion about certain topics, and others less stress. As an example, I had a client in Germany, a woman who posted something about how she manages her life as a mom with her professional life, completely legit topic on LinkedIn. But she got a lot of comments from her network that wasn't as
I don't know, I don't want to judge it as more than maybe yet in that, you know, approach. She got a lot of comments from even her client base that said, Why do you post this on LinkedIn? It doesn't make sense here. And you need to also feel besides what is absolutely wrong on the platform, also feel what your network accepts and what it doesn't and push the limits gently.
Jonathan Fischer 41:24
It makes so much sense. Well, the final question, you mentioned about one post per day being the limit and whatever the limits per LinkedIn are on connections. But what are the recommended what what recommended cadence would you prefer for posting content? Is once a day a good cadence? Or should be spaced it out a little? What are your thoughts?
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 41:44
Yeah, so LinkedIn actually recommends with regards to the algorithm that you post daily. But the question for me is always does it make sense. If your network is extremely active, and you have something of value to share every day, then please go ahead. It might be your thoughts of the day about your industry or something that your network might find valuable. I think for most people, like maybe a twice a week or weekly thing is more beneficial. Because it's easier to manage. Plus, it's easier to digest by your network. So a certain regularity is helpful. If it's daily or once a week. That's up to you to decide. LinkedIn recommends once per day, but say, it also needs to make sense for the individual person. And then, you know, some people do not want to post once a week, they're like, Okay, I don't want to be forced into this. So if that's not your thing, then by all means, just post when you feel inspired, the regularity helps. But you know, if you try to force yourself into something that is just not your personal style, and then you don't do it at all. Then rather throw the rules out of the window and find something that works for you. And that's better than not doing anything.
Jonathan Fischer 43:15
Well, one thing I knew it's gonna work is listening to this episode, maybe on repeat mode, because you've really given us a chock full of value time together today, Monica. So once again, thank you for being a fantastic guest on the show today. He also welcome I have really enjoyed it. All right, and for our sponsor, Overpass, and everybody else on our team. That's going to wrap it everybody go make it a great, great weekend and a profitable rest of the year. Take care.
Monika Ruzicka Kenter 43:39
Thank you so much. Bye, everyone. Bye, Jonathan. Bye
