Enthusiastically Self-Employed: business tips, marketing tips, and LinkedIn tips for coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, solopreneurs & small business owners

LinkedIn Trifecta Talks: Insider Insights and Expert Advice Ep 132

• Brenda Meller • Season 1 • Episode 132

Share episode

Welcome to our LinkedIn Trifecta Talks! 

Speakers:

  • Brenda Meller, LinkedIn Coach
  • Michelle B. Griffin, Personal Brand PR Strategist
  • Michelle J. Raymond, B2B LinkedIn Specialist

Key Points:

  • LinkedIn Games: All three speakers found the new LinkedIn games to be confusing and a bad user experience. They questioned their value and suggested LinkedIn focus on improving existing features.The speakers discussed the games' complexity and how they distracted from more productive LinkedIn activities.

  • Mobile Video Feed: Brenda, a beta tester, has limited experience with the feature and finds the content irrelevant. Michelle B. Griffin dislikes the short attention span nature of video feeds. Michelle J. Raymond expects the feature to be monetized heavily with ads. They all agree it feels like a copycat feature from other platforms. 

    Brenda mentioned that the feed is difficult to find on the mobile app and lacks a clear purpose. Michelle B. Griffin expressed concerns about its impact on attention span and productivity. Michelle J. Raymond predicted that LinkedIn would use the feature to increase ad revenue.

  • Premium Pages: Brenda has not seen the option for her pages, while Michelle J. Raymond finds the features underwhelming. They believe LinkedIn should have done better user research and offered features page admins would actually pay for. Brenda suggests LinkedIn involve LinkedIn coaches and trainers in discussions about platform development.

    Michelle J. Raymond shared her disappointment with the limited features offered by Premium Pages, which she felt were not worth the cost. She suggested that LinkedIn should have consulted with page admins to understand their needs.

  • Books / Other Projects: Michelle B. Griffin is writing a book titled "Standout Women: How to Become an Authority in Your Space". Michelle J. Raymond is focusing on refining her existing work, including her co-authored book "Business Gold: The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business". Brenda Meller has launched a new membership program called Marketing with Meller, as well as continuing to launch her course "The Recipe for Social Selling on LinkedIn".

    Michelle B. Griffin discussed her experience writing her book and the challenges she faced. Michelle J. Raymond shared her plans to focus on refining her existing work. Brenda Meller talked about the benefits of her new membership program.

  • Future Plans: Michelle J. Raymond is speaking at a conference in Denmark about LinkedIn company pages. Brenda Meller highlighted the value of her LinkedIn course and webinars for those looking to improve their social selling skills.

Areas of Focus:

  • LinkedIn Best Practices: The speakers provided insights on effective LinkedIn strategies, including content creation, networking, and lead generatio

LinkedIn "Power Hours" (Single Session, x4, x12)
Each package includes: 

  • LinkedIn consulting / coaching, personalized to your needs and focusing on your questions.
  • Review of LinkedIn profile / company page to provide guidance / advice / recommendations

https://www.mellermarketing.com/powerhour 

**************************************
My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Visit mellermarketing.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
(click MORE to invite me to connect and mention you listened to my podcast)

Speaker 1:

Welcome back. This show is actually a LinkedIn trifecta talks from earlier this year. It's from May of 2024, where I was talking with Michelle J Raymond and Michelle B Griffin and sucha delightful conversation. The three of us all specialize in LinkedIn in different areas and we used to come together about once a month to talk about what's happening on the platform, things that are occurring in our own businesses, and, honestly, it was just like co-workers coming together and talking about things and we recorded it on LinkedIn and it actually broadcasted on LinkedIn Live and YouTube as well, and I've decided it's such a great video to pull it out of the vault and to share with you here on the podcast. I hope you do enjoy the show and I would highly encourage you to follow both Michelle B Griffin and Michelle J Raymond on LinkedIn. If you do decide to invite them to connect, mention that you heard them on my LinkedIn trifecta talks on the podcast. Enjoy and away.

Speaker 1:

We go for our monthly LinkedIn trifecta talks and delighted to be here with all of you. I'm delighted to be with you. My name is Brenda Miller. I'm the host of the trifecta talks for today, but we're actually all three going to take a turn and you'll be able to hear from all of us today, and we're delighted to have all of you here joining us, whether you're watching us live or in playback and what I think we'll do to start things off is we'll introduce ourselves and then talk about what we're working on for our businesses, and then we'll get into some LinkedIn discussion. For today, so I'm going to start with Michelle B Griffin. The microphone is yours. Tell us what's going on with you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

It's good to be here everybody. I'm Michelle B Griffin, coming live from Pensacola, florida, and I am a personal brand PR strategist, founder of Standout Women, where I help women experts become authorities in their space by helping them get visible, build their personal brands and their thought leadership so they can really move their message, mission and businesses forward. So I'm really excited to chat today about all things LinkedIn with my trifecta buddies.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Thank you, michelle, and we'll go to Michelle J Raymond next. Go ahead.

Speaker 3:

Look, I always struggle following that fabulous little introduction Michelle has. I promise one day I'm going to nail these intros. So I'm Michelle J Raymond, based down here in Sydney. So it's only eight o'clock in the morning here. I actually need to confess I still have my pajama pants on. That's the kind of morning that I'm having. So I love to help B2B businesses get active on LinkedIn. So when you have that question or thought in mind that says I know I should be on LinkedIn, but and you don't know what to do, that's what I take care of. So whether it's your company page, LinkedIn profiles or training, I'm the person that loves to help you figure out what way is the best way forward. So that's me done, handing it over to you, Brenda Miller, and, as I said pre-show, so excited that I can see some sunshine rather than snow in your background.

Speaker 1:

It's such beautiful weather here in Metro Detroit and you got to take full advantage of it.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to go back inside at all tonight because it's so nice outside.

Speaker 1:

I'm sitting out in back in the patio a little bit of a different scenery, and sometimes when you do these shows you get so bored looking at the same background of yourself all the time, so it's nice to change up the scenery.

Speaker 1:

My name is Brenda Meller and I am a LinkedIn coach, as it says below here, specializing in helping job seekers, business professionals and solopreneurs to get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie, and I love this call that we do because it allows me as a solopreneur and I'm sure you ladies can both relate with us as a solopreneur, you don't really get to hang up with coworkers all the time, so this is our time to get to hang with our people and chat a little bit about what's going on LinkedIn, and then we'll also do some audience Q&A here today as well, and I'm going to pull us up into the trifecta view so you can see all three of us at once here. Do we want to start with anything that's happening on the platform that we want to talk about? Any changes on LinkedIn or things that you're noticing, either any of you. If anyone has anything they want to talk about, go ahead and jump in. It's not games. Yeah right, you tried them for about 30 seconds.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't even. No, they weren't for me. Let's just put it, I'm going to. That's all I'm really going to say. They weren't really a topic of discussion, Michelle and I, in our podcast recording for the LinkedIn branding show, we acknowledged them and said onto the next topic, cause they're not really worth our effort, but I'd love to hear your take Michelle J Raymond.

Speaker 1:

have you played the games yet? Have you tried them out? I?

Speaker 3:

tried them. First of all, I found them really difficult to understand at first, like how they worked, and I've had some people reach out to me and say tried to follow the instructions, don't get it. So I think that's an issue. I personally also was like what is going on here? I always think that LinkedIn doesn't do anything without doing their research first. There must be a reason behind this. I just think the execution is pretty lame. I'm just going to put it out there. I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me, but at the same time I get the idea of having people come back that street building having different ways to keep them on the platform. So if I'm LinkedIn, I see why I'm doing it.

Speaker 3:

But the general consensus I've seen in pretty much everybody is this is the feature no one asked for. Why don't you fix what we are asking for? And then we'll worry about playing games, because I look at it from my customer's point of view oh hey, get your team active on LinkedIn. Tell them to come spend more time. They can play games because LinkedIn says it's cool and you should be doing it with your colleagues. Tell me how that translates anywhere. Now, brenda, I know you enjoy playing games in general. I think you mentioned on one of my posts, but tell me, how did this translate for someone that's probably more open or receptive to these kinds of things than I am? Do you go, oh, this could be cool. And then what happened after?

Speaker 1:

that.

Speaker 3:

No.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I want to say LinkedIn. Can you just be more LinkedIn? Can you not try to be something?

Speaker 2:

else.

Speaker 1:

And I get. I think what they're trying to do is increase time on site, and it almost reminds me of when New York Times has media like stories and news and then there's a New York Times crossword puzzle.

Speaker 2:

But we don't post that.

Speaker 1:

We're New York Times crossword puzzle, but we don't post that. We're working on the crossword puzzle on LinkedIn and the problem one of the first problems I noticed is when you play a game, it doesn't say a timestamp, but it says that you played the game.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it says that you're one of the people, and I think that could be concerning, especially for those of us who are only using LinkedIn during working hours. And why are you playing games on LinkedIn when you should be prospecting and building your brand and doing all those other things? And I guess, similar to both of you, whenever LinkedIn launches a new feature, I always try it. I get an initial reaction, though, from some of the things I'm like, oh, this is great, this is great that they're doing. And a lot of times it's like why are they doing it? I get it, they're sandbox. We do want to bite the hand that feeds us, of course, yeah, but for games, I when I play them, similar to both of you, it was a little confusing and then I felt, this kind of feels like what's the wordle?

Speaker 1:

one and then the other one kind of felt like saduko or however it's pronounced, and a third one kind of felt like something else, and then they all felt like really bad knockoffs of some of the knockoffs and maybe the powers that be at LinkedIn are watching and listening at the ear to the ground. And what are people saying about? I don't think games will last on the platform. My prediction. But we'll see.

Speaker 3:

Can I just share. I saw the funniest post. So it was someone from the LinkedIn product team and the post said I was skeptical at first when they came to me about creating games, but I've played and had a try and it's a bit of fun and their colleagues had had a bit of fun and so the post was quite popular. For this person who didn't post very regularly typical of a LinkedIn employee the only people that were high-fiving it were all product team members at.

Speaker 3:

LinkedIn and then I saw a follow-up post about a week later. That says wow, proving games work. This was my highest performing post that I've had since, whatever, and I was like the product team. All who are yours have a vested interest in this and I don't want to diss that. Someone went to work and made this happen, and it's not. That's not what I'm having a go at here, but it just feels. This year the disconnect between LinkedIn and the community feels really wide right now.

Speaker 3:

And it definitely feels like a money type, monetizing type year for LinkedIn, which, again, I don't begrudge them. They're a business that's. Their job is to make money and I hope that they make lots so that we have better features. But there's a definite shift in how it feels this year, things like this desperation. Please come and play on our platform. Please come and be here. We'll try and be like everything else, when it's always been so cool Cause it wasn't like everything else it didn't try.

Speaker 3:

And so now it's like the younger sibling, that's please let me play with the big kids, and I'm just going to copy you and no one wants to be copied that's my take on.

Speaker 2:

And then, once the video feed gets mainstream I know it's still in beta and, brenda, you've had an opportunity to check it that'll be interesting because that's a copycat move too, and that's that's going to be a whole another dissection. But yeah, can we just get the better things? It makes collaborative articles seem really awesome.

Speaker 1:

The games you know I'm going to put on this right now, let's talk about mobile video and anyone else who's watching this. And I will be perfectly honest with you, like when this first came out and again, this is another thing that I was like I don't think it's going to work. I don't think it's going to work and I will just say audience of one. This is just me and I'm not a heavy TikTok user, so maybe they're trying to pull into the younger generation here, but I've had it on my phone and you can see the little video icon how many times I've clicked on there since it's launched.

Speaker 1:

I can probably count on both of my hands how many times it's clicked on it, and it's only been when somebody's asked me about the feature. And I am a beta tester and we're not supposed to talk about it. I'm going to talk about whatever I get. I didn't sign any official agreement, but I've uploaded or I rather I've submitted a couple of videos to the email address. After you post a video, like a vertical video, you submit it to an email and I don't know what happens after that. I don't get an email back, I don't hear anything back, I don't get comments on my video, I don't know if anything's happening, so I don't know. Is it working, is it not? And every time I go into the video feed I see a bunch of overly produced, very polished looking videos it looks like from major advertisers and sponsors, and I get it. Linkedin you need to make money, I totally get it. But for me, I'm not going into the video feed because when LinkedIn be more LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Right, not TikTok or Instagram or words with friends.

Speaker 2:

You forget it's there is because it's so far removed, Brenda, because it's in totally different place. Do you forget it's even there?

Speaker 1:

They've moved so many things around in the navigation on the mobile app. Honestly, I look for the things that I need, the things that I use. I don't look for the new feature. It's like everyone's smile, it's like there. But honestly, I go into it and it's the same thing. I see all the time Promotional video message from LinkedIn, major sponsor. Promotional video. People I don't know, people I don't follow. I'm like I don't need to be wasting my time. We still only have 24 hours a day. We don't get more time because LinkedIn rolled out a new feature. So yeah and out a new feature.

Speaker 2:

So Instagram I got rid of TikTok a couple years ago because it was addictive. When I got, I'm reading a book called how to break up with your phone. It's amazing and I had to get the hard copy. But Instagram, when I do pick it up, I notice I'll sport or between stuff I just screw the video feed, I just keep scrolling and it's not good for anything. So that can be bad for us. On LinkedIn, from a working standpoint, from a brain and tension span, I don't see anything good there. So yeah, we'll see. Maybe you won't even make it to the mainstream, maybe beta will die.

Speaker 3:

And no, no, I can tell you it's going to happen. And the reason I like to follow little different bits and pieces of what goes out on LinkedIn and when LinkedIn had their B2B Believe roadshow that went around the world, I managed to get a copy of the slides from one of the LinkedIn people, sent it across and everything on that around LinkedIn ads is around the power of short form video ads, ie three to eight seconds and getting attention. So if we follow the money current theme of today's show, I think, is that it's obvious on other short form platforms like whether it's shorts or reels or TikTok, it's obvious that there's a lot of money to be made from ads in that short space, video space. And that was the very obvious motivator. And there has been some research about how do you be memorable?

Speaker 3:

How do you be tell a story there was a bit more around it, but I just looked at that and went, oh, this feed is a whole new feed for more ads. If you think about it, it's a different format and so there's. Yeah, a lot of what they were pushing was how powerful video is for creating memories and this and that and the other. And, yeah, I, can you place more money for ads?

Speaker 2:

And again.

Speaker 3:

I don't begrudge them making money.

Speaker 3:

I actually think we've had a pretty good run for almost 21 years without having this kind of thing go on, so I'm okay from that perspective. But yeah, when I saw that, I was like, but Brenda, I had a curious comment that I saw on somebody else's post that a person's video was in that feed, but they don't have access to that. So it wasn't like they were uploading their own video into that feed. They were like, yeah, it'd be great if I could actually get on there and see it. But it was that person's content, without them putting it up into that feed. So I thought I don't know, I don't know how true or how it works or something I'm not testing, like Brenda is. But I thought, wow, imagine if it's picking up stuff that you are not even choosing to put out there.

Speaker 3:

And obviously the person if people engage with it couldn't respond because they don't have access and then that created this. Okay, so what do I do? A thousand people like my video and comment and I can't have access. Like I thought that was a little strange. But beta test is a beta test. I'll iron some kinks out, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

So another recent newer feature on LinkedIn is premium pages, and I have only seen it on. I manage or I'm an admin on multiple pages so I can look at all these other pages and I don't even have access to it on my page. Yet the one client whose page I did see it on, she was involved on the board of a nonprofit and they had recently started a nonprofit, but it was a full page. It wasn't a showcase page, it was just a full company page on LinkedIn and they only have 150 followers and they were given the option of upgrading to premium and I'm like wow how much was it for her?

Speaker 2:

How much did? Were they going to charge her for premium? I would have to look back. I want to say 60, 70, something like that.

Speaker 3:

I'm shocked it's that cheap actually.

Speaker 2:

We pay $80 for personal, I would think they would have doubled it for companies, right? I don't know yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm pretty sure it's around a hundred if you pay an annual subscription. So a hundred us. So here it makes it about $170 a month. $160 a month at Aussie. Now I don't know. I feel like I'm just going to end up on the bag the LinkedIn train this morning.

Speaker 1:

But I think it's important because people look to us for advice and we don't. We're not getting the full picture from LinkedIn. Linkedin doesn't even really tell us.

Speaker 1:

They don't even know what shows up there and we can kick the tires and say what we like and what we don't like. There's opportunity if you give us premium, but give us more. Don't just charge us for things that you're giving to us already. But I don't know. I don't know, honestly. If there's value, I would honestly try it out for a month, but I don't even have access to it. And why not? There's no free trial. I would give Michelle J Raymond and Brenda Meller a free six-month subscription to Pages Premium, because then we can kick the tires and talk about it and sell it, help to sell it to people, but we don't have it. So all we can do is just rely on this conversation.

Speaker 3:

So here's how it went for me, brenda. Oh, premium pages like premiums coming for pages, excited love.

Speaker 3:

The idea arrived, saw what the features were, it just went straight up, straight down and what they've done is tried to copy the premium features on a profile and shove them over and make them premium features on a page and the only difference is, if you've got multiple page admins, they all have access to whatever these things are. And then I saw what the actual features were and then I was so disappointed because there are things I would pay for. I'm ready to give them my money for things that are valuable. But this was just same as what they did with the featured section on pages, which is the poor second cousin to what we've got on our profiles. You can only share posts, you can't even put links, you can't do newsletters.

Speaker 3:

You can't do any of the other stuff, and so now it's like you're just not doing your customer research. You haven't asked your audience. What would you pay for? Now?

Speaker 3:

I know lots of page admins that would pay for the ability to remove followers analytics to be able to block people, to be able to invite page followers to page events like their things, shut up and take my money, as we have ads here that say that and I would be lining up and encouraging people to do that, but this I was like wow, like just underwhelmed.

Speaker 2:

Last week we did a real yay or nay episode on the LinkedIn branding show. They got a lot of traction because Michelle went through and then we just, and then we talked about how some of this can be really bad for your brand. That was another part of the episode, because some of them really can make a dent if you don't watch it. So we have to think of that. But yeah, I don't know, let's just throw more dirt. But let's talk about if I was in marketing, I'd have consumer product focus groups, trainer focus groups.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

They'd be my, they'd be gold to me.

Speaker 1:

Hire, be at LinkedIn, and the first thing I would do is assemble a coalition of LinkedIn trainers and coaches from around the world and I would empower them and I would do a monthly round table and I would talk about what's happening on the platform.

Speaker 2:

That'd make their job so easy and they'd be like we would help them. But that's okay.

Speaker 1:

We'll work on the sidelines and we'll support the network and we'll just be here.

Speaker 3:

Let's use one of the features because I want to share with people why I was so down on it, but one of the features I wish I could show on my phone.

Speaker 2:

But so you can't see it.

Speaker 3:

If you go to Lanier's company page, which is linkability, she's got access to the feature right. So I don't know, brenda, if you can work your magic in the background while I talk. But ultimately, one of the cool things which I did like the idea of was that you could have customer testimonials show up in your company page. In theory, I think all of us would agree that having that social proof on your company page from your customers is a big tick right. So in theory, I'm cheering that on. The reality of it is they can only put 80 characters, that's it.

Speaker 2:

How does someone do one testimonial for 80 characters? Why wouldn't you match profiles?

Speaker 3:

recommendation size. Oh, michelle, like this is where I'm at and this is why I was like it's so close yet so far away. There's just a space between link and ability, brenda, but ultimately, yeah, so that was one of the things. So then there's like a button that used to be the button where we could choose where we wanted to send people. That buttons disappeared unless you pay and now you have to click on three dots and go looking for things. That's it, and so from that perspective, so if you have a look right now, the learn more button that you can see there that's disappeared. For people that don't pay premium, you have to click on the three dots.

Speaker 3:

So again, you've made the user experience worse than what we already had. That you can see that you've got the 80 character recommendation sitting at the top 80 characters, really. Product pages already have great testimonials. Why they didn't just copy that across. So there was find out who's following the page, but that's one of the other features. But here's the thing. Oh, every time you go to a new page, now, linkedin will prompt you and say do you want page admins to know that you're following the page?

Speaker 2:

You have a choice. That's annoying.

Speaker 3:

You only get a choice once and it says yes or no and you can't exit out of it. So you can't go. You know what? I don't even know what this is. I'm just going to X out of it and go and it actually forces you to choose. So if I'm someone out there going, do I want LinkedIn page admins to know who I am and that I'm following, or look to?

Speaker 1:

the page that seems a little creepy Like. Why would anyone?

Speaker 3:

everyone's going to say, yeah, I would say you're paying for two features which are useless and the rest are three features, kind of thing. So I don't know. Again, I was so excited. And then it was, you know, yeah, but the lump of gold for Christmas instead.

Speaker 2:

Well, is there any good news that we can bring?

Speaker 1:

up. We're like Debbie Downer today. Let me, griffin, tell us about your book project. You're working on writing a book. How is it going for you?

Speaker 2:

I've been getting up every morning at 4am to write at 530 writing my book with the 30 day business book writing challenge. So yeah, I'm almost halfway through it, our challenge. Shout out to G. She's in the audience and in our cohort she's writing a mini book. So yeah, you are. You both inspire me because Michelle's two books. Brenda wrote her book in 35 days. Brenda member those days when you wrote your book.

Speaker 1:

I do Like getting up either getting up early or staying up late to do 30 minutes to an hour of writing every day On your boppy Cause.

Speaker 2:

I remember hearing some say that yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's nice memories with that, but are you making?

Speaker 2:

good progress. Yes, and I, yeah and I. It's been tremendous cause it forces you and then you get just like when I was doing my daily LinkedIn posts back a couple of years ago. It just makes a habit. So it's what I needed for deep work. So we have a wonderful first cohort. We're going to do it again in the fall, but it's been tremendous so I'm really excited. So I can't wait to share the book. It's coming out in the fall, on October 15th actually. Yeah, so my first solo book baby. So, Michelle, you've got two co-author books, You've got one. So Michelle, you need to do a solo and Brenda is do a second.

Speaker 3:

I'll give you the handy tip I'm not getting up at 4am to write a book. It's not going to happen. So I'd run a cohort, like Lanair and I did. We caught up on Friday afternoons with a cocktail in hand and that's how we wrote Business Gold. So I'm going to go down that path. If anyone wants the non 4am version rather cocktails and write books, yeah, maybe that's the cohort I'll run. But I promised that I wouldn't write a book this year. I'm calling my year the year of refinement, so taking what?

Speaker 3:

I've already done and refining it, rather than creating new stuff, which is super excited for you, michelle, to have yours out, and G as well, and everyone else that's in your cohort, because it is hard. Your brain goes into all kinds of funny places when you want something to be so helpful.

Speaker 2:

I remember this is what keeps me going. I need to make a plaque. When we were writing LinkedIn branding book together two years ago, michelle would say that's why I got the book. Baby analogy you would say, michelle, no one remembers the labor pains, they just remember the cute little baby. And that's the one mantra I have to tell myself. You're like on my shoulder saying that. But yeah, for the the question, what's the book challenge? Because I announced, oh, and I now also because I need a public accountability, one-on-one.

Speaker 2:

I have a private podcast called own your lane the book and author journey. I just I just announced it last week on that, on your lane bookcom, you can join it. It's a private podcast which are super cool. I have three episodes. They're five, six, seven minutes and I'm just telling my whole journey. But we're doing the 30 day challenge.

Speaker 2:

For those who are asking we're writing this cohort, we're all writing our book draft, doesn't edit, just get it out and then it's done in 30 days. And then you, of course, go editing all the other stuff. It's not done, it's just a big chunk. Right. There you are. Thank you for that. So you can subscribe to the VIP list and then you'll get access and email will give you a link If you've never had a private podcast or been in one. They're really cool with hello audio and yeah. So that's what I'm doing. I'm actually working more with my women clients that are writing books and it's really translating to more of my personal writing, pr work and some group stuff I'm going to be developing, and just you got to listen to your customers, your clients and what they need. So it's been tremendous. So that's what I'm working on and that's what my summer looks like. Tell me what you two are up to.

Speaker 1:

Michelle, do you want to go next?

Speaker 3:

I'm excited because in about three weeks I head off to Denmark to talk about LinkedIn company pages, being able to hit the international stage again on the other side of the world. Not looking forward to 24 hours of flying this time. That's a punish that I am not looking forward to, but, at the same time, completely grateful because these are the opportunities that from I guess what Michelle talks about owning your lane, just being known for that one thing can start to open up. So I'm always, I think I'm going through a bit of a grateful phase for the opportunities that LinkedIn's bringing to me, especially now I've rebranded. I feel more confident. I'm clear this is bringing these kinds of opportunities my ways.

Speaker 3:

But I think for me it's definitely a year of refining and trying to go. What's working, what's not? I know, brenda, you're amazing at doing this all the time and going you know what. If it's not working, we can change it, we could throw it away, maybe come up with a new version or not, as frequent these kinds of things. I think that's important to do as creators and business owners, that we can't just always do everything that we want to, as much as we probably got heads full of ideas.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, for me it's getting that presentation ready and just coming from a perspective of having empathy for the people out there in businesses probably marketing managers trying to do everything, be masters of every platform, understand how AI works, write blogs, grow newsletters, grow followers Like I just can't even imagine what it's like and just going into it with that from a bit of a different perspective so that people will take a breath as page admins and know what to focus on and then move on. So I'm going to go and catch up with the team at Dream Data as well and do a LinkedIn live, live from Copenhagen. That's going to be cool. But I'm thinking this time I'm taking some Tim Tams, but I think I'm going to take some Vegemite as well.

Speaker 3:

And I'm going to make them do a bit of a Vegemite taste tester on camera.

Speaker 2:

Do a Vegemite sandwich.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, vegemite sandwiches are my favorite. They would kill you, michelle. They're full of gluten, but it's definitely an acquired taste. So, yeah, I can't wait to share that That'd be fun. Yeah, yeah. So that's that. So I'm excited about that. But, brenda, what are you up to besides enjoying that warmer weather?

Speaker 1:

I guess a couple of things that are coming up for me. I'm doing another launch of my LinkedIn course. It's called the recipe for social selling on LinkedIn. It's for coaches, consultants and solopreneurs. And I have some webinars that'll be coming up in early June talking about getting leads on LinkedIn as a precursor to the course. So excited for that. I always love doing the live webinars, they're a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

And then also I've started in the background. I've done a founding membership launch for a new program. It's a membership program calling it Marketing with Mellor, and so a little play on my company name, mellor Marketing, marketing with Mellor. Because I come from a corporate marketing background and a lot of people will book a LinkedIn coaching call with me and they'll say it's not a LinkedIn question. But can we talk about email or can we talk about website or can we talk about other things? And I'm like, yeah, I can't, you can't take the marketer out of this now it's like part of what I do. So I decided to put together a membership program and just casting the waters on this whole membership thing.

Speaker 1:

But I really love it because it's basically I'm building the library as I go in terms of like content and resources, and I just did a class, a masterclass today, members only, and it was on LinkedIn newsletters.

Speaker 1:

So, what I'm doing is like two events a month One is a masterclass and one is a members only VIP office hours. So it's Ask Me Anything, share Resources, brainstorm those are a lot of fun. And then one master class and right now the founding members are helping to suggest topics. So someone asked about LinkedIn letters, newsletters a while back and I put together the topic and I'm literally like I built it a slide at a time on Canva as I'm thinking, and it's really fun to work on Like, what do I want to teach people about LinkedIn newsletters? What should they know about them? And it's getting me some inspiration for those things.

Speaker 1:

So I'm probably going to be doing another door opening for that program, either sometime in the late summer or early fall. That's exciting. The other thing I'm going to do hey, come here, stand up for a second, come here. Come here, I'm going to launch an Instagram. I did a email the other day and I introduced myself and I talk and she's really dark so it's hard to see her. This is Pepper, but I said I'm this close to creating an Instagram account for my dog. I'm becoming one of those people.

Speaker 3:

Oh do it.

Speaker 1:

Dixie has one. Dixie has one.

Speaker 2:

See, I need to get that you need to follow it.

Speaker 3:

We're not the world's greatest Instagram moms of said dog Lil's in charge of that account, not me. But yeah, dixie Belle Caboodle, she's out there living her best life.

Speaker 2:

A lot of shots from doggy daycare and how much they love her.

Speaker 1:

A lot of the reels from that. Wait Dixie Belle Caboodle. Yeah, I'll send it to you afterwards, but she's just there being cute, we'll private chat with it and I'll pull it up on screen because I'll follow it and other people might want to check it out.

Speaker 2:

Don't be shy. Michelle will be able to find it.

Speaker 3:

Michelle will find it faster than I will. Oh, I'll send it.

Speaker 1:

And I was like kidding about it. I'm like I'm thinking about starting an Instagram. Tell me not to do this.

Speaker 3:

And I me back going, no, you need to do it. I'm like, all right, you need to do it. Famous, it's only fair. But and I think the thing that it brings up.

Speaker 2:

Is it's really powerful to?

Speaker 3:

have some kind of character in your marketing because it stands out. People relate to it, so why we have our favorite cartoon characters when we're little. We follow along on the journey.

Speaker 2:

I texted it to you.

Speaker 3:

But certainly something.

Speaker 2:

It's another extension of marketing, social media marketing.

Speaker 1:

She's just I just want to go on the screen so people that are watching can see the link. Yeah, dixie dot bell dash caboodle yep yeah okay, and what's caboodle? Is that the breed or is that just like?

Speaker 3:

so that's she's a mix between a cavalier and a poodle, which makes her just look like a teddy bear, basically, and she acts like a teddy bear. She is the world's best cuddler and she's just living her best life being cuddled.

Speaker 2:

You maybe don't have her to show her? Is she not near you, by the way? I know?

Speaker 3:

She would come here. But like between the cat behind the green screen, just like a little bit here, and the dog, that's a bit of carnage I'm not sure even I can cope with this morning. But yeah, it's fun. But I've read a lot of research around the power of this that really makes a difference for people being able to recall your brand ultimately. So there's a lady who does a really amazing website for recipes here in Australia and she's in the US as well Nagi her name is and she does one called Recipe Tin Eats and her dog is a big part of that brand. So for every recipe there's the story of how to make it, the actual recipe, some alternatives, and there's always the dozer photo which does is her dog, who's gorgeous and that's part of the brand now. So you follow the dog's journey along with the recipes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's you can get pepper on brand like bandana yeah, I gotta marketing or marketing with meller, whatever the name is key, cause I got to get some fun punchy name to go along with her Insta accounts.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, michelle's in charge of naming. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, all right I want to open this up to our audience and we have a couple of people coming in and comments. If there's any questions from our audience that you have for us today and we'll give a little bit of time to see if any of those questions come in. If you do have a question, don't be shy, Go ahead and drop it into comments right now and I'm vamping just a little bit because we all know of that delay that happens between the time that we say drop a comment below and the time that they hear it, and then there's also that time where you have to think about writing in your questions.

Speaker 2:

So I'll ask you a question real quick on your marketing with Mellor. What platform are you hosting your community on Brenda?

Speaker 1:

Great questions. The resources and the playbacks are being hosted on Kajabi, which is the website that I'm using for my website and my courses. Kajabi has a community app as well, and I'm dabbling in that. I'm not using it a whole lot, nor are my members right now dabbling in that. I'm not using it a whole lot, nor are my members right now, and is that me not leading it or them not engaging? I'm not sure. Or is it just one more app and one more thing, who knows?

Speaker 1:

But then the sessions, I'm delivering them on Zoom and then the playback goes inside the course. So there is a way inside Kajabi that you can deliver it through Kajabi's video platform, but I think there's some type of an issue where you can't download it or export or and I always like to have control of my resources I will upload it to Kajabi, but I'm going to have a backup copy just in case Kajabi ever goes out of business and I'm like you want to have everything as a backup. But I've been following. There's a community called membership geeks. I've been following that, I've been hearing about that, and then I did work with a woman and I'm blanking on her name right now. I'll give her a shout out later, but I did a VIP coaching call as I started launching my membership community and it was under a thousand dollars for the session and the time working with her, as opposed to joining one of the really expensive programs like Stu, mclaren or the others that are out there.

Speaker 1:

So I decided to go more of the one-on-one solopreneur route to coach me Very nice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm just cheering you on. It's perfect for you so.

Speaker 1:

I think it's fun and it's to me it's not a big high pressure thing, like when you launch a course. It takes a lot of time to do the ramp up and then the continual marketing. The marketing with Miller for me is just more. I'm going to open this up, see what happens with it, and I think we've got over 20 members right now in the program and I did a soft launch really only to my VIP list. The next one I do, I'll raise the prices a little bit and then it will also go out to the public, but I will have a door open and close so that we're we're growing it strategically and I'm learning as I go in the program to how much I'm trying not to pack too much content. It's one I'm sure you both hear this too it's like drinking from a fire hose yeah, I've been there with communities.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's hard to not want to teach people everything that you know yeah, I know, but they can only take so much, so it gives you leverage to just string it along and not all of them. So, oh, we got a question.

Speaker 1:

So this is from vanadurga. Thank you so much for watching tonight and this was something. I posted a video recently about this. This is one of the things. I think, like everybody knows about their LinkedIn QR code, right, and no people don't know about this.

Speaker 2:

So if you're watching and I changed it a bunch.

Speaker 1:

I did so. If you're watching on your laptop right now, do this. Pull open your LinkedIn app and go to the search bar right now. And every LinkedIn member does have a QR code. Vanadurga, even you have a QR code. So you do need to go to your LinkedIn app on your phone and click inside the search bar and as soon as you do, you'll see a little QR code in the upper right corner of that search bar, and when you click on that, then it will show the custom URL code for your profile. So we all have it. I don't know if either of you, michelle, have noticed sometimes if you're in another place on LinkedIn and you click on the search bar, it's not there. But you got to go back to the homepage.

Speaker 2:

I've had that happen to me. It's so tiny so if you're looking in the search bar.

Speaker 3:

It just looks like a black blob.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing that kind of suggests you should click on it. Yeah, it's like dirt on the screen, I know.

Speaker 3:

And it's such a cool feature that I think people would use more of.

Speaker 2:

If they had it more prevalent yeah.

Speaker 3:

I reckon probably seven out of 10 people don't know it exists, yeah, even when I went to social media marketing world and I was saying to people connect with me and they at the time I had the follow button because creator mode was still on and they didn't know how to connect if the follow button was there, I was like, hey, come and show. It says so many things that it's not immediately obvious on LinkedIn how we can do this kind of stuff. So, yeah, the QR code up in that search bar we put them in our book too, michelle, didn't we?

Speaker 2:

yeah? Yeah, and that stays forever, as long as your URL stays. Yeah, your headline and every picture can change, but that qr code stays the same, so we get another question from john lacy hi, john.

Speaker 1:

John always does a really good job of inviting me to his events and they're always like friday night yes friday nights I'm on the couch and I'm like, yeah, I'll listen in, and other friday nights I'm like I just I'm done. I'm done, john, and I'm sorry it's no offense to you. I like I'm sure your events are great, but I'm like I'm done for the week.

Speaker 3:

The problem is, it's our Saturday morning.

Speaker 1:

It's the importance of you know the and you. Sometimes you do get me. I'm on the couch and I'll jump on, but John's asking the question has anyone else seen less participation on LinkedIn lately, or just me? I have some thoughts, but Michelle and Michelle, either of you have any thoughts?

Speaker 2:

You mean by people just taking breaks and just not as many of your normal people, is that you can't talk to us? But yeah, I don't know. I'm taking semi break this month, posting way less while I write the book, so I'm probably not a good judge of that. So what are you seeing? You too.

Speaker 3:

I find the US, as it warms up and you all start to disappear outside a little bit more because you have a definite it's been snowing, now the sun's here oh my God, we can get outside, we're not going to whereas while you're locked up inside, maybe you're a bit more active. I personally, I think there's always changes to the algorithm, how far things go, and they're trying to find those right balances and I think they've dialed it back a little bit at the moment and I don't know. I just think we go through our own swings and roundabouts. Like for me, at the moment, I'm literally pretty much going through a process of reposting all of my content I've already created, because I'm trying to do more things than just create content. For me, it's just been a you know what that I have got so much cool stuff I only ever seem to use once, and so I'm my whole company page this month is going to be nothing but repost content and seeing what that does Good.

Speaker 2:

You never did that before. You were adamant about you. Don't have time for that.

Speaker 3:

Oh look, and if you think about it, it's just a matter of you know what, like, I've got to stay focused on things that matter and when you run a business and it's easy to get distracted. But I feel like there is an element of people are a bit tired of stuff. I think the high from post-COVID is maybe worn off.

Speaker 3:

Maybe people are back in the office a little bit more. I know here in Australia they're probably going into the office at least three times a week now, whereas last year it was pretty much optional. This year it's more and more that it's going from three to five, so I think we'll see a bit of that. I think there's a bit of confusion about what is LinkedIn about as well, but I still find people are just overwhelmed. In general, they're paralyzed by so much advice on how to use LinkedIn that they are literally going oh my God, do I do three hashtags? This hashtag, what time? How many times? That's how they feel frantic.

Speaker 2:

And then so they go. I'm not doing anything. I know the platform is like that, except LinkedIn.

Speaker 1:

It seems so heavy, right, so I feel like LinkedIn, is walking into Times Square, if you've ever been in New York City.

Speaker 3:

That's a good analogy.

Speaker 1:

There's always activity going on. So when you ask the question, is there less participation? I'm like no, the home feed is always going, it's always. But I think, John, my advice to you is just make sure that you're being intentional about who you're interacting with.

Speaker 1:

And you can unfollow people as well, as you can go to their profile and click on their bell and get all of their notifications. That will help to increase the frequency with which you're seeing more relevant people. And then, when you do go on the platform, make sure are you contributing to this less participation? Are you participating less? Are you scrolling through without liking and commenting, or are you actually taking an active role in participating more with others? Yeah, I think with every platform and every network and every user, we go through almost like the bell curve. You get really excited about it, but I think on LinkedIn it's not just a bell curve like you get really excited about it, but I think on LinkedIn it's not just a bell curve that you end. I think we go through bell curves consistently.

Speaker 1:

So as you figure out more relevant ways of using LinkedIn and getting more value and connecting with your target audience and seeing the results of that firsthand, that reinforces the positive behavior which makes you want to do more. But if you're banging your head against LinkedIn all the time, you're not getting results, then I think your participation will dwindle over time. Or you'll start to look at the people with the snake oil pads, and there's one. I heard about a swarm recently. Have you heard of this? They're calling them swarms now too.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 1:

There's different terms that people are using and it's all to say you can get more engagement, we can all come together and we can support you.

Speaker 2:

I see it overnight with some people like they had three likes and now they have 300. I'm like what? How did that happen?

Speaker 3:

That's a sign, that's a sign.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you don't want to post, yeah, don't get her started on that, I think for me, I'm trying to at least comment some. I may not post as much, but I'm trying to, so that's always a good backup plan If you're not really ready to post or you want to take a break from posting. Commenting is always such a lovely way to still stay on someone's radar, so use that frequently if you need to. So that's a great question, John. Thank you for that.

Speaker 1:

Good. John, thank you for watching us and for everyone else too. Thank you so much for watching us. I think we're going to start to wind down here, and I always like to use this analogy of today was like your free sample. You got to have a little free sample of three of us. Give you some advice about LinkedIn, some different perspectives, and I want to remind everyone you're watching whether you're watching this on LinkedIn or on YouTube, or maybe you're listening to this in the podcast, because I've been converting these episodes to my podcast.

Speaker 1:

If you've enjoyed learning from us and listening to us today, I want to encourage you, first and foremost, to reach out to us on LinkedIn and invite us to connect, but also keep in mind that we do offer services related to the strategies that we've been discussing with you here tonight. So if you're interested in buying Michelle's book, ask her when her pre-sale is open. If you're interested in booking Michelle Raymond at a conference, ask her. How can I hear more about that? If you're interested in working with me one-on-one or team training, reach out to us, and we are all here to be of service for you. But in closing, I'm going to give one free resource, and that is. I offer free LinkedIn checklist on my website. So if you go to Mellormarketingcom right on the homepage, you can get yourself a free LinkedIn checklist. I'm going to give that as my closing gift for all of you. First we'll go to Michelle Raymond and then to Michelle Griffin. Any closing comments and anything you'd like to offer out to our audience.

Speaker 3:

I'll go my free gift and I'll give it to you and then you can help me, because that sounds fair, doesn't it? But my YouTube channel is so close to being monetized I need about 60 hours of people watching it. But I promise you, if you go across to at Michelle J Raymond on YouTube, I've got stacks of videos for free. That will help people really get more out of LinkedIn, whether it's a company page, your profile, the podcast is over there as well, if you enjoy podcasts. But yeah, I'm just in that last little push to monetize and if anyone's ever tried to do that, youtube is a slog. It's been hard work and it's not something I focus on predominantly. But if you're someone that enjoys learning by videos, I would love it if you come across and subscribe and spend 10 minutes watch a video. Help me get closer to that goal, because then I can, in my mind, tick it off and say it's done, which I can't wait to do. So thank you for the opportunity to share about it.

Speaker 1:

Michelle, what's-.

Speaker 3:

Michelle Raymond, can I give?

Speaker 1:

you a bonus tip real quick, and this is something I learned from Kevin D Turner. Whenever you share your YouTube channel or a YouTube video, add this code.

Speaker 3:

Do you know this trick? I have got that, yes, and then you automatically subscribe. Yes, it's pretty amazing when you think about the fact that you can have all of these other platforms and how they all work together. But I think the thing that I learned over time is focus. Focus is my goal word, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

I need that too. That's awesome. Congrats, michelle. Yeah, my pre-sale. I've just figured it's probably going to be three months before it launches, around July 15th. You can go to ownyourlanebookcom sign up for my VIP. I'm going to. As soon as I get this draft finished, the marketing promotion phase is going to kick up. I'm going to have some stuff, but I just last week launched own your lane, a private podcast about the book and author journey where I'm sharing everything behind the scenes. So if you've ever wanted to write a book to support your business, I am sharing everything. We're talking about some of the stuff in the cohort. Go to own your lane bookcom my free gift for you.

Speaker 2:

Join my community that I created three plus years ago, now rebranded to the PYOT. Put yourself out there community. If you're someone on the sidelines, maybe listening and you want to get your way into LinkedIn, come join us. Michelle and Brenda members, the link is in my profile and my featured section and you can come join us, and there's about 1700 plus of us where I give LinkedIn tips. It's peer run, peer supported, we have a great time and where you'll learn a little bit behind the scenes on LinkedIn and not feel so jammed up. It's your baby steps out there. So that's it for today. Thank you so much, brenda, for hosting. It's always fun to be with you, too, for LinkedIn trifecta talks.

Speaker 1:

All right. Thank you, ladies, both for joining as well. And trifecta talks All right. Well, thank you, ladies, both for joining as well, and thank everyone in our audience for watching. If you enjoyed this, we would love it, as soon as the video is done playing, if you could click to share and share this video out, or grab a quick picture and maybe post it on your Insta stories and tell people that you just got done watching us here, or you may post it on LinkedIn, even whatever you'd like to do with. That said, I wish everyone a wonderful evening. Thank you all so much for watching.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Brenda Meller

Host