Newsletter 9: Take-aways from the LinkedIn Influencer Summit

Did you missed the online LinkedIn Influencer Summit on Wednesday January 11th? Joe Apfelbaum and Estie Rand presented an impressive line up with 10 LinkedIn Influencers who shared their knowledge for free in short snackable workshops of 15 minutes. More than 1,500 tickets sold, more than 900 people attended live. It was cool, super cool, it was sensational with participants from all over the world. Especially for you, I asked the speakers to share their best take-aways with me and summarize them below. Take advantage of it, click on their names to go directly to their profiles and connect, follow or engage. And don't forget to thank them for the pure gold they offer you.

Chaz Horn

Chaz was our first speaker and kicked off with an amazing keynote on SuMonday problems!

• If you don't solve your prospective clients SuMonday problems, your competition will.
• It's essential to know your clients' top two to three recurring problems and how you solve them based on outcomes important to them, not you.
• When you position yourself on LinkedIn as someone who knows and solves your prospective clients' SuMonday problem, the rest is easy!

See this post to watch an awesome video on how to solve your clients problems and become top of minde (it's less than 2 minutes to watch)

Richard Moore

Next we had the wonderful Richard Moore who with his perfect British accent shared his strategies for success on LinkedIn. His 3 take-aways are:

Reframe: Make content that challenges or "reframes" how your audience views the space you operate in. So, share your commentary and opinions and stop reposting other people's quotes and memes! This positions you as the expert in your niche and helps them view you as the thought leader.

CTA: Make sure to use low-pressure Calls to Action to signpost what you want your audience to do next. It's a big mistake to come on strong by telling them to "jump on a call" with you. This may be what you want but it fails because this suggestion carries too much social anxiety and scares people off. Instead, give them a small step up such as a cheat sheet or some info to ease them in gently!

Pivot: Look for the cues - when they share a compliment of your expertise or a that there is a struggle with something in particular related to what you do, you've just "earned the right" to pivot this conversation to a call! Now, you can ask or suggest you move to a call to "explore" what working together would look like. If there isn't one of these two cues, you're not ready yet. Any pivot that is early is felt as pressure, so don't!

Estie Rand

Next Estie Rand went and shared what is going on with the algorithm on LinkedIn (in a very energetic way). Together with Joe Apfelbaum she was the organizer of this summit and she did a tremendous job!

• She said to focus on high value to your audience and shared 7 great hacks. The one that resonated with me was the first hour is really important and how you need to engage in the comments during the first hour. 
• She also mentioned that you should focus on where your audience is when posting and think about them and when they use LinkedIn. 
• Keep testing each day to see what actually works because the algorithm will keep changing all the time. 

And reach out to her for her Pick and Pull strategy!

Richard van der Blom

Then it was my turn to speak about Leveraging the Power of Sales Navigator!

Sales Navigator does not turn you or your sales team in magicians! Get the basics right, have a customer centric LinkedIn profile that addresses the challenges of your clients, share valuable insights and dare to expand your network with potential clients.

I am convinced that Sales Navigator (especially integrated with your CRM system) is a msut have tool for all B2B sales teams that want to be successful in modern lead generation.

If you want to know more about the added value of Sales Navigator for you or your company, just drop me a message.

Frank B. Mengert

Next we had Frank Mengert who talked about how he began his journey and become a master at LinkedIn Video. Here are his 3 most important take aways.

1. Pick the medium that you are comfortable with: short form posts, long form posts, video, images, documents or articles.
2. Be consistent with your posting and make sure you can sustain that schedule ongoing.
3. Reply to comments on your post and always engage in the comments of other’s posts. It’s where the magic happens.

Focus 90% of your effort on engaging in the comments and only 10% of your effort at putting out content. People connect with you in the conversation.

Judi Fox

Next we had Judi Fox come and share some great tips about how to think of LinkedIn as a leader. 

Perception is reality, so don't show that you are always on LinkedIn, be that busy leader and let people breathe. You have the stage right now, so please pause and let people engage with you.

She says that everyone can be a Leader. She says that LinkedIn is for Leaders! Be the Leader you wish to see in the world. 

Joe Apfelbaum

Next in line, Joe Apfelbaum, the engine behind this LinkedIn Influencer Summit. Together with Estie Rand he did an awesome job in hosting this spectacular online event.

He inspired us with his High Energy Secrets and talked about how to leverage the DM to create conversations. Joe showed us his Greeting, Feeding and Meeting system, told us the types of people we need to be sending direct messages to and how to make sure we get actual conversations from those direct messaging campaigns. 

Remember to use your dashboards to track your conversations and the people that you interact with so that you are not flying off the seat of your pants but instead have a solid strategy that produces results. 

Joe reminded us to use voice notes in the DM, create group messages and connect authentically with the people we connect with. 

David Alto

Next we had the wonderful David Alto sharing his job searching strategies with those looking to find jobs on LinkedIn. David shared some pretty interesting tips and hacks that were very helpful. He said that 90% of companies use Bots with ATS software and your resume will be automatically rejected by those bots if you do not understand how to submit the resume in a way that works. He sent me these take aways.

• Regardless of your industry you will truly learn and network when you go outside of the people that only do what you do. 
• Engage with influencers with your target audience to learn and share and gain some best practices 
• Introduce yourself (not your company) with a Soft Pitch when messaging a new LinkedIn connection. No product or services, it's all about your knowledge and expertise. 

Here is the biggest tip! Build relationships with people that currently work for the companies you want to work for and find out if they pay those employees a reward for referring great candidates. They will be motivated to get you into the company. Some companies pay their employees a few thousand dollars to help find qualified candidates. 

Jeff Goldberg

Next we had Jeff Goldberg, who provides extensive sales coaching for his clients. Here are a few things he hopes the audience will take away:

1. Selling on LinkedIn is like dating. Don’t try to close the deal on the first date. Develop a relationship before bringing up selling to your connection. Remember that people do business with those they trust and like.
2. Share your brilliance generously. Offer great value in your posts and expect nothing in return. Givers get!
3. Be consistent…post regularly but vary what you post, a combination of text, memes, video, polls, etc. and when people engage with your posts (leave comments or share) respond to them. Thank them (even if they have an opposing point of view), answer questions, have conversations.
4. Remember that it takes time to build a following, and it’s less about how many follow you and more about how engaged your followers are. I’d rather have 5,000 highly engaged followers than 100,000 who don’t engage.

Chantel Soumis

Next we had Chantel who has grown an amazing follower base in a short time. She talked to us about how to get over the 100k follower mark on LinkedIn. 

The first is consistency, next was a strong personal brand, engaging with community and so much more. She also said that collaboration with other influencers is key to cross pollination of followers and really growing that following. 

"Be real, be yourself and you will connect with a lot of people." She shared how she was vulnerable while not oversharing. Give value that is inspiring, motivating or tips that people can use to level up. 

She gave a massive tip to get on podcasts using directories like www.podcastguests.com (use code MOJO to get 30% off) She also mentioned GuestIO.com and Matchmaker.FM

Jonathan Palmar

Because of a power outage in Florida, Jonathan just made it in time to impress us all with his keynote. Jonathan works as a LinkedIn Video Advisor and Personal Branding specialist.

If you want to know which immense value he provides, just click on the image below and see his latest post on LinkedIn Secrets.

Wrap up

Missed the LinkedIn Influencer Summit and want to have all the tips and tricks, including a Q&A? Here you can buy the recordings of all the keynotes and start rocking LinkedIn like an influencer

I myself really enjoyed the privilege of being one of the 10 Speakers in this Summit. All the panelist were very enthusiastic to provide so much value and insights to the LinkedIn community. Again, reach out to these Speakers, connect with them, book them for your company, I am 100% sure you will not regret it a single moment.

Want to know more?

Does your organization want to leverage the power and success of Social Selling? Please feel free to contact me via: ? +31 6 55 11 72 82 or ? [email protected]

Also we can have a *free* 15 minutes call to Boost LinkedIn within your company. Just schedule it yourself via the link below

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About the author

Richard van der Blom (1977) is the founder of Just Connecting and currently working as Strategical Social Selling Trainer and Consultant for various international clients. He developed the B.E.S.T. Social Selling method, currently used by many of his clients, as well as various Social Selling strategies within LinkedIn. As a member of an independent European LinkedIn Think Tank, he has extended knowledge and insights of different aspects of LinkedIn, such as Sales Navigator, Account Based Selling/Marketing, the algorithm, product development and tooling.

As an inspiring Keynote speaker, he spoke at Annual Sales Kick-off meetings in over 17 countries . Provided LinkedIn training and consultancy since 2009 – as on of the first Dutch entrepreneurs – and trained over 45.000 (!) professionals at more than 650 companies.