Why All Roads Lead to Your LinkedIn Profile

The next edition of?The Mango Effect is out! ?? If you're new, this is where we talk about all things related to growing our businesses and personal brands "the mango way" on LinkedIn -- from personal branding to growing our networks to attracting more ideal clients to optimizing our profiles... and everything in between!

Each week, I share ONE strategy that you can use to optimize your personal brand or grow your business on LinkedIn. Whether you're a subject matter expert at the top of your field, a business leader looking to get on more boards, or a gritty entrepreneur trying to craft an ideal sales & marketing machine -- you'll find one action item you can take away and implement each and every week to get you one step closer to your goal.

No topic is off-limits. We discuss the good, the bad, and the fugly. I do take topic recommendations, too!

My mission is to help more professionals learn how to use LinkedIn, so we can all "up our game" on the platform, build thought leadership, and grow as leaders in our careers and businesses. And, I like to keep things fun, practical, and inspiring.

Now, onto this week's topic!

??Why All Roads Lead to Your LinkedIn Profile??

Whether you're a digital entrepreneur, seasoned consultant, or corporate executive, all roads lead to your LinkedIn profile. ??

When you CHOOSE to go “all in” on LinkedIn, that’s when the magic happens.

You can stop spending hours a day trying to dig up LinkedIn posts to comment on hoping you'll get new clients or customers.

Instead, you can start building trust and relationships by showing up consistently over weeks and months.

Using LinkedIn to grow your business or supercharge your organization's marketing strategy means that you are here with a very clear objective in mind.

Everything you do on LinkedIn should lead you closer to doing more good business with more good people.

It’s not spamming. It’s not about clever automation.

It IS about using a proven system and processes that ACTUALLY work on LinkedIn right now.

In this episode of Mondays with Mindi, we have a frank discussion about how LinkedIn compares to other social channels, what you need to know BEFORE you go "all in" with LinkedIn, and how to set yourself up for ongoing success.

Your Audience Pays Attention on LinkedIn

A number of business leaders, corporate professionals AND experts interested in strengthening their personal brand whom I talk to, are confused with where to invest their time and resources because they’re told they need to “be everywhere” and “just cross-post to LinkedIn through an automation tool” or “just hire a VA to do your social.”

The problem is, trying to be on just ONE platform effectively can be tricky enough.

Learning how algorithms work, figuring out if you need to have paid ads, trying to build an audience, knowing what sparks engagement, the language to use, the hashtags that work.

It’s different on every platform.

So, how do you choose which ONE platform you need to do well?

Where does your target audience mingle online WHILE ALSO being in the mindset to do business??

Think about that for a moment.

We go to Instagram and TikTok to be entertained or inspired. We go to Facebook to keep up with friends, family, and our favorite groups. We go to YouTube when we have a question.

NONE of these places are primarily geared towards BUSINESS.

B2C audiences are different and have more platforms to choose from, but if you’re in the B2B space, you’ve got ONE. It’s called LinkedIn.

Love it. Hate it. Not sure what you think about it.

If you’re avoiding LinkedIn because you’re unsure, you’re overwhelmed, or you’ve tried it before and it didn’t work as you hoped, you’re not alone.

But, you do need to realize it’s a SKILL you CAN learn - that could take your business from “doing okay” to a sales pipeline bursting with people who WANT what you have to sell and actually LIKE you as a person. Go figure.

For example, a marketing agency consultant came to me with the problem of having an AWESOME service where he could help his clients easily productize just about any service they were offering.?

Problem - nobody knew him on LinkedIn, he had a boring ol’ LinkedIn profile, and he was not convinced that LinkedIn would actually work for him because he heard it had gotten so spammy.

We dialed in his target audience (discovering that they were VERY active on LinkedIn), fixed up that profile, did a test of sending out some tailored LinkedIn messages to see if his audience wanted to chat.

BOOM! His message immediately resonated, and he had more discovery calls with PERFECT prospects than he could handle in a month. We about killed him with 30+ calls in less than 30 days!

3+ years later, he still didn’t need to go outside LinkedIn to fill his sales pipeline. He had as many prospects as he could handle - with no end in sight to the prospect pool.

So what really happened here?

Belief happened first. Testing happened next. Results spoke for themselves.

LinkedIn is All You Need to Start Growing

Subject matter experts and specialists in their field believe that to build their personal brand, they need to “figure out their personal brand” before taking any action online. They spend months working on their messaging, their brand colors, their website layout.

How many people do YOU know who say they’ll launch, write that book, start that business… as soon as they have a website! Or a podcast! Or a YouTube channel!

Thing is, there’s ONE overlooked place that is absolutely FREE for you to start building your personal brand. AND walks you step-by-step through all of the nitty-gritty details that should be included in your personal brand.

It’s LinkedIn.

That channel staring you right in the face.

You know, the one you don’t log into unless you’re looking for a job? Yeah, that one.

And if you mention LinkedIn to the aforementioned people, they will totally discount it as “one of the many channels they’ll get to in their social media constellation” after they dial in their website.

At this point, I just want to shout from the rooftops: YOU DON’T NEED A WEBSITE. YOU JUST NEED A LINKEDIN PROFILE.

I have worked personally with dozens of clients and students who didn’t have a website or online portfolio, but they did not let that stop them from starting their business, landing their next opportunity, or getting their dream job.

When you know how to “work” your LinkedIn profile, your personal brand can START on LinkedIn - and for many professionals, that’s the ONLY channel they really need.

And if you’re on the corporate end of things and struggling to figure out your multi-channel social media marketing strategy for your organization, I’ll share with you a little secret…

• Twitter is dead
• Instagram is for B2C brands
• TikTok is a waste of time unless your demographic is Gen Z
• Facebook (or should we call it Meta?) is a mess right now

If you are in the B2B space, your home base should be LinkedIn. Its staying power is second to none in the social media arena, and there’s a 95% chance that your buyers are reachable on LinkedIn if you know a few simple tricks to optimize your page and activate your employees.

Why LinkedIn is Not Another Social Channel

What if instead of looking at LinkedIn as “one of the socials,” you decided to value your LinkedIn profile as the home base for your brand?

If you’re a subject matter expert, consultant or business owner, LinkedIn has ALL the sections you need to build out your brand and get clear on your experience, your story, to showcase your portfolio of work, to link people elsewhere, to share content that engages, to attract the right people when they’re in the mindset to do business.

It’s totally counterintuitive to what we think.

We like to make things more complicated and think that a website designer or personal branding consultant who has the most gorgeous website and logo is the answer.

We think we also must be doing TikTok, like all our business besties, who are raving about how many “leads” they are getting from posting fluffy content 4x per day.?

Or what about Instagram reels with trending audio? I literally just watched a 6-minute tutorial on how to do a transition reel clapping to the beat with a Mariah Carey song. Heck, no! Unfortunately, I cannot get those six minutes back.

I’m not saying those things are meaningless, but I am saying that you can make a TON of progress with your business, your brand, your presence online if you get laser-focused on your LinkedIn presence FIRST before worrying about other channels.

If you’ve been looking for a way to simplify your efforts and maximize your return on investment, let’s talk about why your LinkedIn presence can kickstart your personal brand and your LinkedIn Page.

You don’t have to wait.

You can start… right now!

And, if you decide NOT to prioritize your LinkedIn profile, guess what? You’re going to waste weeks, months, or years trying to “get it right” when a “messy first draft” using the LinkedIn profile structure can save you ALL that time and be sure that you can actually be found online.

Go ahead, waste time on a pretty brand. Watch how the people starting out at the same time as you skyrocket ahead with their business. How the heck are they doing it? They don’t even have a logo or brand colors?

Well, I’ll tell you a secret. They know the power of their LinkedIn profile, and they’re getting results. They don’t NEED anything else right now.

And if you’re a credible B2B organization listening to a new hire on the social media team who’s attempting to make the case to allocate a good percentage of your marketing budget for TikTok or Instagram, I’d think twice.?

A number of organizations I’ve worked with have found that those dollars were better spent on developing an organic LinkedIn Page strategy, training employees on how to use LinkedIn, and maybe a small portion of spend on LinkedIn ads to reach their busy target audience.

But do what you want. If you would rather test all the other channels, that’s your choice. Just be aware that LinkedIn has been (and still is) the best B2B game in town.

How to Maximize Your ROI on LinkedIn

When you CHOOSE to go “all in” on LinkedIn, that’s when the magic happens.

It’s not about spending hours a day trying to scrounge up LinkedIn posts to comment on, rather it’s about providing value and showing up consistently over weeks and months.

Using LinkedIn for business means that you are here with a very clear objective in mind.?

Think about it like this - it’s EXACTLY how we go about building a business. We create offers and services, build a clientele or customer base, and overdeliver on expectations - we do this over and over again - until we get a process that works, with margins we love.

Everything you do on LinkedIn should lead you closer to doing more good business with more good people.

It’s not spamming. It’s not about clever automation.

It IS about using a proven system and processes that ACTUALLY work on LinkedIn right now.

Now I want to go back to the story I told earlier, what I didn’t tell you about that consultant, he spent an average of fewer than 3 hours per week on LinkedIn. Why? Because we NAILED his processes and systems.

Now, how do you figure out if LinkedIn is the platform for YOU?

If you’re not already convinced, I want to share with you three questions that can help you determine if LinkedIn is the right fit for going all-in with your organization’s LinkedIn strategy, growing your business or side hustle, and building your personal brand.

#1 - Who is your target audience???

As I mentioned before, if they are professionals, leaders, CEOs, and executives - LinkedIn is most likely the ONE channel where they actually have a profile, are somewhat active, and can be reached.

Trying to target a CEO on Facebook with an ad? Good luck.

Reaching out to that same CEO with a personalized InMail and a great connection invitation? Your chances of getting through are MUCH higher, even if they do have an executive assistant checking their LinkedIn messages for them.?

That’s the thing, they DO have a gatekeeper paying attention on LinkedIn, but do you think they’d let their VA into their personal Facebook account?

That’s a rhetorical question.?

#2 - How relationship-based is your sales process?

We all have heard about the “know, like, and trust” factor in getting people to purchase what we’re offering.

Thing is, how much of YOU will the person need to make a decision on whether or not to buy from you?

If you tend to push people towards a “free discovery call” or default to “let’s hop on for a quick chat” - LinkedIn is a great fit because when you have genuine conversations in LinkedIn DMs, calendar links are quite often exchanged.

If you are accustomed to pushing people towards a landing page or video to learn more about you, and it’s a lower-priced product that they can easily purchase without thinking twice, then LinkedIn might not be the best fit for THESE customers.?

BUT, if you’re like many other entrepreneurs and business owners I know, you likely have a premium offering or upsell where your high-ticket clients want to work with you directly. THESE clients are the types of people you’d want to reach out to directly on LinkedIn.

If you’re a salesperson trying to get through to decision-makers, you probably already are using LinkedIn, but I’ve come across very few who do it well. It’s a tricky balance and tough when you have any type of “sales-related” word in your title. You’ve got to get clever.

Think about your sales process and how you sell. How much of YOU is part of that sale? The more of YOU that’s necessary, the more valuable LinkedIn as a lead generation source will be.

#3 - Are you ready to INVEST in LinkedIn??

To be clear, I’m NOT trying to sell you on ANY of my services here.?

This is a question that you need to answer for yourself because getting into LinkedIn with one foot in and one foot out will get you absolutely nowhere.

You need to decide if it’s the right channel for you, and then realize it’s going to take some education, some time to learn the ropes, some processes, and some resources (like a good VA) to help you manage some of the moving parts.

I tend to recommend to my students and clients that they do a simple 90-day experiment where they go “all in” on LinkedIn for a short period of time before making a longer term decision.

Thing is - once you get it all set up and going (which usually takes only a few weeks), you can make an educated decision on how much/how little to invest in LinkedIn moving forward.

Worst case, you decide LinkedIn is not for you. Then, you’ve spent 90 days getting your LinkedIn profile looking amazing, creating content you can use in other places, and learning exactly how to do cold outreach in a way that doesn’t feel spammy.?

Best case, you figure out a LinkedIn system that actually leads to business revenue, a “social” channel that you can point to next year and say “LinkedIn opportunities made me X dollars for Y investment.” Good return?

Commit. That’s my word of advice.

Make that choice and commit.

How are you feeling about maximizing your LinkedIn ROI right now? It’s not that hard when you go back to the basics of good networking, strategic content, and building better business relationships.

-----

If you’re looking for that extra edge to get started on the right path with your LinkedIn profile because that’s where all of this begins, check out my free LinkedIn profile training guide that will help you dial in the most important sections of your profile, so you can start building a solid LinkedIn presence

If you’re still experimenting with how to approach your LinkedIn presence, that’s okay. Post a question below or shoot me a direct message to discuss??!