- Robb Conlon
Show Notes Episode 32 - LinkedIn Crash-course -Ft. Chelsea Berg
Updated: Dec 23, 2020

Episode 32: LinkedIn Crash Course.
Robb dives into the biggest listener requested topic of 2020, "How the heck do I make LinkedIn start to work for ME?!" With his guest, who is coming back to the LinkedIn Scene, they dive into the strategies that ANYONE can do to start building their network on LinkedIn... and the best part is, they're all FREE. Ft. Chelsea Berg - @ChelseaWandering
Connect with Chelsea
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseawandering/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-berg-575b885a/
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:00 LinkedIn isn't a static platform
8:00 The 50 Cent Strategy
10:00 The heck is an Algorithm?
10:40 Creating your own post for your passion
14:00 Making your own posts
18:00 Marketing Yourself
21:20 Creating a LinkedIn post that draws attention
27:40 LinkedIn growth from Zero
31:05 Vulnerability Sample
34:20 What Story are you telling?
36:30 When to be Vulnerable?
39:20 Bucket Showers
42:30 Seed Comments
44:30 Starting Invites for your page
49:00 Look for People, not Opportunities
53:00 Closing
Transcript (Auto generated):
today on recruiting hell
one of the most requested topics on this
show from our listeners
is how does linkedin work linkedin is an
incredibly powerful tool
for your networking and for your job
search and thankfully
doesn't take nearly as much time as some
of the other content platforms out there
today we're going to dive into basic
linkedin strategies
that anyone can do with only a small
amount of time and effort involved
using these strategies from some of the
biggest names in social media
we're going to look at what you can do
when you're starting your network from
next to zero
[Music]
hello and welcome to recruiting how i'm
your host Robb Conlon
today's episode is something that has
been requested rather frequently over
the past month or two
and in the interest of making sure that
we always listen to listener feedback
i thought it was appropriate to not only
do this episode as quickly as was
feasible but also to sort of pair it
with the time of year
as it has a lot in common with what you
do on linkedin
giving and the holiday season now past
episodes
have told us about networking for the
give being generous with your time
and helping you realize that value needs
to be given
to your potential network connections
before you actually make any asks of
them
the same goes for linkedin and whether
you have zero connections
400 connections or 4 000 connections you
can use the strategies in this episode
to help grow your reach and connect with
some pretty amazing new people
the concept ties directly into marketing
yourself
that is discussed in episodes 12 and 26
of this series
crafting your linkedin brand not only
takes time and effort
but you also need to have some direction
in where you're headed
so if you need additional ideas on how
to market yourself go listen to those
back catalog
episodes today's format is a slight
change from the normal
in that we have a guest but the guest is
here as the learner and to drive the
conversation
chelsea berg is a recent connection of
mine that was made through another guest
on this show
we were introduced and with her need for
a position it made a lot of sense to
connect with her myself
and give her some of the resources here
at recruiting health including being on
the show
chelsea welcome to the program it's
great to have you here
hello hello now in this episode we're
going to take a slightly different
format than normal as i said
we're going to take a look at how to
leverage posting when you're just
starting on linkedin and this is
something i know that you
just began a few days ago this is one of
these kind of easy to execute strategies
that both you and other listeners can
pretty much do right off the bat
when you stop listening to this program
today so before we start that
let's hear a little bit about you
chelsea and your professional and
personal journey so far
hello everyone and thank you rob for
having me on the show
as you said my name is chelsea berg i
recently got married so
sometimes it feels weird to say my full
name still
um so my husband and i actually just
moved back
to the midwest the milwaukee area
we spent the last two years traveling
and
living kind of all over the place so we
spent 14 months abroad
traveling and also volunteering around
the entire world
very animal conservation based we did
some ocean conservation volunteer
and then we landed after that in san
diego for a mere
11 months leading right up until
when kova began so a perfect storm of
situations happened to bring us back
to the midwest for my husband's job um
and that kind of explains
um you know the fact that i'm a need for
a position and also why
um i spent a good deal of time on
linkedin looking for work
got it well it's quite the ride you
shared a lot of really interesting and
exhilarating things with your travel i
know you've been
all over the place and that kind of
brings me to my first point you've done
a lot of
moving in your career if you will and
you've probably gained a much more
worldly view
than a lot of people and this is a huge
advantage for you because it allows you
to connect into some of those
communities
that you once visited and you can do
that via linkedin these days which is
awesome
so you have connections in countries
that i don't even have listeners in yet
now we're
we're in 22 countries which is awesome
but that gives you something of a
handhold
in these areas that people like myself
or other folks who haven't traveled the
world
they might not have that yet so chelsea
if i asked you
today if you looked at the linkedin
connections you have
who are you connected to on linkedin
yeah so i would say my main linkedin
connections you know they started off
with like high school friends
or just friends from college and things
like that you know when everyone first
gets their linkedin and
they just add people they know and then
throughout my travels and everything all
the companies that we volunteered for
and even just learned about or made
connections with we
i connected with them on linkedin as
well um
obviously i did on instagram and
facebook and things like that as well
but
learning about their company profile and
page on
linkedin was important to me as well so
i would
say you know you can find a lot of um
ocean conservation companies
companies uh that we worked for and
volunteered for
and then also companies i had worked for
in the past like i'm connected to
you know disney on linkedin and things
like that so
a broad range of you know companies and
also just people
that i know gotcha okay so again that's
the
kind of the the souvenir i would think
from those those trips and travels that
you kind of
put your your feelers out and grabbed
that onto those companies and maybe
those people too as well is that correct
you know the specific people from those
companies
gotcha yeah definitely good deal so then
my question for you is you mentioned
initially that you know you're
the folks you started with on linkedin
were you know people in high school you
made your
your profile and you kind of added some
people and things like that
what were your initial thoughts about
the linkedin platform uh the other day
you shared a few thoughts with me about
how you first kind of started it and i
wanted one to get those out for the rest
of the listener base
yeah to be totally honest my first
initial thoughts on linkedin were just
this is a job posting
platform this is how i find jobs this is
how i scroll for who's hiring
and you know i'm a creative at heart so
i always thought instagram like these
beautiful pictures and stories i could
really use
my creativity and then facebook you know
there was a way to
have more informal connections all over
the world and i never
thought of linkedin as something that i
could have
um you know creative
energy with per se right and that's
that's a really big leap for a lot of
folks myself included i was one of those
people too who was like
this is a job board this is a uh
method for me to find new employment
not something that i can actually create
on and i think that that
that statement you made that it's
doesn't quite feel like
instagram or some of the other platforms
i think that's a real big thing and i
think that
listener if you're you're following this
here
that misconception that linkedin is just
a job board or something like that is a
really big
thing so a lot of things and another
misconception that comes
along with this is that linkedin is a
set it and forget it kind of thing
that helps you land a job if you're
lucky and of course as we've been
talking about chelsea
it's that's a wrong assumption because
linkedin is a platform that is alive
it lives and it breathes a lot like the
other platforms
twitter instagram tick tock and speaking
of those
uh listeners follow the show there if
you haven't already but the real magic
of linkedin
is that it's an effort multiplier and
while it takes a while for it to start
to
charge up and pay dividends once it does
it can almost start to self-sustain and
sell fuel
so chelsea in our first call i gave you
a strategy to try with linkedin and it's
a tidbit that gary vaynerchuk dropped on
one of his videos probably a couple
years ago now
and i've seen this work for me i picked
this up and i've been teaching it to
other folks
we mentioned it before on the show and
while it's not 100 new to everyone here
this is the first time we've actually
put it into application with somebody
and we're going to drill into it a bit
further so chelsea would you be able to
explain the concept of the 50 cent
linkedin strategy
yeah definitely so how i understood it
best was
like you had mentioned the set it and
forget it you can't use linkedin
as that if you want to build a personal
brand build a community and things like
that so how i understood
the 50 cent strategy is you know at
first you might
make some posts and four people see it
or you might
make some you know worthwhile comments
on brands that you're interested in or
companies that you follow um and
you know over time the more you do that
you know on a daily weekly basis that's
going to build
your personal brand and it's not
something that you can just do
you know once a month or once every
couple months which i
was very much guilty of before
and that's okay and i think the
understanding of how
social media really works is is
something that's not necessarily always
made apparent to
everybody uh a lot of times the
the marketing world kind of keeps that
under under wraps so they can use it to
make money and things like that so
that's a really great way to kind of
explain the 50 cent strategy is the it's
the
commenting or reacting with 25 posts a
day
giving your two cents of course so 25
times two is the 50 cent strategy so
going into that a little bit deeper the
reason that we want to interact with the
others on the social media platform
which
chelsea you said is the the crux the
pivotal point
though it's the way that social media
works and many of us have probably heard
about what's called
the algorithm and whether it comes from
or youtube all of these companies and
platforms
are notorious for keeping their
algorithms kind of foggy or changing the
things all the time
so basically to explain to everybody the
algorithm is a platform
set of rules and the formulas that
determine what gets shown
on a social media platform when and to
whom
and if you can consistently tap into or
heaven forbid
crack the algorithm then you're in for
some crazy success
so with you chelsea you know you just
started
back on this route this route here of
posting you had a
fabulous post uh just last night that i
saw and i was like man
uh does she is she going to teach them
the master class here when she comes on
the show or she's coming as a learner
because it was
it was tell us a little bit about that
post uh and we can talk a little bit
more about like the
the algorithm and the best practices go
ahead
definitely so as i mentioned with my
travels is very focused on
animal conservation and ocean
conservation and one thing
that really really impacted me was we
did a lot of beach cleanups all over the
world and cleaned up
tons and tons of trash just on all these
beautiful beaches and so i made a post
just in time for
you know we're a week to christmas now
um
about how the holiday season produces so
much trash
um among all of us and we might not
realize because season of giving and
it's a very important time of year and i
love like christmas is my absolute
favorite time of year
um but i really wanted to dive into and
also let people know that there are ways
to go about it in a little more
earth you know eco-conscious way so i
made a post
allowing people to click on an article
that's you know five ways to
um be a little bit more earth conscious
this christmas
and i even learned myself so
and that's that's a great thing and
linkedin can be a platform for
learning as well as kind of advertising
and saying hey i need a job
so when you posted that the algorithm of
the site
took that and said hey i should show
this to people who chelsea's connected
with
so the algorithm basically is described
as the preferred best practices that the
company wants you to follow
to be the participant in their service
and when you adhere to the rules closely
by making a great post like you did that
had uh hashtags that had an article
and that had a decent amount of content
body
they start to reward you with reach and
putting that on other people's
feeds to get more eyes on your content
and post now an algorithm of course
isn't the only thing that dominates what
people see on a platform
no siree the other aspect for linkedin
or
at least for making content or posts
that is uh are innovative
and clever and thought-provoking you
have to kind of use that marketing style
we really saw that
in your post chelsea it was it grabbed
me because i was a i was surprised to
see it like wow she really put something
out so fast
and b the the copy that you put on there
it did suck me right in which was just
outstanding so
we have to kind of use those marketing
style techniques to engage with people
with what we put out so we talked about
that post
uh chelsea do you know how many people
that reached by chance
well not gonna lie the first time i
looked to see who liked it it was like
my mom and my husband
which you know typically happens on you
know you always have to have your number
one fans
um but then i saw you saw it and then a
couple other people as well so i think
it kind of
you know reached a couple of people who
like it's not like my mom or husband
have been following my linkedin a lot
because i don't post
often until i met you and had a nice
wonderful conversation about that
so i would say it still has a lower
reach just because i am just getting
back into the swing of things but
um like i said i did just post it last
night so you never know who could see it
right and the other thing too is it's
not just the likes and reactions and
things like that that you're wanting to
take a look at for your post
on linkedin in the left-hand sidebar
if you take a look at uh it's usually
under your portrait you can look lower
in that menu and you can find a
little stat it'll say views of your post
for example for me i had one
uh yesterday i believe that is at like
394
which for me is pretty darn good usually
i run
mid uh mid hundreds or low you know
1200s or things like that
which is great so i'm happy when
anything you know gets four or 500
people of reach so you've had some eyes
on your on your post and i love that you
said
you know it's your mom it's your dad
it's your husband it's
it's the guy who's having you on the
podcast that's seeing this there are a
whole lot more people out there
who have likely seen scrolled and didn't
interact with it which is a great thing
but you still have the impression
in their uh social feed which is super
important so
let's pretend for a moment you got six
interactions or something like that you
know two comments
four likes and reactions but you may
have had your post delivered
to 60 80 100 people
so that's a hundred pairs of eyes in
your post so the question to ask here
is how do we get more people to look at
what we're seeing what we're doing
and so part of the algorithm that we're
looking to tap into with the 50 cent
strategy
is the interaction with others portions
so think about you know right
how that works right so did you actually
make any comments
uh back to folks who had maybe said
anything or
anything like that so when i originally
was
um looking for the article i had found a
couple that were similar but i wanted to
find something that you know looks good
for posting strategies and also just you
know
spoke to spoke to me and things like
that so as i was looking in the you know
hashtag sustainable holiday
uh i made a few comments there but i
definitely need to get better at
you know when i'm not posting
interacting with others and
you know companies that i'm just you
know really fond of or
have experience with you know it doesn't
hurt and everybody loves
interaction nowadays too especially it's
like we don't get to see each other or
you know have these community events so
you know a little comment goes a long
way it does
and that's a great little phrase because
even on your
own post a little comment goes a long
way you'll often find
that folks like myself will make a post
and then once we do
we come into the actual comment section
with either like a
an add-on or something that we didn't
actually post in the thing like the link
to the
article or whatever it might be that's
something that's part of the strategy
two
is to get more eyes on that you can post
on yourself
occasionally with the 50 cent strategy
don't let it rely on it of course
it's usually for others but one of those
you know maybe five cent or
darn five cents doesn't divide and
evenly into two
uh six cents a day maybe on your own
posts which is a great thing
so i always wondered why celebrities did
that they would post something and then
like
make a comment on their own post you
know a funny phrase
or something like that well and that's
kind of them
gaming that that algorithm because if
you make a comment on someone with a bit
of a followings post
it shows up it gives them an alert so
when folks make a comment on
on my linkedin on my phone i get
notifications every single time and the
other part is is if i make a comment on
somebody i follows post
they also send me notifications when
other people comment on that post so
it'll say
rob you're you're following john smith
other
you know 48 other people have posted on
john smith's post
so it's a great way to build that
interaction and that's kind of what the
50 cent strategy is all about it's about
getting
you in front of more eyes every day on
other posts as well as your own and so
by doing this you're guaranteeing every
day you get at least 25 new people
to see what you have to say or how you
feel about their content and keep in
mind
you may get more mileage out of this for
actual comments of course
than just you know thumbs up and things
like that but i would say for best
results we pair the two right
right good deal so my next question for
you chelsea is dealing with the next
part of linkedin we talked about it just
a moment ago
uh marketing yourself a little bit and
i'm curious
i don't know much about your marketing
background i know you've done some
social media i know you've done a lot of
things like that
to you what is the phrase write good
copy mean
yeah so to me write good copy is like
you had mentioned you saw my post
and you know everything about it you
liked that there was an article attached
you liked that there were hashtags
and i think writing good copy to me
means you know getting someone's
attention with what you have to say
you know if you're writing something
boring or something that's not authentic
or um just looks like a robot type that
people aren't going to be as interested
so write good copy um you know kind of
speaks for itself and
you have to write something good to get
people's attention which will
eventually help you with you know your
connection
absolutely and then there's another
phrase that i'm curious and i'm not sure
if you know this one but this is one of
my one of my favorite phrases
it's above the fold are you familiar
with that phrase
yeah i was a journalism major so i had
to learn about that
good deal so enlighten us please what
does above the fold mean
yeah so above the fold especially you
know in marketing terms nowadays with
everybody you know being online and
everything happening on the internet is
it's
getting somebody's attention whether
it's to buy something or
to read something or to click more or to
keep reading the article you want to get
their attention in the first upper half
of you know the fold per se so in that
first
you know couple of paragraphs you want
to make sure it's going to
allow them to know
you know what your company is or what
you have to say or what your mission
statement is
to be able to have them read more buy
more something like that
right exactly it's that old old
marketing term that basically says if
you're sending someone a marketing
letter
you need to capture their attention
before they reach the first tri-fold
in the actual letter uh you need to have
like two sentences sometimes because you
have
you know the address dear sir dear madam
and then
yeah blah blah blah and you have just a
handful of sentences if
if that maybe even a handful of words to
capture attention so that that is
perfect i'm really glad that
uh you get a great explanation on that
you know with you know eve in modern
day i would say maybe above the scroll
if you will above
the flick um in that case so that should
be your goal
with linkedin post and i saw that with
what you posted
yesterday i i was like again kind of
blown away going like oh man i
she said she does she said she needs to
learn but i don't know
how much she needs to learn but it's and
it's great it's good to see somebody who
is brand new to the platform have a
successful post right off the bat
and success is variable
on linkedin and the goal of what people
post on linkedin should be
to get people to click that you know
little read more thing at the side
yeah we can together then take a look it
kind of makes
what makes a successful post we talked
about yours a moment ago
i want to bring in an example about how
to
uh leverage this that really got some
traction for me so i'm gonna
kind of take the reins here a little bit
more than i normally would just because
i want to read this out for folks
uh a couple days ago i posted the
following
uh post on linkedin it went bananas
and so it says so many folks want to
know how to leverage linkedin
and it's one of the most requested
topics for recruiting hell
coincidentally it's why we're doing this
episode of the show
here's what i've done i'm used to
reaching
50 to 100 people a post and this was six
months ago and six months later while
i'm not solidly in four digits yet i'm
seeing 300
1200 views a post the three things i try
to do to make this go further are
a consistency of posting b upping my
copy skills and finding what resonates
with my listeners
and audience c networking my ass off to
find new folks who i can help
and who can help me now my question to
you is chelsea
in listening to that where did i put the
break where was my above the fold
portion
to have people click read more
definitely so where i thought or what
captured me
is when you said here's what i've done
and kind of did a dot dot dot
where it allows people to want to learn
more and want to
keep reading right and that's actually
precisely where it was it was that that
break there
and there's a rule that i follow on this
show i will never withhold
any information from somebody's job hunt
but you might have to click a button
that's all in that case so you're
correct right after the ellipses it
gives that prompt
to people to find out what i actually
did as a strategy
and it kind of pokes that little
curiosity
button in our brains so the first part
about making a linkedin post that starts
to go somewhere
is taking advantage of that curiosity in
human beings and the idea that there is
value in that read more section the fear
of missing out on that value
fomo so in that case there are three
tips that can help
people who are starting out on linkedin
you know the consistency
the copy and then the networking with
other folks and again the 50 cent
strategy
is part of that so now that we've given
a great example of a post that generates
interest these can be pretty much easily
done on any topic as you showed with
your conservation post
that's something that while i believe in
you know saving the planet and things
like that it's not as near and dear to
my heart as it is to yours which is
excellent
so it's important for somebody who's
posting on linkedin
to find those things that really tap in
to what their experience
is in the world for me it's
it's this job hunt thing you know i have
i'm kind of on a bit of a crusade for
this because i've seen that people
have been really impacted by what the
world is like and for you that's an
environmental issue and
we are all stronger when we have our
causes together and we we
pursue those cause so what other kind of
post do you think
would resonate with your connections
from what you what you're passionate
about chelsea
yeah definitely so the reason i spoke
about
you know the conservation and things
like that is with the holidays
you know like i said christmas is a week
away i thought it would really capture
people's attention because
everybody's buying gifts right now
everybody is wrapping presents
so it's also important to do you know
make posts within the season or within
what's going on in the world um i think
for me
i mean something that i've been told by
a lot of people and it's just
the type of person i am is i i'm a light
they say i'm like the sun
um so you're not gonna find like
negative articles or
bad news that's going on that's just not
who i am that's not
authentic to me so you might find like
something good that happened
perhaps at a covid or something a good
news story of people coming together
you know in quarantine and all the good
things you know that with people driving
less
you know how it's impacting the earth
and things like that so that's the kind
of
articles that i'm passionate about um
and not just articles but just you know
posts in general um i recently rescued a
puppy
named moose tracks so dog related
um you know anything dog related or
maybe
something i learned about the pet
industry i could share about um
those are the types of things travel uh
that i definitely will share excellent
and you
you have a wide variety of things that
are very popular with people there
pets you know we know that half the
internet's devoted to cat photos we know
that
uh the travel you know people like to
see where other people go
that a lot of these things whether
they're in your life or not
are really great topics you know things
like that and you have to find again
what you're passionate about you've
rattled off a number of things that work
perfectly for you chelsea and the other
part of that is
for the other listeners these might not
be things that are you know
as you're as on fire about as chelsea is
the
thing that you might be on fire about is
i want to give him a shout
here because he's just a great great guy
um i know a gentleman named ted carew
and ted is a career
uh on the job safety uh
instructor director kind of like not an
osha inspector but the guy who like
interfaces with the osh inspector
and make sure people don't get there
okay hands cut off ted is
wild about safety and while safety is
like not my
my thing you know and it's not my
passion watching him post
on something that is to most people
maybe a little bit
something they don't think about every
day is it's really he is just on fire
for this and so
if you're a listener out there saying ah
my stuff
isn't interesting on linkedin there is
an audience for pretty much everything
when it comes to professional interests
and even some of the personal interests
which is great
good deal so there's one thought i want
to close with on the 50 cent strategy
here
chelsea and this is partially for you
but this is also for the
rest of listeners on linkedin remember
that people like you
for you and if they're connected to you
they've already kind of indicated that
they want to play the linkedin game with
you
and if you bring good content to them oh
yeah they're gonna they're gonna share
it
so we've covered this strategy and we've
kind of seen how these small efforts
of interacting with just 25 posts a day
can start to pay some dividends and i
certainly hope that you're going to keep
that consistency up
uh in the coming days here even over the
holidays uh to work to give you some
ideas for
not only your own content but other
folks out there as well who may connect
with you
so the next piece of linkedin growth is
from
[Music]
kind of an interesting perspective and
i'm going to call this linkedin growth
from
zero and that okay that part is
bringing yourself from zero to somewhere
else you know some other number that's
higher than zero
another thing is vulnerability and
you and i talked the other day about
vulnerability and authenticity and give
us a bit of an overview about what we
kind of spoke about there
yeah definitely so like you had just
mentioned
you know me being passionate about the
environment and dogs and
christmas and things like that doesn't
mean other people have to
but i'm not going to post about things
just because they're popular if it's
something that i'm really passionate
about because people will be able to
tell
in your posts and i learned this a lot
from other social media platforms like
instagram like facebook where people
love hearing about you know how you're
really feeling and things that you're
really passionate about because they can
smell it from a mile away so when i
would post about
things you know that people know you
know my fans per se
know that i'm passionate about they
interact more and they're more
interested in the content that i have so
on linkedin
if you're posting something you know
that
someone could tell that it's not coming
from your true authentic self
they might just keep scrolling they
might not have interest in that and
they'll just be able to tell
and really be able to read you know that
you're being vulnerable and true to
yourself
um and people love that kind of stuff
especially you know now in 2020 a lot of
feelings and emotions are happening
through you know
with everybody so people want to know
about that and people want to
um you know learn about that and see
that
in your content right and i think
perhaps we're substituting the actual
like physical and you know
interpersonal emotions with these ones
that are kind of filtered through
a a computer medium which is interesting
so
you you touched on everything that i i
wanted to to kind of hear about that
chelsea which is which is great and that
wasn't
thankfully it was prompting for me and
one of the biggest mistakes i think that
people who make who are new to linkedin
is that they hold
so tightly to that professional feel of
the platform
right and that doesn't mean we should
fill it with you know conspiracy
theories and
bad memes with minions and other other
garbage like you see on facebook
that's that's not what we should do
right that platform i
it has just gone just downhill not dog
bees
well there's some there's something to
things like that you can be
light in your linkedin presence you can
it's actually something that i advise
folks when i actually advise them about
building brands
humanizing your brand is posting a meme
every once in a while it really is
and but a lot of folks grip onto
especially with linkedin
that it's got to be a professional
platform that is so far from true
it because it walks a very unique line
between the professional and the
personal and if we let those blend
we can really start to see things kind
of gel so one of my most popular posts
of all time was from a few months ago
and it spread further than anything i
really could have ever imagined it was
outside of my network
it had you know tons of reactions and i
went back
the other day and i when i was writing
this episode and i looked at what made
that post work
i'm going to read that and we're going
to kind of pick that apart together here
real quick
so it said six months ago
i made up my mind i was going to start
something for myself
i knew it wasn't going to be easy and
that because it was my own
it'd be simple to hang it up if it
wasn't performing making money or got
too challenging
i made myself a promise if you're going
to do one
you're going to do a hundred this
attitude forced me to look at my new
creation as a long-term project and i'm
glad it did
because honestly i don't want to stop
what i'm doing i love being a content
creator
even if there are days that i don't make
the best content in the world it's mine
and it does resonate with people
which makes all the difference in the
world so then chelsea what aspects do
you sort of see it here in that post
that might make people connect with it
yeah i really think you know when you
made that post or when you were speaking
at that time frame you know six months
ago we were
all kind of in a similar position so i
think it really
allows people to connect with that time
frame of oh my gosh
like everything's closing down you know
people are out of work
you have to get creative and you know
start
maybe maybe it's not starting a you know
podcast like you did but you're starting
something new or
following that like gut feeling or
following your heart you know
i really think it's important too people
can connect to that part of time
with covet and everything being shut
down where
you have to kind of think on your feet
and pivot
um and like you did you tried something
new you
followed a gut feeling you followed your
heart and did something that
um you know you had thought about before
and i think
people can really relate to that in that
time frame and how we were all feeling
definitely and i think that's probably
the biggest
i i want to say heartstring i do want to
say heartstring that that is pulled
which is great and the other part of
that too was kind of the way this was
structured and
obviously you and i aren't looking at
this this post together right now but
one of the biggest things was not only
the
above the fold portion which was you
know two little sentences six months ago
i decided to start something for myself
dot dot dot
that spacing again that prompt for
people to say oh what did you start rob
let's hear about it
that was really really outstanding but
you're absolutely right
the shared experience of covid of
having more free time in the world than
you know what to do with
is really a a driver there
the other thing that i think is really a
important aspect that i want to make
sure that our listeners
get out of this too is
the vulnerability linkedin eats up
vulnerability like no other and like you
said people can smell when things aren't
right
they can spell it a mile away right you
have to be
authentically vulnerable and you can't
beat this drama king or drama queen
real vulnerability plays exceptionally
well with the audience
and talking about facing adversity
without being a fiend for attention and
adoration
is a very real strategy that folks
should consider so i talk about this
with the show a lot
i talk about this with my business i
talk about things that are important to
me just like you do chelsea
the challenges i face but there's always
as you said you're a light
there's always a lining of positivity to
it even it's me talking about failure
so when folks are posting to linkedin
you need to consider the the tory the
story that you're telling
is it one of these following things is
it a redemption arc
is it a me versus whatever is it a
before and after is the lesson you've
learned and all of these things can be
used to not only drive
my content your content but content for
anybody out there who's listening
to engage with people who have connected
with them and who are following them
so i'm going to keep going here for just
a second because there is also
one other aspect from this post and
that's the inclusion of
others and that post is talking about
my content but it's also humble enough
and
and maybe aware enough to know that i'm
not
i'm not yet a top tier podcaster i can
create all the content in the world
but i can still you know have people
consume that
and i'm so thankful with for that it
doesn't matter though if i am not humble
if i am not including other people in it
i come across as a pompous jerk and the
professional atmosphere
of linkedin knows to celebrate worthy
achievements like promotions new jobs
and things like that
but they also very much dive into the
humbleness aspect
that a lot of people display which is
just a great angle as well so for those
of you listening
let's make sure that we we're always
humble we're always very real
with our linkedin so chelsea i'll put it
to you any questions about vulnerability
authenticity or anything you'd like to
add
oh boy um i think you nailed it on the
head there with
you know that whole post had everything
you know all encompassing that we
discussed it had an above the fold
you know wanting people to keep reading
it had vulnerability it had
authenticity um and i guess my question
would be
like how do you um like for your
listeners and for
people listening how do you um know
when to post like when is the right time
to post something authentic or
vulnerable
on top of you know an interesting
article or like you said a funny
you know dog or cat meme how many posts
are you posting that are more vulnerable
than um just on a regular basis
good question to put that in perspective
for like what i do
i try to post on linkedin daily so i do
one post a day maybe two
sometimes i do some that are off the
cuff on my phone that aren't scheduled
i use a social media tool for it so i
can plan them out in advance because i
want to
you know i can share the show i can find
articles you know it helps me
with the running of this whole endeavor
but that doesn't mean that i'm not
actually on my phone a few times a day
going through and going oh wow that's
really cool comment
new post whatever it might be the
other part of that is you don't always
it's a it's a bit of an art it really is
you don't always have to be putting out
these
these drama stories you know oh and
today i face this challenge and things
like that like
people are going to get sick of that
real fast if you will
so you need to to mix it into this
strategy that you have and i usually try
to do one post
that's reflective a week in that case
maybe maybe i'll creep up to two
but what i try to do keep the focus on
is here's what i'm doing
here's the successes i'm having here's
how i can help people here's what
challenged me this week and that might
be that that might be the post that is
the
the vulnerable one the one that sit that
says gosh you know
i was really having a hard time with
this episode
and my guest was somebody i had never
met before and i was really nervous
about
about talking to them or whatever it
might be and that's not in reference to
this episode i promise you
but it's having that common experience
we as human beings look into that common
experience and say
i've felt that way before and that tends
to get people to dig on it which is just
outstanding so
again authentic vulnerability you can't
just make up
uh crying wolf stories every week it has
to be real
it has to be authentic cool well i can
relate to that
in the sense while we were traveling you
know i we were feeling all the emotions
we were far away from home we were
living you know there was a point where
we lived in a village in kenya for three
weeks and
you know showered out of a bucket um so
instead of just posting
like you know lions and elephants and
the stuff that people also like to see
i would post and you know we're having a
hard time like i miss my comfy bed i
miss clean sheets i miss
you know coffee shops like so people
enjoyed seeing
that vulnerability like you had
mentioned instead of just
you know pretty pictures of sunsets and
lions tigers and bears right and then
having you know i looked at your
instagram and things like that some of
your photography
physique is just excellent it really is
so there's a lot to be oh yeah
there's a lot to be said about you know
what there's
there's a beautiful savannah sunset or
things like that but also
here's a picture of the bucket that is
my cleaning apparatus for today like
yeah
kind of yeah that gear shift really
works sometimes for creating content on
linkedin of
welp you had a nice warm shower this
morning i had a
lukewarm bucket of river water yeah yeah
and people can
relate to that more as well or you know
that's at least what i think is you see
these beautiful photos and it kind of
makes you like oh i wish i was there
instead of you know seeing something
where it's like oh i felt that way
before kind of like you mentioned with
your linkedin post
right and the other part of that too is
you know oh i wish i was there in the
beautiful savannah
and then you see the picture of this
this bucket that is your shower for the
day it's like
do you do you really can you maybe not
i don't want to come across as like a
princess or anything but like showering
out of a bucket that's kind of like a
i don't know if that's a if that's an
appealing thing for me
to to go on the trip you know now
chelsea you mentioned earlier in our
conversations before setting up this
show
the title of this episode was initially
giving on linkedin or networking for the
give on linkedin and you said where's
the give
in all of this and you're absolutely
right we haven't talked about that yet
the give is in the vulnerability and
oftentimes on platforms like linkedin we
sort of hide our imperfections and
whether others come out with what's
uh what theirs are you know that that
against showering in a bucket thing it
gives us this environment sort of air
some of our own shortcomings as well
and it's a bit therapeutic yep
especially in this environment like you
mentioned
coven 19 put us in a really weird
position worldwide
and i can't tell you how many times i've
seen somebody post a failing
a shortfall a defeat and people start to
come out of the woodwork to not only
support them
but they also share the setbacks they're
dealing with and it's a little bit weird
but
it's kind of crazy at the same time it's
it's a strange phenomenon
yeah and i i don't know if you've seen
that by chance
um i definitely have seen that just in
like i said the social media platforms
and the articles i read
and things like that where it talks
about
you know i felt that way too or that
definitely happened to me too and
for once you know in a long time we're
all in the same boat you know
for pre-kova 19 i feel like people were
going about their day you know they
could relate on some things
of course but now it's kind of like you
know me too
you know we all have that same you know
just your usps package is taking forever
and your christmas gifts probably won't
deliver on time
me too like we're all in the same
you know and obviously you can take that
to a business standpoint as well where
people are
out of work or if they're out of work
maybe their businesses aren't doing as
well or maybe they're thriving because
you're in you know the pet
industry and there's always people out
there that have that same
connection definitely and
that's that connection part is really
what gives linkedin's kind of its power
and that connection also continues with
what you do
after you post and we talked about this
a little earlier in the episode
and with this best practices i want to
really share with people because
this is not only based on my personal
experience and but it's also the
research that i've done
that how you look to interact with
people on your post should be as heavy
as possible
for the first hour after it's up so when
people are will
are maybe scrolling linkedin at nine in
the morning because they're a little bit
bored at work
you should be looking to grab to throw a
post out there that maybe
catches their eye but also like we said
make that first comment that's called a
seed comment in
in my term and it's a short snippet you
place it in the comments section to
stimulate discussion
and it'd be simple as something right it
can be as simple as
the question that i asked recently in
the update i made about having a
conversation with a recent connection on
linkedin which i think was you
i asked hey connections who should folks
connect with out there that has given
you amazing value on linkedin this year
and this little seed comment spawned
like three or four different comment
chains
that drove engagement it not only
granted visibility to the people that
had been linked
but it also opened them up to my own
network and after a couple exchanges i
actually
gained like six or seven new connections
from just this one comment so it's a
network for the gift so i was like
putting that out there to people saying
hey who else
is doing well this year let's you know
kind of name
name and not shame but name and and
honor in this case
and it turned into something that for me
paid off big time with some folks that
are
uh in networks that i wasn't wasn't a
part of which is outstanding so
we see that you know interacting with
your posts heavily not only the
reactions but the comments
kind of gives back to the networking
efforts of others and
showing them that you actually hear
their words because you said this
earlier chelsea that
the engagement on posts is what makes
people continue to do so and it's not
just fluff on your
you know linkedin wall if you were back
in the that's kind of a
throwback to old school facebook i think
so chelsea we have covered a lot of
ground today and i've had a couple of
pretty big stretches of talking in the
show
uh i don't want to i want to make sure
we balance that out a little bit
uh one of the questions that you think
that i didn't ask or explain about this
topic so i would say
you know from my standpoint coming from
a creative who loves photography
and instagram and facebook like we had
discussed and i have a ton of experience
there
you know instagram stories and um i've
even built
you know two business platforms on
what would you say for someone back into
linkedin per se
um in terms of someone who wants to
market themselves or even
someone who maybe started a business and
wants to make sure they have all social
media platforms
covered how would you um advise them you
know to get started on linkedin
um to you know start connecting with
people and start building that personal
brand like you have mentioned
sure and that's a that's a really great
question because i can actually speak to
that with the recruiting help page on
linkedin so there's my personal page
there's you know rob conlon who is
you know content creator things like
that you see my picture but there's also
the actual company page and that's what
i that's the first thing i'd recommend
anybody
if you have a small endeavor get your
company page on linkedin lockdown
it's not only a matter of grabbing you
know kind of the handle
or the name but also you post to that
just in the same way that you post to
your personal
account um with my social media tool
that i used again
it's just for simplicity for me you
don't have to have a social media tool
this is just with time saver i'm able to
post to
my regular profile my
business profile my other business
profile for the actual production
company that makes this
uh this program as well as my twitter my
instagram all sorts of things with a
couple clicks of a button but
the goal is is that i have to produce
content that is relevant to my audience
that follows
the actual show page versus
maybe what my personal pages or the
other social media platforms so
that's number one is to get that page
dialed in get your logo on it get a
background photo things like that
uh fill in the description you know the
who we are what we do get your website
linked up on that
that's all pretty much set up and
self-explanatory you can you can do that
through the linkedin platform
the other part about that though is that
there is the
invite button on linkedin and
you you will have some connections you
want to invite them to like and follow
your page
and what i did initially was i strung
that out over time so you maybe you have
100 followers on linkedin or 100
connections on linkedin
you will want to ask them drip by drip
basically
if they want to follow your your
business page in that case which is
going to be a great thing
i would string these out you get 100 a
month for free if i'm not mistaken
string these out over the course of
weeks i would just do 10
every single week invite 10 people you
know
moderately well or have connected with
recently to follow your business follow
your page
and that way you don't just blow it all
at once
you don't just have i have 150
connections and i invited 100 of them
today
and as soon as that refilled next month
i invited the next 50. well that doesn't
help you very much with kind of
the upward growth of your your platform
so
that would be the other thing is to
invite people i try to make sure that
they have a minimum
amount of familiarity with me you know
maybe i ran into them at a conference
five years ago they're not going to
remember who i am things like that
i try to go with the people i either
know personally the people i've recently
connected with
so i'm fresh in their memory or the
people who
i have been a part of my network and
interacted with me for a long time
okay good deal great question that's
actually something
that uh that we didn't cover and i
wasn't i guess expecting to cover in
this episode but
that's a that's a perfect thing
especially if somebody has a small
business
or a an effort or a passion that they
have
about that you know if you started a
like a conservation group of some sort
or whatever it might be right
that's a great strategy for that is to
kind of grow that slow grow it
but also make sure that you're posting
relevant content that goes to people who
are going to share
this thing with other people who might
like that content
all right good deal any other stuff yeah
yeah any others that i missed
um i would also be curious you know for
someone like me who's
you know looking for a job and is in the
market for a job
you know you mentioned something that i
really grasped my
attention when we first spoke on the
phone where you said look for people and
not opportunities
um and that's a mistake that i maybe
have been making because i'm in this
position where i'm like all right i'm
new i'm back you know in the midwest i
need to
you know just apply to jobs and that's
the only way to go about it and now
we're in this position where we can't
really meet for coffee and we can't
you know go to networking groups so
we're gonna have to
like you said look for people and uh
really connect with people how would you
advise someone
asking for a friend you know for someone
like me um who's looking for a job to
reach out on linkedin or even just
connect with you know companies i might
be interested in or
people who i know um maybe have you know
are within their network um with
companies that i'm passionate about are
interested in
good question and a lot of this involves
kind of being a little bit brave
that's one of the biggest things that i
think i can impart to people out there
about linkedin is sometimes you just
kind of have to jump into the
conversation
and that can be a little awkward at
first you're going to eventually kind of
learn how to just slide yourself in
to the the conversation adding that
relevant
thought process to conversations about
that
you know folks are showing like hey i'm
hiring for this
uh you know do you know anybody you may
see something like
you know somebody who has xyz computer
skills
you may you may not it might be you
and the biggest trick i guess is to
find out how to politely
slide onto that post and say hey you
know i see that you've got this that
you're hiring for this position or that
you're talking about this
is this something that's a challenge for
you we talked about in one of our
interview episodes a couple
a couple weeks ago solving a business
problem for somebody
that's the big thing that's what shows
them that you're thinking about
them and again that's a give so solving
a business problem for somebody let's
say they post something
like i am
oh i'm looking for a great i'm looking
for a piece of software that helps me do
x y and z and you see this post you go
i have some experience with evaluating
software maybe you do i i have some of
that
i'm looking for a great social media
piece of software and you say hey you
know jim
this is uh you know you and i don't know
each other yet
but in the past when i've had to deal
with managing multiple social media
accounts
i've used xyz it costs this a month
i have no relation to them but i had a
really great time
using their platform it was intuitive
and it might be worth you checking out
right and again that's a give the
finding people you're not necessarily
finding a job you're finding a person
who may have a job for you in the future
and right that's not going to happen
right away
that's i don't want to fool anybody by
thinking like if you do a 50 cent
strategy for
a week and if you comment on some
people's stuff a few times
people are going to say oh we should
hire that guy that's not going to happen
this is this is a long-term strategy
long game kind of thing like a diet plan
or an exercise plan you don't generally
see results on day one or even maybe day
100.
excellent well chelsea you and i uh i
don't think we have any more questions
to to share with folks today
i really want to thank you so much for
agreeing to do this and this was kind of
a last-minute episode it's definitely
been a shorter timetable for production
than i normally try to give a guest
and i want to thank you for stepping out
of your comfort zone and kind of being
on your first podcast here
i certainly hope it helps your
networking efforts if people wanted to
find out more
yeah if people wanted to find out more
about you who you are
what you do how you can add to their
networks or their ventures
or maybe some of the neat stuff you've
done in the past where would they find
you out on social media or the internet
yeah definitely so right now my personal
account my personal brand is where i do
the most posting
you can learn about my puppy name moose
tracks
and just kind of the things i do living
back in the beautiful midwest
back in pewaukee wisconsin here so my
instagram handle is
at chelsea wandering and the wandering
came from when we were doing all that
travel
obviously i'm more a little more put now
um
and yeah and then chelsea berg on
linkedin as well
perfect perfect and as somebody who is a
native of heartland wisconsin um
i feel a little bit of animosity when
you mention pewaukee for some reason
no neighboring towns neighboring towns
it's all good
all right well excellent and again folks
stop by her instagram
connect with her on linkedin if there
are opportunities that you know of
that might fit somebody who has uh some
pretty impressive social media skills
and built some brands herself
uh definitely connect out there and
network for the give uh yourself here
come uh these next few weeks well
chelsea thanks again for swinging by
and uh for being a part of our show this
week closing out for us here at
recruiting health
it is the holidays and i want to take
the time to do two quick things
the first it is my genuine hope that
your holidays are the brightest they can
be
and even though this year may be a
rather lonelier set of holidays than
usual for some folks
if you're in that situation i invite you
to reach out
check up on your people and make sure
people check up on you it's the most
wonderful time of the year and even
though we can't be as close as we want
to be this year
remember that there are people in this
world who love you
the second is to give you the gift of no
promotions at the end of this show
for one episode i want to put aside the
thought of growing the audience
or any other aspect of this show and
just appreciate what we have right now
because i am truly truly happy with all
of you who are listening to this
right at this moment thank you to every
single one of you
whether it's your first lesson today or
your 50th because you started listening
to things again
for coming to this show week in and week
out it has made my
2020 one of the best years it could
possibly be
given the circumstances and knowing that
there are people who listen to this show
decided it was worthwhile who got jobs
from it and can who continue
to generously support this show to this
very day
fills me with an incredible amount of
joy
recruiting hell is a production of
westport studios and is proudly made in
wisconsin and finally
as always a big thank you to purple
planet music for our themes and you the
listener
for tuning in i'm rob condom and until
we meet again
keep moving forward with your
self-betterment and your job hunt
it's a marathon not a sprint and
recruiting hell
will be here to help you keep pace happy
holidays
from my family to yours
[Music]
[Music]
~RH