3 Tips for Posting on LinkedIn with Andréa Jones
Branding with Friends | Episode 28
Featuring Expert Guest, acclaimed social media expert, Andréa Jones.
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Andréa Jones, Social Media Expert
Annie: Today I'm so excited to introduce you to one of my friends from the business world. You may have already met her before because she's our first return guest, the amazing Andréa Jones.
Andréa: Thank you so much for having me.
Annie: Thank you for being here. It's like a reunion! If you guys have been wondering what to post on LinkedIn, I had to invite Andréa back. She was our very first guest on Branding with Friends. We were figuring this was about two years ago. I was about to go on maternity leave, and Andréa is going to go on hers soon. When this comes out, she will hopefully be with her babes. So yay! It’s like we're talking to you in the future. But Andréa is here I want to tell you a little bit about her. She has built an online business committed to empowering businesses to utilize the power of social media in a positive and impactful way without being overwhelmed and drained by it. Yes, amen. With over seven years of experience in the game, Andréa hosts the acclaimed podcast, The Savvy Social Podcast. She leads a team providing done for you service inside of her marketing agency that was named the top digital marketing agency in 2021. And she serves over 200 students in her membership, The Savvy Social School. Oh my gosh, I am so glad you're back to talk about LinkedIn today.
Andréa: Yes, I'm glad to be back. This is such a great opportunity. Thank you Annie.
Annie: Absolutely, and last time you were on Branding with Friends, we talked a lot about just social media in general. But I wanted to have you back on. LinkedIn, it's becoming much more a topic of conversation for folks that I speak to all the time, which are coaches and consultants and service business owners. They're constantly coming to me about what to post on LinkedIn. I'm excited to tell you that Andréa has brought three of her best tips and her tips are always so good.
So, pay attention, put these into action. We're going to share the first two and then Andréa brought something along for you. If you want to take the next step in this world, she's got something for you. And then we'll save that last tip for the end. So before we get to all of these wonderful tips, I'm just very curious, because you do a lot with social media. Tell me more about your story with LinkedIn and how you're feeling about it these days.
Andréa: Yes, we're seeing a resurgence with LinkedIn, especially in the business space because of the negative publicity that Facebook has been getting over the past couple of years. And so we're seeing a lot of folks move from Facebook over to LinkedIn. There's a lot of perks of being on LinkedIn that Facebook didn't have. We don't really get a lot of the mixed in personal life and personal updates, as we do with Facebook. And the content itself seems to have legs and live a lot longer on LinkedIn as well as connecting with people with business first with business in mind. So that professional platform really gives us the opportunity to kind of go around some of the initial thoughts with Facebook being a personal platform and LinkedIn being that more professional space.
Annie: Yeah, I kind of treat it as such. I've sort of had that personal thing. I like Facebook, I don't hate it. I guess it's better these days after what happened when we're recording this in the fall of 2021. But LinkedIn is that place where I felt like, yeah, this makes a lot of sense for coaches and consultants. And I love it. I like just as you said that the tone is inherently professional. It is inherently about either business or career. And that's just a little bit different than all the other social media networks. So, in it being different, there's clearly a strategy in mind of how you approach and show up there versus these other things, especially how you show up in your personal life versus your professional life. So, love that you're here. Tell us, if we're coach or consultant, what is the first thing we should keep in mind when we think about what should I post on LinkedIn?
#1 Action TIP
Prepare for your LinkedIn content by understanding who you're talking to and what they care about
Andréa: Yeah, so when you think about LinkedIn, I think oftentimes we think about it as a resumé of sorts. At least that's how I started using it is, this is my resume. I'm just talking about my past job history. But approaching it as a coach or consultant is thinking about your current work, and really focusing in on the transformation that you help bring to your target audience. So, when you're posting on LinkedIn, the difference between this platform and other platforms is you almost get a tagline of sorts that goes along with your posts. This is called your headline on your LinkedIn profile. As you're starting to think about posting, it's layering in that mission statement, that tagline, so that people know who you are and what you're all about as you are posting.
And so thinking about that transformation, I think sometimes we think about the job title. So, for me, for instance, that would be, social media strategist. But sometimes that doesn't tell the whole story. I think about social media and how I help my clients and customers impact and empower more people. So, it helps extend their reach. That's really the transformation that I help people bring. And that's right in that headline. So, when you're thinking about posting, it's really deeply understanding your ideal person, what they're looking for, so that when they land on your post, they know exactly who you are what you stand for.
Annie: Yeah, absolutely. And so that's a lot of decision making of who are you, what are you talking about, to who? What do they care about?
Andréa: Yeah, exactly. And it does take some work. It's not an easy thing. Those aren't easy questions to answer. So, it does take some work to figure that out. But because LinkedIn is also growing in popularity, there's a lot of people using the platform, which is great, because you have a lot of potential to connect. But also, because there's a lot of people, you want to make sure that your message, your difference, what you bring to the world is clear to those people as well. So, when they land on your content, they connect with your content. They know exactly who you are and what you stand for.
Annie: I'm really, really happy to use the word clear. And I was waiting to see what word you were going to use as you were teeing that up, because I think you and I have seen people creatively presenting their headlines we will say. I'm talking a little bit about that, in my new book, Establish Yourself, with people who are looking for reactions, less revenue, it's all about the reaction. I saw someone who is a mobile app developer, and they're like, I'm a plastic surgeon for mobile apps. And I went, what, who's searching for that? You people forget that LinkedIn is a search engine. So, I love that you gave a great example, which was both about the results and the transformation, which I think people don't realize they're asking for when they want to share something special about them. They think, oh, it's got to be something that sounds magical. No, I think you really hit on it, which is a transformation. But you didn't leave social media strategist out. You didn't say I am a social wizard from the house Gryffindor. You didn't try to make it too creative, that people would be like, well, she sounds cool, but I have no idea what she does.
I also love that this is your first tip of prepare your content by understanding who you're talking to, and what they care about. Because not overlooking the fact that when you're posting, every time you post, you have that little line underneath your name. And so not missing the opportunity because that really presents context. It has clarity and context, that's the name of the game with what you do and with what I do with branding. I also have a running joke that on Branding with Friends, almost everybody's first tip is, know who you are, and who your audience is. And thank you, you are my people. I don't blame her. I don't tell people when to come on and say that. So that's where we start, getting our head around and making sure whatever we're going to present is in context of what we do, who we're talking to, it's going to make some sense. And we're tipping people off to hey, this is who I am and this is why you're seeing this.
Andréa: Yeah, exactly. And I love that you brought up the search engine point as well, because that is something that's vital to have in that headline section. Not just so people can understand that so they can find you when they want to find you. I had this similar thing happen with someone who reached out and connected with me. And it said something about, like money, manifestation guidance. And I thought, I don't…and I read their description. Oh, they're a financial advisor. If it just had said financial advisor who and then you went into the description, I would have gotten that a lot sooner. I think that the kind of cute or clever names can actually be a detriment to you on a platform like LinkedIn. So, think about having those search specific terms, but also being really clear in how people can understand how that term relates to them.
Annie: Yeah, I always like to say that creative job titles confuse more than they convert. But it's funny, I've been beginning to think of it like a crossroads where people are either really into wanting to get a reaction or they're really into wanting to get revenue. And I'm reminded of the fact that they're willing to be boring. They're willing to not get a reaction but get an action, to get someone actually talking to them. They really hadn't. I think you're chasing the wrong thing. I see a lot of people chasing the wrong thing in your mind.
Which is, reminds me of another reason I really like Andréa and I love to quote her and point to her as a social media expert, because she's not somebody who will tell you how to do a million things. She's going to share more tips about that shortly. But I also remember you, you always talk about having a jingle, la commercial jingle. You need to you need to repeat your message so many times that it's boring. I have a similar kind of metaphor. I talk about playing your hit song that you need to go out there and like sing the song. Bands are tired of playing their hit song, but it's the song that everybody remembers because they played it so many times. It becomes the anthem, right? And you talk about a commercial jingle, it's not about being cute. It's about being clear, being consistent.
Andréa: Yes, exactly. That lawyer whose phone number you can sing, you want to be that.
Annie: As long as you get that they’re a lawyer. That's always the little tip. So, speaking of tips, that's a great first step is like grounding us and how are we presenting our profile and the content of what we're posting? When it comes to posting? I know you've got another? Or second tip, what is the next thing we need to be doing?
#2 ACTION TIP
Use our 5 Pillars of Content Strategy to ensure you have a healthy mix of content types on LinkedIn
Andréa: Yeah, so when you're looking at LinkedIn content as well, one of the things I suggest is having a variety of types of content pieces that you're going to post on LinkedIn. So automatically, as business owners, we kind of gravitate towards talking about our thing, or offer our service, which is great. And that's one part of it. So, I have five pillars of content. That's the first one it is talking about how you help people, and really focusing on that next step, when you're talking about your thing your offer your service. Because some people, most of us don't discover something for the first time and go yes, here's my money, take all of it. Sometimes we're like, yes, and I need to learn more. So really guiding them to that next step.
Annie: My money, take all of it right. When you say it out loud, you're like, well, yeah.
Andréa: I think that's happened a handful of times with me in the history of social media, where I saw an ad. And I was like, this is exactly it. Most times, I'm so curious about this, I sign up for a lead magnet, I get on a consultation call, you know, the next step. So when you're thinking about your content, that's one piece. There's four other types of pieces of content that I do want to share.
The second is educational content. And when you're thinking about showing up in this knowledgeable space on LinkedIn, showing up as an expert, you do want to show how you know these things. And oftentimes, we struggle with explaining it because we think it's common knowledge, or we think it's easy to understand. But honestly, that's why you're the expert. So, just sharing some of that knowledge on LinkedIn can be great. You can use video, you can use a written post, whatever you're most comfortable with by sharing the expertise.
The third content type is community content. This is great because it shows that it's not just you talking about your topics, there are other people. So, I like to share industry articles with adding your perspective to them. You can share news and updates, things that are happening in the industry.
The fourth content type is entertainment content. Yes, this does work on LinkedIn. Even though it's a bit more buttoned up than some of our other platforms. People still like to be engaged and entertained. So, funny posts things that are humorous. I'm sharing a little bit about how the sausage is made. I've seen some graphic designers lately, showing like sped up videos of their process of creating and those are entertaining in the sense that it's almost like the reality TV show version of the behind the scenes of your business.
Then the last content type is engaging content. And this type is actually the most popular content piece right now on LinkedIn. This is questions or polls, so getting people to kind of communicate with you, as you should talk about your topic and grow your business. And a poll is a really great way to do this. So ABCDE, choose an option poll, because what happens is people go to the poll, they click their option, and they immediately want to go to the comments and type why they picked that option. And it's really opening the door to conversation with you as the expert.
So, when you're thinking about posting on LinkedIn, I often recommend blending those five types. Typically, all of my clients start off posting with each type of content piece, but you may see different ones rise to the top, different ones that work better for your audience. You'll kind of get a feel for which ones you want to leverage more than the others.
Annie: I love that. That's pretty simplified, too. If you think through it. It's kind of hitting on all those buttons, but it gives you some flexibility. So Andréa just shared, correct me if I'm wrong, the five pillars are services, educational, community content, entertainment, content, and then engaging content.
Andréa: Yep, you got it.
Annie: I love it. I know I am not the best at consistency, though I strongly value it. I found that in my work with a strengths finder coach consistency is the bottom. But I am so consistent in my business because I built in systems. I think these pillars are one form of systems in terms of being consistent with LinkedIn in particular. For years, it was like a joke because I do so much graphic design as part of branding, logo design, business cards, and colors. But I never shared my work. I was still growing a six-figure business but never sharing work for like four years. But with my design assistant who actually met through you, thank you. We put together a strategy, a system where I when I finish a client, she creates portfolio graphics, my virtual assistant then uses a Mad Libs script I created to put it into LinkedIn. So that is how the magic if you follow me on LinkedIn, or you want to, I am suddenly sharing more recent work consistently.
I've been doing that for about a year and that has been really engaging content on LinkedIn, which is really lovely. I will log in, it just happened today. I'll log in and there'll be some comment from a client that is like, oh, thank you for sharing my brand. I think my most shared post on LinkedIn was sharing about a client and saying, hey, have you met this client, they do this amazing thing. I was so happy to rebrand them. And then there was like 30 comments deep of people saying things like, congratulations, Rick, you're amazing. So I basically showed up in that clients feed and that client has since thanked me multiple times for featuring them, like thanking me for doing great engaging social media that got the conversation going about branding.
So really good example of several of those content types. But just the fact that if you throw it out there with some strategy behind it, of connecting it back to what you do, it can be really powerful. So, I appreciate you sharing that content strategy. I know you are so helpful, and you've got incredible things to share with everybody. And I know you brought something along. So if people want to connect with you after this, or connect with your company, and all the amazing things you teach about social, what do you have for them today?
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Grab Andréa’s Free Social Media Rockstar Framework course here.
Andréa: Yes. So, the challenge with social media is that there are so many options. So really boil down my strategy to the core essence of a social media strategy that can be applied to any platform. You can find that for free at onlinedrea.com/free. It's our framework and our approach to social media. We'll talk about the five pillars of content. We'll talk about how to build out that commercial jingle messaging. We'll talk about how to connect with people, and actually build your followership, build your connections on LinkedIn. We also give you some shortcuts. So, you've got some captions, swipe files in there, some graphic designs, and live files. I do consider this as the Costco sample version of our program. So, giving you a little sample, but now we want you to buy the whole meal.
Annie: That’s what Costco is good at doing right?
Andréa: So this gives you the little taste of that. So that's onlinedrea.com/free.
Annie: That seems really high value. I don't think I've ever heard of a freebie that sort of has all of those ingredients that includes the graphic design. That sounds really helpful. That's what you want y'all, to be listening and be like, I know this person and I need their free thing right now. I’m already on your list, but I'll check it out. I think you should check it out.
If you are watching or listening to this today and if listening to this today has gotten you thinking well I have no idea where to start. What should I be known for? How do I brand myself as an expert? You can always set up a complimentary consult with me if you go to greateststorycreative.com. We talk about branding, business coaching all the things.
Now Andréa is going to share with us, she's sort of taken us through a lot today, that can be really useful for LinkedIn. So understanding kind of why people are shifting over there, you've given us our first two tips, we want to prepare our content by understanding who we are talking to and what they care about. And making sure we're being clear about who we are. The second tip using those five pillars of content strategy to ensure we have a healthy mix of content types, everything from services, the education, entertainment, engaging to community.
What is that last thing we want to keep in mind?
#3 Action Tip
Less is more. Don't worry about posting every day.
Andréa: You mentioned earlier that you're working with the strengthsfinder coach. I'm obsessed with strengthsfinder. My number one is strategic. But in my top five is ideation. Discipline is the very bottom of the list.
Annie: Of the top 34 or of the top 5?
Andréa: Discipline is 34. Yeah, I think it's like discipline, and woo are at the very bottom. So for me, I like planning, I like to be structured, but it is painful for me sometimes to actually move through with that. So, I understand that. And one of the beautiful things about LinkedIn is you don't need as much content as some of the other platforms. Many of my clients are only posting once a week, maybe twice a week. You don't need to post every single day and have all of these content plans.
When we approach LinkedIn, when we're creating content, it's oftentimes a relief for a lot of business owners. Because if you're used to a platform, like a Twitter or an Instagram, where you're producing multiple pieces every day, sometimes LinkedIn can feel that way. So that's my biggest tip when it comes to LinkedIn. Don't pressure yourself too much with the content. In fact, I'd rather you give yourself a time limit than a content limit. So, one of my best ways of approaching content is building out that habit. Since discipline is so low on the list, for me, it's having that weekly habit of creating content. So, I sit down and create that content, I usually spend about an hour on this.
So, if LinkedIn is your place, and you want to spend about an hour on it, it's great. If that's only one or two posts, maybe you can batch that for a month if you like depending on your content flow and just kind of work with that strategy in mind. You don't need as much content, once or twice a week is great. And your content “lives” a lot longer in the feed. So, because LinkedIn has this natural amplification of people you're connected to, their connections can also potentially see your content. So, really focusing on the connections piece is more valuable than producing all of the content. Producing those one or two pieces and letting it live. People will still see it a week from now, two weeks from now even and focusing the rest of your time on building out your connections.
Annie: Yeah, I love it. And that's again, why I love having you on because you are the probably one of the few social media experts I see. One that's legitimately successful, so well done. But I think part of the other piece of your success is that you don't tell people to be everywhere all the time, which is burnout strategy. You're teaching consistency, which is also what I teach and what I believe in. Keep doing something once a week when you're setting the time, even if it's not your strength, it’s not mine either. That's how I use tools like SmarterQueue and things like that to keep my stuff going out there because it's not a strength for me. But it's not going to be any good if you post three times a day for a week and then hate it so much. You never do it again. No one will see that right. So, I love that, get started. Do you still teach that? Only do one network to begin with as a business?
Andréa: Yeah. So don't worry. If you've decided on LinkedIn, focus on LinkedIn. You don't need to be on TikTok or Instagram or Twitter. Just focus on that one platform because you're right. It's like the pathway to burnout if you try to be everywhere. I'm everywhere, because it's my job and I'm studying it. But even I find it to be overwhelming sometimes. So, I definitely don't recommend it for business owners. Even people who have large teams still limit themselves to a few platforms. So yeah, focus on the one. And if it's LinkedIn, I think for coaches, consultants, and service-based business owners, you'll see a return on that time investment there.
Annie: Right. It's the quality over quantity piece of it. And I also think there's a piece that I talk a lot about in my new book that's all about this idea, really, to me, it's like a lot of the advice that people give is for someone who's a natural born marketer who likes thrives. You clearly are a natural born marketer. You thrive being on social. A lot of business owners are on social because they in some way need to be or feel that they need to be and that's a different thing. How do you market yourself when you're not a natural born marketer? You certainly don't do it by becoming one overnight. So, I love that yours is very much a one step at a time. That's how I try to approach the branding piece, the coaching fees. We can do it without overwhelm, but we’ve got to not compare ourselves to those who were just born ready to do it and who love to do it.
Andréa: Yes, and I honestly think that's why we're friends, Annie. Because I talk about the same thing in that there's a difference between being a content creator, like your job is to create content and being a business owner. And so even the people who teach social media strategies teach it for content creators. They teach, you to show up on Instagram stories every day, share your life, share your kids share your crying in the car moments, that doesn't work for business owners.
Annie: So, it's not appropriate right? Some are also forgetting to talk about their business. The other phenomenon I'm seeing, this is what happens when you don't get a real experts help with some things. Sometimes you're just getting all the free advice everywhere and you are taking the advice, as you just so eloquently shared, intended for, say an influencer, a content-based brand who makes money because of partnerships, not because they're selling services. Half of my coaching is going to be, you're doing all this social research and you're not once mentioning that you have something to sell. You're not once talking about that you're in business. So yes, of course, no one's converting, because all you're doing is they're still absorbing this I have to be an entertainer thing, but not every brand is an entertainment brand. There can be entertaining content, as you said, but we're not all entertainers. Right, we're in business.
Andréa: Yes. And that's a beautiful thing as well. When you shift to that business minded strategy, you actually make it a lot easier on yourself. You don't have to dance and point in TicTok videos.
Annie: Good because I'm still resisting the trend, I'm too old. I’ve officially found something I'm too old for. I'm good. I love that people love it. Everyone's got to find their thing. But I'm much more comfortable on LinkedIn. I'm old and that's for me.
I'm so glad you could come back. I love what you said, that's why we're friends. It's really called Branding with Friends because Andréa and I started this together on this road. So, thinking about LinkedIn posting, great tips today. Really about starting with making sure that headline is great and clear. You know who you're talking to. And you're featuring that transformation. That second thing is making sure you are thinking through the themes of what you're posting, the pillars of content strategy. Andréa shared five with us services, educational, community, entertainment, and engaging content. And then my favorite, because it's real and attainable is less is more don't worry about posting every day. Use Andréa’s time-based strategy to reduce that overwhelm. Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom today.
Andréa: Thank you so much for having me back in.
Annie: Absolutely! We hope that y'all enjoyed yet another episode of Branding with Friends. So many thanks to my special guests, Andréa Jones. Tune in next time when we're going to tackle yet another topic where branding and business meet. Until then I'm Annie Franceschi. Find all of our episodes branding resources and so much more at our website greateststorycreative.com. Stay awesome!
“Branding with Friends” Episode 28
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips for posting on LinkedIn to grow your service business:
Prepare for your LinkedIn content by understanding who you're talking to and what they care about
Use the 5 Pillars of Content Strategy to ensure you have a healthy mix of content types on LinkedIn
Less is more. Don't worry about posting every day. Use our time based strategy instead to reduce overwhelm
Dive deeper into branding and growing your greatest business with Annie Franceschi:
• Subscribe to the Greatest Story Creative newsletter to have new episodes of “Branding with Friends” sent right to your inbox the day they premiere!
• Find past episodes at BrandingwithFriends.com
• Connect with Annie for consultations, resources, and more here on greateststorycreative.com
• Follow Annie & Greatest Story Creative online:
--- Facebook - facebook.com/greateststorycreative
--- LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/anniefranceschi
--- Instagram - @annie.franceschi
To learn more about posting on LinkedIn or to seek Andréa’s help:
• Visit Andréa at onlinedrea.com
• Grab her free Social Media Rockstar Framework course here
• @onlinedrea on Instagram
• Connect with Andréa on Facebook
• Connect with Andréa on LinkedIn
