Speaker 1: 

Welcome to Digital First Leadership. The podcast that focuses on helping leaders and teams understand how to master the language of social media in today's digital first world. 

Richard Bliss

Welcome to the show. I’m Richard Bliss and I’m joined by my very good friend, and fellow Richard in the world of LinkedIn, and everything that has to do with social selling, Richard van der Blom. Richard, thanks for joining me.

Richard van der Blom

Yeah. My pleasure, Richard.

Richard Bliss

It is always fun. We are here talking about, this episode of the podcast, because you and I are working together on a book that covers and talks about basically LinkedIn for business, and how it impacts social selling. How it impacts businesses, marketing, thought leadership, all of those aspects. Because, as you and I both believe, and we continue to preach and teach, LinkedIn continues to be the ultimate platform when it comes for business people. Wouldn’t you agree?

Richard van der Blom

100%.

Richard Bliss

100%. So what we’re talking about, so you and I have decided that in 2023 we’re going to be releasing our book. Hopefully it’s coming out in this first quarter. We’ll see on the timing and everything. You and I have been very busy. So, one question that always comes up is, I get, after, you and I do a lot of presenting, a lot of teaching, training… they’re like, Where can I get all of this information. And I’m like, Well, I’ll send you my presentation. And they’re like, No, no I just want it, like, in one place.

Richard van der Blom

Yeah.

Richard Bliss

And I think that’s what motivated us to get together to write a book so that all that content… well, all’s a big word. But it’s in one place. Right? How important is that, do you think?

Richard van der Blom

To me, to you, or to the audience?

Richard Bliss

All of the above.

Richard van der Blom

Well, to me it’s very important. You know why? You know I have been talking about releasing a book since four years, and everytime I find a reason not to do it because, like, always busy with new trainings, new clients. But I get the question, the same question that you got, and I get it a lot. Like, Richard, if I want to follow you, where? I say, just follow me on LinkedIn. And people go yeah, but then I need to click and scroll, and I want to have it like, something I can touch, something I can take with me to, I don’t know, to the back room, whenever you want to take your books.

Richard Bliss

Right.

Richard van der Blom

So, I was very thrilled when you came up with the idea. Also because of the topic because it’s going to get some insight and how you can leverage LinkedIn. Also, content-wise, to create new business opportunities, to create new growth. And since LinkedIn has now definitely entered the adult phase of the platform, adult stage of the platform, I think it’s, uh, you need to step up your game, in order to still be successful by it. I know we all know the mess of InMail spam waves we all had during the pandemic. So, you need to approach, engage in different ways with your potential customer. Because, otherwise, you will not get any response anymore. And that’s one of the things where I think this book comes in very handy.

Richard Bliss

I agree because the research report that you have put out every year, that my company gets to help sponsor, that’s incredibly useful data. But one of the things that we have been asked, you and I, is like, Ok, now, how do I put it into practice.

Richard van der Blom

Exactly. It’s all about implementing. It’s all about implementing. Yeah, exactly.

Richard Bliss

It is. And so that’s why the book is an opportunity of taking both the data that’s available for free. You don’t charge for it. I don’t charge for it. We give it away to our clients, our prospects. Anybody who would like it. And it’s been extremely successful that way. But now it’s like, Ok, we’re going to put it all together in a single place saying, With this data, here are the lessons you and I have learned. Between, you know, I’m in the United States in Silicone Valley. You’re in Eurpoe. We’re working with clients all around the world, teaching them on a one-on-one basis. But this gives us the opportunity to talk to an even bigger audience.

Richard van der Blom

Yeah, it does. And one of the goals that I have, and I’m sure you would agree, with the book is that it’s not a book on the algorithm today. Because, you know, with all the changes and all the new features, it will probably be outdated in 6-9 months. But it will be a book to make you understand some of the rules of the algorithm. Some of the rules of using a platform as LinkedIn for your lead generation process, for your client identification process. So, it’s more on a strategic level, but based on the data we recently found. So, I think it’s going to be massively useful.

Richard Bliss

I agree. A couple of data points that people might find useful. For example, one of the things out there, people are saying, Well, the algorithm’s changing all the time. That is true. But the ultimate goals are still there. Begin conversations, right? Open up the opportunity of, doors of opportunity, introduce you to prospects and customers. These are the same goals that people have. Build an awareness. And so one of the things that I often teach, and that you agree with, and that is, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, they’re all driven by a advertizing/revenue model. Right? Get as many people to see your dumb content, and then get enraged by it, yell at each other back and forth, and Facebook makes money. But on LinkedIn that doesn’t work. And so, what we do is we say, Look, you have the opportunity of starting a conversation. The techniques and tactics you’re using on Facebook, will fail here on LinkedIn.

Richard van der Blom

Exactly.

Richard Bliss

Here’s how to use the techniques and tactics of the algorithm in such a way that your prospects begin to engage with you long before you send a connection request. right?

Richard van der Blom

Exactly. Yep.

Richard Bliss

Doors of opportunity opened with your clients because they see you doing your job, talking about what you’re good at, participating in conversations. These are the types of things that have become so invaluable that you and I have both presented to our clients around the world. Which is why I think it’s so useful for us to kind of put them down in writing in a single location. So that people can engage with that and have a reference to that information.

Richard van der Blom

Exactly. And it’s not only based on the data of the report or the research, but it’s also based on, I think, our vast experience that we both have, working for many years with clients. Because I can come up with 50, 60 best practices – and I’m talking about big companies – have changed the way, how they use LinkedIn, content-wise, in order to increase lead gen or to engage with customers. And many of them, the majority, has been very successful implementing the lessons of the data we provide. So, if you don’t take our word for it, take the word of the clients that have been successfully implementing it. And you know, maybe it’s a LinkedIn Bible, I don’t know. Maybe that’s…

Richard Bliss

I think there’s actually a book called The LinkedIn Bible? It’s terrible. I don’t think it’s actually good at all.

Richard van der Blom

Is it? Oh, ok.

Richard Bliss

I think there is. But here’s the challenge: most of the books we pick up on LinkedIn, what do they cover? What do they talk about? I’m going to answer my own question. They talk about how to find a job, how to make your profile look good, how to use this as your CV/resume. Right? They talk about LinkedIn from a very different world than the clients that you and I work with. We talk to people who are like, Look, I’m not looking for a job, I’m looking for a prospect, a client, and the spamming techniques I’ve used in the past aren’t working. Yeah, no kidding. Right? So, here is a way for you to crack open that door. I had a sales rep email me a little while back, who said they deployed some of the strategy that we teach around LinkedIn, and they got, they sent me an email and said it took them one day of implementing these strategies, and a prospect of a major corporation cold called the sales rep. Instead of the sales rep doing the cold calling to the prospect, the prospect cold called the sales rep. Because of the way they began to engage with them on LinkedIn.

Richard van der Blom

Yep.

Richard Bliss

And, uh, that’s some of the transformational nature that you’re talking about. The businesses you and I work with. So, I’m very excited about that. What would be another piece of information that’s kind of, that’s counterintuitive, that you think that people use from the other social media platforms that just simply spectacularly fail on LinkedIn? Got anything off the top of your head?

Richard van der Blom

Not specifically, because I don’t spend a lot of time on the other platforms. But, what I do know, is that there are still people, and I don’t know whether some time or budget-wise, that they are repurposing content that has been working on the other platforms, without connecting to the LinkedIn tone of voice, the LinkedIn ecosystem.

Richard Bliss

So, what would be some of those adaptions that they need to make? As they bring it over from another platform? Like, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook?

Richard van der Blom

It’s difficult to say, because it also depends on what is your business and who’s your target audience. 

Richard Bliss

Good point.

Richard van der Blom

But, I think, like, we all know that people do not spend as much time on LinkedIn as on Instagram and Facebook. I mean, every session… I can’t remember my own data, but I think it was approximately a minute. People go about 12 posts and then they’re gone. And on Facebook and Instagram, people spend half an hour easily. Because the content is loud, it’s visual, it’s images, it’s video. And LinkedIn… I think one of the things is you need to be aware, how to attract the attention of the person that is scrolling, in a very limited amount of time, to stop on your post, and to start engaging with your post. So that’s the first thing. How do we make people stop scrolling, and how do we make people find our post?

Richard Bliss

And so, that’s a very valid point, because traditionally, people are going to say, Oh, I need to make a really creative image, and I need to make a video, and that’s going to get them to stop. And we know, probably not on LinkedIn. I don’t have time to spend four or five minutes watching your video. I don’t have time for that.

Richard van der Blom

No. It’s also the perception and a reason. People are not on LinkedIn to watch three, four videos of people, I don’t know, cook a cake, do a dance. I mean, the whole ecosystem is different. I always say in my trainings, like, if I have in the introduction and people say like, No, I don’t spend a lot of time on LinkedIn because I don’t do social media. My response by default is, I’m glad because LinkedIn is no social media. It’s a business tool. So, if you don’t like social media, put aside Facebook, Instagram, I’m not going to ask you to become active there. But LinkedIn is no… it’s a business tool. Your clients are there, your buyers are there, your potential hires are there. And so, you have a choice. You know, jump in and become active, engage, identify, approach people. Or just say Nah, social media is not for me.

Richard Bliss

I was presenting last week to a group of individuals. And these are very successful people in the public space. One of them has received in excess of one billion views on YouTube. They are very successful on YouTube. Now, when we looked at their LinkedIn profile, they had 1200 connections on LinkedIn, and they get about 100-200 impressions on every post they put out on LinkedIn. On YouTube, they live. They dominate. And they, just, even as they talk, they say, Richard, I just… nah, LinkedIn’s just not working for me. So, at the beginning of my presentation, I simply had them make a post, followed some simple rules that are in the algorithm, and by the end of my presentation, I went back to that individual and, in front of the audience, How many impressions have you received on that post? And, he’d received 5000 impressions on the post, actually just happened in the first day. More than he’d ever received on LinkedIn. Now it’s not the 1 billion he gets on YouTube.

Richard van der Blom

Nah, it’s a good start, no?

Richard Bliss

It’s an excellent start because also, those 5 billion on YouTube, he’s entertaining. He’s a very entertaining individual. Those 5, those 1 billion, those 5000 on LinkedIn, the are paying customers who have money and interest in paying him to come do for them the job that he is in. And so, it was a perfect example of, cuz he kept just sending YouTube links over and nobody would watch them. Even though everybody is watching them over on the YouTube side of the house. So, it’s a perfect example of, sometimes we’re very successful on one social media channel, as you just said, but if we just poured it over, LinkedIn is going to shut it down. And not… this is what I say, Richard, so many businesses are trying to use LinkedIn as a dumping ground for their marketing content.

Richard van der Blom

Yep.

Richard Bliss

Right? That’s what they do on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube. And LinkedIn’s like, <buzzer sound> We will not allow you to do that. And that’s why they don’t have success. Not because their content’s not any good, but because it’s not appropriate for this platform. And so that’s something very important to remember.

Richard van der Blom

Yeah. It’s not fitted for a platform indeed, yeah, yeah.

Richard Bliss

It’s not. Alright, well, I’m very much looking forward to continuing. We have, the first draft is done. We’re working on a second draft now, as we’re moving forward. We haven’t decided on a title yet. It will be interesting to see what we come up with, with the title for that. But it will be interesting also from our audience. The, uh, your audience, my audience. What their feedback is, and input. What they’d like to see in this book as we continue to get closer to finalizing it and publishing it. So, I’ll be interested to hear the feedback from the audience.

Richard van der Blom

Oh, I will. I will. So, I will create a post. If you’re watching this video, but I’m probably in the post that comes with this video, I will ask you some questions and provide me with feedback on our ideas to come up with a provocative, or great title. And yeah, let’s see what our audience comes up with.

Richard Bliss

That’ll work. You’ll see it on Richard’s LinkedIn. You should be watching it on Richard van der Blom’s LinkedIn profile as well as on my own. And we’ll look forward to hearing from all of you. Thanks for listening, and thanks for the time and support that everybody has given us here on the podcast and as we work together. We always enjoy the commentary and the feedback that we receive from all of our clients. Richard, also, thank you very much for joining me. It’s always a pleasure.

Richard van der Blom

Thank you for organizing it. Thank you, Richard. Speak soon.

Speaker 1: 

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