043 - How To Create LinkedIn Content That Builds Relationships and Attracts Potential Clients

Have you ever scrolled through LinkedIn and seen a post that seemed to speak directly to you? That's the power of strategy driven content. 

Stella Da Silva, International Trainer / Consultant, Freelance Trainer / Consultant #stellaicious, joined me to talk about creating LinkedIn content to generate clients.     

Topics included

🔹Focusing on reaching the "right" person rather than everyone

🔹Why it's essential to be genuine, staying true to yourself

🔹Acknowledging every comment on your posts with gratitude

🔹Being comfortable with the content you share

And more

Download 25 Content Creation Ideas To Kickstart Your Social Media Posts  (Click Link Below)

🔷 Thank you for listening. I hope you found this episode insightful, educational, and inspiring. If you did, don't forget to hit that Follow to keep learning and growing with us.

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🎦 Video is the fastest way to build that know, like, and trust factor with potential clients. If you're not creating video because you don't know how to begin, DOWNLOAD our new Social Media Video Quick Start Guide (It's Free) Click here to Download

⏬ Download 25 Content Ideas To Kickstart Your Social Media Posts (For People Who Don't Know What To Say (It's Free) Click here to Download

➡️ Need more? Check out the 200+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel

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For additional insights, follow Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
LinkedIn Company Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-dog-marketing-strategies/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackdogmarketingstrategies
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annetteadvises
...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Hi, I'm Annette Richman. Welcome to Content Marketing School, where we will dive into content marketing strategies specifically for coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs. Discover how effective content marketing can elevate your brand and grow your business. And if you enjoy the show, don't forget to hit that follow button. Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are joining us from.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I'm Annette Richman, this is Content Marketing School, and I am so excited to be here with my friend Stella today. You know I was thinking about this. We met each other Actually, I learned about you in Content DNA because I read about you in the book, and then I got to meet you on Clubhouse and then we became friends and we were doing, you know, moderating rooms together every week for at least a year, and you know I got to know you and I miss you now. That's one of the things that I miss about Clubhouse is the people that I used to hang with all the time, and so you know I do miss that. But so for anyone who does not know you, please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 2:01

I feel like I'm in a job interview. So, as you all know, I'm Stella Da Silva. As you all know, I'm Stella Da Silva and I'm a training consultant, working, living and working in beautiful Oman, in the Middle East. I mainly work with job seekers, clients who are looking for CV revamps, preparing themselves for interviews, and at the moment, I'm currently working with a brilliant startup called NTZ Solutions here in Oman, which is all about sustainability net zero biochar products. So exciting times ahead.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Yeah, we were talking a little bit about that before we went live. Yeah, we were talking a little bit about that before we went live. And, as I said, you are such this warm giving person that I can so see you doing. You know doing that and you know I, I one of the things that I always think about with you and besides your engaging content because you have very engaging content on LinkedIn and you know, I think everybody knows you, they know you for that.

Speaker 1: 3:18

But when I think of you, the two thoughts that come to mind for me are number one, that you are always saying it doesn't take a ton of people to see your content, it only takes that one person, the right person, and so I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that. And the second thing is kind of like, very much the you do you. Now, I know there's people like me that are like video, video, video, and you're like, nah, it's not for me, it's not for me. And so if you can talk first a little bit about that whole idea of the one client, and that would be great to just start us off personal experience and, again, you know the way it's kind of worked, the way it's kind of worked for me.

Speaker 2: 4:16

So, in the sense of, I'm a strong believer that when you are on LinkedIn, you know you're coming into a platform that, if you're new to the platform, can be quite intimidating, right. So you're seeing different people put in different types of content, you're seeing different types of engagements, you're seeing some viral. You know pieces of content and you're thinking, oh my gosh, where do I start? What do I do? Right, so that's how it usually starts. And, again, from personal experience, I've always found that when I've put content out, it's always the content that doesn't necessarily have the largest of views or the tons of engagement is the one that is probably going to maybe pay towards me buying my next house or pay towards me, you know, opening and setting up a business, which I have done here in Oman, and it's literally because that particular piece of content at the time resonates with the right client. So the right client has seen that content, has gone to obviously check my profile out, has gone to see all the evidence, because obviously you have to reference how great you are through your recommendations, your skills, your content, reference how great you are through your recommendations, your skills, your content and, obviously, making sure that your LinkedIn is optimized, and before you know it so easily, you've bagged a client. Of course they probably want to have a Zoom chat with you. You know you probably have to give additional evidence, but for the most part they come through by that one piece of content that you've put out and that's how I got my job here in Oman. You know it was through one piece of content and I remember it so vividly and it had less than 15 likes and one of them was mine, by the way. Used to be the days when we used to always like our own was mine, by the way. It used to be the days when we used to always like our own. We always used to like our own content. Exactly Right, just to think, oh yeah, more people are looking at it. And literally that one person saw that piece of content. We can't. You know he sent me a DM before. You know I'm delivering training in Oman, so when I'm now working with clients here, I'm delivering training in Oman. So when I'm now working with clients here, you know who want to. You know who want to optimize their LinkedIn or want to start their LinkedIn journey.

Speaker 2: 6:44

I always say it's nothing like Instagram or maybe Facebook, where you kind of rely on that sort of real-time engagement and millions and trillions of views or whatever to be sort of like successful. I feel it can be the opposite, you know, it's the quality of the content that reaches the right person at the right time. So, again, for me it's all about having a strategy because, again, you know, am I putting the content out at a particular time? If I'm looking for clients in the United States, for example, because obviously our time zones are different, so I'm going to focus my content at American time zone. If I'm looking for clients in Europe, I'm looking at that time zone.

Speaker 2: 7:24

So, again, just simple things like that and you know me, annette, I'm all about keeping it stellarly simple. So it's simple but very effective strategy. That's what you need on LinkedIn, I find, and that's what is really important, even with the type of content you're putting out. Again, not emphasising or worrying too much about how many people are engaging on the, on the, on the content, or how many people are liking it or number of impressions, because, honestly, you do that and you just, you just worry yourself too. You know you worry and there's there's no point. You've got no control over it.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Yeah, you know, I um, I am much better at that. I realize that it doesn't. It's not the people. You know the likes, the likes, the likes and all that, and when I've been evaluating my content more recently, since I've shifted my business and shifted my LinkedIn strategy, is I look at the, my engagement numbers, and that's what I look at to see if it's in. I am getting the engagement, and that's what I look at to see if I am getting the engagement. So one of the things that I think that you know, based on what I see and I'm talking to you, consistency is important, but I know that for me, like I remember during the pandemic, was when I'm embarrassed to say I really first started getting active on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I met people in clubhouse I liked, and they were on LinkedIn. I was like, ok, I better go there too. So, um, you know, and there was a uh, a lot of people that got involved with, uh, you know, 365, 24, seven. I'm going to post every day, every day, every day. I tried that for like two weeks and I was like, yeah, I'm posting a post, and so I stopped. Now, one of the things, though, though, that people I think are told often by coaches. I'm all about doing what's manageable for you, but what is your advice for someone? First, for someone who's kind of just starting and saying, oh this sounds interesting, maybe I'll start engaging.

Speaker 2: 9:27

And then for someone who's already there but wants to maybe up their game again, I always say and Annette, you know me for this, one size doesn't fit all. On LinkedIn, it really doesn't meaning that what works for me might not work for you. So if it's a case that I'm you know, I'm on LinkedIn, posting every single day, that might be my strategy. That works for me but may not work for you, right? So again, it's, it's all about trying. You know, trial and error if you like. So I'm not opposed to people trying If you feel you've got the time to post every single day. But what does that mean? Are you just posting every single day or are you also engaging on that post every single day? And are you then also engaging with people who've bothered to engage with you? Have you sort of like reciprocated and got to engage on their posts? So when you're now thinking, when you're thinking about it in that broader sense, you can now see that maybe posting every day might be a bit too much for some people. Because I always, I always question as well if you're posting every day or twice a day and you're doing all this engagement and you're on LinkedIn, I do question well, what is your real side hustle, what's your real job? Because I know that where I've got a. You know, I've got a real job besides having a job on LinkedIn, so to speak, because being on LinkedIn can be like another job. But you then have to dedicate the right time to LinkedIn, and I know so many people who can come on LinkedIn, spend three, four hours and waste their time on LinkedIn, meaning that they're just going through their feed, they're just going through content, but they're not adding value, they're just putting a like in. So, again, it's really, really important that you decide what works for you. But the key word that you've said, that you've mentioned, is you are consistent. So if you decide that you are going to post every single day, well, you better be consistent, because it's all got to do with the LinkedIn algorithm as well. The more you train the algorithm, the more it works for you. So if you're consistently posting two, three times a week, then that's the number you should be consistently posting.

Speaker 2: 11:47

But a lot of people think it's. A lot of people always tend to think, oh, it's about coming on LinkedIn, putting a post, engage with the people who've posted or who are, you know, engaging back on your content and that's it. Well, what about them? They've put out content. It would be nice that you go and engage on their posts. So, and that's how you build your network, because then people see that you're not just taking, taking, taking, taking all the time, you're also giving back. And the more you give back, it's what you should be doing on LinkedIn. Actually, you should give in more than you are actually taking back on this platform to build your network, who, in turn, will then work for you when you need them to, and they do brilliantly in my case. Does that make?

Speaker 1: 12:37

sense. No, it makes absolute sense. I mean, for me, and I feel like you know, being on LinkedIn is a place where I am in, there to engage, to attract potential clients and then also hang out with my friends, because I love to see what everybody's doing. I strive for five times a week. That's my goal. If, sometimes, if I do an extra post, great. If I do one less, well, life happens. But one of the things that I also want to talk to you about, because one of the things that I think too, and I think AI for some people. I know some people and you can tell by looking at the posts that they have AI created and they just throw it up there as is. It's not like I use it for brainstorming. I use it to get ideas and drafts and whatnot, but I'm not taking that content and putting it on as mine, you know, as mine, and one of the things that I love about you and I just want to say hello to our friend Jeff, who joined us, and he says oh, greetings.

Speaker 2: 13:42

Hey, Jeff, we love you, Sorry sorry to be late.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Well, you know, we're just happy you're here. So thank you so much. But the whole idea of AI is of AI. That it's making making it sort of like problem is what I think of it as. But one of the things that I also think about you is you have your voice Now. I think it's so important and I try to be that way myself is that if I read your content and it wasn't with your name, I would recognize it. I would say, oh, that's Stella, you know, and you've developed this. You know, unique Stella-licious, as you say, right, stella-licious is your hashtag. So tell me a little bit about how people you know can do that, like how you did it, and how other people can maybe get inspiration from from you to do their that themselves.

Speaker 2: 14:40

Again, you know, for me personally, I just I remember when I first came on LinkedIn and that was roughly, or should I say, came back to LinkedIn, and that was roughly about 2017, 2018. And for me, the landscape had completely changed from when I first registered way back in 2009,. Right, but what I was determined very, very early on, even back then, was I was just going to be me. I wasn't going to be anything other than me, and if people liked it, great, and if people didn't like it, that was okay. But I wasn't going to be. You know, my style as a trainer because that's what I am is very informal. You know, people know me for my clappers. I've got one here right now. I, you know, I, the way I deliver is very, very informal. So I wasn't going to put up a profile picture in a suit, because I don't wear a suit when I'm delivering training, right. Nor was I going to speak in a with, you know, in that formal tone in my content, so that I always thought that when people met me offline, there'll be no shock, there'll be no surprises, because they'll say, oh my God, you are exactly as you are online. There's no difference. And that's what I was so determined to do so.

Speaker 2: 16:07

As you say, I speak in very simplistic terms. I don't use language that I myself don't understand or don't use on a daily basis. Don't use language that I myself don't understand or don't use on a daily basis and I am just me. I can't, you know I can't. There's no, there's no magic to it, there's no formula to it other than just be you. Some people are formal in their personality. That is fine, then be formal in the way you write. Some people are, like me, very informal, quite loud, quite, you know, in your face sometimes. That's my style and that's how I try and put my content. So, like you said, I love the fact that you said, annette, that even if you didn't see my name and you saw a piece of content, you would know straight away that was me, because that's what I am. I just want to be me. So that's the way I would give that sort of advice to anybody putting out content. Do it in the way that is your style.

Speaker 2: 17:08

And this is where AI becomes very, very. Yeah, it's a bit of of a tricky one because, like you said, there is no way I could put out AI generated content. People will catch me out straight away, you know, and yes, it's easy because that all you have to do is command AI. But is that really being authentically you? I question that sometimes. So I'm I'm very-AI in the sense that if it's putting out content, I think, yeah, I know some people would argue time. You know they haven't got time so they can automate it, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's on you. I know that. I just like to just say I say as I see it. Basically that's how my content usually is as well, and then again, putting out different types of content for me is always key. Sundays. Now is a fun day someday, and I get so much engagement on fun day Sunday than I do any other day that I put content out. So again, it's just finding your style, what works for you. So that's what I do on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Well, I love your Sunday fun day. You know, I look forward to that. It's always some kind of an image riddle or something, and you know, and it's a lot of fun and that's one of the things that I, you know I have been, I think, someone who likes to have a little fun on LinkedIn, but I want my new strategies to lean into that even more. And I'm like you in the sense that I'm pretty casual also, and I try to write as I speak, and so you know you're not getting anything as I speak, and so you know you're not getting anything. You know, if I say, well, you know I was gonna do this, I would probably write it that way on LinkedIn as well. And so, as Jeff agrees, K-I-S-S, keep it Stella-liciously simple, and it's so true, it's so true, and you know it's also, it's harder to be somebody else, right?

Speaker 2: 19:37

I think you know, at the end of the day, people want to see humans as much. As we are on a platform and we're writing through our keyboards this, that and the other, I think your content can humanize you. You know, if you do it the right way and like I always tell people on LinkedIn, you know people always go on, you know you and we. We see this sometimes and they're on content where people say this, this belongs on Facebook or this belongs on Instagram, and you think, well, why is? Why are you saying that I would put the same content I put on LinkedIn? I'll put it on any platform. Do you see what I mean? But what I always argue with all platforms across not just LinkedIn, but Instagram, facebook, whatever other platform there is.

Speaker 2: 20:07

I always say, look, there is a difference between writing personal stuff and writing private stuff.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Right, that is what people need to understand. So I'm very aware that when I'm writing personal stuff on LinkedIn, I know that a vast majority of people will be able to resonate with a lot of the personal stuff that I'm writing, because you know, I'm not a professional 24 hours a day. I'm not a professional 24 hours a day. That's just not my life. I have a personal life outside of work, and then if we're saying, oh, you need to be the authentic you, you need to be the true you, well, that comes with the good, the bad and the ugly, I'm afraid, and that's what you're going to get through my content. So again, I'm very you know, I'm very aware of people saying so many things, including coaches, you know, who say one thing but are quite contradictory in their content when I see it. So, again, I'm back to what works for you may not work for me, and vice versa. I'm back to what works for you may not work for me, and vice versa.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Well, you know, I love that you brought up that word private, because that's what I was going to get into, and I heard someone say it on LinkedIn not on LinkedIn on Clubhouse, and I don't remember who it was that talked about it in terms of having the professional, the personal and the private, and that's how I think about it as well, and the private, and that's how I think about it as well.

Speaker 1: 21:43

And I have although I am pretty just fairly private person, just by nature, I have, you know, small group, but I've been trying to get more, adding more personal, so that might be me and my husband at a football game or me with the dogs, or something like that. And then, you know, private is a whole kind of other area, and for me now again, I'm with you too I say write whatever you want on LinkedIn, but if, like, if I was I don't know in the hospital or something, I wouldn't be posting about that and showing a picture of me laying in the hospital bed on LinkedIn. Now again, I don't say there's anything wrong with that, but for me that would be private and I would not be comfortable sharing that that deeply. And so you mentioned that as well the personal and private, and I love the way you weave a lot of personal personal stories about your family. I love hearing about your dad and your sisters personal, personal stories about your family. I love hearing about your dad and your sisters, um, but it doesn't seem to get over what I would consider to be private, so can you talk a little bit about?

Speaker 2: 22:46

that, yeah, because also I need to respect their privacy, right. Because, again, when I'm writing about my sisters or my family, it's because I'm alone here in Oman. My family are in the UK, so sometimes I just want to write about my family because I just generally miss them, right. But again, I wouldn't necessarily, you know, disclose private stuff about my family, especially if they haven't given me the permission to my family, especially if they haven't given me the permission to that said, you know we've seen Annette on LinkedIn, a lot of people put in private stuff. So, you know, the classic one would be I've seen posts where people may be dying, for example, and they're talking about bucket list and things like that. Or they may be talking about really private matters, like you know, a medical condition they might be going through and, like you, I won't necessarily put that on Facebook for me because it's private to me. But for people like that, I actually commend a lot of them because sometimes, you know, they bring in a lot of awareness.

Speaker 2: 23:59

There's things that I learn from these kind of things, um, so, again, I always say do what you're comfortable with, and unless LinkedIn, unless you are specifically breaking the terms of service of LinkedIn, I feel anything goes and it's not for me. I'm'm very much hashtag, no judgment. If I don't like what I see in content, so that it's content coming up my feed and I'm uncomfortable or it triggers me in any way, there's the block button, there's remove, there is. I don't need to see this on my feed. You've got options, rather than then go and go on the on the piece of content and then just be aggressive, abusive, you know, be rude. Yeah, I mean, I just yeah, I know.

Speaker 1: 24:47

I mean this. I don't like that. And what people often don't realize is when, if I, if you post something and I say, oh, I think that's so offensive, and I'm on your post talking about how offensive it is, then I'm spreading it out to all of my network and I'm giving your post a boost. So it's just, you know, it's really and it's not exactly.

Speaker 2: 25:06

And then you're the one coming across. You know, again you're like a jerk. You really really are. Basically, you know you're really coming across as not giving the right impressions. And again, you know when I'm telling people people are watching you, regardless of the fact that they're engaging on your content or not. The lurkers are there, there are plenty. And for those people who don't know what lurkers are, these are literally people who come on social media and literally just scroll. They watch what you're doing, they watch your feed, they watch your content, but they're not necessarily engaging with you. And then you have some really really good lurkers in that. Once they decide that they really like you and they want your service, boom they, they contact you. Yeah, and then you've got the trolly type of lurkers who then decide they want to come and troll you, which, again, that's part of the nature of social media.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Well, I, to be honest with you, I don't have enough followers to get those trolls yet, so you know. But but one thing, yeah, I think about that too. It was so surprising to me. I was, I had a post and I was talking about my podcast and I had somebody in the comments say oh yes, I subscribed to your podcast, I listen to it all the time. It's like, oh my goodness, you know, and it's, it's, and of course, it was exciting for me, but you just you never know. You never know what's going on with people.

Speaker 2: 26:35

So, um, and can I quickly ask you, annette, when that person wrote that comment, would it have made any difference that it was just that one person that engaged on that post saying that? Then, if you just had 10,000 people who just put a thumbs up to that post, no. I.

Speaker 1: 26:56

I am. I am always um, I am always grateful, I have to tell you. I'm grateful when I ask people to invite them to come on my show, when they say yes. I am grateful when people comment and engage with my posts. I try to be an active, good citizen back with everybody as well.

Speaker 2: 27:20

So, yeah, it doesn't matter it really, it really doesn't. You know, I think it's again. It's really important that you know when people for me personally, when people come to engage on my post, for me, I'm just thinking they've taken time out to read my piece of content and to engage on it. So the least I can do and this is why I don't post every day, because I dedicate maybe one day to go and engage on all those who bother to come and engage on my posts and I literally can spend a good three, four hours, especially if a piece of content has done really, really well, where I will try and go and engage and reciprocate the kindness and support they've shown for me.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Yes, I know you do that. I try to do that too. I have my put together my people list, and so that makes it saves me some time. So you know we're getting near to the end. It goes by so fast, so fast. I know I'm sharing your profile for anyone who you know wants to see you and connect with you. I love that. You have the QR code and your banner there. You know who did that.

Speaker 2: 28:33

It was Kevin D Turner that did that for me.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Oh he's such a sweetie, I know I have him. Actually he's joining me I think it's next week to talk about YouTube. You know, I'm so excited to talk about something that's like not their regular thing, and he has just done so amazing with his YouTube channel, so he's coming on to talk about YouTube, but I can't wait. So so obviously people should follow you. You have fabulous content. You share such great information. I don't know if you're even have people can even connect with you anymore, because you're have. You know we only get so many, so I I don't know.

Speaker 2: 29:11

I think people can still connect. But obviously people can, just, you know, send me a DM. I'm, I'm always on LinkedIn, so if you send me a DM, I will, you know, I will respond. It might not be on the same day, but I will always respond to DMs and, of course, I just you know, I just love meeting new people from different parts of the world. I love people, I love the fact that people really want to engage on my content. So, you know, and I love engaging back, I always try and engage. That said, the last post, which was, you know, the Fun Day Sunday, one that already kind of like just blew up with over 230,000 impressions for crying out loud, a lot of people engaged on it. So I have tried to, like you know, respond to everybody, but I know that at a point I need to move on to the next post, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 30:06

But yeah, so I didn't even try that one. It was too hard for me. So I always like to ask everyone at the end of the show, cause we've talked about a lot, I think. Um, is there anything that you would like to add that I didn't ask you? We haven't talked about that. You think it would be important for people you know to know to help them in their journey on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 30:29

I think you know for the most part, if you are on LinkedIn, don't stress, you know, treat it as an opportunity to better yourself, really. So, in terms of um, putting out content, it really is about practice. I went back, annette, just quickly. I went back to some of my content back 2017 and 2018 and I just thought, OMG, what a disaster compared to putting out my content now and the only way I feel that you know I'm well, I like to think it's got a bit better. It's because I've just practiced, I've just put out content and I know what I like to talk about, talk. Just put out content on topics you want to talk about that you feel people can engage with. We will come, we will come and engage, you will engage back. So I think that really for me, is just be you, be you, do you?

Speaker 1: 31:31

Well, I love that. It's a great note to end on. I just want to say hello, because we have a couple of people actually joining us on Instagram. So I just want to say hello, because we have a couple of people actually joining us on Instagram. So I just want to say hello, because they're not able to comment. I don't think for us to see it in the studio here, but it's been such a treat chatting with you, stella. I've been so looking forward to this. I know it's been too long. Thank you so much again and I'll see everybody else next week. Thanks for tuning into the Content Marketing Show with me, annette Richmond. If today's insights have inspired and resonated with you, please share this episode and, if you haven't already, hit the follow button to keep learning and growing with us.