Episode Summary
LinkedIn has become the most trusted platform for building one’s professional reputation. And it’s a great way to connect with your audience, provide value, and help them solve their problems.
But if you want to stand out on LinkedIn, you must stand for something.
In this episode of the Rep Your Brand podcast, our host Nick Bennett welcomes Steve Watt, Director of Market Insights at Seismic. They chat about why companies should let their people shine online, how to be a scroll stopper on LinkedIn, and the connection between strong branding and revenue.
Guest Profile
- Name: Steve Watt
- What he does: He's the director of market insights at Seismic.
- Company: Seismic
- Noteworthy: "Brand lives at the edge of the firm; brand no longer just lives in your central advertising voice at headquarters. Your brand is the sum total of the reputation and the relationships of your people out there."
Key Insights
- LinkedIn is not your brag sheet. Instead of using LinkedIn as your resume, you should use it to help your prospects. Steve explains, "A buyer-centric profile is not your resume and nor is it a brag sheet about how awesome you are. Those are completely off-putting to your prospects and your customers. Instead, rewrite your profile as a statement to them about who you are, who your company is, who you serve, and how you make a difference in their world. Make it about them. Think of it as a client-facing and buyer-facing marketing asset rather than a resume or a brag sheet."
- Become a scroll stopper. LinkedIn is one of the most popular branding platforms, but how do you rise above the noise? Steve says, "I'm a big believer that you need to become a scroll stopper for people. And that means you can't just hammer the same thing in the same way. So ultimately, for me, know what you're about, have a North Star, and have a central message, but get really good at expressing it in a lot of different ways so that hopefully it [the information] about who you are and what you're about sticks."
- Stand for something. If you want to stand out on LinkedIn, you need to stand for something. Steve explains, "Believe in something and stand for it publicly because LinkedIn isn't Instagram. It's not about being beautiful, famous, or popular. It's not about all the amazing photos you can share. It's about rising above the noise. And when you stand for something, when you think about some of the most successful people on LinkedIn, the people who've built tremendous reputations and have become absolute magnets for opportunities of all sorts, you know what they stand for. It's clear what they stand for."
Episode Highlights
Building a personal brand is good for your internal reputation
“I have relationships with the C-suite that I wouldn’t otherwise have. I have much deeper relationships with a far wider range of our sellers than I otherwise would have. And that is amazing because it opens up internal promotion and advancement doors for me. It also makes our sellers feel really comfortable asking me to join them on sales calls and other things like that — things that, maybe, they wouldn’t be quite so likely to do if we hadn’t been bonding around this stuff online.”
Let your employees shine
“The more you empower and enable people, they will do greater things for you and become magnets for all kinds of business opportunities and talent because people look at someone like you and they go, ‘They don’t know Alice, but they know Nick.’ They’re like, ‘Not only might I become a customer, but I might want to go work there.’ So don’t be afraid; let your people really shine. It’s going to do you a world of good, and a few of them are going to leave, but then, a few people are going to leave anyway.”
People are not on LinkedIn because of you
“You might get that one meeting once in a while, but you’re probably blind to all the reputation and trust that you’re burning in the process. So instead, rise above and recognize that people are on LinkedIn to learn. Yes, they’re there to grow. They’re there to advance their own interests, not yours. They’re not there for you. They’re not there for me. They’re there for themselves. So how can I rise above the noise? How can I actually share content that is interesting, valuable, and helpful to them? And how can I help them achieve their goals?”
Is branding connected to revenue?
“There’s no question that some marketers are terrible at explaining this stuff, and there’s also no question that some CEOs aren’t going to hear it. They’re just not. Some CEOs have a very transactional, short-term approach to everything. So, you’re not always going to find a way to bring these things together, but a good starting point is stepping back and saying, ‘When we say brand, what are we saying?'”
Your LinkedIn profile is your billboard
“Just put yourself in the shoes of someone else reading it, someone who’s not a recruiter. Get past the notion that your LinkedIn profile only serves you in terms of getting your next job. Think of it as a billboard or a mini-website or a flyer or whatever metaphor you want to choose. It’s a statement to your current customers and to your future customers. Try to put yourself in their shoes and say, ‘If they did not know me at all and this is what they read, what have they learned?'”
