Summary
Another great LinkedIn session was presented by Quentin Allums, a founder of Urban Misfit Ventures, and better known as Q. You probably know him as a guy with a funky hat. It was an engaging and inspirational speech with a lot of personal elements which gave authenticity to his story. Although we expected to hear more about selling and less about the personal branding on this session, we still found it valuable as Quentin has done the things he was talking about. So let's hear Ben's impressions and Nada's notes from this session.
Transcript
One of the sessions that I attended at Inbound was by Quentin Allums. He goes by Q and he was another one of the LinkedIn related speakers that I took advantage of. I really enjoyed his talk. Just as a speaker he is incredibly engaging. You can tell he comes from this place of authenticity, both because he's actually done the things that he recommends you do, but then also his vibe as a human is genuine an compelling.
So I loved his talk, and if I have one bit of criticism is that the talk title was about profiting and growing your audience and yet the title didn't quite match up with the content. The content itself felt more like messaging and branding with some best practices and tactical things.
But I really was glad that I attended. In general, I've noted that Inbound 2019 for me was the year of LinkedIn both to learn more about LinkedIn and to make the commitment that I was going to be more aggressive and more active on that platform, as a person and for our agency.
Here's a couple of things that I think were key to me from this session. One is to take a look at other people that are doing it well on LinkedIn and then try to model that. Q had several people that he showed, as folks who have been doing it well in addition to himself and that was really illustrative for me.
In fact, I say that was the biggest takeaway. That sounds like a no-brainer, but honestly despite being really interested personally and as an agency to double down and triple down on our efforts inside of LinkedIn, what I haven't done was that really simple step - go and see what other individuals are building up on LinkedIn and how are they doing it.
I'd like to look at those that are building similar or complementary audiences and businesses.
Otherwise, I wanna say that, that his talk really focused in on the things that are his strengths. Being genuine, coming up with a unique and fresh angle.
He has a marque hat that he wears. He has a nickname. He's got presence about him that's relatively unique on LinkedIn and he encouraged us to do that same thing. He said.: Hey Ben, hey No Bounds Digital and everybody else in the audience - What is your place inside of this ecosystem? And to identify what that is and expose that and share that with others.
So a really worthwhile experience listening to his presentation and I got several really valuable nuggets from it.
Lessons From The Notes
Instead of looking at LinkedIn as a resume, look at it as a channel. Start creating videos and talk about the things you are good at.
But to get people to follow you, you need to gain clarity.
People will follow you if they know where they are going with you.
You also need to give them a reason to follow you. Have a unique value proposition and have a niche. People should be able to see themselves in your stories. So that's why it is wise to aim for a niche community instead of a lot of people following you.
Communicate who you are and what are you good at through the content: educational, inspirational, informative, or entertaining.
Write long form articles with links and call to action. Also, articles from LinkedIn rank on Google.
Use video to increase brand awareness and show personality. A simple way to combine various types of content is to turn questions and comments from your audience into articles and then these into videos.
Companies should encourage their employees to have their own voice.
And most importantly use LinkedIn to build relationships.
Conclusion
Done right LinkedIn could be a great platform for both you and your company. You need to start using it to express what are you good at and not be afraid to do it in your own, unique way. That's how you'll attract the tribe of like-minded people who will be more ready to engage and do business with you. And that's how you'll make money from LinkedIn - by providing your unique value and building relationships.
