Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is Sandra Long. Sandra is a leading global independent LinkedIn consultant, instructor, and TEDx speaker. She's a LinkedIn top voice, a special designation for influencers and content creators who are specifically selected by LinkedIn. She's the author of a few best selling books about LinkedIn. These include LinkedIn for Personal Branding, The Ultimate Guide, and Jumpstart Your LinkedIn Profile, 67 Actionable Tips.
Sandra, it's been a while, but I am so pleased that we finally made it.
And it's a pleasure to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Sandra Long [00:01:06]:
Thank you, Susan. I'm really excited to be here and have this conversation today.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:10]:
I know. We've talked a lot about LinkedIn, and it is my personal favorite platform. Let's talk about how it's good for authors and speakers. Let's start off with really finding out why is it such an important tool for authors.
Sandra Long [00:01:28]:
It is such an important tool because it allows you to really dive into the ecosystem where your professionals are spending their time. It gives you an opportunity to be visible. Visibility equals opportunity. Right? If you're not visible, if people don't remember you, they don't see you, you kind of fall out of memory. Being visible is very important. And, of course, the connection piece is so huge. And you can be as proactive as you wanna be. Making the connections and then it really ties into that visibility so people know about you, your book, your speaking, all that comes together really beautifully.
Susan Friedmann [00:02:03]:
Let's dig deeper into some of those things, the visibility. How often should you be posting? Then we can talk about, let's say, what kind of post make the most impact. But let's talk about, first of all, how often.
Sandra Long [00:02:18]:
Everyone is different. So I don't believe in the idea that I'm gonna just say, oh, you need to post every day or you need to post 3 times a week because it's gonna depend on each individual author and speaker. In fact, what I'm going to suggest is that majority of your content time be spent on commenting. Commenting is very important. And then I would love it if everyone were commenting every day, spending a good, you know, 5 or 10 minutes a day making insightful comments on strategic posts, learning how to find those posts in your industry that are gonna be where people that you wanna attract are paying attention to. And then you're putting in your insight, your spin on things. I find, for me, I get a lot of opportunities, different kinds of opportunities, speaking, training, people that want me to be on their podcast because of my commenting. One of the things when they see my comment the first of all, they see a comment, and then they're gonna look and they can see in, you know, my headshot and the beginning part of my title, my headline.
Sandra Long [00:03:20]:
And my headline for me, I've chosen to say author of LinkedIn for personal branding. That's all they see. I know from the fact of leaving relevant comments and them seeing my title, my name, and my picture, then they click onto my profile. So it's a lot of opportunity. So commenting is number 1. And then if you like doing content, yes, doing posts is a great idea. A couple of times a week makes sense. If you're over posting, you're gonna lose people.
Sandra Long [00:03:48]:
They're gonna tune out and the algorithm isn't gonna be friendly either. But I don't believe in over posting. For me personally, I'm typically posting about 2 to 3 times a week. That works for me. But I think everyone has to pick what works for them. How about you, Susan? How often do you post?
Susan Friedmann [00:04:05]:
I think it's a couple of times a week, And one is the podcast. So we post the podcast, and then the article that I write on my blog every week. So we post about that. And I think there are a couple of others. Maybe there are some other posts. I can't remember because I always do it, like, a month in advance. My VA just tells me, this is what we need to be doing for this month. I'm guided by her.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:32]:
Let's talk about commenting because that is so important, and I've heard this many times before. And you said insightful commenting and finding the right post to be on to comment. Mhmm. How would I go about that? Or how would our listeners go about that? Finding the right post to comment on.
Sandra Long [00:04:53]:
There's a couple ways you can do that. First of all, making sure you're connected to the right people. Like, a lot of people don't realize that the people that they see in their feed and the content they see in their feed is really up to them. It's related to who you're connected to, right, and how you're managing your feed. Having the right connections is important, but you can also do a search for posts. You can put in keywords and do a search for posts on a topic, and then you can see what people are saying about that topic. They're strangers. Right? They're not connections of yours.
Sandra Long [00:05:25]:
That's another thing you can do. You can also pick companies that you wanna be following, and you can start commenting on those companies or those organizations or those associations. Thinking about sort of what is the ecosystem of all the people and entities that are gonna have the following where I wanna be engaged with that following. I wanna be part of the conversation with that group of people.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:48]:
Let's say, obviously, I'm interested in book marketing, author marketing. I would do a search on those to find who's doing posts and commenting or saying things about that particular subject. Is that correct?
Sandra Long [00:06:02]:
Right. For example, I often will be looking for posts about sales, networking, personal branding, LinkedIn, like, all the different topics that are in my world. Right? And, yes, you can go in and you can absolutely do a search for posts. I mean, LinkedIn is a huge database, a massive database. And, originally, for a long time, we've been able to search by people and companies. But in the last couple of years, you can now search by posts.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:28]:
Excellent. Now talk about what kind of posts are worth sharing on LinkedIn, for instance.
Sandra Long [00:06:39]:
It's very personalized, and I love that about that. Thinking about what's in your universe. So if you're an author and a speaker, you have so many opportunities to leverage your content, right, your speaking content, your written content. And oftentimes, authors are speakers, right? When you have any type of event, event to me is a huge trigger for content. Whatever that event may be, maybe it's a speaking engagement, or maybe it's a book launch, whatever it might be, think about sort of draw two lines, you know, have take a big piece of paper, draw a couple lines and say, okay. What are all those things that I should be talking about before the event? What are the things that are happening during the event? And what are the opportunities after? Say it's a speaking engagement or book launch. So beforehand, it can be how you're preparing and what you're looking forward to and, you know, sort of getting people prepped up for the fact that you have a speaking engagement or you have a book launch. You could talk about how you're planning to travel or who you're looking forward to meet.
Sandra Long [00:07:38]:
Then in the middle column is what's happening during that event. You can get a lot of photos and videos of you at the speaking engagement, at the book launch, whatever that event is. And then after, I love doing gratitude posts, or I always do a gratitude post where I typically have a picture of me at the event or with the people that hired me or the people that I'm collaborating with, and then thank them. Thank them for this is a great opportunity to be together or key learning. So when you think about we're so fortunate as speakers and authors because we are so much tied to events. And thinking about all those content opportunities is pretty fun.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:18]:
You've just given me a great idea. I mean, I do thank many of my guests when, for instance, we post their episode on LinkedIn, but I could do more gratitude for them being a guest on the show. For instance, like after this, I could go on and thank you for being on the show. And, again, maybe once this episode goes live, would that be
Sandra Long [00:08:45]:
Exactly. No. That makes a lot of sense. Sometimes I'm preparing to speak or it definitely applies to podcasting. Right? It's an event. Every podcast episode is an event. Sometimes I'll do posts about you know, how you do as a speaker, you do a technical prep call. Right? Sometimes I'll take a picture from the Zoom of me and the person that we're doing the call and say, oh, we're getting ready for the talk.
Sandra Long [00:09:08]:
We're going through the technology and, you know, whatever it is, like, there's so many opportunities to be grateful. And it all ties into my philosophy of LinkedIn, which is be the friend first, meaning, I'm not gonna come on LinkedIn to just say how wonderful I am and just do a lot of bragging. I wanna showcase my colleagues and who I work with. And that's why when I do a post about my customers, it's a gratitude post. It's mostly about them. It's not really about look at me speaking, but it's here I am, and I'm so grateful for this customer, and this is why. You know, it's more focused on them, if that makes sense.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:44]:
Beautiful. Yes. You just gave me a wonderful idea. We're gonna do this afterwards. I know this is audio, but we'll take a a Zoom picture so that we can put it up. Yes. Absolutely. I love that idea.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:56]:
This is beautiful. I mean, like these actionable tips. I mean, I don't know if that was one of your actionable tips, but if not, it's for the next book.
Sandra Long [00:10:06]:
That's great. Well, the actionable tips book is all about profile. Those are 67 tips for people to take action on their profile.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:14]:
Oh, let's talk about profile because I know how important that is. And I've rewritten mine several times, and it probably needs to be rewritten because I think they get a little stale. So talk to us more about that, the do's and don'ts of profile writing.
Sandra Long [00:10:33]:
Well, profiles are such a great opportunity. I mean, it's your digital presence in the professional world, as you know. And I would say to authors, think about how you wanna be positioning yourself. Is are you positioning yourself as an author first? Oftentimes, people who are authors are doing other things. They might be an author and a speaker. They might be an author and a consultant. They might be an author, and they also have a full time job working at a major corporation. Like, there's lots of things that they could be doing.
Sandra Long [00:11:01]:
And then there's some people that just they write books. They're full time, a 100 percent author. So whatever you are, you wanna be thinking about how do you wanna be positioned. And if you have, like many authors, you have a portfolio career where you're an author, you're a speaker, maybe you're a consultant, you're doing 3 or 4 things, then you wanna think about that headline to position it exactly how you want it and that you're bringing into effect all of those things. And that you're using the words and the images to get across what making it strategic and making it friendly. The words are gonna come into place in your headline, in your about section, which is your essay, in your experience section. And here's the funny thing. You're an author.
Sandra Long [00:11:48]:
I think the people who are listening are authors. You wanna have a well written profile. Maybe they haven't read your book, but when they read your profile, that's your chance to inspire them to, like, wow, this is a great story that, you know, when they read your about section and they're motivated. And I say that no matter if they're an author or not. Every one of us, for me, I want all of my clients, my readers and my audiences, make your profile motivational. For authors, have it be like you're starting to tell a little story so that they're like, wow. This person, I love the way they write. I've gotta check out their book.
Sandra Long [00:12:24]:
So use the written opportunity in your headline, your about, and your experience. And I give a lot of details of this and formats and suggestions in my books. And then the visual matches it. It should match everything. Having an image of your book, having an image of you speaking, having an image of you launching your like, all the different opportunities to be visual and video in the featured section. I know there's a publication section, and obviously, you wanna list your books in your publication section. But the exciting thing is all these other opportunities that we have now to really position ourselves. And then there's a brand new feature.
Sandra Long [00:13:04]:
Well, we've had the background banner for a long time, but they're just announcing for premium users to have multiple background banners. That's kind of fun if you wanna have your book. If you've got multiple books, you could have different banners for each book. There's a lot of fun on the profiles.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:19]:
That's something new to look into, but talk about the value of being a premium member because I've heard many different things about that. What would make it worthwhile to invest in the premium opportunity?
Sandra Long [00:13:34]:
It is a good question. I do get it all the time. What I would suggest so first of all, there's different premium products. There's one that's for people that are looking for a job. There's a business version. There's LinkedIn Sales Navigator. There's LinkedIn Recruiter. So it depends on what you're trying to do.
Sandra Long [00:13:51]:
I think for most authors, they would probably be thinking about the Business One or Sales Navigator. There's plenty of features on LinkedIn that are completely free. And I see this all the time where LinkedIn users aren't even using all the free version, but they always ask about premium. And then on the profile itself, I wanna say 95% of what you wanna do on your profile is completely free. The only things that are not free on the profile is what I just mentioned, how that you're gonna be able to get these, rotating banners. And you can also put images on the services page, which is a section of your profile if you're a freelancer. That's another good feature for many authors. There's a few things that have come out actually in the last year that are nice, you know, premium features to enhance your profile.
Sandra Long [00:14:43]:
But I'd say 95% of what you wanna do, you can do for free. Now when it comes to content, Susan, everything that you wanna do for content is free. Any kind of post you wanna do, if you wanna do a newsletter, you wanna do a video, you wanna do a document post, a poll, anything with content, they do not charge you at all. I shouldn't say that. There's one thing. That's LinkedIn Live. Is that technically free, but you have to get a third party provider to host it. So you have to pay, like, a monthly fee for LinkedIn Live.
Sandra Long [00:15:17]:
That's the only one. Every other piece of content is completely free. The new premium features that have come out in the last year are kinda nice, those 3 or 4 things on your profile. So what I would suggest you do is you Google it, look at the list of what it provides you. Before doing that, make sure you're using all the free parts of your profile. Make sure your profile is a 100% loaded, you know, with all the great things you can do for free first, and then think about premium. That's what I would suggest.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:45]:
Now you mentioned LinkedIn Live, and I've heard a lot of different things about that. Talk about the opportunities there for authors.
Sandra Long [00:15:54]:
It's a definite opportunity. I mean, some authors, it's, you know, similar to, like, a there's a Facebook live, a YouTube live, a LinkedIn live. I think it is a nice feature, but I'd say the best feature for authors on content is having a newsletter. That would be my favorite feature for an author and actually for anyone because the newsletter, it's not like the original articles that came out back in 2015. The newsletters are different because you get subscribers. When they started with articles, it was somewhat like a post. It would come out and whoever saw it saw it. It was probably minimal people saw it.
Sandra Long [00:16:34]:
But with a newsletter, the subscribers are sent your new newsletter article when you send it out. It's much stronger. It's a much more important feature. And especially for authors, you can take a chapter of your book, or you can take some tips from your book, and I think that's the best feature content wise.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:53]:
Yes. I'm interested in that because I know that that is a feature. I think it's quite new, isn't it? Being able to put up a poster newsletter. What is the format for a newsletter? Why is it different than, let's say, putting out a piece of information from your book, some tips, or just a content article?
Sandra Long [00:17:14]:
Some people, like, they'll take a link of their newsletter, and they'll stick it on LinkedIn. Like, they have a newsletter or an article or blog on their website. Those things don't get much traction if you go and put them as a link. This is an it built in blogging platform, the newsletter feature. And when you do it, you're actually and again, this is completely free. It's wonderful because what happens is your connections get asked, and you probably have seen it, do you wanna subscribe to such and such a newsletter? And when I first did that, I had thousands of people that wanted to subscribe. And then when you're connecting with them, they're also subscribing. These are people that are saying they're raising their hand and saying, yes, send me specifically to me to my mailbox when she writes this newsletter article.
Sandra Long [00:17:59]:
So it's just great. It's a little tricky when you do it. I mean, you use the same the upper section where you're, you know, where you're starting a post, you start a newsletter. I think the way they've constructed it is a little bit confusing because some people who had original articles might be confused about an article versus the newsletter. And you wanna do the newsletter. That's the best way to get followers and staying on track with that and getting better visibility.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:26]:
If I'm hearing you correctly, instead of posting articles, I should consider the newsletter format for those articles.
Sandra Long [00:18:35]:
I'm not sure what kind of article you're talking about. But if you're doing an article or blog on your website, some people will take that, and they will produce it in the newsletter. I've had other people that have told me they've stopped doing their external blog and they just use LinkedIn. I've had other people just copy and maybe they tweak it a little bit and send it out. Yeah. It it works beautifully.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:56]:
Excellent. Need to look into that. Yes. Now our listeners love mistakes. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see authors are making interacting with LinkedIn?
Sandra Long [00:19:11]:
I guess the biggest mistake I see, it's a missed opportunity. They're not being visible. They're not completing their profile. They're these wonderful author with a wonderful personality and a great whether it's a speaker, author, whatever they are, but their online presence doesn't match who they are and what value they bring. So it's really the people that they're not aware. They don't understand it. Some people are afraid. Some people are fearful of being online, so they miss out.
Sandra Long [00:19:39]:
They miss out completely on all the opportunities that would come their way. That's the biggest mistake, is sort of a fear, and we try to have people overcome that because LinkedIn is a great platform.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:50]:
Yes. It certainly is. And, I mean, I recommend it, and I know, personally, I'm not making the best use of it. I'll be the 1st to admit that. Definitely things that I need to look into. Let's just delve a little bit for a few minutes into the content. What might be the best content opportunities?
Sandra Long [00:20:12]:
There's so many content opportunities. My favorite, as I mentioned, is the newsletter. That is my favorite content opportunity. My favorite tip for everyone is to comment and to comment on a regular basis, whether they're producing their own content or not. Like, some people, if they don't have time to do the content, then just be a commenter. Like, that is a super valuable thing. Being able to do all this at no cost and putting yourself out in front of the world is just a great thing. Obviously, regular posts are great.
Sandra Long [00:20:41]:
Video is another great opportunity because people definitely like videos, and they have a new video feed. You can either take a video from maybe there's a video you have on YouTube. You can put that either on your profile, you can put it on the feed, or you can do what's called a native video, which is a video that you're uploading typically from your phone. You have a maybe somebody recorded you speaking or at a a book event, And those are great to have, and you can put that up natively in the feed. Again, either in the feed or in your profile or both.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:15]:
Fabulous. These are great suggestions. How do people get hold of you? Because I know they're going to want to know more either about your books, I think you've got something that you've got to give our listeners. Take it away. How can they get hold of you?
Sandra Long [00:21:30]:
There's a link to a PDF, which is The Power of LinkedIn for Authors, but I would love to have people reach out to me on LinkedIn. It's Sandra Long. If you put in Sandra Long LinkedIn or Sandra Long Boston, I have a common name, which you should be able to get me. On Amazon, Sandra Long, author, is there, and I've got LinkedIn for personal branding, as well as to Jumpstart Your Linkedin Profile: 67 Actionable Tips either Amazon or LinkedIn. When you connect on LinkedIn, I'd love a little note saying you heard the podcast, and that would be a great starting point for a conversation. And thank you, Susan.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:06]:
Oh, my pleasure. This is great. But I'm not gonna let you go until you leave our listeners with a golden nugget.
Sandra Long [00:22:13]:
My golden nugget is my mantra. You'll see it on my profile. It's be the friend first. So when you come on to LinkedIn, be the one that is showing gratitude, highlighting others, showcasing your colleagues. That to me is the best way to operate as a professional on LinkedIn. And it really you don't have to expect it, but it does come back to you in a lot of ways. So, being the friend first is my golden nugget.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:40]:
Beautiful. Be the friend first. We should have a bumper sticker or something that says that.
Sandra Long [00:22:46]:
Oh, good.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:47]:
There you are. Your next project. This is great. Thank you, Sandra. You've given us some different insights into LinkedIn. I know we've had several guests who do talk about LinkedIn, but I think there's definitely things here that I've learned that I did not know about. I am very grateful to you. And you know what? I'm gonna go in and put a comment, my gratitude, on LinkedIn. And we're going to take a photo.
So, listeners, you can go and check that out. Any event, thank you again. And by the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales, because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. Go to Book Marketing Mentors to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books.
Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
