Thank you, everyone. All right. Good evening, everyone. How are y'all doing? Good. So thank you for having me here.

Thank you for the warm introduction. You're either gonna love me or hate me. You may love me and still hate LinkedIn. Now, but tonight, we're definitely gonna level up with LinkedIn. Okay. So I'm sure many of you are right here, right?

LinkedIn is not the sexy social media platform. Not using LinkedIn. I don't get it. I have a job. I don't need it. I have a business.

I have clients. I don't need it. Well, this is the thing. I have received great success with LinkedIn. I love leaves it right in it, you should too. I've been fortunate to get Java Right from recruiters reaching out to me when I'm not even looking, I've been fortunate to do interviews on podcasts and radio shows.

I've received clients all from LinkedIn. I'm going to show you how I tell you why I'm showing you how this is the tool to utilize. And with the recent acquisition from Microsoft, where a year and a half, two years now, they're throwing a lot of money into this platform. And they're changing a lot of things. Okay, so this is the time to jump on board. Right.

So as we go through this presentation today, I want you to think about two things when it comes to LinkedIn. All right, two things. Right. What do you want people to know about you? Okay, so when I jump on that profile, what do you want me to know about you? Okay.

The second thing is, what do you want me to do? When I visit your profile? What do you want me to do? Okay, you want me to just look at it, connect? I'm going to email you call you think about that. What do you want to be known for?

I'm sure we've all heard this quote, right? It's not what you know, but who, you know, how many of us believe that? Okay, what if I tell you this? is not what you know, but who you know. And it's who knows you. Okay.

LinkedIn has that capability. Social media in general has that capability, right. Alright, so wide LinkedIn. All right. So we've agreed it's not the sexy social media platform. It's not as entertaining.

It doesn't give you that addictive scroll like Instagram or Facebook. Okay. So why LinkedIn? As the professional platform professional business is the professional platform, okay? If you're serious about developing your personal brand, being known as an expert, this is a platform you want to be on. Okay?

If you are looking for if you're going through career transitions within your industry within into a different industry, this is a platform you want to be on. There's over 10 million job searches on this platform. And of course, this is global, right? But everything is there. Right? Of course, we have the business element promoting products and services.

Now when I give this presentation, I'm going to cater how many people are corporate professional, okay. How many people are business? How many people are unemployed? How many people are I'm just here. Okay, I got something for everybody. All right.

All right. So your dashboard. Has anyone logged into LinkedIn today? Okay, some of I got a couple of required connection requests from somebody. Okay. So, before I get into the meat of it, you have your dashboard.

Alright, it's gonna let you know, the different profile levels of where you currently are. Okay? I'm going to get you here by the end into Tonight, we're going to be all stars. Okay? Only rock with the best. Okay, so we're all going to be officers.

Alright, then they have this new thing called career advice. Right? So a lot of people, they're hesitant. It's like, I know, my audience is on LinkedIn, but I don't know how to connect with them. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to get started.

The career advice if you turn this feature on, there's other people in your industry that they want to give you advice. It's like you have your virtual mentor on LinkedIn. Okay. And then you have your career. So if you're looking for work, fuse, just click this on button, say hey, I'm open to new opportunities, right? I do a lot of screenshots because it's just easier for me to do the screenshots versus me going back and forth on my laptop.

Okay? So if you log in, and you're under your profile, you scroll down a little bit, you have your dashboard. Okay? Of course. Okay, so on the left, right, left, my left your right. It's gonna let you know what your profile where your profile level is.

Okay. So we have any beginners, intermediate. Okay, so we're going to get you to all star. Okay. And then, in the middle, we have the career of ice. Mine is currently turned off, but you just click on it.

You know, go to on. Okay. And then below that you have career interest. And when you click on each one can do the career advice career interests first. This is what it looks like, okay? Now this is only half of it.

But when you click on that screen and you scroll down, you get to fill out different things. It's going to ask you the keywords, what industry Do you want to work at? What city what location? Okay, so LinkedIn is becoming very robust when it comes to your career needs, as well as your career search. And then this is the career advice. So when you fill this out, when you fill this out, you can select if you want to connect with someone that you're already connected with, right, your first degree connections, which this is really helpful in the sense that if you're part of attitudes, so maybe you know someone if like, you're familiar With a name, but you don't have a good relationship with him.

But you're connected online, you may want to click on this that way you can connect with them and further their relationship. Right? Like, Hey, I'm a part of this organization. We have mutual friends, mutual interests, I'm trying to grow my career path. I saw that you're on LinkedIn, would you be able to assist me? Right?

Would you be able to mentor me? Okay, if you want to expand that you can fill up your region, or even go to your school, your alma mater. Then you put in LinkedIn is going to have this filled out based off of your profile, right? Because you should already have your job or job industry filled out. You can change that if necessary, put in some keywords. And then it'll give you the options.

I had three people as an option, right? And one of them already knew. Okay, so that's if you want to get career advice. So think of it as your virtual mentor. When it comes to LinkedIn to like, okay, I want the job, I need the job, right? A lot of people don't even look for a job until they're laid off.

And then they're treading water. And it's too late, because you need to nurture those relationships while you're currently employed, right? That way, that residue of desperation is not there. Trust me, I've been there. Okay. So you want to nurture those relationships right now, while you're employed to if you're an entrepreneur, it's pretty much the same thing.

You can't go to a networking event today, exchange business cards, and then call them on Monday and be like, hey, so let me sell you this thing I have boy I just met you. You know, you have to take time and nurture those relationships. Okay. The thing with LinkedIn is it if I'm going to go through these 11 keys to have an all star profile. The thing is, people like I don't know how to use LinkedIn, or I don't know what to do on LinkedIn, it's because they haven't completely filled their profile. Right?

So if I connect with you on LinkedIn, and you're trying to sell me something, if you send me a message, that's fine, I'll read your message. But if I go to your profile is blank, there's no headshot is, you know, partially filled out. Am I going to respond to you, let alone try to do business with you? Probably not. So this is why you have to create a full length, all star profile, okay? And if you're able to, I'm going to show you all the ways to maximize LinkedIn for free before you even consider doing any paid version, right?

Because we can maximize something for free. Why spend $80 a month Okay. All right, so 11 things to have also profile Okay, first things the headshots, we took care of that, right courtesy of. Ashley. All right. So we're, we're good on that.

Okay. We have strong headlines, complete summary, work or volunteer experience, education, including courses. This is really important if you're new grad or if you're currently in grad school skills, your connections, endorsements and recommendations, your LinkedIn URL, I'm going to show you how to do that. your contact information and of course, your content. Okay, so you're ready to rock with me. Alright, so the professional headshot I'm not gonna spend too much time on this because we took care of it earlier, but this is not what you want to do.

Okay, so no selfies. No crap photos of your husband or your best friend and you see the show. Cut off as well. Okay, yes, we get it, you're out having a good time. Okay. But I want to do business with you, right?

I want to know who you are. Right? So, professional photo, even if you didn't take your photo today, maybe you have another friend, I always encourage, you know if you can especially gotta be careful in the bathroom, the bathroom has the best light, but you gotta be careful in the bathroom. But especially like when you go to work. If you can stand up against a white wall, great lighting, and boy, Hey, can you take this picture of me on my cell phone? Because you want to stand up straight, you want to look good?

You probably dress professional airwork, at least do that. Right as your profile photo versus trying to crop something, okay? So make sure you smile, right. You want to see you want to take a picture when you're at your best because I want to see you when you're at your best social media. This is your first impression Now, right this is your first impression, so let it be at your best. Okay, but that is a pretty good selfie.

I think he's a handsome fella right there. All right. headline a summary. Okay, headline a summary. Does anyone want to talk about you have your name and then your job title usually. Okay?

Try to use some descriptive words. Now I'm not the best at this. But if you are super salesman, I don't know. If you, if you're good at sales, you know, energetic, charismatic. Try to use some descriptive words that describe you your business, okay? numbers don't lie.

I love this right? Once again, if you're in sales, or even if you're not a sales, if you're able to say hey, I managed to book a business of a million, million dollars, right? I managed a budget of $100,000 from our department or maybe if you're not a sales pitch or an operations, I helped reduce the cost of 70% in my department of whatever right? You want to include these type of numbers in your summary, that quantity comes across very well when recruiters are looking at your profile, right? And then you have the keyword optimization. You want to use keywords that just like your resume that stand out on your profile.

Okay, so we have marketing, advertising, PR, media, media relations, public relations, there's so many things fine was in your industry. What I like to do is if I'm looking for a job on indeed, you know, we look based off of the title that industry, what are those job descriptions? Okay, what are the what's the language these job these recruiters are posting on Indeed, make sure that's mimic onto LinkedIn as well as your resume. Okay, because when they're scanning, or if they're on LinkedIn and they're typing in those same keywords you want your profile to pop up to as a qualified candidate. Alright, so for the summary. So this is what your summary looks like, right?

So everyone knows where I'm working at, on your profile. You have your name, this is your headline right here. Alright, for those that have a laptop, and then this is your summary on the bottom, okay. Now, this is what you should include in your summary. Okay, now my business people might love this. Alright.

So what was the first thing I said? When if I go to your profile? What do you do? Right? What do you want to be known for? Okay, this is it right here.

Want to make sure you ask These questions what I do, or what do I do? Right? So if I go to your profile, what do you do? I help small business owners achieve, what's the desired goal? Great branding by providing a product and service by providing graphic design. Okay.

Does that make sense? I help blank. So your target audience achieve. When your clients come to you, what do they want to receive? What are they looking to get from you? Why are they coming to you?

Okay, what is their goal? By providing and then it will be your product or service. Next, who I work with. I'm sorry, I should have voted this to or what am I looking for if you're looking for a job, right? I work with small business owners. Right.

Or I look, I work with small business owners within the nonprofit sector or nonprofit organizations, right, Be specific. Because when I go to your profile, I want to know if you're a good fit, do we match based off of what I need? Whether it's entrepreneurship, or career search. Okay? So if you're looking for a job, what kind of work are you looking for? Okay?

You wanted agency, small agency, midsize agency, start asking yourself those questions and put it out there. Okay, if you have some accomplishments I'm a fan of self promotion. I know a lot of people don't like it, but you have to people forget you. You want to stay top of mind. Okay. So if you have accomplishments, put them on there.

And then your contact information So you want to see how it comes together? Alright, so this profile my summary, pretty much talks about my podcast, the guests that I've had on there. Okay. And then what does this girl do? Okay? This is what Michelle Gomez does.

I work with professionals and entrepreneurs on content and social media marketing strategies that develop their personal brand. Yay or nay? concise. Y'all just by us, but thank you. All right, who I work with. I work with I work with professionals are cyberterrorism entrepreneurs looking to create effective content and social media strategies to develop their personal brand.

Okay, set information align, all make sense. person that has a full time job. The business on the side. Okay. All right. So how I do it?

I do coaching one on one private group speaking, workshops, things of that nature. Does that make sense for my small business owners? Does that help? Myself features smart accomplishments right here? And then this is my contact information. Yeah, because I promote so I promote my personal brand.

I have a company, I have an LLC, but I know for my personal brand, so I have that on the forefront. So this, this fits for me, right? But you may have a different accomplishment for yourself or anyone else in here, right? So that's why I have the accomplished accomplishments, but you need to figure out what's gonna work for you. Okay. And I don't want you to get hung up on this like when you go home and work on your profile.

You may even skip the accomplishments part And then go back to it later. Okay. Media component. I'll get to that later. But if you have projects PDFs, video, you can add that in your media section as well. Okay?

All right experience in education. Right? So this gets tricky in the sense that lots of times when it comes to our experience, we tend to underestimate ourselves, right? You want to put all of that on there. So once again, you can go to dr descriptions. If even if you're currently working right, go to your company's website, pull out that information, translate that to your LinkedIn profile, translate that to your resume.

Okay, your education. Make sure you put your school's their undergrad and grad school if it applies, and then you can also put your courses. What I've learned is when I put my courses Lots of times we kind of like, Oh, you know, it's just a class or whatever, but your classes providing you with experience, and there's probably projects that you did in those classes that are giving you the skills that you need to put on LinkedIn. Oh, I'm gonna go back. So these bullet points, you cannot do this in LinkedIn. Alright, so I do this on Microsoft Word, and then I copy and paste it over to the summary section.

Bing, bing, bing, okay. All right. Endorsements and recommendations. Alright, so we just talked about your skills, right? So endorsements are when someone says yes, I agree. Dana has the skill of graphic design.

Okay, so it says validation. You can list up to 50 skills. And then you can also list the top three skills that you want to promote. Okay. Recommendations is that's like your mini testimonial, right? I love this because if you're working with someone, whether it's a client or at work, you're working on a project, as soon as you get done by, Hey, can you write a LinkedIn recommendation for me?

Okay, you want to do it while it's fresh on their mind, okay? Because that only strengthens your profile. So this is underneath your experience. You got the skills and endorsements, my top three skills are marketing, leadership and social media. At least that's what I prioritized, okay? And then right below that I have my recommendations, but I cut that off.

Okay. So when you click on the skill section allows you to arrange it so I pinned my marketing leadership and social media as my top three, but I could rearrange that If I want to, okay, and then I have the other 47 skills listed below. Okay? All right. So for recommendations, LinkedIn is always changing its layout. So under your profile under your name.

So this is if you're looking at your profile, okay, you click on the profile section, scroll down to additional information, requests recommendation. And then you can type the person's name, and they'll get the email, they'll get the notification. And it even gives you an option to follow up if you want to. Okay. Now, this is my brother, that's my guinea pig. Okay.

So if you're on someone else's page, right, and you want to provide a recommendation, you click on the More tab, scroll down to recommend and then you'll be able to type the recommendation So we talked about the vanity URL. Does anyone know what that is? Correct, right. So instead of having LinkedIn comm, backslash, N, backslash, 123, percentage ABCD. You can create your own customized URL. Okay?

You have to have at least 50 connections before you do. I'm sure we already have that. Once you do, click on your profile on the right hand side, it will ask you to customize if you click on that, and you can type in what you want, okay. And usually it's your first and last name. I did my first initial my last name, okay. And that's a lot easier, especially if you're promoting your LinkedIn page.

Through your email signature through your website, or however you decide to promote it. It's a lot easier to give someone that Verses 123 parentheses sign ABCD forever, okay. And also, if someone Google's you, if you have the customized URL if someone Google's you, more than likely your LinkedIn is going to come up to the top. Okay, so that's very good for a I see faces a fee. Who's gonna like me? Why you know your recruiter is okay.

Lots of times, my LinkedIn page comes up higher than my personal website, which makes sense because I probably have my LinkedIn longer to my personal website. Okay, so yes, yes. So you want to make sure that everything is on the up and up with LinkedIn. All right. So what I consider the bread and butter of LinkedIn was the contact information. Lots of times you hear people talking Talking about, oh, you need a our LinkedIn will advertises to you get the premium service by the Sales Navigator buy this or buy that.

You're only buying that so you can email certain people that are outside of your network. Okay, but if you know how to contact them, do you need to spend $80 a month on LinkedIn? No, take yourself to the spa. Okay. So, on the right, if you're on your profile, twice the right you have the contact information, right your profile as well as someone else's profile. Okay.

Now this used to be very hard to find. LinkedIn has done a good job with this recent update to find contact information. So it should just be a mindful, we click on contact information. This will pop up and hopefully the person has filled out right now I'm going to be honest with you. Recruiters. They do not have the sold out.

All right. If you're on a job hunt, I almost guarantee you're not going to get any contact information from a recruiter. That's just the nature of their job. Right? They're getting resumes and applications by, you know, dozens, hundreds of day people are trying to follow up one way or another, they don't want to be contacted. So there's some ways around it.

But it's hard to say. Another thing, a lot of people do have their contact information in the summary section as well. It's just a matter of hunting it down. Also, if you're not able to find their contact information, what I usually do, I'll copy and paste her name into Twitter, and then I'll harass him that way. Alright, so content. So this is number 11. content, you want to make sure you post on a regular basis.

I want to say daily, right? LinkedIn just started using video last year. Okay, pretty much this time last year. not mistaken. If you're able to do video, you want to do video on LinkedIn, because you're just getting started. And a lot of people are not jumping on video.

Okay? So you're able to add video to your profile and the media section. Okay? The publisher as well as your everyday post, okay, you can record up to 10 minutes. So I do quick one minute videos, the same video I do on Instagram. I put it on LinkedIn.

Okay, some, there's some videos, you can just pull out and do some videos. It's gonna take time, right? Especially if you're trying to grow your personal brand and showcase your expertise may have to sit down for a few minutes and do those. Okay. I truly believe I'm not psychic. But LinkedIn is very slow.

So I'm pretty sure they will start doing live video pretty soon right. I wouldn't be surprised if that rolls out in the next couple of weeks. So if you get in the habit of doing video, you'll be prepared to do live video. And I want to encourage you, if you don't do video on Facebook, for whatever reason, especially on the professional side, with LinkedIn via so behind, if you're able to jump on board first and do live video on LinkedIn, you'll be ahead of the curve. Right? So you may be behind on Facebook, who cares?

But you'll be ahead of the curve on LinkedIn. Okay. And LinkedIn uses hashtags. Right? Once again, it's not as popular, but they're there. Okay.

Advanced Search. I think this is another underutilized tool on LinkedIn. From the top. Every platform has a search box. But what I love about this is so detailed, and actually think there's more information below. So once again, if you're having a hard time trying to find someone, whether it's the person by name by title or industry, go to the advanced search, fill out that information.

Look, you can put the company name, the company name, and the people will pop up. Your first degree connections will pop up first, and then your second and third degree connections. Okay. Now I don't talk about LinkedIn groups as much because they're not as popular. But I will say the benefit of a LinkedIn group is if you see someone that's a third connection, if you join that group, you'll be able to connect with them as a first connection. Okay.

So that's the benefit of the LinkedIn group at this point. All right, LinkedIn, X ray, how many people have heard of this? Exactly. It's why you brought me here. Okay. All right.

All right. So like LinkedIn X ray, this is really good for recruiters, or once again, if you're on the job hunt, it allows you to find a specific person for LinkedIn, excuse me, the specific person on LinkedIn if they're a third degree connection, okay. I think it's very similar to the Vance search. I would always say do your research on LinkedIn first before you go to any other tools, but it's, it's pretty cool. So I would it is free. So I would encourage you to play around with it just to see what pops up.

Okay. That's recruitment geek, comm backslash tools, backslash LinkedIn. How many of you are use Google Chrome? Google Chrome, everyone. All right, great. So I'm a fan of Chrome extensions.

These, this first bullet point. These are some Chrome extensions, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, HubSpot, clear bit Connect. They're all pretty similar in the sense that if you have Gmail, if you install the extension is going to connect to your Wi Fi email account. What I love about this is anytime you receive an email from someone, their LinkedIn profile will pop up. Okay? So when you're looking at their profile, you can determine if this is a lead or not you can mark them as a lead and then you can nurture that lead from their for your business.

Okay. So depending on these Chrome extensions are free. There are paid versions. So depending on which tool and then free versus paid, it could be a utilized as a CRM, right client relationship manager. I personally use HubSpot. I like HubSpot.

It also lets you know if someone when someone opens your email you know, I like to lurk what's up like okay, I know you got the email when I was what's going on only for professional reasons, right professional reasons. Only LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It used to be called report rapportive I believe. Yeah. LinkedIn. Botham is very helpful.

So I know some people are like, well, if I'm receiving an email, of course it's a lead. Not necessarily, right. Sometimes people just email you out the blue. And you're like, where this where this person come from? Right? So I just feel like it's a good way to validate people and businesses.

Alright, so connection strategy. Let's put all of this together. Okay. So we have all star profile. We're at a networking event. What's next?

Okay. So this is your homework. All right. I want you to identify at least five people write by name, title, industry or company, whatever you're looking for. Use Advanced Search feature right? See if you're able to connect with them if you're able to get their information.

If sir, a third degree connection, ask for an introduction, it's going to show you the mutual friends that you'll have the mutual connections. As for introduction, and then reach out to them. Now, that'd be like, I don't know what to say, I'm going to help you with that. Okay? I'm here for you. Alright, so this is what I put together, you can definitely tweak it for your benefit, okay.

But the first thing is, Hey, I noticed your profile as we have mutual connections and interest and I thought it would be beneficial if we connect. Who's gonna say no to that? Oh, no one, right. Okay. All right. So they connect.

Hey, thanks for connecting. I noticed XYZ, whatever you're looking for. What are some things that you look for when working with x, y, z. Right? What are some things that you're looking for? For a graphic designer?

Right? account manager, whatever, whatever your thing is, okay? I came across the information, article, podcast video, got it, uh, I thought of you, you sent it to them that this would be helpful. And usually that's based off of your interaction with them your one on one interaction with them, or their post, okay? If you're paying attention to their post, okay, so make sure respond. All of this takes time.

Okay, couple, two, three days a week apart. And then you hit them with, when is it good time to schedule a call to discuss a consultation or current projects. Okay. Say you want to give this about three to four weeks, right? And at this time, you're pretty much assessing their need. Right, how are you doing that?

You feel you're doing that through the LinkedIn messages, right? You're doing that based off of their posts. There's a lady I connected with, literally a month ago, based in Louisiana, and I long as you have a nice headshot in a decent profile or connect with you, okay? And connected with her identity method of it. And then I did a presentation at people fund earlier this month. And I, you know, I promote my bits that I'm going to speak at.

And then she was like, Oh, I couldn't make it. I will love to hear the event. So I uploaded the audio player on my podcast, and I forgot to send it to her. And then she reminded me and she's like, okay, when can we jump on the phone? I was like, whatever. Okay.

So she listened to my presentation and I actually spoke to her this morning. And now she's she would like for me to do something with her and her organizations and Shreveport Okay, so we'll see what happens. But it took a month. It took a month. And I was paying attention to her or she was more so paying attention to me. But I was providing content to her.

Right that's going to benefit her, based on her knees base of our conversation. We communicated literally for four weeks, and then we jumped on the phone today. So these are some other options. I said number one already. And number two, if you meet someone at an event, right, it was nice meeting you at the Houston networking event. Please keep me in mind if you or your organization has any upcoming opportunities.

And then if someone if you accept the request, you can always say thanks for connecting. I look forward to hearing from you. Fair enough. All right. So you want to do at least one post right? Maybe you'll post a maybe you'll just comment on a few people's posts.

Hey, congratulations. on whatever your new job graduation seasons here are, maybe you do research now research is tough because that will suck you through a rabbit hole that can be more than 10 minutes, but you know, maybe use advanced feature to like, Okay, I need to look up at least one person today. Who will that be? Right? And you look up that person and you connect with them and you're done. Right, and then the next day you'll follow up or, you know, go through that process.

Okay. So can we dedicate at least 10 minutes a day? on starting Monday? I'll give you this weekend. All right. All right.

So I know I gave you the process, some strategies and some tactics here and there. But at the end of the day, you really want to do what's gonna work for you. Right. Now. I gave you some language to get you started, but you'll tweak that but on how you talk based on how you interact with people. Here's some more resources before our wrap up.

I don't know about you, but I don't like doing resumes and then to hire someone is pretty expensive. Okay. So LinkedIn has a resume assistant with Microsoft. I haven't looked at this thing in a while. But if you feel like you need to update your resume, and maybe we're checking out LinkedIn pro finder for our freelancers in here, right. Dana says she needs to get some clients.

So LinkedIn on the right hand side of your profile under your profile, if you click on actually, you have to click on this thing where it says work. You have to click on where it says work, and then this will pop up and then the pro finder is freelance opportunities. That she can, that you can pull yourself up on there as a freelancer or you can look for other freelancers. The learning, remember in spin, maybe three to five years laid down by lynda.com. Okay, so that's the learning. And then if you're a small business owner, you need to post the job, advertising groups, salary and slideshare.

You see where it says work? See, I didn't even know this was here, right? All right. And then talent insights. This is more so for that small business owner, recruiter, whoever's in HR, doing talent acquisition, talent insights, Our Lady is going to put a lot of money on that because they want to make It like where are the open and available candidates? Where are they?

They're on LinkedIn. So they want to make it easier for those people, the recruiters to find you, the person looking for a job, okay? So even though you can use this, my thing is if you're aware of it, you'll know how to update and customize your profile. That way it is suitable for a recruiter. So if you're serious about creating, developing, maintaining your personal brand, I want to encourage you to download this guide. Go to my website, Michelle gmail.com, backslash noise that guide and you can get the seven steps as I walk you through that.

I think it's great stuff that I came up with people asked me how do I do what I do? And I pulled out all my marketing books. I was like, What is the common theme? And at the end of the day, it's really about creating content. sharing your story sharing your message and making an impact why building a network of people