A LinkedIn Masterclass for Logo Designers

Ian Paget: Sam, so with the Logo Geek Podcast, it's primarily focused on logo design, but something that I'm really keen to do with the show is provide help and support for people that want to make a living design in logos. And I'm aware that you are an expert on social selling.

So I read on your I think it was on your LinkedIn profile. You describe yourself as a social selling strategist. So I think as you are not a designer, a lot of the audience probably won't be familiar with you. So could you do a little bit of an intro for us, let us know who you are and what you do basically.

Sam Rathling: Sure, absolutely. Well, firstly, thanks for the invitation to be here. My name's Sam Rathling. I'm a LinkedIn expert and social selling strategist. So what that really means is I help people to build their brand and get more customers from platforms like LinkedIn. So social selling can be applied outside of the LinkedIn environment, I just happen at the moment to focus on that because it's the best place for people selling business to business, to build their brand, get new clients and really build their visibility and credibility.

Ian Paget: And I think that's perfect because I think in the graphic design space, not that many designers that I know anyway really use LinkedIn. I mean obviously they have a LinkedIn profile, but in terms of using it in a way to attract clients, I don't see many people do maybe just a handful of people. And those that are using it seem to be quite successful with it. So I think to give a bit of context, why do you think graphic designers or logo designers should be using LinkedIn?

Sam Rathling: So I personally, I think that every single person in listening to this that is in logo design or is looking to attract new clients and develop their client portfolio should be on LinkedIn. If you take this platform, I mean, it's a very visual platform if you take the content element of it.

So let's say you are building up an audience and building up your followers of people who are running businesses or likely to need the services of a logo designer. They're all going to be on LinkedIn, whether they're working in a big company or whether they are running their own business. So the fact that you can get your designs out there can demonstrate your expertise through everything that's on your LinkedIn profile, through to the content that you're posting to get visible with these potential customers. I think it's an absolute, no brainer that somebody should be on the LinkedIn platform to build their business for sure.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Yeah. I know. I've had a LinkedIn profile for years and I've always just used it just when you're looking for a job or something, it's a little bit more an online CV.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. That's how most people perceive LinkedIn to be honest.

Ian Paget: Yeah. So I don't really post or use it to its full potential. I don't even know, I mean, I do kind of like, I know that there's some communities and stuff like that, but I don't even know how I would approach it say.

Sam Rathling: Well, that's not uncommon to be honest.

Ian Paget: So I think we should talk about this. So LinkedIn, as a platform, most people listening to this probably are similar to me and I'm making assumptions here. So they have a profile they've added their CV on there and they get messages from people that keep trying to sell them stuff. But how can people use LinkedIn to actually attract clients? What's the best approach to do that?

Sam Rathling: So for me there are three things. So I'll tell you what they are, and then we'll go into deeper detail on each one.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Go into the deeper, we love the details.

Sam Rathling: So I think the first thing is the profile, as you've already alluded to. I mean, that is a huge part of being able to attract a customer. If you take the profile now, I mean, there are 17 different elements of a LinkedIn profile, and most people are only use scratching the surface of what they could be doing with their profile.

Sam Rathling: So for first off, if you're in design, your LinkedIn header image needs to look amazing. It needs to really showcase your abilities as a designer because ultimately that big space at the top of a LinkedIn profile is the most visual part of anybody's LinkedIn profile.

Ian Paget: I don't even think I've used mine because I created my account years ago. It must be like 15 years ago that I created the account. I don't think I've even used that header image so that's a good one.

Sam Rathling: That's like prime real estate. If you're in design, you don't have your own LinkedIn header design that's job number one of this podcast. The second part is there's different elements of your LinkedIn profile. But for example, there's a new area it's only been around about a year or so, but it's called a featured section of your LinkedIn profile.

So you can actually put visual examples of your work. Let's say the top logos that you've designed or all the work that you've done, almost like a portfolio that visually now can sit within your LinkedIn profile. So that sits just below the about section on your profile. So again, you probably don't have one, if you're listening to this and you really don't engage with LinkedIn at all, but you can add that section to your profile, which allows you to showcase your work.

Ian Paget: Oh wow. I didn't even know of that was there. So I mean, if you combine just what you said so far that like a nice header image and then also add in that featured section to show off some of your work right away I can see-

Sam Rathling: Immediately if someone visits your profile, you are likely to turn a visitor to your profile into someone that might actually want to engage with your services.

Ian Paget: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I've always been reliant on people having to go to my website and have a look through actually, if you can show off your work on LinkedIn in that way, which I didn't even know that you could do that because I just I don't use LinkedIn as much as I obviously could. So, that's one thing that I need to look at.

Sam Rathling: Well, treat it like a mini website. I mean, ideally you don't want somebody that comes to your LinkedIn profile to have to go off anywhere else before they make a decision about whether or not you are somebody that they would consider messaging or that they would consider working with.

So, I mean, there's all sorts of elements of your profile, but even like the about action, you've got 2,600 characters, including spaces to really talk about who you are in your story and what you're about and how you help customers. And this, most people write their profile all about them, whereas it should be very customer centric about how you solve problems for your customers and ultimately showcase the people that you've worked with and why you are so passionate about logo design or graphic design.

So I think there's lots you can do with the profile that is just being missed really. The second part of it's another P it's prospecting. So this is the bit that most people find scary. And all it is, is just building your network with potential customers. I mean, you alluded to the fact that a lot of people do get messages and pitches and bad sales messages coming through their inbox, but there is a way to do that the right way that isn't sales and isn't pitchy.

That actually is about just firstly understanding before you start doing that, who actually is your ideal client? Who is... take some time to think about if you take LinkedIn, who do you actually want to be designing logos for? What type of brands? What type of industries? You might be very generic and have a very broad base of clients.

So you might actually say, "Well, look, I actually really want to do this for the I don't know, FMCG industry and consumer brands, or I only want to do this for cosmetics or whatever it is, but pick out what your ideal client is. And I actually have an acronym for this, the word ideal to help people really identify who they want to go for on LinkedIn.

So the I stands for the industry sector. So who, what industries do you want to work in? Because on LinkedIn, you can go search for those industries. You can find potential customers who are in those industry sectors. The D stands for demographics. So this is things like the size of the company. Do you want to work for solo openers or you do you want to work for big brands or do you want to work for massive FTSE 100 companies?

What is the demographic, how much revenue are they doing? All those kind of things that for the companies that you want to serve, like what do they actually look like? The E stands for experience. So what's the job title of the person you need to speak to? So if you're going to target bigger companies, you might want to be talking to the marketing director or the chief marketing officer. What is the job title of the person you want to be connecting with so that you can put the right people into your network?

The A, is more to do with the attributes of the companies you want to work with. So the the values they have and the what is it about the clients you already work with that you love, that you want to find more of? And finally the L stands for location. So where do you want them? Do you work globally? Do you just want them on your back doorstep within 50 miles of your house?

Or do you want all of the UK. Whatever location it is, just write that stuff down because once you've got a picture in your head of exactly what type of ideal client you have, then all of your content, your profile, everything you do on LinkedIn can be aimed at getting those ideal clients into your network.

Ian Paget: That was incredible. I wasn't expecting such a detailed answer. So something that came to mind where you were talking through that. On the last episode, hopefully when I released this, it would've been the last episode. I did an interview with a graphic designer called Craig Burton. And he focuses primarily on schools in New Zealand.

And he's actually one person that uses LinkedIn successfully. When I think of people that are actually using it successfully in the graphic design space, he's the only person that comes to mind right now. And I get it because you've gone through those different features and because he has focused on a niche and within that episode, we did say that new designers don't necessarily need to go down that route.

But actually, because he has selected a niche it's been a lot easier for him to know exactly the type of person he wants to target. So everything that you said he can easily work that out and easily target exactly the right people. I'm sure even I target more like a generalist audience.

Basically anyone that needs a logo design, if they get in touch, I'm generally happy to take on the project if it seems like a good fit if we get on well on the phone, but actually I know just having a think about it, there is probably a specific demographic and a specific type of person that I would personally want to attract. So actually sitting down and writing down those things and coming up with some kind of plan is definitely beneficial to do.

Sam Rathling: Yeah, and when it comes to content and what you put out there on platforms like LinkedIn or other social media platforms for that matter you're then talking to those people with that person in mind. So it doesn't mean you won't attract other types of clients it just means that in an ideal world, if you were to pick an industry or a one that something that you've got either experience in, or that you just love working in that space, then you are more likely to do more of that work. That's all I'm saying.

So you're not excluding anybody by picking a niche or picking a you don't have to pick one industry. I mean, his Craig is very specific. But it's just about really thinking about it before you try and do anything on a platform like LinkedIn, because if your profile is talking to everybody quite often, you'll attract nobody.

So if you talk about the industry sectors you specialise in, or that you've, even if you just look back at all the customers you've had since you started, there'll probably be a pattern. There'll probably be a theme, as you said, there's probably some common connections either in the types of businesses or the industry sectors, there'll be something in common.

And then you just, you can cut when you get to a point where you are getting inbound leads on a regular basis and you are creating leads through something like LinkedIn, you can then pick and choose what project you do take on because you're in a position to, but obviously if someone is just starting out, they will most people will take anything and everything when they first start out. But if you are proactively going out there to get certain clients, just make sure it's something that you want to have fun with and you enjoy doing and that you've just got a clear picture of what that client looks like.

Ian Paget: Yeah. I've been focusing primarily on logo design now for probably 10 years. But realistically when I went full time, it's only a couple of years ago. And I found since then actually there is a pattern of the type of clients that I generally do go ahead with. So in my case, it's usually related to healthcare, artificial intelligence like technology, all that sort of stuff.

So yeah. I can see how... I think as you get more experience, so people knew it does make sense to take on everything that you can, but when you've been doing it a few years, like I have, it does make sense to start to narrow down that focus and to start focusing the messaging and the type of person that you want to target.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. So prospecting once you've got that ideal client in mind, then you can start to use LinkedIn to go find those people and reach out to them and actually add them into a network. So that's what the prospecting element is. So before you even do any prospecting, you've got to understand exactly who it is that you want, but once you've identified them, you can start to use LinkedIn, whether you're on the free version or the sales navigator version, but most people will be on the free version if they're listening to this.

You can start to use that search bar at the top there to put different keywords in and to break that down into the industries that you want and the job titles that you're looking for and things like that. So I've got quite a few articles on my LinkedIn profile in the featured section funny enough.

So if someone is looking to learn some of the search techniques, there's a few free articles on my LinkedIn profile, which I'm sure will put in the show notes. But if you do want to start to look at things like that, then there are some articles I've got around search and how you can really target people. And then it's about approaching them people in the right way. So not with a big sales pitch or the last thing you want to be doing is when you message someone is trying to just immediately pitch them logo design as soon as you've either invited them or connected with them. So [crosstalk 00:14:53].

Ian Paget: I get so many, it's one thing that I really dislike about LinkedIn is that you get someone adds you and immediately.

Sam Rathling: Immediately.

Ian Paget: They just do a sales pitch and it's like, this isn't even relevant to me. Did you even look at my profile?

Sam Rathling: I know it's awful. So definitely don't be doing that now, but so the prospecting element is simply about building your network. And the best way to look at it is to think, well, behind every LinkedIn profile is a real human being and it's the same as going into a networking event where you're going to go and exchange business cards.

You don't know who you're going to find in the room, but you'll still build a relationship and turn a stranger into a friend. So that's probably the best way to consider LinkedIn prospecting is that you're not doing it to generate sales or get meetings. You're doing it to build relationships and network. And the other thing I think for logo design is I would probably be also looking to add people into my network who are referral partners.

So let's say you were partnered up with somebody that's running a marketing agency or social media agency. You could build a relationship with them. And then when they have a need for logo design, that they're outsourcing it potentially to somebody that's listening to this. So you wouldn't just go off to end clients. You might also want to build those relationships of people that might refer you, regular logo design work rather than just end customers who might only use you once.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Yeah. I've had that experience recently. I had a telephone call a couple of days ago with a guy that runs an agency and I'm going to be helping with one of their projects. So I totally agree with that.

Sam Rathling: Oh, perfect.

Ian Paget: So when you say that you found these prospects and you connect with them, how are you approaching that? Are you just adding them as a connection or are you sending them a message of some kind?

Sam Rathling: So it really depends on what your purpose is. So if you just want to put people in your network who are in your target market and then use your content to get visible in front of them, you can do that. I do recommend however that you are reaching out to them. And then just a couple of days after they've said yes, to connecting with you, that you drop them a very soft relationship building type message, not to book a meeting or to sell them anything, but just a second message that follows up with that conversation.

So, I mean, if someone's in a full time business development, sales type function, then I would be recommending that you're doing like 20 of those a day. But if you're in running your own business, you're doing logo design, you've got lots of client work on then you could be invite five people a day simple. It takes five minutes to invite five people a day, and then a little follow up message afterwards, just to start the conversation, nothing too heavy, but there's lots of different ways you can do it.

So that's what I do recommend is that if you're not prospecting every day on LinkedIn, then you're not putting people into your pipeline and not putting the right people into your network who potentially are going to see you on the newsfeed or go visit your profile or whatever. So it's, there's definite advantages to growing your network on a consistent basis for sure.

Ian Paget: Yeah. And this goes in line with another recent interview I did with a guy called Hayden. So the episode was focused on how you can get a consistent income and actually going on LinkedIn and building your network in a way that you've said here is actually really simple to do. And actually the more I think about it, I can see how it could be incredibly successful, especially if you have that target demographic worked out properly, because it makes easier to narrow down the type of bus that you want to attract and-

Sam Rathling: Exactly.

Ian Paget: ... then if you are creating content that specifically targets them, then it's, you can't really lose, can you? It's a-

Sam Rathling: ...not at all. So yeah, so profile is one, prospecting is another, and then there's two more areas that I think are important. So one of them is posting. So it's another P so posting, because if you are, there's no point in adding people into your network, if you are then going to be completely invisible.

And the fact that you are in logo design is very visual business. Showcasing what you are up to. And there are... I mean, I talk about 20 different content themes that you could post about on the newsfeed, but it's really opening and pulling the curtains back on what you are doing and documenting your journey and really putting yourself out there in terms of what you're working on and not necessarily who you're working with, because I know you don't always want to share what clients you have, but you could talk about, I mean, let me ask you a question Ian I'll give you an example.

Ian Paget: Sure.

Sam Rathling: This is what I call the seven day hack in terms of content. So what have you worked on in the last seven days? Just give me an example of something you've done in the last seven days.

Ian Paget: So this week I finished a logo design project and I prepared a presentation for the client.

Sam Rathling: Great. What type of industry was it?

Ian Paget: It's fitness related, but it's connected with music as well.

Sam Rathling: Oh nice.

Ian Paget: So it's quite cool what they're doing.

Sam Rathling: Very cool. So like what you just told me, there is a post on LinkedIn.

Ian Paget: True.

Sam Rathling: So you could do a post saying I've had a really exciting week. I've been working with this amazing health and fitness brand that doing something totally unique and really cool. I've helped them with their logo design. The clients delighted. Did a big presentation for them and they I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result. Boom, that's a post.

Ian Paget: Nice. That's nice and simple and quick and easy to come up with as well.

Sam Rathling: You can literately pull anything from your diary in the last seven days and create a piece of content about it. So it could be a prospect that you've met. It could a sales meeting you've had, it could be a piece of work you've been working on.

It could be a plan you've made for a client. It could be a networking event. It could be something you've listened to, somewhere you went, there's so many things that you could post about and it doesn't always have to be like work related. It could be, I don't know something personally.

So I did one yesterday that's all about well wellbeing and the stuff that we're doing in our team for walking and exercise and things like that. And then the other seven days is the next seven days you've got coming up. So you look at the last seven days and think, "Well, what could I post about that I've done in the last seven days?"

And then now look forward to what you got coming up next week. So think about what's in my diary next week. What am I planning ahead for? And that's content as well. So it's just really simple things to post about and you might think, well, who's interested in like what I'm working on, but actually if you put the right people into your network who are in health and fitness, who are in healthcare, who are in whatever, and then you are showing up on the news feed, suddenly you can start getting visibility with all these people who might in the future need your services.

And what social selling is all about is about staying top of mind so that when somebody does need a logo design, they think of you first. And that's when they inbox you and say, "Hey, I've been following you on LinkedIn. I like the look of all the designs you've been doing. You clearly seem you're busy with lots of other customers in our industry. It would be great to have a chat about how you could help us." And it might be six months down the line from today, but that's how you constantly get this flow of leads coming in because you are putting the right people into you network and showcasing what you can do.

Ian Paget: Yeah. So something I really like about what you've spoken about here is how simple it is. Because I know with platforms like Instagram, Instagram is really popular for graphic designers, but one of the downsides of that is so time consuming, like it takes, you can spend like an entire day just creating like a carousel of images or creating blog content. But the great thing with this and it's what I always liked about Twitter. Like I use Twitter all the time. Not so much now, but it sounds like what you're talking about is very much micro blogging is like just updating people.

Sam Rathling: Exactly.

Ian Paget: And I've never really considered that. Because even like yesterday I had a fantastic telephone call with old client that I worked with a couple of years ago. I'm excited to be working with them again.

Sam Rathling: Perfect. I mean that's huge credibility. The fact that you've worked with them in the past, they're coming back to you. I mean, that's just seeding that you are good at what you do, that your clients stay with you and that you are credible. The whole time you're trying to raise your visibility and raise your credibility and when you do those two things together, it just leads to opportunities.

Ian Paget: Yeah. I love that because I don't even need to mention the client names.

Sam Rathling: No, not at all.

Ian Paget: So there's no breach of GDPR.

Sam Rathling: No, not at all. You can tell the industry. I mean you can describe them roughly, but you don't have to say I was working with tag the company. You don't want to be doing that because ultimately you don't want to be sharing all your clients. I sometimes tag a client with permission. If I've done a piece of work for a client and they're really happy with something and I get permission to talk about their case study or whatever that really is social proof that you're good at what you do.

If you've got permission from the client to share, when they do their launch or they put their brand out there, you can the fact you can talk about the fact that you were involved with their logo design, but obviously in all those other seven day examples I gave you that you can just be sharing what you're up to. Like it's just documentary of what you are doing.

Ian Paget: Mm-hmm (affirmative) And you mentioned about 20 different types of content. You don't have to run through them all or now, but do you have a list of what they are somewhere that people can access?

Sam Rathling: Well, the best thing to do is if you guys are learning something from this podcast, like I've got a book called Linked Inbound, which does go through all the content themes. And I'm about to launch a new book called linked Outbound, which is more about the prospecting side of things.

So, that would be a good place to start. I mean, I'm always sharing great content on LinkedIn anyway. And I have a LinkedIn newsletter that goes out to all my subscribers on LinkedIn. So again, if someone wanted to subscribe to that, it's sitting in the featured section of my profile, but I mean, documentary is one of the 20 themes, just as an example, another one that's quite good for lead generation as well is education.

So, if you're listening to this and I mean logo design there are a lot of people out there that actually try to do design themselves and they don't do a very good job of it. So, but education, top tip, your top, I mean at the moment it's January 2022, as we're recording this why not do a post about your 22 top tips for 2022 for logo ideas or some just something that's really simple, but it, you are being very educational and helpful to your potential audience.

So there are things you can share about this design that don't give away like how to do it all. But at the same time showcase you was somebody credible and valuable and helpful. So if you can be seen as that person, that's helpful and valuable. Again, people are more likely to come to you and they do need your help.

Ian Paget: So we've gone through profile prospecting and posting, is there just three pieces or is there more than?

Sam Rathling: Well, there's no, this one isn't a P but I'm going to give it to you anyway because it doesn't fit with a P but the final one is something called engagement. So this is where you are liking, commenting and actually interacting with the newsfeed.

So whether that's other people's content or your own, there is a way to get in front of people without actually posting content and that is simply to just follow the type of businesses that you want to be doing work with and follow the people that you want to be doing work with.

So let's say you wanted to do some work for a chief marketing officer or a marketing director who happens to work in an industry that you are interested in. Well, if you see them posting or LinkedIn, and then you make a insightful comment or you engage with their posts, you are getting your brand very visible with those people, for example.

And everybody else that's liked or commented on the post is also going to see that comment on the newsfeed as well. So it's a really simple thing to do and it can take literally a couple of minutes to scrolling through the newsfeed on your mobile phone. Just find some pieces of content that you like, the look of from people that you potentially could do business with and engage with their content because that's a great way to get visibility. And it's a great way to stay top of mind again with your network.

Ian Paget: Again, I love everything that you are saying because something that I'm really lazy with is spending so much time on creating content when I've got so much client work, but everything that you've said so far is stuff that you can do in the what I would describe as kind of like dead time.

Sam Rathling: Yeah, absolutely.

Ian Paget: So when I used to post a lot on Twitter, I would do it say, well, like I'm eating my breakfast or, well, I'm waiting for the train or something like that. There's always these 10 minute slots throughout the day where you can do something productive. So rather than just, I don't know, scrolling through Facebook or something like that, you can actually, or playing a game on your phone or whatever, you can actually do something really productive with LinkedIn and just make that your routine and everything that you said so far, you can just dedicate like 60 seconds, even the 60 seconds you can actually make some progress.

Sam Rathling: 60 seconds of that few likes, few comments, like easy, easy peasy. I mean, this does not have to take hours and hours of someone's day. I mean, I generally have like a 15 minute a day system. So you spend five to seven minutes adding some people into your network, you spend five minutes creating a post and you do three minutes of engagement. That's 15 minutes a day. Everybody's got 15 minutes a day.

Ian Paget: Yeah, exactly. And that's the type of thing that I like, because when you are a graphic designer, one of the hardest things is you've always got client work and that kind of needs to be the priority.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. Of course.

Ian Paget: And updating your website, doing stuff that's like marketing, it doesn't directly make money you have to make time for it because you want clients to come in, but you are spending time on something that's not immediately bringing in cash. So it can be really hard to dedicate hours, days, sometimes weeks to create really good content. But yeah, like I said, even if you have 60 seconds for this it's progress.

Sam Rathling: Exactly.

Ian Paget: And that 60 seconds could attract a new client.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. In fact, I had a client this week do it just, she literally, she's a coach and she works only with top CEOs and she just literally went and left a comment on a CEO's profile, just in the comments, under something he had posted. And she left quite an insightful comment and he inbox her and said, "I think we need to talk," because it triggered him to look at her profile.

And he's the CEO of a very, very, very, very large organisation in the UK. And she's got a meeting with him today of the back of just putting one comment on his profile. I think she's going to land him as a client too.

Ian Paget: Wow.

Sam Rathling: Just one piece of engagement and she's the classic, oh, I'm always working with clients I'm so busy. I'm so busy. I'm like, it doesn't have to take long. It's a couple of minutes a day max of just like checking in on your newsfeed, finding someone that you can like and comment on their post and you never know where that's going to lead to.

Ian Paget: Yeah. And I can imagine it's a domino effect like a compound effect.

Sam Rathling: Yeah, absolutely.

Ian Paget: So like in that scenario, that person that you mentioned there that person's got in touch with them, that person could then recommend them to a whole load of other people.

Sam Rathling: Exactly.

Ian Paget: And that's just from commenting on one person's post.

Sam Rathling: Exactly.

Ian Paget: So yeah, it's incredible really.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. So I think this is not rocket science. It's just stuff that you can do in and around your other stuff that you've got going on, your other projects, et cetera. I mean, if you are listening to this and you don't have a full book of client work, which is very possible, then invest more time in it than 15 minutes a day, do an hour a day and you'll just fast track your way to success.

So I think it just depends on where you're at in your business. Like you'll be very established, you've got big, big amount of clients. You've got a lot of client work going on, but the challenge in your world is that you get busy with client work and then all suddenly then all the client work finishes and like, "Oh where's my next client?"

Ian Paget: Exactly.

Sam Rathling: And you get this rollercoaster to cash flow effect. Don't you where you've got this peaks and troughs peaks and troughs because you get busy and you get some new clients and then you spend all your time doing the work and then you get to the end of the work and go like, "Oh I need another client now."

So by doing a little bit every day consistently, you are more likely to be just getting a drip feed through of all the time of people that want to engage with you. And once you get to that point, it's a nice problem to have. You can either put your prices up or you can pick and choose who you want to work with. But ultimately if you're not doing these things on a daily basis and consistently you're not going to end up with that situation where you finish a piece of work and the next one's already starting.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really good advice because there's probably a lot of people out there that are in similar situation to me, I do have those. Sometimes I have months where I do really well and then sometimes it's like, I've made enough, but it's not as I've not been as busy as I would like to.

Sam Rathling: As you would like to. Yeah.

Ian Paget: Yeah, exactly. So I think that's really good advice. Another area that I would like to talk about on LinkedIn is there are a lot of groups and communities. I've joined some of them, but again, I don't really use LinkedIn as much as I should be based on this conversation. So how can people leverages these groups and communities again to grow their network?

Sam Rathling: Right now I wouldn't.

Ian Paget: Really, why?

Sam Rathling: Groups on LinkedIn as I currently talk to you in January 2022 are pretty much dead. They are not a good place to be spending and investing time. I think that will change at some point in the next six to 12 months. I think the groups will reignite and they will do something with them, but I wouldn't invest any of the time in groups and communities on LinkedIn at the moment.

I do have a couple of groups, but I use them primarily for my client base. I don't use them to prospect or generate new customers. They're just dead at the moment. There's no engagement in them. They used to be very, very strong. And then Facebook groups came along and just totally blown it out the water and LinkedIn groups became this big spamming and pitching thing and everybody stopped using them.

And LinkedIn is not prioritising content from them either. So even if you are in a group, you're not seeing what's going on in those groups. So I would totally avoid groups and communities until LinkedIn does something about them.

Ian Paget: How interesting because I have joined some groups, but I've never seen any value in them.

Sam Rathling: There isn't right now.

Ian Paget: I've never seen anything in my feed. That's why it makes sense based on what you said.

Sam Rathling: There are a few other features that would probably benefit. So, like there's a couple of things new on LinkedIn that listeners might not know about. So there's something called creator mode, which only came out about six months ago. And by switching on creator mode, you get access to different features like LinkedIn Live, for example, and LinkedIn newsletters.

And there's certain things that are available only to people that say like I'm a creator on LinkedIn. So there's only about 5% of all members of LinkedIn. I mean there's 800 million members and only 5% of them actually create content. So there's a huge opportunity, especially if none of your competition are leveraging LinkedIn for you as a logo designer or graphic designer to really leverage the platform because most people are invisible on LinkedIn. They have a profile just like you said, "I've got a profile, but I don't do anything with it."

There's such a huge opportunity for you to start dominating in your space and really be like the go to person within the LinkedIn environment for what it is that you do. So I would definitely leverage some of the newer tools available to you. It's a phenomenal platform when you really start to understand how to leverage it. And the great thing about LinkedIn is that you can get massive, massive reach on your brand for free.

I mean you can put a post out there with only a few thousand connections and hit 70,000 views on a post without sponsoring it, without paying for it, without having to invest any money whatsoever. Because if you build your personal brand and build your business brand on LinkedIn, like it's phenomenal, the amount of people you can reach for nothing.

Ian Paget: So, that creator mode thing that you mentioned, is that like a setting that you need to turn on in order to have that access?

Sam Rathling: Yeah. So creator mode you'll find if you go into a LinkedIn profile, there's something called a dashboard which sits underneath your about section. It's gray and it's got it's where you see how many people have viewed your profile and where you see your search appearances. It's like a little mini dashboard. And in there there's a little button you can switch on that turns you into what's called creator mode on LinkedIn.

So you'll get certain features ahead of other members. If you are on creator mode. There are a few other things it does. It puts you into follow only mode and it puts your featured section at the top rather than further down. So again, if you've got your case studies and your logos and your the work that you've done, that will sit nice at the top of the profile, instead of further down the page.

Ian Paget: Nice.

Sam Rathling: There's lots of things that will do if you put creator mode on, but don't put it on unless you actually are going to be creating content. There's no point in saying I'm in creator mode if you're actually never posting anything on the platform.

Ian Paget: Yeah. So, would it count like adding case studies as content creation?

Sam Rathling: If it's posted in the news feed, then it would be classed as content. If it you're putting something in your featured section then not.

Ian Paget: Right, okay.

Sam Rathling: So if you're putting a few pieces of work in your profile that doesn't class as content in the newsfeed area of LinkedIn. You'd have to be posted regularly to... I mean, we're not talking like tons of content. I mean three posts a week would do it. It's not massive amounts of content. You don't need to be on there like 15 times a day or anything, but a minimum three times a week posting would be enough to start getting you that traction.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Yeah. I mean most graphic designers I know they are already creating content in some way, but they might just say be focusing on Instagram. So they could technically just repurpose that content.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. Repurpose it across yeah for sure. Yeah definitely.

Ian Paget: Yeah, exactly. You mentioned about the there's the free version, which obviously most people are going to be having. And then like the premium version, is there any benefit to upgrading to that premium version?

Sam Rathling: So there's four different types. So you've got free then you've got premium, then you've got sales navigator and then you've got the recruiter licenses. So the one that everyone listening to this in my opinion should just be working on the free account unless you're in a pure business development function and you're in a sales role or you let you really need clients I wouldn't be moving into any of the paid versions.

Sales navigator is an amazing tool, but unless you're going to get fully trained on how to use it and you're going to use it really regularly for prospecting, then I wouldn't say anyone listening to this necessarily needs to have any of those extra tools. Most of what we're talking about here can all be done on the free version.

Ian Paget: Yeah. That's exactly what I was hoping that you would say, because it seems like there's a lot of incredible features that are very good. And I know anytime I've like sometimes LinkedIn give you the ability to have a free trial for the premium version.

Sam Rathling: Yeah, I don't, it's not very good.

Ian Paget: Well, I haven't found any benefit for-

Sam Rathling: The free version is amazing.

Ian Paget: Yeah. I think they made the free version too good to you want people to actually upgrade to do the other things.

Sam Rathling: Yeah, I think they will at some point maybe start doing some of the paid features and I think some of the moves they're making at the moment. I don't know if you're aware, but LinkedIn audio is about to hit. So if you're familiar with Clubhouse, LinkedIn is just rolling out their version of Clubhouse in audio rooms in LinkedIn.

So that's hot off the press. That's all just happening in the last couple of days. So the be to testing of LinkedIn audio is literally rolling out at the moment. So that's coming, if you enjoy Clubhouse, LinkedIn is about to roll out its own version within the platform.

Ian Paget: Oh, that's exciting. I know Twitter kind of copied it. So Twitter has, is it spaces, Twitter Spaces? I got really into Clubhouse when it came out. I thought it was an incredible application, especially because it was very business focused. When you had the conversation through the platform, there was a level of seriousness to all of it. Twitter, I don't know it just seems anytime I've jumped in on anyone's space, it just seems like a globe of garbage. So I'm actually really excited about LinkedIn releasing this.

Sam Rathling: Yes. It'll be interesting. I think it'll be one of those things in the beginning a bit like Clubhouses, where everybody jumps into it and then it'll plateau and find its place. But I think they are really rolling out loads of new features and lots of new products. And I mean, LinkedIn, I know not everybody sees it as a really exciting platform, but like for me, from a business to business perspective, I mean, there's no better place right now for you to be building brand, getting people to know who you are and getting that visibility on what you're about. So I think it's a phenomenal tool and anyone that's not leveraging it right now is missing massive opportunities.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is with Clubhouse, you had to like start all over from scratch and you could, so something I started doing was having a weekly conference. So I would invite a panel and we would answer questions to people in the room.

So if that does come into LinkedIn, I think that would be really good for establishing reputation and credibility and coming across as an authority. I rarely use Clubhouse. I was using it for a couple of months and it was incredible during lockdown.

Sam Rathling: During lockdown yeah. And what are times using it?

Ian Paget: Yeah. I mentioned earlier that I had a telephone call from an agency and they I'm going to be working on a project for them. That actually from a Clubhouse conversation.

Sam Rathling: Nice.

Ian Paget: So, yeah. So, I do think something like that on LinkedIn would be really good and you can [crosstalk 00:41:08].

Sam Rathling: Well, it's here. It's not available to everyone yet, but they're in be to test mode. They've got a bunch of people who were trialing it. It's like when they rolled out newsletters, I got newsletters about a year and a half ago. And now only now it's rolling out to everybody. So it'll be a bit of a slow rollout. It's not going to come straight away, but just hot off the press that is about to hit LinkedIn.

Ian Paget: That's exciting. So, I mean, talking about new features, there was a couple of features that I didn't even know about. So like on your profile, there's actually a little audio clip thing next to your name so that you can click and hear how you say your name. I've seen other people actually do a little introduction using it. How long has that feature been there? Because I didn't even know they existed until I went on your profile.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. So there's two areas. So you've got your name pronunciation, which is the little ten second audio clip, which you can add in again, you can record that from your mobile version of LinkedIn. And then the other feature is a little 30 second video inside your headshot where you can literally, someone hits your profile and a couple of seconds after this little 30 second intro, but it's called a cover story.

So that again, you can find in the mobile version of LinkedIn, just go into the app, hit on edit profile and you can record your audio pronunciation of your name pronunciation sorry. I never pronounce that right. Or pronounce someone from the BBC called me out on it the other day saying I was saying pronunciation wrong.

Anyway, so the cover story again, you just go to edit profile, go to where you'd normally change your photograph and you'll see a little plus button that's will say record a cover story or add a cover story. So there are cover of little features I think it really brings the profile to life. If you are always fed out with someone pronouncing your name wrong, then get that 10 second audio done so that people don't.

But yeah, it's just a few little features, but again, people just go visit my profile, you'll see all the different things there. And I'm always talking about new features. If there's a new thing rolling out chances are and probably posting about it or putting in my newsletter or putting some content out about it.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Well, like I said, I went on your profile and I mean, I say I don't really use LinkedIn, but sometimes I do go on there and you add connections and so on, but it's like, there was things on your account that I'm thinking I haven't even seen that before. Like the video you mentioned. I didn't even know that was there. Just so I understand, can you only add that up from your mobile?

Sam Rathling: Yeah. So you can only add the cover story from your mobile, the name pronunciation I'm not sure. I'm pretty certain, that's a mobile thing as well. But yeah and then the other thing I would, again, people don't realise you can use things like video and voice inside the messages as well.

So sending a video to somebody that's recently connected with you is a smart move to do. And you can also audio message people too. So I tend to use those features quite a lot within the inbox because it adds that layer of personality and it gives the personal touch and it's a phenomenal tool to use. Somebody read my book and he messaged me and he said, I've been doing a video, like a 30 second video to every new person that asked me to connect with them.

And he said, I'm getting so many leads and so much business from doing it because nobody uses it. So if you get a video message through your inbox, well, no one uses that. So you're bound to click on it. You're bound to remember the person. And it's a really nice little feature if you're not using it just to be aware of.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Well I, again, I've not even seen anyone do that before, so I didn't even know it was a thing. In fact just having this conversation now there seems to be a whole load of things that I should be doing. This is stuff, everything that you said, it like, it doesn't take long, like adding a 30 second video to your profile that takes I probably record it a few times, but like no more than half an hour to add something good to it.

Adding your pronunciation, adding featured images. I've already got stuff in my portfolio, adding those is going to be quick and easy. Posting content. That's a two minute job. There's so much that I know I should be doing. I just haven't been, and now I'm kicking myself. Should be doing this every single day, really.

Sam Rathling: It's 2022 Ian, you know, you've got New Years resolutions, get yourself a little plan and figure out and it's not about doing every single thing, but like, even if you just did a few of the things that we've suggested on here and someone listening to this has never used LinkedIn before. I mean, it's a lot of information I've given, but just simple steps.

Don't try and do it all at once. Just get consistent and don't worry too much about the content. People always get stopped from posting, because they're worried about how it's going to come across or it's not perfect or they get this imposter syndrome going on. So you are better to just do it and then you'll get better over time, but just commit to being consistent. That's my word for this year consistency.

Ian Paget: Yeah. Well, I've always been a believer in having a goal and putting aside just 10 minutes. As long as you can put 10 minutes toward something, you will eventually get to the top. So I like the analogy you want to reach the top of the mountain. If you keep making one step a day towards the top of that mountain, you will reach it.

No question because you're walking in a straight line and actually if your goal is to get recurring, consistent client, actually a lot of the stuff that you said in here takes 10 minutes less. Even if you have like 30 seconds, you can actually make some progress and that 30 seconds could equate to you actually getting a new client.

So actually it's been incredible advice, you've really, crammed a lot into this episode. So you've already answered this question already, but what's the best way of keeping up to date with everything LinkedIn? Are there any special blogs or articles or anything that you would recommend people look at to keep up to date with this stuff?

Sam Rathling: Yeah. I mean, LinkedIn do have their product team or on LinkedIn, so you can't connect with them follow like their product team for different. So for example, I just followed yesterday, the guy that's responsible for the audio rooms, for example, they do have blogs. So you can sign up to LinkedIn's blogs.

They'll send them in your inbox. They aren't the best at telling you about new features rolling out something you'll just log in one day and have something. But one of the best things you can do is obviously follow people like myself. I'm not the only person out there that teaches LinkedIn, but there are lots and lots of people out there that post regularly.

So follow 10, 20 different LinkedIn coaches and LinkedIn experts. And one of us is bound to be posting about something. I always try and keep my audience up to date with what's happening on LinkedIn. So my newsfeed, my newsletter, et cetera. I do have a podcast as well called Social Selling with Sam.

So I tend to put new features and things like that, or talk about those on the podcast too. So yeah, but there's all sorts of ways you can stay up to date, but usually just be connected with a bunch of us that are immersed in this world all the time and you'll find out what's going on for sure.

Ian Paget: Yeah. That's exactly why I got you on this podcast. Because I wanted to do an episode about LinkedIn did a search online, saw that you'd done a few podcasts, listened to a few of them. It's like, yeah, you know what you're doing. So yeah, you've done quite a few interviews.

Sam Rathling: I have just a few.

Ian Paget: So if you want to learn more, people can go back and listen to those as well and follow you online and everything like that.

Sam Rathling: Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Ian Paget: Well we crammed a lot into this.

Sam Rathling: We did.

Ian Paget: So I think this seems to be a good point to wrap things up. How can people learn more about you and learn more from you other than what you've already shared with us?

Sam Rathling: Yeah, so obviously the, my own LinkedIn profile pretty much on most other sites, if you're on Instagram, Twitter. So I'm usually just the handle is @samrathling. So I don't think there's any that I'm not anything else. The book Linked Inbound would be a good place to start. That's a bestseller on LinkedIn.

It's a step by step practical walkthrough as if you'd never used LinkedIn before. So that's a good place to start. And the podcast, obviously Social Selling with Sam. So feel free to message me on LinkedIn if you've listened to the podcast, connect with me on LinkedIn, mention that you heard me on Logo Geek Podcast, and I'd be happy to have a conversation, but I'm very open to connecting with people that hear me on different things. So just reach out if you need some help with anything and otherwise just follow all my content on LinkedIn and I'm sure you'll pick up some more tips.

Ian Paget: Yeah. And I'll link to all of that in the show notes so that people can easily find it. They don't need to be frantically writing down all of this stuff. So, yeah fantastic. This is been absolutely incredible. I've learned so much from this myself, so I'm hoping that listeners will have got so much value out of it as well. So Sam, thank you so much for coming on. It's been absolutely incredible and thank you for sharing so many insights with us.

Sam Rathling: Thanks for having me. Have a great 2022 everyone.