Skyrocket Your Small Business with Insights from LinkedIn Expert Tony K Silver

In this episode of the Talk About Digital Podcast, host Mark A Preston sits down with LinkedIn Profiler, Educator, and Speaker - Tony K Silver to explore how small businesses can unlock the full potential of LinkedIn to drive customer growth and generate high-quality leads. If you’re a small business owner looking for practical, actionable strategies to maximise your LinkedIn presence and start building valuable customer relationships, this episode is packed with insights tailored just for you.

Tony K Silver shares his deep knowledge on how small business owners can avoid common LinkedIn pitfalls and instead focus on proven techniques to engage their ideal clients, grow their network, and turn those connections into real business opportunities.

Key Takeaways for Small Business Owners:

• Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile: First impressions matter. Tony explains how to transform your LinkedIn profile into a powerful tool that immediately tells potential clients who you are, what you offer, and why they should engage with you. Learn the exact elements that make your profile stand out in a sea of competition.
• Targeted Content for Maximum Engagement: Posting on LinkedIn is not about random content. Tony emphasises the importance of posting with purpose—targeting the right audience at the right time. Discover how to craft posts that resonate with your audience and encourage engagement, boosting your visibility on the platform.
• Effective Networking and Group Strategies: Stop using LinkedIn like a digital Rolodex. Tony reveals how to engage meaningfully with your connections and even how to leverage LinkedIn groups to target your ideal clients. By joining the right groups, you can showcase your expertise to a highly relevant audience, turning cold leads into warm conversations.
• Master the LinkedIn Algorithm: Tony shares insider tips on how LinkedIn’s algorithm really works. Learn the key factors that influence reach and visibility, and how to ensure your posts get seen by the right people, in the right way, at the right time.

What Will You Gain by Listening?

By tuning in to this episode, you’ll gain a complete roadmap on how to use LinkedIn as a strategic tool for customer growth. From profile optimisation to building lasting relationships, Tony K Silver’s advice will help you turn LinkedIn into a powerful lead generation machine that works for your business.

TAD Takeaway: Tony’s golden advice is all about taking action—don’t let your LinkedIn profile and content become an afterthought. Start by refining your profile, post with intent, and move those online conversations to real-world opportunities to grow your business.

If you’re ready to take your LinkedIn strategy to the next level and start driving real results, this episode is a must-listen!

This podcast is produced by Voice It Podcast Agency
https://voiceitpodcastagency.co.uk

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mark A Preston: Welcome to Talk About Digital, the podcast for small and medium sized businesses looking to grow new customers through impactful, low cost digital marketing strategies. Have you invested in digital marketing with zero positive impact? If this sounds like you, then this Each week we provide actionable steps to move your business forward with our TAD Takeaway, helping you to harness your biggest asset, yourself, to achieve big impact with minimal investment.

[00:00:36] Stay tuned as we dive into the world of digital marketing, offering insights and advice that will transform your business. Let's get started. Welcome to another episode of the Talk About Digital podcast. And today I want to start off by just explaining how I know my guest. Well, we both attended a 12 month professional speaker mastermind.

[00:01:04] And over those 12 months, I really got to know and understand the person I have on today. And do you know what? I love the honesty it brings. So he's not only a professional speaker, but he's my LinkedIn go to person as he really understands what's going on behind the scenes when it comes to LinkedIn.

[00:01:29] Please welcome LinkedIn profiler, educator and speaker, Tony K. Silva. Hi, Tony. 

[00:01:36] Tony K Silver: Good morning, Mark. And how are you today? 

[00:01:38] Mark A Preston: Very well, thanks. I'm going to say, could you give a bit of an overview of who you are and how you got into LinkedIn? 

[00:01:47] Tony K Silver: Absolutely. Yes. Uh, so yeah, my name is Tony K. Silver LinkedIn started for me.

[00:01:52] Well, actually I joined back in 2006 originally, and like a lot of people, It was the thing to do. In 2007 I left, didn't understand what it was all about, nothing much was happening. I got made redundant in 2008 and that is the tipping point, because I was 48 years old and although I saw that as being highly experienced, job market saw that as being old.

[00:02:15] Oh shit, um, what do I do? I had to go networking. I had to use LinkedIn like most people I knew. And I still do. I'll be 90. 9. 99 percent of people that I networked with a meter on LinkedIn. 98 percent of those people don't know how to use it. And I was exactly one of those people. I was on it, playing around, trying it, but I realized that to find a job, I needed to use it properly.

[00:02:37] So I got trained. I actually found a LinkedIn master trainer back in the days. LinkedIn used to have those people. There was no accredited trainers anymore. So if anyone tells you they are, they're not telling the truth. taught me how to use the platform backwards, forwards, upside down, but also introduced me to a group of LinkedIn trainers who are global collaboration.

[00:02:58] And we share literally, we share information for those of you that know LinkedIn, though it's quite a large beast with allegedly over a billion people on it. So they just can't push a button update. Everybody is absolutely impossible. So they roll things out and it could be any part of the world. So we just report back and that became the starting point.

[00:03:17] I then had the facilities to know how to set up a profile, but also I knew what was going on with the algorithm and the trends, et cetera, et cetera. No, I didn't go straight into LinkedIn training. Um, I still, apparently at the age of 48, not only was I old, I was stupid as well because I wanted to go and work someone else, the security side of it.

[00:03:37] Um, I did work for a charity. Interesting. That's ended and I worked for chamber of commerce and that was the last full time job I had. And it was there that I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my working life, which will be determined by me as to how long it was and what I was doing. And because most people are on LinkedIn, but not too sure how to use it, that's what I decided I would do.

[00:04:01] Mark A Preston: Wonderful. Now looking through your profile immediately says LinkedIn Profiler. Now when I think of a LinkedIn expert, I usually get flooded with LinkedIn, lead generation expert. You know, basically people who are just going to give you fluff. So because LinkedIn profilers stood out to me, I'm thinking, well, could you explain what a LinkedIn profiler actually is?

[00:04:30] Tony K Silver: Yeah. And actually I have a little metal badge that I wear to events. Um, and it has LinkedIn profile on there. And a lot of people go, what is that? Um, and it's obviously deliberate because I want to answer the question. A LinkedIn profile is someone that will actually look at your profile. But they will look at your profile after asking some questions and the questions I will ask will determine exactly what the person is all about, what they're trying to use LinkedIn for, what are their desired goals, et cetera, what the outcomes they're looking to achieve.

[00:05:01] And then I can look at their profile in relation to what they're trying to achieve, where they currently are now, they joined it at some stage. And as I always say to everybody, you know, when you joined. Did LinkedIn send you a manual? I do it from stage. And 15 years later, I'm still waiting for someone to say yes, because they don't.

[00:05:18] Um, and they also don't give you much in a way of information around that side of things. So I can look at someone's profile. I know what is currently on trend, but I use two words, which does make me stand out from many other LinkedIn trainers. I use the word consider a lot in my training. In fact, I actually say to people, that's my training word.

[00:05:37] Consider what I say. I'm not saying if you do this, you'll fail miserably. You know, just consider it works for me and a lot of other people. It might not work for you in particular, but at least consider what I'm saying. And also I'll use the word context, which is again, it's another way a lot of LinkedIn, a lot of trainers full stop, full flat on their faces is, you know, in what context are we talking about some of these things around it?

[00:06:01] Then that and the outcomes means that I can look at your profile. I can go from the top to bottom. I can look at all the different sections and the subsections and the subsections of subsections. I know what currently works, but also know what's important to you because I've asked the questions. And we work together to turn that profile from where it currently is, which often is a very corporate, maybe even back in the days of it being a CV, it's where it needs to be now.

[00:06:26] And it's often the case that people haven't really changed because they don't really know what to do. And I help them mold it. The profile is really important. Yes, lead generation does come into it. There are a lot of people out there that are promising X, Y, and Zed. And I just, again, use that word context.

[00:06:42] Well, how can you 10 times my business? We don't even know what my business is. You haven't even spoken to me yet, but you're approaching me saying you can 10 times my business for your training. I don't think so. I think that you need to at least have spoken to me before you can make that outlandish comments.

[00:06:56] I never do. Now I say to people, you know, I will allow you to disqualify yourself in your, in your conversations with me to the point where I go, sorry, I can't work with you because you're not in the right place, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not promising the world. I have a very high success rate because I'm very choosy about who I work with.

[00:07:14] Go with, but making sure that they're in the right place. And that's important to me. You know, a lot of what I do, a lot of what you do as well can overwhelm people. We are experts and sometimes it's just a load of information that can blow them away. So I'm very wary of that. And then some cases, you know, we need to do it in certain ways.

[00:07:32] So I look at their learning styles, look at what they're trying to achieve. And as a profiler, I can then turn their profile, which is part of LinkedIn. It's not the all LinkedIn, but that's what I major on. And that may be what makes me stand out. It certainly does on LinkedIn, because as far as the search engine is concerned on LinkedIn, I found out a couple of weeks ago, I'm ranked number one in America for what I do.

[00:07:53] So that's a nice credibility statement when people are asking why they should use you well. Like number one in America, number four in the world. 

[00:08:02] Mark A Preston: Well, I'm going to say being a LinkedIn profiler, proof's in the pudding there, you know, but, uh, so the talk about digital podcast, it's aimed at SMEs, small business owners.

[00:08:15] So over the years, you've been looking at hundreds of profiles. What would you say is Not, I won't call it mistakes, but the things people are missing out on by not doing things. Because I don't want to focus on you doing things wrong. I want to focus on, well, what things are you missing out on by not doing?

[00:08:39] Tony K Silver: Yeah, I mean, there's a, there's a plethora of things that are the answer to that. And I always say to people, if they ask me to critique their past, Profile, I always say, well, actually, I will give you some hints and tips and some clues and some ideas and some things to consider. But as I know that you never had the manual to set it up from LinkedIn when you first joined and they never really helped you much since you joined.

[00:09:00] I don't think it's right. And if someone says to me that they did the other day, two years ago, they had someone. Work with them to sort their profile out. Absolutely. I will then go in and I will critique what they've done. There are lots of different things. And because you were never given much in the way of instructions from LinkedIn when you first joined, it's massive.

[00:09:20] As I say, you know, LinkedIn claim 1 billion people on it. It's really, really, and it does change so much. I think people miss out on the not, not knowing and not the understanding side of things. I think the biggest issue for most people I speak to, um, is around. Well, they, they sort of say, Oh, I don't know what to post.

[00:09:43] I don't know when to post, or I don't want to shout about myself. And, you know, they get a little bit guarded. So posting, it's not the only activity on LinkedIn by country. Mine is not, but it's potentially the one that most people do, but they're not consistent. And I use, I use four words when I talk to people about, uh, the posting quality.

[00:10:05] Yeah, please. Do stuff of quality don't post just because you think you got to, because it will count against you. If you're putting out weak stuff, people start to unfollow you perhaps, but do be consistent. You know, um, I do work with people that are very timid around this side of things. I go, look, let's, let's set a nice, easy goal for you.

[00:10:25] Let's just say one post a fortnight. Do you think you can manage that? Most people will actually sort of say yes. And I said, well, we can build up. Absolutely. There's a consistency around it. But when you do produce the posts, make it informational. Give people something of value, maybe not telling them the how, but giving them the what.

[00:10:48] Give them something they can go away and maybe look into, something that's of use to them, something they didn't know. And by doing that, you're also positioning yourself as an expert. But also the one that many people don't get is make it discussional. Yeah, people have got opinions and by God, they will share them, which is actually on LinkedIn we want them to.

[00:11:07] Because the interactions with our posts is how it drives LinkedIn. Even it could be just as simple as I say people just at the bottom of your post, ask a question. How would you handle this situation? What are your thoughts on this? Simple little ones, but the people that are reading it, they got an opinion.

[00:11:23] They're curious. They can't, they can't resist having a little answer. You could write a really, really interesting post and then forget to do that call to action at the end of it. And you find that There's hardly any engagement because people haven't been given that prompt to, and I always say people, no disrespect to anyone, including me, you know, we've all got no time in the world and we're all a bit thick.

[00:11:45] Tell us what to do and we'll do it. If you don't tell us, we probably won't bother. And it's, it's really like that. So it's the consistency around posting, but it's the quality, it's the posting that's the biggest thing for everyone that I work with. You know, that is part of. The other side of it is not the profile, but again, if you are driving people to your profile with your posts and it doesn't work, then that becomes an issue, but really, yeah, getting the posting, getting your activities right on a regular basis.

[00:12:13] Forming habits, uh, really about doing this sort of thing is essential. It's too easy to dip out. And of course, LinkedIn, um, now have a built in scheduling tool. So there's absolutely no excuse if you go away for two or three weeks in August that you can still post. You don't need to be off the scene as such.

[00:12:30] Um, so it's that consistency and just keeping your, keeping your posts in people's mind's eye. They keep seeing stuff from you. It's good quality, et cetera. That can only be good for you, but that's what most people really struggle with. 

[00:12:44] Mark A Preston: I was going to say, I've been on LinkedIn for quite a while and I've used it and I've generated a lot of business through LinkedIn, but what I'm seeing, I saw a shift, I'm seeing a shift to be more.

[00:13:01] Personal people are posting personal things because they've been told that, well, you need to show your personality in order to generate quality leads. What's your views on this? 

[00:13:13] Tony K Silver: I do have views. I have an opinion on that and it's not, everyone will like the opinion. Um, certainly Microsoft won't because I'm going to put them down because about two, well, they took over in 2016.

[00:13:27] And a couple of years ago, probably three years ago now, they made a conscious effort to Facebook LinkedIn. And we told them no, as we feedback, we beat to test their buttocks. And we said that, that you can't do this. It's not right. They did. And by that they were promoting people that were doing personal stuff.

[00:13:46] They were getting the influences coming in and doing stuff, et cetera. It become really, really unpleasant. Um, but underneath that I do say to people, you do, yes, need to show some personality. You are a human being. At the end of the day, there are still bots out on LinkedIn. You know, LinkedIn will try their utmost to get rid of everyone.

[00:14:09] It's a constant battle. So stand out, you know, have a bit of charisma, have a bit of a character. And I say to my clients, you know, if in a series of 10 posts, seven or eight are kind of the businessy ones, the ones that are giving information that are really good. One, controversial it might be, do a sales post.

[00:14:29] Everyone knows you're in business to make money. So as long as it's not every single one, people will actually be okay with that. But also do that personal post. If you can put a business analogy into it. Even better that sits within absolutely everybody. But yeah, we need to know a bit more about you and what you do, but I don't want to see every single video is a video of your cat, et cetera.

[00:14:52] So it needs to be considered what you're doing from time to time. And yeah, if you can build a business analogy into the fact that your kids just graduated from college, et cetera, et cetera, building into an achievement post and just talk about that sort of thing, it definitely works. And I'm definitely pro that I don't want it to go back to where it was 10 years ago.

[00:15:12] Um, cause it was a bit stuffy and it was, you know, very much, it was a business platform and, you know, we don't want any of that on there at all. No, you can have personality. You can have personal, as long as it's a considered amount and it's not just continually doing the same thing. I had one person say to me once that they had a picture of their cat and they got lots of engagement.

[00:15:33] Well, that's that they didn't, they didn't understand how LinkedIn works. They told me they got loads of views on their posts. So they were going to include the picture of their cat and all their future posts, because obviously it worked. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, views and impressions on LinkedIn don't actually count for anything.

[00:15:47] So that was absolutely a banergy metric. And they were chasing things that didn't really help them whatsoever. But yeah, stuff around the personal is fine to do. 

[00:15:58] Mark A Preston: Now you touched upon something perfect then. Views and counts and numbers and everything. So in order for somebody to get their Uh, post seen by more people they want them to be seen by what things are important.

[00:16:21] I mean, just to give an, a reality check when somebody does a post, what sort of percentage of their connections sees it initially and how does that grow? 

[00:16:33] Tony K Silver: Okay. Um. When you post on LinkedIn and again, it doesn't matter who you are. Um, LinkedIn send it to about eight to 10 percent of your connections. Okay.

[00:16:43] So if you've got a thousand connections, that's 80 to a hundred people. It's put in their post. I won't say that we'll see it. Be very clear, clear on that. It's put in their feed. LinkedIn monitor it for an hour. At the end of the hour, they will score the engagement you've got. Okay. And that's where many people.

[00:17:01] Kind of fail miserably because they posted it on the wrong day, the wrong time and in the wrong format for their audience. So I'm being very, very careful of my wording. Again, there, there are lots of reports out there by people that I absolutely find there are people that are doing great work, but what they don't tend to mention is the word I use earlier context.

[00:17:21] And I'll, I always say to me, I'm a perfect example. So you will hear that 10 o'clock on a Tuesday is a good time to post. And I won't argue with that, but I also go, is it? I have two other audiences apart from the UK and Europe. I have an audience in America and I have an audience in education. Both who are 10 o'clock in the UK time will not be on LinkedIn.

[00:17:42] So they will not be seeing my posts at the right time. They will not be engaging in it when it scores, which is the first hour. And therefore they might come on later, absolutely fine. No problems at all. But the way of getting extra reach is for people to actually comment and like. And repost in that first hour ID, but just generally speaking, those other things that LinkedIn score, they do not score views and impressions.

[00:18:08] They are completely irrelevant. And if I told you what a view actually was on LinkedIn, you'd understand why. There has changed recently. Um, hence a lot of views and impression numbers have tumbled and people are going, Oh, what's going on? Well, the thing is, is that what LinkedIn had done, have they been a bit more honest?

[00:18:24] And it used to be that a view was two nanoseconds. So as I'm scrolling through my feed, a mark a Preston's post is in there, but I'm not looking at it. Cause I'm looking for something else. And then I scroll back up to the top again. Mark's got two views. It might get two views. I don't think so. They have lengthened that time, which means that some of the results people are getting now.

[00:18:48] If they are still really interested in the views and impressions that they're getting, they're more realistic. There's more chance that people actually have potentially viewed their posts rather than a fantasy. Um, that used to be, but the way to get better reach is to make sure that it's something that people want to come back in and can make comments.

[00:19:08] Maybe you've share it or repost, although that's going to be cool. Share again soon. So that I'm about that. Um, and yeah, even minimums are like just looking at it. And giving person a view it's pointless, really is pointless, literally pointless. 

[00:19:24] Mark A Preston: So this podcast is all about helping small business owners with customer growth.

[00:19:31] So how can they really nurture the power of LinkedIn to, to generate not just numbers in leads, but dark quality conversations. 

[00:19:43] Tony K Silver: It's a combination of a few things. I think one thing I must point out is that if you are driving people to your profile, which you are doing by posting and actually just networking, you know, it's down the dumb things you go networking.

[00:19:57] Oh, should we connect on LinkedIn? It's probably replace. Should I do a business card off you when they brand on your LinkedIn profile? What do they see? And just really again, consider exactly what you're telling the person when they're viewing your profile. That can be a big, big deciding on whether they actually will engage with you or not.

[00:20:17] They might've been interested in your posts that come onto your profile, but actually they're disappointed in what they see. But actually the posting consider your audience. Yeah. I use that word consider a hell of a lot. And when I talk about when you post from LinkedIn, yeah, you get 10%, but you know, You've got about 15, 000 connections.

[00:20:36] I've got about 7, 000 connections. How many of those are actually still completely and utterly relevant to us? Uh, yeah, good question. And I, you know, I don't, I'd hate to think how many of them aren't. So we probably, when we post it's a bit, again, it could be a bit scattergun. So think about your audience.

[00:20:53] Think when they're going to actually view that post, if they are, Unable to view LinkedIn during the working day because it's not part of their working day. That post, post in the morning or afternoon, later in the afternoon, early evening. But also one top tip that I don't often mention I do to my clients, of course, is, you know, LinkedIn groups, any of those that have been around for a while on LinkedIn, no groups really, really, really, really, really useful.

[00:21:20] Um, prior to Microsoft, Microsoft kind of, yeah, cut them off at the knees. But actually, the one thing I say to my clients is, let's have a look at your groups. And as per always, they're a mixture of their industry, their locality, their interests. I go, hmm, why don't you go and join a group where your ideal client lives?

[00:21:40] If you're into lawyers, accountants, and solicitors, go and join a group of accountants, lawyers. No, you're not, but the admins tend to let you in. When you're in there and when you post in those groups, you're posting in front of your ideal clients. Rather than just scattergun approach by posting it generically.

[00:21:57] So that's one top tip that I don't normally give out is. Use groups, find the groups where your ideal client, first of all, you've obviously got to define your ideal client. And that's a big struggle for many people, but once you have, and if they are lawyers, counselors, go and join those groups, if they're business coaches, go and join those groups.

[00:22:15] Hey, you can use those groups to talk to people. You can comment on their posts, et cetera. And also you can post in those groups. And therefore, as I say, you're now posting whatever it is you want to say in front of a far more defined and more targeted audience. 

[00:22:30] Mark A Preston: Do you know what? That's just pure gold, but it's usually the, what I call the lightbulb moments.

[00:22:38] That makes people realize what they haven't been doing. But LinkedIn is a bit frustrating for me personally, by the lots and lots of messages I receive in my inbox from. People who connect then immediately send something to try and sell you something and say, well, like, for instance, years and years ago, I did have an agency, you know, and that's buried on my profile.

[00:23:10] So, but I get lots and lots of messages saying as an agency owner, we can really help. Well, if you'd actually looked at my profile before you sent me a message, you'd realize that. I don't have an agency now. In fact, I never, ever, ever, ever want to start an agency ever again. You know, and it's just, I get frustrated about, you know, it only takes two minutes, you know, and I think a lot of this is automation and I think in an AR world, it's lost some of its personal touch.

[00:23:42] And what's your views on that whole scenario? 

[00:23:46] Tony K Silver: Yeah. I mean, this, Automation is gradually being looked at by LinkedIn. Although, I mean, the classic figure from LinkedIn is, you know, they are, have reached 1. 1 billion accounts on LinkedIn. That is the number of accounts that have been open since May the 5th, 2003.

[00:24:05] And that is absolutely correct. But what they've done is, Kind of forget to mention is the hundreds of millions of people they kicked off on LinkedIn for various different reasons. And automation is right at the top of that list. The problem is, is that again, from stage, I will often ask this question. I did it last week in a small group.

[00:24:22] When you join LinkedIn, who actually read the user agreement for just getting on and setting up their profile. When again, in 15 years of asking that question, zero people have said, yes, they will use that user agreement against you. They will say that in that user agreement, it clearly states you should not use automation.

[00:24:38] Along with other things, which are maybe not quite so. So they are constantly picking people off and trouble is it will be the poor person that's been sold this automation idea by this company, um, who will be successful for a short period of time until LinkedIn catch out, then they'll just move on and go to something else.

[00:24:57] But it will be the poor person that's paying their money for this automation, this, you know, uh, widget, this buddy add on, um, and they sort of overusing it. Automation is not the way to go about LinkedIn is to do things. It's all about building relationships. It's no different than networking in that respect.

[00:25:15] You need to go and be present, build a relationship with a person. When I teach my clients about how to outreach, I don't even talk about anything to do with what they do, what they can offer the person to about the fourth different, Email or message we use because it's not relevant to the person. And yet, like you, I've had people trying to sell me LinkedIn training, which I laugh at, you know, and I actually sometimes do reply and game, well, if you bothered looking at my profile, you wouldn't have done this therefore, you know, um, please remove me from your database.

[00:25:48] You obviously an incompetent or something equally as rude because they've, they've not spent the time. And if you are using automation, you can fly under the radar. If you're using it conservatively. then LinkedIn won't pick up on it. Um, they might do, and that's always a risk. But yes, just consider you, you know, you reached out to someone.

[00:26:07] The thing I hate the most. I get on my soapbox about is the person that reaches out to me to connect. Okay. And I know that LinkedIn screwed it up awfully. And I've only allowed you a certain amount of connection requests notes. If you're just a complimentary free user, which is majority of people on LinkedIn.

[00:26:23] So I know that people will reach out to me and the one did this morning. And I thought, you know, have a quick look at their profile, see what sort of joint connections has given me a clue as to who might've given them. There was nothing obvious. So I just. It's not automated, ladies and gentlemen, but I have a set of a folder of set responses, which I just cut and paste.

[00:26:42] It's not automation. I just, I'm having to say the same thing over and over again. So I just do that. And it just says, you know, really interested that you reached out to me. Obviously, potentially, you may not have been able to add a note to it. So I would really like to know how you found me in the first place.

[00:27:00] And what on my profile made you reach out. Now, 95 percent of the time, that's the end of the conversation because they don't respond to it. People are reaching out to me that then do connect. I don't immediately, you know, again, some people have slightly different strategies around this. I don't, I always get back to person within a working week, absolute maximum.

[00:27:19] I will never bounce you back straight away. Because that looks a bit desperate and it looks a bit, again, it's a bit automated almost, but I do go back to them and I lay out, you know, I'm all about engagement. I would like to help them. You know, are they interested in having a one to one? Whatever it is.

[00:27:37] And then I hear nothing. And a month later, I nudged them. Month three, I put, this is one last reach out. You will never hear from me again. And they connected with me. Now, if I reached out to them, slightly differently story, because I reached out to them. And if they, they ignore me, then that's a slightly different story.

[00:27:57] But it's all about growing communities. It's about growing relationships. So why people think it's all right to automate messages. It's anyone fall for people must fall for it. I keep doing it, but really, honestly, well, no one in my inner network would even consider doing that because they understand our relationships are built.

[00:28:17] You don't do that. You, you like, you share, you give, you help people. You don't try and sell, which is another four letter word. Of course, straight away. You know, if the person's reached out to you saying they're interested in what you do, and it's a different story, but majority of time. Build the relationship, find out, sow the seeds, they might come back straight away.

[00:28:42] My oldest seed took 10 years to actually come to fruition. You just don't know, but automation is just really, it's lazy in my book. 

[00:28:51] Mark A Preston: Right. On that note, you've shared so much value to the audience today, but I can't let you go without you sharing a tad takeaway, something that the small business audience can do, a piece of action that they can implement now in order to help them move forward with their business.

[00:29:15] Thanks. What would your TAD takeaway to the audience be? 

[00:29:19] Tony K Silver: Well, first of all, um, as you said, you know, I, I'm very generous in the information I gave. It's very interesting and it's very good, isn't it? But if you don't implement what I've just given to you in the last 20 odd minutes, if you think it's worthy for you to do so, it fits in with what you want to do, then just knowing it is pointless.

[00:29:36] And yes, implementation is everything. I think the one that I talk to people about the most is, you know, my first pillar. I have four pillars at LinkedIn and this is pillar one. Well, you know, what do people see when they're on your profile? However, they found you, it doesn't matter. Really. We have a tension span issue in the world.

[00:29:55] Very short attention spans these days. The marketing gurus, five to 10 seconds when you view a website page and your LinkedIn profile is exactly that. So have a look at yours. They're not going to scroll. It will be the banner, your profile picture, and the headline that says, I'll leave your name. That is what they would judge in that five to 10 seconds.

[00:30:19] And whether they want to scroll down to find out more about what you can do to help them, et cetera, or they're going to scroll away to someone else. So the banner visually or visually orientated people, 70%, also 70 percent people use the app, you need to consider those two items. What exactly does your banner tell the person that lands on it?

[00:30:40] It should tell them that they're in the right place. You should tell them what you do and how you go about it. They go, Oh, I'm looking for LinkedIn trainer. That's what Tony does. I'm in the right place. Headshot is a headshot because it needs to work on the phone, not smaller screen, and then the headline.

[00:30:56] Needs to give them more information. So they've only got seven seconds. They're not going to scroll down. So tell them what it is you do and how you go about helping them. You know, a great one and a nice tip for you actually, um, put a credibility statement in there. You know, Mark hasn't just started doing what he's doing in the world.

[00:31:13] He's an expert in last week. He's been doing it donkey's years. You probably listen to potentially the same thing. I've been training people on LinkedIn for 15 years in my headline. It says so. It makes me stand out from other people who've been doing it since the pandemic or decided last week they were LinkedIn trainer.

[00:31:30] I've got 15 years solid experience. That is a top tip I give people. And I'm talking to Americans about it regularly. They've got 30, 40 years industry experience. I said, well, tell me in that headline, because that will make me scroll down because I want to use someone who's been there, done it, bought the t shirt and possibly failed miserably as well along the way credibility is really important.

[00:31:51] So the headline 220 characters. Can be the deciding point of whether people scroll down or not. Just make sure that their decision is, I want to scroll down and find out more about how Mark a Preston can help me rather than actually, um, on the right hand side, there's actually on your profile, look at more profiles for you.

[00:32:10] There's a list of people that are potentially your rivals. You can turn that off, Mark, and I'll show you how to. 

[00:32:15] Mark A Preston: Brilliant. Right. So just to end this, where can people find you and what sort of conversations would you like to have with them? 

[00:32:25] Tony K Silver: I make it easy for people because I learned this a while ago from a fellow speaker, and she used a middle initial like I do.

[00:32:34] I asked her why was she just trying to be a bit American? No, Tony K. Silver. Quite simply, if you Google me or you go into LinkedIn and put that in a search engine, I am the only answer. Tony Silver, yeah, there's more than one. The K makes all the difference. So if you want to find me, you want to find me on LinkedIn, Tony K.

[00:32:52] Silver. If you want to find out a bit more about other things, all the other bits I do, Tony K. Silver on Google, you'll still find me. The conversations I want to have with people is I want to help, I want to give, etc, etc. But I would say an ideal referral for me is someone that has a want, has a need. And ultimately, yes, you know, we're in business, we need to make money.

[00:33:13] I've probably got a budget to sort these things out. That's an ideal person for an ideal conversation. But, you know, long as a strong want and need rather than, Oh, I'm on LinkedIn. I do post every now and again. You know, I use it as a rolodex. It's fine. That's not a person I need to be speaking to. They don't want to do anything about their situation.

[00:33:33] Those that are actually potentially angry, frustrated, or annoyed by LinkedIn. They're pretty good candidates for me. 

[00:33:39] Mark A Preston: Wonderful. Well, Tony, many, many thanks for joining me today. And I know the audience has received massive value from it. 

[00:33:49] Tony K Silver: I do. Don't forget to implement it. 

[00:33:52] Mark A Preston: And there's another tad takeaway for you to leave you with.

[00:33:56] Thank you everyone. And don't forget, we're back next week with another episode. Thank you for tuning in to the talk about digital podcast. Remember every small step you take brings you closer to your business goals. If you found today's episode helpful, subscribe to our podcast and sign up to your free 12 week TAD customer growth course at www.

[00:34:22] talkaboutdigital. co. uk to receive even more customer generating tips and insights. Until next time, keep harnessing your strengths and making actionable, impactful moves in your digital marketing journey. See you soon.