EP 70: The Authentic Path to LinkedIn Success with Dee Boswell-Buck
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Acquire podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Wright, and I'm excited because we are going to be talking about LinkedIn today. There's this whole premise, this whole feeling of LinkedIn overwhelm, or it's not the right platform for you. And I've got the

Perfect expert to talk about this. So I just want to remind you that if you're enjoying this podcast, go ahead and give it a like or share or comment or subscribe wherever it is that you're listening or watching and make sure you tune in for all of the episodes. So let's talk about Dee Boswell-Buck, who is a social media strategist, and she's made her mission to help women-led service-based businesses and owners transform their LinkedIn marketing.

Her journey is nothing short of inspiring, from starting from a humble mom group on meetup.com to launching her own successful consulting business. And with Dee's guidance, her clients have been able to amplify their voices, book more quality leads, and significantly increase their revenue. I'm so glad you're here, Dee. Thanks so much. Thank you so much for having me, Jenny.

Absolutely. And I love the fact that even though we're having this conversation over Zoom, we probably could have had this in person and we most likely will definitely have to do like an in-person interview at some point because you're really not that far away. No, no, not too far at all.

I have loved getting together at events. We've been at the same events together and it's been a real pleasure seeing you talk on stages and hearing your message. And one of the things that really caught my eye and one of the reasons I wanted to have you on Acquire was your sort of messaging around LinkedIn and the demystification around when people should use it, why they should use it, what is it useful for? Because it's no longer just for the place to post your resume. So can you tell us a

It's so confusing and what it's actually useful for. Yeah, thank you for asking. So often I've had people have these assumptions about LinkedIn and some of the things that I've heard, which is pretty odd, like when it comes to specific social media platforms with LinkedIn, it's just a little bit more harsh where people feel that they're being judged or they feel overwhelmed or

Or they tell me that they just don't know how it works. Whereas when it comes to other social media platforms, they are just happy to get on it and do the thing, whether it's correct or not. But there's always like some type of barrier that gets people to move forward. And I think it's because that when LinkedIn first started, like over 20 years ago, it was definitely a place to, you

you know, look for a job. So I think that's why people feel that it's a little bit judgy because, you know, on LinkedIn where like right now you've got these really great profiles, like when you read them, you just want to get to know that person that you want to follow. However, before like the about section, if you had a resume, you copied and you pasted it into there and then you would apply for all of these jobs.

And then there's so many other people applying for these jobs. And then right away, you're thinking that, okay, people are looking at my profile and they're judging me. They're seeing if I'm the right fit for them. And then maybe we don't get the job because you're up against so many other people. So when I think that's the thing that is happening right now, that people are feeling that when they do get onto LinkedIn, people are saying, who are you to be here? Yeah.

Absolutely. It does feel a little bit, I mean, its roots were more formal than say, you know, Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. I mean, those all came in, they were all for the younger crowd, right? It was all about having fun and sharing silly, goofy stuff. LinkedIn was never about sharing silly, goofy stuff.

That, do you think the feeling about it at the premise is changing? I know the judgy part is still there. But do you think that the mantle of like formality is lessening? Do you see posts like I don't see posts on LinkedIn that are more goofy and funny? I still think that there's people want to share like relevant posts on there. So can you kind of like break that down?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely the platform. It's a professional platform. So people are there for their business, whether they're hiring or they're looking to get a job. And since the pandemic, you know, when a lot of businesses had to shut their doors down and entrepreneurs had to find new ways to reach their audiences,

A lot of entrepreneurs, they're now on LinkedIn. And that's the difference there because being an entrepreneur, we always talk about, you

you know, sharing what is your superpower. People want to get to know and people want to work with those that they know, like and trust. So on LinkedIn, it can be helped where a lot of these personalities are flowing through. And yes, you do show up a little bit, a lot more professionally. And I like to use the analogy where, for instance, you know, I'm Dee, my full name is Denise.

And whenever I hang out with my friends, sometimes you, Jenny, if I hang out with my friends going out for lunch,

Maybe our voices are a little bit loud. We're laughing. Some of the friends, there's a little bit, it's more animated, the type of conversation. And then when I go to my in-laws house, I'm still Dee, I'm still Denise. However, they get a different version of me, but nothing is conflicting. So there's Facebook, there's Instagram, there's that personality for LinkedIn.

But what I was saying is that you can still share your personality there. You can be a little bit more warm and watch. I was watching the NFL Super Bowl. So the fact that I said NFL Super Bowl just shows that I'm not like a huge football person. It was 2023 and LinkedIn ran an ad.

And this ad had somebody who was a chef and they had the brightest red hair. They had all of these different types of individuals in the commercial. And I was like, yeah, LinkedIn is trying to tell people that everybody is welcome. Like if you've got a business, this is the best platform to be on. I mean, yeah.

That is, that's progressive for what we've been seeing LinkedIn do, which is fantastic. Can you talk to me about the, I mean, everybody knows this, but can you talk to me about the power of an updated profile on LinkedIn? And I was completely one of those people that had the poopiest profile. And I will absolutely admit to checking out your profile and then making adjustments because I was like, oh, well, hers is kicking butt. So I'm

I'm going to do that too. But can you talk to us about how to have a better LinkedIn profile? What does that look like? I know there's do's and don'ts. So I'm kind of thinking, what are those? Yeah. So in terms of having a better LinkedIn profile, I'll just highlight like some aspects of that profile. And I like to, another analogy, I like to compare it to being at a networking event. Like how is it that you show up at a networking event? So

So when you go to a networking event, like I tend to have like bright nails, I like to wear bright colors. And that's my that's my brand. So in terms of your LinkedIn profile, of course, there is your profile picture, you want to make sure that your profile picture is up to date, so that when you take some of these conversations online,

Then people are like, yes, this is what D looks like. This is what Jenny looks like. And then the banner, like how is how is it that you can really leverage your banner? Often people have like just a picture. So perhaps you are a photographer.

A web designer, you might have your hands over a laptop keyboard, but that's a good area where you can write your tagline or you can just write something more about your business.

On LinkedIn, if you've got a profile picture where you're smiling, you get more people who are going to actually want to check out your profile. And then there is that LinkedIn headline. Often when people have their LinkedIn headline, it just states what it is that they do. So it could be, in my case, the Boswell Buck, digital marketing, digital marketing.

But that top line of your headline, every time you engage on LinkedIn, that the majority of that top line will show up whenever you are engaging. So you want to have something in there that is going to hook people in. One of the things that I've done recently, and I do go through my profile and make some changes in my headline. I switched it to LinkedIn profile.

optimization. I'm looking at it right now. Right. So if you were to go and see my activity on LinkedIn, you'll see that the first half of my profile of my headline actually is actually showing up because what you want to do is you want people to say, Oh, what's going on here every time you engage. And then that's going to increase your profile views.

And another aspect, like we spoke about the about section where before it was a resume. And what many entrepreneurs are doing is that they will just have a short bio in their about section. But your about section, it can hold about 2200 characters each.

So that's an area that you really want to leverage. And you want to leverage that by sharing how it is that you help others and what it is, what is your zone of genius? Do you also want to use that area to highlight if you've been on any podcasts or if you've been in the media?

And you want to use that area. And when you are sharing that information, you are going to end up saying like using specific keywords because LinkedIn is also a really great search engine. And when people are looking up what it is that they need, they're not always looking up our actual name. But when people are looking up the services that they need,

then we want your profile to really stand out. And I'm really going to quickly add that the doctor who delivered my daughter, she didn't know that I left my job. And she learned that she was going to be taking over the practice that she's at.

And she had absolutely no presence online. And she went to LinkedIn and she put in keywords like social media marketing and web design. And my picture came up on the right hand side. And.

And I remember coming home from a networking event and seeing that she reached out in my DMs. I was like, oh, my gosh, she's on LinkedIn, too. Like, that was just my thought. And she wrote, I didn't know that you left your job. Let's do lunch. And that's when I discovered that she was taking over her practice. And it became a contract for me because, yeah, so there you go.

Oh my gosh, yeah. I've seen the power of LinkedIn recently, even just on my side, but I'd love to hear more about, I mean, obviously having a, you know, updated profile is awesome. What are the things that people don't know they have to do or should do on LinkedIn? Because everybody, again, everybody knows they should have a good profile or a good picture or something.

some of those things, but I think you know more than quite a few people do about this. So what are the things that people don't know about that they should be looking at or considering? What are the like the hidden secret gems? Definitely engaging on the platform. So it's not just about sharing this piece of content and hoping that the floodgates are going to open and everybody is going to notice you.

On LinkedIn, like LinkedIn rewards you. And I think most social media platforms do as well. But one of the tactics that I like to put into place is engaging before my content goes up and then also engaging like after my content goes up as well. Because not only is LinkedIn that professional platform, but it's also a networking platform.

So as you're sharing content, more people will not only will the algorithms work for you in terms of the fact that you're engaging. But another thing that is really great on LinkedIn is that every time you engage with somebody's content, it will. So when you engage with somebody else's content, then what will happen is that it will send a notification message.

to like other people on the platform. And that just works like the other way as well. If somebody engages on your content, then their connections are going to see that that person engaged and that brings more people over to your content as well. So that's one of the big things that people would really benefit from. That's really cool. I didn't know that. Now I'm gonna change my strategy even more. Awesome.

I love doing this podcast. I learn everything and then I go and implement it and then I just give you guys all the credit. It's awesome. I have a question for you about LinkedIn newsletters. Yay or nay? Yay. Yeah. But I will say this. So yay, and I shouldn't say but because but means that there might be a bit of a... How about yes and? Yes and. So I was a late adapter. Okay. And...

But again, I was a late adapter because I like to...

make sure that I understand why I'm doing something. So I have my regular newsletter that goes out every single Monday off of the platform. And it was just recently that I decided to start sharing newsletters on LinkedIn. So my regular newsletter goes out every Monday. However, on LinkedIn, I share a newsletter on Saturdays.

And that goes out like every two weeks. And another great thing about LinkedIn newsletters is that you can use SEO on the back end of it.

So if you're talking about a specific, if you're speaking about a specific topic that you want to educate people on, or you're answering that burning question, you can add search engine optimization on the back end. There's a way, I can't even remember right now, but you, I just know what's in the right hand top corner and you can add like a meta description to it.

Okay. All right. Well, that's going to possibly change things. Yeah. I have to look at that. That's fantastic. My gosh. Okay. Learning all the things. Let's talk about upcoming trends on LinkedIn. Is LinkedIn changing as fast as TikTok changes or Facebook changes or Instagram? Because we go through these phases of

these trends so much on these apps. Is LinkedIn going at the same pace, slower pace? Do they not have a pace? What's happening with upcoming trends?

LinkedIn definitely goes at a slower pace. Okay. Like they're not the platform that, you know, they're introducing something new. They're not a platform where you're thinking like, oh no, they're going through another mood swing. So they introduce things, they introduce things much slower. I think,

I will say that there are some things that I really think that it would be great if they added to it as well. But they do introduce things at a slower pace where other platforms, for instance, they're adding like different forms of video, do reels. Your videos are now extended from so many seconds to so many minutes.

LinkedIn, they roll things out slowly. So right now, for instance, if you take a look at their video, now when you open up the video, it kind of looks like you're on Instagram or you're on TikTok because you see the little comment sections. Sometimes I get a little bit confused as I go back and forth to other platforms. But the nice thing about the fact that they roll things out is that

I really feel like it helps to remove the overwhelm. Like people talk about feeling overwhelmed on LinkedIn, but I think there's a really great opportunity to find time to adjust to the new things that they roll out. And what I do like is that whatever they roll out that doesn't work very well, they get rid of it quickly.

Yeah. I noticed that too. They don't hang those things around. What if it doesn't work? It's gone. Yeah. Like they were having stories for a while. Yeah. And just as I was starting to get into it, I got onto the platform. Like what's going on here? Like that is missing, right? And they used to allow you to pin a comment to the top. They got rid of that as well. Oh, really? I didn't know that part. Wow. Okay. I like that they're...

things quickly through there. I'm like you. I'm not an early adopter. Like when Clubhouse came out, I was like, I'm going to wait, going to wait. And then when Threads came out, waited for that. And I was actually right about that because it didn't really take off. But I actually waited, I think, probably a month before I got on Clubhouse. Do you remember the craze of everybody? Like, do I need an invite? Does anybody have an invite? And it was just like,

I must have hounded so many people. And then when I got on it, I thought to myself, why am I here? Right. I don't think so. This is not a good idea. Yeah, it wasn't for me. And by the way, I found where that SEO stuff is for the LinkedIn newsletter. It was under like under the managed side and then under settings. So it's there and you can do SEO title and SEO description and

And mine are currently empty. So we are going to fix that. And if you have any articles on LinkedIn, like if you share a blog post, really great opportunity. Because what I've been noticing is that when I look up certain things on Google, a lot of the LinkedIn content comes up. I didn't know that. That's really cool. More than just your profile coming up. Yes. The actual blog post or article.

Fantastic. I love that. Oh my gosh. Okay. That's also a really great opportunity. I don't think a lot of people are taking advantage of. When you think about leveraging it for business growth and the amount of DMs that are obviously coming through, I'm sure you get a lot of DMs. Some of them to me are like, hey, we've got such and such workshop or I'm offering this financial service and so on. How do you connect with people

First of all, so that they don't think it's spammy and salesy, but how would you recommend that people connect in the DMs for growth? So I would recommend that when you are sending a connection request, so I have the paid LinkedIn. I can send out unlimited connection requests. And for the unpaid version, you are able to send out like maybe a maximum of 25 to 30. And then you are able to send a direct message with that as well.

However, for the free version of LinkedIn, you can only send out like five free direct messages. Yeah.

So what I would say is that whenever you send out a connection request and you send out a connection request with intention, why do I want to connect with someone? Can I learn from them? Is there an opportunity to collaborate? So if you send out a connection request and they accept, then using your DMs to say, thanks, Jenny, for accepting.

Have a great weekend. Like stand out that way because like I mentioned, it's a networking platform. If you were to go to a networking event, you would greet somebody, right? If somebody passed you a plate at the buffet, you would say thank you. So just like keeping it very simple and saying thank you. And then, you know, maybe a few days later, just asking them, okay,

asking them some questions about their business not the question like this tends to be a popular question which really drives me bonkers but what do you do it's in my profile right like there's a script that's out there that says ask the person what is it that they do and I'm like please can we burn that script yes please um

Like, I totally get that there's people who are in the numbers game, right? So, you know, send out as many messages as you can, you'll get, you know, send it 100, you'll get 10 potentials, and you can try and close whatever amount, right? But the lack of authenticity in those messages is incredibly prevalent. You and I are both in business, and we can see through those scripts. So

I think what you're saying about doing those connection messages and having that authenticity and then connecting a couple days later, people can take note of that, please. If you're listening and you're doing it the other way, please stop doing it that way and listen to Dee. Everybody's inboxes would appreciate it. So yeah, a little PSA. Yeah, depending on, I've been in a...

a not so great mood on occasion. And I remember somebody said in their DMs, tell me about what it is that you do. And I wrote back, oh my goodness, it doesn't say my profile. Oh my gosh, is what I wrote back. Good for you. And then they wrote back like, oh, so they totally had to change their script. Oh yeah. But I was just not having it that day. Hey, I don't blame you. I actually had a person reach out to me on LinkedIn about a week and a half ago and

And she's like, it's really great to meet you and so on and so forth. And then the thing was, you know, did you know that I can help you solve your financial something or something or other with this, like this product? And I can also help you get hundreds of leads and learn how to do lead gen. I'm like, did you read my profile? Did you read where it says that I'm a lead gen expert? Yeah.

"Do you think that I need your assistance with this?" Right? So I didn't say that to them, but I said in the answer, like I responded back and I was just like, "I'm not sure you realize who your, like your audience and who you're connecting with, and this might be a blanket message that you're sending, but you would do very well to connect authentically, look at the profile first, and then, you know, customize your message."

Good for you. With ChatGPT, literally, you could copy their freaking profile, pop it into ChatGPT and say, write me a DM based on this information to allow me to connect with that person and write a question to go with it. Right.

All right. We just taught people how to do it. Darn it. Okay. So wrapping up with LinkedIn, because it's amazing. I love it. I'm, I'm using it more and more and I'm seeing my connections grow. And, um, I mean, I was on, I just want to talk about this briefly, but the live show that you do on, on LinkedIn, um,

How beneficial is that to do those kind of live shows on that platform? Are you seeing like the more that you're doing them that you're seeing more growth? Are you seeing more people connect, comment? You know, what are you seeing as a result of doing that show on a regular basis?

Yeah, so I just want to say that when it comes to, like when I'm helping my clients and it comes to like their online marketing, my question is like, is what we're doing today on this platform aligned with your business goals? So I really had to line that up with my business goals. So how has it helped me? In terms of video, it allows people to get to know

the person behind the brand and also to hear me speak. I decided not to do lives on Instagram because I'm finding Instagram to be very busy. And on LinkedIn, there's like 1 billion, it might be a little bit more now, but there's 1 billion users on the platform and only 1% of the users actually share content.

And not a lot of the users are using video. So using video in terms of like me personally, it allows me to show up and have people get to know me. I'm also a little bit of an introvert as well. And then it also helps me to show up as the expert because I

What tends to happen is that I'm using the video and it's like, wow, this person is quite bold that they are showing up consistently and every single week. And another thing about doing those LinkedIn lives is that you are allowed to invite up to a thousand people. So if you have...

2000 connections, you can send out invites to 1000. So I've been on LinkedIn for a while. And I always think about like, will this video, how will this video help some of my connections? So I don't invite 1000. But I do take some time. I

I set aside some time, maybe 20 minutes, and I go through and it could be, it would be great for this person, great for that person. So every, when I do these weekly lives, I am, I'm notifying these individuals that I'm showing up, I'm being more top of mind. And again, if they decide that they are going to attend the event, they hit that attend button, then their connections get that as well.

I play the long game and it has been very helpful and I have had more people reaching out. Amazing. Well, I love the long game myself. I'm fully on board with the strategy of doing authentic and organic growth on LinkedIn. So that's awesome. Oh my gosh. Where can people find you, connect with you, get to know you better? Maybe, you know, watch one of these lives. Like how can people get in touch with you?

Well, you can definitely follow me on LinkedIn. But I want to say this, that I verified my account a week and a half ago. My full name is Denise. And my the ID that I use, it doesn't have the Boswell Buck married name on it. So when you look for me, you'll see people in the comments calling me D, but you'll find me on LinkedIn as Denise Boswell.

And you could find my website at dboswellbuck.com. But if you, you know, you're listening to this, you're watching this, I would love if you can send me a direct message. Tell me that you heard it. And yeah, I'd love to follow you and connect with you. And

And you're pretty active on there. So, and pretty responsive too, which is great. Amazing. Well, we'll put the links in the show notes where everybody can find you. Now that you've been confirmed, that makes me not want to confirm because my ID would have everybody call me Jennifer. And that's not going to fly. I'm sorry. No.

Yeah, I was going to update it about a month ago. And then it's like, I really want to be verified. I'm just going to do it. Yeah, I totally hear you. I just couldn't live with the Jennifer thing. It would not be. Yeah, it's not gonna make me feel good. Anyways, I really appreciate you being on. I thank you so much. I can't wait for us to get together and actually have lunch. So we're gonna make that happen. And when this episode is coming out, it is your birthday month. So happy birthday.

day and uh yeah let's do this again sometime really soon and i'm just grateful that you are in my space and i get to connect with you so thank you so much and thanks so much again for having me on the on the show thanks absolutely oh you called me jennifer you're jennifer i thought you did no purpose just to get me you know i thought that was a gotcha no it's all good it's all good

Thanks so much. All right, everybody, if you're listening to the podcast and you enjoyed this conversation, head on over to the show notes to connect with Dee on LinkedIn. She is Denise Boswell and everywhere else she is Dee Boswell Buck. So go and check her out. She's amazing. And if you're enjoying the show, make sure you like, subscribe, comment, leave a review. Let me know what you think. And I'd love to connect with you as well. So find me on my socials and let me know that you've heard the episode. Thanks so much. We'll talk to you all soon. Take care.