Advanced LinkedIn Networking: How to Connect and Convert
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Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Podcast, helping you navigate the social media jungle. And now, here is your host, Michael Stelzner. Hello, hello, hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the Social Media Marketing Podcast brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers and business owners who want more exposure, more leads, and more sales.

By the way, if you can tell my voice is a little deeper than normal, it's because I'm recording this on Friday, April 4th, just after getting back from Social Media Marketing World 2025. Epic experience, ridiculously crazy fun. And I love just hanging out with all the peoples. And as a result of it, I always end up messing my voice up and

It's not horrible, but it's not normal. So thank you for bearing with me today. I'm going to be joined by Michaela Alexis, and we're going to talk about advanced LinkedIn networking. And if you are in the business of connection requests and making real deep, authentic connections with people that could be

really instrumental to whatever it is you're building, whether it's developing a network for a podcast episode or whether it's ultimately trying to develop friendships that lead to business opportunities or something else.

I love Michaela's method and philosophy because it's so genuine and not salesy. And I think you'll find a lot of value. Also, if you're new to today's podcast or this podcast in general, be sure to follow this show. I've got some incredible talent coming your way. Let's now transition over to this week's interview with Michaela Alexis. Helping you to simplify your social safari. Here is this week's expert guide.

Today, I'm very excited to be joined by Michaela Alexis. If you don't know who she is, she's a LinkedIn marketing strategist who trains businesses to leverage the power of LinkedIn. Her book is No Fear Networking. Her LinkedIn learning course is called Marketing on LinkedIn, and she and I are both fresh off of social media marketing world. Literally, that's why my voice is shot. Michaela, welcome back to the show. How are you doing today? I'm good. I told myself that I was going to go on like a silent retreat when I got home, but I'm

But here we are. We're going to keep the networking train going. That's right. That's right. So let's get started with why is networking so important on LinkedIn? Now, let me caveat that we both believe networking is really valuable. We just did it for many days in the San Diego Convention Center. But on LinkedIn...

What's the value proposition there? Because maybe people are using LinkedIn for other things other than networking. Maybe they're just posting content. What is the big upside if they get this right when it comes to networking on LinkedIn? I always use the analogy that LinkedIn is essentially the world's largest networking event. I mean, everybody that you could possibly want to talk to is hanging out. I always like think of it in my mind. I'm like the CEO is like

You know, eating off the cheese plate in the corridor and like you're bumping elbows with like your next great client. Networking on LinkedIn is not just like a nice to have. It's kind of the entire point of the platform. It's where you have social branding and visibility and connection. They all come together to move your business forward if you do it right. I think that there are so many other platforms that are kind of built for entertainment and LinkedIn a little bit too, but it's really designed with meaningful connection in mind.

I actually say in my book, networking isn't about being the loudest in the room. It's about being remembered in the right conversations. And LinkedIn is one of those places that you can find those people and be in the right conversation very quickly and easily. Love it. Okay. So not all of us are born with the, I'll call it gifts to just go out there and start networking, right? So what kind of reframing of our thinking do we need to do, especially

especially on LinkedIn, maybe even before we begin networking, if you will, on LinkedIn? I mean, I'm 100% one of those people, definitely born with social anxiety. It's well managed now, but it wasn't managed well in the past. So I absolutely relate to people that struggle with networking or if you're introverted and you have a low social battery. I think that networking honestly is about 90% just mindset.

I didn't realize that there is actually a term for this, but it's called power priming, where you're intentionally putting yourself in a confident headspace before you enter a room. When I was writing my book, there were two studies that I kept coming back to that I find fascinating. One of them was...

essentially where they had people imagine that they were a CEO. So participants were split into two different groups. Group one was told, you are the CEO of a major company. And then the second group was kind of like the control group. They had no title or context to it. And they were both given the same task. So they had to send LinkedIn messages.

So they both completed them and then they interviewed them afterwards to see what their perception of it was. And the CEO in quotations group, they felt more confident. They sent more messages and they had a better feeling afterwards when they completed the task versus the other group that were told nothing. So same task, different mindset. And so that's where power priming comes into play. Wait, real quick. I've got something to add to this.

This is so fascinating because I have another show called AI Explored. And you know this because so many people listening to this show also are leveraging prompts for AI. And when you tell AI you are blank, you are a world-class writer who specializes in blank.

The AI behaves as if it's true. Yes. And we're like prompting ourselves here, aren't we? Absolutely. It's crazy, isn't it? Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because the other study does exactly that. So they had participants sit down and write about a time that they felt

powerful. And that self-reflection made them more assertive, more action-oriented, and more confident. So it's crazy. I always thought this stuff is very woo-woo, but it turns out you actually don't need external validation. You just needed that shift in perspective. So it absolutely is. We have to prompt ourselves before we walk into a room. My twist on that is that you don't actually have to write it out or use AI. It can be as simple as before you walk into a room,

Just remember a time where I actually did that before I got on here. I was like, kind of, you know, I woke up this morning. I felt a little like fuzzy and foggy after this, you know, five day event. And I told myself, I'm like, remember that time. And for this time, it was actually getting on stage at social media marketing where they felt so good. And I'm like, I quit.

I put myself in that mindset and it allowed me to show up differently even during this conversation. So just remembering a time where you felt confident and ready is going to change how you approach conversations in a row. Well,

Well, and what about for the introverts? You know, you have some tips that on some like, you know, I'm talking about, right? Like pump me up tips or whatever that you can do with AI. I don't remember exactly where we're going with this, but there was something that we had. Yeah. So you can also AI, AI can be your wingman or wingwoman, your cheerleader. You could ask AI to just gas you up before you go out of the room. I think sometimes, you know, we rely on our friends, but I don't know about you, Mike, but sometimes you ask for that from a friend and it's like,

you got this. It's like,

that's great, but I needed a little bit more than that. Right? So going to chat DBT or going using an AI tool and saying, again, like you are my sidekick, you are my hype master, I need you to hype me up and remind me of all the times that I've done this before, give it you know, these specific details and use AI to hype you up. I've done this before, I think it works amazing. And truthfully, it

I hate to say this because I hope my friends aren't listening, but they kind of do a better job of piping me up sometimes than my friends do. It tells me exactly what I needed. That's so cool. Okay. So first thing we got to do is get ourselves in the right headspace. And even though we're not talking to them at this juncture, we're just messaging them. It's important to get yourself in that headspace. Why is that so important? Just explain that for people that don't do this step. What does it make possible when you get your mind in the right spot?

Yeah, I think that first impression that you have with people is so important. And sometimes we think that's only true when we're meeting people in person. And I absolutely believe that it's true when it comes to LinkedIn. I can feel people's energy right away. I see connection requests that come through and I feel that energy right off the bat. And it's going to make me decide whether or not to accept that connection request.

So there are little things that I do too when I'm writing messages on LinkedIn. And it sounds really silly. I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but I smile when I send messages. And I found that just, again, putting

putting myself in that positive mindset, I'm like hoping that that energy transfers through the screen, but it really does make a difference in terms of whether or not someone's going to respond to your message or if they are going to accept your connection request. Okay, perfect. So that's the setup. Now we're at the point where we found somebody on LinkedIn, hypothetically, that we really want to connect with.

What do we do? How do we go about connecting with this person who does not know who we are in a way that might be advanced your way, the Michaela method? Michaela method. I love it. Maybe this is an unpopular or a hot take, but I think that you can connect with strangers on LinkedIn. I think that's a good way to do it.

think of all the people that I've connected with over the past few years, and so many of them were strangers before I knew them, obviously, but on LinkedIn specifically. So I think people kind of overcomplicate this. This is the playbook that I essentially teach is that you want to follow them first, right? It's a low pressure way to kind of get on their radar. I like to, if we're thinking about what this would look like in person, it's kind of like if you were to go to an event like social media marketing world, and you just sit in the crowd, right? While they're talking, go to one of their sessions. So that would be following them first. And

And then next would be engaging with their content. So commenting thoughtfully. I don't mean get AI to send a comment because we all know AI and not a person. But adding not just like great posts, but also something that adds to the conversation. So the comments that I get on my posts that really I feel...

that I gravitate towards are the ones where somebody shares their own perspective. So if I'm talking about something that, you know, maybe something I had a challenge with, somebody that say, oh, I also dealt with that and this is how I handled it.

I love when people kind of insert a little bit of their own story in comments. So that's something to keep in mind when you're engaging with content, not necessarily being like, here's my soul in your comment section, but adding a little bit of your personality or your story. And then also doing a little bit of research. So there's a couple of ways that you can do this.

Number one, their about section is a goldmine if people have that filled out. And I think that, you know, in 2025, a lot of people have now optimized their profile, thankfully. Maybe not to the full extent, but they filled out some information on their LinkedIn profile. So looking at, you know, what matters to them, where they've been, where they're going. I really like using tools like there's a Chrome extension called Crystal.

It's a personality predictor. It uses a disk model. You can just plug it into your Chrome browser. You activate it on the profile that you want it to look at, and it will predict that person's personality and that person's values as well. You could do the same thing probably with ChatGPT or whatever AI tool that you're using. Just copy and paste their LinkedIn profile directly into the AI app. I haven't done that myself, but I think that would be kind of a similar way of doing it.

And then sending a personalized connection request based on the research, hopefully, that you've done before you send that message. Talk to me a little bit about how to send that request and when, because I would imagine like if you just leave one comment and instantly send a friend request, it might be a little too fast, right? Yeah.

It's a little fast. I think it kind of depends. Some of the people that you reach out to might be really open networkers. So I'm one of those people, right? If I'm posting and there's somebody that is commenting and I see that we have more of a conversation to have, I will invite people to send me a connection request and say, like, let's continue this conversation. I want to learn more about that.

So if that's the case and they're kind of inviting you to do that, absolutely go for it. I think that for the most part, spending a little bit more time getting to know somebody first, you know, maybe a week or two looking at their post, podcast,

commenting, following them, and then sending a personalized connection request, not just saying, I like your content. I mean, maybe that'll be accepted. I like to be really specific. So using something like, hey, so-and-so, I really enjoyed your post on X. It really got me thinking. I'd love to stay connected and learn more about your perspectives. I really like reaching out to podcast guests.

And I will do that right away. So, Mike, if you had somebody on the show and I'm like, I need to connect with that person, I would probably actually send a connection request and talk about that episode. Because I think that's a little bit different to me when people reach out to me after the

I go on a show with you, it tells me that they have taken the time to sit down for 30 minutes or 45 minutes or whatever it is. So they've already invested in me. So I'm more likely to reciprocate and accept that connection request. Does that make sense? Totally, totally does. So, so far what I'm hearing you say is we're starting with

pumping ourselves up, getting ourselves in the right mindset before we begin interacting with strangers, right? And we could even use AI if we have to, to kind of get us pumped up, especially if we're a little anxious or nervous. And then the next thing is to find the people that you're interested in. They may have been people that you saw at an event or heard on a podcast that

and follow them first and comment in a rich way on their posts, providing value. And ultimately, when you do send a connection request, include some obviously detailed, personalized stuff in there, because otherwise it's going to look like an automation system, right? Like if you just say, hey, really loved you on this podcast, would love to connect, you

meh, maybe. But if you say, I really loved what you said about this on the podcast, right? That really spoke to me, right? Now you're getting there, right? And that's more work. And people that get bazillions of requests like us might pay more attention to that. Is that true? Yeah. I love that you mentioned that. I didn't even think of that, but that the specifics in your connection request makes such a huge difference. So this is like the tier. So the bottom tier is like,

hey, Mike, I love what you're doing at Social Media Examiner. Would love to connect and learn more, which is like very likely some sort of system that sent that message, right? Because sometimes I get it's like, I love what you're doing at Michaela Alexis Consult. That doesn't work, guys. That doesn't work. So the next step would be, I love your podcast. And then the very top and most likely to be connected would be, I

I loved in this episode when you were interviewing this person and when you talked about X. So the more specific we get, I think the more likely that your connection requests will be accepted because I think it shows some sort of investment in the person. I'm not going to invest in you unless you are invested in me as well. It's a mutual relationship, right? It should be.

So what do we do if, and I know this isn't part of our questions, but what's a reasonable amount of time before someone will either accept your request or reject it? You're never really going to know if they reject the request, are you? Thank goodness for that. Wouldn't that be terrible if you send out like 10 connection requests and it's like you go on and you see like nine of your connection requests have been rejected? Yeah.

So shout out to LinkedIn for not telling us because I think that's one of those things that's better not to know. I don't know if there's a real answer to this, Mike, because I think that it really depends on how active that person and how big their network is. So sometimes there have been people that I've reached out to that are like huge authors or kind of celebrities in their own right. And it's taken a year or two. And then I even forgot that I sent them a connection request, but it gets accepted. And that's why it's important to also not

discount it right away. I think that we have to get used to in the process of networking on LinkedIn, get really comfortable with rejection, which is funny because I just talked about how I don't want to know when I'm being rejected. But I think that it's a good sign when you are not getting every single connection request accepted because a no for right now might be that you need to do more work, right? It might be, you know, if I reach out to you and you didn't know me yet, maybe it's not necessarily, oh, I don't like Michaela. It

I don't know who she is. I don't know what her intentions are. I don't know why this is relevant to me. So maybe I need to do more footwork and I need to read more of your posts and I need to interact more with your content before that person's going to accept it. I know that I have friends that are LinkedIn trainers. Judy's one of them, Judy Fox. And she has always talked about how she likes to connect with people in the comment section rather than her inbox right away.

And I know a few people that are like that. I'm not necessarily that way. I really like my inbox. And I think that there's some conversations that can only be had in the inbox versus the comment section. So I think it really depends on the person that you're reaching out to. My one thing that I will say is don't let it get to you because I think it's good to aim high. I think that it's a really good practice to when you go to an event or when you listen to a podcast or when you read a

a book to reach out to people that you admire and not worry so much about whether or not they say yes, because it's such a great practice in trying to expand your network and connect with people that you admire, whether or not they say yes or no. I have some thoughts on this as well. As a person who gets a lot of requests across the social platforms, and it's important for people to understand that the person on the receiving end might have their own requirements and

on which they will allow someone to connect with. Like I will not connect with someone I've not met in real life. Interesting. Ever. Because I want my network to be clean and pure. Okay. That's why my network is really small because these are only people I've actually met in real life, but I'm not like everyone, you know, everybody's got their own rules, right?

but it doesn't mean you can't still do what we're about to talk about today. It just means that might not be able to be done through the inbox. So that's the side I want people to understand, like depending on how well known the person is and what kind of barriers they placed around themselves, because it can get, as you know, Michaela overwhelming, the more you're known, the more everybody wants a little bit of you. And that makes it harder for people to penetrate in and actually develop that connection. Have you experienced that yourself?

Yeah, and something that we haven't mentioned yet is that there are people like myself, if you go to my LinkedIn profile, I explicitly say,

on multiple parts of my profile that you can send me a message on LinkedIn. So if you're not sure if that person's going to connect your or accept your connection request, you can actually go to their profile. And sometimes you can see whether or not that person is accepting connection requests. And also on the flip side of that, if you are and you want to network more and you want to expand your network,

make sure that you're saying that in your LinkedIn profile because you've brought up such a great point and that there are people that will only connect with people that they know. And on the flip side of that, people might only reach out to you if they already know you in real life. So if you're open to connecting without meeting that person yet,

You want to be really clear in your LinkedIn profile that you're open to it. Yeah. And connecting is different than messaging. Let's be clear because you can message me. Anybody can message me if they pay for it, right? Oh, you have an open profile? Well, I mean, I don't know. I get messages from strangers, so they must be using a LinkedIn feature. Oh, they have probably an email credit. Yeah. They're actually paying to be able to message you. Yeah. And that's the part I'm trying to convey, right? Like you can still get through to these people if they don't accept your connection. If you have the right...

Right. I mean, I don't know. You know more than I do how that works. But if you have, I guess, in-mail credits or whatever, you can still send me a message. It's just that you're not going to be in my little network. Right. And I'm not saying everybody's like me. I'm just saying that's. No, but there are a lot of people that are. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

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Okay, so let's assume we have made the connection with this stranger and they really accepted the connection. What's the next thing that we can do? Like what comes next? Okay, a couple things that you should not do. Number one, and I think everyone knows what I'm about to say, the sales pitch.

do not do this. We've seen it a million times. I know that someone's listening is like already like, you know, nodding their head. When somebody accepts your connection request, do not send them a sales pitch within minutes or hours or days. It's not a good look. The other thing that people don't consider that is not great networking is thanks so much for accepting my connection request. I know it seems like the easiest next step to say, you can absolutely say that, but

add some sort of follow up, right? Because again, I'd like to always flip this so that it's like, okay, what will we do in real life? You know, if we went to an event, let's say somebody invites you to their LinkedIn connection or their LinkedIn conversation, and you go there, imagine if you were to walk up and just say, thank you for inviting me to this conversation.

Now you've kind of put the onus again on the person that you requested the connection request to continue that conversation. So even myself as somebody that is a very open networker, I really struggle with those because I don't know, like, do you want to continue the conversation? Are we just done? Like, I don't know where you want to go with this.

So I always think that the onus is on the person that requested the connection request to kind of move the conversation forward. So if you're connecting with somebody rather than a sales pitch, I want you to ask a question.

There's lots of icebreakers that you can use. I really enjoyed your episode on this. What are your thoughts on using AI for LinkedIn? Like people ask me questions like that. I love it because it gives me some sort of path forward in the conversation versus me kind of like sitting there awkwardly being like, what do I do with this? I would add, make it an easy question to answer, right? Because if you ask a question, if you ask the question, like what's next for you, that's such a big question. It's huge. Let's keep it light. Don't.

Don't ask that unless you're really close to that person. You don't want to ask that question, right? Yeah. Again, this is like what we would do in real life. This is like the small talk version, but on LinkedIn. Now it doesn't need to be like, what do you think of this weather? You can kind of make it more fun. One of my favorite questions to ask people, it sounds really silly, but is what's your go-to coffee shop order? I think that would be really fun. I've never done this before, but if you're reaching out to somebody and you're super excited that they accepted your connection request,

I would love to ask a question like that and then like go and send them a gift card to buy that coffee, you know, if they go to Starbucks or whatever. But I love that question because people get really excited to answer it, number one. But number two, it also gives you insight into what type of person that is. So I know with my like prospective clients that they say like black,

like burnt, golden hot. I know that they are no fluff, no nonsense, straight to the point. They're probably more analytical versus somebody that's like, I love the seasonal latte with extra this. And the more customization, the more likely that person also wants customized messages. So there's a lot of lessons to be learned in someone's coffee shop order. You don't need to use that, but it's a

fun question to ask people and it opens up a conversation versus again, like you're saying, like these big questions. I would rather ask like,

what are you working on that you're really excited about right now? Love it. So let's talk about other ways we can stay top of mind, right? Because I know that you have some other ideas here too. Yeah. So number one, we've got to nudge our future selves. If you're anything like me, I get really excited about things and then I completely forget. I am notorious for starting like an Instagram story and then I'm like, stay tuned for this. And then I forget to finish the story. So that is just me in a nutshell. So I like to do like a two

two to three week reminder. I just put in my calendar on my phone and they just follow up with the person. Hey, how's it go? I just want to see how your week is going. I love using voice notes. I mentioned this in my talk at Social Media Marketing World. I think it's such a great personal touch, especially when you're

first connecting with somebody so that they can hear your voice or send a video so they can see your face and then keep showing up in this process. So you want to keep liking their content, keep commenting on their posts, share their content if it's relevant to your audience. You just essentially want to stay on their radar in like a genuine way.

It's very similar to, again, I love to use in-person models just to show what this might look like. So when it comes to social media marketing world, when I got on my plane, I was still interacting. I look up the hashtag for social media marketing world 2025. And these are people that I didn't even know. And I was just so excited because I was still on that conference high. And I am still commenting and sharing and liking posts of people that I met. So that would be what you would be doing

on LinkedIn. And then you want to make that second touch point feel personal. So look for that moment, like that post that they, you know, maybe they shared a milestone. Hey, I saw your post on X. It was so good. Just checking in, want to see how things are going on your end.

I personally like to at this point send a request to meet up for a virtual coffee. I like with new connections to jump on that call right away. Reason being that I want to have more material.

So it's nice to see their content, but a lot of people are different maybe than they are on LinkedIn in person. So if I can jump on a 15 minute Zoom call and just over a virtual coffee, it's going to give me insights. I also use Otter if we're going to incorporate some AI. I love using Otter for this.

It's going to record the whole conversation and it's going to remember those things that are important to that person, whether it's they have dogs, they have kids, they're going to X conference. So that's going to give me more information right off the bat that I can follow up with that person about. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. I want to ask a couple of questions because I know we're getting into the uncomfort zone for some of my listeners, right? Yeah.

Like, okay, I've got to remember to follow up with them. I've got to keep commenting on their stuff and maybe even a virtual coffee. Whoa, that seems like a lot. I'm sure that's what a lot of people are thinking right now, right? So how can they do that in a way that feels like it's authentically them if they don't normally do that kind of stuff? What's your thoughts on that? Yeah.

Yeah, I think this is not like a within 24 hours, you must do this. And then within 48 hours, I mean, if you want to be regimented about it, you absolutely can. But I think for the most part, we also have this idea that if we haven't talked to somebody in like two to three weeks, I don't know if anybody listening can relate to this. But I'm like, oh, shoot, like the conversation's already dead. You know, we kind of count ourselves out.

before that person has. A perfect example is a prospect that I had and we had had a whole sales conversation. We met through LinkedIn and they were putting together this series of events. We had our sales call in January and because my book was coming out, I got so busy with other client work. I didn't reach out to them until the beginning of March. And I was like, I was even like, oh, do I like reach back out to them? Because they said they had to go back and think about things and they were

planning stuff. And I still did it anyways. And they were like, Oh, yeah, the events not until October. So we just have to line up the dates for this. So that's something to keep in mind is that this is not this doesn't have to be like, so regimented, like I'm saying, but it's just kind of like what you would do with friends, right? Like think about, you know, new friends that you've met on Instagram or Facebook or on any other platform. What do you want out of a friend?

a friend, you want a friend that shows up in your comments, that likes your content, that watches your stories. And then that second touch point, just make sure that you make it personal. So it doesn't have to be an exact science. It just has to be what you would normally do. Just a little bit more strategy around it. Yeah. I want to explore this virtual coffee concept because... Yeah.

I'm sure some people are like me, very resistant to accept an offer like that because I'm a marketer and I know that I'm going to be marketed to. Oh, interesting. Yeah, because here's the thing. My philosophy is that marketers know what other marketers do and we're resistant to it because we're aware of it. Does that make sense? It totally does. I think that you are in a unique position and that you do get pitched quite often. Number one, when I'm having these 15 minutes

virtual coffees, it's not with any and everybody. And I should kind of preface this. If it's somebody that has taken my course, and I usually accept those connection requests that have taken my course on LinkedIn learning, I'm not necessarily going to get on a call with students because it's exactly what you're saying. What's that 15 minute call going to be? It's going to be me answering questions about LinkedIn. And I don't necessarily want to do that. During those 15 minutes, I try my hardest to not talk about business.

The only time I'm really doing that is so if I meet another LinkedIn learning instructor, we like to geek out about LinkedIn because it's a very specific process and we know the same people. But I try really, really hard on those conversations to not talk about work. And I think that's the most important part. So what that goes back to, too, like be really intentional about who you reach out to and who you can actually request you accept.

If you're accepting a connection request from somebody that you know is going to pitch you right away, maybe that's not the right person to have in your network necessarily. I can't even remember the last time in these 15-minute virtual coffees that I was ever pitched personally.

It's intriguing because everybody can relate to this. Sometimes in real life, you meet people and you just connect and you understand. Like I'm sure this happened to both of us over the last few days at the conference where you just meet somebody and you can tell they're genuine and they're authentic and you share a couple things in common and you have the conversation just to get to know each other, right? Like tell me more about what your business is or it's just more about just

Curiosity, right? Like, yeah, like, what's your aspirations and dreams or whatever, you know what I mean? And it can be related to business, but it's not necessarily with the intent that I want to do business with this person. It's more I think, with the intent that I want to get to know this person, because

But how do you even make that request? Like give people-- because it's harder to do when you're actually not in person, right? So how would you position that so that the recipient would be open to it? How do you make the request to do the virtual coffee? How can you increase likelihood to get a yes on this virtual coffee concept? REBECCA GORDIUS: Relevant.

I think is like the biggest one is, you know, this is not a pick your brain conversation. I don't do that to other people. I don't expect other people to do that to me. I think like being really clear, number one, that's 15 minutes helps a lot, right? Because I think that like a lot of us get those messages from people like would love to pick your brain sometime. Like could not be more vague. Number one, what does sometime mean? What does pick my brain mean?

What's the timeline? Do we can we do it? I never want my brain. I never want my brain picked ever. It sounds really painful, right? Yeah. Saying very clearly, it's a 15 minute call. And I do stick to the 15 minutes unless that other person like we both have to like agree we're going to hang out for more than 15 minutes. But 15 minute call. I would love to hear more about your work on X.

And so when I'm reaching out to somebody and I'm inviting them for a virtual call or I want to hear your thoughts on this topic. Right. It's usually after like I've looked at their profile. There's there's something that to me is really intriguing. And like a big part of this, too, when I did my I did recently did a 30 day no fear networking challenge. And this really changed my perception around.

networking overall. And I think that inspiration and great conversations can come from really unexpected places. There's this guy that's called Rob. And actually, I met somebody that was one of Rob's 10,000 friends. If you guys don't follow him, his work is amazing. He's on both LinkedIn and Instagram. There's a lot of Rob. So it's called Rob's 10K friends. And he is on a mission to have

10,000 one hour conversations with strangers. And we had a conversation. I was, I don't know, number 8,000 something. And I asked him, I'm like, what are you going to do when you're finished this? And he said, I'm going to continue. He's like, I never would have learned all of the things that I have if I hadn't started this project. And so that really kind of made me rethink

the way that I network and the people that I reach out to. And even when I was doing this 30 day challenge, the lessons that I learned from strangers were so unexpected that it made me more receptive to having these 15 minute conversations. Sometimes even when they're not about business or they're not, you know, leading to sales because I'm learning in the process, it's giving me ideas for content

A lot of the conversations have turned into LinkedIn posts, things like that. So I think there's value maybe that goes beyond just turning that conversation into your next client.

Okay, I love it. So, so far what we've been spending some time here on the last couple of minutes is really the network connection has happened. Ideally, both of you are connected and you're regularly commenting in a rich way on their posts and you're sending them private messages every once in a while. And they're also like, hey, let's have a little virtual coffee for 15 minutes and

I'd love to chat about that post you just did the other day or something, right? Absolutely. Something along those lines, right? Yeah. And then you go in there with no objection other than just to kind of get to know them deeper, right? Yeah. And you know what's crazy about this is that I used to think that I was like such an introvert. And I have found that with these 15 minute calls, they feel so relaxed because there is no agenda.

that I don't find that they are draining at all. I find them really energizing. Let's talk about because like there's some other ways besides like, you know, having a virtual coffee. If you're somebody listening, that's like actually not the kill. I don't want to do that. Yeah, let's hear some other ideas on how to stay top of mind. So first we have the save feature on LinkedIn. I love this. If you see someone's newsletter, you see an article or you see a piece of content that you want to come back to.

You can go ahead on LinkedIn and you can save that content and then you can circle back to it. What's really cool about this too is that when somebody, let's say that you posted on LinkedIn,

If I go and I comment right away, you're going to come onto LinkedIn. You're going to see like 50 notifications of all these people that have commented on your post. If I wait a little bit and two weeks later, and I've seen people do this strategy. I didn't realize it was a strategy, but they are going on two weeks later and then they're commenting. Now you're going on LinkedIn and you're getting a notification for a past post. And I'm also bringing it back to life, which is great for you. Right. Where do you find that? Is it only on mobile? Like what's the how do you save it?

There should be an option on the bottom of the post. Okay. So rather than share, you can just save it. Where does it end up? Does it end up in a folder you have to go look for later or how does that work exactly? It does end up in like a saved activity. And then you have to remember to go back to it or does it pop back up? Okay, cool. Let's go. Yeah, I have to go back to it.

back to it. Okay. The only downside of that, but it does work really well because I have seen people do it. I've seen people do it on posts of mine from like a year or two ago, unless I, maybe they're looking through all my content, my old content, which bless them. But I think it's a great strategy. Also be a connector. This is so underrated being that person. Cause I have people, even at a social media marketing world, I were like, I'm new, just graduated new in social media marketing. I don't know what I can offer. You can all

always be a connector, right? You can always look for those people that should be connected and introduce them. Being that is so valuable or share like a tool or a resource that fits in the world. And again, this is the benefit of having that initial coffee call because it allows you to find those resources and tools a lot more easily. You can also spotlight them. So mentioning them in your content, you know, at Social Media Marketing World, I brought Deb Mitchell,

on stage and she shared a video and she met like mentioned me in the post so that's a really great way of her staying top of mind for me is to share her thoughts and then also tag me in it ask for people's insights not just oh this is my company and what would you do with x but

very specific things like, hey, Mikhail, what are your thoughts on this AI tool for LinkedIn? I love those questions because they're specific or easy to answer. And it also allows me to think about what's important for my audience. And then the last thing I want to mention is leave a testimonial or a recommendation. This is so, so easy. You know,

you know, after you went to an event or if you meet somebody or you are doing business with people. Like I think the majority of us do not take the time to write recommendations for past or current clients. And that to me is such a massive missed opportunity because people do remember.

Right. Because they're going to get not only the recommendation, but it hits their inbox that you wrote them the recommendation. And it is the best way to kind of stay top of mind for that person, especially if you haven't connected with them in a while. I love it. I know that you've got a framework. I don't know if we have already talked about that and maybe even a template. Let's talk about we're not ready. We've developed this relationship enough where we're ready to try to like take it to the next level.

Yeah, exactly. Let's do that. Conversion. It's important, right? It's not all just great conversations and chatting over coffee. So I created this. It's called the MIG form framework for natural conversion for people that are in sales, which is most of us that hate selling.

So number one, first is M, which is make it mutual. So set the tone that this isn't just about you. It's a chance to exchange value, right? So if you're open to it, I'd love to swap insights and hear more about what you're building. This is such a great way rather than saying, I'd love to pick your brain. It's, hey, I have X, you have X. Let's swap some knowledge here. And then the I is invite, don't impose. So extend an offer, not an expectation. And that's where the virtual coffee really comes in handy.

where people can either accept it or not. Clarify the vibe. Like we have to be really clear about what we are bringing to the table or what we're looking for. So I am very clear about saying 15 minutes that it's casual. You can even say no pitching, no selling here. Spell it out so that people don't know that it's not a sales call. So it's just a 15 minute virtual coffee. Happy to explore if there's a way that I can support your work.

And then don't surprise them. Don't say that. And don't call and say, hey, you thought about this kind of insurance. Don't do that. And then the K, which is keep the door open. So whether or not they say yes, you planted a positive impression. So and respect, build trust. One of the best ways to tell someone's character is how they respond when you say no.

Right. I have built relationships more with the rejections than I have with the acceptance. So if now is not the time, no worries at all. Glad that we connected. That is such a great way to stay top of mind and really like impress that person. I saw something the other day where it talked about networking being that you want to water the plant and not drown it.

And I love that because this is what all of that is, right? We're still watering the plant. We're still selling. We're still making conversions, but we're doing it in a way that feels natural. And we're just planting the seed and watering it so that it grows rather than just dumping a gallon of water on it. I love that. Water the plant. Don't drown it. Makayla, if people want to connect with you on LinkedIn, where can they find you? And if they want to work with you, where do you want to send them? So,

So LinkedIn, obviously, I'm always hanging out there. I share all of this content. You can join my newsletter of LinkedIn Lowdown so you get more tips, tricks and tutorials. You can also find my courses on LinkedIn Learning. Like you mentioned, I have one on marketing on LinkedIn, copywriting, all sorts of things. And then my new book, which is No Fear in Networking. This is essentially, you know, I like to teach people networking for people that hate networking in a nutshell. So those are the places that you can find me.

Michaela, Alexis, thanks so much for sharing your insights with us today. I am so happy. And now I am officially going on my silent retreat. I promise. If you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over at socialmediaexaminer.com slash six, six, four. If you're new to the show, follow us. If you've been a long time listener, would you consider sharing this with your friends and maybe giving us a review?

Also, check out our other shows, AI Explored and the Social Media Marketing Talk Show. This brings us to the end of the Social Media Marketing Podcast. I am your host, whose voice is deeper than normal, Michael Stelzner. I'll be back with you next week. I hope you make the best out of your day and may your marketing keep you loving. The Social Media Marketing Podcast is a production of Social Media Examiner.

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