SHOWNOTES
Be ready to take notes when you listen to today’s episode! My guest Judi Fox shares her incredible LinkedIn strategy and it’s AMAZING.
Listen, take notes then take action!
There’s so much good info in this episode – here are a few of the highlights:
Leadership by listening. This will change how you think about commenting and posting your own content
Get the latest info on LinkedIn Live and Judi’s experience with it so far.
What to do when posting on LinkedIn. The exact formula!
Company pages. Judi shares why you want one and how to make it work for you.
What content works where on LinkedIn. (Seriously valuable info!)
LinkedIn in-box strategy. The good, the bad and how to manage it.
Judi’s brilliant solution: The best way for us to start this connection is through the public comments on the platform. Go follow my hashtag #foxrocks and I’ll see you online in the comments.
Hear why you should have a personal hashtag and the best way to use it.
Using LinkedIn DM without being obnoxious is possible. Judie shares 2 ways that work!
Create a LinkedIn profile that makes you $$ while you’re sleeping. For real. Judi generously shares her strategy that you can make your own. These are just the highlights. There’s much more on messaging strategies, how this can also help you on Instagram, why images work so well (and the exact type) and more.
RESOURCES
Here’s how to connect with Judi:
Application process that leads to a 30-minute call
Follow Judi’s hashtag on LinkedIn #FoxRocks
TRANSCRIPT
Gary Vee (00:00): Hey guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuck and you're listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur podcast with our girl, Jen.
Jen Lehner (00:14): Our guest today hit 3 million views in 2018 on LinkedIn and has been featured on inc com as a top live video marketer and speaker at social media week, video marketing world, broadcast your authority and bid summit and with over 18 years experience in business development and sales. She developed the linked in business accelerator method which she implements with her clients, helping them achieve increasing business, creating an evergreen LinkedIn profile that sells while you sleep and becoming the GoTo expert in your niche. Judy Fox, welcome to the front row entrepreneur. So excited to be here. I am so excited that you're here. So on this show I chat with people who are taking a front row seat in life and business. So clearly with that introduction I know that you are for sure a front row type of entrepreneur.
Judi Fox (01:09): I was always in the front row of all the classes I would take, so I'm alive. The title of this. I thought that you're going to pay attention if you're in the front row.
Jen Lehner (01:19): Oh my gosh. That was my follow up question I wanted to ask you like when you were a kid, did you sit in the front row in school? When you go to conferences, do you sit in the front row?
Read more...
Judi Fox (01:28): I'm a front row person now when it comes to conferences, depends on what's happening in the conference, but sometimes you might have to duck out so you don't want to be in the front row and make a disruption. That's the only downside to being in the front row at a conference.
Jen Lehner (01:42): I agree. Like that's kind of the only time I'm okay when somebody is in is, is sits in the back. Cause sometimes you do need to like duck out if you're like, Ooh, chose the wrong class this time.
Judi Fox (01:52): Or sometimes you just have multiple things happening and you have to, you want to support the person on stage or you want to hear what they have to say. So just it's okay to be in the back row and that, yeah,
Jen Lehner (02:03): I agree. I get permission for that one too. All right. I knew it. I really had this theory. I mean like there's certain kinds of people. I just knew you were going to say that you sat in the front row.
Judi Fox (02:14): Yes, and I really meant it like I was like, I am here. I'm ready to take notes.
Jen Lehner (02:18): What are you going to say? Right. You're all in. You're ready to just soak it all up. I love it. All right. Another one of the things that I love to talk about on the show is consistency. I think it's real. I mean it's taken me whatever, 50 years to figure this out, but I do think that consistency is the key to success in life and in business and I know that you have a strong slash different definition of what it means to be consistent online. What? What is that definition?
Judi Fox (02:45): I think a lot of people think only in terms of consistent content and that just seems to be where it stops sometimes and I'm like there's a whole nother world of what being consistent, consistent could be really consistent in getting back to your clients. Consistent can be really consistent with your referral program that you set up. Consistent could be how you show up in comments supporting other people. It doesn't always have to be about yourself, but it could just be consistent for how you show up for others and the voice that you have. If that is consistent, people then feel a sense of recognition when they see you around any platform, any social media, your a consistent presence, not necessarily just a consistent content creator.
Jen Lehner (03:36): Oh I love that. So it's just showing up consistently. But also when you're saying like your voice is consistent, do you also mean like the ma you like that your message, like the content of your message is consistent. Like what you're saying is consistent? I think
Judi Fox (03:51): not just the message but also more of active listening skills and showing up as a leader consistently. So a definition for a leader, and again, everyone could see you can lead. It doesn't mean you're an effective leader, but you can lead in almost any way in any format, in any style. But the ones that actually if you lean into a certain type of leadership style on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, you could just be consistent with your voice. So for example, one, one aspect of showing up as a leader online could be showing up as a coach. So that is like, um, I don't know how a category that I have for my clients and I detail out how a coach shows up in the comments as a leader. So that is active listening skills. So making sure the person feels like you actually consumed their piece of content, not just saying great posts. So if you turn around and do that every single time people notice and they all of a sudden feel like, wow, that person really paid attention. So that's just one category of how you can show up as a leader versus throwing out nice posts. Nice pose, nice post, if that makes sense.
Jen Lehner (05:08): No, it makes total sense. And I think anybody listening to this is probably nodding their head as the recipient. Like if you've ever been the recipient of someone who's left you a comment like that, it makes your day. It's like, it's like wow, you know, and they, and, and you remember those people? More importantly, you know, it's, it's, you know, I have a lot more followers and my email list is a lot bigger than it ever was today. Thank God. But I still like I, I noticed the people who actually comment on my content in a way that lets me know whether it's a post or a Facebook story or a blog or a podcast when they, when they say like, I loved this part or the thing you said about this really, you know, really stood out to me and I remember them and I ended up following as well because I want to reciprocate. So I pay attention to their, to the stuff that they're putting out in the world as well.
Judi Fox (06:02): I love what you just said, reciprocate because there is a law of reciprocation or I can never say reciprocity or whatever. That word literally is a universal principle that we as humans naturally have built inside of us, that when somebody gives to us, we tend to want to reciprocate. And that's why there's that. Um, there's a bunch of books that are very spiritual in nature, but they talk about if you want something, go out and give it, be giving of the thing that you actually want more of in your life. Yeah, I love that. Be the change you want to see in the world. I have that up on my wall right there. And then I started saying, be the leader you wish to see in the world because a lot love it. Full will. I don't know, like I've been through and seen great leadership and I've seen poor leadership. I've seen toxic workplaces, I've seen thriving workplaces. So we, once you get that range of experiences, you start to see, well this is kind of what I would like to see more of in the world versus the ones that aren't thriving. So
Jen Lehner (07:15): I love that. And you know, speaking of coaches and content and commenting and all that, don't you think, this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, is that if you're going to be a coach of people, it's not enough to have those people show up in your accelerator, your small group coaching program, your, you know, whatever you're calling it, your one on one sessions. It's not enough to just, in my opinion, okay, I want to see what you think about this. But it's not enough to just, you know, give good counsel, teach and even listen. I feel like in this, if what you're coaching about is business development and digital marketing and all the things that it's also really important that we look at what they are posting that we bookmark, you know, they're uh, we add that like I make sure and I add my clients to a Twitter list so I can T not that they're all on Twitter, but you know, like I'm making sure that, that basically I get a sense of what their livestreaming about, what they're blogging about.
Jen Lehner (08:18): You know, I'm not going to listen to every podcast episode, but, but as much as possible I need to like really understand my clients because you know, the otherwise I'm just really talking in, in theory when it comes to the actual sessions. I, you know, and I think it means the world and your develop your, your relationship with your clients. And I would say also with my coach, like if my coach is actually paying attention to what I'm doing and chimes in every now and again and says, well done or whatever it means the world.
Judi Fox (08:53): Yeah. I number one, we're on the same page with that. I just, I think we're on a group that I'm coaching right now, a small group. We're on week four and it's 12 weeks. So on week four I reached out to a couple of them cause like you said, it's not every podcast, it's not everything that you can consume. But I've made sure to go check on what they're up to. Where are they at, what are, what are, what podcasts have they been on? And then I went and listened to the podcast episode and gave feedback and said, here, I listened to this. This was awesome to hear. I didn't know that about your story because you, they're actually spending the time telling somebody their story. So instead of getting on the next coaching call and being in the dark, I actually know this person much better now.
Judi Fox (09:44): And we forget the same thing happens to us. People feel like they know and trust and like us because they listened to some things that we were on. So it's very reciprocal. We're back to that word again. Yeah, that's right. And yeah, and you said it perfectly. I mean it was, it was reciprocity. That was the one. Thank you. Oh God. I like the way you said it better. I've struggled for some, I'm going to have to like listen to like that Google voice. I'm going to type it in and it's going to be like, Judy, we know you can't listen to that. They're not say that word. Here it is. I love it. We could turn that into a tick tock. Have you been, what have you been lacking? That's why I said it like that. It's from a friend. I actually, I haven't seen that.
Judi Fox (10:28): I haven't seen that one on tick dog. What I was thinking about was the Popsicle kid and like the way you said reciprocity, like the his version of the way. That gives us plenty. I love that one too. See? Okay. All right. We do need at some point to talk about LinkedIn. We are talking about LinkedIn in a way because literally at the beginning of what I even go through, I don't talk about when I start the business accelerator, you know that you're using LinkedIn to accelerate your business. To me, if you can nail being a leader, you'll actually basically crush any platform because that skill is deeper and goes beyond algorithm. It goes beyond, it goes beyond everything. And if you really want to have a survival, like a sustainable, that's the right word, sustainable business, then you know, putting in the effort to show up as a leader for yourself, for your clients, for everyone in your sphere of influence that will serve you for the longterm. I totally agree. But can I also say, dear God or dear LinkedIn people, can you please give me LinkedIn live? I mean I had been rejected. Well I don't know if other visually been rejected, but I had been. I get a letter that says we're very busy. We can't reply to everyone. Jen Lehner (11:54): If you are accepted for LinkedIn live, you will receive an email. So because I am not receiving an email telling me that I had been accepted, I assume I had been rejected and I'm so annoyed. So I want to talk about LinkedIn live and how to get it. If you know, I also want to ask you before I forget about if you think that LinkedIn hates me or is penalizing me because I, when LinkedIn first came out, you know how they would prompt you to upload all your contacts? Yes. Okay. So I did that and that meant that my plumber and the electrician and every single person in my phone, you know the guy at the, you know Piggly wiggly, like they all went into I iPhone, they all went into my LinkedIn account and I connected with every last one of them. And so I have, I don't know, not that many connections. I have like 15 a hundred or something or 1700 but so many of those are not people I'm actually engaging with. So I am trying to disconnect from them. But am I being penalized? I just don't know. I put good content on there. I don't know. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not my friend Judy.
Judi Fox (13:03): Well let's make it your friend
Jen Lehner (13:05): please. And I know I'm not the only one. You know, I just, I really just, where should we start with this?
Judi Fox (13:12): So I will start with a couple of things. The first, the first one, LinkedIn live, let's just dive into that. Obviously it's still in beta, like whether they, they've rolled it out to, I don't know how many people now, so, and how that's being processed. I do have live streaming, but it is, it has been a journey. Like I've had my live streaming glitch where it just literally cut off in the middle of a word. Whoa. And I think they, they, you know, I'm, again, I'm speculating behind the scenes, the more the platform is trying to figure out or the product software team and all the things they're doing behind the scenes, um, they probably don't want to approve more people into a system. If it has any kind of glitches or things or trying to fix, then that wouldn't really serve you or your audience or you know what I mean?
Judi Fox (14:08): Like there, I had to write a note that said, sorry, this live stream glitched and you know, and it's like this fault not mine. Yeah. I was like this, I didn't do anything. It just caught me off. So thank you. And then I think the other thing is, and I am, if it's okay, I'm looking at your, your stream and I do see you uploaded a video like sixties. Well I think there was video number three you uploaded. Yeah. So you are uploading videos. So I'm not, that was one of the questions I had because sometimes LinkedIn will look to be like, well how much are you actually uploading? And then I think, you know, they're probably making really fast decisions cause they're just having to, they're, they're processing a lot applications, so who knows what's going on behind the scenes. But I think the best advice is, uh, we'll, we'll keep trying number one, but also they give you an option to Dede or give them a link to a video that you've uploaded somewhere else.
Judi Fox (15:11): And so I don't know what you're sharing, but we can go over that. Like, not on, not on this podcast, but no, let's make it all about me and my uh, my LinkedIn. No, but I did, I did. You are supposed to submit like your most recent live streams to show that you like do it consistently give a hook and all that. And I did all that, but whatever. I'll keep trying. Okay. Yeah. And then all the people like myself who uploaded every content, every contact in their phone, what should we do about that? So I don't, okay. So here's where I stand because I think I have a ton of, I think I met 28,000 connections and I know not all of them aren't caged. And I know not all of them are necessarily even ideal, but that's, so that's not where I'm looking at when I look at somebody's content.
Judi Fox (16:04): And I think when LinkedIn is determining who to push your content out to, they do struggle with pushing content out to external links. So I know you obviously have, I mean hello social media examiner rocks. Yes. That's going to hurt the reach for your content by uploading link, link link. And then trying to get a video to be seen all in order, if that makes sense. Great. Yep. It does though. And there's no text copy that's going along, right? There's no commentary. Yeah. So the platform is going to give you likes and comments primarily based on the copy first, and then they'll go and go further to click on, Oh, I do want to check out how to develop a social media approval process for your company, but there is no text copy. There's no kind of dot.dot Seymour that we get on LinkedIn that actually tells LinkedIn this is a popular post.
Judi Fox (17:03): Got it. Okay. Kind of missing the oomph that LinkedIn gives your content. Yeah, that makes total sense. And like, I know better, you know, but I've totally gotten lazy over there because they just all about blog posts and my podcasts and everything. They just, I have not been rewarded. I used to what I used to post our articles. Yes. That was like style was so great and then it stopped being great, so, okay. What about company pages? Now? I see they've made a lot of great changes. It seems like, are you recommending those for small business people, like coaches and solopreneurs? Or is that, are you thinking that's more for a different kind of business? So I love company pages. And the reason why is because you can see how many people are converting from just one post to click on your website above. So the really nice thing about company pages is there's less distraction for people when they come to your company page.
Judi Fox (18:01): So I, here's how I think about them. Somebody visiting your company page is a very warm or warmer lead. So they didn't necessarily, they may be started at your personal profile or you made a post and they were somehow looking at your company page. So getting less views doesn't always mean that there's a lot of silent consumers out there. So what I'm trying to say is these people will look at your content, but they will click over to your website. So for example, I think when I first made my first post on my company page, I was at a hundred followers and 50 people clicked over to my website just wow. Wow. So now I'm averaging a hundred or so a maybe posting once a month, so it was not very often, but whenever I post about a hundred people click over to my website and I'm now getting close to a thousand followers.
Judi Fox (18:59): So these numbers are not off the charts, but if a hundred people are clicking over to my website, they're then clicking to book a sales call with me. There's an application process. It's been amazing. It's converting to maybe 20 to 30 sales calls. Okay, so we should all go and start a LinkedIn company page and post it. Do we post the content? Like if, let's say we post a blog posts on our LinkedIn feed, is that the same kind of thing that we want to post on our company page? So I have been testing what will work, what will convert to clicks through to my website. What I've started to do is actually share. So if somebody is going to say something positive about me anywhere on the internet, that is great, like billboard real estate to be like, somebody talked great about me and my company or whatever, or a podcast is a great thing to highlight and do an audiogram of your podcast or I'm about to go live and do a webinar, here's the link.
Judi Fox (20:08): Like it's very, it can be very promotional. I do think you need to tell the people the value of what they're going to listen to if they're going to listen to your podcast, if they're going to go consume this person's recommendation of you, but it's kind of a place to, you know, uh, to your own whistle, like blow and be like, Hey, I'm here. This is what I'm up to. Yeah. Great. Okay. I'm excited. Yeah. Oh, and I do want to share, so I do run several co a company pages for other people. So it's not just me looking at my numbers and cause some people say to me, Oh, well that's just you. I'm like, I run one of my best success stories, an engineering firm that I run, we started at around a hundred followers and I think they're getting close to 500 and it's not huge numbers, right. But we're averaging maybe 10 to 20,000 views a month and then that's converting to people to click on their case studies to click on their website to get featured and more articles. They're just starting to pick up like a ton more momentum for people to notice them. Jen Lehner (21:17): I love it. That is, that is indeed a success story. Okay. I am totally sold. Okay,
Judi Fox (21:24): one more thing. One more thing. I am a huge fan. Obviously if you go girl, LinkedIn will send that content out to your local area. So these are not views of, say for example, there was a job posting the engineering firm put out and they wanted an employee in the Virginia area where I live and it went to the Virginia area, so it went to 3000 people. The links were right there. People clicked on it and they got a lot more leads than they ever imagined. And, yeah, I've had so many success stories for job searching being done through the company page and it's been so successful.
Jen Lehner (22:02): And D is this as of late or as, has this always been your experience with company pages?
Judi Fox (22:08): So I have not always been a big fan of company, right. Me either. I would say it's in the last six months that I've really lean in and then it's basically been within the last year that I've seen so much success, people will click on the links. It's because there's less to do on a company page. There's less, there's less confusion of where to go. There's literally here you can follow me or you can visit my website and that's it.
Jen Lehner (22:35): Okay. Awesome. All right, so what about, can we talk about the inbox? Like that's something I don't even, I really don't. I don't, I mean it's, it's really the last frontier for me. Uh, I mean, I've, I've gone over to YouTube, I've gone, I feel like I've developed my YouTube and my Pinterest. Even, uh, Instagram, I'm even on tick-tock now, but LinkedIn is like, the is neglected. I mean I know I'm not using it to its fullest potential and I definitely have never done any sort of direct messaging over on LinkedIn. I mean, I do advise clients to do that and they had good success with it, but the messages that I get are pretty stale and I just have gotten like my eyes blur. I don't even pay attention. I mean they're invisible to me. What do you say about the whole direct messaging inboxing experience both as a sender and a receiver?
Judi Fox (23:30): So as a receiver, I like to, whenever something is maybe causing a pain point or something that is just needs a solution, right? Like you just said it right there. Hey inbox, we need a solution. So one thing I'll first start with is there is a spam folder. Most people do not realize there's a spam folder because it's very hidden. The user interface does not make it easy to think that you can find it. But first of all, there are different folders. So you can go check out your archive folder, you can check out your spam folder and the way to trigger and tell LinkedIn what you think is spam. So it knows to move stuff over into spam folder. So I tell people to spend 10 minutes, go to messages that you find spammy and go to the upper right hand corner of the message.
Judi Fox (24:26): There's the three dots and then you have to click on the report button, which makes it sound like, Oh my gosh, I'm reporting this, but here's the deal. That's where the spam button is hidden. It's hidden underneath the report button and then you get to click on, Oh, it's spam or a scam. Obviously. Just say it's spam and then that's it. And then you don't have to see messages from that person. You can still stay connected. It's just like getting spam email. You just move it over. And then I noticed my inbox has been so much clearer since I started doing that,
Jen Lehner (25:02): but I'm looking at this guy, Jason, he sent him me, he sent me a message and he wants me to review copies of his marketing books. And it's like, that's not 10 yes, I, Oh, go ahead.
Judi Fox (25:17): No, so what, what was he saying? He was saying review copies of marketing.
Jen Lehner (25:21): yeah, he's saying, I see you're a kindred spirit and if you'd like to connect, that'd be great. I have workbooks in all these areas. If you'd like free review calls, let me know if you'd like free review copies. Let me know your physical address. I don't know. I have some other credentials that make them look legit, but I just, so like I, I wouldn't, I don't want to get him in trouble. Like if I hit report, does that analyze him?
Judi Fox (25:50): People think they're getting, nobody gets penalize being marked as spam. So that's why I tell people right now the spam button is kind of in a funky spot that just, I own it. I go over, I hit report and I go click spam because I'm not literally reporting them. I'm just moving them over to my spam folder.
Jen Lehner (26:13): Okay.
Judi Fox (26:14): Yeah. So that scares people. I get it, I totally get it. But it really is the spam folder and it's the only way that you can find it.
Jen Lehner (26:22): All right, and what, what was your other,
Judi Fox (26:24): Oh, so for people who come into my inbox, again, I'm salute. I'm creating solutions for, okay, this bothers me or the pain. I see people venting about this on, especially if somebody makes a post on Facebook or Twitter and they say, Hey, are you over on LinkedIn? The number one thing I is, it's just covered in spam. It's just covered in spam. And I'm like, Oh. So the best way that I found is if the problem is people are spamming you, what if I take my power back and I turn around and I don't spam them back, but I turned them into what I want more of. So it doesn't mean that it's going to do it, but here's what I do. I turn around and I message them right back and I say, the best way for us to start this connection is through the public comments on the platform. Go follow my hashtag Fox rocks and I'll see you on the online in the comments. Thank you Judy, and then if they keep messaging me, that's when I moved them to spam, but I've made my boundaries clear. They're healthy professional boundaries and if they want to get a hold of me and they are legit, they'll start showing up in the public comments. Jen Lehner (27:37): I love that so much and so I am going to type out what you said and I'm going to put it in the show notes so people can copy and paste that without your name attached to it though. Of course it'll follow hashtag Foxtrot which they should do anyway. We're all going to do that anyway. Hashtag Fox rocks, is that what it is?
Judi Fox (27:57): Fox R. O. C. K. S.
Jen Lehner (27:59): I love it and you guys, Judy, of course with a last name like Fox. She totally plays that up in her branding and she wears these cute little Fox ears and which I would totally do too. I mean what a great mascot to have.
Judi Fox (28:12): Yes. It's been so much fun. Now that I've, for some reason it seems obvious now in hindsight, but I mean my last name has been Fox for a long time. I did not think about doing that. I love, so glad you did. It works for you. Well thanks. So yes, that is taking your power back. So when, when anyone ever comes to me with I've got this problem, it means same thing happens probably to all of us. We all are facing so many things every single day in our lives and becoming solution oriented is really the key to longterm life and thriving.
Jen Lehner (28:48): Totally. I could not agree more. Well, what about LinkedIn? LinkedIn showcase paces pages are long gone, right?
Judi Fox (28:57): Yeah. I'm not even like that. Yeah, that one doesn't show up on my radar anymore. So I mean I think we still there there, but yeah, I just, yeah,
Jen Lehner (29:07): well I have nine company pages that I think we're, we're at. Once upon a time they were showcased pages and then LinkedIn turned into page pages. So it's just, anyway, it's a hot mess
Judi Fox (29:19): landing page then that I guess they consider to still, you can click on the ability to make it a showcase page. But you're right, LinkedIn's become such a content generating social media platform that it's not the older days of LinkedIn. So what about
Jen Lehner (29:38): brush past it a minute ago, but yeah, writing an article, is that still a good thing to
Judi Fox (29:42): do? Are still incredible. They're very evergreen and they get found in Google search. So I, I love articles, the way to get articles, one of the top ways. There's a bunch of things that I break down that you know, helps my clients really kind of give them a formula for each piece of content. So with articles, one of the top things that I tell people to optimize, cause it gets a little overwhelming thinking, Oh my gosh, I have to optimize this and then I have to do this. Then I have to do that. And that's when you get like deer in the headlights with any platform. YouTube, Twitter. So boiling it down to one thing. If you can optimize the image that you're going to post that goes with the article. And by image I mean having words on the image. So you with social media examiner, that's a great example for an image that goes with a blog post that's attached to a link.
Judi Fox (30:41): And you know that when you share it, the value of what's in that blog post or on that website, it's in the image, right? Like that's why you do that. You do the words like how to do X, Y, Z. It's literally in the image when you social share it on Twitter, on Facebook, and then on LinkedIn, that's the power of making a very, Pinterest looking image for your LinkedIn articles. So I actually take a page out of Pinterest and I make, and the one article that I have, and it's because it keeps closing me business, so I just leave it up. Wow. But yeah, it's a year ago and that I turn any popular posts into articles that live on. So if you have any piece of content or YouTube video or something that is extremely popular, it's a great way to have your content live on, on the internet, you know, do some key SEO terms so that it can get found in Google search and it can live on.
Judi Fox (31:47): Oh, I love that. Okay, so what about how hashtags are really big these days in LinkedIn? I mean that was like about a year ago, I guess they got really big into hashtags. How were you using hashtags with your content and your posts? So the first hashtag that I always think about is having one personal hashtag because if you're trying to grow multiple ones that are all personalized and nobody's following them, then you're trying to grow three that have no following. So it's, it's the same idea as niching down. Pick one for now. If you want to grow another one in the future, it in the future, but pick one hashtag that you, it's almost before you have followers of that hashtag, it's basically a file folder for your content. It's just a way for you to quickly have that. First of all, it's great for that message because then when they click on that hashtag in your LinkedIn DM, it doesn't give them this huge link and it doesn't look super spammy.
Judi Fox (32:45): It just is a blue hashtag in that DM that you send people, they click on it and they immediately see all of your content that you've up. You've uploaded a love it versus all these other ways. You have to click to go see my content on LinkedIn. You have to click this and then click this and then click list, right? Number one, a huge reason to have a personalized hashtag, but I always recommend just one cause then you're trying to grow too many at the same time. The next thing is then I have three to sometimes five hashtags that people are following. So you can get your content in front of new people. Very similar to Instagram strategy, but just not as many hashtags. So you might want to check out the hashtags. If all of a sudden you're using hashtag strategy and it has 3 million followers and people are posting every two seconds to that hashtag it could be extremely crowded. So maybe pick one that is hashtag video which has about 10,000 followers. I'm just pulling numbers, but I think I'm close and that one is more available for you to literally get seen by those 10,000 new eyeballs.
Jen Lehner (33:57): Okay. Awesome. All right. You know, we, we skipped past the messaging part faster than I wanted to cause I wanted to ask you how you use LinkedIn messaging for prospecting.
Judi Fox (34:13): So the best way that I use LinkedIn messaging for prospecting is I think, you know, people talk about the know, like, and trust factor. I somehow leaned more towards the concept of, I understand there's a million words that you can use in replace for the word no. I use the word awareness. Are they literally aware that I even exist? And that's why I come from a place of just make it fun. Like I have a fun gift that Chad, um, I can never pronounce his last name. He's going to kill me. Um, we can, we can tag him. But he made some gifts for me that are under my name and he did that so kindly and one of them is waving hello. And it's so great because I literally send that out to so many people cause it's a wave. Hi. And then I get so many responses back like Oh my gosh, nobody's ever sent me a GIF of themselves waving hi to say hello in the DMS.
Jen Lehner (35:12): Oh that's, I love that. And you know what, LinkedIn also, I do this a lot on Facebook and on Instagram, but LinkedIn you can do this as well or maybe you can't but don't. They have a great audio feature now so you can send a voice message.
Judi Fox (35:28): Yes, I definitely send voice messages. I send, I send voice messages, I send short texts that sometimes go with the voice message. Cause every once in a while somebody will be, I've gotten some feedback that says if somebody sends me a quick text that goes with the voice message that has a bit of, especially if it's a cold connection, like I don't really know you. We just connected and now I'm hitting you with a voice message. And the limit is one minute, but most of the time I tell people just a quick message saying, Hey, this is Judy. Quick voice message below just to say hello and then it feels a little less, Oh I'll listen to that. You know what I mean? Cause it doesn't, you don't know what you're about to listen to. And so, right. I, I can kind of understand where that's coming from. Judi Fox (36:18): Same thing with video. You can put video into your LinkedIn direct messages. I've tested it, but I have found it's not, I find voice converts better than the video being sent. Okay. So, but then again, I make video public on the platform. So I just feel like there's a little bit of, how do I say this? It's like breaking another wall of connection. And yes, I want them to be aware of me, but I also don't want to like shove my face in their face. Right, right. So we all know what that's like when somebody wants to make themselves visible and there's a fine line between I want to be visible or I want to be obnoxious, so I find that voice messages hover and make it more comfortable and make it easier for people to turn around and send you a voice message back, a video back
Jen Lehner (37:16): and I'm all, I'm like so astounded by the quality of the audio. Like on Facebook and Instagram it's, it sounds like the person is in a like professional sound booth. It's unbelievable. It's like so much better than the telephone. I'm like, wow, this is just, this is incredible. Okay. Now I want to ask you about your, about, you had mentioned that you, with your accelerators in your group, you help them set up LinkedIn profiles that basically drum up business while they're sleeping and so you don't have to give away all your secrets of course, but what do you want to say about that? Like when it comes to our, our profiles, I think that
Judi Fox (38:00): sales psychology of thinking about your profile, first of all thinking about your profile is way more than a resume. Like a lot of people just took their resumes and they put them over there and yes that can work. If you are just looking for another job and you just want to put your content, your resume out there and just be done with it. But when it comes to people who are trying to highlight a book they just wrote, get on more stages to speak, the way you position yourself is very similar to how you would want to create a landing page. A website that sells, it's very, very, very similar. So we all know the power. A picture's worth a thousand words. So from the top down and Chelsea Peitz is a great example. Obviously I think I'm a great example, but uh, I bring up Telsey because her, she is on stage, she has that Mike that is looking super professional and you can just tell like, I don't, you can't see the audience.
Judi Fox (39:02): It isn't always necessary to see the audience. But she puts the social proof of all of the stages and the the brands and who she's worked with and she puts all the symbols of who they are and then she truly just drives traffic to one place because if you're trying to visually position yourself, she wants to carry on the conversation, mostly get known to get people to move over to Instagram. Now, I'm not saying that everyone on LinkedIn is gonna move over to Instagram, but from the top down she's making it very clear that this is her Instagram handle because it's right above her image with an Instagram symbol and then her name. I think one more thing is we could probably add a call to action like follow me on Instagram, but it's so clean and it's so beautiful that I almost don't want to make it any more messy, but down below it's very clear. If somebody wants, if they become a warm lead, they know where to find her. There is no question. There's no hunting and pecking. There's the literally typed out full address for her Instagram. There's the full address for her podcast. There's the link right there for her podcast in her media file. But it's not overwhelming with too many places for people to go and they're thinking of her in one type of concept, if that makes sense.
Jen Lehner (40:30): Yeah, no, it makes perfect sense. Obviously we can send people over to her profile, check it out. I will for sure. Yeah. Chelsea raves about you. In fact, that's how we power. Well, there's good reason. Uh, you're both awesome. So, well, here's, what about this, what about, this is another thing that I'm totally in the dark about. Like I don't, I used to pretty much accept anybody who wanted to connect as long as they didn't look like a weirdo or you know, like they were going to do me harm in some way. But I now I'm like, I've heard that sometimes people will want to connect with you just so they can sort of connect to your connections. And so like they, they want, is that true or, I mean, how are, how, how should we accept what should be the criteria for whether or not we connect with someone? So
Judi Fox (41:24): I will say there's always going to be somebody who's trying to skirt around the system and maybe be a little, we can't, how do I say this? The way of the social media world has gone. LinkedIn is definitely gone beyond connect with just people you know and the reason me and you wouldn't be talking, granted Chelsea introduced us but we didn't know each other really well and now we're, you know, we've gotten to know each other a lot better and the world of social media is incredible because there are so many incredible people that I would never have known if I didn't just kind of open up to some random connections that I maybe didn't know what their intentions were. But for the most part you can go to your privacy area and if you do want to lock down the ability for anyone to go in and kind of mine your connections, you can do that privacy click. That doesn't hurt you. It doesn't put your profile on super private. It just says keep my connections private and then that is totally fine. I've actually removed the who's other profiles people have looked at that used to show up on my sidebar. Now I've locked down that privacy because there are some reasons to leave it up, but I have played around with the fact that the least number, just like a website landing page, the least number of things people can click off of to go somewhere else is always better. So
Jen Lehner (42:58): talk, talk about that for a minute. Is that when someone comes to your page, they look at you and then they're like, people who have looked at Judy have also looked at Vivica Von Rosen
Judi Fox (43:08): removing that. I mean, I love Vivica, we're going and looking at Vivica, right? But I did from a thinking about it from a business and sales and a and a website landing page that sells while you sleep. You don't want to have an ad for everyone else on LinkedIn, on your column to the side of your profile. Okay, that's gold. And I'm, I'm loving these people who are in my ad can't control who LinkedIn puts there. So I reached a point where I said, you know what? It's not, I could be better served by sitting down and truly mapping out the people. I would want to be seen by connections and colleagues and I can just highlight them and I can shout them out in different ways versus having them in an ad on my side of my column. Right.
Jen Lehner (44:00): Oh that, that is such a good tip. Thank you so much for that. Well, we're rounding out the end of our hour now and I wanted to ask you, do you, what are all the ways that people could work with you? Like do you, can someone hire you for you to give their LinkedIn page, their profile and overhaul? Do you do that kind of thing, consulting all the ways that we could tap into your genius? So
Judi Fox (44:26): first of all, the best way to work with me is I have a quick application process. I mainly just have it so I can know that when I get on a call with you, we can hit the ground running. Like I, I know where your LinkedIn profile is. I can click on it, I can look at it because it's just, it's a great way for us to be on the same foot. So number one, it's a 30 minute call, but I get that application so we can hit the ground running. And then the second thing is yes, it all comes from a place of building out this LinkedIn business accelerator, which it's like the ability to turn around and carve out a, Hey, I just want you to look at my profile. It comes from that phone call. So I tell people here's the packages within that.
Judi Fox (45:12): So you can pick like a VIP package. And I have two clients in that package because I literally will be and help be in their work, if that makes sense. Like they're all on LinkedIn writer and then the next package is one on one. And then the next package is group. And I don't really make packages, but I will carve out like, what is it all a cart. If somebody comes on, like I will just say the Harmon brothers recently were like, Hey, we want some all a cart services. I'm like Harmon brothers, sure. If you know who they are. They made billions of views on videos and I love where they're trying to go with LinkedIn now because I'm like, I am giving them some of my services. Yes. Wow. Yeah. So that's, that's just, it's easier to pull out of a program that is successful and say, well here's module three.
Judi Fox (46:09): This is what I cover. And then that person comes back and says, you know what? I really just want to up my direct message game. How can I pull out that module? Most of the time it's not like I'm doing that all the time cause I recommend people do the whole thing. Cause I'm like, look, this is, you will not regret it. You can apply it to, to be honest, a lot of what I coach and teach is sales. It's psychology, it leadership. So it really translates over very well to Instagram. Honestly, I've had a lot of people get successful on both platforms because the same kind of concepts work on both platforms.
Jen Lehner (46:46): Yeah, that totally makes sense. So you're basically getting a two for one is what we're saying. All right. So, all right, Judy, thank you so much. You guys definitely check out Judy. Her website is judifox.com, and that's J U D I F. O. X. Follow the hashtag Fox rocks and you can find her on LinkedIn. So you definitely want to follow her profile there and I'll have all the links and all this stuff down below. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. I have learned so much and I am a self-confessed. I'll just tell you like I am a self-confessed no at all. And I love it when I'm, you know what? I realized that I really know nothing. And so this really was super duper, so thank you. And uh, I'll talk to you soon.
