Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Welcome everyone. Today’s episode is the intersection between employer branding and personal branding. We’re going to explore the benefits of empowering your team to represent your brand when posting online.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So joining us today is the expert on the topic, Brida Blansky. Thanks for joining us. We are really excited to have you and this episode is going to be amazing. We are so excited for our listeners to hear just so who we’re talking about today, Britta believes the personal is professional and that everyone should have the opportunity to share their unique career experience online. Weaving together more than 10 years of experience communicating and sharing intercultural experiences to storytelling and education.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): She helps leaders define their voice and confidently share it online in order to reflect their employer brand, personal brand, and connect with the right people. Working with individuals and teams, Britta provides workshops and coaching so anyone can lead by example to share a truly authentic and centric employer brand. This is incredibly unique expertise. It really is. and I’m so excited to dive into it. Tell us a little bit about where you’re calling in from and a little bit about yourself. Personal side storytelling.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Thank you.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Personal is professional.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah, exactly.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): There we go. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): No, I’m a pretty open book. So, I am calling in from Bolognia, Italy. I moved here permanently back in 2012 to marry my Italian husband. So, that kind of sums it up in a nutshell. and for a very long time, I’ve always found myself in situations where I’m present and I understand. I know what’s going on, but I’m not quite inside. I don’t have that insiders perspective.  I’m observing which has given me this huge advantage to really look in and be able to pick up on small nuances of how people respond key words or themes that are coming up in conversation and in discourse. And I’ve kind of taken that and shared it with others and expressed it in variety of different ways. one being my own personal blog in the very beginning of what’s it like to live abroad as an American in Italy.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): having two boys, going through call the cultural changes that come with being a mom in a different country and my mother-in-law giving me advice from the Italian perspective to then teaching in a school. So I taught for almost 10 years and I taught geography in English to Italian students and they came in some were practically bilingual and…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Right.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): 

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): some barely even spoke a word of English. So it was like how do I take this curriculum and simplify it so that the native speaker and the person who doesn’t understand anything can all understand because I would in so that was a real challenge and a test and it was also a fun way to see how can you take something that seems so obvious and make it approachable and interesting to people who are all across the board. so despite the challenges, it was also really rewarding and now that has transpired into the workplace. So you have these people who might not feel like they’re a part of the culture. They feel like they don’t belong. Maybe they’re there, they’re showing up to work every day.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So, it’s like how can you see what’s happening, find your story, how you’re connected to what’s going on in the bigger picture, and how can you take these ideas that you come in contact with every single day and then be able to share them with others so they also understand when they maybe have no idea…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): what you’re absolutely doing.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): You speak Italian now.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Did you speak Italian at the time that you were teaching as well?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): I did. Yeah. So,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): my experience goes back to Yeah.  No, I came here for the first time when I was 16 as a study abroad student and was thrown into the Italian high school without speaking a single word. But then I came out six months later almost biling Not really. I made a lot of grammar mistakes, but it was a full immersion experience and that’s really the best way to learn any language. So then I went and majored in French and Italian at university and then moved here already speaking the language. Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Wow, that’s really cool.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And so cool to have that that’s the perspective you’re coming from when you entered this employer branding space.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And such a good way to think a lot of people feel that way. they feel like maybe they don’t know the language of the new company that they’re in even if they’ve been there for some time and trying to help them learn that and then promote that online. I think it’s such a huge thing for companies and they don’t realize this.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I really don’t think a lot of companies realize this that they have employees who have this potential to share what their brand is. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah, absolutely.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): And also maybe even if you might be amazing at what you do and you might be an expert and you can show up and you’re super confident with your co-workers and maybe with your boss, you’re winging it. you hustle every single day. You might be even working overtime and you’re scaling, you are going up the ranks, but yet when it comes to sharing online or sharing something on LinkedIn, everything just crumbles and all of a sudden there’s that little voice in your head that’s like, I can’t share that. No one cares. People are watching. They’re going to have an opinion. It’s going to ruin my professional reputation. So, you realize, okay, I’m building something that’s incredible, but I don’t know how to articulate that or I don’t know how to share that.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): and there’s all this imposter syndrome and fear that creeps up when I have an opportunity to really highlight my career and my professional experience. So, even being somewhere and feeling confident but not understanding how can you share that with others to then create other opportunities and not just I mean because it’s not always about you, It’s about the culture, the people around you, what you’re learning,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): what they’re learning, how you’re working together to create something that’s pretty cool. And so sometimes again, we feel like as soon as we’re going to share, it’s all about me. And it’s not just about you,  It’s about your employer and your co-workers and the culture around you.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I think there’s a lot of self-discovery that has to happen too. I mean, you may know who you are, but then suddenly when it comes to posting online, it’s like, okay, who am I in this frame of mind? do I need to just spit out myself exactly as how I am? Sorry, whacked him in the face. or do I need to have my own brand and that’s what I stick to online?

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): and maybe you can share a little bit about that. And also what are some of the things that would make us want to overcome those fears that make us hesitant to post

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): I have nothing to share. And it’s like, you do have something to share. I like it because like you said, we really don’t take the time to allow ourselves to reflect on the work that we’re doing. And it’s something that unless you’re told to do it or they’re like, “No, really, go take 20 minutes and just sit and do a brain dump on this project or on this win that you just had cuz we’re busy and it doesn’t matter. You just keep going to to the next thing.”  So it is like there’s so much value in allowing yourself the time to reflect on your work experience, document what you’re doing and not like when it comes to career oftentimes they’re create a wins folder and just go in and say when add it in so when you have to update your resume you have a list of your wins and it’s easy to share but we’re going beyond that. It’s like what was the process? What were the struggles?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): were there disappointments and were you discouraged and how did you overcome that and who did you speak to and…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Mhm.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): who was a mentor to you and what was gained from that experience that now you can use when you walk into the next project because of course you’re going to be more prepared because you’ve already done it right so we haven’t really been taught to reflect and think that way and we usually just kind of oversee it and don’t think it’s important so one I would tell someone if they want to start sharing or if they want to publish on LinkedIn  in or even on their own website or kind of build a virtual portfolio. take the time to dig in and really just kind of write and see what comes out. And getting started is the hardest part, but then once you do start, it’ll become easier. It’s one of those things that sounds so cliche, but it’s true. And no one can tell you to you can say get started.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): but it’s always worthwhile to speak with someone and pay attention to the questions that they ask So, if you’re I don’t know where to start. what should I share? just ask your coworker. Be like, hey, what did you think of that last meeting? And just kind of see the dialogue that comes up and the questions that come up. And then if you can answer those questions, that’s something of value that you can provide.  and knowing statistically people are three times more likely to trust an employee over the CEO or the company page branded content and that gives you a lot of power and I think some employers are almost afraid of that which is why they’re like we don’t know what you’re going to say so don’t say anything because they know the influence that you have so if you’re afraid to start and you think that no one wants to hear what you have to say I want to encourage

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): encourage you to take the time because in that reflecting the reflective process of preparing to write, you gain new insight and perspective on your own work journey. You’ll be able to share it better with anyone the next time that comes up, whether it’s a networking event or you want to get hired internally or you go and interview for another job and you’re documenting is going to build that confidence that will allow you to share it better and with ease with confidence. And then you are influencing someone whatever you share it will get seen which is usually the contrary effect of no I don’t want to be seen let me just kind of hide behind my job title and…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): this reshare post from the company page and it’s like no people literally the data shows they’re three times more likely to trust you over branded content and so your voice does matter.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Mhm. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): someone will see it and it might be just what they need to know if they want to take the next step or if they’re gently like, “Okay, this isn’t for me.” And that’s okay.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And honestly, I love where you’re going with this as far as trying to help people see that their voice matters and that sharing online is good for them in the end. and that’s something that I’ve had conversations with people on, especially those who have been laid off. There have been lots of layoffs the last few years since COVID. And really, you’re in the captain seat. it’s It’s your career.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): You are the brand manager of your career and of your reputation and your public image. Whether you care or not, whether you believe it or not, there is an online representation of you as a professional and you can own that or you can just kind of let it be. but there’s a lot of value to be harvested both from learning from others participating online, but also sharing like you said and that self-discovery. And I can definitely testify to that as far as things that I’ve shared have been moments of reflection to kind of gather your thoughts.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And in writing my book, The Review Cycle, that was one of the biggest expediters of growth I ever had as far as taking time to write out all these different things that I was learning and developing and testing and experimenting with. And it helped refine the knowledge and expertise that I had. And I think everyone can get a measure of that even just by posting on LinkedIn. and that’s way less of a commitment than, a thesis or a master’s degree or it’s just bite-size career growth that you have the opportunity to gain by sharing what’s going on in your career.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah, absolutely. And I think too they’re afraid of other people’s opinions and they’re afraid of how they’re going to come off across, but I think ultimately it’s just as a preface, it’s never in replacement of the actual people around you, So obviously if you go into the office, the people that you talk with in person, those relationships are so important. You don’t ever want to use this as a replacement. But by sharing online and giving those little tidbits, I like to call them breadcrumbming. It’s like when you breadcrumb information about who you are and you build a personal brand and you highlight your career and you highlight your wins, people get a sense of…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Mhm.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): who you really are. And oftentimes we’re afraid that they’re going to know who we’re truly are when it’s like I think oftentimes we often show up to work with a mask and a total facade because essentially we’re just trying to please we’re trying to please our boss. We’re trying to get the next promotion. we want people around us to be happy with who we are. And so we hide a lot of who we truly are. But when you share online especially and you said someone got laid off. I think a lot of times people when they do get laid off all of a sudden LinkedIn is the doors are thrown wide open. They’re like I can share right cuz they’re not watching me. And it’s like but if you had been sharing how many conversation starters would you have left right there as a breadcrumb especially in your personal life…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Mhm.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): which is why I say the person is professional. When you go to a networking event you don’t show up and say hey here’s my offer.  this is what I do. Buy from me. You’re probably like, hey, who’s going to win the Super Bowl, Or tell me, do you have family? Do you have kids or your dog or your pet? you talk about everything else except work first. So, if you share that, people get a sense of who you are up front. And then if you do go in and interview and they’re kind of looking at your profile and they go through this, you’ll immediately know if it’s a culture fit or not.  And the faster you can make that decision, it’s helpful for the organization that’s hiring. And it’s extremely helpful for the employee. If they can go through and look at other employees profiles and see what’s important to them, what are their values, they’ll see, okay, do I need to walk in here and put on a mask every day and hide who I am in order to please them? Or are they going to know look, this is who I am and this is what I’m bringing to the table and do you accept it or not?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): which can sound really harsh and scary, but there’s nothing worse that just eats away at your soul when you feel like you can’t be yourself and…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): you feel like you’re living this double life.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yep. …

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I hear a couple of the positives like what’s in it for me because people need motivation to spend this time on this or be vulnerable online. It’s scary to overcome all of those hesitencies. maybe one reason is, preventing the grasping once they get laid off what do I do Okay, now I’m on LinkedIn, right? it’s kind of giving them a little bit of job security maybe with that job or maybe just being able to get another job helps with that. And then you also mentioned that they can have influence on other people and that I think is something we all desire intrinsically.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): We want to help others. we want to be someone that they remember or that they learn something from. And so having that influence, are there any other positives what’s in it for me? And then I want to hear more about what’s in it for the company to have their employees doing that.  So,

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): of advocacy resources and their own platform which is called disseminate which helps pull content from an organization and help put it out. they came out with their 2024 employee advocacy benchmark report and in it polling their clients and all their employees and the people they work with 96% said that posting on social media…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): which in this case is referring to LinkedIn had a positive effect on their career. So essentially,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): it’s like you cannot post and things just stay the same or you can start posting and you have a 96% chance that it’s going to have somehow positively impact the work that you do. Right? So almost 100% say that it was beneficial. so I would say that one that’s encouragement…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): but really what happens when you start sharing is you get visible and visibility creates opportunity. So you can’t expect other people to just notice we refer to LinkedIn being an online networking event like an ongoing live ing You go to a networking event and you go and sit in the corner in a chair in the dark and…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): then you leave the event and are like, “Man, no one came and talked to me.” that was the worst event ever. I was there and there were all these people. But yeah,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Free lemonade.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s it. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): exactly. why didn’t anyone come and say hi to me? It’s like yeah because you just were in the corner in the dark sitting there the whole time. Whereas if you stand up, walk around, introduce yourself, have conversations, all of a sudden you’re going to get other people’s phone numbers. You’re going to get referrals.  People are going to recommend you. They’re going to be talking about you in different rooms when you’re not there. and that’s the same thing on LinkedIn. So, if you show up, put yourself out there, introduce yourself, have conversations, you start to build trust, and people will come to you as the resource. And there might not be this immediate someone’s going to hire you or you’re going to get promoted, but you’re really building the safety net for your career because you never know what’s going to happen.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): And people when they see you consistently over time and they know you and they can really call out who you are and what you do and how you serve others, they can then recommend you later on down the road or if you need to or maybe they need help and you can recommend them. It just goes both ways. So really apart from it’s going to have a positive impact. It’s going to create opportunity for you and you might not be able to articulate it immediately but it will be there and it could be an internal promotion. It could be getting contacted out to come and be head-h hunted for someone else.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Could be a speaking opportunity. You never know. And that’s kind of the exciting part is that you really then are in charge of your career and can make those decisions and choices. …

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. And…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): how is there a frequency that you need to post to have those benefits?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): so mean the more it’s kind of like…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): The more the better.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): is what you put out. Yeah. But by no means do you ever need to post every single day. Posting something is always better than posting nothing. So, I would say if you are in a nine-to-five and you’re busy and maybe you have a family and you volunteer and you have a life outside of your job, and LinkedIn’s not your top priority, I would shoot for two times a month starting original unique content that’s written solely by you. And then you could add in an occasional share of someone, maybe a colleague and you’re supporting them or…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): a company page repost or…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): something like that. and then build up from there eventually once And once a week is a good cadence that shows you’re active on the platform and you’re someone that you can reach out to and expect a response from

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Seems very So, let’s talk about the company side a little bit. I’m sure there are people leaders listening that maybe they’re a little fearful about some of what we’re talking about yeah this is great because our team members can go post and then they have more chances to leave our company we need them here there can be a little bit of that mindset I’m drawing some parallels here with online reputation when it comes to reviews reviews are very trustworthy posts from employees are very trustworthy

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): It’s a form of UGC, it’s a peer-to-peer influence instead of like you’re saying the brand or the executive leadership. It has a little bit different tone when we’re sharing online. But there’s tons of benefits that can come from the company and the managers encouraging employees to be active in their own career development, their own personal brand, and the company is part of that. They’re kind of a tag along.  So talk to us a little bit about the company benefits and how a company can support kind of a healthy ecosystem of sharing.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): And what you just said is so key is, you’re asking how can it be healthy? And I think a sign of a healthy organization is if their employees are creating their own content because that will demonstrate that they feel safe, they feel heard,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): that they don’t feel like they’re being micromanaged, and that they’re creating the space for diversity, which I think is a huge one. if you give not necessarily free reign and a company should always provide guidelines unless there’s been no discussion, but if they’re like, “Yeah, we want you to be active online. we want you to help represent our culture values and really demonstrate the employer brand, then Please share.” Usually, it’s like, “Guys, please send out a mass email from the marketing team. Hey, we’re on LinkedIn why don’t you share something?” Right? People are like what?” Right?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): so always provide guidelines, so if you provide the guidelines and then within that they have liberal creativity to share what they want. it’s a really good sign that they recognized, and that they’re allowed to express their differences even when it might feel like it could reflect poorly.  So, keeping in mind, I believe this is from an internal LinkedIn stat from a couple years back, so it’s not super recent, but I think it only has increased really in the meantime. But when employees share content, it goes 571% further than company page content, which is just ridiculous. And it gets eight times the shares compared to company content.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So, even just on a straight up like investment side, and even recently now they came out, authored up and Richard, I forgot his name, it’s slipping my mind right now, came out with their study from last year too, looking at the algorithm and it was just shown that, individual content fills 36% of your feed. Company page content fills like 3%.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Hey,  Yeah. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): And then sponsored posts fills about 30%, so it’s still paid. And then straight up ads are I’m going to get it wrong now. I think it’s Something like that. So the point is that you can either spend money literally spend your dollars for content that’s going to appear fractional just a fraction less of what your employees could share.  So you can literally save money, equip your team to write content, and it’s going to get shared eight times more. It’s going to go 500% more reach and it’s going to fill other people’s feeds more than any marketing campaign that you’re going to run through your marketing team on the company page and your ad spend. So just looking at dollar-wise and okay, what do you want to go further? You could save that.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): But then also it’s creating this opportunity for people to really highlight the diversity within the company. Provide core behaviors that demonstrate you’re not just words on a wall or words on a website, but they’re actually like walking the talk and people are comfortable to share and talk about what’s happening within the organization. So, it’s a real opportunity for the company to mirror and reflect who they say they are in the most tangible atic authentic way.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Does that answer the question?

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yes. Yeah,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And I think this is an initiative that a lot of companies can put in place and like you said, great investment, costsaver. one thing we’ve talked about in a lot of our podcast episodes is how they want to attract the right talent. And the only way to do that is if people see what your company actually is like. Not what you want them to think it’s like or something, but actually what it is like. Because what we need is our expectations to be met to be satisfied. And so if you get your employee that you’re excited to hire them on and everything and then they are like this isn’t what I expected this company to be, then you have a lot of turnover. And this is huge.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I think this is great for preventing that for securing the right fit the people…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): who are going to align with the values of the company. and so as far as a leader trying to create this as an initiative, what are some final recommendations that you can give for them to get this started and what tools they can provide their employees for getting started as well?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Mhm. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So I mean I say just get started which I know is not super helpful but like we had said before it is that’s the hardest part and as a leader you have a really critical role because people are looking to you as the example and so if you’re willing to share first and you’re willing to show them what it can look like to share then they’re more likely to enter in. it doesn’t have to be, but it’s way easier if it’s a top down approach than a bottom up.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Because people just like I said, when you’re going to get seen and they know they’re being watched. So, I would first say as a leader, take the initiative to share first. I would say let your team know that you are sharing and say, “Hey, I’m on this journey. I’m going to see what it’s like. If you see it, can you support my content?” because it means a lot to me. and then reciprocate that. So if you see an employee sharing verbally let them know and recognize that you saw it and something that you liked about it because it’s one of those one compliment is going to give you the motivation to continue and keep sharing and write more.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Whereas if you give one negative put down or…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): why did you share that or I can’t believe you shared that or maybe you shouldn’t that’s it right there’s no more like your opportunity is lost.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): There’s that insecurity.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): You’re like, “Okay, I’m done. Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So let people know what you’re doing invite them in to participate with you and follow along and encourage them and to engage not just for a matter of expanding your reach but because it’s more than that.  It’s right about building the relationship, creating the opportunity to have the conversation about what you’re sharing on. And then in an ideal world, equip and empower, which means train them. So come in and have someone show them very simple basic copywriting tools like this is how you can write a post. This is an example of a story. Here’s let’s take this project.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): We’re gonna have a conversation and then we’re going to each go and write a post on it together.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So they have in time real action experience of what it can look like to write so they don’t just feel like they’re left to their own devices to try to figure out is it bad, does this help my personal brand, does it not help my personal brand.  So, provide that training for them and give them resources whether it’s prompts or templates or having someone come in and actually do it live and work with them.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I really like that.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And I think if you pair those resources with the guidelines that you were saying an easy one that comes to mind is don’t share anything that’s confidential. I think just a few very basic dos and don’ts. All of a sudden Krista mentioned managing expectations. It can help employees see clearly what’s encouraged and what’s maybe against the company handbook for example.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And there’s tons of room to be creative within a very simple framework. and I love that you mentioned leadership team sharing and…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): setting the example and creating that social norm. I think those are very powerful tips. As we kind of wrap up here, do you have any other resources that you’d recommend people check out as they’re continuing to explore this topic? Yeah. Yeah,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah. …

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): I mean, I have a few of my own resources. I don’t know if I’m allowed to share them.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): we definitely link to all your stuff in the highlight article for everyone listening.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Okay.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So, yeah,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Okay. …

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): tell us more about connect with Brida online and we’ll share her LinkedIn as well. and go ahead.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): No, I didn’t want to step over any boundaries there.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. No, you’re totally good.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Let’s hear it.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): No, I do have easy content ideas for employees. So, if they’re looking to talk about their work experience and their journey within the organization, they can download that. It’s for free. There’s 50 different ideas. if you did one a week, you’d have content for a year. So, I’m not saying that you have to do that, but you’re definitely sad or you could go through it and choose what you want. so that’s one thing I would follow. So, if you want to share on LinkedIn, you re LinkedIn is really different pools of people. It’s kind of like if you go to the hot springs, I don’t know if you’ve never been to natural hot springs, right?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): It’s not just like one big giant pool, but there’s these little crevices that form. That’s exactly what LinkedIn is. And you can create those pools intentionally if you take the time to curate it. So, if you’re wanting to get started, apart from having, some prompt ideas to get, that you could follow to start writing. I would start looking for the people that you’re genuinely interested in. I’ve had multiple people tell me they’ve learned more on LinkedIn than they have at university. I don’t know where they went to school, but that’s to say that people are sharing really high value and quality content. So, if you take the time and be like, “Hey, I’m interested in this and this person’s a content creator. They share regularly. I’m going to follow them.” So, I would find a couple people that you like you’re like, “This is great. I love this. I’m learning. I see them as a resource.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): I can reach out to them they respond to me we’re building trust I feel like I get to know them and I would see how they write because you can learn a lot by watching what other people are doing and then I would say you want to emulate that. So obviously You don’t just copy and paste what they’re doing but start just become mindful and…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): start paying attention and pay attention to the topics of what they’re talking about and use it for inspiration for yourself.  So again, you don’t have to just because they shared about this funeral in the family that doesn’t mean that I have to write about a funeral. No you decide the level of vulnerability that you are comfortable with but you can get a sense to see What are they talking about? Is that something that I can give my perspective on as well?  So that would be my first thing like you can either get down download these 50 ideas use them as prompts to get started and then start following people and just start paying attention and using it become like an active learner.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay, that’s awesome. Definitely. I’m gonna add one more here. a good friend of mine, Trevor Nilson, is one of the co-founders of a company called Cleo Kell. It’s K L EO. And, it’s a free Chrome extension to discover and create LinkedIn content. And you can look that like there’s lots of,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yes. Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): things that you can discover there to give you some great ideas and see stuff that’s working great on the platform.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So that’s another one that’s free that I’d recommend checking out,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): And Cleo, I know that. And if I’m not mistaken, they also help with some of the formatting. Is that correct? So when you’re writing, if you want bold text and…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I believe. So that’s so cool that you’ve heard of them and…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): 

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): things like that. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): and you’re in.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): No, I have the extension. I just Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): You do? that’s awesome.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, Cleo is a great one. Authored up is another great one that also provides hooks.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay. Yeah. Yeah, right.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): My one warning is templates can be dangerous because it can kind of put you into a box that you don’t want to be in. And I think especially right now people need to hear that it’s okay if you don’t follow the LinkedIn format template which is obviously the strong hook strong statement bullet point XYZ reversal of the strong statement ABC right and then a call to action that’s the basic template for every LinkedIn post and…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): once you know that you see it everywhere and then the more you become accustomed to something …

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, still less genuine,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Interesting.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): it feels less genuine and then your brain tells yourself that you’ve already seen it and so you skip over it. You’re like,…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Interesting. Yeah,…

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): you’re kind of like your mind is saw that and saw that.” You just scroll.  So there’s a format but you can go outside of that and maybe by breaking the template and breaking the standard format you’ll get more recognized and stand out because they’ll say that’s different. Yes.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): that’s true. Yeah. Hey, can I ask just one more question here? So, I’ve been struggling with this.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): This is a personal question for LinkedIn and maybe some other people can relate, but I keep getting prompts to verify my profile and they say people with verified profiles get double the, profile views and exposure on their posts and stuff. That wasn’t a thing, years ago. And the way I read that is we’re throttling everyone’s content that’s not verified, but they’re putting the positive spin on it. You could have more exposure, right?

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Pros and cons to Any thoughts on verifying your profile?

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): So, I’ll just say straight up I can’t verify my profile. I think it’s because I have an Italian IP address and it’s like asking for my Italian passport…

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay. Right.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): which has my middle name on it and so it’s saying my name doesn’t match the passport name. I’ve tried to verify it so I don’t know from my own experience if it’s affecting the content. people say, I’ll say this, they’ve said the same thing for premium. if you have premium, then you’re going to get more views and more reach and so you’re like, you pay to play and you’ll get, better quality connections. I can attest that that’s not true. I’ve paid for it. I haven’t paid for it. no difference whatsoever.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): They said the same thing with creator mode. When creator mode rolled out, they said if you have creator mode, your content is going to go further. Again, that was demystified. It’s not true. and I personally put out a poll a while back frustrated that I couldn’t get verified because again I keep getting this notification that’s like you’re sending too many connection requests if you’re verified more people will accept, I’m like you’re just trying to get me to verify my account, so I put out a poll and I asked the audience, my network, if someone is verified does it come, I don’t remember the exact wording what it was, but the sense was like, do you think they’re more trustworthy or does it impact your choice in accepting them? and they said no. And most people actually are not verified. So I would say if you’re not able to get verified or if you don’t want to do it, you’re not missing out. It’s not suppressing your content.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): it’s not making a difference in who’s accepting your connection requests.

 

Britta Blanski (Guest): The biggest differentiator in your LinkedIn success is the activity that you’re doing on the account. So whether you’re messaging people and if you’re commenting and creating content

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay, that’s great.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Super helpful. Yeah, you have so many amazing tips. Hopefully people who are listening, hopefully you’re writing notes because there’s some great things I’m going to get started and do better with my LinkedIn. And everyone follow Britta. She’s a fantastic example and you can get some ideas from the content that she puts out and we’ll post all of those links to our highlight article and please give us a review as well. We’d love to genuinely hear what you think about the podcast and tune in next time. Thank you, Britta.