Sherry Sexton:the Queen of LinkedIn

Interviewed by Anne MichelsenPrincipal, Green Ink Copywriting

The Green Inkwell Interview Series

Original podcast published Jan. 6, 2014 on GreenInkCopywriting.com/blog

HOW TO ROCK THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR SOCIAL SITE FOR BUSINESS

LinkedIn expert Sherry Sexton reveals her best tips for making the most of this essential social network.

Whether you want to Whether you want to expand your network, find a job, or promote your products, read on for tips on what to do – and what not to do – on LinkedIn to make it happen.

© 2014 by Anne Michelsen All rights reserved

Sherry Sexton is a business coach, LinkedIn consultant, and life-long

entrepreneur (she started her first business, an awesome lemonade stand, at the

age of 12!) In the following interview from December, 2013, she kindly answers

several common questions about what to do – and what to avoid – on the

world’s most popular business network: LinkedIn!

Anne Michelsen:

Okay. I’m here today with Sherry Sexton. Sherry is a business consultant and she

is the queen of LinkedIn. She really specializes in LinkedIn. She’s been called a

LinkedIn rock star. I want to welcome you, Sherry. Thanks so much for being

here.

Sherry Sexton:

Hi, Anne. Thank you.

Anne Michelsen:

I get a lot of questions from clients and just people that I meet about LinkedIn. I

personally love LinkedIn. It is totally my favorite social media and it’s the only

one that I really focus on for my business. But a lot of business owners and

business people don’t really quite know where to start on LinkedIn. I get a lot of

questions like I’ve got my profile up, now what do I do? So, Sherry, you are

totally the expert on these questions and I just wanted to ask you a few

questions. Hopefully you can maybe clarify these issues a little bit more.

To start with, just speaking to somebody who has actually gone out and set up a

profile on LinkedIn, what’s the most important thing to start with?

Sherry Sexton:

To set up the profile or once the profile is set up?

Anne Michelsen:

Well, you were telling me about what the goal is on LinkedIn.

Sherry Sexton: Well the goal is if you’re a small

business owner you want to increase your

clientele. You want to reach out to potential

clients. The bottom line is you want them to

find you without having to search for them. I

can teach people how to search but the

ideal thing is for them to find you and find your business and want to buy your

product. One of the most important things I think

people don’t take into account, and I can just

touch on that briefly, but your photo is so

important. LinkedIn has done research that if you

are smiling and facing your header box, which is

where your name and title is, with a clean

background, you have five times more chance

of getting communication from others, which I

find interesting.

Anne Michelsen:

I’ve had people comment on my photo. Now, I

don’t think my photo is facing my header box, maybe I can flip it or something. I

have literally gotten jobs from my photo. You are so right.

Sherry Sexton:

You’re smiling and that’s a big part of it.

Anne Michelsen:

So beyond the photo what would you look at next?

Sherry Sexton:

I’m sorry?

Anne Michelsen:

You were saying that pictures of your dog, that kind of thing…

Sherry Sexton:

Well, it’s not Facebook. I mean it’s a

professional business social networking site. I

think if you are in a professional line of business

you’d probably want to wear a suit. If you are

an auto mechanic, wearing your company

logo polo shirt is fine. It depends on what business you’re in. But you just want to

have a clean background and be smiling, which is more welcoming as

opposed to straightforward, which they say now is distrustful, which I didn’t really

understand until LinkedIn actually brought that up.

Filling in your LinkedIn profile

completely helps you get found

by people who are looking for

your products or services.

“LinkedIn has done research that if you are smiling and facing your header box, which is where your name and title is, with a clean background, you have five times more chance of getting communication from others.”

In your LinkedIn profile photo,

wear attire that suits your

professional line of work.

Once you’re on there and you have your

profile, the biggest thing is to have your

contact info there. So many people, you can’t

see their e-mail. If you want to buy from

someone and they don’t have their contact

information there it’s really hard to reach

them. The people that do have that contact info…the competition might be

taking your business.

Anne Michelsen:

Right. Yeah, you have to be found for sure.

Sherry Sexton:

I think once you have your profile up, the hardest thing for me to communicate

to others is how you talk to people, how you connect with people, how you

message them once you’re connected. Very few people do some of this stuff

and I think this is where it’s very important when you’re building your database.

Anne Michelsen:

A lot of people, I’ve heard them say, “I’m on LinkedIn, now what do I do? I have

no idea.”

Sherry Sexton:

Right. You want to connect with people…I tell people to join some groups on

LinkedIn. It might be in your industry. For myself

it’s social media or LinkedIn groups. Also,

anything that you’re passionate about, like if

you’re a marathon runner you may want to

join a group that is marathon people, just to

communicate with them. So it gives you little

bit of the personal side of you and also the

business side of you. The hardest thing on

LinkedIn is to get your personality across to

others. Typically, how you talk to them

reflects how they feel about you.

Anne Michelsen:

I like to think of LinkedIn as a great big professional community where if you think

about your own hometown, you make professional connections everywhere

you go, like at the gym. But then you’re also going to the networking meetings

and you basically just kind of have fun talking to people. You talk about your

Be sure to include your contact

information in your profile. If

it’s not there, you could be

losing valuable leads.

Join LinkedIn groups related to

both your business and

personal interests. Letting your

personality show helps build

people’s trust in you.

“People do business with people they like and trust. You have to build that trust, which is harder online than it is in person.”

business but you’re also kind of just talking about whatever issues that come up

and things that you have in common.

Sherry Sexton:

Right. It’s the same with LinkedIn. I tell people when you want to connect with

someone, it’s easier for anyone if you have a premium account. I don’t work for

LinkedIn. I’m not affiliated with LinkedIn. I am going to write for LinkedIn in 2014

but not this year.

Anne Michelsen:

You mentioned a professional account.

Sherry Sexton:

Oh, the upgrade account. Because you can see who viewed your profile. You

can see more people and you can also…you have the ability to join different

groups like the job seeker groups and things like that if you are…there’s a lot of

people that are job seekers that are looking for jobs. But it just gives you more

ability to connect with people, to introduce

people, to send an InMail to people. So, it just

give you more ability to connect with people

that you may want to really connect with and

have no way to contact them. In other words,

they’re a third connection, which means that

there’s someone in between you. If you know someone or I know someone and

we’re connected to each other, then I can introduce you to that person or it’s

easier to get to that person without an introduction if you have the premium

account.

Because what you want to do when you connect with someone, or I always do

e-mail that says hoping to connect with you and then you might share

something about what you viewed on their profile. The default message is…you

can tell everybody (doesn’t always take the time to personalize it), which to me

it always says you’re not real interested sometimes as far as the way other

people perceive you. That you may not be interested in them. I personally look

at their profile and I see that they may live in

my area, they may have gone to school

where I did. They may live in a great place

that I’d like to visit, like Dubai and things like

that. So (I write something like) “hoping to

connect. You must love where you live. If I

can help you in any way, please let me

know.” There’s just that personal touch to

connecting with someone then they’re more likely to connect with you than if

you use the default.

Investing in a LinkedIn

Premium account allows you to

message anyone on LinkedIn,

not just your connections.

When sending an invitation to

connect on LinkedIn, don’t use

the default message. Instead,

personalize it to your recipient.

They’ll be more likely to accept

your invitation.

Anne Michelsen:

You’re talking about personalizing your message when you’re reaching out to

somebody rather than just using the ‘I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn’

kind of default message.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes.

Anne Michelsen:

What would be some of the dos and don’ts? You already mentioned some dos,

which would be mention some things in common you might have. What are

some things you should not do when you’re reaching out to somebody?

Sherry Sexton:

You should not say, “Hi, buy my stuff,” because you get a lot of spammers on

there. I tell people first you have to develop a relationship and then you can ask

about them. Then it’s just like we talked about

in person. You’re not going to walk up to

somebody and go, “Hi, Anne, can you buy

my stuff?” It doesn’t work that way. You have

to have the relationship first. So, I say don’t

spam people because no one really likes it. If

someone reports you and there’s five reports

LinkedIn will shut down your account and it’s

going to take you quite a while to get back in.

Anne Michelsen:

So you can be kicked off of LinkedIn for inappropriate behavior.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes.

Anne Michelsen:

I’ve never heard of that happening but that’s really good to know.

Don’t try to sell overtly to your

LinkedIn connections. Instead,

concentrate on building

mutually beneficial

relationships.

Sherry Sexton: Trying to spam people. The other thing is that some people put a

logo in there instead of their photo, which on your personal page should be your

picture. This is another way LinkedIn will shut you down because it’s not a

business page. Say a small business owner

has their logo there, if there’s a photo of

them as the manager of that company they

can shut you down there too because that’s

specifically a business page, which is a totally

different page. There’s a personal page and

a business page. If I’m the owner of the

business I have my own page personally and

then I have a business page, which talks

about my business, my products and my services.

Anne Michelsen:

So you want to make sure that your photo’s on your personal page, your logo’s

on your business page?

Sherry Sexton:

Correct.

Anne Michelsen:

Okay. Very good. Now, you mentioned joining groups, which I think is a great

idea. Groups are a great place to hang out. What would be some tips for

engaging with the groups in a productive way?

Sherry Sexton:

Some groups have a pending…you hit join

and then it’s pending and they have to

accept you. Every group has different rules, so

you want to check out their rules. If you do try

to post something on there that’s self-

promotional in the nice way they like to put it,

they will not post it for you. They won’t even

accept it. So, sometimes it’s pending to join

the group, sometimes your request or your discussion question is pending and

needs approval. So, you have to really look at the group rules as to what to post.

A lot of people post something in general like what’s most stressful about the

holidays. Usually, everyone can relate to that and comment on that. So, it

depends on your type of business.

For me, it’s usually things about LinkedIn or offering advice and things like that,

sharing a new article. But there again, I look at the group rules. When I said

what’s stressing you out, it’s a large professional women’s group I belong to for

Your personal profile should

focus on you as an individual.

You can build a business profile

to expand upon your products

and services. Use your photo on

your profile page and your logo

on your company page.

Every LinkedIn group has

rules for acceptable posting and

other behavior. Be sure to

check out the rules before you

post or comment on a group

discussion.

Citibank. But in certain groups if it’s related to your industry you probably want to

stick with that. Then other groups are ones that you might just do general

information.

Anne Michelsen:

So you might want to hang out on the group a little bit before you start posting

and just get a feel.

Sherry Sexton:

Oh yeah, you can view them. Most groups

are open so you can view what their

discussions are. Then once you join it you

can comment on something. Or you can

like it. Everything you do in a group shows

up on your activity on your homepage,

which is good. I tell people if you don’t

have a lot of time, go into a group and

comment on a discussion or share a

discussion or like a discussion.

Anne Michelsen:

I’ve had people contact me to do work for them after having commented.

Even if you never post a discussion your groups are still valuable just because

you’re out there, you’re part of the community. If you make insightful

comments…you don’t even have to start anything.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. I always say you’re only as visible as the

size of your audience or your network. The

more people you have as connections the

more people see what you write or share or

comment on. Another thing is Pulse, which is

your newsfeed, which used to be LinkedIn

Today, which you can access from the

homepage. It’s where you would share an

article on something industry-related,

something everyone can relate to. On the weekend you could post something

like that or just a broad kind of question or something fun. But if you write blogs

you can post blogs on LinkedIn. You can actually add a link for a blog into

LinkedIn. You can add a link or upload a file right into your profile. You can also

share it in groups where it’s relevant and you can also share it on your own

update page.

Anne Michelsen:

“Everything you do in a group shows up on your activity on your homepage, which is good. I tell people if you don’t have a lot of time, go into a group and comment on a discussion or share a discussion or like a discussion.”

“You’re only as visible as the size of your audience or your network. The more people you have as connections the more people see what you write or share or comment on.”

Right. It’s great because you share it on your profile. It’s sort of like Facebook,

your connections see it. But then if you share it with a group then you’re

reaching all sorts of people that you’re not connected with.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. I typically post mine in a couple groups

and I post on job seekers. I help a lot of the job

seekers so I am in a job seeker group, so I’ll

post things like that in there. They give you the

ability to share an article just on your

homepage. You can comment, you can post

it to groups, you can send it to individuals and

you can send it to LinkedIn if you have your

LinkedIn account connected. So, you have a

lot of options.

Anne Michelsen:

Just a lot of ways to get out there and connect with people. Okay. Briefly, can

you tell me just off the top of your head maybe a few success stories that you’ve

heard from somebody who maybe wasn’t aware of how to use LinkedIn very

well and kind of gave them a couple tips and something that they maybe

came back with and said this is what happened when I started doing this.

Sherry Sexton:

I know. Well, that’s where my recommendations come in. I recently had a client

in Ukraine who was looking for international relations. She did international

relations for a consult in the Ukraine at a large

university. She said I’d really like something

different and I’d like something where I have

more control over what I do with the

organization. She said after I completed her

profile she got so many followers and people

connecting with her. When your profile goes

from beginner to all-star and that has to do

with how you fill it in, you absolutely show up in more search results.

Anne Michelsen:

This is just from filling out her profile completely?

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. And once that’s done, then people will see more about you, learn more

about you. That’s another thing you typically don’t see in the personal

networking group or a community, face to face networking group. You don’t

talk about your charities and things like that.

Useful articles, blog posts, white

papers, case studies,

infographics, and general

questions are usually welcome

on LinkedIn. Post them to

groups or on your home page,

or comment on other people’s

posts.

“When your profile goes from beginner to all-star and that has to do with how you fill it in, you absolutely show up in more search results.”

Anne Michelsen:

But you can on LinkedIn because it’s right

there on your profile.

Sherry Sexton:

Exactly.

Anne Michelsen:

Perfect. You can post portfolios and all sorts of

stuff on there.

Sherry Sexton:

You can connect with any schools or universities, there’s an education link so

you can go to your alumni pages and comment on there or reach people

there, connect with people there.

Anne Michelsen:

That’s great too because that’s always something that you’re going to be kind

of feeling…it’s sort of like a brotherhood when you leave a college. Don’t forget

that.

Sherry Sexton:

Right. It’s a connection. We went to the same school together, we went to the

same university together. You have no idea

what they’ve done with their life. The biggest

thing with Linked in too, it’s knowing that

person who knows that person, it’s kind of like

a ripple effect. Their connections may know

some connections that can help you, so it

really is a huge network.

Anne Michelsen:

Yes, it definitely is. You can see on the right-hand side somewhere it tells you the

size of your network. It sometimes is like whoa.

Sherry Sexton:

I think there’s 258 million people now on LinkedIn. That’s recent data. There’s a

lot of people out there. Whether you have a local product or you have

something that you ship, actually, you have the ability to do that with e-

commerce. There’s people out there that really want to help you and you want

to help them. So, it’s really a give and take, I feel.

Anne Michelsen:

Your profile is so much more

than a resume and an elevator

pitch. Round it out with

information on your charitable

activities, portfolio items,

published articles, associations

you belong to, and similar

accomplishments.

Don’t forget to join the alumni

groups for your schools and

universities. These are great

places to network and re-

connect with old friends.

That’s an interesting point. I think if you really start using LinkedIn effectively it’s

really a win-win kind of thing. I mean you’re looking for win-win relationships.

Correct me if I’m wrong, I think a lot of people out there on LinkedIn are doing

that.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. Most of them are. Sometimes I have to say, honestly, this is not about you

because you want to offer them something if you have something to offer. Not

necessarily a discount but share information. I have some mentors who are very

helpful, e-mail me if you have any questions.

So, there’s help out there, there’s mentors out

there and there’s people who will guide you

and help you. They just want to do this. It’s not

that they’re going to charge you, necessarily.

They just want to help. I think those are the

people that have some of the best

recommendations, have some of the best

connections. There’s a gentleman that wrote a

book, he has a company called Likability. You

can’t get better than that. He’s real free with

information, so there’s a lot of people out there willing to help if you don’t know

which direction to go. So, I’d say if you’re not sure and you say now what, ask

someone who does know.

Anne Michelsen:

Really, really good point. I think a lot of people are kind of ashamed to ask but

you don’t grow if you don’t ask.

Sherry Sexton:

Well, it’s also the way you ask. I’ve had people ask me to do their profile for

them, the whole thing. I said really I can’t do that but I will give you some

pointers. Or send them to my website or have blog information typically related

to LinkedIn. So, there are places to go for information.

Anne Michelsen:

Can you touch briefly on endorsements?

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. Good point. Really good question. I get this a lot too. Endorsements are kind

of a controversial thing. LinkedIn did that so

that we can improve our interactions with

others. I always tell people if you see them at

the top of your profile you don’t have to

accept them all. You can X out of the ones

“There’s 258 million people now on LinkedIn. That’s recent data. There’s people out there that really want to help you and you want to help them…if you’re not sure and you say now what, ask someone who does know.”

Endorsements are optional.

You don’t have to give or

accept endorsements you are

not comfortable with.

that you are not…anyone can type something into that box as an endorsement.

So say someone were to endorse me for accounting (laughs). So I would X that

out and then add the others if I choose to. So, when that shows up on the top of

your profile you can decide whether to endorse someone or not endorse

someone. You can also decide whether you want the endorsement from the

other person to show up.

So, I’ll have people that endorse me for everything and anything. They just type

stuff in. That’s where LinkedIn says…it just really wants their photo to show up on

your page all the time. I don’t know that that’s true. I think they’re trying to be

nice but it’s overkill at times. So, if you know the person and you know what they

do, endorse them for that. If you don’t know them and they’ve endorsed you

then you want to go down there and look at their skills and expertise and then

endorse them for the one or two top things that they do.

Anne Michelsen:

Sometimes it’s like who is this person and why are they endorsing me for

everything that’s on my profile when I’ve never heard of them?

Sherry Sexton:

Exactly. You don’t have to take those endorsements. You don’t have to add

those. The other thing with endorsements,

and I tell people to do this and very few

people do this, so it very much will impress

your clients or customers or employers, is

thank them. Thank them for the

endorsement. I really appreciate it and then

my name. Very few times when I endorse

someone do I get that response back.

Anne Michelsen:

Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten that response back. Maybe once or twice.

I have done it and I think it’s always a good idea to thank people for everything.

I probably don’t do it enough and I think most people don’t. People are busy.

But it really makes a difference when you do get thanked.

Sherry Sexton:

When someone endorses you

for a skill, thank them. So few

people do this, it will really

make you stand out from the

crowd.

And the other thing is when people view your

profile...people don’t always do this, this is kind

of controversial too and I think it’s more of how

you say it. My thought is that it’s okay to reach

out to them. You can connect with them there

very easily even if they’re a third connection,

just hit the connect button. It allows you to

write a personal message. I might say

something like thanks for stopping by to view

my profile. If I can do anything to help you, please let me know. So, anyone can

really say that because then you’re saying how can I help you, that means, can

I introduce you to someone? Can I connect you with someone? Can I help you

in your industry? Or whether it’s a job seeker, do you know someone. So, it’s how

you reach out to them. Instead of like hi, do you want to buy my stuff?

Anne Michelsen:

Right. I’m really glad you’ve said that because I’ve done that a couple times

but I’ve always felt a little bit weird about it. It’s like they viewed my profile but

are they going to feel weirded out if I reach out. But you’re saying if you do it

discretely it’s probably an okay thing to do.

Sherry Sexton:

Yeah. Honestly, be yourself. I’m a big smiley

face person, so I’ll say thanks for stopping by

and then I’ll put a little smiley in there. But

that’s just me. So it’s how would you respond

to people in general. Most people connect

when I send that personal message. Usually, if

they’re looking at your profile they’re looking

for a reason. If you’re a job seeker and it’s an

employer, I mean that’s absolutely fine. Again,

you don’t want to say, hi, please give me a

job. You want to say hoping to connect, I’ve

had all these years of experience. I see that

you are a recruiter in this area... You just kind of let them know a little bit about

you but you’re not asking them for anything. Maybe the second time or if they

even connect with you then I’d ask them. It’s kind of a process depending on

who you want to connect with.

Anne Michelsen:

All right. Well, I think we’re kind of running up against time. Is there anything that

you would want to add as something that we haven’t discussed that would be

a really important thing to keep in mind when you’re on LinkedIn?

Thanking people for stopping

by your profile is a great way to

reach out to people who have

shown an interest to you. Don’t

try to sell them, though – just

make a sincere connection and

offer to be of help.

“Honestly, be yourself. I’m a big smiley face person, so I’ll say thanks for stopping by and then I’ll put a little smiley in there. But that’s just me. So it’s how would you respond to people in general. Most people connect when I send that personal message.”

Sherry Sexton:

I think one of the things is…when I talk to people it’s I don’t have time for this. I

don’t have time to do this. I’m too busy. I say if you can go on once a day,

depending on…if you’re trying to build your business I would say more, like twice

a day and do like we said, like an article, share an article, share some news,

things like that and make one connection a day. They say I can do that. I say

yeah, it’s five minutes tops. So really if you’re crunched for time it’s not like

Facebook. You don’t have to be commenting and responding to everyone or

the people that you know that are on there posting regularly. It’s just a simple

thing of make a comment and then you might want to follow up.

The other thing is time. Say you’re on vacation for a week and you notice when

you come back you haven’t checked your computer and you have all these

people that have messaged you. You just say

sorry I haven’t gotten back to you sooner, and

that’s it. It’s kind of like a fancy wedding gift or

something, if you do it within a reasonable

time it’s okay. If you wait six months you

might…but something like that I would say as soon as you can is great. But try to

respond to people.

Anne Michelsen:

Right. The great thing about LinkedIn is everybody’s in business so we all know

what it’s like.

Sherry Sexton:

Absolutely. Everybody gets busy, everybody has family issues or problems and

you kind of work around that.

Anne Michelsen:

All right. Thank you, Sherry. I really, really appreciate your time today. Man, have

you given us some good points here, something to really think about. Anybody

listening to you today…I know I’m going to be going and changing a few things

that I do on LinkedIn. I just want to mention that you are available as a LinkedIn

coach or a business coach.

Sherry Sexton:

Yes. I’m a consultant specifically doing profiles for businesses, job seekers. I can

teach them how to do it. It’s physically easier for me to send out a questionnaire

and do it for them.

Anne Michelsen:

Right. Just have an expert do it for you. You are available at SherrySexton.com,

correct?

Just 5 to 10 minutes a day is all

it takes to maintain an effective

presence on LinkedIn.

Sherry Sexton:

Sherry@SherrySexton.com.

Anne Michelsen:

Oh, that’s your e-mail.

Sherry Sexton:

My LinkedIn is www.linkedin.com\in\sherrysexton. That’s another quick tip, if

your URL for LinkedIn is not personalized and you have numbers behind that,

that’s easy to personalize that in your public profile. If you create my

personalized URL and shave those funky numbers. You’ll see it on your profile.

Anne Michelsen:

Change it to your name.

Sherry Sexton:

Yeah, your name.

Anne Michelsen:

One last thing, Sherry, on her website which is

SherrySexton.com she’s got some LinkedIn tips

if you go to her website on the right-hand side.

Click on those and there’s 15 top LinkedIn tips

that are great. Some tips on personalizing your

profile and some other tips, they’re really good ones. Feel free to go and check

those out. Thank you, Sherry. I really appreciate your time again. You just have a

great 2014. We’re just about to go into a new year.

Sherry Sexton:

You’re welcome. My pleasure. Happy holidays to you as well.

Anne Michelsen:

Thank you.

Get more of Sherry’s tips for

improving your LinkedIn

presence at SherrySexton.com.

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