I am so excited for today’s conversation because we are talking about something I get asked about all the time: LinkedIn. Specifically, how to take the content you are already creating on Instagram and use it to build visibility and authority on LinkedIn without starting from scratch. My guest today is Michelle J Raymond, a globally recognized B2B LinkedIn strategist, founder of B2B Growth Co, international speaker, and co-author of two books on LinkedIn. She has spent over two decades in B2B sales and built one of the most practical, no-hype LinkedIn podcasts available today. What I love most about Michelle is that she is not going to tell you to abandon Instagram or that LinkedIn is better. She is going to show you how the two platforms work together to build a business that gets found by more of the right people.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
04:52 Why LinkedIn is no longer just for corporate job seekers and why small business owners and coaches are leaving serious money on the table by ignoring it
10:18 The key difference between Instagram and LinkedIn audiences and why the same person behaves differently on each platform
16:35 How to repurpose your best Instagram content for LinkedIn without it feeling recycled or out of place
22:47 What the LinkedIn algorithm rewards right now and why it is actually easier to get organic reach on LinkedIn than Instagram in 2026
29:14 The Power of Two: Michelle’s signature framework for how personal profiles and company pages work together to amplify your LinkedIn results
34:58 The biggest mistakes small business owners and coaches make when they try LinkedIn and how to avoid them
41:22 Michelle’s practical starting point for anyone who wants to get going on LinkedIn without adding hours to their content calendar
ABOUT OUR GUEST: Michelle J Raymond
Michelle J Raymond is a globally recognised B2B LinkedIn strategist, founder of B2B Growth Co, international speaker, and co-author of two books on LinkedIn strategy: Business Gold and The LinkedIn Branding Book: Power of Two. With over two decades in B2B sales and more than a decade specialising in LinkedIn, Michelle helps businesses and entrepreneurs turn LinkedIn into a trusted, practical channel for growth. She hosts Social Media for B2B Growth, one of the most respected LinkedIn strategy podcasts globally, and is known for practical, no-hype advice that actually works.
A Truth You Need to Hear:
“LinkedIn is not the boring corporate platform it used to be. It is the fastest growing social media platform for business content right now and the organic reach is extraordinary compared to other platforms.” - Michelle J Raymond
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S3 Ep139 Transcript - The Instagram-to-LinkedIn Strategy Every Business Owner Should Know with Michelle J Raymond
00:00
Today I'm sitting down with Michelle J. Raymond. Michelle is one of the world's leading LinkedIn strategists and is known as the company page queen. She helps businesses use LinkedIn to build credibility, grow their visibility, and turn connections into real business opportunities. Now, if your first thought is, Elizabeth, I only care about Instagram, stay with me because that's exactly where I was just a couple years ago.
00:29
I assumed LinkedIn was for corporate professionals, Fortune 500 companies, and people in suits. I never imagined it could become one of the best places to repurpose my content, build authority, and get discovered by an entirely new audience. In fact, some of the strategies we talk about in this interview have completely changed the way I think about showing up online. We dive into why LinkedIn isn't what it used to be.
00:56
how to repurpose the content you're already creating instead of starting from scratch, why every business owner should be thinking beyond a single platform, and how LinkedIn is becoming one of the most powerful places to build credibility in the age of AI and search. Whether you ever plan to post on LinkedIn or not, this conversation will challenge the way you think about content, visibility, and growing your business on.
01:24
So if you've been building your business primarily on Instagram, but have wondered is there another platform worth paying attention to, you're gonna love this conversation. Let's dive into it with Michelle J. Raymond.
01:39
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
02:08
Let's dive in.
02:19
Welcome back to the show. I'm so thrilled you have joined me for another episode of strut it Usually I am breaking down Instagram marketing simplifying it. How do we monetize it? But this week is a little bit different I am so honored and thrilled and excited to be bringing on a guest today This person is an absolute genius when it comes to LinkedIn
02:47
And I have been actually actively seeking a LinkedIn expert for so long. Her name is Michelle Raymond. And she and I met at Social Media Marketing World. And we connected and I said, oh my gosh, will you come on my podcast because I want to talk about LinkedIn. So Michelle, welcome to the show.
03:10
I am excited to be here and I've got to say I think only good things come when we cross platforms and learn from each other because sometimes we get buried in our own little world and we have to come out and see because I think I'm to be surprised about what you share about Instagram just as much as your listeners are going to be surprised about what I share about LinkedIn. Yes, I totally agree. Beloved listener, we are so grateful that you are here and willing to explore LinkedIn today. Buckle up because we have so much
03:40
gold in store for you today. So Michelle, before we get into all the goods, just tell us quickly, how did you become known as the company page queen on LinkedIn? Like how did you become this LinkedIn expert? Well, I'm hoping some of your business owners out there can relate to my story. I'm going to tell the real story, not the polished version. So imagine in 2020, I quit my job, I set up my own business.
04:06
And that business is to teach people how to use LinkedIn to grow their business. And I got onto LinkedIn and I'd been using it before in my sales role. So I was really comfortable in my own little world, but as a LinkedIn trainer, that was a whole different beast because I came from the beauty industry. you know, it couldn't be more black and white options here. So Elizabeth, here's what happens. I jump on there and I start to connect with all the other LinkedIn trainers and follow them because I thought.
04:33
What does a LinkedIn trainer do on LinkedIn? What should I be doing? How should I come across? And I looked around. Every single one of them was talking about LinkedIn profiles, build your personal brand, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I reckon there was about 10 billion people talking about the same thing. And I had recently reached out to try and build my business and get my first client. And they said to me, Michelle, can't you just do it for us? And I was like, is that even a job? Okay, let me have a look.
05:01
Company pages, you can do it on company pages. And then when I looked around, no one, literally no one was talking about company pages. And if they were, they were hating on them. They were piling on how they were a waste of time. And I went, hmm, every single business in the world needs a company page. No one else is talking about them. Ah, that's going to be my point of difference. And so...
05:27
I went down that path, nobody else wanted it. And, you know, I still not sure that too many other people are fighting me for this crown right now, but here we are. And it's just opened up so many doors. how we got to meet at social media marketing world because of company pages being known for that one thing. So I'm grateful that other people hate on it. And I want to identify that as a business owner entrepreneur, you're so brilliant because you saw a gap in the market.
05:54
and you said, okay, what is my differentiator? What's a hole that needs to be filled? And you identified the gap and created your brand around that. So that I think is such a great business lesson in general. So thank you for sharing that with us. So I wanna talk about like basics here. If people are listening and they're posting on Instagram for their business.
06:20
Why should they care about LinkedIn? Because I know that just even a couple years ago, I had this kind of stereotype, I guess. Is that the right word or assumption of like what LinkedIn is, right? And I was always like, okay, it's for people in the like fortune 500 level or like the corporate and it's not really for small business owners. It's not really for entrepreneurs and all of that. So tell us like why we need to be on LinkedIn.
06:49
Look, I'm going to laugh because I have my theory about what Instagram is like, you know, I'm still back when everything had to be beautifully aesthetic, I think is the word that you guys use over on that platform. And I was like, that's not for me. So I totally get if some of your listeners are going, LinkedIn's cringe is the usual word that it gets described as. I totally get it. But the LinkedIn of today is a lot different than what it was two years ago, five years ago. And when I started 10 years ago.
07:16
It is so different. And why is it different? Because 70 % of the platform is Gen Z. They are taking up the workforce and therefore LinkedIn is the business platform. It's a platform where we come for our professional side of what we do. And so for a small business owner, you might be thinking, yeah, it is for those big corporates or I'm not an employee. So do I really fit there? My answer is yes, absolutely. You do fit there.
07:44
And I think the reason that you should consider it is because you can piggyback off LinkedIn's credibility as a trusted professional platform. And I know a lot of listeners out there have probably heard about, you know, how to get your business found or discovered by large language models, chat, JPT, Claude, perplexity, Google, all this kind of stuff. And LinkedIn is showing up in those professional search queries pretty much all the time. It's the number one platform for that. So.
08:11
So many reasons that you can go over there, but it is a platform where business is done. You're in that kind of frame of mind. And so I think it's important if you've established yourself on Instagram to get that right first. If you've got capacity, then come across and check it out and set it up at least at the very minimum. But I think you'll discover that the professional networking side of it is yeah, really cool over here. Yeah. And I want.
08:39
share a little piece of my LinkedIn journey because as I mentioned to you in our pre-interview, forever I had I think like 650 followers on LinkedIn and I was totally not active over there. I mean it was pretty much a dead platform in my mind and it was I don't know about 18 months ago, maybe two years at this point, that I decided I had this light bulb moment of I'm creating so much content.
09:08
and especially with my podcast creating long form content. And I started to ask myself, how can I take all of the content that I'm already creating and repurpose it on other platforms? And it was around this time, I believe it was 2023, and you can correct me if I'm wrong on my timing, that I was hearing that LinkedIn was starting to push vertical video and really essentially trying to get some market share. And I was like, ding, ding, ding.
09:37
woke up a little bit because I said, okay, short form video is my jam. I love Instagram reels. I know how to do that. And I will never forget that feeling of I started just posting on LinkedIn and it was probably that same feeling that people feel on Instagram when it just feels so intimidating. Like I hadn't hired a mentor. I didn't take any courses. I honestly didn't even really study the platform that much. I just knew I could post. And so I was like, I'm just going to do it. And even if it's
10:05
completely cringe to the people who are all corporately on LinkedIn and they're gonna judge me because I'm very, you know, bold and in your face and unapologetic and my messaging and I'm probably not gonna fit in here and it's gonna stand out. And oh my gosh, Michelle, I now I'm at over 1800 followers and I'm now attracting speaking gigs and opportunities because of LinkedIn and because I was brave enough to start repurposing my content.
10:34
over there. So I'm just curious, when it comes to content strategy, what is the content strategy on LinkedIn? Like, how do we know what to post over there? I think there's a recurring theme here between you and I, and that is find your place to be different. I know you can have this perception that LinkedIn is all about, you know, being corporate and being professional.
10:58
And that is the one thing that you shouldn't do on LinkedIn, you know, because essentially everybody's doing that and you're just going to blend in with the crowd, which is the complete and utter opposite. It doesn't matter whether you're on Instagram or LinkedIn. We know that you're trying to stand out and find your little piece of the puzzle. Does that mean that you need to be over the top or crazy or funny or, you know, all of these other things that you might think are creative?
11:23
No, you could be the most technical person. I'm shouting out to all the nerds that might be listening here. I think it's time dated reference. I'm to show my age, like revenge of the nerds. Like it's time you come over and take over these platforms because there's a space for everybody. If you show up as yourself and that's probably the most important piece that I can say. You and I spoke and I said, look, we've got to get these people not to bring the LinkedIn versions of themselves and create content.
11:52
I don't want you to change up stuff. I want you to do what Elizabeth did and bring your digital twin. Like, how are you if I was to meet you face to face? And I can vouch for you, Elizabeth. You are exactly the same when we're in the speaker room having a chat as what we are now. It's the same person and it's important that your content on LinkedIn is the same. Why do I say that? If it's not, here's what happens. You're going to do LinkedIn for about two weeks max, and then you're going to go, I hate this.
12:18
That was like me trying to do Instagram six years ago. was like, I can't make an aesthetic version of myself, whatever that is. That's not me. And so that's why I ran away from the platform. Not because I don't see value in the platform, but my inner personality, my ego, whatever it is that went into protection mode said, get out of here. This isn't for you. So you will feel that. But if you show up as yourself and do your thing, it's certainly much easier. Like you said, video is a big piece of the puzzle. So.
12:47
For timing-wise, it was the end of 2024. You nailed it. Like things went crazy for video. LinkedIn's going hard on it. Now what happened was they didn't quite get the tooling right, right? So it was like the poor man's version of reels or shorts or TikTok, but they've worked really hard on it over the last 12 months. And even just last week, they announced that they're re-rolling video out to places like the UK, Australia and Canada. So the US has had the testing version for the last 12 months or so.
13:17
but we're starting to see them go hard again and try and make it work. So if you're good at video, it's definitely the place that they want more creators. Thank you for highlighting that advice around be yourself. Because when I started posting video on LinkedIn, I had a couple of videos that really blew up. One of them got over 1 million impressions, and it was for International Women's Day. And I kind of did this rant about female entrepreneurship and all of that, and it did really well.
13:46
And it was soon after that that the LinkedIn video program reached out and said, hey, we want you to join this program. And it was clear they were trying to pour into creators and like educate them on the platform. So I was able to attend some of these calls feeling totally like a fish out of water, right? Like totally open to learn about like, okay, teach me about LinkedIn. And that was the biggest takeaway was these trainers were like, you don't have to be stiff. You don't have to be
14:16
corporate, you can show your personality, you can tell your stories. And it's so interesting, Michelle, because the same problem actually happens to business owners on Instagram is when they start to say, okay, I need to sell a product or service. All of a sudden, people get weird, right? Like they get all buttoned up and they're like, I have to do this thing and I have to show up this certain way. And I'm like, no, you don't. In fact, that is not effective.
14:43
Like you are the it factor, your stories, your client stories, the founder story, all of that is what connects us. And so I love having these conversations because it's such a beautiful bridge between our platforms. And I do want to ask you about LinkedIn thought leadership because when I am repurposing my content, I do make some slight tweaks.
15:07
when I'm writing, let's say, a long-form Facebook post versus a long-form LinkedIn post, and I do make a few tweaks. So I'm curious your thoughts on that, like structuring messaging, whether that's hooking in the first line or that angle of thought leadership. What are some tweaks that we need to be aware of when we are repurposing content? Yeah, look, like all the platforms, there's something that we need to do to stop people scrolling. That's our ultimate. If they scroll past our content, it doesn't matter.
15:37
how great the thought leadership is, it just gets lost and goes down the drain as I say. So there is elements that you should bring across. So on LinkedIn, those first two lines of your post are always the most important. And if your image or your video has a title on it so that people know exactly what it is, and you grab their attention in some way long enough that they press this see more button so that they open up the whole post and the rest is revealed and they can get to.
16:05
read all of that thought leadership and that good juicy stuff that you put in. But if you skip that step and they don't press see more, then all that effort that you've put in has just gone down the drain. the first two lines, super important. If it's your video, some kind of hook that gets people in and you're more an expert on that than I am, but whether it's got a title in the video to tell people what it is or whether it's something that you do in that video, take those lessons that Elizabeth is teaching you over on Instagram and bring them across.
16:34
to LinkedIn and LinkedIn are basically paying, dragging partnerships. You call it whatever you want. They are taking these cool creators from other platforms and definitely getting them across onto LinkedIn and saying, Hey, come and play over here where there's a space. And if you look at all of LinkedIn's ad campaigns, they're like, don't be like B2B boring, you know, like, and be more creative. And they're starting to put some tools on the platform, which will support.
17:02
creators more so and we're very early in this journey. So what's going to happen is you're going to come across and you're to go, this stuff's rubbish, Michelle. Like why are you raving on about it? Yeah, it is right now, but that doesn't mean LinkedIn's not pouring a ton of money into it because they know that this is the future. Why? Gen Z are used to scrolling videos on all of the other platforms. Like that is their native way of learning, getting info, researching products, buying. And when they're at work,
17:31
this is the thing, Elizabeth, nobody changes who they are when they go to work. We're still humans, we're still people, and so make content for real humans. And that's what resonates, that's what they find relevant, and that's what works. Yeah. Oh, totally, totally. So what I'm hearing you say is that we can and should repurpose some of our vertical videos over to LinkedIn and to know that the platform is heavily investing in that.
18:01
I love when you said we're kind of early in it because that makes my ears kind of like perk up because if you've been in social media marketing long enough, you know that the early adapters on these platforms are heavily rewarded. And so that's what's coming through to me is like, wow, this is a huge opportunity for all of us. And if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, what kind of Instagram marketing content would I repurpose over on LinkedIn?
18:30
I would recommend repurposing any of your talking head direct to camera videos. So for example, yesterday I posted a direct to camera reel where I was teaching my two step AI prompt of how I reverse engineer viral hooks. So that obviously was very directed at Instagram, but it's very applicable over on LinkedIn, right? Because it's an educational piece of content.
18:56
So that's kind of how I think about what am I going to repurpose in terms of video over there. I don't know if you know about this, Michelle, because when you're editing a video in the edits app and you add music, you can save it to your phone and it actually saves the music. And so there's been a few times where I've uploaded that to LinkedIn and just crossed my fingers that I wasn't violating any copyright, like music licensing issues. Do you know if that's okay to do? Because I know with LinkedIn,
19:24
They don't have music on the platform or anything like that, right? Yeah. When it comes to tools for creating these types of things on the platform, forget about it. Like there is nothing to help you do it. I wish I was here to say Elizabeth, Oh no, LinkedIn's just like put out these tools that make it so easy. No, use the tools that you're already using, whether it's edits or anything else. Don't come to LinkedIn expecting that you're going to do it natively. You're absolutely not. I just want to get that really clear.
19:53
I think there's a space as well. There are some people that blow up on LinkedIn. Like, you know, it's easy to want to put the, like I said, the professional, the learning, the thought leadership, but some of the videos that really blow up on LinkedIn are actually the funny ones. You know, if you're someone that is funny, especially those skits and types of things, you know, pretend we're at a call center, that type of stuff, they really land. Why? Because nobody else is doing it on the platform again. So if that's what you're good at.
20:21
bring that across. If you're funny and that's the way that you work over on Instagram, bring that across, right? And it becomes about the mix. It's about, you know, sometimes thought leadership, sometimes having fun, sometimes showing your personality, sometimes being vulnerable. Like it's a little bit of everything. Sometimes it's like, you just want to go on a rant. Like there are days when I can't hold stuff in anymore. And I'm like, stuff this, I've got, you know, 30,000 followers. They need to hear this. And off I go. Like there's a place for everything.
20:51
As long as you keep in mind where are you trying to get to, what's your business goal, who's your audience and what make a difference to them. And so having that mix, but always keeping that in mind, I think is the most important thing, not what does LinkedIn want because you know, they're not your target audience. It's what does your target audience want and how can you reach them? And you'll find what resonates pretty quickly, but just know going viral on LinkedIn is not common. It's not a platform designed for that.
21:20
It's a platform right now that's designed for expertise based on topics. So if you're an expert on email marketing and that's your thing, and you come onto the platform, they are now helping you get discovered by more randoms and strangers that aren't connected to you that are interested in that topic. So really own your thing, whatever that is. And I don't care what your thing is. There's a place for you on LinkedIn.
21:46
And it just continues to grow. So it really is such a big opportunity for people. So a couple of basic questions. When we're doing a post, let's say there's no video. It's just text. Do you recommend attaching an image to the text? Because I see some people are just putting text up there and posting it. And some people are putting text in a photo. So is there a difference in terms of discoverability with that?
22:15
You know, there are some people that will only ever post text only that are never going to show up in a photo or video or do anything creative, right? It's just not who they are. They're just like, here's my text. That's how I show up day after day. And it works for them because they know their topic. They're helpful. It resonates with their audience. There are other people at the other end of the spectrum who never post without a photo. So I probably have a photo or an image every post nearly that I do.
22:42
Multiple images work really well. They're great for engagement because people want to see, what are these other photos? And we flick through, same with carousels, will slide as whatever you call them over on Instagram land. But essentially those kind of really helpful, thoughtful, save this for later type of content that resonates and that's getting rewarded on LinkedIn. So if I was to sum it up, create something that someone would want to save and come back to as something that they go, oh my God, I didn't know that.
23:12
Oh, Elizabeth, that two part prompt on how I can reverse engineer hooks. I don't need that right now, but I'm going to press save and come back to it later because I don't want to forget that. When you think about content like that, how it lands in the format, not so, I guess, important. Just make sure that it's either shareable or saveable are probably the two words that I would use. And again, I'm.
23:36
jumping out of my seat excited because my listeners know we talk about this on Instagram all the time. I'm always asking them to think about why would someone share this with a colleague or a friend? Why would someone want to save your content? Like those are the questions I always ask myself before I hit post. And so it's so cool to hear all crossover. I'm glad you brought out carousels and like the slider posts multiple where you're essentially just uploading multiple images, correct?
24:05
Yeah, look, there's two ways to do it. So you've got multiple images, which is one way that you can do it on LinkedIn. Those carousels are actually normally PDF. So you download them as a PDF and upload them. And that's how the functionality works. Again, not ideal. It should be as simple as here's five photos that put it into a carousel, but it just doesn't work like that. download, if you're creating in Canva and you've got five square images that you've created.
24:33
just download it as a PDF and upload it as a document on LinkedIn. Slack technical change, if you do the five images, LinkedIn squashes them and makes them look weird and you can reorder them, but it just doesn't have the same effect as what a carousel slider does. So download the five images as a PDF and upload as a document. And that's how it'll show, but they're great for engagement. Why? Because LinkedIn measures them a little bit different. So every time you
25:00
click on one of those slides to go to the next one, it says, oh, there's another click that's engagement. Whereas if there's only one image, only got one chance for that engagement. So they're measured slightly different, but it's really good if you can get people going to the end of like eight slides is roughly the magic number. So it doesn't have to be longer than that. But again, if you've already got stuff that you have spent however much time creating over on Instagram, bring it across, take it for a run. You have nothing to lose.
25:30
and everything to gain by taking that stuff, especially if you know it performed on Instagram. You know people liked it. I call it your greatest hits. Pull out the greatest hits, take them for a whirl over on LinkedIn, and I think you might be pleasantly surprised at just what will happen. I love that. And just to confirm what you're saying, so if I had slides, I would save it in one PDF. That's right. I had repurposed a carousel this past week and I had
25:58
all the images on my phone. It was quite a few images. And I just went into my camera roll and I was like, one, two, three, four, five, and I uploaded them. And that seemed to work okay, but that's really good to know that if you upload it, doesn't look good or it looks super compressed. Do shells hack and download it as a PDF. That's really good to know. What about hashtags? Are hashtags a thing on LinkedIn? No, so...
26:24
They never really work so good on LinkedIn, certainly not like Instagram. there's one thing I do know about Instagram, it's the power of hashtags. And I don't know if that's still the case, but I know back when I was like trying it five or so years ago, but ultimately on LinkedIn now what's going on. And it's probably on all the platforms. I, you know, I use YouTube and I've just in reading that tags on YouTube videos and no longer, you know, kind of relevant or helpful. Why? Because these like engines that drive the social media platforms.
26:54
are so much stronger now and they just run on what's in the documentation, what's in your posts, what's in the images. And so because they can read all of that stuff better, it's just so much better at sorting who wants what content and therefore the hashtags aren't as relevant. Do they hurt? No, but one of the telltale signs, I know someone's repurposing from Instagram and doesn't know the platform. When you use tons of hashtags, like the old days,
27:21
then I'm like, you don't know what you're doing on LinkedIn, you've just repurposed. So limit it to like two or three if you're gonna do it. Don't put like 20 or something like that. Like that's a telltale sign. That's so funny. And so if anyone's listening, I do wanna kinda highlight how Instagram has changed with hashtags. So yes, five to no hashtags were everything on Instagram. was such a big deal because Instagram just was, the algorithm wasn't as savvy as classifying your content, but similar to what you're describing on LinkedIn.
27:51
Now they've really invested a lot on making sure Instagram is search engine optimized and their AI can really identify like what you're talking about. can identify the words that you're putting on the screen or the words you're putting in the caption and it can start to essentially classify it so that way it can put it in front of users who are interested in those topics. Instagram did recently change it to only five hashtags and I recommend that they're very niche.
28:20
down and specific to the content of that post. So not like super big hashtags, super general hashtags, but very niche. So that's good to know though on Instagram because I've seen both and I just wasn't sure kind of best practices. So that makes a lot of sense. I know that we had talked in our pre-interview about AI discoverability and how that's a thing now. So can you talk to us about what is AI discoverability and search visibility?
28:47
And why is LinkedIn an integral part of that for small businesses? Yeah. So think about a small business. Like you're competing often against much bigger businesses. And why I love LinkedIn is it kind of levels the playing field. So when you set up your personal profile, make sure you fill it all out. I know you're not going for a job, but this is really important because number one, the search engine algorithms on LinkedIn discover it. But also now you're.
29:16
Profile is also indexed by Google. So if someone types in your name or your business name, your company page or your personal profile will show up pretty much in those top five results. For some people it'll be higher, it'll be in the first position. And the reason being is that LinkedIn's a trusted platform. AI, LLMs, they love trusted platforms. And so therefore this is what's going on. So your profile is indexed and so is your company page. So just be mindful.
29:46
If someone types in your business name, so for me it's like B2B Growth Co. What will happen is my website comes up first and then my company page comes second. And I always say to people, just make sure that you're doing enough to keep it ticking over. And that way when people land on there, it's not a ghost town, right? We don't want to create a bad impression by neglecting something. And I have to say, you know, that's what I'm probably more mindful of these days, that these tools.
30:11
are looking at our online presence in total and not just any one piece of the puzzle to come up, hey, who is best to site on company pages? Well, okay, sure, Michelle might talk about it here, but does she talk about it anywhere else? Can we find evidence that she's an expert? And so this is why it can help your Instagram people and their businesses get discovered and more credibility because they can piggyback off this stuff that LinkedIn's doing. And we're seeing content get cited.
30:41
by the LLMs in Answers, which is just amazing. And I've seen that happen and it's just cool the way that that's evolving. And I haven't seen any, I guess, reports or, you know, investigations into is Instagram showing up in AI citations. I haven't seen any of that. Of course, I keep an eye out for the LinkedIn stuff, but from what I'm reading, it's like, you know, Reddit and YouTube and LinkedIn are the kind of the top three. So from that perspective, like again, if you're an expert, take what you've already done.
31:11
as a small business owner especially, know, squeeze everything you can out of that piece of content and, you know, bringing it to a new audience might just make you show up in a way that someone's like, where have you been my whole life? Like, I've been hanging out on LinkedIn. Where have you been? Yeah. I love this conversation. And I think the piece around, oh my gosh, someone's discovering you on LinkedIn or like, where have you been all my life? I've really experienced that just even in the last.
31:37
six months of my speaking career kind of like blowing up and I'm going to these conferences. I'm going to so many more conferences than I've ever attended in my life because I'm speaking at them. And it's so interesting because of course, as an Instagram obsessed person and marketer, I'm always like, what's your Instagram? But I can't tell you how many people in the last six months are like, well, I'm not really active there, but let's connect on LinkedIn.
32:06
This happened last night, Elizabeth. I'm always thinking of you. So a lady handed me a business card and she said, Michelle, there's like my Instagram connected with me, like over or follow whatever the terminology is. And I was like, do you have LinkedIn? She's like, no. And I was like, Oh my God, dying. And I was thinking, Oh, I'm so embarrassed. What is on my Instagram? I haven't even looked at it. Like I was like, what is my handle? I can I even log in? And so this is what's going on right now is that.
32:35
I think we just need to be mindful and get out of our little bubbles, which is why I'm loving this conversation. Cause it's also giving me the poke of Michelle, said you were going to focus on, you know, one or two platforms. So for me, it was like YouTube and LinkedIn and my podcasts were probably the three things until I got those sorted and knew what I was doing. And then I was going to go and do other things. And I just conveniently have never gone to do those other things. I'm that person that is just dropping my repurpose stuff.
33:03
Viometrical, is just scheduling it to TikTok, scheduling it to Instagram. I've got stuff going there, but I can't even remember how to log on. And that is the complete opposite of what I would tell any of my clients. So here's my confession. Can we do confession today? Like, it's confession time. Dun dun dun. Shout out to the lady that gave me a business card. I hope you found me. Uh, yeah, I think we're connected. She's DMing you right now and she's like, why aren't you responding? You're like, I lost my login.
33:31
Right. And so that can be happening the reverse way. There's probably some people that set up their profile on LinkedIn years ago and go, I don't hang out there. Why would I bother investing in it? Why? Because when we're professionally stalking people, we're doing it on LinkedIn. We're all doing it. We're like, Oh, Elizabeth, she was like, you know, a speaker at something. I'm to go and see what she'd and LinkedIn's the place where I think we go mostly to go and professionally stalk people and find out more about them. And so we just want to make sure.
34:01
They getting the same impression that they would get of your Instagram and that credibility and don't break their trust because when we break it, it's just really hard to get it back. And just that little chink, that one little reason that someone says, Oh, you're all this over there, but this doesn't align. then, you know, that's really the power of branding is to, you know, take away those excuses or those reasons for not wanting to work with you and having it all in alignment. So I'm going to take my own medicine and.
34:31
Go and take a look at my Instagram profile and just look at it and go, what is on here? I don't even know what it says. Like, I'll take my own medicine. Yeah, you're going to give it some love. And I want to highlight something that you said, because it's so brilliant and it's also my approach. And I want to share that, highlight this for our beloved listeners, which is that I also really focused in the beginning of building my brand on my Instagram.
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and my podcast, and then of course growing my email list. So that was my trifecta, and that still is my priority. Every week, you know, I'm a solopreneur. I have some people on my team as, you know, contractors and all of that, but I'm doing a lot on my own. And so I really had to think about like, where do I want to focus? And I know so many people listening are overwhelmed. And so Michelle just highlighted that for a while she was really focused on, you know, building her brand and her
35:27
credibility and expertise and authority on her podcast on LinkedIn and same with me, Instagram and my podcast. So we both have a long form and a short form type of content in terms of building authority and all of that. And then once you feel like, okay, I've found my voice and I found my messaging and I know who I want to serve and I have clear offers, I want to sell and all of that. And I'm putting out content every week, right?
35:53
That's when you do the thing that we've been talking about this whole episode, which is that's when you go and repurpose your content to other platforms. But if you're listening to this and you're still not even putting any content out there, we both encourage you to just focus on one platform at first, start to find your voice, your message, how do you want to show up? And then once you have identified that, then you can essentially go and repurpose your content. Do you agree, Michelle?
36:22
Oh yeah, I'm just sitting here laughing at when I first set up my business. So I'd been on LinkedIn for six or seven years, creating content for the beauty industry because I was an employee of somebody else's business and I was doing it for fun. And then you go out on your own and you set your business up. And I was listening to advice as I was scrolling and learning from other people. Cause there was so many things, I had no intentions of being an entrepreneur. I wasn't one of those people that planned for it.
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or had these dreams about doing it. I literally had to quit a job on the spot, woke up the next day and my partner, Lil, she said to me, you're not working for anyone else. That's it. I've had enough of this stuff happening. You are just going to set up a business and work as hard for us as you do for everyone else and it'll be fine. I was like, yeah, that's great. Like, and so I was literally in the deep end, you know, almost drowning going, okay, I've got to sort this out.
37:11
I was looking at the advice, be on every platform. So I went and signed up for X and I signed up for Instagram. I signed up, you know, from a business perspective on LinkedIn and keeping in mind, I was trying to build an actual business from scratch. Like not even had an idea, you know, up until that point. And so I tried to do it all. I do not ever want my name associated with that X platform or any of the content. was like, get me out of here. The one and only time I've been trolled hardcore was on X.
37:41
I've never even gotten on X. my God. This is what I posted Elizabeth. This is what caused the storm is I said, can anyone help with female marketing quotes? I'm writing a book and can't find any online. They were all male ones, right? So that is what I got trolled for. And I was like, how did we end up in this? Because I hadn't asked for minority women quotes or something. was like, I can't even find any women quotes. Like I'll take any.
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And it just blew up. I was like, what is going on here? This is why I love LinkedIn, because you have your employment history, your face, your real name, you're verified quite often these days is more of a thing. And so people don't tend to do that kind of behavior on the platform. And that's why I love it because I am Michelle J. Raymond. I am the professional and you can see my whole work history. It's all backed up by the companies.
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And everyone's in the same boat. So they tend to not throw as much mud and just get into that. I'm not anti-debate. I love a good debate. Like I don't think everyone should agree, but there's got to be a level of respect in there for what other people are doing in a time and a place, you know, and professional is what I encourage. So yeah, I'm looking back and I was trying to do Instagram and I was like, whoa.
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you know, back then probably trying to create some kind of video, not knowing what I was doing, it's probably taking me about seven hours. And there's probably better things I should have been doing with my time. But fast forward now, there's so many tools that can help us as you know, that I can take my long form podcast and chop it up into a million different pieces and reuse it. And so the amount of time that it takes now is very different to what it was six years ago. And that's what I mean. Like you said, once people are good at something and you've got it nailed and you've got your processes,
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then look, okay, where's my next opportunity? And it may be LinkedIn, it may not be, but definitely if it's something that you thought was too cringe or you didn't belong there, I would encourage people to check it out. I never even thought about that piece around like haters or trolls, because we definitely have those on Instagram. I have been trolled multiple times and I always joke with my clients. like, if you get any haters, it's because you are definitely popping off and going viral and there's going to be some trolls in the comments and.
40:00
I have ways of dealing with them. But yes, I do not tolerate any sort of bigotry, disrespect, discrimination. No, absolutely not. You're immediately being blocked. You're not welcome in my space. I never even thought about that, but that makes total sense on LinkedIn. It's like, that's such a professional platform that employers are looking at. And it's just a different culture. It's a different culture. So yes.
40:26
People might say, oh, I disagree with this or whatever, but it's a different vibe. You're not going to get the faceless comment from user 2.0, you know, or whatever. Yeah, they're over on YouTube for me. Like that's where I cop it these days. Like, why have you got short hair? I don't know. Why have you got, whatever. Like, I'm not sure how my short hair has anything to do with what I taught you about LinkedIn, but okay, that's where we're at. But the other flip side to that is...
40:52
That's also the reason that creativity gets stifled over on LinkedIn, because people are like, my peers, my colleagues, it's professional. I don't want them judging me. And so people put themselves into a nice neat box and do everything so that they don't stand out. That can be the thing where they're like, I've got to be the professional version of myself. And I know that they do it because I've done it. Like, you know, if you go back to my early posts.
41:19
LinkedIn trainer, Michelle, like, and you can see them all. You can go back and see my history. Oh my God. I was like the LinkedIn help desk. They should have been paying me that I had everything except like, you know, the badge to sign in. I was like looking at, I go back from time to time just to have a laugh at how far we've come. And I think that's important to do is just go what I thought was amazing back then. Now I cringe at, and I think that's what people need to understand on every platform is that you got to start like that's.
41:48
the key and you'll just get better with practice and things that you can take me seven hours. Don't take me seven hours anymore. Like it's just funny what the version of people that they put, it's like the watered down, safe, boring, bland beige. I don't know, there's so many words I could use. Like I wish people could see your background wallpaper. Cause I'm like, be more like Elizabeth's wallpaper. Like it is fabulous for those that are listening on the podcast.
42:16
We've got bright colors, we've got interesting things, and it catches your attention. So in a sea of just boring, like find your way there. And it's your way, not my way, not Elizabeth's way, your way, which is most important. Exactly. I love that you highlighted that. I want to make sure we have time to talk about company pages. And I know that we could do a whole episode on company pages.
42:40
But if I am a solopreneur or a creative entrepreneur or maybe a wedding professional or a small business owner, do I need a company page? And if so, what needs to be on there? I know you had mentioned something about the profile photo and all of those things. So give us like just the basic rundown on why do we need those or do we? Look, here's what I'm going to preface this with. It will never hurt you to set up a LinkedIn company page.
43:09
Right. There's a lot more benefits to add on. Like I said, being indexed by Google, LLMs are citing things, but I need to tell you that if you're a small business owner and you're just starting out on LinkedIn and it's just you or you and a few contractors like our businesses are, you are not going to be spending your time trying to grow your company page. Right. That is the worst use of your time. I'm the company pages queen and I'm telling you that is a bad idea, but it's not a bad idea to set it up.
43:38
and have something ticking over. So you might put some content on there once every two weeks, like just to make it look like somebody's there and you're still alive. If you've got repurposing tools, like all the scheduling tools these days, you can send stuff so easily to so many different places without having to redo it. That's a worthwhile investment. I think for $30, $40 a month, it will save you 10 times that in time. Now from that perspective, where would you spend your time and why am I telling you this?
44:08
You're going to spend most of your time on your personal profile. So I do want people to kind of have a look at it with their ideal user, their ideal client, have a look at it and say, would they know if they went to your LinkedIn profile, are they in the right place? Do you solve the problem that they have and are you their kind of person? Like, is that obvious to them if they landed there? Once you're sorted that with building content, the reason is this. Pick up your phone.
44:35
Scroll LinkedIn for five seconds and all you're going to see is posts from people followed by ads, posts by people, followed by ads, posts by people, followed by ads, and then maybe a company page post mixed in there. So that is the last priority for LinkedIn to fill up the feed. And if you think about that, that then is the worst use of your time because you want to maximize the number of people that see what you're putting out there. So to put it in rough numbers.
45:05
you post on your profile, it'll probably go 10 times further than if it went on your company page. And in some cases, when you're starting out, it's probably like a hundred times further. Like the numbers just don't stack up. So I love company pages. Are they right for everyone? No. Should you still set one up and have it ticking over? Absolutely. And that's helpful. And if I did want to repurpose like a long form piece of content on my company page,
45:32
Is it okay to post it both on my personal page and my company page? Yeah, a hundred percent. People always get so hung up on, it's duplicated and I'm going to annoy my audience and they're going to see it twice and hate me and unsubscribe and unfollow and all that kind of fun stuff. We wish, Elizabeth, you and I dream of a day where people see our content that much, they get sick of it and unsubscribe. Like we dream of those days. That was like 10 years ago.
46:00
They were the glory days. You could post, everyone saw it. People loved responding to DMs. Like it was great. Everyone commented, you know, like it was fun times. Now we're at 1.3 billion people on LinkedIn and it's crowded and the algorithms changed so much over the last 12 months, like significantly different to how it was. It used to be show all of your friends and your professional connections and your network. And now it's showing topics and that's a big swap.
46:28
for how LinkedIn's been for 23 years that it's been around. And so from that perspective, it is just literally like put it out in your profile and just make sure that that's rocking because, and be known for a topic. If I could give one piece of advice, be known for whatever that topic is that you own. So I'm the company pages queen, what do you own? And so we're planning that seed, no different to Instagram. You'd be surprised at how much commonality we've got going on here.
46:57
is that it's like you want someone to see your content and go, I have that problem. And if I have that problem, the first person I think of, Oh, it's Instagram for business. that's Elizabeth, Elizabeth. Okay. Where I think about it, our brains are full of so much stuff. And so think how does Elizabeth stand out? Oh, she's the one with the crazy background. If I scroll or she always wears bright colors or whatever your thing is, she makes me laugh. Like,
47:20
Find the things so that people can immediately pull you out of their brain when they need your services or want to refer you to someone else, which is often what happens. Make sure that they can have that memory recall because that's the most important piece of this puzzle because otherwise you're just like everyone else. it's like, don't know, I used to cry in the early days. I don't know if you've had this happen, Elizabeth. I'd have people that liked my content, commented all the time and they were super supportive.
47:47
And then I would see them post that they'd work with one of my competitors and I'd want to cry. Like I'd be shattered. And it was just because I didn't make it clear what I did. You know, like I stopped talking about what I actually did and they just went, yeah, I've got the problem. Yeah, I know I need to fix this. Oh, Michelle doesn't do that. I'm going to go to this person who I know does it. And so I learned the hard way, very hard way. exactly. You have to be very clear about what you do, who you help and how
48:16
how people can work with you, right? The call to action, how people can work with you is so imperative and that consistency too of showing up over and over. And I know I felt overwhelmed at trying to build on another platform. So I just challenged myself, I'm gonna post once a week on LinkedIn. I know I need to be posting more over there. Of course, more would be better, but I'm gonna start with what I can do consistently.
48:41
And that's what I've been doing. And when I do more than once a week, it's a bonus. And even with that and with the work that I've done, I've grown a following over there. So obviously we want to be consistent. We want to show up so people think of us, right? As that thought leader or expert. Is it like Instagram where it's important to post consistently for the algorithm and staying top of mind and all of that? And if so, is there a recommendation of like, if you told me today, Elizabeth, I love that you're doing once a week.
49:11
sister, but if you could do three times a week, oh my gosh, you're going to get 10x the results. Like I'm curious about that. Look, in terms of numbers, the advice that I'll give you as someone that has built your business, have the clarity on the packages, like you said earlier, is good at creating content, has probably a back catalog that would keep you going on LinkedIn for the next, you know, probably five or 10 years. You've got so much stuff that you could repurpose.
49:37
Like I would say to you, three times a week would be like my magic number. I think for most people, more than that is too much. For people who are just starting once a week, once a fortnight is more than enough, right? Like I don't want to drown people and get you overwhelmed. So you give up on all of it because you know, if we bite off more than we can chew, then you'll hate it and you'll feel like you're drowning. And that's the last place that either of us would want you to be in.
50:01
But if you've got content, you can repurpose and it doesn't have to be current. Like you can go back three months. No one's seen it. We don't know it's older. Like just bring it back, give it another play. But I think for me, the sweet spot's probably three times a week for someone that's actively using it. It's one or two for people that it's just like the secondary platform. And, you know, again, if you're starting out just once every couple of weeks is more than enough. And.
50:28
I would say if you're going to just start out, just go and comment on some people in your network, start commenting as a starting place. It can often be like a place to kind of warm you up to the platform and check it out. If you're a little suspicious, has it really changed or is it just Michelle doing the cells so that you come across? No, I want you to go and check it out because I honestly believe that the more I learn and especially out of this conversation, the more that there's so much crossover and it's not more work. It's just taking what we've got and putting it in front of.
50:58
a different audience and why should you do it? Here's what I say to people. Have you ever sat on like, I don't know, a bus, a plane or somewhere where you can see somebody else using their phone and watch them check their socials? Like they literally open up the phone and they go Instagram scroll, scroll, scroll, like, like, like, like, okay, now I'm going to TikTok, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick,
51:24
That's why I'm kind of looking at this myself the other way, as I said, taking my own medicine. Yes. Oh my gosh, Michelle, thank you so much. You have poured into us so deeply and I appreciate your wisdom and your knowledge. And I know my listeners are going to want to continue learning about LinkedIn from you. And I know you have a podcast. So tell us about your podcast. And also, of course, tell us where we can find you.
51:50
Yeah, look, there's no surprises they're going to find me over on LinkedIn, but it's Michelle J Raymond. Why is the J there? Because there's a thousand Michelle Ramons on the platform and that's the easiest way to find me. But yeah, look for your podcast listeners, if you've got space for another podcast and want to come and learn a bit more about LinkedIn, social media for B2B growth is my LinkedIn podcast. And I would love for you to come and check it out. I have discovered that podcast listeners are just the best. You know, they're the people that.
52:17
love to learn. And so if you're one of those people and obviously getting value from this podcast, can I ask you a favor? Can you reach out and let Elizabeth know that you are getting value and that you are loving this? Because my thing that I've found as a podcast host is like, we talk out into the ether. We hope that it lands out there. We hope that you're enjoying it. And very rarely do people like leave, you know, reviews or things. And so just let her know she's doing an amazing job because I think that you are.
52:46
Oh, thank you, Michelle. Yes, I cannot echo that more. It makes my day when I get a voice memo or a DM. I got a DM the other day of someone saying, I just did a road trip 10 hours across the country and I binge your podcast the entire time. I fell out of my chair. Like it absolutely means the world to us. So definitely go check out Michelle's podcast. We will make sure that we link it in the show notes and of course all of her places where you can find her.
53:15
and work with her. Michelle, thank you so much for your time. I've loved our conversation. Me too. And I promise I'm going to go have a look and figure out how to log into my Instagram and update it so that I am literally showing up the same way on Instagram as I do on LinkedIn. And like I said, doing the reverse of what I've shared here today. I have all the content that I could be bringing across and people are missing out on it because I have my own misconceptions about what the platform is today.
53:45
Yeah, I think we can both cross paths. Yes, absolutely. This conversation served us both. Exactly. Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Michelle. If you learned something new, me a solid and screenshot this episode, share it to your Instagram stories with a takeaway and tag me and Michelle if you can find her on Instagram. We would love to hear what resonated.
54:13
in your heart from today's episode. And I hope if you have one takeaway, it's that I know social media can feel intimidating, but the more I interview experts in different lanes, right? TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, there is so much crossover. There is so much content that we can repurpose on other platforms. So may this be your reminder that all of the gold and beautiful energy that you pour
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into your content, that intention, that strategy. It is so worth your time, your energy, your money, and don't forget to repurpose it on other platforms. I'm rooting for you. Michelle is rooting for you. And I cannot wait to start it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're going to want to grab my free monetize your IG guide.
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where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies. That's ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide.
55:30
If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
