Sue Ellson is an Aussie author who has written five books about growing your career or business in a modern way – particularly using LinkedIn. Her latest book is called ‘LinkedIn for me and my career or business‘. So let’s learn something from the LinkedIn expert.
A fun fact — Sue joined LinkedIn on 21 December 2003… early days indeed!
Q. I see you have Top 10 LinkedIn Techniques for Authors (see below), could you name one technique you would not go without doing before a big launch, and why?
I can’t say only one! You could add the launch ‘news’ in your profile banner image, add the book to your list of Publications, and link to your purchase location in the ‘Featured section’, which will hopefully show a book image…
Making an Author banner
You might want a LinkedIn-ready author banner. For a quick and easy profile banner design, I recommend using Canva templates and professional photography of yourself.
Sue has done an amazing presentation on LinkedIn for Authors – which is freely given here: https://sueellson.com/blog/linkedin-for-authors/
Q. The tip under Increase your Engagement Ratio is intriguing. For those who are not sure where to start out, what are two or three things they can do to engage better on LinkedIn?
The first step is to react to other people’s posts. The second is to write lengthy and insightful comments on others’ posts. And thirdly, every time you find a VIP of interest, click the Notification Bell on target LinkedIn Profiles and Pages, when you want to be kept up-to-date with what they are doing. This could include your book contributors, booksellers, book publisher, book reviewers, book distributors, book supporters, book launch speakers etc. You may also like to join some Groups, although the activity there has declined since the focus moved to the Newsfeed.
To garner interesting tidbits for new updates, you may also like to follow certain hashtags. To build your distribution list, you can create a ‘LinkedIn newsletter’, so that all your Followers will be automatically invited to subscribe.
(Don’t worry, it’s easy to create! You just need to choose a newsletter name, and upload an eye-catching wide banner and a logo to start with, then write your draft).
New Offline Opportunity
Q. LinkedIn posting always seems like it is online activity only. Is there a personal circumstance where this type of thing has led to more offline opportunities for you?
I like to donate a book as a door prize when I am speaking at events or sometimes, even when I am simply attending. This can lead to collecting contact details, especially if you have a QR code on a presentation slide that people can scan for a special offer or to follow on social media or even to enable them to write a Google Review.
I try and ‘connect’ with everyone I meet and I can do this via the LinkedIn App when I am out and about in person. On your phone’s ‘LinkedIn App’, press in the Search box, press the squares on the top right and then ‘scan code’. You could also have the QR code on a banner or small sign at a book signing.
As a speaker, your details are normally sent to everyone on the enterprise’s mailing list before the event. Therefore, you can address everyone at the event and, if you have your process already set up, you have new leads to follow up on! So rather than saying “I need a fee to speak”, work out some other ways to get your message out there and reach people after the event. After all, if you appeared in the media, you wouldn’t be paid to be there.
Q. How about another Event Tip?
You can have some good quality photos taken with you and your book to say you were at the event. If you @ mention the other people in the photo, you then have the content for a social media post that will receive additional engagement.
You can also list all your presentations on your author website. I have often picked up consulting clients and additional speaking gigs by speaking at an event, but I do not ‘sell’ from the stage, rather I always add amazing value.
Thanks, Sue, for those great insights about using LinkedIn for Authors. The ebook version seems an incredible resource for just $9.99 if you’d like to understand more about using LinkedIn.
Connect with Sue: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueellson
Buy the eBook at: https://120ways.com/shop/