[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is the three biggest mistakes fit pros make on LinkedIn. Um, and possibly a lot of fit pros may not even be on LinkedIn, but it has sort of morphed over the years from a bulletin board to much more of a community now, and it does kind of place you...
[00:00:20] Josh Kennedy: as an authority figure, but there is a slight caveat to this, isn't there, Andrew? It's like, should you be on LinkedIn in the first place? And that comes down to what your target audience is, right?
[00:00:32] Andrew Wallis: Absolutely. Like anything, we, we want to be appearing where our audience is. Um, so this, although it is a primary platform that I focus on, it might not be for everybody.
[00:00:47] Andrew Wallis: But over the past few years, it has increasingly become, um, a, a, a go to, um, a platform for fitness professionals to, to focus on. But as you say, uh, Josh, it has [00:01:00] to be, is your client base on there? If they are, then it does make sense to, to, to focus your efforts on, on this. How would
[00:01:07] Josh Kennedy: they know if their, if their client base is on there?
[00:01:12] Andrew Wallis: Uh, quite simply, who's their target client avatar? You know, if you can clearly define that you're focusing your efforts on professional business people. then it would make sense to, to concentrate efforts on LinkedIn as a platform to use.
[00:01:30] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. So let's get into the three biggest mistakes fit pros make on LinkedIn.
[00:01:35] Josh Kennedy: Number one, treating your profile like a resume.
[00:01:39] Andrew Wallis: Yes, I see this because I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. Now it's one other than YouTube. It's my primary platform that I focus on and I notice when I'm going through and connecting with fitness professionals a lot of the time it's like their CV is just posted up there, you know, their resume [00:02:00] and there's no personality shining through, you know, remember this is a networking channel.
[00:02:06] Andrew Wallis: Um, um, platform. You know, we want to interact with folks and showcase our personality, our expertise, our authority, as you say, and just having that bulletin board, that resume isn't isn't the right approach on that side. So we want to make sure what should they be doing instead? Uh, again, think about the services you're offering, your expertise, what niche you're focusing on within the fitness industry and look to showcase that.
[00:02:36] Andrew Wallis: So making sure that, you know, you've got an attractive looking banner image, uh, that. That play, uh, resonates, um, having, um, the title and then giving a bit of a story. You know, we like to follow the story brand approach, making the reader the hero of the story. You're the, the, the trusted guide, the trusted advisor.
[00:02:59] Andrew Wallis: So. [00:03:00] Um, telling a bit about, about your background, but really focusing on the core problems or challenges that your audience face it because that's going to attract their attention then and encourage them to, to read more into, into your profile.
[00:03:15] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. Uh, the next one, sales pitching immediately upon connecting.
[00:03:19] Josh Kennedy: If you've said, Andrew, that this is something you get a lot at the
[00:03:21] Andrew Wallis: moment. This, this is the bane and it can almost put you off using LinkedIn as a profile. I'm sure Joshua and James, you're the same that when you're on there and you see somebody's asking to connect with you, your fingers hovering over the connect button, hoping that you're not going to get hit immediately by a sales pitch.
[00:03:47] Andrew Wallis: And unfortunately, that happens all too often. Um, so we want to avoid that, you know, remember this is about opening. Um, this is first impressions. It's opening that [00:04:00] conversation with somebody, getting to know them, getting to understand, you know, what they do, who they are, who their audience is, what they're looking to get out of this.
[00:04:10] Andrew Wallis: this growing relationship so giving value first rather than hey come and come and sign up to my services because That that's that shady salesman that we want to avoid being and that's
[00:04:23] James Breese: what people do Let's say that's what people do on social media. They literally don't social media on instagram now They do the same thing It's not just linkedin linkedin is much more like prolific in their targeted approach and trying to sell you But everyone's doing the same on social media I'm getting so many friend requests from business gurus Or website gurus helping me to build a better website and I'm like going, hmm, okay, right.
[00:04:45] James Breese: They clearly don't know who we are. And it's, it's just like targeted spam. It's like a numbers game to see what happens. So it is extremely frustrating to see. And I'm, I'm with you. I'm, I don't use LinkedIn that much. But I use it to set it up. So I made my, made sure we've got a [00:05:00] personal, I've got a personal brand and profile on there.
[00:05:02] James Breese: Because it's really important for fit pros to be on there. Because what people do is when they're searching for you, they look for your website online. But they also look at your LinkedIn profile. To see how professionally and how well it comes across and you're right Andrew They treat it as a resume not documenting who they are as a person half the time and it is a networking tool out there But it is it is a hard place to navigate sometimes and yeah I I disconnect with most people actually who try and even try and sell me anything on there these days
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[00:06:04] Josh Kennedy: Exactly. And as you say, James, since we've gone down the so much more SEO, this, that, and the.
[00:06:12] Josh Kennedy: All the time. Sell, sell, sell mistake. Number three, not creating content.
[00:06:18] Andrew Wallis: Yeah, again, and this goes across the board on any social media platform, no matter which one you choose, we get stuck in, in the framework of frame of mind that I've got, I've got, I've got to produce content, I've got to produce content and we think, Oh, what do I put up today?
[00:06:36] Andrew Wallis: I've not. Posted anything in a while, and we just throw up anything that's not relevant, and then we wonder why it doesn't, um, it doesn't impact and and resonate with our target audience. But the problem on LinkedIn, I notice is that. Um, and again, this could come down to the fact that it's not the primary platform or choice for the fitness professional, but if it is, [00:07:00] don't just put your profile up and, and, and leave it there hoping that somebody's gonna find it.
[00:07:05] Andrew Wallis: It's not field the dreams, it's not build it. Uh, and they will come . Um, we've gotta be proactive in this . So thinking again about who your target audience is and then. put, uh, whatever your preferred choice of content is. If you're comfortable on video, put some video content up there. If writing's more your style, well, great.
[00:07:28] Andrew Wallis: Put some, some articles or create as I do now a newsletter on there because, uh, that helps, you know, again, showcase your skills, uh, build your authority and, um, engages with that target audience. But so we want to be making sure that we're. Um, proactively and consistently putting good quality content on there and it's almost the less is more.
[00:07:55] Andrew Wallis: I'd much prefer to look at quality over quantity because [00:08:00] that's going to resonate much more with your target audience and have a much more greater impact with them as well.
[00:08:08] Josh Kennedy: And because we are such nice people, we're going to give you a bonus fourth mistake not to make, which is not engaging with others on the platform.
[00:08:15] Josh Kennedy: Andrew, again, do you want to highlight the importance, why it's important to engage with other people on LinkedIn?
[00:08:20] Andrew Wallis: Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's all about networking. It's the perfect platform for us to interact with our target audience, with our peers. And so I noticed that I've been guilty of this myself, that, you know, we get focused on the bright, shiny objects and we squirrel off in another direction.
[00:08:44] Andrew Wallis: But when we've chosen our key platforms, and this goes beyond LinkedIn, it's your chosen platform, but in this instance, LinkedIn, just make sure that your You're not friending as many people as you can just so that [00:09:00] you can look at, wow, I've got all of these many followers. You want to be consistently zeroing in on the target network you want to, you want to be involved with, but then reaching out to them, engaging with them, just asking them a question or asking them how they are, you know, just any, you know, subtle.
[00:09:22] Andrew Wallis: Uh, communication conversation that we can have with them, because again, as we say, those conversations at some stage can lead into conversions, you know, into signing them up to a strategy call into your discovery call and so on. So just use it, be professional, use it as it's meant to be, and you'll find that you'll, you'll generate a much, much more interaction and have much more success with using it as a platform then.
[00:09:50] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. James, we've kept you in the corner for this episode, much like baby in Dirty Dancing. Is there anything that you want to add before we sign
[00:09:57] James Breese: off? No, I think, I think it's important. Like I, I'm not a [00:10:00] LinkedIn expert by any stretch of the imagination. I don't use it to post that much. What I have done in recent times is definitely optimize my profile.
[00:10:07] James Breese: So when people search, they know exactly who we are, what we do and what my specialties are in. I web design, fitness, business, coaching and coaching. So I'll make here. So if anything I can share with you from this, it's making sure you've optimized. The LinkedIn, the top banner and make sure you optimize your profile accordingly and then make sure you have everything detailed here.
[00:10:25] James Breese: So if you're not posting at least you have a professional look to you and when people search for you, you come across as a professional, not some amateur. Because we're a professional business at the end of the day. So that's my only tip I can say to you here. But we're definitely, our focus at the moment is definitely blogs and YouTube and we are going to go in the next quarter into the posting on social, including LinkedIn.
[00:10:45] James Breese: So we'll come back to you then and share what we learned along that journey from what Andrew shared today as well And how we can apply and how you can apply to what works what doesn't work. So exactly.
[00:10:54] Josh Kennedy: Thank you so much guys I hope you found this useful. That is it for today Please don't forget to rate review and [00:11:00] subscribe and if you want to find out what's holding you back from growing your fitness business Get yourself a free website audit by going to strengthmatters.
[00:11:06] Josh Kennedy: com forward slash audit