Talking with local LinkedIn Specialist Kylie Chown

Stuart George: Today we’ve got the lovely Kylie Chown. Kylie is a local LinkedIn specialist. I’d love to hear more about how you actually got started in the LinkedIn Specialist business.

Kylie Chown: Thanks for having me. Initially I had a career management business. As a result of that, when LinkedIn came out, we found we were doing a lot more work in that space. So before I had a business, I had an I.T. background, so then that’s where the crossover came about. For about the 10 years, we’ve been just focused on LinkedIn.

SG: Excellent. So it’s a real growth industry. Are you finding a lot more businesses are discovering it and finding it useful.

KC: Yeah. Definitely so when we first started the business I’d say probably about 80 percent of our clients were using LinkedIn for their career and 20 percent the business and I’d say these days it’s probably switched over. So we’ve got 80 percent of our clients are looking specifically at LinkedIn for business and only about 20 percent for that career space.

SG: Fantastic and so would you call the Facebook for business?

KC: If you look at Facebook and LinkedIn they’ve definitely got two different purposes and I think people go to LinkedIn with the intent of having a business agenda or a business purpose.

SG: So prior to being a fantastic local LinkedIn specialist, you got started with your career in business. How did that begin?

KC: Basically I had a background in I.T. and then recruitment in HR. So then I went into a business where we had career management: resumes, job search strategies and LinkedIn profiles for jobseekers.

SG: I see that you’ve had some career highlights because you’ve been a featured expert on some some leading publications. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

KC: I guess as a result of the work I’ve done through LinkedIn and writing articles and blogs and things like that. So I do get approached by having to post… to be a regular contributor to their platforms so that’s something that I do with them monthly. Different enquiries come through for different published media and things like that as well.

SG: What problems do you solve for businesses around LinkedIn?

KC: When clients come to us it will be generally because they want to grow their business so their problem might be that they’re not getting enough clients or they’re not getting enough leads or sometimes they’re attracting the wrong type of people. Our clients can be seen as an authority in their industry through our process – help them use LinkedIn to reach out and connect with people as well.

SG: So direct messaging seems to be something that’s that’s really on the radar now.

KC: It’s something that from a platform point of view LinkedIn allows you to direct message to other members and then that’s kind of giving you access to people that you might not have had access before so you can direct message a person who’s your ideal client. So if clients are going to do this activity it’s definitely an activity that they should consider doing but they need to be structured in how they do it and do it strategically and do it purposefully. It’s about building a relationship with the people they connected to so that the messages are appropriate.

SG: I’ve got a premium account… I’ve got the circle that’s almost full.

KC: It’ll never be full… never.

SG: Why? What am I doing wrong with my LinkedIn profile?

KC: No one ever has a full circle. That little bit is as high as it’s ever going to get.

SG: Well maybe it’s just that we all need to try a bit harder. With your profile, do you have any tips for profiles because we keep hearing that there are tips and tricks. Of course, the best way is to have you do an overview. So can you tell us about what you do during that process?

KC: So basically what you would want to do is have a look at your profile and have a look at it from your ideal audience’s point of view. Generally for clients that we work with that are businesses, it’s from their clients point of view. The LinkedIn profile is essentially the digital first impression so that’s a place where potential clients will be learning about the profile and their business. I guess if you can keep that in mind as part of the process then that helps with positioning your profile how you want.

You’ve got your content, so that’s obviously your words and the content in your profile… you’ve got your articles, and then you’ve got your visuals… so you’ve got things like your banner and your headshot as well. So when your ideal contact views your profile it’s really clear to them who you help, how you help them… you’ve got the banner that positions it well… your headshot, positions you well and it looks like how people will meet you in person.

SG: Brilliant. So quite often scrolling through LinkedIn you’ll get some suggestions as you connect with people because they are quite active on LinkedIn. You see those photos that literally look like someone fell asleep on their laptop and accidentally took a photo. Or it’s the best photo they’ve got of them in a suit at a wedding with somebody cropped out. Clearly you’ve got to be having a clear head shot. What pointers can you give people about that?

KC: Yeah definitely. I guess one of the times that I’ve heard recently is LinkedIn is very much that of your virtual business card as well. If clients ask about feedback on their headshots what I say to them is “look, is this how you’re going to present your initial client meeting?” What we want to do is make it really consistent. When someone sees you online and then they meet you in person, that’s a really smooth process. The headshot is really important in establishing that. There’s work done around anchor points. People will make decisions based on what that initial presentation of you is. If you can align your headshot and your visuals as close to how you present in person then that’s going to make a really positive experience for your customer.

SG: So what I’m seeing a lot of now is that people have been putting video in their LinkedIn profiles. Is that a really good way to leverage?

KC: Definitely because what that will do is make the transition between you online and you in person very clear and very consistent. So video gives that other element – not only are they seeing a still shot, they’re seeing you talk and move. That, from a reader point of view, makes you more connected… they can connect with you easily. Yeah definitely.

SG: So I understand that you do a service where you actually go through a LinkedIn profile and give some tips and feedback. How could people engage you to do that?

KC: So what we do is just look at people’s profile. We do a three minute video review and the purpose is to highlight really easy things that they can do that can have a fairly quick impact on their profile. To do that all they’d need to do is contact me, I send them an online calendar booking. I’ll do it at that time and send it to them.

SG: That is such a good service because, like most of us, we think we’re doing the right thing, but we always want to make sure that we’re putting our best digital footprint forward. So Kylie, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. And where can people go online to find out more about your services?

KC: Yeah definitely. So LinkedIn is probably the most obvious place. So they just search for me which is Kylie Chown. Also I’ve got all the links on my website… so that’s www dot Kylie Chown dot com dot au.

SG: Fantastic… Excellent! So I encourage everybody to get in touch with local LinkedIn specialist Kylie. As a matter of fact I’ve had Kylie go through and do a report on my profile. I think I did pretty good didn’t I? But there’s definitely things to improve and that’s why that circles and never quite all the way to the top. I think maybe they’re trying to make a try that bit harder. Well look, thanks for joining us here We’ll see you again soon in our next log. And thank you Kylie.

KC: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

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