⌛ 10-Minute Formula To Grow On LinkedIn (Get More From Less) ⌛
Social media is now one of the biggest avenues of marketing. One single post, when it's the right one, can take your profile and your business to a whole different level. One of these platforms is LinkedIn. So how can you make sure that you are managing your profile effectively? Ivana Brutenic, Co-Founder of LinkedIn Strategie, shares their 10-minute formula to grow your LinkedIn Profile and build a client base. She talks about the do's and don'ts to ensure that you attract people to interact with your content and organically promote your business. With over 6000+ clients trained, this is one episode you don't want to miss. So tune in and learn more about social selling and start generating more business!
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⌛ 10-Minute Formula To Grow On LinkedIn (Get More From Less) ⌛
Did you know that LinkedIn is full of people with higher incomes who are looking for opportunities, coaching, programs, and courses? They are on the lookout and they can afford to pay for what they're looking for. If you've been looking for more clients and more customers in your business, LinkedIn might be the missing link for you.
If you've ever wondered, “Who is the ideal person that I should be looking for and how long does it really take?” I have good news. In this interview, we're going to cover exactly how to figure out who you should be looking for and how to find loads of clients and customers from LinkedIn in only ten minutes a day. Check it out. Let's do this.
I'm here with Ivana Brutenic. She and her sister have built a six-figure family business while raising three little kids. Their mission is to show you that LinkedIn does not have to be corporate, cold, and stuffy. It can be full of opportunities. It can be colorful, authentic, and fun. They've trained over 5,000 people internationally and have been hosting the largest LinkedIn event in their region for a few years.
They've been featured in Forbes Magazine as well as over twenty other media outlets regarding their LinkedIn expertise. They both love to learn and grow. They have Master's degrees and PhD degrees in Marketing, HR, and Business. They have 10X the LinkedIn following of multinational corporations. They passionately help small companies scale with 5 and 6-figure projects generated from LinkedIn. In addition, their small business clients attract journalists and podcasters and end up being featured on TV, in newspapers, and in magazines. That's a huge bonus to all of their projects and their clients. We are so blessed to have Ivana here with us.
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Welcome, Ivana.
Thank you much for having me. I am so excited.
Let's dive into everything about LinkedIn. There are quite a few audience members who maybe have a nice social media following on other platforms, but they've never ventured into LinkedIn. This is the moment where they want to start, which is an exciting time. There may be others who have been on LinkedIn for a long time and maybe are realizing they're not utilizing it to its full potential. They're ready to go to the next level with it. I'm excited to dig in with you. Before we jump into all the LinkedIn goodness, some of the audience may not have met you before. Can you tell us a little bit about you, your story as an entrepreneur, and what brought you to this place of being a LinkedIn expert?
That is a long story. I have been in business for the last several years. I started when I was 22. I was at the university and I decided, “Let's give it a try.” My sisters and my parents had a printing company. It was so exciting for me to watch them be entrepreneurs. I wanted to try that, and I did. They supported us in this. I started by myself, and then seven years later, my sister joined.
We had an executive search company. Our clients have been asking, “How come you could find people that nobody else can find? How does it work?” We were like, “We are using LinkedIn.” They were like, “What?” They didn't know the platform. They didn't know how it works. They started to ask. We started to give little training and then saw this was a big potential.
We started to create strategies to support companies, and then, larger companies came. We work with large banks, insurance companies, and multinational companies. We created ambassador programs for them so that their employees became their marketers and their recruiters for free. This was intriguing for them. We duplicate this with small companies and small and medium business entrepreneurs. We teach them how to find opportunities on LinkedIn, whether it's business or media, and how to get the most out of it.
You are correct that it's an underestimated platform. People have their profiles on LinkedIn, but usually, they don't do anything. They are waiting for opportunities, but nothing happens. In seven years in the LinkedIn consulting business, we have trained 5,000 people. We work with international clients from Central Europe. We are based in Slovakia. That is in the middle of Europe. I am so honored that I can share my expertise globally, and also with you.
We're so excited. It sounds like you started by recruiting talent for corporations, and then you accidentally stumbled into realizing that lots of people wanted to know how to use LinkedIn better. I want to point that out to the audience. You'll notice a trend from speaker to speaker. They didn't necessarily intentionally say, “I'm going to be the LinkedIn expert or I'm going to be the Instagram expert.” They saw a need and they filled the need. As you're on your entrepreneurial journey, as you're learning something new, seeing a need, and starting to fill it, there could be a little golden nugget in there for you. I wanted to point that out.
I thought that it was fascinating that you noticed that there was interest there and simply started to give people what they were asking for. It became a thriving business for you. How lucky are we that you're used to working with these larger corporations, but you're willing to work with us, the solo entrepreneurs? We are in for a treat. It sounds like you specialize in helping, whether it is large companies or solo entrepreneurs, find the right people. Is that correct?
In the beginning, they have to have clarity like, “Who are my people?” Otherwise, you don't have your ICA, your Ideal Client Avatar. You don't know who you are talking to. This is the most important thing at the beginning. People get stuck here. They have been thinking for years, “Who is my person?” Nothing happens. It's the same with our business. You have to try.
LinkedIn is a very underestimated platform. People have their profiles, but they usually don't do anything. They are just waiting for the opportunities, but nothing happens.
Try and you will see if the person and the people resonate with your content or your topic. You have to go and try because otherwise, there will be no results. Once you get the clarity, then you can move on to content. Otherwise, you will have content and nobody will like it. You will reuse something from Instagram. You will get two likes and get discouraged. You're done with LinkedIn like, “This is not working for me.”
That makes sense. If you're trying to find your perfect person, you have to know who that perfect person is first. You can't find someone if you don't know who they are. Another trend we're seeing, expert after expert is saying, “You have to know who your perfect person is. You have to know who you're speaking to.” Everyone's journey in figuring out who their ideal client is unique and different.
Once someone has a pretty good feel for either who their ideal client is or who they simply want to test out working with to see if it's the right audience, what's the best first step to getting started on LinkedIn? What makes LinkedIn unique and different, and how should people get started if they're brand-new?
You don't have to pay for LinkedIn. It works well organically. I don't think you get something like this with other platforms except maybe TikTok. You get free traffic. You just need to use your time. Time is precious. Commit to ten minutes a day on LinkedIn. If you have a profile, commit for ten minutes a day. You can use this technique if you are beginning or even if you have been using LinkedIn for fifteen years. Commit for ten minutes a day and be consistent for a month. You will see massive results even in a month. You need to start engaging with your people. For example, who is the decision maker? Who is buying your service? It depends if you're selling to a corporate or if you're selling to solopreneurs.
Let's say we are selling to solopreneurs or small businesses. My target audience is a CEO. I would go to LinkedIn for ten minutes a day, check out profiles of the CEOs, and check their activities. You can see what they are doing on LinkedIn. Engage with their content to talk about your service a little bit. Soft sell in the comments.
You don't want to spam people. Especially in the US market, people are sensitive to spam. For example, when I compare it to Europe, it's not that bad here. There aren’t so many spammers yet. You have to observe what is happening. Go to your homepage, like some posts, and comment. You can build your brand through comments only. We have clients that do not have any content and they just comment. They build their brand with comments, likes, and personal emails or messages.
That's super encouraging to know that they can truly be done in as few as ten minutes a day if you're consistent. Do that for a month or more. I assume once you've done it for a month and you continue to consistently do it, it ramps up even further from there.
If you know who is your potential client and you are consistent, then in a month, you can see nice results. We did a program, especially for women. We took them for a month. They had a task to approach thirty high-quality leads. In 30 days, we have seen massive results. We were so proud of them. One of our clients has earned five times more than what was her initial investment for the program three months after that. We had dozens of great contacts for each of them.
They were introverts. They were not extroverted and willing to talk to anyone. They told us, “I'm not sure. I don't want to sell.” This was the baseline. They were like, “I'm not going to sell anything.” We told them that you don't have to “sell.” You just have to talk about what you're doing and you will attract those people. You need to talk to them because otherwise, no one will find you. You cannot sit in the corner and wait.
Formula To Grow: You need to have a lot of connections to really push your content out. If you don't have the connections you need, start building your network.
I would love to break this down a little bit because I'm intrigued. You say ten minutes a day. What makes up those ten minutes? Any of us can share our own content. We can engage with other people's content. We can interact with them through the messaging feature. There are lots of smart analytics inside of LinkedIn around searches, connections, and networking. How do you recommend that we break up that ten minutes? If we were to create a daily method of operations, what would the ideal ten minutes look like?
You need to have quite a lot of connections to push your content out. If you don't have the connections, you need to start building your network, but it doesn't mean you cannot sell without those connections. If you have a lot of connections, you go and post your content for those ten minutes and then engage with your people. If you don't have the connections, you have to start building the network first. You can ask 100 people a week for a connection. Every week, make sure you use all those 100 connections to grow. You need maybe 1,500 connections to have a nice baseline. If you have 1,500 on Instagram, it's low. If you have 1,500 on LinkedIn, then it's pretty good. It’s not that much work.
If you're going to grow your connections and following anywhere, it sounds like you get more for your time on LinkedIn than you might on other platforms.
The competition is lower on LinkedIn because 99% of people on LinkedIn watch the content or read the content. They don't create. If you are a creator at heart, you have a large chance that you can get results. You are visible fast. What you need is to focus on those 1,500 connections. Everyone who knows 1,500 people, it's easy. Usually, I get, like, “I don't know that many people. This is impossible.” You can have it in 1 month or in 2 months. Let's say when you start with LinkedIn now, in two months, you are set up with 1,500 contacts who is your ideal client. You have been engaging with them and you are ready to sell.
As you're reaching out and making these new connections, these contacts, should it be people that you know or should it be people who match your ICA that you're hoping to get to know?
Both. You need people who will push your content up. In the beginning, those are your friends. They’re your former colleagues, colleagues, and so on. You need to ask for help. Don't hesitate to ask for help. If you get five in the first hour, it matters. If you get a few likes more, it matters in the first hour or first two hours of your content being pushed out to the world. You need to focus on that. You have those people who support your content, but you also need to focus on people who are your ICAs. I would say it's half and half, and then it changes. You will get 90% of people that you don't know, and those will be your ICAs and people who can influence your ICA.
For example, if you are aiming for a CEO, they're not that active on LinkedIn. They're watching, but they're not liking. They are not supporting content. For example, if you have 90% of CEOs in your network, you will not get engagement on your content. You need to distribute the network. For example, if I'm aiming for the CEOs, I would also go for the assistant or executive assistants of those CEOs.
That’s because every CEO likely has an assistant. The assistant might be more active than the CEO.
For example, for our services, those CEOs tell their executive assistants, “Go and find me an expert on LinkedIn.” She is the lead and he's the decision-maker there.
If you know your potential client and are consistent, you can see nice results in a month.
That's interesting. You talk about these magical pairings of your ideal client, but also, the person who is probably closest interacting with your ideal client. You want to connect with both of those.
You get a lot of referrals, and this is what you want. You don't want to be doing automation on LinkedIn, like selling so many messages that don’t make sense. Automation is perfect, but you need to know who the client is and what the response is. Before you automate, you have to do it manually to see what's working. You want the people to be your personal marketers to do the marketing for you. It's great. We don't have to go and actively search for clients anymore because they are coming to us for referrals.
In the beginning, you start by actively adding these connections and seeking people out, but as your audience grows, they'll start coming to you.
You need about 1,500 connections for that.
As people are growing towards these 1,500 connections and they're reaching out to people and asking them to connect, is it important for them to send a message with that connection request or can a connection request come without a message?
It depends. If you are a salesperson and in your headline, you have sales something, people get suspicious when you are sending a message. For example, when we are building strategies for salespeople, sales directors, or people who have sales in the headline, then they send without the message. It’s just normal clicking. When you see a message, you're like, “This is automation.” Sometimes, it's not.
For example, if it is a podcaster, someone in media, or someone in Forbes, and you want to be featured there, you want to stalk that person a little bit before. You then go through the activities and maybe send them a message, like, “I liked this article. I liked this and that about your article. Let's stay connected.”
You don't go and sell in the first message. A lot of people do it. You get an invitation and you have so many emails like that on your own LinkedIn. They’re like, “I can increase your ROI by 400%.” You’re like, “They don’t know me. They don't know like what I need.” It’s not efficient. The efficient way is to start with small steps in building the network, finding the client, and connecting with people. Get yourself out there, talk about what you're good at, and the results that you got for your clients, for example.
It sounds like a portion of those ten minutes would be putting out connection requests to get to that 1,500, and then a portion of that sounds like commenting on your ideal client’s posts. That makes sense to me because for every single person, and I don't care who's reading, this applies to you, too. When you put something out there, you want people to interact with it. Everyone wants their content to be interacted with.
Formula To Grow: 99% of people on LinkedIn just watch or read the content but don't create. So if you are a creator at heart, you have a large chance of getting results.
There's not a single person who makes a post and they're like, “I hope no one interacts with this.” If you're interacting with people's content, they're naturally going to like you. It's almost like putting little deposits into the emotional piggy bank. How much of that would you recommend doing of commenting, liking, or interacting with your potential ideal clients?
It depends on the markets. For example, if you are in the US, it's more intense. I would go for, let's say, 10 to 15 comments a day. It's pretty quick. You can write, “Congrats,” with a little clap emoji. You don't have to think about those comments for hours. You can also have great comments about your expertise. You have 10 or 13 that’s about like, “Great job,” and 2 or 3 where you can talk about, “This is what I help my clients with. I would recommend you this.” Also, you need to give advice. Don't speak about your service. You just mention it and give real advice in the comment. It's 2 or 3 a day. For the Europeans that may be reading, it's around half, so 1 or 2 comments that are related to your expertise and 5-ish that are random, very quick stuff.
If you're interacting with their content, they're going to like it. How often are they going then to look at your profile to learn more about you? How do you turn those general likes and comments into actual leads and sales?
It's great to like, comment, and do both. You don't share on LinkedIn. Please don't go and don't share because if you share, sometimes, it decreases engagement. People go and share my content and I'm like, “Do not share. Just like or comment.” This is because LinkedIn wants to have unique content. If you share, it's nothing unique. What you want to do is to like and comment. This is what you want to teach the people who support you to do. You tell them, “Please go like and comment.”
This is the first thing. People are watching your profiles, especially when you comment. It depends. If there are thousands of comments, they might not go to your profile. Usually, there are dozens. If it's good a post, there are dozens. They will go to your profile and look at it. You need to have the expertise there. If you're scattered in your profile and they don't know what you're doing, they will leave. You need to use those first two sentences to catch their attention, and then they're like, “I want to learn more.”
They will read the About section. Most people don't have the About section. This is the most important part that you can have on your LinkedIn profile. Be sure that you have your keywords there because it works like keywords on Google. You have the same keywords on LinkedIn. You want to have keywords like your ICA calls your service. Don't come up with something like marketing ninja or something like this because they're not searching for a ninja. If you're a LinkedIn expert, they will search LinkedIn expert, LinkedIn consultant, or something like that. These are your keywords. Make sure you have the like proper keywords there.
You have your call to action in your profile, too. For example, they can go to your freebie. They can schedule a discovery call. It depends on your sales process. Don't leave them hanging. They read the profile and they're like, “There's a nice profile here,” and leave. LinkedIn offers other people next to your profile with similar expertise. You can turn this off in your settings on LinkedIn. Go and turn this off because otherwise, your competition is right next to you. You don't want them to hang on your profile.
That's a pro tip. For those of you who have the VIP pass and you're taking notes in your action workbooks, start that one to turn off that setting. I didn't even realize that was a setting. Thank you for telling us. That's interesting. If your About section is set up correctly, you could use it as a place where they could then enter one of the funnels, grab a lead magnet, grab a masterclass, or whatever it is that you might be featuring.
They are going to watch you for a long time on LinkedIn. Sometimes, we have clients who are like, “I have been watching you for two years.” That's a bit creepy. I had a client who had been watching me for six years before she was ready to work with us. I knew her from LinkedIn because she supported our content. She was great. Don't get discouraged when you won't get people raving about you in a month. We have a proven system. We have fifteen years of experience on how to do that in a month. Don't get discouraged If you don't get the results in a month. You will see the results eventually. You need to be consistent for ten minutes a day and you will see the results, I'm sure.
With that being said, I would love to dig into that a little bit. You said some people could be watching you for 2 years, 6 years, or a long period of time. Other people could decide to become a customer or a client within a month's time. It depends. If people want to use LinkedIn because they want to start signing more paying clients or customers as quickly as possible, how do you translate all of this networking, activity, and engagement into actual conversations or sales? What's the quickest path to that? Is it attracting them to your profile or is it proactively initiating a conversation?
You really have to care to be successful in business.
It depends on the type of business that you have. You can't push them, but you have to push them. It can be obvious. It depends. What is the price level of your service? If the price level is hundreds of dollars, you can go ahead and approach them. If it's $30,000 for a project, then it takes time to nurture those leads. It depends on how much time you want to take to nurture each one of the leads. Let's say you will have 20% of those that are high-level potential clients for your high-level or high-ticket service if you have one. That 80% are there for other types of services that you have. You have maybe an online course or masterclass. The strategy is different.
We always love to combine both, the one where you create content and attract people and the one where you go and find the lead. You write them a message. You have to write a message that is not a salesy one. For example, you have a lead magnet. You can send them a private message with that lead magnet. If you are selling to a corporate, for example, those people get so many messages. You need to dig into their profiles to be sure that you are offering relevant stuff. If you close your door there, they will remember if your message is terrible.
Most people reading are probably solopreneurs who are selling to individuals, not necessarily corporations.
Sometimes, we have clients who were selling through solopreneurs but then they find out, “It's much easier to sell to corporate because I just need one sale instead of more small sales.”
They need one really big sale instead of twenty small ones, for example.
I always encourage them, “I understand that you are selling to individuals, but let's try a little AB testing. Let's try to have 5% or a little percentage of those corporate clients. Let's try it out.” Sometimes, you'll see massive results and then they’re growing. If you are selling to a solopreneur, the system is the same because the person wants to be nurtured. They want to feel that you care. You have to care to be successful in business.
You can approach them directly, but it has to be soft. The best way is to use a lead magnet or an article. For example, you can be like, “I have done a great interview with Adrienne. Maybe you would like what's inside. Go ahead and watch it if you would like to.” They would then go and watch you. They can binge-watch all episodes that you have created. You start to build rapport with them.
It's important not to sell for at least two weeks that you have been connected. I would rather say a month or two. You prepare a message. That is a template because it's not possible to write hundreds of messages. You prepare a template, but you always have to tweak it. Always use something from their profile. For example, they have in their profile that they are golfers. You have to write them, “I love golf, or I have tried golf and I suck at it, but I have seen your posts. Congrats on your medal.”
It’s something that proves that you're looking at their profile and learning about them and not just trying to sell to them.
Formula To Grow: Start small, build your network, find your clients, and connect with people. Get out there and talk about what you're good at and the results you got for your clients.
It takes a few minutes. When you open their profile, it takes you two minutes to find out something that you can use in those templates. If it's a client that I would like to work with, I will spend two hours, for example, watching their content or going through their activities.
It sounds like these magical ten minutes that you can spend can be simple. You’re sending out some connection requests, engaging on some content, and making sure your profile is set up with some funnels that they could jump into if they were interested. You also have some messages prepared with value-based content that you can offer to someone, a video, an interview, or a lead magnet. It’s something valuable and helpful. Is there anything else that they should be doing in these ten minutes?
Yes. It’s to not be perfectionists. Perfectionism in social media is a problem. I am a recovering perfectionist. I get it. You are staring at your content for three hours and you're not satisfied. You cannot do business like this on LinkedIn. You have to train yourself to put out content in fifteen minutes or to sit down for 30 minutes and approach 30 clients with targeted messages. You can train yourself to do it quickly. Don't obsess about everything on your profile or on the message. It doesn't matter. It won't be perfect. When I saw my first videos on LinkedIn, it wasn't perfect. It's still not perfect after fifteen years. Don’t worry.
If you are thinking about LinkedIn, give it a try. The strategy could be different. For example, if we have someone who hates approaching other people, I wouldn't tell them, “Go and ask the people for their opinion on your eBook,” because they would hate it. I always think about what kind of person you are and what strategy will work for you. We can tweak it, but you have to start with the things that you like.
You need to like LinkedIn. If you like it, people will see that you like it and that you're having fun with your content. We have clients in the banking industry, for example, that would say, “You cannot use humor for that.” You can. We have startups of IT people. You can use humor if you are that kind of person. You want to be authentic with your brand. It's the same with LinkedIn.
That's fascinating. It sounds like it's not overly complicated. You just have to be consistent. For the people who are reading, maybe a little bit further along in business and they have support teams who are helping them. They're realizing they want to use LinkedIn, but they don't want to do the legwork themselves. Maybe they want to have a virtual assistant or a social media manager helping them with it. Do you have to have that VA or that social media manager log into your account as if they're you in order for them to do these things? You give them instructions on what it is you want them to do.
Yes. This is why people don't like it. You’re giving everything you have built on your LinkedIn to a virtual assistant. You need to trust that person because otherwise, it can get your profile banned, for example, for too many connection requests or for using automation. I have seen so many errors with VAs using automation. You cannot do that on LinkedIn. There are some workarounds, but if you do that and you don't know what you're doing, your profile gets banned forever. It's canceled. If you have 5,000 connections there, it's done.
First, you want to know what's working for you. I would rather let my VA prepare the content. For example, they can repurpose something that I have done or cut some videos and add only the graphics there. They can prepare everything and then you can post it yourself. The other possibility is to use Buffer, for example. It's a free tool where you can put your little content. It will spread into your LinkedIn once you set the date that it shoots. You will have around 20% to 30% lower engagement compared to a live posting on your actual profile. There's a trade-off every time.
In the beginning, I would go to the VA to prepare content. I would then go, log into my profile, and post it by myself. The thing that you want to be careful about is the comments. You cannot let someone do your comments. It could be like, “Congrats,” but sometimes, you know that person and your VA doesn't know that you know that person. If she writes something that is inappropriate, then you have a problem.
Perfectionism in social media is really a problem.
They might write something you would never say if it was you. You recommend letting your support team help with putting content out there, but not with the messaging or the commenting.
They can also prepare the messaging. They can create several templates. They can use your CRM, if you have one, and put it there. With writing your stuff, it should be you. You don't want to mess up your relationships with your clients to save a little time. We have some clients that do have great VAs that are there on LinkedIn.
It does seem like the VA could probably help with the connection requests if they know who to look for.
You can also use some automation for that, too.
What automation do you recommend for them?
It depends. We use Rapportive. It was for Gmail. You have to check almost every week which automation was banned by LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is very sensitive to any automation tool.
I don't want to give your audience the wrong impression that they can go and use automation and they will get banned. They will hate me for that.
It's better to interact with LinkedIn manually than it is to try to automate any of it.
Formula To Grow: The About section is the most important part that you can have on your LinkedIn profile. So make sure that you have your keywords there.
You can for the first year of actively using LinkedIn for sales. You could be using LinkedIn for fifteen years, but if you are not selling, this is not active usage of LinkedIn.
That is so good. Thank you for warning us about that. Every platform is different. To know that they're sensitive to that is worth knowing like, “Don't try to cut corners. Do it organically or don't do it.”
I wanted to say that you don't need to pay for paid profiles on LinkedIn. You don't have to have premiums. It's a little bit easier with premiums, but if you want to check out how it works, you don't need to pay for premiums. You can have a month for free on LinkedIn. If you want to try, go ahead, but when you cancel, you will lose all your messages from that month.
Be aware. You're saying you do not have to have that anyway, necessarily. You don't need it to succeed. This has been so helpful to dive into LinkedIn and understand some of the unique differences of this platform. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure.
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About Ivana Brutenic
Ivana Brutenic and her sister Kristina Cichy Kovacikova have built a 6-figure family business while having three little kids. Their mission is to show you that LinkedIn does not have to be corporate and cold. Instead, it can be full of opportunities colorful, authentic, and fun.
They have trained more than 5,000 people internationally. In addition, Ivana and Kristina have been hosting the largest LinkedIn event in their region for five years and have been featured in Forbes and 20+ other media.
They both love to learn and grow and have Master's degrees and Ph.D. degrees in Marketing, HR, and Business. They 10X the LinkedIn following of multinational corporations (banks, insurance, consulting companies, retail chains). And passionately help small companies scale with 5 and 6 figure projects generated from LinkedIn. In addition, their small business clients attract journalists and podcasters and end up being featured on TV, newspapers, and magazines - as a bonus to the new projects and clients.