Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Paulie Rose

Damon Pistulka  00:02

All right everyone, it is Friday. It is time for the manufacturing ecommerce success series. I am your co host, Damon Pistulka. And yes, that is not Kurt Andersen. So let’s get going here today. We’ve got Gail Robertson, our guest, co host. I am so excited to have you here, Gail, how are things today?

Gail Robertson  00:26

Oh, it is great. I just got off the live show with anger and right into this show. And this. I’m so excited for today because we’re talking LinkedIn, and the power in LinkedIn and hearing some great stories. So

Damon Pistulka  00:41

awesome. Awesome. That’s great to have you here today, Gail. And we are going to be talking about LinkedIn for small b2b manufacturers. And we have none other than Polly rose today. Talking about that with us. And I can never get it right. How are you today, Polly?

Paulie Rose  01:00

I’m great. It’s so great to be here with both of you. Oh, thank you.

Damon Pistulka  01:03

Awesome. Awesome. So how are things coming from St. Louis, Missouri today?

Paulie Rose  01:09

Things are good. Although in St. Louis, the weather can change like every 15 minutes by a good 1015 degrees. So ask me at the end of the show. Well, it might be you know, rainy and freezing, you never know.

Damon Pistulka  01:21

Well, we’ll be prepared for it. So as we start out the show, and I’m going to do this as as a I don’t know, I’m not the words are escaping me. As he dedicated to Kurt, he always likes to ask our guests as a young girl growing up. Who inspired you?

Paulie Rose  01:47

That’s a very cliche and easy answer given my role today because I have to say my mom. And not only do I have to say that because she’s my mom, but she’s my boss. So I will say as a young girl in a million years, I would have never guessed that I would be working for the family business in the way that I am for my mother. But here I am. So it has to be mom.

Damon Pistulka  02:21

Awesome. Awesome. So Gail, I know you’ve got some questions teed up here for Polly so let’s let’s we’re gonna start out and um, first of all, I want to say hello to Katie and James. And who else Valerie? Somebody I don’t know. Might be Chris Young. I know when she shows up. It doesn’t show but hey, thanks, everyone, for being here so far. Let us know where you’re coming from coming in from questions in the chat because we’re going to be talking LinkedIn for small b2b manufacturers. Rebecca just showed up a little she’s from an Amtrak SPL, she’s gone by my house. Heck, Amtrak runs right by us down here about a mile away. So. So yeah, drop some. If you got questions about Lincoln, drop that in the chat. Because you’re if you’re with a b2b manufacturer, we might be able to answer some of those today. We got Gina here. Hey, Gina. So, Gail, we’re going to start off with Polly’s background, and kind of how she got into this helping people with LinkedIn. But I’m sure we’re gonna have some questions along the way. And we’re going to pull some tips out. So what are you thinking?

Gail Robertson  03:34

I think that’s great. I think one of the maybe to get things started is that, you know, we have all these different social media platforms, right. There’s so much available. So I want to start with why LinkedIn for manufacturing, why is that the sweet spot?

Paulie Rose  03:52

Absolutely. So let me first before I even answered directly, why LinkedIn give you a little bit of a story of how I discovered that LinkedIn was this golden opportunity for manufacturers. I started working for my family’s manufacturing business, an aerospace manufacturing business about four and a half years ago. And I came to the business was with little knowledge about marketing with little knowledge about the aerospace industry with little knowledge about the manufacturing industry. It was part of who I was because I grew up as the daughter of the people running the show with the with the business, but I had never really been actively involved. And when I came on to work for the company, there was very little by way of marketing. As I think as I’m in it longer and longer is the case for a lot of small b2b manufacturers. They might do some trade shows. There’s a lot of word of mouth. There’s some local publications, but there’s not a lot of social media for I sense and not a lot of marketing, per se, in general. And I was somewhat familiar with LinkedIn from some previous work that I had done. And because I was so new to the whole scene, I thought, I’ll give it a shot, I’ll give it a try. And I got on LinkedIn and just started to play, I started to read a lot, I started to watch webinars and read books and tap into some of the the broader scene of what marketers were doing, not in b2b manufacturing, not in small business, not in anything in my field, just in general, what were sort of best practices. And I think because I came to the scene without a lot of knowledge and background, I was able to pull from from places and resources that people may be coming from within the industry or within the marketing world may not have ever considered. And what I discovered was that LinkedIn is the exact right social media network platform for small b2b manufacturers. It is the one platform where first of all people already tell you exactly what their title is, and what they do. So much of the work of trying to figure out who to even talk to is done for you. It’s right there. Secondarily, everybody who’s on LinkedIn is here, knowing that they are with a business focus, right, nobody’s here, because they want to share Well, there are some personal posts, and that’s wonderful in it, it brings out sort of the the personal flavor of everything. But it’s not solely about you know, posting your beautiful plate of dinner, or, you know, some of the other things that we see all the time on some of the other social media platforms. So people are here with a head for business. And so you don’t have to stretch to go very far to find people who are looking for business solutions, business advice, business connections. Furthermore, there is this whole universe of users, billions of users that are quietly lurking, right, so they’re not actively out there posting all the time in your face, but they are out there, I promise you that if you think your audience, your target audience is not here they are here, they are listening, they are watching, and even if they’re not interacting, they are seeing you learning about you discovering who you are. And so why LinkedIn for small b2b manufacturers, for all of those reasons, it really has proven to be truly a goldmine of opportunity, since we started on LinkedIn, at RCM technologies, which is the company that I work for a third of our new incoming business has come from relationships, felt and established chat on LinkedIn, over the past four years. So it is proof in the pudding. It works if you work it, I think that’s a slogan for something else. But it really does work. And I’m so excited to be able to share what I’ve learned with other small manufacturers, because I think there’s a lot of small business owners and marketers in, and other leaders in small b2b manufacturers, right. Many of us wear many hats, who just don’t think it’s really worth the investment are really going to move the needle. And I’m here to tell you, it really can and it really does.

Gail Robertson  08:40

Wow, so a third that is,

Damon Pistulka  08:42

we just need to reach the last Kurt would say, we just need to take a pause there. You got a third of your business coming from LinkedIn now. And in you are a small b2b manufacturer that would typically be going out trying to meet people at trade shows or at their companies and doing this. And you’ve found a third of your business, originating from LinkedIn work.

Gail Robertson  09:12

You know what I love to Bestival, probably your stories, like I always say, in some of the work I do to live the experience like this is not from something you’ve read, it’s like you are actually connected. And I’ve talked to clients that say the same thing. And, you know, we often talk a lot about the stats, how many people are on LinkedIn, and how many people are posting, but there lurky as you said, there’s a lot of people watching you.

Damon Pistulka  09:40

Yeah,

Paulie Rose  09:42

absolutely. And it really actually is even that much more of an opportunity if you’re a person who can push yourself to go ahead and post something on LinkedIn. If 1% I think is the last statistic that I read. 1% of LinkedIn users are putting out kind content. So that means that all of the 99% that are on LinkedIn are seeing your content. And that is another great reason for using LinkedIn. It’s not some of the other social media platforms, because in places like Instagram or Facebook, you’re competing against a far greater number of content producers on LinkedIn, they’re more likely to show your information because there isn’t as much to post. So you have a greater opportunity to be seen when you’re putting content out there.

Damon Pistulka  10:33

Yeah, that is, that’s a great point. And a lot of people don’t understand the the metrics of really what you’re talking about there. Because you try to post on Instagram as whoever, whatever, you’re competing against the Kardashians, every other brand in the world. In in the the people that are doing photography and baking cakes are you’re going against everyone, right? And there’s a lot of people who know what the hell they’re doing. That’s based to when you look at LinkedIn, it because of the way it originated, and stuff you hit on, really, it is a goldmine for people that will take that 1% journey and build, post and really engage with people online.

Paulie Rose  11:21

Absolutely. And, you know, I think that there’s a lot of fear for those new to the platform or newly interested in putting content out there. I think there’s a lot of fear that you’re not doing it right, or how’s it even supposed to work? And is anybody even going to see it. And the best advice that I can offer is just go for it, I read a great quote that actually keep you out a little sticky note says intellectual curiosity does nothing to help your business grow, taking action does. So it’s great to study and to learn. And really, that’s how I learned, you know, I always say, I’m not a LinkedIn expert, I’m just a girl who’s used the platform and learned along the way, and I’m sharing what’s worked for us. But you can get lost in that rabbit hole of I just want to read one more article and take one more course to understand how I’m supposed to build the post and do the post, just do it, just put something out there. You know, the other amazing thing about LinkedIn is that it sort of levels the playing field, that you can get in touch with just about anybody you want to reach here. Sometimes we think when we’re watching the feed and other people’s posts that some so such a big name, there’s no you know, connection between us. But the beauty and the magic that happens on LinkedIn is if you start to engage with their content, if you start to like their posts, leave a comment on their posts, they’re gonna start to notice you. And you can always reach out through the comments or even in a private DM, you know, on private message and connect with people. It happens all the time. And you it really breaks those barriers between who we think are sort of the the leaders and untouchables and the rest of us. It becomes this opportunity to have conversations in ways that just don’t exist elsewhere. Right. We’ve all tried to send a letter to get in touch with a big decision maker and accompany and chances are that emails not gonna be answered or even opened in in many cases, on LinkedIn, you’re noticed and there’s conversations happening and you get responses. So it’s really a gateway to cut out all of those extra hoops you have to jump through just by by being present and participating. Oh, it’s like

Gail Robertson  13:47

a gateway drug to social media. Fan you’re all in everything. The new gateway drug to digital marketing. Kaley

Paulie Rose  14:01

something I don’t know.

Damon Pistulka  14:02

Yeah, yeah. Well, because what you’re saying is is true because of the way that LinkedIn works, right? So let’s say Gary Vee, we all know Gary Vee he’s got millions of followers right? A friend of mine that friendly and I don’t know you know, social media stalking I don’t know it’s that’s a bad way to say it, but he’s a nice guy and he really intently followed what Gary Gary was doing last year for a while and was making insightful comments in his post. Gary Vee mentioned him in a video

Paulie Rose  14:43

amazing

Damon Pistulka  14:45

and he noticed go okay, that’s kind of cool and he connected with him. First your reconnection

Paulie Rose  14:51

says it all doesn’t it that really says it all. And you know, it’s interesting. We talked a lot about getting out there and posting content and putting yourself being part Are that 1%, but what you’re talking about is really actually even a smarter place to start. And that is commenting, engaging, liking, you know, everybody’s LinkedIn Personal Profile gives you the opportunity to put in your, a tagline some words just below your personal profile that talk about whatever you want it to say, honestly, some people just put in their job title, which I think is a missed opportunity, I always tell people to be very clear about who you are, what you do, and how you can help the people you’re trying to serve. If you want to be as clear as you can with that opportunity, because every single time you do anything on LinkedIn, whether you’re liking somebody’s post, or commenting on somebody’s post, or publishing content of your own, your photo and your tagline will appear. And it’s like a free advertise. It is free advertising. It’s like a billboard, I say that it’s, you know, you have a quick moment to make an impression, right? If you think about a billboard driving down the highway, and you see the big billboard off to the side, and you have just moments to sort of register what it is that that company does, or that person does, and you know, then you continue on your way and you get home and you think, oh, you know what, I need a somebody to come and haul my trash. Let me call that, you know, it’s just it plants a little seed. And then LinkedIn, every action you take on the platform, is planting a seed with potential buyers with your potential audience. And so the more times that they can see your face, your logo, your tagline, the more you’ll just be familiar to them. And so I, when I’m working with with clients, I often say Don’t even worry about posting content first. Start by just getting out there on the feed, liking things, following people posting a comment in response to somebody’s comment. And you see it cut right through the noise that your that your colleague or your friend, whoever it was, went to the king of all social media and was noticed by Gary Vee, it works exactly in that way. And it’s just it is available for all of us to take advantage of we just need to know that it’s fair and to get on and get started.

Gail Robertson  17:29

Well, I was just gonna say that as he it is available to all that want to take advantage of it that is so key, I had a guest on my show. And he said, you know, genius, or something? Well, genius isn’t available to everyone. But opportunity is an operative. That’s what it’s all about LinkedIn is opportunity. And I just want to, you know, very meta here today to date because we have people commenting. So if you’re on LinkedIn, you can actually join in shows like this comment. And you’re right, you see you can click on a person see their title, see their information. And Christina dropped the gym when she said such an important point polishes, everything changed when I started engaging on LinkedIn. And when you engage that is where the magic happens. And yeah, I also want to do a call out to anybody that may be lurking there today. Maybe you’ve never commented, I would hope maybe someone who’s never commented will drop a comment today and say hello. So if you’re out there new, whatever. Yeah, where are you? Okay, say hello. Come on, make my day here and say, Oh, no, here no last holiday.

Damon Pistulka  18:34

I think we do have a first time listener here because I have not seen I’m going back through the comments. We got Mark Schultz. I don’t know that Mark is but talking about Polly’s videos. Yeah, that you know, thank you. And the the thing is, you’re actually absolutely right, Gail is that these these events like this are easy, because you can just drop the Hello everyone. You can start by doing that. And as you said Polly, they then in Gale as well as this headline is key for you. Because every time you’re engaged, you make that comment on a post your headlines right there. I help people I solve this problem, you know,

Paulie Rose  19:19

right? Easy. It’s an easy formula. We all can do it if you just plug in I help x dou y by Z. That’s all it needs to be it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. You just plug it right in and you’ve got your some people call a headline some people call it tagline. But Mark Schultz is a perfect example. Mark is all over Facebook, though you haven’t met him before. He’s a leader in the aviation world. He’s got a lot of important things to share and to say. And anybody who’s watching today who looks at the comments can now see Mark Schultz is a guy that I think I might want to know and they can click over to his profile. Make The connection and it just opens worlds that you would otherwise not ever have access to. You know, there are billions of LinkedIn users. And we all have our own little network of people that we’re connected to. But if you talk about engaging, if one of you comments on a comment, or a post that somebody else makes, not only is your photo and headline or tagline appearing, but you can then go in and and see everybody else’s. And then once you’re connected with them, you can see who they’re connected to. And it just this tree that keeps growing and broadening. And you suddenly are in a world connected to people that you would have never otherwise known even to connect with. And, you know, that’s the social part of the social networking, that really is impactful. It just really broadens your audience, it broadens your network, it broadens your support system. That’s the other piece to LinkedIn. And it’s not only about selling and doing business, but you really can find tremendous camaraderie and support system for your professional self. And we’re talking specifically about b2b small manufacturers, but there is a universe of manufacturers on LinkedIn, that is golden, everybody is more willing than the next to lend a hand give a piece of advice, make connection. And, and business happens in that way. Right. I mean, through a referral through a connection, or, you know, somebody will mention to me Oh, I heard so and so. And I think they might be interested in what you have. And so it goes. And so part of the beauty of LinkedIn is not just putting yourself out there to find new customers, but rather to network and to build your your world of colleagues and potential customers. It’s kind of like one ongoing big trade show, right? Your headline and your, your banner on your profile becomes your booth. Like the sign for your booth. And so it’s always up and it’s always running. So you want to make it eye catching, you want somebody to look at your booth and say, You know what, that looks interesting that might apply to me, I think I’m gonna come in and they’re gonna click into your profile, and they’re gonna see what’s going on. And then you’re going to tell them straight out of the gate, what it is that you do, and how you can help them. And they scroll a little bit, read a little about you that gets your featured section, that’s kind of like window shopping, right? When you think about New York, in window shopping, those windows are a big deal that the whole point is to entice somebody walking by to stop in and check out what they have in the store. So there if you think about it, building your LinkedIn presence in that kind of a way. You’re not only connecting with people and looking for opportunities, you’re attracting people who are looking for what it is that you might have to offer them.

Damon Pistulka  23:14

I just want to take a moment here because Gail, Gail gal, you’re you and I will sit here God. I hope everyone is thinking and listen to this because you drop so much knowledge you walk people through their headline into their profile, what it should say what, you know how you invite people into understand about you, Gail?

Gail Robertson  23:38

Well, look what Valerie just said, it’s a concentrate show where your feet don’t hurt Okay. Well, I love that comment. That is so true. And I often working with manufacturers I have to date they will go into trade shows, they’ll go do cold calls, they’ll they’ll spend hours in a day just emailing and I’m like, Okay, you can spend a lot of time people will not they do not pay attention to emails unless they know you like I find my Email Feed. It’s just it’s, you know, a lot of junk. But you get a comment on LinkedIn. Oh, yeah, all of a sudden that you take notes. So I love the idea of what you said. It’s like the analogy of here’s your trade show. So you can almost build your trade show, which is your profile. And even if you don’t want to stand in your trade show, you can go walking around and visit others actually

Paulie Rose  24:33

working for you. It’s still doing the work. That’s exactly right. And you know, I talk about so in addition to being the director of marketing for RCS technologies, I have started to do some consultation for other small b2b manufacturers. And where I start is really with the three foundational pieces to what makes LinkedIn work for you as a small b2b manufacturer and Like you said, it is it comes back to all of these things that we’ve already discussed, the three pillars of a strong LinkedIn Foundation are exactly that. It’s an optimized personal profile, getting that in good working order. Because Gail, exactly what you said, even when your booth is up at the tradeshow, you don’t have to stay in that booth all the time, it’s always up there. And it’s always doing the work for you. The secondary piece is an optimized company page, which is something I want to actually spend a minute talking about, because there’s some confusion about the company page. I think on the one hand, a lot of people think we’re on LinkedIn at for our business. So let’s post to the company page, don’t really pay much attention to the profile page, because that’s just my personal whatever. But what is true today, and I do think actually, it is beginning to shift. But what is true today is that your reach in your content is far greater through your personal profile than your company page. So if you’re just getting started with posting content, My piece of advice, my takeaway for today is post to your personal profile. But Don’t ignore your company page, it is really important to complete your full company page. In fact, there’s a statistic that I have here that says that if you just do the work of completing your company page, LinkedIn will ensure that you get 30% More weekly views, then than somebody who doesn’t have it completely filled out. So again, like the tradeshow booth that’s working for you, when you’re not working it, fill out your company page, because it matters. It also builds your authority, it builds your trust, it builds your brand recognition is a really crucial part to this whole three section, foundation that builds, right, if you think about a three legged stool, you need each of those three legs for that stool to be solid, you take one away, and the whole thing falls. So you’ve got your personal profile, you’ve got your company page, which is equally as important even though it doesn’t get as much reach. And there, I really do think that this is beginning to change. If you’re interested in learning more about company pages, there’s a wonderful expert on company pages Michelle J. RAMAN that I learned a lot from all the time, so you should check her out. But and I know that it’s starting to change from LinkedIn perspective, because we’re getting prompts now, every now and again saying, post your company page, if you do it twice weekly, you’ll get as many more views. So LinkedIn, I think, is putting some emphasis on company pages as well. So don’t ignore your company page. But if you’re just starting out your profile page is going to get a broader reach. And by the way, take whatever you’ve posted to your personal page, and post your company page to it’s just double the bang for the buck. Really, it can even be the same post, just copy it and paste it your company page better than sharing sharing will lower your distribution. Because of whatever the algorithm does. So don’t press that share button that it prompts you to push, but rather copy it and paste it organically through your company page. And then the third element, that third leg of that three legged stool that I was referencing are the three C’s. And those are connections, conversations and content. That’s all of the work of being on the platform, broadening your conversations, connecting with other people, having conversations in the feed through comments and likes and support and showing up to LinkedIn lies because by the way, if you click the you’re going to attend a LinkedIn live even if you can’t make it. First of all, it’s going to mean that you can go back and watch the playback, which is helpful because there’s lots of good information being shared all the time. But it again is a free billboard moment, right? Your picture and your tagline or headline appears. So anybody who’s searching to see who attended that event, has an opportunity now to see who you are what you do, and reach out and connect with you. So it’s just another bite at the apple.

Damon Pistulka  29:31

That is another mic drop moment because if you’re came in late on this, rewind this thing and go back and listen to Polly talk about this because she walked through the why you want to do your company page, why your profile page why it’s important to have your headline set up and work through the whole thing. I will add one thing that you didn’t didn’t address about your company page and your personal profile, please you know I’m the Google Go to a incognito search for your company, your company is probably not the first website that comes up. If you’ve got a LinkedIn profile for your company, it’s probably the first one that comes up.

Paulie Rose  30:13

That’s an excellent point. Very true.

Damon Pistulka  30:16

If you are not getting the results you want on Google, when people search for your company, do that, because LinkedIn has a very high domain authority. And if you have a profile, a company profile, with a fair amount of followers, you get over a few 100 followers, it really starts to help you show up on Google. And you know, your competitors.

Paulie Rose  30:40

That’s such a great point. And you know, it’s interesting, because one of the things that I really am excited about is that all of the success that we’ve had, as a company, using LinkedIn has come without spending a single dollar on ads, it’s completely organic. And you know, to get a high ranking on Google, you pay a lot of money, yeah, and boost their their rankings. But this is another example of how just organically by just opting in and participating, you’re already getting this extra exposure, this extra boost in your Google ranking, this extra billboard opportunity. All these moments, you know, somebody earlier mentioned that I have done some videos, this is another example of being new to this whole world. I had no idea do manufacturers make videos, do they not but I saw that some, you know, big LinkedIn expert was talking about making videos, I said, I’ll try that. And so I just started for free. I didn’t hire a company, I didn’t get special fancy machinery, I took my iPhone, and I set it up. And I turn on my lights. And I recorded a quick video and I have loads of tips. If anybody’s interested in being brave enough to try to record a video, it makes a huge difference. It makes you a face to the company it personalizes your brand, it shares, it’s an opportunity to share great information. And LinkedIn is so good in that it gives you so many opportunities, right, you can post a short post, you can short post an article, you can post a carousel, you can post a video you can. There are a bunch of different ways, and I encourage everybody to try them all out. But also, if you’re not into all of those different ways, find what works for you, there’s no magic, I don’t spend a lot of time focused on what the algorithm says you should do to bump just do what feels like you can do start somewhere. And even if you’re posting, even if you’re not posting, if you’re just commenting start there, that’s a great place to start, you will start to see momentum. And then you might start with a post. And even if you post once a week only do it consistently, The more consistent you are in showing up, the more traction, you’ll start to see. And then maybe you’ll get a little braver and find a little more motivation new post twice a week, whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be all consuming, and it doesn’t have to cost money. So like we were talking about earlier, Gail, it is just an opportunity that is there for everybody. And I hope it will stay that way for a long time to come. Who knows what will be in terms of when you know the the rules of the game will how they might change from LinkedIn. But as of right now, it is really a free opportunity for you to get yourself out there let your company be known connect with with buyers and customers and colleagues that you otherwise would never come in contact with.

Gail Robertson  33:50

And I would just add to that because I think it is it because you are doing some of the work but I also would suggest that sometimes it is worth budgeting to have either help with it or because good content will always prevail. And I have seen this happen I’ve worked with clients where you know when you have photos and you have stories because people engage with stories people ask like throughout history right you think about the Once Upon a Time people remember stories they’re not going to remember all of the you know, necessarily all of the details of what you’re saying about trying to sell something but if you tell a story about you know how that impacted someone or tell a success story or a case study and but so investing I would say this investing and sometimes bringing in you know help to do that. I think it’s really key Damon right you do that do right with your business. You have I mean, and and the most successful people I’ve seen in manufacturing just like you know, they invest in HR, they invest in it, they invest in a lot of other things, because sometimes operations people need to focus on operations. Oh,

Paulie Rose  35:01

it’s it’s great advice. And one of the things that I’ve started to do is to work with marketing agencies that are specifically geared towards manufacturers and there are out there guys, so don’t think that you’re just alone with with no help out there. But I come in as a consultant as part of the onboarding process for a marketing agency, teach the foundations of this, this is my lane, I’m not a marketing agency, I’m not gonna, you know, come up with your whole strategy and your whole content, you know, all of the the pieces of the content and the imagery and the website, but I come in through an agency do this onboarding piece of teaching the fundamentals of LinkedIn, and then hand them over to agencies like Nicole Donnelly has an agency Rooby Roo zine, there are lots of wonderful, capable, excellent marketing agencies that can help you as a manufacturer. Take those next steps.

Damon Pistulka  36:04

Yeah, yeah. And, Gail, go ahead. Sorry.

Gail Robertson  36:09

I just I think there’s some really good information, I just want to also go back to I think the idea of, you know, a company page and personal page, just for an you mentioned domain authority. So there might be some people, I’m just thinking not so many people in the comments, but some lurkers that may, just to stress again, you know, there, and I’m all about you want to do great content, not just try to always think algorithm, but you do want to please google at times, when it comes to you know, so make sure you have, you know, LinkedIn is considered very high Google. And that’s why it’s so great to be involved, because it gets like, top marks from Google. So personally, if you have a profile, and you have some content there, when people are searching, there, you’re going to come to the top. And you’re right, you can’t usually get to that top of that page one. Because you know that saying, if you want to bury a body page to Google, right.

Paulie Rose  37:07

And something that will help boost you as well are the videos. Just one thing that you said, Gail, with stories, it is so helpful to talk about stories, and it also can help for those of you out there who might be feeling like, well, what am I going to say I make, you know, plastic parts that go, you know, I don’t really have a story to tell, share stories. That’s it makes it far easier, right? If I just have recorded some of the videos that I’ve recorded are just stories of how we’ve created a solution for a particular customer. And I share that story. Gail, you did a great job of sharing a story about the hockey rink, trade show. moment it sits with people, it helps people connect to you and relate to you. And it helps to boost your ranking. When you have a video that goes along with sharing a solution that you offer.

Gail Robertson  38:04

And one thing back to the story that’s really important. LinkedIn, you have to remember only back this connect the dots back to that 1% only 1%. So I often hear this, they go well, everybody do that does this and I go yes, but not everybody is talking about it. So you may be making whatever or a part or a tool or a mold. In the world. I’m working or an aerospace, various products. Yeah. And okay, 99% of people aren’t telling your story. So tell your story. And all of a sudden your story because, you know, as I’m a recovering journalist, right. So I’d said when you do a story about someone, there may be other people with similar stories. But what got them to the top or what got them noticed was that as Damon says they also were often the red m&m in the bowl of green, they’re that person that they did something. And so that’s it’s just raising your hand. Hello, I’m over here and the media right now to like, there’s so much opportunity to get noticed.

Paulie Rose  39:01

There is so much opportunity to get noticed. And the the other sort of the flip side to that is that buyers are online researching. Yes, they are. There are statistic that statistics out there. I think the last thing I read was like nine out of 10 buyers are researching online before they ever contact somebody from sales or they before they ever contact a company. And there is evidence that 74% of buyers, I’m just checking my little statistic here, we’ll choose to go with the company with the first company that provided them a piece of value. And if we think about it in our own lives and our own the the way that we make decisions, when you you know there are loads of companies that all do the same thing. Sometimes we don’t know where to start and we start to research online you start to see and when you come across a company that gives you information that you think is valuable establishes them as sort of an expert in their field think they know what they’re talking about, I trust that that’s true, you’re not going to go on to search the 12 pages of Google opportunities, you’re going to say, I learned something from them, they clearly know what they’re talking about. Let me inquire further there. And so, because buyers are out there doing research online, before they ever call a company, and it’s very true in the manufacturing world, be the company that they find, right? If they’re researching, and you’re not putting out content, they cannot find you to do that initial information find. And so they’re going to end up going elsewhere, even if you’re a better option for them. Even if you have a better product, even if you have a better buying history, whatever the case may be, if you’re not out there in this day, and age producing content that people can find online, you will be overlooked. And believe me, if they’re out there researching, and you’re not putting out the information, they’re going to find it from your competitors. And that’s where they’re going to go. So you want to be top of mind, you want to be always looking for opportunities to add value, right. And for me, I sort of categorize value as falling into four different buckets. So if I’m posting something to LinkedIn, I always want to think about it in terms of how is this going to add value. So value, the best and golden way to add value is to educate. So if you can do a post that that educates somebody entertains, motivates, or empathizes, you’re adding value to somebody’s day. So that’s just some sort of framework that you can use and check yourself if you are getting ready to put some information out there doesn’t check one of those boxes, am I adding value because again, if a potential customer is looking online, or even just by chance, scrolling the feed, if they find that you offer them something of value, the chances that they’re going to come back to you when they’re ready to buy, which is not always, you know, a one for one, it doesn’t always come immediately, especially in the world of b2b manufacturing. We have clients that come back and say two years ago, I connected with you on LinkedIn. And I remember now that I need so be patient, there’s no silver bullet, it takes time, but put out content that is valuable because it will come back to you it will pay off in the end.

Damon Pistulka  42:35

Just as so we’re gonna it’s gonna soak that in for a moment. You know, we’re getting near the end here, but I just want to soak that in for a moment because you are so right. In manufacturing. It’s not an Instant Buy. We’re not buying a pair of shoes here. We’re probably spending hundreds of 1000s or millions of dollars. Like to understand who they’re doing business with. I mean, we this this week, we just started work with a client that we first talked to four years ago. I mean, this kind of stuff has happened because really John Gagliano says his best hunter relationships, right hunt the relationships. LinkedIn is a place to build these long term relationships. I was talking to Davey Warren yesterday. He’s a HubSpot architect. He’s not a marketer, HubSpot architect. He said, I love it. When I can talk to somebody today that I’m going to do business with years away. Because I want to plant those seeds, like you’re saying with the content, the education, the motivation, that when, as you just said, The time is right. They know it’s time to talk to me.

Paulie Rose  43:48

That’s exactly right. And LinkedIn just offers it up to you on a silver platter. It’s all right there for the taking. It is an invitation to make those connections in ways that you just you can go to a trade show every week of your professional life. And you won’t meet as many people as you can connect with you’re on LinkedIn, just with a few clicks of the button, just you know of the keyboard just in an hour’s worth of time even. It’s right here offering up to us. And it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be overly confusing. If you break it down and start somewhere. And I would recommend you started with those three foundational elements, right? Start with your personal profile your company page, and then start to just get in the feed, comment on people’s or even just like like you, just like you’re gonna start to show up and people will start to find you and you’ll start to find others that you want to connect with. And it starts to build on itself. And four years later, the fact that you’re now talking to somebody that took four years to get to the place that they’re ready to buy is exactly case in point. It is slow build, but the attraction happens. And it’s impactful. It’s really impactful.

Gail Robertson  45:05

And here’s the correlation back to trade shows again, because I’ve heard this, even from clients of mine that said, when they go to a trade show, they invest all this money into one to three days, like a lot of money and a lot of time, not even the money just to get everything set up, then you figure all the time and your resources getting people there. And they sometimes don’t get business for years, sometimes 4567 years later, they connected back to a talk they had because yeah, and this is this is why manufacturers it’s it is so key to take what you do in tradeshow, and it’s going to cost you so much less and I’m Greg Michaud talks about this a digital twin, you know, this is you have an opportunity to use LinkedIn as another way like another salesperson another way to get leads so and it doesn’t take that much time. And if you think you don’t have the time, then you call someone like Apollo you call out here, you know, and and I do the same probably to say there’s people here you could reach out to and say, Who can help me and you know, we do the same. You know, we do it with it. We do with so many other things, but we think marketing all of a sudden it’s like oh, well, you know, try to do it myself. It’s like like me trying to fix my toilet or something. I’m like, I need to get my son come foot my bike rack together for me. I ordered it says easy to assemble. No, it’s not

Paulie Rose  46:34

so easy to assemble. For me,

Gail Robertson  46:38

I called it an expert. Right?

Damon Pistulka  46:42

Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. Well, I just wanted to to drop a few other people’s comments. I mean, we got we got great. Great comments about Paulie. Yeah, just lots of good. Talk about John. We got

Gail Robertson  47:00

Oh, my mom. We got a big kind of mom. Cut out to all the moms in the

Damon Pistulka  47:10

mom, or your mom. Awesome. Awesome. Good stuff here. And then a slow burn like a good book. Oh, that’s good. Katie. Look at this frog nation land. Hey, Kurt. Yeah.

Paulie Rose  47:31

I think next time person on the show he should come in a red wig. Yep. All right. Come with my There we go. All right. Yeah. Gail, like, any parting thoughts here? Well,

Gail Robertson  47:49

I just think what I really like is hearing Polly’s background story and also hearing some really, you know, very practical tips today. Like I think today is really all about starting the you know, the best time to start today. Just start for now. We see some people in the comments that are already using LinkedIn. They’re kind of onboard, but I bet you there’s some people out there listening the lurkers that maybe but there was a few new names I saw. So I would say the biggest takeaway is just start, Polly. That is the best advice today. Just get out there and start because it will make this isn’t just like we’re, we don’t have stats on this. We, Paulina, I’ve talked about this. We work with clients, we know. Without a doubt it works. So thank you, Polly for confirming and because this made me feel like yes, I know. I’m right.

Damon Pistulka  48:43

Well, confirmation there. Yeah, well, thanks for that. Gail, Paulie, what are your parting thoughts for someone that is a lurker out there. But they want to take that next step.

Paulie Rose  48:55

I would say the first place to start, as we’ve talked about before, is just to start following people that you might be interested in. You might even say how do I even find the people that I want to be interested in? Just do a plain old search right at the top of LinkedIn, it gives you an opportunity to search type in whoever your your sort of standard buyer is right for us in my business in RCF technologies. We work with a lot of design and m&p engineers. So I would just type right into the search bar, m&p engineering, aerospace, and they’ll give you a whole list of people that you can start to follow. It’s a great first place to start, click on somebody’s profile, start to see what they put out there. Start to follow some of the companies and posts and other people that they follow and just begin to show up in the feed. And certainly if I can answer any personal questions, I’m always available. I know that both you Gail and Damon are available. It’s a really there’s a great community of people out here online LinkedIn who are available to help to lend a hand, we’ve all been there, we’ve all started somewhere. So certainly feel free to connect, reach out through my LinkedIn page through my website, Polly rose.com. There’s some free resources on their newsletter. We all want to help each other, we all want to see, you know, there’s room for all of us to succeed. So I encourage you just to start, as Gail said, you don’t have to begin by posting videos or content, just maybe fill out another section of your profile, connect with a new person. Those are all good places to begin.

Damon Pistulka  50:36

Awesome advice. Once again, I’m just taking it in for a moment and basking in the knowledge. breathing it in. As Kurt says, we’re just gonna breathe it in. Well, I just want to thank everyone for being here today. And if you haven’t commented, hey, that’s cool. We like to have you listen anyway, people that commented ppreciate that as well. Gail, thanks so much for being an awesome co host, because I don’t have to talk a lot when I heard her here. And I love it because I can just be a little bit. But and Paulie thanks so much. Because I mean, you shared some real golden nuggets here.

Paulie Rose  51:21

Thank you for having me. Back.

Damon Pistulka  51:24

Yes. Thanks so much. Sorry, I was cutting over top you they’re just excited about this. Then people should go back and listen to this because you dropped some real nuggets. Thank you.

Paulie Rose  51:36

Thank you. Thank you

Gail Robertson  51:38

remember LinkedIn is your gateway drug to marketing. I have to do a tweet about that. I was feeling I don’t know there’s there’s something happening here and

Damon Pistulka  51:52

there. Well, awesome. Everyone. We’re done. We’re done for today. We’re going to be out. I don’t I don’t think we got a show next weekend because we have a holiday in the US here. And we’re going to take the weekend off. We’re going to be back again. In gorgeous dropped in if you didn’t see Ingres live today. I don’t know how long ago like three hours. It was our celebrating one year but thanks so much, everyone for being here today. Have a great weekend. Bye bye.