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305
[00:00:44] April: Hi, you guys. And welcome to episode number 305 here on the SweetLife Entrepreneurial Podcast. This episode is for those of you that really want to know how to use it LinkedIn. You have been working to generate leads on LinkedIn, establish thought leadership and connect with the right people on LinkedIn. And so in this show, we’re diving into all things, how to use LinkedIn polls in order to help you do that.
[00:01:09] April: But let’s talk about who this episode is for. This episode is for those of you guys who are established business owners. And even those of you who are just researching who your ideal. We have talked about polls. We’ve talked about quizzes a lot here on the podcast. As a matter of fact, I just shared a whole entire training on how to create quizzes as lead magnets for your business.
[00:01:31] April: This goes hand in hand with that. This is a great opportunity for you to do something that actually takes very little effort. but helps you identify the right audience, the right people to connect with. And it’s going to give you a gauge of whether or not you’re already connected to the right people on LinkedIn.
[00:01:51] April: So if you are in phase two or three or four of my lifestyle business roadmap, this is a great episode for you to listen to. If you already are rolling with LinkedIn, you probably don’t need this episode. No worries. You can go onto another strategy, and dive into LinkedIn ads with my friend, AJ, or LinkedIn company pages with my friend, Michelle. Those are all episodes that we’re dropping right around now.
[00:02:14] April: If you are not sure where you are in your phase of business growth, just cruise over to SweetLifeCo.com/quiz. And you can take a really short little quiz and you can know exactly where you are in business and exactly what you should be working on right now.
[00:02:29] April: So let’s talk about what you can expect from this show. We have Tania Bhattacharyya here on the show and she was introduced to me from somebody else on LinkedIn that says, this girl is great at LinkedIn marketing. You need to bring her in. We actually brought her in to host a little mini masterclass for our clients and our client intensive last week and every single one of our clients were able to implement the strategy that she’s talking about here.
[00:02:56] April: On today’s show, we are going to dive into how to use polls and she even goes through the step by step of what content you should put in your polls and exactly what to do after you post a poll. And we talk about how you can use polls as part of your launch strategy. If you were launching a new program or an offer or a reopening of something, this could be a really great strategy for you.
[00:03:19] April: So all of the show notes, including how to connect with Tania, please go connect with her on LinkedIn and the resources she has here can be found by visiting SweetLifeCo.Com. Just click on the podcast button. And this is episode 305. Let’s go ahead and dive in together.
[00:03:37] April: All right, you guys, we are here with a new friend. This is my friend Tania, and she was actually in our community working with our clients last week. And when I first met her actually I was referred to her by somebody else through LinkedIn for the purpose of LinkedIn growth LinkedIn lead gen And when I first met her there’s literally a million things that she could have come on this podcast and in our community and actually taught on but we honed it down on one particular activity one strategy and we’re gonna unpack this strategy for you here today on the show and it’s all about LinkedIn polls in.
[00:04:18] April: So anyway, we’re going to dive into all that and the step by steps of how to do it today on the show. But welcome to the SweetLife Entrepreneurial Podcast, Tania. I’m so glad you’re here. Do you want to share with everybody a little bit of background about you and how you got started doing what you’re doing?
[00:04:31] Tania: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you first of all, so much for that warm welcome. It’s so good to be here. I love chatting about, you know, all things. LinkedIn and entrepreneurship. So I got here, you know, as we all do through a kind of roundabout way, I didn’t think I was going to be an entrepreneur growing up. I went right into the nonprofit field. So I was always a, you know, do gooder. And I ended up working for a women’s addiction treatment program, for 12 years, doing all things, fundraising, marketing, alumni, you know, all that kind of good stuff.
[00:05:03] Tania: And, you know, eventually I became the executive director and, you know, we were a small scrappy sort of startup nonprofit. Well, I wouldn’t say startup, but we were a scrappy nonprofit for sure. And so, you know, we were, I was trying to figure out ways to really get our name out there to really build relationships, to really like. Grow influence and trust in our community without a huge budget and without like hiring a giant marketing team and a PR firm and all that kind of stuff.
[00:05:30] Tania: So I challenged myself to use LinkedIn to share, you know, one interesting story per week to connect with a couple of local, you know, business influencers, you know, corporate giving folks, you know, people who work for local foundations and just sort of like start to build my voice as a local nonprofit ed.
[00:05:49] Tania: And slowly but surely, You know, magical things started to happen. And I really want to say like slowly, but surely it didn’t happen right away, but it was a slow build and a slow burn. And after about, you know, a quarter or so, you know, we started getting inbound, like inquiries for, you know, major gifts. We started getting Organic PR opportunities.
[00:06:12] Tania: We started getting organic referrals and all these things that I used to have to really pound the pavement for, or just sort of happening all throughout, all just through LinkedIn. And so I’m a huge, just like advocate and evangelist for LinkedIn. I think it is such an underused platform still. I think it is still unsaturated and there’s so much we can do to really connect with the movers and the shakers that can really like supercharge our business, our mission driven business.
[00:06:37] April: Yeah. And I love your story and thanks for your honesty about the fact that, I mean, it was slowly but surely and, and I think there’s a lot of people that just really expect fast, you know, fast results and a lot of things and, and Hey, you know what? Maybe some people have passed fast results, but I’m like you, my results have not always been overnight and, and to be honest and why I really appreciate you coming into our community and coaching our clients and, and having this conversation here with me and is because I still, I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2008 or something like that.
[00:07:10] April: I still don’t feel like I know how to use LinkedIn. I still feel like I go there, like I love hanging out on Instagram. I can post pictures of my kids and my hiking and all this other stuff and kind of behind the scenes podcast stuff. But on LinkedIn, I just don’t really feel like I have still found my groove.
[00:07:28] April: And I feel very, this is like really, to be honest, I feel very different than a lot of businesses on linkedin because I don’t work for a corporation. I never have a day in my life you know, there’s there’s all of these different really big companies on there and I kind of just really feel like I haven’t found my people yet to be honest and so doing things like what you are going to share here on today’s show.
[00:07:55] April: I think a lot of our listeners might feel like I do and you know, they are subject matter experts. They are consultants. They are coaches They are, you know service providers, but they don’t really you know They don’t work for a big tech company and and they aren’t an employee. They are the coo and so how do we?
[00:08:14] April: As individual, very small micro businesses utilize LinkedIn to build relationships with not all the people, but the right people. And that’s what I love about LinkedIn polls. And what I learned a little bit last week when you were working with our clients. And I know what we’re going to talk about today too. Cause I really feel like it’s. For people like me.
[00:08:37] Tania: Yeah. I’m so glad that you said that. I think a lot of people feel that way and I think one of the biggest reasons why people feel that way on LinkedIn is there’s a lot of lurkers on LinkedIn. Like, I feel like on Instagram people are like, yeah, like there’s, people are just going to like comment and like and message and it’s just not as serious, you know, people just like are all in.
[00:08:54] Tania: Whereas on LinkedIn there’s like a little bit of like a reservedness. You know, it is a business platform. I mean, at least that’s what I’ve been noticing. I think of LinkedIn as sort of a 24 7 365 like, you know, networking event that you can always kind of pop into. And at a networking event, I mean, think about your behavior.
[00:09:12] Tania: You’re not just going to like be wild and crazy and be talking to everyone. You’re going to be kind of like. Checking it out, lurking a little bit, getting comfortable. And I think people are that way on LinkedIn too. But that doesn’t mean they’re not watching. That doesn’t mean they’re not like just waiting for something to, you know, sink their teeth into once that becomes available. And I think polls are a great way to find that signal and get people to raise their hand instead of lurking on the sidelines like we do on LinkedIn.
[00:09:37] April: Awesome. Okay. So let’s dive into LinkedIn polls. I’m so excited to talk about this today. First of all, let’s go back to like some basics. Why use polls? What, like, what kind of a poll? Why are we going to use a poll? What’s the purpose of a poll?
[00:09:50] Tania: Yeah. The purpose of a poll is like, it’s a, it’s a native, like integrated way. In LinkedIn, where you can ask your audience any kind of question, it can be a fun, silly question, like, what is your, you know, Hogwarts house?
[00:10:04] Tania: It can be a question that has everything to do with a offer that you’re putting out there. Like for example, one of my primary offers is a LinkedIn content. Sprint where we, I help people batch content, like in a very concentrated period of time. And so one of the things that I might ask in a poll is like, what stops you from batching your content?
[00:10:22] Tania: Right. And I can have up to four answers or instead of the, if, you know, like if I don’t want to live in the barriers, I could ask about the dreams and the goals and aspirations, like what could be possible for you or what would be an ideal scenario for you if you didn’t have to worry about content for six months, you know, what would you spend your time doing?
[00:10:39] Tania: And I could just have four, like. Fun things, you know, like hang out with my family or launch this new thing, you know, whatever. So it’s a way to get your audience sort of, , in the arena in a way, get them participating. It’s a way for them to get them to raise their hand and get really good information about your audience. Kind of like a market research thing, that you can then use to follow up with people.
[00:11:04] April: So cool. So cool. Okay. So how do we go about actually creating a pool poll? Like what are, what are the steps to go about doing this? I love your example of your offer, your program, and then asking people what’s stopping them.
[00:11:18] Tania: Yeah.
[00:11:19] April: Because anybody who answers just based on that is already prequalify themselves to say, Hey, listen, I’m already your ideal client because I’m struggling with this and it’s one of these different ways, but these are one of the things I’m struggling with. So I really love how you did that. My wheels are already spinning based on what you said, but how do we go about getting started to do?
[00:11:38] Tania: Yeah. Yeah. Well, just from a very tactical level, if, if folks are not as used to using LinkedIn, if they’re kind of like, they haven’t been on there in a while, it’s as easy as going to like start a post and it will see start, , create a poll as one of the options you see there. Like it. You know, the options just right off the top of my head or something like, you know, post a picture, post a video.
[00:12:00] Tania: Yeah. Create a poll is one of the options on there. And so you could, you know, there’s a place to very easily put the question. And then the default option is to have two answers, but you can have up to four answers. And I always like to have the fourth answer be something like other, tell me more in the comments.
[00:12:17] Tania: So that way you get people really, you know, if something doesn’t. If they have another idea, you know, you always want to give them a space to be able to do that. And then you can have the poll go for, you know, something like a day, three days, a week, or two weeks. And I found the kind of the special sweet spot is about one week.
[00:12:33] Tania: It gives it enough time to really like, it gives it that, that long shelf life that LinkedIn posts have. And it’s not so long that people have completely forgotten that they voted in the poll. So I like to do, you know, one week. Yeah.
[00:12:48] April: Okay, cool. And one of the things that you were saying, which I didn’t know is that when you, if I were to see your poll and vote in it, my response is actually confidential.
[00:12:58] Tania: Yes. This is one of my favorite parts about the LinkedIn poll, you know, because I think a lot of people get nervous, like nobody’s going to vote in my poll and then I’m going to look like a, like a loser, you know? And, and that’s a whole nother thing that, you know, I could talk on and on and on about. But the reality is, you know, people are not, you know, think about your behavior.
[00:13:16] Tania: Like if you’re scrolling LinkedIn and you see somebody with, you know, just a poll that Has a couple of responses. You don’t think negatively of them. So don’t be nervous about putting out a poll and not getting as many responses as you want. You know, this is all about practice. This is all about just like putting yourself out there and building the muscle, right?
[00:13:34] Tania: But, you know, I kind of went on a tangent there. So we were talking about the confidentiality piece. Yeah. Like I remember once I put out kind of a vulnerable poll. I was like, what’s, what stops you from showing up and, you know, playing bigger, right? Building a brand, you know, showing up with your authentic voice, something like that.
[00:13:54] Tania: And I was like, nobody’s really gonna like put them, LinkedIn, but people did. And the reality is, like you said, People can see what the results are of your poll in terms of percentages. They can see like a, like a bar graph of how the answers came out in terms of percentages, but they can’t see who voted how, which is really great.
[00:14:13] Tania: But as the poll creator, you can see how. Everybody voted. And my favorite, probably my favorite part of the poll is LinkedIn makes it really, really easy for you to just like with one click of a button next to each person’s, you know, kind of picture in your poll, there’s a little button that you can click to send them a message right away.
[00:14:34] Tania: And in that message, it will include an attachment of the poll. So even if it’s been, you know, a week since they voted, even if it takes you a little while to get. to get to your follow up after a poll. It’s totally fine because that poll will show up in your message and you can just say something like, Hey, April, like I, thanks so much for voting in this poll.
[00:14:53] Tania: I see you voted for, you know, answer B, whatever that is. And then you can actually start a dialogue. You can share a helpful resource. You can ask if they would like for you to send them. You know, a very specific resource that you have created just for them based on how they voted in that poll, right?
[00:15:12] Tania: Which of course they’re going to want because they already told you this is something they’re struggling with, right? Or something that they desire.
[00:15:19] April: Yeah, it’s so smart. So the strategy is creating the poll. And I mean, as users, I think it’s important for us to know that it’s confidential, which is really good. And I love as the poll owner that we get to see all the responses, but then the strategy you’re saying is then sharing and there’s a follow up strategy. After it’s not just the poll. It’s not for information But then you can message and share the actual results of the poll at the end of the poll with everybody who took it which I love that because that is such a natural next step conversation to have what besides like sharing the poll results and you’re saying so asking if they would like you to share a resource based on their outcome instead of just being like, here you go.
[00:16:05] Tania: Yes, yes, yes. Something that I hear a lot from people and that I struggle with myself is like really, really not wanting to be spammy, salesy, icky. Because we all get those messages from people that we don’t know trying to sell us something and it gives us that ick factor. Nobody wants that. that. Like I can’t imagine that that’s really working for anybody, really.
[00:16:26] Tania: And so something that makes me feel a lot better about this process and, and, you know, and I think on the other side, it feels, it feels good too, is, you know, let’s say somebody voted in my poll that they don’t. Batch content because they have writer’s block. I don’t know, I’m just coming up with something.
[00:16:44] April: Right?
[00:16:44] Tania: I could say, Hey, like thanks for voting my poll. I see you, you know, voted for writer’s block. I totally get that. A lot of people said that as well. I actually put together this whole like mini podcast episode about what to do when you have writer’s block. Um, would you like me to send you that link?
[00:16:59] Tania: You know, and that way I’m not just like going forward and just like sending them something that, you know, maybe they’re too busy right now. Maybe they are taking a vacation right now. Maybe they just don’t want it for whatever reason. I don’t know. But the act of them saying, Oh, actually, yeah. Like that’s so nice.
[00:17:16] Tania: Like. Yes, I would like that. It creates that permission based conversation and it, it makes it feel good on both sides that you’re moving forward in a conversation that both parties want to have, you know? And then, so what I would recommend is having some kind of mini resource for each of the answers that are in your poll and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
[00:17:37] Tania: It doesn’t have to be a whole pod. It could be a short blog. It could be a short loom video. It could be, you know, like a one page PDF. It does not have to be complicated, but something that’s targeted to how they voted in that poll. So you have something immediately for them. Right. And just as a, you know, example.
[00:17:56] Tania: When I did this during my last launch, I had 60 people vote in my poll, and about, like, a little bit more than half of them said yes to my inquiry. And so that’s about, like, uh, you know, like a baseline. It’s like a second version. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s just like an example number that you can go with.
[00:18:13] Tania: Not everybody’s gonna say yes, and that’s okay, because you’re just whittling it down to the people who really are interested, and really the people who you’re gonna have the most, kind of, productive, fun. Valuable sort of like conversation with in the DMs.
[00:18:29] April: Okay. And, okay. So let me ask you some questions that are in my head and I’m trying to imagine what our listeners or what their questions are right now as well. And if you guys have questions about this, if you have questions for Tania, please connect with her on LinkedIn and, you know, if we’re going to make sure her resources is in there too and just, and ask her directly too, if we miss some of your questions, some, some basics, how frequently could somebody post a poll?
[00:18:56] Tania: Yeah. Honestly, you could do one like pretty frequently. I personally would probably limit it to about, you know, maybe two per month. You know, and it kind of depends on your posting cadence. Like if you post every day, then yeah, you know, absolutely. Two per month is, is no, no biggie. I tend to teach this kind of strategy to folks who are, they tend to be like in the trenches.
[00:19:21] Tania: They are oftentimes like, like nonprofit. Eds or they’re just, they’re very busy. They’re not trying to spend all their time on LinkedIn. So I kind of teach a strategy of posting once per week. And because of how LinkedIn is set up that, that can be enough, right? Not so much for other social media platforms, but again, on LinkedIn, for a variety of reasons, like that can be enough.
[00:19:41] Tania: And so if you’re posting once per week, you know, maybe once a quarter. You know, do this poll strategy because again, like you said, very astutely, like it’s not just about posting the poll. There is some followup involved and the, the, you know, the real riches, right, are always in the followup. Like the good, like the good energy is always in the follow up. That’s really where you get that conversation going. So don’t, you know, if this is going to be like, I recommend really making sure you have time to do that follow up. That’s really important.
[00:20:13] April: I was, that’s what I was thinking. And I was saying this and you know, I I’m working right now on trade tab. Break out my, my LinkedIn time. And as you’re going through this, I’m thinking, wow, okay. I would want to make sure that I didn’t post a poll unless I knew that I had that built in time to actually finish it up and follow it up. And yeah, the fortune is always in the followup. So that’s a really, really good point.
[00:20:34] April: And then the other thing, , as you’re saying this. Is there’s a couple for our listeners you guys this Strategy would pair well with a strategy that we did I think it was episode 303 where I was teaching you guys how to create a quiz as a lead magnet Go back and look at that and take some of the questions from that and put it into this poll here that that Tania is telling you about Yeah, but this working so well hand in hand with launch.
[00:21:01] Tania: Yes.
[00:21:02] April: And it’s like a sweat equity funnel. You have to put in the time. You have to be willing to build the relationships. You have to want to have conversations with people, but this in conjunction with a launch just seems. So organic to me, it just seems like a no brainer why all of us frankly wouldn’t be doing this
[00:21:24] Tania: Yeah, it’s it’s a tool that kind of lets the warmest people emerge, you know Cuz sometimes like we’re just we don’t know who like we’re just looking for signs and signals and this is like a very strong signal right that That somebody would be interested.
[00:21:37] Tania: And if you can create a poll that is very much rooted in the transformation of the program that you’re launching, it’s like a, it’s like a win. It’s like a no brainer. It’s like a win win. It just works.
[00:21:50] April: Right. That’s gold. That’s gold. Okay. So as we wrap it up, let’s kind of recap what we talked about and give our listeners three action steps or four action steps or whatever you want to do to leave here right now, not, you know, to not just think about this, to actually go and take action on what you have taught them here today.
[00:22:08] Tania: Yeah. So like three, three action items. Okay. Yeah. So the first thing I would do is think about, you know, a program that you’re launching right now, an offer that you’re really wanting to sell right now, whether it’s. You know, whether you’re a coach, consultant, service provider, other type of business owner, think about that program promise. Like think about the transformation that you create for your clients and the problem that you solve. And then think about a question that you would want to ask folks that gets at the root of that, the heart of that.
[00:22:34] Tania: And probably the easiest thing would be like, what’s a barrier that stops you from doing this on your own kind of thing. Again, another option is to ask them like, what would be the dream if you could accomplish this? But sometimes the barriers are just a little bit more. Concrete, they’re a little bit more easy, you know, to figure out.
[00:22:51] Tania: So I would first of all, figure that out, like figure out that question. And then, you know, three, like two to four answers that fall under that. So again, in my example, cause I always think examples are helpful. My program promises around like batching six months of LinkedIn content. So the barriers I would include are like. Writer’s blog, not having time, my creative process doesn’t allow for it, and you know, I’m afraid my content won’t stay relevant if I batch for that blog, you know, those are just examples.
[00:23:21] Tania: So think about what those would be in your example, in your program. The second thing that I would do, I mean, literally I would just find like a week in your calendar where you have, where you can, where you know you’ll have the time to kind of like have these DM conversations, right?
[00:23:38] Tania: Um, and really that you’re going to want to We are going to want to have that time the week after you post the poll. So just like, think about that. , and I would just. do it, right? I would just put that poll up. I would just start it. And this is a test. Like, if you only get three people voting, like, that’s okay.
[00:23:54] Tania: That’s, that’s still great. You have three people that you know, you know, are struggling with a problem that you, um, you know, solve. So that’s a great thing. And the third thing that I would do or kind of action item that I would take is, you know, LinkedIn is organically going to show your poll to people, you know, people that you know already, then you’re connected with people that, uh, you don’t know, but are connected to the people who are voting.
[00:24:21] Tania: Like it’ll have that sort of just like networky effect, but. Don’t be afraid to share the poll in other places other than just LinkedIn, right? So in your post, there’s a little, it’s going to look like three little dots on the top right of your post. You can click on those three dots. And a dropdown is going to come up and you’re going to select copy link to post.
[00:24:46] Tania: And then in your clipboard, you’ve got a direct link to that poll. So if you send out a weekly newsletter, you know, like promo the poll in that, in that newsletter, right? If you’re a member of any Slack channels, you know, Facebook communities. If you have a group of business besties that just, you all support each other, a pure mastermind.
[00:25:06] Tania: Like there’s so many networks that you’re in that just aren’t LinkedIn. And this is a way to bring. Fresh people who maybe don’t check LinkedIn all the time, who maybe just missed it, um, to bring them to your poll and kind of, you know, manufacture a little bit of additional engagement, which is just going to increase the overall engagement of your poll.
[00:25:25] Tania: Right? So that would be the third thing I’d say is like, don’t be afraid to kind of go off LinkedIn to. Increase the engagement on LinkedIn for your poll, right? Oh, and then obviously the fourth one, which I know you just said three, but the fourth one is don’t forget to follow up. Like if you’re not having these DM conversations, like, you know, it’s still a good thing to do the poll. It’s not like a waste of time. But again, like we said before, the riches is in the follow up. So. Yeah. Don’t be afraid.
[00:25:51] April: Yeah. These are all, this is a great training. Thank you so much. And in every, every time I hear this and every time I hear this, say this, and, and again, like when you taught this in our business mastermind a week or so ago, immediately I had.
[00:26:06] April: All of these things and I was ready to take action, but I knew this week I wouldn’t have time to write. And so for me, for me, like I’m hanging onto that. That’s my, you know, I, I believe time’s more valuable than money. So I’m like, okay, when am I going to actually build in my time? But I think that people will get stuck on the, what question do I ask?
[00:26:24] April: And just to remind you guys, go back to all of your offer engineer training. What exactly, like Tonya said, like what transformation do you deliver? What is the end result of that? And what are the pains and the problems that you’re, you are helping people solve it and what are their struggles? Why aren’t they there already?
[00:26:40] April: Why do they need you? , so just, just some good reminders and you can sort the podcast website for all the trainings on offer engineering. If you guys are stuck there too. So. Tanya, you have this batch, this LinkedIn batching thing coming up, and I know you want to share a resource with our listeners as well, and you guys please move forward and connect with Tania too for her time and just blessing her for being here and pouring into us. Tell us about that resource where people can interact with you more.
[00:27:09] Tania: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Well, like, like you said, April, like definitely a great place to find me is LinkedIn, but I know in the show notes, we’re going to include a link to this kind of thing. Freebie I have, which is 14 free prompts that you can use to inspire your ongoing LinkedIn posts, right?
[00:27:26] Tania: And I think, I think polls might be one of the 14. I mean, that would make sense, right? But there’s all kinds of things that you can kind of like ask yourself to really let the, the most impactful LinkedIn content emerge. So definitely check that out. And, yeah, I’d say those are two really great ways to, to connect.
[00:27:46] Tania: Yeah, I appreciate your time so much. We’ll make sure all of the details are in the show notes, and then, we’ll of course be posting this on LinkedIn as well. Thank you so much for coming in here, and you guys, Tanya teaches much more than polls. That was just like one little thing that she, that she talks about that we wanted to bring to you today, so it’s an actionable strategy that you can implement right away. But, , she’s a great, great resource if you are looking for, other support. I appreciate you so good to be here.