Babbling vs. Brilliance: Effective LinkedIn

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm out and about, I'm in the car park as usual so expect to hear some interruptions in the background, you know people jisting and cars driving by. Now today what I want to look at is not a listener question, but it's a semi rant. I want to look at how not to evangelize your start up on LinkedIn. Now obviously the reason why I'm talking about this today is because I'm receiving lots of pictures from folks.

Not really pictures per SE, but you know, people who are working on this, working on that, you know, you have a start up, you think your idea is interesting and so you're talking to as many people about it as possible and that is good. That is the kind of behaviour that I encourage over here on the show because you are not going to be able to grow your business until you get people to know who you are, that you exist, what it is you do, the problems you solve and how your product, your service, your app,

your whatever can solve people's problems. So by all means, you know, I encourage it, but there are two things I've noticed. Number one is, I'm assuming, I mean, now that I've started getting some notoriety because of the podcast and you know, I'm kind of visible on LinkedIn and I'm receiving lots of these messages. I'm, I'm assuming that lots of you folks are speaking to people who are available. I'm not necessarily looking for people who should be the right people that they should talk to because I'm receiving lots of not really pitches because nobody's asking me for money.

But of course, you know, try this out, try this out, subscribe to this, download this. So I really think you guys should be, First off, you should be looking at people's profiles. You should be trying to determine who is the ideal customer profile. Who is this? Who is this thing going to be relevant for? And try to reach out to those people rather than just trying to reach out to people just because they are they are available or, you know, they're public or they're easy to be found.

Because I've mentioned time and time again that there are some of these things that I received that quite honestly will make more sense if it was my wife who received them. But The thing is, you know, my wife, not a I'm not a public figure, at least not yet anyway. But allow me to just use that term. So my wife is not a public figure and I'm a public figure in quote. So I receive a whole bunch of this stuff when actually make a whole lot more sense for people to send stuff like that to her.

So pay attention to people's profiles, you know, before you start hitting everybody up about your startup or about your new business idea on LinkedIn. Well, like I said, if you're excited about your app, excited about your business idea, excited about your everything, then that is very, very, very good. And if you're a talkative person and you're willing to talk to as many people as as possible, it is very, very good.

And it's a recipe for success because most people would be shy, they'd be reticent, they would second guess themselves. And that's, that's something that needs to be worked on, especially as a, you know, for those of us who for those of us who are self confess introverts, you know, that's something we definitely need to work on because nobody's going to nobody's going to sling your market for you, you know, apart from you, at least until you get to the point where you can pay other people to sell on your behalf.

So for those of you who are excited and talkative, you know, that's good. It's a recipe for success. So yeah, keep on blabbing about your business idea and tell it to as many people as possible because that's the way to move forward. But if you can't adjust to what I'm saying, I'm trying to say that some of you, you're outreach, your promotions are irrelevant. They're not tailored to a particular audience, They're pushy and they are inconsiderate.

And when you're outreach matches all of these criteria, you know they're not relevant or they're not tailored, they're not pushy and is inconsiderate, then that is a bad idea. And it is because your outreach is going to be ignored. So I guess that is the danger that I'm trying to help steer you guys away from those of you who are really, really excited about your business idea. So are you excited about your startup? That's good.

Are you talking about it or that is good, but only talk to people who are interested or who have a want or a need around the problem that your startup is solving and people who have a sense of urgency around those sorts of issues. So for those of you who've been listening to the podcast in the past, and we'll be talking about qualification discovery, you know, things like that want, need, afford, blah, blah, blah, you can see how it ties into lots of business focus things that we do.

So if you're promoting your startup, you're not necessarily asking for a sale per SE because some people in the startup phase are just at this level of try this thing out, let me know if it works, download for free, share with your friends, 30 day trial, blah, blah, blah. So you're not at level of collecting money yet, but still, we should be paying attention to these sorts of things. We should be pre qualifying, we should be having discovery conversations.

The goal is to make sure that you're only blabbing to people who are interested, who have a want or a need around the thing that your startup solves and who have a sense of urgency around the problem. Now, if you do that, then all the talkative behaviour on LinkedIn is going to be very good. So let's use a case study. And by the way, this case study is a live case study because it's the outreach that I received recently.

So there's a start up. It's really, really interesting. This is really matter because this fellow has a start up and the start up promotes start-ups in Ebado, the Ebado tech ecosystem. This is a true case. I mean, that is really, really matter. We have a start up and the point of the startup is to promote other startups. So I'm really curious, you know, to see how that works out. Now the fellow put the link there and he put free download something, something available for whatever, whatever days.

And I was curious, I just clicked on it and the link was broken. So by the way, those of you startup founders, you know, you're starting something new, you know, you startup people, fintech, web 3, blah, blah, blah. That seems to happen a lot. You guys are blabbing. Your pitch, first of all, is irrelevant, is not tailored to the right person, is pushy and it's inconsiderate. And then on top of it all, the link that you even put in the thing does not work.

It's not just this guy. It happens a lot because I'm involved in the sales and business development space. You know, I'm curious and sometimes I do want to give genuine feedback to help people's, move people's businesses forward. But then, you know, the link is broken. So at the very least check with your guys or with your girls, with your software developer, with your whoever to be sure that this link that as you're going around blabbing and and touting and promoting, at least make sure that the link works.

So anyway, the link was broken. So I just, I just actually I just, I just left it because I've noticed that you anyway, let me just let me feed that one. Let me feed that thing. So it's a startup promoting startups in the Ebadon tech ecosystem. Now my guess since I don't know much about this thing is that if you are going to be promoting this sort of thing, right, my guess is perhaps you should be reaching out to Yoruba people or people who are currently resident around Lagos or go or your you know that that kind of area.

That's my guess. If you think if your thing is a startup that promotes startups in the Ibadan ecosystem, the reason why I'm saying Lagos and Ogo is because I'm thinking if the thing pops off in oil state, then you might as well eventually try and expand to Lagos and OGO. I'm thinking that's the most rational thing, maybe learning, I'm not sure. You know, I left over you in a while ago so I can't remember the geography of that area.

But so yeah, that's my guess. If you pop off in New York, you might want to now stretch enter or go enter Lagos and you know environments, then you should also be reaching out to people in the startup ecosystem and perhaps you should be reaching out to people who are in the Angel space, Angel investors, people who are in the VC space. Let's see, you know all those sorts of networks. So without knowing more about the idea, my guess is if that is your own startup, a startup promoting startups in Ibadan, my guess is those are the kinds of people that you should be reaching out to.

Now, for those of you who listen to the podcast, you guys know that I am neither of these things. I am not Yoruba. I am not resident in Lagos, Hugo or your alluring environs. I am not in the startup ecosystem. I am not an Angel. I am not so an Angel investor. I mean, I might be an Angel, you know, as a husband, you know, although some people disagree. I have some ex girlfriends who say I'm a devil, but for my wife, I'm an Angel.

I'm not a venture capital person. And you know, I don't flew in all those networks. So if I'm neither of these things, I see no reason why somebody who's trying to promote this sort of thing should be hitting me up in my inbox trying to promote that kind of thing Now, because social media, e-mail, all these things have made it easy to access a wider audience. We just believe that we should be accessing why the widest audience possible just because we can.

And I'm here to tell you that you should not. The goal is to send out things that are relevant and properly tailored and targeted to people. I keep saying it, there is no point in reaching out to 1,000,000 people and only have two or three take action. You are better off reaching out to only 50 people and then 10 people take action. I hope you guys see the math that I'm trying to hint at. It's not about how many people did I reach, it's about how many people took action.

So some of you send out these things like, oh, I sent out 1000 messages this week. You give yourself a pat on the back. What's the point if you send out 1000 messages this week but then the link that you put there, only 5 people now clicked. We did not be better that you take your time, make this thing, your outreach targeted and relevant. And even if you only send it to 10 people, in fact, if you send it to 1000 people and only 5

people take action, I think it's better that you had sent it to only 15 people and then five people take action. At the end of the day, the number of people that take action is the same, right? But the level of attrition level of people who ignored or whatever is way better. Almost in OK, well, I was going to say infinitely, I guess it's not infinitely better, but it's, it's way better that even though in either scenario there's only 5 people that take action,

there's a lot better that you reach out to 15 and five take action, then you reach out to 1000 and then five take action. Because algorithms are paying attention, you know, e-mail deliverability and all these sorts of things. I mean, this is a key factor. If Google notices that you're sending out emails to 1000 people and only 5 are taking action, I mean, don't you think you're going to be penalized at some point? But then if Google notices that you're sending out in batches of 15 and then every 15 you send five people, take action.

I mean, what do you think your stuff starts seeming more relevant or more useful Now, for those of you who are good at math, try and do the math. You send out to 1005 people, take action. What is the rejection rate? I'm not good at matter. I'm not going to bother at least. At least I'll need pen and paper to do that. Then you send it to 15 only if I have to take action. What is the rejection rate? All these algorithms are paying attention.

Then there's also another thing. Because we have access to a wide number of people, somehow we assume that the sum total of people that we can address is infinite. The truth of the matter is it is not infinite. If you are blasting out 1000 people every week by the time you get to the end of the year, I mean, think of the amount of bond bridges that you would have accumulated. When I say bond bridges, it's not as if you're going to make anybody angry.

But let's face it, I keep saying it on the broadcast that for those of us who are listening, who are business people, we are not like everybody else. So because I'm in sales and business development, you know, I click and I open and I check and once in a while I give feedback. But that's because I'm your brother. I mean, it's thing with you. So that's the reason why I check. You know, I don't know if it's guilty complex or you know,

like, or maybe I should just support my people. But the average person does not give a hoot. If you don't believe me, next time you're with your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband, your wife, just check. See as they're going through their inbox. My wife blocks like she's savage. The same thing with my mom. My mom blocks anyhow, if I one day somebody gave her a cold call to which she tackled the person had not told after afterwards I told her like,

mommy, that was harsh. Now this person is trying to do business just like me. I'm trying to do business. And my mom was like, oh, OK, yeah. And then she she calmed down. But The thing is, normal people, average people are savage. So you're sending out all these things and people are just blocking you. Block sent to spam report, sorry, report flag, flag as suspicious. Let's see what else. You know, all the numerous options that are available, what people are doing and you're burning bridges anyhow.

And these things take a toll. Well, not on you because it's not going to happen to you directly, but they take a toll on our deliverability and and the the ability of our messaging and our outreach, you know, to grow. So it's not infinite. You don't have access to an infinite audience. You're reaching out and trying to spam and trying to hit thousands of people up every month. You know, after a while, to be honest, you've, you've run through your, you've run through a whole host of people and then you have to start over again and it's not good.

Anyway, I guess the point of what I'm trying to say is this, in promoting your startup or your business idea or whatever on LinkedIn, spend time messaging only people that look close to the ICP, the ideal customer profile or to the ideal audience or to the ideal whatever of what you're trying to solve. So for someone who is in the startup space, creating a startup that promotes other startups in Ibadan, I really don't think you should be wasting your time sending messages to folks like me.

You should be looking to people who are Yoruba or who are resident in Lagos, Hubo or Europe around that, that kind of site. Look for people in the startup ecosystem. In fact, if you want to go beyond the geographic boundaries that I've given and you say you, you still insist you want to reach out to people in Abuja, at the very least reach out to someone in Abuja who is in the eco startup ecosystem. So on the podcast, I've spoken about the different startup hubs that we have here.

There's Avon hub. There used to be box office, box office closed down I think maybe 2-3 years ago. Let's see what else Avon box office. OK, I can't remember their names, but you know, they're, they're a couple. So just use your LinkedIn, you run a search based on the names. In fact, go to ChatGPT or Google Gemini and say give me a list of start up ecosystems and business incubators in Abuja. Pam, you hit send. It's going to give you a list.

You take that list, you now run to LinkedIn and then do a search based on that, on what came up there on LinkedIn. You search for the organization. The organizations will come up. You now follow those organizations on LinkedIn. After you follow you now click on the people tab on the business, on the business page on on the people tab. You want to see people who are employees of that organization and you'll be there, you know,

15 employees in sales, one person who is ACEO, another person who is an account or whatever. Then follow those people. Then you can now start sending these messages individually to those people because at least they are in the startup ecosystem. So this is how you should be doing the thing. Sit down, do some small brain work, try and figure out who should be my ICP, who should I be targeting? If you need help, that's why I

keep talking about artificial intelligence. Use charge GBT, use Gemini and ask it. It will help you. You say I am a startup founder in so so so so so so this is my startup idea. I'm trying to do outreach to people on LinkedIn who are the kind of people that I should be targeting. Pop send and then some options will come up. You know, follow the advice. Some will make sense, some won't make sense. For the ones that don't make sense, ignore, delete.

For the one that makes sense, try it out, execute on that and you'll be fine. So somewhere what I'm trying to say is let us try and increase our odds when we're reaching out to people. If you're excited about your startup, excited about your business, and you're the talk of the type, the promotional type, oh, very good. By all means, lean into it. That's the only way you're going to grow your hustle. Nobody will grow it on your behalf, at least until you can employ other people.

But in your excitement, if you're going to talk about it, make sure you talk about it only to people who are interested or who have a want or a need around what your startup is solving and who have a sense of urgency around it. Obviously just means people are ready to take action now if there's a sense of urgency around it, that's the reason why somebody will now click on the link. There's some people who try to manufacture urgency just like this guy by saying, you know,

click now. Free for 25 days. Something, something, something, something. Well, it works, but I really don't think it's the best. You know, I think I'll make a separate podcast about that. How to use urgency. Yeah, let me make a note about that urgency. Hold on. Let me even check my list. So I think I have. Do I can't find, I think I have a note somewhere about urgency I should tackle how to use urgency to get people to take action.

So anyway, just try and work with people who already have a sense of urgency around it and let somebody click in not because 25% free for now, something, something let them click in because they have a sense of urgency. They're genuinely interested and this thing might solve their problem. So yeah, that's a summary pretty much. So for those of you who want to evangelize, please don't just evangelize to people on LinkedIn because they are available and they have public profiles and you know, stuff like that.

Take time, do some research, make sure it is tailored, make sure it is relevant to people. And yeah, are they interested? They haven't want to. A need is their sense of urgency. So do it that way. You'll be fine. It is all about increasing the odds in your favour. If you are sending out 1000 messages and only 5 people respond, you are not increasing the odds in your favour, you are decreasing the odds in your favour. You know, I'm sure that is a 90

something percent rejection rate. Unlike if you send out to 15 people and then only 5 accept. In that case I suspect it's closer to what's the rejection rate there? Is that 75%? And I don't know. I don't know the math, but make the odds in your favour. Yeah. So that's what I can say for today. So thank you very much for listening to the show. Follow me on. Connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishma Aiuddin. I'm the host of the show.

If you check the link where you're listening to this episode, you see the correct spelling of my name. So you can search for the right person on LinkedIn. Sometimes it takes me a while before I respond, but definitely 24 hours. You definitely will hear from me. I'll accept your connection request, I'll shoot you a message because I like chatting to everybody who's a podcast listener for now. I mean, right now that the podcast, even though we're growing, realistically speaking,

it's still small. I mean, they're podcasts, like I said what I said and the honest bunch, you know, those just podcasts that they drop 1 episode and they get 10s of millions of listings and views. You know, I'm not at that level yet. So for those of us that were chilling right now, you know hundreds, you know thousands, I can still respond to you guys even if it takes a while, even if it takes me 24 hours, but you get to hear from me.

Then also you can connect from connect with me on on. What's that thing again? WhatsApp. Yeah, on WhatsApp the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode if I can find my notes where I wrote about urgency because that came up in a training that I did two weeks ago. And then we will run through that as well.

So that for those of you who are promoting your stuff on LinkedIn, you can use urgency in the right way. So I'll catch you guys at the next episode.