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An opportunity sits in front of you and there is no price, but your time and commitment for claiming it. LinkedIn is a free resource and Justin Clark sat down to talk about how it helps leaders take their cleaning operations to the next level.
LinkedIn: First Impressions
What is your first impression of LinkedIn?
Is it of a thriving community full of intelligent, witty, and caring individuals seeking to help each other grow?
LinkedIn, like any growing social platform, can be many things depending on how you use it and who you interact with. For me, it’s exactly as I mentioned above, but it wasn’t always.
At first, LinkedIn came off as a place where I went to create a resume-like profile, impress recruiters, and further my future career. End of story.
I didn’t like the coldness of my first impression of LinkedIn, so I took a long break before eventually making my way back.
The difference is who and what I interact with and in how authentically I present myself. This month’s podcast guest, Justin Clark, has also said as much. If your network is full of people who are motivated and have a growth mindset, then the content you absorb and interactions you have will hold more value for you.
If your first impression of LinkedIn wasn’t quite what you hoped for, don’t despair. First impressions actually aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be. You wouldn’t want someone to write you off just because you didn’t knock it out of the park in the first 2 minutes, would you?
A Growing Ocean of Possibility
Imagine that the professional you desired for a position at your company a year or two ago just messaged you wanting to join your team.
You’re a growing and thriving company with plenty of room to fit them in and you know they’ll be a huge asset. They message you because of your LinkedIn profile and the interactions you’ve had with them there over time. They feel like they know you and, through you, the company.
If you’re thinking that this is a fantastical dream, but not going to happen then look at Justin. He recently had a similar experience.
He’s also established business relationships, connected better to team members throughout Kelsan, and gained knowledge from outside the industry that proved invaluable to his operations.
The Jan-San population on LinkedIn is growing, but not overly saturated like other industries. There’s a lot of room to join the platform and become a leading voice.
Just Be Yourself. No Really.
The important thing to keep in mind is that your profile is like a first impression. Yes, I said first impressions aren’t everything, but they’re still important. You want your profile to be clean, professional, and to represent you.
Like Justin talked about, authentic is better! No one wants a robot or a sales pitch. When they hit that connect or follow button, they’re looking to meet the real person behind the magic you create for your business.
The same goes for when you post or comment. Stop overthinking things and just focus on sharing your voice. Make it a little more personal and relatable.
Don’t Be a Pitch Slapper
You might be asking, “What is a pitch slapper, Halie? Did you make this up?”
I didn’t but someone else coined the term in recent history and it stuck with me. Unfortunately, I can’t find the original LinkedIn post that inspired the use of this term in our most recent podcast episode.
Pitch slapping is when someone connects to you or drops into your DMs and immediately tries to sell to you. These days at least half of the times we’re pitch slapped, it’s not even by an actual person but by some kind of automation they’ve set up.
Don’t get me wrong, as a software company, we love automation at Janitorial Manager, but this is not the same thing.
Automation is great for brand and product or service awareness. It’s also great for cutting back on mundane everyday tasks that take too long. However, when it comes to actual connectivity and relationship building, the reason why people join LinkedIn, it’s not a substitute.
Imagine receiving a random text from your distant cousin George. It’s 11:12 pm, you’ve just rewatched that Netflix show you swore you’d never watch, and he’s sent you two paragraphs about his latest electrostatic sprayer. Looking closely, it might even say “sponsored” under his name. 1) You already have an electrostatic sprayer. 2) You’ve already picked out which white noise you’re using for tonight. Finally, 3) you didn’t ask.
That’s what pitch slapping is and I can promise you, even other sales professions don’t appreciate it.
In Summary
Be genuine and open to new ideas when you join LinkedIn. Don’t expect to gain a sudden following or connect to thousands of renowned business leaders right off the bat.
LinkedIn is about building genuine relationships and sharing ideas. People who are active on LinkedIn come to the community to grow.
You don’t have to have the most amazing content on the planet or offer the most insightful comment. All people expect is that you be you and respect others on the platform (aka no pitch slapping).
About Our Guest(s):
Justin Clark
VP of Sales - Kelsan
Justin Clark is the VP of Sales at Kelsan, one of the first Jan-San distributors in East Tennessee and based out of Knoxville. Kelsan is one of the largest distributors for its region and boasts maintaining healthy and mutually-beneficial customer relationships.
Justin himself is a rising star on LinkedIn, despite all of his protests. While he may not have the largest follower count, he does have an impressive amount of engagement on the platform and has truly turned it into a relationship builder.