2295 - Essential LinkedIn Strategies for Meaningful Engagement with MAIA Digital's Shay Thieberg and Eli Igra Serfaty

0:04Well, hey, Thoughtful Leader. Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. On this show, I interview purpose-driven founders, experts, and change makers who are making a real impact in the world. Want to be a guest? Simple. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click podcast. I'd love to promote your story to our audience of over 100 ,000 and across over 2 ,300 daily episodes and counting. Want to get booked on other great shows like this? Simple. Go to podverified.com and get your free guest authority score. Thousands of hosts are looking for high quality guests and Podverified connects you the right way. Now let's dive into today's episode.

0:58With us right now, we've got two guests And I love it when this happens. We've got Shea Thiberg. Shea, great to have you here. And Eli Igras-Arfadi, you are each the co-founders of Maya Digital. We're going to be talking LinkedIn. And by the way, your website is team-maya.com. That's M-A-I-A. Gentlemen, it's great to have you. It's great to be here, Josh. Thanks for having us. Yes, yes, absolutely. Hey, before we get into things, I would love to just, and I didn't tell you this beforehand, but when you are not at work and, you know, maybe, you know, not doing the dad thing or whatever, but like, what do you do personally for fun lately?

1:47Like, what have you been into? I don't know, hobbies or anything that you've been geeking out on lately? And I know I'm surprising you with this, but what do you do when you're not at work and not doing the responsibilities? Yeah, so you cannot see, but I'm actually 6 '4", so I have to play ball. So that's from my end, I'm playing ball. Baseball or what do you play? No, basketball. Basketball, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. Excellent. Do you play with a group of others or you just get together? Five on five, all aggressive, all out, twice a week. Yeah. You know, I've talked with enough friends who said, you know, they've prioritized it and it is just, it's such a great outlet.

2:31You know, when we get older, it's a little harder to keep, make friends, adult friends, adult friending is hard. And so when you've got like, it is, and by the way, I'm so sorry, please. Yeah. Sorry. Except of sporting, the networking revolves around perfect. Like the best thing ever came up from just going to play some basketball, just having good friends, great connection, lots of businesses between all the team members. So amazing. I love it. I love it. I love it. Plus, it's just so good for like, you know, your emotional mental health as well. And just, you know, we need that social connection.

3:10Well, speaking of social connection, you guys are masters at LinkedIn. Do you mind just giving an overview of your work with Maya Group and the work that you do for your clients? Sure. So I previously worked in venture capital. So that was kind of like the first time that I'd gotten a glimpse into LinkedIn startups, the need and the gap in the market. We've been doing LinkedIn since 2019. So we have a LinkedIn agency. That's what Maya is. We focus on company page management, work with executives on thought leadership and employees, training them on employee advocacy and employer branding. So really anything and anything LinkedIn, that's us.

3:55Well, what I would love to get from you is a state of the union on where LinkedIn is today versus maybe years past. I think that there's a lot of outdated information. And if this is all you guys obsess on, give us the tea. What's going on in the LinkedIn world? So before we dive into that, I actually want to start with a trivia question to you, Josh. When do you think LinkedIn came out? What year? Oh, it's old. Like LinkedIn was way before Facebook and all those other ones. I am just completely spitballing. But let's see. I would imagine 2005, 2004? Not far. You want to take it? Yeah, it's actually 2003.

4:43Okay. Yeah. And back to your question. So one of the most amazing stats that we really like to showcase in front of people is that 63 % of LinkedIn users are not using TikTok. 45 % of LinkedIn users are not using Instagram and 34 % of LinkedIn users are not using Facebook. So a whole different type of audiences. And I think this is what usually moved the needle for companies and people who want to get into LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is usually the conception around it It is for job searches, but today LinkedIn is much more. A quick example, salespeople and business development executives who are using LinkedIn on a weekly basis are surpassing their quotas by 45%.

5:38So LinkedIn is changing. So yes, since 2003 till today, amazing. I think one of the main changes that we also saw, Josh, was back in 2016 when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for$26 billion, which back then was the most up until Elon Musk acquired Twitter or X, you know, whatever you want to call it today. and today LinkedIn has over 1 billion members globally. Four out of five of them are decision makers and really beyond where it was for just hiring or for job seekers, it's now a platform that companies and individuals need to be on. We kind of see our personal brands as another 401k or a pension fund that you have.

6:21The more, the earlier you come in, the more resources you put into it, the more you'll be able to enjoy it down the line. And it really goes with you everywhere. Yeah. What is the kind of behavior that LinkedIn likes to promote? And I share that because I think it can be pretty easy for a lot of us to look at LinkedIn as just some kind of a stage where we're just putting stuff out, a platform for broadcasting information. And my speculation is that LinkedIn is probably like, that's good, but we really want you to treat this a lot more like a social media platform and engage with people. Am I correct there?

7:04Maybe you could give me some more particular insights. Sure. So you said behavior. So I must say I'm actually a certified psychologist as well. So I really like the intersection between marketing and psychology. So if we're diving in to the behavior actually only one percent of the one billion plus users that Eli just mentioned only one percent of them are posting content on LinkedIn so the question is what all the other people are doing over there the answer is consuming content but if you want to amplify it if you want to take your personal branding to the next level our personal recommendation is to be engaged in comments.

7:49LinkedIn just released a few months ago the option for you to see how many impressions, how many people saw your comment. So a quick example, recently I commented on high executive profile posts and all of his networks saw my high value comment and more than 50 venture capital executives from the industry started to add me to their network. So comments are super powerful and can really help you build your brand. I think that's also one of the main shifts that we've seen, Josh, is LinkedIn being more of a holistic platform. So not just posting, it's really being present. That can be a post, that can be a comment, that can be a direct message in the inbox.

8:35And through, it's having these conversations, it's building the relationships, it's being generous and bringing value to your audience. And it doesn't, to be able to create trust, authority and credibility, you can't do that just one-off. You have to come from different angles, whether it's your personal profile, your company page, or your employees, each one depending on the stage of his ad or the needs of the individual or the company's itself. Yeah. May I ask about the state of LinkedIn sales navigator right now? I think that I've talked with folks in the lead gen world and a lot of frustration there.

9:12And I think in years past, and I can just say from my experience, I also talk with a lot of agency owners and B2B marketers that say, you know, you used to be able to just send out 100 messages a day. You could get some great business. I can just tell you this. Like, I don't look at my DMs. Like, I have someone else monitoring my DMs, and they'll let me know. And their job really is just to kind of keep me away from salespeople who are just kind of, you know, pitching at me. And how is that world going right now? I mean, those are just kind of some high-level notes I know of like my, you know, my energy around LinkedIn Sales Navigator and the DMs specifically.

9:54Have you heard about the 95-5 rule? No, no. Okay, so the 95-5 rule states that in any given moment, only 5 % of your ICPs are currently in the market for potential buying decisions. So actually 95 % of your ICPs are out of market. Now, if you're bombarding people with random messages and they haven't saw you before on a constant base, so that won't work for you. So our recommendation is for people who want to enhance and utilize the sales navigator is to be present. They need to build their presence on LinkedIn. it's either can be through comments like we just recommended before uh like eli stated like keep constant messaging posting from uh time to time um so that's about it from my end uh regard if i wanted to be a little bit tactical for the sales nightmare i'll split your question into two uh josh i think there's the sales navigator for the outreach point but there's also sales navigator for growing your network and being very effective in finding the right people that you should be connecting with, even not necessarily pitching them, definitely not pitching them or pitch slapping them, right?

11:14Having the conversations, making sure that your great work or that your content is being surfaced in front of them. Sales Navigator is very effective in finding those people through, it's a lot more advanced than the regular search. And having the conversations, I think one of the challenges that all of us are dealing, you were saying that you get bombarded in your inbox is AI and automations and just kind of in non-authentic conversations being sent off. But the DMs are very powerful. If you have conversations with people who are raising their hand in conversations, conversing with you, commenting with you, you're commenting with them, you see that you can really help them, then there's a way of how you would have a conversation.

11:58So I think it's all about of how people are using it. Unfortunately, there are many who aren't using it correctly but sales navigator is a very very powerful tool for the ones who use it correctly and just as a quick tip always use a foreplay always use a foreplay before you are engaging with someone maybe you should check his recent post maybe you should like one of his comments on one of his posts maybe you should reply to a comment he left it on someone else's post to draw his attention so foreplay also in your personal life but also in your professional on LinkedIn. Yeah. You know, and that's kind of my attitude about like DMs.

12:37It's like, whoa, why are you taking this personal? Like I, you know, and the same thing is like on Facebook too. Like there's, I don't like, it's, it's weird when someone starts commenting in my DMs. I'm like, dude, that's what I've got a wall for. And I'd be happy. That's how social media works. Like I don't have the bandwidth to, you know, talk with some folks if it's just, you know, something, Something that's not related to something I'm immediately looking for. You know, one question I want to ask you, because I know that you do a lot of great work on this, is profile optimization, page optimization.

13:12Now, this is really great timing for us because as of when we're recording this, we're getting ready to launch our beta for our new platform, PodVerified. And it's, you know, I need to update all of my social media branding to reflect the new brand. So I'm going to be in there anyway. I know that there are absolutely some areas that I can improve my LinkedIn profile. So, gentlemen, you happen to be looking at, because I shared this with you earlier, my Josh Elledge LinkedIn profile. I'm coachable. Tell me what needs to change. Let the roast begin. Yes, right. Start? Yeah. First and foremost - Roast my LinkedIn profile.

13:57I love it. I love it. First and foremost, you have a great profile, Josh. Oh, okay. Thank you. You can really see that you put the time and the effort into it. And you have, you know, if we're going, I'll start from the top and the basics, you know, for our listeners who maybe haven't put enough effort into their profile. So it's starting with the images, a profile picture. You have a clear profile. You're smiling, which I love. It makes it much more approachable. And now speaking with you, I can see that's very much the person that you are. The cover page as well, the cover photo, which is essentially the banner behind the profile that you will need to make for the new branding around PodVerified.

14:35I think one thing that I would add for you specifically, Josh, is you've worked with a lot of incredible companies and partnerships is maybe showing some social proof and adding that as well. That's a really, really strong real estate section. It's kind of the first thing that people say when they come into the profile. Your headline is great. I think it has a combination of what you do, your keywords, the value that you bring, and more social proof as well. And two more things from my end. So LinkedIn just launched the possibility to add another cover image. Yeah, I saw on yours, you have a slideshow and that looks gorgeous.

15:14Yeah, the slideshow is amazing. But you can also, you have a premium account. You can also use a website, a direct website link right below your headline. So that's another thing that you should utilize. One last thing for your profile, because you are an advanced LinkedIn profile, someone with advanced LinkedIn profile, I would definitely recommend you to add a newsletter to your profile. It's totally free. every new follower or connection will be asked if he also automatically if you want to join your as a subscriber to your newsletter and you can launch as many as additions as you want it can be a summary of your recent podcast it can be more promotional stuff but the best thing about LinkedIn newsletters.

16:11They are totally free. They have SEO settings, so they can also be appeared on Google and only 1 % of LinkedIn users are using them. Oh my goodness. So it's a blue ocean for you to utilize and get your content more visible also on Google and make people to subscribe also to your content and not only for your profile. I am writing this all down. Get a LinkedIn newsletter going. You know, that makes a lot of sense because I'm really interested in producing some more long-form, long-ish-form, medium-ish-form content, you know, that I think would be at that kind of that suitable length for LinkedIn.

16:55Gentlemen, explain your services, what you do. So if you go to teammaya.com, and I know you've got some really great resources as well, Share kind of next steps from someone that's listening to us. So as you mentioned, we have our website, team-maya. And it's with an I, it's important. Maya is the Greek goddess of growth as opposed to Maya with a Y, which is the Mayan. So really on our website, we have our tutorial hub. We have our blog. We have a lot of free resources that we share on there. We're very, very active on our personal profiles. So Eli and Shai, and of course, our company page for Maya Digital on LinkedIn.

17:34We're openly sharing about best practices and strategies and updates and really anything that an individual or company should be taking into consideration when building on LinkedIn. And in terms of our services, so we got the LinkedIn trifecta, which are services for HR, marketing and sales. So it can be either company page management, thought leadership for executives, employer branding. So we got it all covered. We're writing content. We're doing the entire graphic designs. We're doing the entire paid campaigns. So an A to Z LinkedIn agency. We like to call it, Josh, when you put all of these things into motion, the company, the personal profile, which is the base and the individuals and the company page, organic, paid, all of it, call it ROL, the return on LinkedIn, the time, the money, the resources that you put into LinkedIn, the more you do it, to more compounds and we'll return to you positive.

18:29Well, Eli and Shay, it's been a great conversation. Your website, teammaya.com and that's M-A-I-A. You also have a podcast, which you've got, by the way, you've got a lot of resources. If you hover over resources, you'll see your podcast that you've got running. And then is that, oh, it's not in English, writes in Hebrew? Yeah, I will say, unfortunately, the podcast currently is only in Hebrew. So if someone wants to learn a new language, maybe someone can figure it out from there. But we will have more content coming out on English. We do have the tutorial hub, which is English video. So everyone feel free to go there.

19:10And your free profile score. Yeah. And that's a profile score as well. So you can check that out as well. So just right there. That's easy. Just click on that, get your free profile score and you can see how you stack up. Well, gentlemen, it's been great. Thank you. Again, each Eli, Egray Serfati and Shea Thyberg. Thank you so much for joining us. Co-founders of Team Maya on the web at team-maya.com. Thanks, gentlemen. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Josh.

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