Unleash the Power of Personal Branding on LinkedIn, Chat With Salina Yeung

Yasi: Good morning Salina. Welcome to Fast track podcast. 

Salina Yeung: Thank you for having me. 

Yasi: My first question to you. Is that you are LinkedIn expert, right. And also a coach. So tell the audience, what do you do as a LinkedIn expert and coach? 

Salina Yeung: I opened my own company called a, uh, an Academy. Maybe some of you have heard about my company name is called LinkedIn pro.

So as a LinkedIn expert and coach, I turn brands and individual into LinkedIn expert that can maximize their results and unlock the full potential on LinkedIn, because I used to work for the company. And I know that in and out of how. My responsibility is basically turning bar brands as well as individual into LinkedIn expert that can maximize their result and unlock the full potential here on LinkedIn. So some of my clients where rich out typically when they’re looking for help and support to generate leads for the business.

Or boost their overall brand awareness or land their jobs on LinkedIn. So they will come and ask me and why I think I am a LinkedIn expert is because I used to work for them. And I know that in and out of how then tar platform operates as well as some of the really like secret tips and hacks about the platform.

So that’s why I decided to open my little small digital space called the in Academy. Yeah. 

Yasi: Okay. Sounds interesting because I’m sure a lot of audience would be interested in knowing how to utilize like LinkedIn to its fullest and then today maybe work tips from you. 

Salina Yeung: Yeah. I hope I can share a couple of tips.

And more, 

Yasi: you mentioned that in the past you work for LinkedIn, the company, what did you do there? 

Salina Yeung: This is a really interesting questions and I got asked a lot. Yeah, let’s see. So my role and my position is called the account director and I work under the arm of marketing. So, um, within LinkedIn marketing solution team, So, uh, as a brand ambassador, I basically, my responsibility is consult businesses globally on how they can best leverage LinkedIn to connect with their target audience, how their true brand story in more, uh, impactful and creative ways.

So my team are responsible to market and sell a LinkedIn business solution, uh, across, you know, different verticals. And as you know, like LinkedIn is a professional platform, but LinkedIn actually really target at specific verticals. And there’s like, I think four of that and more there they’re adding it, but financial services, TAC verticals, um, uh, health care, uh, as well as higher education.

And we help these company from. And to, uh, uh, enterprise level to, you know, mid-size company to even like SMB or even startup to reach there. Um, KPI. So that’s my role at LinkedIn. 

Yasi: Mm I’m sure. You have learned a lot about this products and their services and all the detailed functions.

And then now you are, uh, having your own company, right? The link Academy or the ING Academy. 

Salina Yeung: That’s the In academy. You got it, right? Yes. 

Yasi: And why did you make the change? Why did you start your own company now? 

Salina Yeung: Long story short. I was in long. Like very, very long, long distant relationship for my husband for five years actually. And, um, I think we talk a little bit about it before this session. So it was really interesting to hear from you Yasi and COVID hit. Uh, 2020, a light last year in early February and March. And we can’t like, we no longer be able to basically catch the flight next day to fly, to, um, to see each other.

And it may, uh, both of us realize, you know, it’s so difficult. Um, how can we stay in touch and. Um, the longest time we’re being away and not be able to physically see each other as six months. Right. And got us realized the party of live. And we’re also, I mean, I am very worried whether my, my husband will got COVID or he’s very worried about me, um, as well.

So my manager is actually really understanding by then. I’m still working for LinkedIn and allow out me to work remotely a bit, but it’s really difficult because most of my clients is not based out of Europe. There’s a huge time difference with my team, um, that I’m locating far away. And I think is only fair for also my team and my clients that is not ideal way to basically a system.

So I finally decided to quit my job and you know, how much I love LinkedIn. And I dropped out. I really, really like, because I think people are, the company is great. The management, the leadership is fantastic. I’m learning a lot, like you said, it’s just a really not just put member first, which is, you know, LinkedIn members first, but also they put employee first and they have not just say it.

They really do it. But anyway, everyone in the company is super shock. But I think like basically in the bottom of my heart, this is. The right thing to do no matter what. So I decided to move to Luxembourg Europe and try to find, you know, a job, a tech job.

And I look for like head of digital marketing position. I look for social media marketing position. because you know, it’s very marketing and communication centric. I got interview, but they all asked me, do you speak another continental, European languages? And that’s why I was like, wow,Yasi you speak like fluent German.

And, and you understand, you know, other different languages. That’s amazing. But for me, I am just English. So it was really difficult. Then I just like, totally miserable. And I just, you know, you know me saying, Oh me, I love to connect, uh, with friends and family. So I decided to just, talk to different people about this and then they suggested me why aren’t you start something related to LinkedIn and even.

One of my very, very close friends, as I, you know, you have been popping up on LinkedIn quite a lot with your video and stuff. And I was like, I never thought about it. So it started all with this, like just block calling LinkedIn dash pro. It’s purely blog as well as I just share my monthly video there.

Right. And it just got blown up. I got like old clients. Messaging me and I knew people messaging me on the website and that contact house, um, little click is not even easy to see. So I’m just very surprised. Then I have a lot of positive feedback from it. And, um, I learn a lie how to launch my own digital course, because I see a need for it, for people to know how to basically learn LinkedIn and build their personal brand on LinkedIn. Uh, so I, I started this called complete LinkedIn personal brand master course, which I can find it in the internet, but I don’t think people really do it right.

Especially is really coming from an ex-LinkedIner like it’s LinkedIn or how to approach it, how to really do it. Step-by-step do it right. Not really just accelerate and just do it for one week because to me, personal branding is like a long journey. I talked to my clients, I talk to my friends. Everyone has the same answer.

So. So, yeah, promote it for three weeks and I got like 12, um, people signing up and then 15 and slowly, it just take off. And now we’re yeah, it’s it’s it’s at this stage now. 

Yasi: Congratulations. And I think it’s also very, it’s a very inspiring story because, um, due to COVID, you know, I discuss with other people as well on my podcast, or I was a podcast guest . a lot of people lost their jobs, it could be the company was experiencing a financial difficulty or you personally, because you wanted to reunite with your family. So people need to start to think out of the box, if. If the job did not exist in the marketplace, create your own to understand what’s your strengths, what’s your experiences, how you can bring value to other people.

I think this is a really great story and it’s very inspiring and I’m glad that it took off. Yeah, 

Salina Yeung: yeah, me too. Or, um, um, I’m like really surprised and I will say it lucky that I have tons of friends and family that I can talk to. By then, cause I was really miserable. I was thinking, Oh, once I move nothing for me, I lost a part of myself, like what I’m really good at.

And I start questioning myself. But later, slowly I think, yeah, just, just really let you set, owning your strength and finding that. And um, no matter what, you just create a opportunity for yourself. Right. And 

Yasi: also what I like you did is to talk with your friends and families. Like you have a support group to help you.

That’s why you get ideas, right. Then you move along with this idea, and then now you have the in Academy. 

Salina Yeung: Absolutely. Yeah. I think I wouldn’t have pushed myself and, you know, create this little digital space. 

Yasi: How can individual professionals benefit from personal branding on LinkedIn? Because many have not came across this idea that, Oh, I need to build my personal brand on LinkedIn. So what are the benefits they can get from it? 

Salina Yeung: I’ll start by, uh, giving three really great data point, um, before a gentleman to the benefit.

Um, that actually is self explanatory data point. The very first one is I think I checked yesterday. 766 million of user, uh, right now it’s the world’s largest professional network. So every two seconds when we’re talking or there’s one new member joining LinkedIn. And so this is data point number one, the other data point, well, I would like to share is 80% of B2B leads, B2B, which is business to business leads are actually from LinkedIn.

And the last data point it’s really, really good for job seeker. It’s there is 14, 14 plus million open jobs. So this is a very powerful platform to really engage with people that it matter to you as well as your business and get most updated industrial news or like. Trend happening. And, um, you can also attract talents there because you got a lot of people looking for jobs, right.

Um, and it’s like a sales and marketing brand branding assets that you can really get resolved, um, exponentially in your own business, um, growth. I’ll see LinkedIn as a, in a very unique spot, uh, to change the way how we hire. How we sell, how we market as well as how we learn, as you know, LinkedIn also have LinkedIn Learning.

Those are, I would say the top, top, top benefit, all the, um, uh, really focusing on building your personal brand on LinkedIn. 

Yasi: And then I have a big question to you. Uh, yeah, you, you, you can, uh, pick some important points for individuals who have never done personal branding on LinkedIn. How can you advise them to start?

Salina Yeung: Great question. And it just so many ways to start. Um, I always share with my clients has really depended on which stage of life they are at. Right? Cause I got clients that is just out of business school and they are really looking for a great opportunity installed, start building up. Their voice. I also have like corporate CEO or CFO coming to me like, so you’re not, I love your stuff.

And I want to amp up my brand. So it was really depending on which life stage you’re at. But if I’m talking about general, right? Uh, I will basically put maybe five steps for us to assess personal branding strategy on LinkedIn. The first one is you need to know who you are, what you’re known for, like, what’s your strength, right?

Which w which we talk about, like Jase. You’re so good with talking with people. You’re a great collaborator. Uh, for me, I, I know from day one is that I love marketing and. I enjoy really talking with different people, connect with different people. So I know I’m just really good with, you know, getting people to buy in with this great idea and help them to achieve their goals.

So I will say first is really knowing, understanding what’s you’re good at and then set your goals once you know what you’re good at set your goals like long-term or short-term doesn’t matter. You need to know. What you are looking for, right? What’s your KPI. And second step will be defined and understanding your audience .

Those are really very important. And a third will be already amping up your LinkedIn profile, which is making sure you have all the information you have. Have a complete LinkedIn profile from, you know, your, your photo from your cover photo from your headline. To your work experience to our scales and endorsements recommendation, you make sure everything is complete so that when people are coming in with opportunity and go into your profile, there will be like, Oh, I sort of know you.

Because you have built your profile with tons of information. So that will be the third 0.4 point is more effort, really from an individual is to embrace what networking like I love networking, and I think there’s a strong, strong power of networking is to get know knowing new people. So that’s really important.

And last but not least, which not a lot of people are doing it at the moment. The fifth step is to post content and engage. Uh, that’s a key point to engage with experts and industry leaders because that’s based on LinkedIn, I worked for them. That will hopes you, uh, as an individual to basically push your profile and increase your visibility more because you post content, you’re sharing your voice, but at the same time, you’re engaging with some of the, you know, influencer or more people that follow them type of profile.

So they will see your comments and they will see your engaging. So in a way, It helps two way to, uh, have a higher visibility of your own profile. 

Yasi: Hmm. Love this five steps, very clear. And then everyone can start to follow it. I will for sure. Share this part audiogram. This is like what people should do, right.

And on the other hand, what are the mistakes do you think they should avoid? 

Salina Yeung: Wow. Really good question. Mistake. Just so many. You mean mistake by building their personal brand or mistake on LinkedIn in general in general. Okay in general. Oh, there’s just so many, but I’ll just share some annoying ones.

I’m pretty sure you might have experienced that as well. There’s people just basically connect with you. I mean, I, I am those people that I would connect and accept people invite as long as their LinkedIn profile is quite complete and I can see why they want to connect with me, but if you don’t even have a profile picture and you have like maybe three connection, I’ve thought it’s, you need to build that up first.

Right. I would say a common mistake of these people are not really genuinely wanna build a deeper relationship with somebody. So they don’t really care. Just wildly sending invites to people so that I would say that might be a, one of the big mistake of not focusing on themselves to really update their LinkedIn profile.

The other mistake is similarly, they sent an invite, I accepted a connection invite and they decided to basically sell something to me right away. And I hate that so much. Spend time to understand who I am before selling it to me.

How do you know that solution is really right for me? Right. And I also. Tons of people asking me right away. Now I opened my own company, right? So I’m a founder, I’m a CEO. I have people that asking me whether they I’ve got a job that I’m hiring at the moment. I mean, I would love to hire you, but first I need to know who you are, what you can offer.

So I think these are the two that annoys me the most selling me right away and asking me to hire them right away. 

Yasi: And I really agree with you. When someone sent me a LinkedIn invite and I thought, Oh, he or she has a very interesting profile.

I thought, okay, let’s connect. But once we connected, instead of reaching out to understand, you know, what do you do? Or, you know, how, why we connect with each other, the person just straight away sent me an offer. And I. Uh, yeah, I, I really don’t like that sometimes. I just remove the person. 

Salina Yeung: No, yeah, yeah. I should be thinking about that.

Yeah, obviously. Great, great idea. I never thought about removing it from a connection. I just got. Really annoying. 

Yasi: Because in the past, uh, I didn’t remove people in that sense, but there was someone who keeps sending me messages every now and then, like this offer that offer, like, I’d never replied a message, but I and I look in the history, you know, chat, don’t like five to seven different offers. 

Salina Yeung: Yeah. That is too much. And it’s, it’s just sad, uh, how people decided to approach LinkedIn in this way. Right. Whereas there is, on the other hand, there’s people, genuinely want to build a relationship with you, right? So I hope people are really going more on the other side, leveraging LinkedIn in a positive way. So I would say generally these are the biggest mistake I would say.

Um, and the very first one out again, it’s not being authentic and maybe trying to become somebody else. I would say these are some of the common mistakes. Yeah. 

Yasi: With, not trying to be authentic, I think is so important. 

Salina Yeung: I agree. So I think from that end. Um, again, I hope there’s more people realizing it and sometimes I love to tell the analogy like dating. If you see this really good looking girl, very good looking guy at a bar you really want to get in, you know, Date date them because they’re really good looking and you think there is a potential, right?

You won’t just go up there and say, Hey, you give me your phone number. Don’t want to date. You would just by, Hey, what’s up, and introducing each other, step-by-step I sometimes explain when my clients as well, because some of them are in corporate sales and some are executive recruiter, I know how confident they are with their product and services that they are selling.

But I also tell them, think about this is a journey. You don’t really just come up with someone and ask them for phone numbers and, and, and. Go directly to selling. Right. You need step-by-step to get to know each other. And if they liked me, you like them, they will consider to swipe. Right, right. But yeah, don’t, don’t do it.

Yasi: I been linking should have this function, you know, swipe left and right. Instead of accept and ignore that. Yeah. 

Salina Yeung: Maybe. Yeah. They should consider having that. Yeah, 

Yasi: no, we talk about like, What people should not do, um, in terms of how they want to sell their products or services, what should people do?

Like freelancers or solopreneurs. They want to grow their business on LinkedIn. How should they approach potential customers? 

Salina Yeung: It’s going back to your objectives as well as what stage of your business are at the moment.

Like if you’re a solo entrepreneur, is it already like, it’s, it’s flying, there’s tons of orders. You have tons of sales upcoming, or you just start it. Uh, but I will recommend, always start with your own LinkedIn profile, then you ecan. Um, you know, make sure it’s a complete LinkedIn profile. I always tell my clients, there is a thing called all star LinkedIn profile.

You can Google that. It’s actually the basic foundation of LinkedIn. So if you miss one single thing of your LinkedIn profile, you would not get to that level. And once you do not get to that level, LinkedIn do not really push your profile to as many , people possible for you. So you’re losing a lot of opportunities.

So I would say first start with your own LinkedIn profile. The other will be the LinkedIn company page. And I know a lot of people don’t really focusing on that, but again, it’s totally free.

Imagine as a free Facebook page as a free Instagram company page as a free YouTube business page. Right? So similarly, LinkedIn have that too, but the beauty of it as the organic rich, like we talk about organic, rich, a lot on LinkedIn and a personal individual level is huge, but I tell you, company pages, even bigger, if they really.

Consistently building the brand. I would say the followers growing the trajectory is even higher. And there are so many free resources on LinkedIn that could help you to grow business from the company page, um, perspective. You can do, uh, invite people. With your network or to follow your page, this new product features is launching is called the page review.

Uh, it’s upcoming too, which is fantastic because that will give your brand a huge credibility, right? And, um, I love to host a live LinkedIn live all the time on hosting events over there too. Uh, you can also, if you’re a huge company, uh, or you’re a freelancer, or you need someone to help you, you want to attract talent.

You can build employee branding there too. And as a sole entrepreneur, You are a pretty tight in budget. Sometimes you need someone to help you, right. LinkedIn also offer one free job post for you as well. As SMB or small business owners or startups, I think that it will be quite helpful for, for people to grow a business.

Yasi: For Solopreneurs and freelancers, like they can actually have a company page and they use their company page to promote on LinkedIn rather than their own personal page because of the algorithm or LinkedIn help to promote. Company page or otherwise? 

Salina Yeung: Not necessary, but I always like to differentiate what you post content on linkedIn personal profile are different from what you’re posting on company, because on LinkedIn personal profile. What I usually do with the ratio. When I’m talking with the clients, it will be 80, 20. 80 will be what you are sharing with your voice. As it could be your knowledge. It could be, you know, something, you learn something that you want to share a voice with with your audience, but the other 20 could be promotional things, but vice versa as a company level, you can do with 33%, 33%, 33%, which I call it the rule of thirds. So that will be like a one third of it will be just, you know, pushing for product. One third of it will be pushing some of that inside of your company. It could be, you know, highlighting their culture, things like that. And then another 30 would be sharing what happened out there. It could be like a third resources, like business insider. It could be like a publication. It could be a blog that it’s like external and you just sort of share it over there and share your views. So I would say it’s like a rule of third. So the content really, really different.

And the approach are really, really different, yeah. 

Yasi: Yeah, I think it’s already a little bit advanced compared to start to build the all star LinkedIn profile, then you might need to think about yeah. How you strategize your personal profile and the, how you strategize your company profile. If you have not had one yet for your business.

Salina Yeung: Yeah. That’s a good point. Yeah, but to your point, having a company profile is so important because that’s where people search you online. Like if you, especially, like you said, as a freelancer or so, so, um, preneurs. Yeah. So per nurse

entrepreneur, Uh, the first thing, when you have the work experience is they look, uh, for your company page. Right. And if that company page don’t even have a logo, they don’t have what it’s over there, then they will wonder what is your company really do. So that’s why I think it’s so important to have a company page.

Yasi: And what do you think is the personal branding trend in the coming year? 

Salina Yeung: I would say it’s really ties back to, COVID, I think we COVID, people are seeking for like new opportunity to interact and engage with other people. 

They felt like they couldn’t get what they wanted. They can’t go to conferences. They can’t go for coffee, meet up. They can’t travel, see their friends or their, their contact. Right. So it was really, really difficult. And also you can’t even go to work, right? 

So it all leads to one thing that I think it’s going to be the trend moving forward as to build stronger and bigger virtual connection. And that includes new online communities. For example, we just talk about earlier, like this clubhouse new, like digital communication tool just happening, Twitch had been happening quite some time, but it’s blown up even more because there’s such a strong gamer culture.

When people start at home, what they do, they watch Netflix. They play more games, right? Yeah. Or YouTube. Exactly. Then they, a lot of new online communities or groups. Right. And one-on-one videos like us, what we’re doing and will be the norm. Not necessarily a trend, but it will be a norm because like email and texting is not enough. I would say a trend will be craving for experiences and more authentic story online, uh, because they are craving for communication, become even more authentic and like in a way that it’s very emotional.

So they get connected with those story because everyone is on the same, under the same situation. And the more people decided to share more of the story. Um, the better it is. And, um, but you know, in terms of like more entrepreneurial as a CEO, as a founder of my company, I also felt there’s a shift in terms of how, how I hire people .

We’ll hire people that may be not necessary having a degree or having experience or needs to have like a solid place to work. Like you need to book them a coworking space, not necessary and how they provide value.

It’s their own terms. Um, as long as that person get their jobs done. So, yeah, so I would say these will be all the trends that I will see for 2021. 

Yasi: I, I do agree that, cause you said nowadays people are spending their most of the time online and then connect online or even find jobs online.

So to have a strong, personal branding online, it’s even more crucial that in the past and for most of the beginners, let’s say have never you know, experienced how to build a personal brand online. Uh, what, what can you help from your in Academy? Like what do you teach people there? 

Salina Yeung: So we offer basically four grand pillars.

The one that I mentioned earlier as a complete course, because some people really enjoy taking courses, which is online courses. So we do the complete LinkedIn personal Grandmaster at chorus, which is a full week program. I’ll guide them. Step-by-step. From, you know, how you understand who you are, your strengths, like, you know, the five-step that I share with you earlier, uh, to, you know, understanding your audience and understanding all LinkedIn I’ll guide them step by step to amp up their LinkedIn profile from zero to hero.

And then to, you know how they can blast content to, share their voices as well as become a thought leader or subject matter expertise and teach them how to connect with people that matters to the business. Um, so this is one thing that we do. I also offer, I know some people not enjoyed it. A group courses they’re like Selena, I want just your food dedication. So I also are working with some clients are actually globally I’ve clients from the us. Um, clients, uh, back in Hong Kong, I have clients also in, and, and Europe and Switzerland and Luxembourg, and they will do one-on-one training with me, um, and the same process.

Um, so, but so for individual like that and for corporate level is to how they can leverage LinkedIn company profile, which is not a lot of people know how to do that. And that again, We’ll be a bespoke solution depending on that company, which day they’re at, which goal they’re looking into.

Uh, for example, some are just purely looking into driving followers or some are driving repeats or some want to do employee brand name. Then I will base out of their objectives and just set up like a bespoke solution or strategies for them. And that will usually work for at least three months as the minimum timeline, because that’s how you slowly develop a company page, right.

It can’t be day one. Bam. You. You got a thousand followers, right? 

Yasi: That’s a lot of people want a lot of company want from day one today two bam. 

Salina Yeung: I know tells you about it. And I, I know a lot of clients just want that. Like, you know, I want tomorrow 300 followers just slow down, slow down. Let’s let’s think about the strategies.

So we offer that. And last but not least, I do a speaking event. Like he knows speaker even for different client. Based out of their objectives, they are looking to amping up there. They’re all like corporate sales team and marketing team, their LinkedIn profile to making sure.

They can express how they want as well as, also in a way it helps them to distribute their company content as well. Right. I can eliminate that. So, yeah. So those are the four brand pillars and services that we offer. 

Yasi: Okay. So ranging from individuals to corporates. 

Salina Yeung: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Yasi: My last question is where can people find you on internet and where can people learn more about the IN Academy course? 

Salina Yeung: You can find me in a lot of different places, but mostly I will be the girl, the LinkedIn girl on LinkedIn and all the time, you will see me popping up.

So you can find me on LinkedIn, Selena young. And um, if you want to know more about my story, you can visit my website, the In Academy, um, dot com. And you can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Twitter or YouTube. Pinterest. I am working with my team to open RG as well as clubhouse. So wait for that.

Follow me on LinkedIn. You will get daily insight about LinkedIn tips some of the secret sources and you can also subscribe to my company page. I will send them amazing playbook, like a playbook, some of the secret hacks that I’ve put together, a research with my team.

So to make sure you all can have a very successful journey, um, reaching your goals on LinkedIn. 

Yasi: Fantastic. So I make sure all the links are in the show notes. So checkout Salina Yeung and also for company. And then I’m looking forward to the ink Academy course and hope everybody can learn a lot from that.

I just feel like personal branding is so important nowadays it’s much easier for a marketing person to understand, but maybe for engineers. So software programmers, they take, they need some time to understand the importance of having personal brand on internet. 

Salina Yeung: Absolutely. I know. I love your point. I actually indeed one of my client, uh, he’s working for Ebay Switzerland.

Um, he’s a software engineer and, um, it got me quite some time to basically convince him how important it is for his personal brand. And now he’s working for Google. For the same job, better pay and happier. So again, it there’s so much amazing benefit. Once you really decided to invest in yourself and build up your personal brand, because that’s your reputation and nobody can take away from you.

Yasi: Thank you very much for the content and the great tips. Nice to have you here. 

Salina Yeung: Thank you and same Yasi. Thank you so much for inviting me.