Tajuana Ross, The LinkedIn Professor On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business
Know what to do with the allocated time. This is outside of optimizing your own profile. I encourage people to make it a priority to go onto other people’s profiles and endorse them in the skills that they want to be found for. Many don’t know that the skills section on someone’s profile are actual search commands. So, when you click any of those skills that are listed, you’re performing a search for that skill. When you endorse someone, (for example, speaking), it reinforces your relationship with them as well as widens your own footprint. This is a simple and quick strategy, but has a dramatic impact.
Some people spend mindless hours on social media with no intention at all. However, Tajuana Ross, The LinkedIn Professor, and CEO of Get Over Yourself Coaching is in the business of getting real business done. Period. Over the past 7 years, she has helped scores of entrepreneurs and professionals to position, leverage and capitalize on the presence and superpower of LinkedIn. We recently caught up with her to talk more about this often-under-utilized platform.
Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience? (In other words, what makes this possible?)
Well, LinkedIn of course. One of my clients, Christon Jones, who is a 14-year-old entrepreneur and now international speaker. His goal and dream were to become a Les Brown speaker and travel internationally. Once we got his presence on LinkedIn optimized, that’s exactly what he was able to do from that point. He has been able to travel to three different continents. He is an in-demand certified speaker, author and is a documented millionaire. A young man who made up his mind that he wanted to use LinkedIn to be seen and grow his visibility. This was accomplished by his brand messaging, engagement execution and implementation of the right strategies to be picked up by the platform’s algorithms. It caught the attention of the people as well as the tool itself — the tool positioned him to be found.
Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business?
Create a business page. I’m shocked at the amount of business owners that I run into that do not have a page. They may have a profile but not an actual business page. This is often overlooked and under-utilized.
Grow a tribe of followers. True followers mean that people are actually consuming your content. They are also most likely to share your quality content. So having followers as a part of your tribe makes a huge difference.
Be present and show up! Show up and be engaged. One thing that may actually drive consistent engagement that is the app on your phone or tablet. I’m still surprised at how infrequently people use the tool. Showing up and being there on a regular basis dramatically increases your visibility.
Reserve 5 minutes per day. We can all agree that this amount of time is not too long. It puts you in the habit of consuming and responding to content. You can have short yet quality conversations on LinkedIn with just a few minutes per day right from your inbox. I think being intentional and making the time to do it is essential above all. This really encourages people to jump on the tool and understand the superpower that is right within reach of their fingertips.
Know what to do with the allocated time. This is outside of optimizing your own profile. I encourage people to make it a priority to go onto other people’s profiles and endorse them in the skills that they want to be found for. Many don’t know that the skills section on someone’s profile are actual search commands. So, when you click any of those skills that are listed, you’re performing a search for that skill. When you endorse someone, (for example, speaking), it reinforces your relationship with them as well as widens your own footprint. This is a simple and quick strategy, but has a dramatic impact.
Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
To empower people to get the point where self-talk is more productive. This is why my company, Get Over Yourself, was created because the core of my business was about shifting your mindset so that you can achieve your goals. However, the mindset and self-talk that I hear so often is really destructive. So, the movement I would create is to encourage people to have more healthy self-talk and conversation to produce better results. The way we talk to ourselves is so important, and what I’ve learned is that when we can have better dialogue when speaking to ourselves, then by default, we’ll have better conversations with each other.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career? When did you discover that LinkedIn was going to be your platform of choice?
In 2014, I wasn’t on any social media platform actively. I originally thought that LinkedIn was just a place to go to find a job. So, I went to use the tool when I started to look for a job. But when I began to learn the tool and see the impact it had in my world. Not only did I gain multiple job offers but I built strategic relationships with people that opened the entrepreneurial world (led to starting a business.) So, that’s how powerful the tool proved to be!
This is why I’m so adamant about teaching LinkedIn to people because I envisioned other people had the same idea and misconception that I had — that LinkedIn was just an online resume spot, and that’s all it should be. But I quickly learned that this platform is where real, lucrative business gets done and it’s much more than an online resume tool but a super-powerful tool especially for entrepreneurs.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
A huge lesson that I’ve learned is that no matter how much you love what you do, you have to step a way from it. You have to stop and take breaks. You cannot just work all of the time. Sometimes, it’s necessary to take the time to laugh at yourself and just enjoy yourself. Give space to not take yourself so seriously all of the time!
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
I absolutely would love to have breakfast with Mellody Hobson. She’s an amazing and powerful Businesswoman and extraordinaire. I would love to pick her brain on how she built the necessary (strategic) relationships to get where she is today.
According to Wiki, Mellody Hobson is an American businesswoman who is President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, and the chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation. She is the former chairwoman of DreamWorks Animation, having stepped down after negotiating the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., by NBCUniversal in August 2016. In 2017, she was also named to chair the board of directors of Starbucks in 2021, making her one of the highest profile African American corporate directors. As of 2020, she is listed as #94 in Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
Connect with Tajuana and learn more:
www.GetOverYourselfCoaching.com
Email: tajuana@getoveryourselfcoaching.com
