LinkedIn Strategies for Social Media Managers to Enhance Brand Visibility with Latasha James

TRANSCRIPT

Michelle J Raymond: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to the Social Media for B2B Growth Show. I'm your host Michelle J Raymond and listeners we're going to continue the theme of people I didn't get to speak to at Social Media Marketing World that I really wanted to, so I invite them on the show so you too can get the experience of catching up. Latasha James, welcome to the show.

Latasha James: Thank you so much for having me, Michelle. And great to officially meet you. And we met briefly, very briefly, but good to be here.

Michelle J Raymond: Look, I don't know about you, but for me, given it was my first time at Social Media Marketing World, I was so overwhelmed with how many people I could talk to, I felt like I was going every which way and had a list of people I wanted to catch up with, and then all of a sudden it's like, Has that time really finished, but I'm curious what stood out for you at Social Media Marketing World?

What kind of trends did you see or what did you notice when you were talking to people?

Latasha James: Yeah, great question. Honestly, LinkedIn was a huge trend that I saw, which I was really happy about because I have been a big LinkedIn fan, advocate, [00:01:00] user since the early days. I think I got my first internship in college from LinkedIn.

So years and years ago. And yeah, so I know you spoke, there were a couple of others, other speakers talking about LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn organic, which was really cool. Video also was another hot topic, which was a topic that I talked about and that I'm also very passionate about. And I do think LinkedIn and video can collide. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit, a little bit today.

Michelle J Raymond: We absolutely can. And I'm with you. It was exciting for me to see. I feel like LinkedIn was having a bit of a renaissance is what I called it. They were coming back. All of a sudden I'm used to having conversations with people that like TikTok's, the cool kid. Instagram's always been popular. Maybe we've turned our back on X these days and Facebook, I don't know if it's coming or going, but you are across all of this stuff a bit more than me, but there was a definite vibe around LinkedIn and a lot of attention around it and energy was palpable and I was like, this is exciting.

[00:02:00] But that probably leads me into my first question. Why should social media managers be paying attention to LinkedIn this year in your opinion?

Latasha James: Yeah well, I think you're exactly right. I think people want to dig a little bit deeper. TikTok, Instagram reels, all the, the fun, fun, you know, stuff. It's great at getting eyeballs. It's great at building a community. It's great for all of that. And some people have massive success with it, but I would say by and large, if you want to go deeper, if you're looking for conversions, if you're looking for those long term relationships, those business relationships. You've got to be on LinkedIn.

That, that is where it's at for that kind of stuff. The reason I think social media managers should pay attention. One is for their clients. If you're touching the B2B space at all, you've got to understand how LinkedIn works because it really is the place for B2B, but also, my clients, my listeners, viewers, the number one question they ask me is, how do you get clients?

And my number one [00:03:00] answer is create a LinkedIn account, like start there. If you don't have a LinkedIn profile yet, it's going to be really challenging to sell to people, sell your services to people who don't even know that they need you, or just are not, are not in that, In that room, so to speak. LinkedIn users, they're the decision makers, they're the people who you need to be talking to and building relationships with.

Michelle J Raymond: Absolutely, and if people aren't familiar with your YouTube channel, it is amazingly impressive. There's like close to 200,000 subscribers or just over @thelatashajames. And I'll put the details in the show notes because you should go and check it out, listeners.

Even if you're not a social media manager, if you're someone creating your own content, there is so much you can learn from Latasha's updates. And I've been binge watching a little bit of it to research for this show. And I was even stuck watching a video and got sprung when you jumped onto this, you know, recording.

So I actually agree with you because it is the place where the decision makers are. I think, especially for small business owners, if you're a social [00:04:00] media manager, that's going out on your own.

I think it's a great level up for your credibility. And, but I find Latasha that sometimes for social media managers that may be new and jumping out to go on their own. They're really confident when it comes to other platforms. They've probably been creating content themselves on those other platforms and LinkedIn feels like the final frontier that they need to conquer.

Latasha James: Yeah.

Michelle J Raymond: Maybe a little hesitant. Do you have any advice for people that are a bit like, yeah, we know you both love it. But I'm not so sure. I'm sure you have that, come up in conversations a lot as well.

Latasha James: Absolutely. I'll be honest. I don't know what it is, but I think LinkedIn is just very intimidating.

It even, even for me sometimes still like I'll log on and be like, wait, what do I post today? I don't have anything super insightful or smart to say. So it can just be a little bit intimidating. There are so many amazing, smart, talented people on LinkedIn. So sometimes you can feel very small fish, big pond, and so to that, my advice that I try to follow [00:05:00] myself as well is be yourself. It's very simple advice. Back in the day, when I first got on LinkedIn in college, it was very buttoned up. Like you have to have the blazer and the, super polished corporate headshot. It's not that way anymore.

Obviously it is a professional networking platform. So keep that in mind. But you can do it in your own way. There are so many creatives on LinkedIn. There are so many different styles of copywriting, so many different styles of videos. You can really do whatever you want within reason. So take whatever you're doing on LinkedIn or on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube or wherever you're creating now.

And just repurpose that start by just repurposing content onto LinkedIn and finding your group with it. And then also I think making connections, finding people that you do identify with, whether that's other small business owners or people that you look up to in your industry, make those connections.

Cause it's very lonely and intimidating when you get onto a platform and you have nobody in your feed [00:06:00] who you resonate with, so say hello.

Michelle J Raymond: Say hello goes a long way. It is a social platform after all. And I think we focus so much on content. We forget the social bit, which is the networking, which is connecting with people, which is having conversations around their content and not just the creative process, but I love that you mentioned repurpose.

I had a conversation with someone the other day that I would say is probably coming up to close to half my age. So I'm 47. I think she was early twenties and getting active on the platform, starting to network, doing all the right things.

But I said to her, You haven't had any content out there. What's going on? I wanted to understand a little bit more. She's a social media manager for a university here. She's done all the background. I know she knows what's going on. I was like, what's stopping you? Turns out she creates a lot of cool content on, for reels and, short form video, but didn't think it was appropriate for LinkedIn.

I was like. Heck no, bring it across and let us start seeing some creativity. And we're going to talk about short form [00:07:00] video a little bit later in the show about where I see LinkedIn's going. And I know you'll have some pretty strong opinions on that, but I think there is that vision of LinkedIn. How it used to be, or maybe how we all got started on it.

For me, it's nearly 10 years ago. It was, the corporate look, it was all about being buttoned up. I, you know, had to laugh cause you, you and I both come from creating content around beauty and I was laughing cause there are some videos of me on LinkedIn, those get ready, putting on face masks, all kinds of things.

Cause I was trying to find different ways to stand out because everything was so boring. And I think we're on a mission to stop the boring. Are you with me on this mission?

Latasha James: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, You have to. You've got to stand out and, and I think it does go a little bit, does go a long way on a platform like LinkedIn.

If you think about TikTok well, everybody's doing wacky, fun, you know, interesting, colorful things. LinkedIn is a little bit more subdued. So, you know, When you do [00:08:00] post something that's a little bit more creative or a little bit more out of the box, it does, It goes a little further for you, I think.

Michelle J Raymond: It really does a little bit of creativity. And like you said, you don't have to go over the top and be like full blown edutainment. You can just change up things a little bit. I found my speaker series that I did a range of content leading up to Social Media Marketing World. It was probably the most casual content that I've created in a long time.

A lot more behind the scenes kind of content and my numbers, which had been struggling a little bit over December, January, all of a sudden probably just went, skyrocketing and I was like, okay, there's a lesson here for me to get out of my content creating rut, get out of those patterns that I'm so used to doing and start to go, you know what?

Yeah. It's okay to have some fun, Michelle. I teach my clients that I just got to remind myself sometimes.

Latasha James: I'm the same way. I do not listen to my own advice and I wish I would.

Michelle J Raymond: Look and we all go through that moment where [00:09:00] we think everybody's judging us. They won't think I'm as professional. Will someone think that if I'm funny on a video that I can't be smart as well when I'm training the company. Those things are all in our own heads, you know, that's, that's the thing.

You know, I co-wrote the LinkedIn Branding Book. And we started our whole Framework with Mindset. You know, it is so common for people to get stuck and not even get started because they're so fearful of how other people would judge them. But let's talk about the content that's actually on LinkedIn.

What kind of content do you recommend that social media managers might like to try to get brand visibility either for their own business or maybe for their clients?

Latasha James: Yeah there's two things I'm really excited about right now. First I'm really excited about the written word, which I think most people know LinkedIn for their regular kind of status updates or regular post updates, but I think the [00:10:00] newsletter features are really exciting and the articles that you can write. I'm very into that.

I think we're seeing the pendulum swing a little bit from this super fast, quick, trendy video content to where we see Instagram threads, for example, is popping up really growing really quickly. And I think people in general are looking for more writing, they're looking for more, a little bit more of thought provoking content. They're looking a little bit longer, longer form.

And what's cool about LinkedIn newsletters, as I'm sure you very much know, even better than I, I do is it brings you this this subscriber base that you already have just based on your, your LinkedIn profile. So if you've been building a LinkedIn profile, casually adding coworkers, colleagues, friends, et cetera, over the past few years they're going to get a notification when you start your newsletter and invite them to hear about it.

Whereas if you're starting a newsletter on MailChimp or Flowdesk or whatever, you got to start from scratch and it is a [00:11:00] slow, slow grind at building that. So I'm really excited about that. And then I am also just really excited about video. I'm always excited about video because as you know, um, and I've built my whole business around video, it really is the next best thing to face.

And I don't know about you, but I don't really do much selling to be honest, because when people come to me, they're, they already know me. They're like, Oh yeah, I've watched your videos. I know exactly what I'm signing up for. When can we get started? And the more and more that LinkedIn adds more video features and I know live video, that's something I'm curious to hear from you, how that's going for you.

Cause I actually don't really tap into that very much. I feel like I should, but yeah, so video is huge.

Michelle J Raymond: I'm just going to throw it out there. Yes, you should. And even if YouTube is your preferred platform, you could stream to LinkedIn at the same time. You know, You don't even have to set up another kind of event.

And, I did a presentation for the Social Media Marketing Community just last week, a training one around how do [00:12:00] we take LinkedIn lives and really stretch that, so social media managers are not overwhelmed, trying to keep up with creating content. I found some stats that content marketers are spending around 33 hours of their work week creating content.

So when you add in meetings, you add in, I don't know, maybe you're not having lunch, but I get hangry if I don't eat lunch, but if you add all of life in on top of that, there's no reason to expect people to be able to keep up with those demands.

So repurposing LinkedIn lives, big fan. Huge fan of newsletters.

They are my two favorite things on LinkedIn. Absolutely. LinkedIn are going in all in on LinkedIn newsletters. Why are they doing that? For exactly what you said, people are in B2B buying situations are looking for genuine thought leadership, original thought leadership, not copy and paste blogs that you find.

It infuriates me, Latasha, when [00:13:00] you say Go and ask Google a question cause you want an answer cause you're looking to buy a product. And it doesn't matter which website you go to, there's nothing independent. It is literally keyword fest, no real answers and no one's willing to actually say, you know what, I didn't like this about this particular product. It didn't work for me, but I liked all of these bits.

So yeah, newsletters for me. I would say to people, if you have a reasonable number of connections and followers. So, you know, By that, I would say probably a couple of thousand at least, then switch it on. And in my experience, you'll get roughly 30 percent of your connections and followers will become subscribers, which if you've got a decent number of connections, that's an immediate, like huge win.

I know people say it's rented land and you should have your own, and I'm not against that, but for some of us, myself included, that I just haven't got there yet. There's a lot of things on my to do list and, creating it off the platform is one of it, but you know, I'm up [00:14:00] to around 7, 000 newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn.

I don't know how long that will take me to build off LinkedIn, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be overnight.

Latasha James: Absolutely. And you can do both, you can always do both. You that's, I'm just exploring the LinkedIn newsletter feature for myself. And so I started a different newsletter. I have my social media management newsletter, which I've been building for years. On LinkedIn I'm actually diving more into the content creation side, the content marketing side, just to tap into a little bit of a different audience and try something new so you can do both. You don't have to only do one and build on rented land, as you say.

Michelle J Raymond: Yeah, absolutely. And it's a great tool to repurpose the content that you've already got out there as well. Which is the reason that I love it. If I've got the podcast episodes going out, or maybe I've had a great post that sparked interesting content, embedding YouTube videos, which is going to be a big winner for someone like yourself who has, you know, I'm pretty sure your videos don't happen in five minutes.

I can see the amount of production [00:15:00] work that goes into them. So we've got to try and stretch how much we can get out of that and squeeze every last drop.

Latasha James: Absolutely.

Michelle J Raymond: Newsletters and video are your two favorites. And. Okay, let's talk video content.

Latasha James: Yeah.

Michelle J Raymond: I know that's your, definitely one of your fortes and strengths.

Now, recently I've seen some posts going around on LinkedIn where there is a TikTok style feed. So think your For You Page. And it's all about these short form, 30, 60 second type videos. So basically on LinkedIn, there would be a dedicated feed just for these videos is my understanding of how it works. If that's what it ends up looking like in the finish, I'm not sure yet, but ultimately a small group are testing short form videos on LinkedIn.

Now, once upon a time, they tried stories, which they got from other platforms. And that crashed and burned. Do you think these short form TikTok [00:16:00] style, Reel style, YouTube short style videos, will fly on LinkedIn now?

Latasha James: Yeah, that's a great question. I'm very curious to see how it goes. I, like I said, I feel like just culturally is we're, we're kind of going the other way. We're going a little bit more long form, a little bit more written word. At the same time, I try not to be a total cynic and, be completely anti short form because I think there, it has its merits.

People are busy. LinkedIn users are busy. They're working people. So I think. If we're going to think about short form on LinkedIn, we've got to think of it as the snack, right? But there has to be a meal after the snack. We can't just leave people hungry, leave people with a little taste. So use short form, repurpose the stuff that you've been creating for TikTok or YouTube shorts or Instagram or wherever.

But make sure that you are still investing in these things that we're talking about. Newsletters, longer form videos, live videos, [00:17:00] profile optimization. So that when people see your name in their feed, they have something to go back to. It reminds of me of YouTube, I'm I'm a YouTube dinosaur.

I've been on YouTube for 10 years. And so when YouTube shorts came out, I was like, Oh my gosh, what does this mean? Is it going to turn into TikTok? And I don't think it has, it's just a complement to it. I'll repurpose my short form. I'll chop up my long form over onto shorts. And what's nice, what they've done is they've actually enabled you to link to your long form YouTube video from the short form.

So that way, when people find me, they go back to my profile. And if they really like what I'm saying, or are really invested, they end up becoming subscribers and watching the podcast in long form. So I think it'll work similarly on LinkedIn. So use it to your advantage if you can. And like you said, by doing something like what you do with your show, you have the content, you just got to chop it up and throw it on there and see what happens.

Michelle J Raymond: Yeah. It's been interesting cause, and I'll get your take on this as well. When I watch all the comments around the posts around [00:18:00] this, I'm going to call it the TikTok style feed cause I don't know what they're actually going to call it, but let's call it that on LinkedIn.

What I'm seeing is people on LinkedIn, I'm going to say old school users that have been around for a while tend to be going, we don't like that the content is showing in a different feed. Now my brain is going, thank God there's a different feed because our existing one is so cramped. How do you see that?

If it's in a separate feed, is that a good thing? And we're just going to be scrolling mindlessly or do you think, oh, exciting, it's a fresh place to stand out?

Latasha James: I think a little bit of both, to be honest with you. So my user behavior, I don't go on the short form feeds because they are so addictive and so powerful and that scares me a little bit, to be honest. As a marketer, I guess maybe that's a good thing. As a human, sometimes that's where the interests divide a little bit, but yeah, I think there, we have to also be honest about the fact that not all not all consumers like the same things.

[00:19:00] There are people who are diehard short form. Gen Z that is very TikTok, very short form. They're working people now. They are going to be our, colleagues, our peers. There may be types of content that appeals more to them than somebody who's an older millennial, a Gen X or a boomer. Maybe we want to read our articles in peace, but I think it's nice to have those separate feeds personally, so you can make that decision for yourself.

Michelle J Raymond: I think it will be a little bit out of both columns and it won't be for everyone. There are going to be people that are going to embrace it and thrive. And there are going to be people that grumble about it. And I call that the, this isn't Facebook crew. They'll be the ones going, please don't change LinkedIn.

I like that it's evolving and they're trying new things because I think, that's a good thing for anybody in life to try new things and see how they fit.

Latasha James: Yeah.

Michelle J Raymond: The interesting parts, you know, and I'm with you, I don't need any other distractions in my life. I'm pretty good at doing that all by myself.

Look, shiny light. There's a mirror ball in the background. [00:20:00] It's hard for me to stay focused, but as you said, switch hats, trying to keep attention of others. Maybe this is a cool way. So I'm excited to see how it plays out from the perspective of the research shows that the demographics on LinkedIn are roughly 65%, 25 to 34 year olds.

That's the content they've grown up with. That's the content they're comfortable creating. They're probably doing it on other platforms and giving them Tools. And that's where my question mark is on LinkedIn, how they kind of bring it across.

Latasha James: Yeah.

Michelle J Raymond: But if it encourages more people to get active, because you know, the conversation I had recently, like that I was just mentioning where, you know, she was kind of scared to put that creative content across onto LinkedIn.

I love the idea of it, creating a new space where people feel comfortable to put it out there. Because yeah I just think it takes so much effort to make those videos. That's why I don't do those fancy little, shorts videos. [00:21:00] Cause when I look at it, I'm like, just let me type. I can type really fast, but you want me to, even if I use all the fancy tools, like whether it's like CapCut or InShot or any of those, it's still taking me far more time than I can type.

And I, and look at it the other way and I'm going that's, as much as I love words, I would love to read long form all day, every day, but we're not all the same. And I think that's an important point. I guess watch this space we'll see what happens.

Anything else you want to add onto this or any tips for short form videos for people that you might want to throw out there.

Latasha James: You mentioned repurposing already, and I think, we've already said it all, but I'm the queen of repurposing. People ask me all the time, how do you get, at minimum one to two videos out a week? How do you keep your social feeds full?

It's repurposing. 90 percent of it, it's repurposed content. I sit down once or twice a week and film all my content. And I think what you're doing again is super smart with the live video even, cause that's probably even saving you so [00:22:00] much time, you know, for, you know, don't have to do as much post production and stuff.

So I think, if you're overwhelmed with, especially with video content, start with one thing. Start with that and then repurpose either up or repurpose down. And even for the newcomers, like the Gen Zers, for example who might be new to LinkedIn, if you're creating TikToks, you can still repurpose that into an article.

The process is a little bit different. You're not going to be actually chopping it up, but you can take those concepts and expand those out into multiple paragraphs and turn that into a newsletter or an article. So I encourage people to just work with what you've already got. You don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Michelle J Raymond: And because I think when you're building brand visibility, it's almost like saying the same thing, a hundred different ways to remind people to get that message across and stay top of mind. And I think we cut things off too quickly and say, Oh, well they, you know, someone might've already watched the LinkedIn live recording with Michelle and Latasha.

So I better not post about the YouTube video or I better not tell them the podcast has [00:23:00] gone live. Do you think that every time you post, everyone gets to see it? Everyone remembers it. Everybody was logged in at that time. If only social media was that easy. If only it didn't feel like we were always trying and trying. But the fact is it's so hard to stand out.

And. I think Latasha, one of the things that comes up for me, for social media managers is, right now I'm a specialist on LinkedIn. All I need to learn about is how fabulous LinkedIn, and yes, I've got other platforms that I also have going like for the podcast and, YouTube channel, but they're to the side a little bit, but social media managers, especially if you're working for clients, They've got to be across everything and I don't know how they're getting it all done, if I'm completely honest.

And I, I read a few Reddit forum comments and posts and it broke my heart because these people are now doubting themselves, that they don't know what they're doing. They've lost their confidence because they can't keep up with it all and [00:24:00] I'm there just going, Oh no, you had no chance in the beginning of trying to be, like across everything, but they're If we, try and narrow that focus down on LinkedIn specifically, and we could talk about all the platforms all day, but what things do you think that social media managers should put on their must do list when it comes to LinkedIn?

Latasha James: Yeah. I think it starts with a profile, which sounds so simple, but even myself, I'm like, I need to go in and do a good LinkedIn audit for my own profile. Cause I haven't. Done a deep update in a while. There are so many new features that have popped up, probably from the time that you first started your LinkedIn account or that your client has. You can add your portfolio, you can link your website, you can verify your profile.

Like there are so many little tweaks. Just spend, an hour or so, auditing your profile to make sure everything is really working the way it should be. And that your customer journey or your audience journey is working because if people find you, let's say from a short form LinkedIn [00:25:00] video, TikTok style video, and they like you, where do they go?

If the link is broken, if they can't figure out how to book a call, if they can't figure out what you do in the first place, that is basically a wasted view. But if there is a seamless, process where they can opt into an email list or they can book a call or learn more about you, that's when you start to see results.

And I think, to that point, my second thing is what I see often with my students is analytics. It's knowing what those KPIs are, those key performance indicators and measuring them and communicating them with your client regularly. So don't hide from the analytics, try to make sense of them.

I love, I, we talked about a tool I use earlier off camera, but Metricool is what I use. They have an amazing reporting feature in there. So you can pull your LinkedIn company page analytics and explain that to your client. Hey, here is why we're investing in LinkedIn because we drove this many website clicks or because we're getting this many eyeballs on our content or, pulling out those highlights [00:26:00] and even those low lights so that you know where to improve.

If you're posting a certain type of content and it's not performing. You need to know that and be able to change course as opposed to just keeping going and, closing your eyes and just hoping it turns around. So knowing your numbers is huge.

Michelle J Raymond: Absolutely. And the foundation of LinkedIn is your LinkedIn profile. All roads lead back there, whether it's because your photo shows up when you write a comment, whether we can see your headline when you're doing a post, whether it's, you're reaching out to message someone, whether, there's so many different ways that all roads lead back there, which is so important and I'm on a bit of a mission to stop people from underselling themselves on their LinkedIn profiles.

I have the privilege of working with some of the most amazing people around the globe. But when I looked at their LinkedIn profile before we fixed it, I was like, I don't think I'd hire you for an entry level job. And it makes me want to cry because these people are [00:27:00] brilliant, changing the world to make it a better place in all kinds of different ways, doing cool things that no one else has ever done before.

And the LinkedIn profile at best is maybe updated the last time they went for a job. Maybe. Most of them have contact details, which are out of date. Yeah. I've had so many profiles that are missing the About Section. Just never got to that, forgot to go back and fill it in because it seemed too hard at the time.

Like you said, new sections, like the featured section haven't turned that on to highlight what's going on in the business or what they want to be known for. And so there's just so many opportunities getting those basics right. So I, I feel like I've just been going, it's a ditto for me.

It's a ditto for me. It's a ditto for me, but I am so on board, like with the things that you've shared today, but Latasha, as we wrap this up, unfortunately, as much as I would like to talk all day, what is one last actionable tip that you want to leave with social media managers that, to get more out of LinkedIn, to [00:28:00] feel like they're getting somewhere and achieving things and increasing brand visibility.

What's the tip that you'd like to leave the listeners?

Latasha James: Yeah I told you I'm the queen of repurposing, but I also like to think I'm the queen of consistency. That's my other superpower. That's how I've done this for over a decade is consistency. So I'm, I'm going to encourage everyone to commit to consistency, commit to one feature, one thing, one type of content that you can do on a regular basis.

And that doesn't have to mean every day. That doesn't mean make a video every single day. That means, Hey, maybe you commit to interviewing someone live on LinkedIn once a week or writing a monthly newsletter or sending connection requests once a week, sending out batches of personalized, authentic, all the good stuff, connection requests.

But those habits, it's just like going to the gym. I'm going to see that impact over time. So LinkedIn is the exact same. So commit to consistency.

Michelle J Raymond: Oh, I love that. And I also say persistency because [00:29:00] LinkedIn is a long game.

It is not something where you start doing all the things that Latasha just suggested. And it's not something that you probably will see immediate results. Sometimes we jag a lucky strike, just by being a part of the game. But ultimately it's the people that didn't give up along the way that are doing really great on LinkedIn. The ones that were consistent and persistent because, LinkedIn can be pretty hard to get started on.

I'm just throwing that out there. Like it is not a place that rewards you when your new. It's not trying to help you that much. You have to find your people and build those communities. Once you do, I promise you listeners, when you build an amazing community on LinkedIn, the loyalty is amazing. The quality of the professionals that you can connect with and learn from and be inspired by is just next level.

It's why I've loved LinkedIn for nearly 10 years now. I don't see myself moving platforms anytime soon, but it's just been, the best for me to go through [00:30:00] from creating content in the beauty space to becoming a LinkedIn trainer and that whole change. And I've still been able to, get a fulfilling career in both ways.

And I think that's the cool part, local or global, doesn't matter what you do. There's a space for everybody on LinkedIn.

So Latasha, this has been amazing. To our listeners, I'm going to make sure I put your details in the show notes. Follow Latasha on LinkedIn, of course, turn on the bell, which is on her profile, top right hand corner, underneath the banner, you'll see the little bell, just click on that and you'll get notified of all of her posts, which I highly recommend.

And of course, go across to YouTube and subscribe to @thelatashajames. And again, I'll put the details for that in the show notes as well. But Latasha, I appreciate you coming on the show. This has been exactly what I imagined the conversation would have been if we got a chance to sit down face to face at Social Media Marketing World.

So I appreciate you coming on.

Latasha James: Thank you so much for having me, Michelle, and thank you for all that you're doing to make LinkedIn more welcoming to [00:31:00] people. And I think it's such a powerful tool. So thanks for all the work you're doing too.

Michelle J Raymond: Oh, it's my pleasure. And it is a cool place to come and hang out.

It's not as scary as maybe you thought it once was. Come and check it out. If you haven't been on the platform in any recent time, We've gone through the stage where it was fully buttoned up. Then we went a little unhinged during COVID. We went, I think a little bit too far to the personal extremes, and I think we're in a happy LinkedIn phase right now.

So come and join the Renaissance. LinkedIn's where the cool kids are hanging out and I'd love to continue the conversation.

So don't forget, reach out. Let us know you listened to this episode, drop any feedback in the comments and until next week, cheers.