Episode 54 Creating an Effective LinkedIn Profile for Bankers

Jack Hubbard: I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from Ledger's to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great here on Jack Rants With Modern Bankers.

Jack Hubbard:  Hi, Brynne

Brynne Tillman: Hi, Jack. I'm excited about today's talk.

Jack Hubbard: Me too. I am, too. Before we jump into creating an effective profile, what I want to talk about with you is, next Wednesday. So, every Wednesday I do this pretty cool thing. Brynne's idea, Jack. grants with modern bankers. And every week I get to present some amazing people. Bestselling authors, bankers, consultants, et cetera. Next Wednesday, it's Anthony Iannarino, who I consider the smartest sales consultant on the planet. He's awesome. And so, we're going to talk about his new book, the Negativity Fast. And so that's at twelve noon eastern time next Wednesday with Anthony Iannarino. 

But here we are today, early in 2024, and it's kind of one of those renewal times. We make resolutions and commitments and lists. And I think one of the lists bankers could be making is taking a good look at their profile. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's jump right into this. Brynn, first, philosophically, one of the things you've taught me is that your profile should be a resource, not a resume. Let's start there as an overview, and then we'll dive into some of the elements of the profile.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, I mean, this is so important. Your clients, your customers, your future relationships don't care about how many loans you've closed. They don't care about what great negotiation skills you have. They care about how you can help them. Showing up as a resource throughout all of your social selling is so important, but your profile, I think, is the foundation. Right? All roads lead back to your profile. So the fact that we have this opportunity to shift it from a resume to a resource is going to help us start more trust based conversations without having to be salesy just because we are this thought leader and subject matter expert.

Speaker C: And look at what David Phillips says, “Resource, not a resume. “I like this first. Jack Rants is right.” You know, I'm so thrilled to have this opportunity to do these Jack Rants and follow me on LinkedIn. And one of the things we're going to talk about right now is the above. The fold. And there's an element of above the fold that makes it more likely for you to receive content from both Brin and now. Brynne, when I was a kid, a billion years ago, I used to have a paper route, and, I'd get the stack of papers and, I'd have to fold them or roll them and ride my bike, et cetera. But half of the paper was visible to me when I got it. In the newspaper business, they call that above the fold, and I think you've coined that phrase on LinkedIn. So let's start the profile above the fold. What are some of the components above the fold? And talk to me about some things I had to be doing in 24 to maximize that.

Brynne Tillman: So I absolutely love that you're making that comparison to a newspaper. When you walk into the 711 and you see 15 newspapers, what draws your attention to the one that you're picking up? Right. Same thing. First it's going to be the visual. This is your LinkedIn banner. This is the opportunity to brand yourself, your banker, credit union, to get your. Whether it's your logo out there or. Some folks really love to use their cityscape along with the logo. Whatever this is, it's branding yourself one of our clients, Cape Cod five, has gorgeous banners. I love them. And Comerica does, too. They have different banners for each city. It's really wonderful. 

Now, if your bank or credit union doesn't have them, you can make a simple one, right? In canva, the ratio, or even in PowerPoint, the ratio is two x four, right? sorry, four x one. So if you're in PowerPoint, it's 2.5 x ten. Gives you the size that you want and you can create your visuals. It's really important. If that is just the background, generic blue sky looking thing, whatever that is, you really lose. That really makes a difference. 

Next thing is your headshot. And by the way, this needs to look like you. It's not the best photo from your college years. It's what you look like today. It's also not a cutout with your tuxedo or prom dress. Right? Like, you want to make sure that it's a professional photo and it looks like you look today, and then it's your headline. And for me, Jack, this is the most important thing. it follows you wherever you go. And it actually, is make or break, I think, of whether someone is interested enough to keep reading. So normally it will say commercial lender, ABC bank, if you don't do anything. But I hate to say this, but why would anyone want to keep reading unless they're actively looking for a loan? 

Now, how many people on LinkedIn are looking for a commercial lender on LinkedIn? Not a lot. Most of them don't know they need you yet. So our profile, starting with this headline, the top of the fold, which is like that headline in the newspaper, why would I pick it up, is, who do we help? How do we help them? What are the results we can bring for them, and what can we do for them that gets them to think a little differently about their current situation? And we have 220 characters to do.

Jack Hubbard: The headline is really good. Let's talk about that little bell that I referred to.

Brynne Tillman: I love the bell. So you can ring the bell. Every one of your first degree connections, there is a bell that's at the top, right below your banner. And if you ring that bell whenever they share content, it's going to come into your notifications, not your newsfeed. It is pushed to your notifications as an unread notification. So make sure you are ringing the bell of your clients and your prospects and your referral partners and the centers of influence in your world so that I never go to my homepage anymore. I never look through the content. I have so much to engage on from the people that I chose to follow. It's amazing. 

Now I have rung the bell of people that I have not asked to connect with yet. They don't know who I am yet, but I'd love to start a conversation with them and explore if they have challenges I can help them with. So I've rung their bell, and now over, the next couple of weeks, I'm gauging when they share content and I have now on a few, and I've just started to really purposefully do this with a plan. And now when they share content, I am out there in the world looking for other content that I can share back with them, connect with them. Love what you shared. Here's another piece that you might like and start a trust based conversation that may or may not lead to an opportunity, but will definitely start rapport and a new relationship.

Jack Hubbard: Absolutely. One other thing above the fold, not to get too into the weeds, but two different kinds of profiles, really. One is, I'll call it the general profile, which is great. And another one is when you go on to creator mode, talk about the differences between the two and why should I be on creator mode versus not?

Brynne Tillman: So I've sort of come up with this arbitrarily when to go into creator mode. If you share three times or more a week, you should be in creator mode. If you are inconsistently sharing content for now, stay in traditional mode. There are a lot of pros and cons. If you are actively sharing content and engaging, the pros of being in creator mode are huge. 

One of them is every time you're sharing content and people that are not connected to you see it, there is a follow button right along with your content. So you will build followers of people that want to see your stuff. That's number one. Number two, it changes the order of your profile. So your content and engagement and activity and featured section all gets pushed up and resume stuff gets pushed down, right? But if you go into creator mode and you have no engagement and no shares when people get there, it doesn't work, right? So you need to be active in order to use this. You also now have the opportunity to use LinkedIn audio rooms, LinkedIn Live and newsletters. These are important if you are going to be active. Obviously not important if you're not going to be active. It also allows you five topics like they're hashtags about what you talk about. 

And so this helps you to get found for these topics. All great things. Here's the negative. When you go into creator mode, your connect button turns to a follow button. And most people don't know that if they click, the more they can still connect with you. So they don't realize that connecting with you is an option. That to me is a big con in a lot of areas. If you are in creator mode, it is absolutely essential that once a week you go through to look at your new followers and actively connect with the ones that you'd like to add to your network.

Jack Hubbard: Absolutely. All right, wait. You talked about something called featured. This is something I think that is such an underutilized, element of the profile. What is featured? How can I use it? What can I put there?

Brynne Tillman: So your featured content, you can upload documents and images and link videos or you can better pin a post, right? So if you have a post and you want to highlight that, you can actually go in and feature your post and it's right there, the visual and all. And what happens is you still continue to draw traffic into that post. They can see how many comments and how many likes are on there and it's in real time. 

So as you get more likes, it's updated. If you have any premium, whether it's ah, just a job seeker to premium LinkedIn or sales navigator, any paid at all, you can actually add other areas from your profile. So yesterday, for the first time, I added a recommendation to my feature to give it a shot to see. So there are lots of things that you can do. this is really, though, primarily a resource. This is showing up as value. Most everything that you share should bring value. So I don't know that I will keep that recommendation there for long because I just wanted to give it a shot. Because mostly what I want is for people to click through and learn and experience and say, boy, I would love more of this.

Jack Hubbard: You made a really interesting point. you can't break this thing. go play. you can always take it down really fast. As long as you're not doing something horrible. There's not going to be reputational risk involved here. So go play and find out what your watermark should be. All right, we've talked about resumes. Oh, Brynne, I get to do my resume now, right? In my about section? Yes.

Brynne Tillman: I mean, you could, I just don't recommend it.

Jack Hubbard: My sense is you don't want me.

Brynne Tillman: To do, know, this is an opportunity most people want to talk about me, my passion, my vision. I love that. But move it to your experience. This is a continued opportunity to be this resource. Right? So the little formula we like to talk about is what is the challenge your customers are going through or your prospects are going through? So let's say you are a commercial banker who focuses on manufacturing. I always go to that, I don't know why, but I focus on manufacturing. 

What are some of the challenges that they're facing? So you may have, small businesses in the Detroit area are struggling to fill orders on time due to lack of inventory. And right now we want to provide some insights. So here's the challenge. So think about who's your ideal client? What's the challenge they're going through. Now, your insights need to be helpful, even if they never talk to you or it's a pitch. Right? So you want to have three to five things for them to start to think about. 

So number one, make sure that you have access to capital to be able to order inventory the moment you need it. That's important, right? You're not saying, get a loan with us or a, ah, line of credit with us, you're just telling them, make sure you have access to that within 24 hours of an order. You're able to access that, whatever it is. Right? Maybe. Number two, make sure you have more than two vendors. It has nothing to do with banking. But you're saying, hey, if you're having trouble getting stuff, make sure you have more than two vendors vetted and ready to go when you have the cash to get it. You could even talk about logistics and shipping tips, as long as one of them is make sure you have access to the capital. All of this is showing that you are really a strategic trusted advisor. It's beyond I want to sell you money. It's really, I want to help your business succeed, and money is a piece of that. Right. 

So that's really important, then you want to talk about once you added that value. If you're struggling with this, let's chat. I'm happy to walk you through some insights that can help you overcome that, even if we never work together. And then you have your email, your phone number, if you have a calendar link for people to schedule, make it easy for them to get in touch with you.

Jack Hubbard: Absolutely. so, a couple of opinions from you. So I believe, unless they've changed it, that you can have 2600 characters in your about section. I think that's about right.

Brynne Tillman: That's the latest, yes. So the way I do it is if I want to do my about section, which I change from time to time, I'll have it saved on a word document and I might change it. I'll save it and then I'll copy it and paste it over. That way I know if I'm over my characters and LinkedIn will help us with that. but my question for your opinion is this. Since we only have one typeface available to us on LinkedIn, we can't do italics, we can't do bold. And in the about section, you only see the first three lines of your text. The goal here is dwell time. Have them see more. My question to you is, I put all caps in my three lines because that's about how I can get people to kind of see it. What's your opinion on that? And talk about those first three lines, because really it's another headline to get people into your about section.

Jack Hubbard: Yeah, I think that is a really powerful area. I have. My first line, if I remember correctly, is all caps. And I think it's something like learning LinkedIn and social selling strategies. And there's an arrow. And then I go into a line like the buyer's journey has changed. Buyers are researchers, explorers, collaborative decision makers, something along those lines. So I'm capturing their attention. and that's the challenge. Things have changed and this is what it looks like today. I do have an all caps line. I'm not sure if I would do three lines, all caps, I'd have to look at it. I'm sure it's fine. But the goal is when they're scrolling, you need them to stop and grab their attention. And all caps in a line will do that. Just make sure that those all caps are something that would get them to stop, something that would get them to say, I want to click, see more. 

So I believe I will start with learning something. Learn social selling insight. And by the way, if they're not interested in that, it's okay. But if they are, they're going to get some great stuff. And if they are, I'm, moving them closer and closer to our solution.

Speaker C: Perfect. Let's scroll down, and, go to experience. Now, I get a lot of questions on this, so I guess one of the questions is how many experiences? Because these are your jobs that you've had. How many should I have? When do I stop? How many years? should I stop? And another question I get is, should I put the logo of the business, in my experience, headline. So just talk, riff a little bit on experience.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah. So 100%, you connect with your company page, and that's how the logo will appear 100% of the time. I don't think there's a bank or credit union out there that doesn't have a company page right now. But who knows? There might be a small one somewhere. If they don't, it's something that you talk with your marketing group to, set that up. But, yes, that is very important to have connected. I am not a resume builder. So how many years do we go back? my gut tells me we go back as far as it's relevant. I do not have that. I was a waitress at friendly's ice cream during college.

Jack Hubbard: I'll bet you were a good one. And you got a lot of tips.

Brynne Tillman: I was awesome. That's how I knew I wanted to go into sales. I made the most tips because I sold appetizers and desserts and they loved me for it anyway. absolutely. And then, regardless, so what do I have? I believe I have Dun and Bradstreet. And then from Dun and Brad Street, I went into banking. That's what I have. Dun Bradstreet led me into that world, so I keep it. And they actually really, that was my first real job out of, got in. It wasn't even the financial world yet, even though it was a little, it was credit. Right. So it was kind of around the credit and collections world. But it was the sales that I loved and then it moved me into, and that's when banks were like, oh, we like that. You have that done in Brad street background. Right. so it's relevant. And so then I went into my sales, after banking and financial services, into sales and sales training and LinkedIn training. And it goes back a lot of years and I'm in my second century now. Half century. Half century. Second half of the century. Yeah. I'm not 100 yet.

Jack Hubbard: You're so young.

Brynne Tillman : I'm not 100 yet, but every once in a while I think I may be, but not today. but the second half of the century. Right. And so I have a lot, but I put it in there because it's relevant. If it's not relevant, take it out. Now, if you have a professional resume person that says that's really bad to do, listen to them because I just think it's important. And by the way, I'm going to say one more thing on this. I made an introduction for someone, into someone and they both worked at bank of America years ago. Years ago. And I didn't even realize it when I made the introduction. And when the person I introduced responded, she's like, hey, looks like we both worked at bank of America. 

That is huge, right. In that connection. So it's almost like alumni, right. That you have that, it warms up the connection. So add it if it's relevant. I know that was a lot. Just quickly, don't start with anything but your story. Your why. Start with why? You're in banking, you have stories. You may not even know why you have stories. I can't tell you how many bankers say I accidentally ended up here. It's who hired me out of college. But you stayed. Why? You have a passion for it. Is it because you love to help local companies thrive? That's a great story. Find your why. People will connect with you, then talk about how you help them. That's my thought.

Jack Hubbard : Beautiful. You talked about education. So I have a question. Let's say that you went to two colleges, like I did. started out at Loyola and went to northern Illinois, graduated from there. Let's say you started out at Loyola and then got your MBA from Notre Dame. LinkedIn only allows you to put one educational institution up on top of the above fold. Which one should I put?

Brynne Tillman: Ah, this is a great question. I'm going to have two answers. One is I'm going to start with the sales answer. Which college has the most alumni that you want to sell into, who are you going to connect with? So my son went to Penn State and has now transferred to Rutgers. He will probably be working out of Manhattan or out of north Jersey. Rutgers is probably going to have a bigger local group. But Penn State's huge, right? And they have a huge alumni, and he has lots of friends that are still there. So I would have him search. Here are the people that I want to meet, which school has the most, and that's the one that I put up top. 

Now, he'll graduate from Rutgers, in this case, with his bachelor's degree. So that's the one that I'd have listed. But if you have your master's degree and you have a bigger alumni there, I mean, Notre Dame, I'm sorry. That's pretty awesome. Like, that's what I'd be putting there, right?

Jack Hubbard: Yeah, for sure. All right, two more things. We're running out of time, but I got to ask you these two, and there could be a lot more in profile that we're discussing. volunteering, at one of our coaching sessions for the folks that have signed up for mastering LinkedIn for bankers. One of the bankers asked during the coaching session, should I put my. Well, absolutely, put your volunteering up there. And one of the things that's so great about banking is you're so engaged in the community. Talk about volunteering and why that's so critical to put those associations that you're working with on your profile.

Speaker A: Well, I mean, it's connecting you to the, I mean, there are definitely huge benefits. Like, just the connection to doing that. I have to update mine. So I was the chair of new membership. I am now the chair of the marketing committee, and I am, the secretary on the board of the west orange Chamber of commerce. We are a little tiny town, but I can't tell you how many people will. You know, I grew up in Livingston, right around the corner. I grew up a, west orange. Oh, they have the best ice skating rink in all of New Jersey. Like, there are certain things that will come up that connect. So you want to make sure that everything is in some banks. A lot of banks that I've worked with do like a habitat for Humanity day. One day, put it there. There's a connection. So everything that you're doing to bring value to your community, list it, because you will at times connect with those folks. wait, we have not to go back, but you touched on the header background and to not have the generic blue, but what content image would you suggest? Okay, so I'm just going to quickly say you start with your logo or your cityscape with your logo. It's an easy way to get started. and then settings. If you go to themodermbanker.com publiclibrary and you join, you can scan the code or go to themodernbanker.com publiclibrary. There is a community where you can ask questions and settings, and I am happy to answer those questions. I'll get an email and within 24 hours, I'm pretty good at getting in there and answering them. So if you have setting questions, I'll send you links there. Go into themodenbanker.com publiclibrary.

Jack Hubbard: And, David works, I believe, in the far west capital, and he's in Austin, Texas. And, one of the things that he's got on his profile is a lovely sunset. Now, one of the things that you got to think about is, do I sell nationally or do I sell locally? That's certainly going to impact that. But for me, if he's in Austin, Texas, I'm going to put something from the University of Texas. It's a very recognizable situation. So that's great. And I also think we could do a whole program on privacy settings. I think so many people don't react very well to it. They leave their URL uncustomized. I think it's something we could talk about, but I like your idea of the community as well. All right, one more thing, before we go. And that has to do with recommendations. Now, there's other elements of the profile that we haven't been able to get to. I'm fortunate to have 57 recommendations. You probably have more than 250. talk about the importance of recommendations both giving and receiving, because they're both on your profile as well as the profile of the person that you give the recommendation to.

Brynne Tillman: Right. So I recommend two ways. First of all, obviously, we want to ask for recommendations, and then we want to ask for recommendations when we do something great and someone says, hey, that was really great, and you say, hey, thank you so much. I'm building out my LinkedIn profile. Would you be willing to say that there? You can even offer to write it and you request that. But what you said is so important. Giving those recommendations is just as important. 

So a lot of bankers laugh at me when I say this, but then they get it. Recommend your clients for being great clients. You did a project with someone. Maybe it was a new build, maybe whatever. Maybe you helped them finance a bigger plant or whatever you did for them, you did something great, right? And without you helping, chances are they wouldn't have been able to achieve whatever goal they were looking to achieve. And chances are, if you're the banker, I think you are, they love you, right? 

So this is the opportunity to say, I love you. So, you know, Jane was amazing to work with on this project. It was between the architects and the vendors and making sure everything was on time and that we funded everything exactly when she needed it. And she communicated with us, so there were no delays in anything throughout the whole project. She was amazing to work with. We're grateful to have them as a loyal client. Great. You are now showing up on her profile. When people are visiting, they see you're the banker. They chose, not even just the bank, but the banker that they chose to work with. It's real estate. On all of your customers' profiles, it is a fantastic opportunity that is totally under leveraged.

Jack Hubbard: And here's the mistake that a lot of banks make. And they don't take those recommendations, copy three of them that are similar to the industry they're calling on as a prospect, and they don't put them on a word document. Make it a nice pdf, make it pretty, et cetera. And hand that as a handout. Those are testimonials, that people can go back to LinkedIn and say, hey, do you know Bryn Tillman? My God. Brynn trained me to do this and this and this. So we need to think broader about what we do on LinkedIn because it's not one dimensional, it's several dimensional. And so I think that was good. And I apologize to David Phillips because he's a different David Phillips. 

He's a correspondent banker in Denver serving five states. So I apologize to David and David. If we're not connected, please reach out and connect and follow Bryn and I, and we apologize for that mistake. But David Phillips in Austin, Texas, you can still do what I perhaps suggested. Well, Bryn, this was great. These programs go so fast, and I like that we're kind of going back to the basics in 2024. Any final thoughts on prospects before we talk about next week's program or on profile? before we talk about next week's program.

Brynne Tillman : Yeah, do it. Especially. We had a lot of people both on LinkedIn and on YouTube watching live, and we'll have even more in replay. Guys, if you're still here and there are a lot of you still here, you see the value in this but what happens often is you go, oh, that was really good. And then you close out of the live and the recording, and you go back to your emails and your voice messages and you don't do it. Set aside ten minutes a day and do another section. And do another section. And if you have questions, join themodernbanker.com/publiclibrary.com. Ask your questions there.

Jack Hubbard: And every week you get this brilliance, the brilliance of this woman who is a LinkedIn influencer, and just knows more about LinkedIn than anybody. So thank you, Bryn, for this. And I got to tell you, I'm really excited about next week's program because we're going to talk about building and nurturing a strong LinkedIn network. Thanks for doing this today, Bryn. I always enjoy seeing you. Have a wonderful week.

Outro: Thanks for joining us for Jack Rants with Brynne brought to you by our good friends at Vertical IQ and RelPro. We're live on LinkedIn every Thursday at noon Eastern time helping bankers turn connections into conversations. Don't miss an episode, visit themodernbanker.com/tmbpodcast. Leave us a review if you would. You can also listen to this program and the new Jack Rants with Modern Bankers on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and I Heart Radio. We're on YouTube as well. Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/@TheModernBanker. Finally, don't forget, make today and every day a great client day!