Welcome back to Published. Today we’re joined by Owen Sammarone, founder and CEO of Unleash The Knowledge, a digital community for nonfiction authors to expand their reach. When it comes to promoting your book, we all know the benefits of social media and building a landing page for your readers. LinkedIn is a platform that does it all if you know how to use it. In this episode, Owen will explain how your LinkedIn profile can solidify your author brand, help you grow a network, and convert your audience to book sales.

You can also watch the transcribed video version on YouTube.

[Transcript has been automatically generated.]

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Tanya: Owen, welcome to Published.

Owen: Thanks so much for having me, Tanya. Happy to be here.

Tanya: Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. So let's start by having you introduce yourself and please tell our listeners what you do.

Owen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, my name is Owen. I'm an avid reader — for those watching this, they could see the bookshelves behind me. I've been building this brand called Unleash The Knowledge since 2019. My previous life was in college basketball, ironically, so very different than reading books and working with authors, but I’ve been building this brand and have grown to 180,000 readers now on all social. And we've worked closely with over 400 authors, nonfiction in particular, to market their book, to build their thought leadership on social, and then to start or scale their coaching or consulting businesses on the back end of the book.

Tanya: And so what makes LinkedIn such a good platform for authors?

Owen: Yeah, I think LinkedIn is in this wild second [00:02:00] wave or second wind per se. I think it still has the great professional atmosphere to it, which obviously has been the biggest attribute of it among other social platforms. But I think it's also becoming very conversational and people are being more vulnerable with their content.

So I think there's that great balance of sharing the contents from your book or how the books, concepts, and ideas can relate to people's lives. People in business or running their own entrepreneurship venture, whatever that may look like. So there's that balance of it. But then I think also because a writer is ultimately someone who likes to write, you know, they can adapt very easily to LinkedIn in terms of the content preferred to be published.

I started the brand on Instagram. That was one place to always tell authors, “Oh, you should be on Instagram,” but it's a whole different dynamic to tap into that platform because you have to be very visual. So I think LinkedIn has that nice logical progression from being a writer and writing a book that you could then transfer your ideas there too.

So for those two reasons, I think it's, it's been really beneficial. It's a [00:03:00] very easy way to move business off the platform as well, to actually grow whatever you have on the backend or actually move books. So I've seen it have many kind of versatile aspects to it, to benefit authors.

Tanya: Yeah, I was speaking to someone recently about LinkedIn and she mentioned to me a stat that just took me aback. It was in the single digits, and that's the percentage of people posting original content on LinkedIn. And I thought that, wow, what an opportunity that is! Because if most people are either just lurking and reading other people's stuff or reposting, here we have this awesome opportunity for authors to, in many cases, just repurpose what's in their book and put snippets out there and stand out just by virtue of posting original content. That's pretty remarkable.

Owen: Yeah, I totally agree. There's an aspect to it where there's obviously this. Unfortunate mentality we have with like platforms like Instagram, where it's all about the likes and the perceived value of what the numbers look like. But even though that's kind of [00:04:00] happening on LinkedIn, I have noticed that a lot of people in a corporate setting who authors could potentially be selling to, whether it's their consulting or coaching or speaking, they're watching, but they're not actively engaging.

I have one client in particular who talks about women standing up in the boardroom and kind of asking for a raise, et cetera, which are, you know, more or less maybe subjects that a male or even female might not show their stamp of approval when they're trying to hold their job because they don't want to be too outlandish.

But even though there's no, maybe real public eye interaction, like, Oh, I could see this person has a lot of likes, their business is growing and people are going into our DM. So I think there's that interesting aspect there too. But to your point as well, yes, on all socials, there's a lot of like, regurgitating the same big viral videos or posts, which I've seen on LinkedIn as well perform well. But, um, I think when you share original thought as someone who's actually established yourself as a thought leader, which, it's in the definition, you can really kind of pierce [00:05:00] through the noise and get your message out there a lot faster.

Tanya: Absolutely. So what are some of the elements of a successful profile, first of all, I imagine that’s step one, and then how does an author go about building their brand on LinkedIn and a presence?

Owen: There's many aspects to it that are important, uh, just to kind of breeze over some, but I think the header is really important. That’s very important digital real estate that you should spend thinking on what you want to put there. I kind of push people to writing a thought-provoking question. So the minute you hop onto someone's profile, it's a question that kind of pinpoints a problem with your demographic that you're trying to reach. So it really gets them to think versus, oh, you know, here's another headshot or here's you on stage, or here's the books that you've read, I almost would say steer away from that and really use that digital real estate to capture the eyeballs of your ideal viewer and make them think about something that you're ultimately pursuing, providing the solution for. So that's one crucial idea.

I think [00:06:00] it goes without saying, but I'll, I'll mention it, but obviously a high quality profile picture is very important. I think there's goodwill to kind of creating a color background, solid color background to kind of associate your face and your name and your brand with a color. I see that works well with some authors. You know, one I'm thinking about in particular is, is when I think of the color orange, I think of Robin Sharma, for whatever reason. Obviously his book, The 5 A.M. Club is aligned with that and actually his new book now has orange. So I think there's a lot of value to tying your name and face to a color.

So that's one insight as well as your bio: A lot of people just write keynote speaker, bestselling author, executive coach, you know, very general terms that don't tell me exactly what you're up to. I would spend the first X amount of characters, your first line of your bio using what I call a TMS, your transformational marketing statement. And that's essentially a statement that just says, “I help who do what.” And maybe add some personalization on the back end, maybe your unique IP or your [00:07:00] unique process.

And from just those three elements alone, I think you're really able to convey what you're all about and what you're doing. You got them thinking about the header, you see that they're a real person, they have a great headshot. And then you see that bio and it's like, Oh, I'm their demographic and I want to get out of this pain or move towards this pleasure. I want to go and interact with this person. Not to kind of ramble on more, I mean.

I think just one other thing to tie in is the featured section. I try to treat the whole profile as a landing page, ultimately, and the featured section, instead of kind of using it for your highlights or accolades, the first tile should be a way to get in contact with you. So I encourage people to have like your “book a call” Calendly link on that first tile, but if it's to your contact form on your website, I think that's a really great play.

I'm a big believer in not creating unneeded friction in the social landscape or online landscape. So if I come to Tanya's profile and I want to get in touch with you, but I can't find how to get in touch with you, you know, that's going to cause some friction and [00:08:00] maybe cause me not to be in touch with you. Now granted, I know there's that “contact info” hyperlink that people put their stuff in, but that's one step further that I need to take, and if you could just kind of put slap in the middle, “Hey, jump on a call with me or shoot me an email,” and that's the tile image, I think you're going to have a lot more success in terms of conversion.

I mean, truthfully, those are probably the biggest pieces because the experience section is not as big of an emphasis these days. Because I don't even know if people are scrolling that far. So I think you really got to win them over early on, and those kinds of components hopefully can help them.

And then I guess around building the brand consistency around your messaging is super important. I work with a lot of folks who are really accomplished in many different disciplines in their work. They've done a job over here, they've done this or this, and it's tough to kind of bring them back into a cohesive type of a framing of what your brand is, because you don't want to confuse people, you can have multiple aspects to your life or accomplishments like we all do, but I think there's a lot [00:09:00] of value to having this one, clear, public facing type of messaging that people will know you by. And then, you know, what makes you different though, is, oh, you're not just another leadership coach perhaps, or leadership author, but you're an avid competitive tennis player, like, or whatever it may be. So that makes you very unique. Being consistent with your messaging is a key to building a strong brand.

And then through the content as well, you have a balance between authority content, showing your expertise, but also as I kind of opened up this conversation with, you know, Add like 20% of vulnerable content, stuff that maybe you wouldn't traditionally say in the past decade or two in a corporate setting, you know, it'd be, Oh, don't, don't talk about those personal things.

I think LinkedIn has opened up its doors to kind of welcoming that type of messaging. So I think spending a little time sharing vulnerabilities or losses or et cetera, can really allow you to build a deeper connection with your demographic.

Tanya: Very interesting. You've got me thinking about my profile now, fighting this impulse to go [00:10:00] make a change immediately.ust quickly, I know there's an option to set it up to where you have followers or people can connect with you. Do you advise authors one direction or the other?

Owen: Yeah. Great question. That's the creator mode. I would say go that route. One, it’s LinkedIn's way of kind of competing with the other platforms in terms of using the verbiage “follower” versus “connections.” You'll still have both displayed and you'll still be able to see both, but I think there's a lot of back end benefits of it in terms of deeper analytics, which is really what you want. So I would turn that on.

It also allows people to see your content more frequently because I believe you can only have so many connections in a set amount of time, so if you hit that threshold, you know, this person might never see your stuff again. But the way I look at follower, it's more of asking them to set up push notifications, so whenever you post, you'll get alerted. So it's just another feature that LinkedIn is helping people out to build a [00:11:00] deeper audience.

Tanya: Yeah. And speaking of that audience, how does one begin to build their network and make sure that it's filled with the right type of people who are primed to receive whatever their book's message is?

Owen: Yeah, that's a great question. I'm a big believer in not reinventing the wheel. I think all the conversations we want to have around our book topic or around our subject matter is already happening. We just need to join that conversation.

Another analogy I like to use is like, Go find the ponds to fish in and the ponds where there's already the fish, which are your ideal reader are already there somewhere on LinkedIn or other platforms. You just want to now put your bait in there, which is your name or your personal brand or your book into the conversation. But that being said, you know, it's one thing to post. And share your original thought, but I think there's a whole aspect of engaging with these people that are already having those conversations.

So it's one thing to share your original thought when you're a small creator on LinkedIn, it's like you on the top of a mountain screaming at the top of your lungs, [00:12:00] but then for you to go join a crowded marketplace where everyone's talking about the same thing, you know, that's a much better play for you to get your, your good word out. So. Go find those crowded marketplaces, which are other people's posts or other people's profiles and comments, something genuine about the post.

And I think there's just a quick nuance there too. I call it a dream list and there's two levels. There's the relatable list, and then there's the living legend list. So the living legends, more like the Brené Browns and the Tony Robbins, who are maybe just really way too big or out of our sphere of influence, you know, 20 percent of your effort should be engaging with those folks just to kind of. Be around some post that's getting a lot of engagement, but the most of your effort should be around this relatable list, which is essentially like other people sharing the stage with you or getting booked for the similar gigs as you are with your book or obviously writing about similar topics of the book and kind of banding together with those people who share similar ideas as you Obviously you have your own angle to whatever the topic is.

That's what makes that author unique. [00:13:00] But I think there's a lot of value in kind of finding those people and then connecting with them at being on their podcast, engaging with them on LinkedIn, you know, the list could go on there.

Tanya: Yeah. I like the way you framed those two different types of people, because you're not saying one's better than the other either. You're just saying it's totally different. Two different strategies.

Owen: A lot of people get overwhelmed, I'm sure you feel the same way. Clients come to you, but they compare themselves to very large figures. And I use another book analogy where it's like Tony Robbins is on chapter 75 when you might be on chapter one, you know, it's tough to have that connection. It’s just a fool's game to kind of be drowned by wanting to be at his height.

But that being said, I think the other value to having that living legend list is to kind of see what he's doing because we know he's spending obscene amounts of dollars on marketing and research and is in the best rooms with the best thinkers. So clearly, whatever he's probably doing — if he's in your niche, obviously he's a pretty broad name. You should still find maybe a living legend [00:14:00] in a more specific niche. It's fruitful to see what they're doing, cause then you could take those big ideas that they're implementing and kind of bring it down to your world. So you can continue to grow. And again, back to the point of not reinventing the wheel. If it's working for them, then it could totally work for you.

Tanya: Yeah, that makes sense. So another place where one assumes they would find people with like interests would be groups. LinkedIn has this groups feature. Any experience using those? Are there best ways to use groups to reach new connections and followers and thinkers?

Owen: Yeah, definitely. That's a great question as well. I think groups are not beneficial in the sense of just throwing your post in there and kind of hoping for the best. Now, granted, I've had clients who actually have put out posts in large groups and they've actually been like polls, a poll post, and they've gone bonkers. I mean, over like millions of impressions and many entries, and that's really effective because you can see who enters into your poll. So you can then have this [00:15:00] personalized interaction with them just to break off of what the poll was about.

But I think it's a deeper kind of message. It's less than, Oh, there's a million people in this group, I'm going to go put my message out there about my book and I'm going to sell a million copies. I think it's back to kind of my analogy around the ponds to fish in. So if you find a group where it's everyone talking about operating systems for Fortune 500 companies, and you wrote a book about how to build a better organizational management team or say, you know, decently niche within the corporate world. I think that's a great place for you to interact, but I think it's more value to actually look at who's in the group and go through those names and actually build real rapport with them and real connections versus hoping that your post is going to get gain traction by posting it in there.

The benefit is that there's people congregating around a similar topic, and that's a really great place for you to kind of see what you could do there in terms of interacting with the people in the group. Most people just might think, Oh, it's a group of a million people. I'm going to go sell a million books right now by sharing my book.

That's probably [00:16:00] just not going to happen in reality.

Tanya: Well, speaking of book sales: That's the million dollar question, right? And why people are listening to start with. What are reasonable expectations? How does your LinkedIn network convert into book sales, and is there a best practice to approach that process?

Owen: Yeah, I think social platforms can move books, but I don't think at the highest quantity that we all wish it can. I think the, the platforms in LinkedIn in particular is the best play for you to get your world, your, your readers into your email list ideally, or somewhere off platform, but be positioning yourself as the authority on this topic and then try to sell your book that way.

That being said, I've seen people have a lot of success with latching on other pieces of value to your book. So when people launch a book, it's, you know, buy five copies and you'll also get a group call with me on launch day or buy 15 copies and you'll get my free course that's valued at X amount of dollars. I think there's a lot of value to that because [00:17:00] unfortunately, obviously the grand scheme of things, most people are not as in depth readers as I probably am, but I think adding these other kind of ancillary benefits that you could provide them along with the book can incline more people to wanna purchase.

So that would be one instance. I mean, that could probably be done throughout the longevity of the book's life, but definitely within launch week. That's a really good play or at least pre sales. I just watched an author Noah Kagan do that really well, um, where he built out a great landing page and it was essentially kind of what I explained that there was these different tiers.

And if you purchase X amount of books in bulk, you'd get these other things. And depending on where you're at in your business, you know, you can potentially offer of someone where to buy a hundred books, you'll go do a free keynote for them, which maybe could reach, you retail $5K, $10K one message. I always try to communicate to authors is it's tough to kind of capture the sale right from the get go.

You want to see your book as a tool, as a launch pad to get you into rooms that you might not be able to [00:18:00] physically get into, obviously one being you can only be in one place at one time, but two, maybe they're just elite type of rooms and perhaps you're just not there in terms of your connections, using the book as this tool to kind of get it in front of the right people.

And if it, you know, through that idea of the a hundred books pre selling, like you're giving a keynote for free. Sure, you're taking maybe a loss initially, but that could open up doors to maybe six figures, seven figure deals of future talks, et cetera. So I think there's that type of mentality as well to kind of really see your book as this way to get into certain doors.

It really comes down to knowing who your reader is and meshing your books topic into providing the solutions to the problems of your reader and, and, and just blatantly telling them, you know, this book will have the tools and the strategies to help you solve this issue.

I see a lot of authors just kind of blatantly say, Hey, I got a new book and it's about this, and that's kind of that. But I think there's a little bit more of a deeper marketing conversation that should probably happen in terms of, you know, what is, what is this [00:19:00] book actually solving for? You know, what's this one tactic. That could help, you know, this specific person achieve this specific outcome. Like let's harp on that. Let's create a bunch of topics or content about that one piece. And then you're already getting their beak wet and they're getting excited. And then it's like, Oh, well, you want more? You know, you could go grab my book in terms of even selling too. I think you can sell. The like put the Amazon link in the comments.

I've noticed that putting the link in the post itself kind of drowns the reach down from LinkedIn standpoint, which makes sense, you're pushing them off platform, so posting the content and then waiting a little bit, like 10 minutes, and then kind of posting in the comments I've noticed has been a little bit of a interesting dance that you could have with LinkedIn to kind of get the good word out, just having the right mentality as well about going about it all can really help you set the best expectations and achieve the outcomes that you want.

Tanya: Yeah. Some really good tactical tips there. Thank you for that. So we've all had people connect with us on LinkedIn who [00:20:00] immediately hit our DMs with like, Hey, hire me or buy this or buy that. And then if you're like me, you remove them immediately. So that's how we don't close deals on LinkedIn. But for people who are speakers, consultants, so many of our nonfiction authors, how do you close deals on LinkedIn?

Owen: Yeah. You know, it's annoying to see that, but it's almost a blessing in a way, because if you just stand out among that mess of those long paragraph length sales pitches, you can have so much success. So what I encourage people to do is really just keep it a short message and either build some common ground, ask an open ended question, but have some sort of, you know, do a little research on the profile beforehand so you can actually connect with someone as if you're in person.

You know, it's. It's this weird human dynamic we've created that now that we're behind our phones, we just decide not to be human anymore. You know, you're not going to go to a bar or cocktail party and just go spew out the mouth, a two paragraph pitch when you first meet [00:21:00] somebody or ask the first girl or guy to marry you when you first meet them. So I'm not sure why we're doing it on social.

By taking that approach to really be more personalized, short, punchy, you know, we we're all busy. So I literally think just a, Hey, first name. I see you're doing great work in this industry. And then open ended question, see it as a way to actually build a relationship with someone. Sure, granted, maybe in the back of your mind, you're thinking, Oh, I need to go capture the sale or I need to go with my business. I mean, we're all kind of on this journey together, but keep hearing it over and over again. I see it through and through myself, but relationships really do drive revenue. So the more you could build good relationships, it will always come back tenfold on the backend. Reading one of their last posts and leaving your genuine two cents will put you already in the 1 percent of those sending those cold DMs.

Tanya: Yeah, and I'll add since, Owen, as you know, I've written my own book. Once you have the book, that's a tool in and of itself, as long as you're willing to give it away and I would [00:22:00] encourage people to do so, especially if you know it may be coming back to you in the form of business.

So sometimes I'll be going back and forth with someone on LinkedIn and then I'll tell them, you know what? The answer to that and so much more is in my book and I'll send you a copy. What's your address? And I'll actually just put a post it where that section is. Inevitably they're so grateful for that, it's a gesture you don't see very often and I'm giving them a resource and becoming an ally in that way. And very often it does turn into bigger business. So just remember that the book can be a nice tool in your tool belt as well.

Owen: That's great advice. I would totally side with that, thank you. The biggest piece you said there is actually pinpointing part of the book where it could actually help them. Tim Ferriss, I learned, has done that in the sense of when he's asking people for praise on the book, the one liner, you know, praise, and he's trying to get some really busy high profile people, he's like, Hey, if you just had five minutes and read these two sentences on page 85 or whatever, here's the Post-It. [00:23:00] That's all you need to read, cause I think this applies to you directly, and I'd be forever grateful.

And I thought, that's just like a little nuance where, because it could be overwhelming, perhaps I mean, I feel this through and through just obviously in the line of work I'm doing, but people are constantly saying, Oh, I'll send you my book for free, and I'm like, well, we need to pump the brakes. I only have so much room in my office here. I can't take on any more books just for free. But if I was coming to them with a problem, like they seem to do for you and you say, Hey, well, in this one chapter, this one section, I have the solution. I'm happy to pass it over to you. That'd be, you know, that's a good play.

And again, I think back to kind of the business mindset to like, sure, whatever your cost is to send that book, maybe it's a sub $10 loss perhaps. But I mean, that's probably the best loss you can ever make. If the backend solution is or the outcomes are going to be massive deals for the business or for yourself. So having that willingness as an author who most are not, obviously, uh, have the deepest pockets financially, I think still having that mentality that this [00:24:00] book is a way for me to enter the space of someone's home and literally hold shelf space, and it could potentially move on to something larger for me. It's worth it to take this initial loss to get the book out there.

Tanya: Yeah, I obviously agree. So as somebody is working to build out their network and they're doing all of their posting and so forth, what kind of metrics can they look to for some reassurance that this is all working? Are there standard conversion rates or a rate at which people can grow and network? What would you, if you were working with somebody on a client basis, what would you be tracking to measure success?

Owen: Yeah, I think the first step is really finding what content works and that comes down to post impressions, which you can see, um, through the creator mode of a LinkedIn profile. One piece of work that I think I pride myself with is the detailed foundational work of really understanding the marketing message and who you are so we can have the best foot forward when we do go to market.

But marketing at the end of the [00:25:00] day is a space of adapting and refining, have the best foot forward, get out there in the market, start creating, you know, have maybe five pillars of content ideas, subjects that you want to touch upon that relate to your book and start building levels to it, different pieces of content for each.

And you'll come to know in a month or two, you know, Oh, well, this one section is really resonating with these people more than ever. I think the data tells the story in that sense. And I would double down and start creating more content about that specific subject. First and foremost is finding which content resonates the best with your demographic.

Ideally spend the time before just starting to post. But then when you start to post, you'll get that real time feedback. And then from there, you know, I think revenue is always the best idea. So like I, I take a big position where even though in the past we've done some social media management and we don't do it as much on many other platforms, but I really don't prescribe to the mentality of like, Hey, we're just going to post the post. Cause that's what everyone's doing today. You know, I'm very strategic about why we're posting and why we're even spending time on this [00:26:00] platform. And ultimately it's to grow the business or to get more book sales or to get more on the backend.

So along with testing out content. Really noticing business on, on the back end is a great indicator as well of what we're doing is, is correct. But the one thing about LinkedIn though, is there are a couple of hoops, I guess, to jump through to get to revenue it. I mean, it could be as easy as, Oh, someone just booked a call with me on my profile because I had it there and I didn't create any friction, and then that led to a deal, which can totally happen and has happened, but then it maybe could be someone lurking, like we've mentioned before, maybe they've shot you a DM. They've asked a question. You've answered it for them. You've sent the book, maybe a month has gone by. They read the book and then kind of business has presented it there too.

So to that point, that last point, I think having a decent like timeline of when to see results is really important. I think a lot of people are looking for a big deal day one after posting for me, at least with my, uh, content writing service that we provide, it's [00:27:00] a three month minimum engagement just to even make sure that we're putting our best foot forward.

Of course, our goal is to create some revenue within that time period, but it is a little bit of a longer runway just to make sure you're doing all the right things and you're resonating with your audience. You're speaking to your audience, seeing what they like best, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't give up.

So that's my best advice there to just keep pushing forward and testing out different pieces of content.

Tanya: It's the proverbial marathon, not a sprint.

Owen: Absolutely. Absolutely. I always try to think about it like, if I'm in their shoes too, you know, if I've never heard of this person, you know, am I willing to go shell out four or five figures to go work with them? I mean, probably not. You gotta see what they're all about for a very long time.

And I always connect this to Apple and Nike. I mean, these companies are beyond more well known. Their universal brands, you don't even have to speak someone's language and they would understand the logo. But how many dollars are they putting towards marketing every year? I mean millions and millions and millions like if they're doing that and their brand is already solidified, we need to embody that [00:28:00] as authors or soon to be authors that there's millions of books out there and We need to, you know, we don't have to put capital necessarily, but we have to put sweat equity and put the time in to sharing your message so that that reader can ultimately see that you're a person of thought leadership and that their book can help you.

Tanya: Yes. Well said. Now, LinkedIn has lots of ever evolving features, premium memberships, top voices badge, I think is what it's called. Are there features like that, that authors should be aware of it, that they should pay attention to, or maybe even pay for?

Owen: Premium is valuable. I believe one of Premium's greatest aspects is actually seeing who's visiting your profile. So I think that's a big, um, you know, back to your other question about like a metric to optimize for. So it's one thing to post. It's one thing to get a bunch of engagement. And then it's another thing to actually see people come into your profile and peeking and looking at what you're all about.

Those are some of the best people to reach out to, you know, Hey, Tanya, I saw you just popped over to my page. Like what intrigued you? I love always asking what intrigued you about my [00:29:00] profile or what resonated with you, what aligned with you. And that person will probably tell you, you know, Hey, I'm this person that you're speaking to, and I need this help. And then you can further that conversation.

So Premium's great. I think it's under a hundred dollars a month. You know, in the grand scheme of things, the packages authors are probably selling beyond the book should make it an easy wash of any, any dollars you're putting towards this. But to learn that data is really important because without it, you get like there's a screen door in front of you to see the information. It's like, Oh, this person's a founder from Iowa saw your profile. That doesn't tell me too much. So I think that's a great investment.

Sales Navigator could be great. I don't think it's a necessity, but it's definitely a way for you to kind of pinpoint your demographic a lot easier. And you can get real specific to the company size of the founder or the industry, and you could build out a list. Of who those people are. So you can then go on LinkedIn and have a little bit more of a strategic approach.

But to be honest, that [00:30:00] being said, you know, the LinkedIn search engine, the little search function has been pretty instrumental in itself. You could just post a job or a job title or a location, and you can start finding your core people pretty easily.

The one other thing I'll share, kind of, you said about top voices. I think top voices is something, uh, you have to really, you know, deserve or earn perhaps. But I know there's these new. Other badges that you could get, you know, top leadership voice. Uh, there's a little bit of a nuance there to my answer. Like there's the LinkedIn top voice, which I think like LinkedIn itself decides once a year or some sort.

And then there's top leadership development voice or top, you know, social media branding voice. And for those I've seen. They could be very easy to get. Actually, you can go find the AI generated articles on your feed. If you scroll, you'll, you'll begin to start seeing those. Oh, you've been invited to, to comment on these five posts about this topic. And it'll even tell you where you are in the percentage of the rankings. And ultimately you want to get to [00:31:00] 1 percent to get those.

I would daily interact with three or more of those posts. Share your genuine two cents. And then I believe you need to have a decent level of endorsements on that same keyword topic within your profile. So, you know, you can manufacture that yourself if you want, or you can just have people, you know, do that as time goes on, but if people are, are, um, you know, endorsing you for management, you know, the, as the category, and then you're starting to interact on the management AI articles, you'll probably begin to notice that you'll rise the ranks and you'll actually earn that badge. Personally, I don't know if that, you know, it's one of those things. I don't think it really drives revenue directly, but I think it's a credibility piece that can really give you that stamp of approval that you are a top voice in this industry.

So yeah, some paid products you can go through with and some free, but you know, nonetheless, I think posting consistent content and speaking to your demographic and interacting with those people and joining those ponds that, you know, there's already the fish in. For [00:32:00] you to join is all things that anyone can do without a single dollar put into the machine.

But instead of putting in dollars, you got to put in that time and effort. So it's one or the other, but you could choose your battle.

Tanya: Absolutely. Well, you've given us so much great advice today. Do you have any parting thoughts for authors looking at using LinkedIn as a tool to promote? And also how do people reach you if they want your help in doing that?

Owen: Yeah, parting thoughts. I would just say, really see your profile as kind of this sort of landing page. You have to put your business hat on a bit and really think about what this reader wants and provide actionable solutions. You shouldn't have a call to action on every post.

You should be very, you know, give, give, give, and then ask. I always say, 80 percent or 90 percent giving and then 10 percent ask. That could be once a week or it could be every two weeks, but really kind of building that goodwill I think is really [00:33:00] fruitful.

To reach me, it's funny, I'm not, we're working on it right now, but I'm not a very traditional kind of website guy. We've pretty much operated all off of social and I guess that's a testament to the work we do. So to reach me, you know, you could find the personal brand, Owen Sammarone, on LinkedIn. I have an Instagram page now as well called @owenauthoraccelerator. You could check me out there if you're more of a visual learner, but content's pretty similar. We just kind of replicated on which platform we're building on to make it suitable for the platform. Happy to interact with any business or self help author to talk book marketing or thought leadership. Primarily how you could use your book as a tool to more income and impact.

Tanya: Perfect. Owen, thank you so much for joining us today. You were great.

Owen: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

That's it for our episode today with Owen. We hope you enjoyed learning about LinkedIn for authors. For notes and resources from today's show, go to greenleafbookgroup.com/episode85. You can also find advice for writing, publishing, and promoting your work in my book, Ideas, Influence, and Income, which you can learn more about at ideasinfluenceandincome.com.

A big thank you to Madison Johnson, who produces the Published podcast and to our five star reviewers. Thank you for your support. And we will be back with another episode on the last Tuesday of next month.

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Owen Sammarone is the founder and CEO of Unleash The Knowledge, a digital community for nonfiction authors to expand their reach.