What a Florist Can Teach Us About Using LinkedIn
Welcome to episode 185, this week I’m doing my annual ‘escape from the wet and cold of Britain’ week in Spain so I thought I would treat you to one of the most popular podcast episodes I have ever produced.
I’m sure many of you have heard me talk about the florist from Grimsby who is killing it on LinkedIn….well this is the interview I did with her in May 2015 on a since retired podcast called Winbusinessin…..enjoy!
In this episode, I interview Kate Lister, a stay at home mum who runs a florist business from her kitchen! I first came across Kate in November 2014 when she invited me to connect, since that time I have been an interested observer of her daily activities and regular engagement with other LinkedIn users.
I must admit at first I thought Kate’s behaviour was too ‘Facebook like’ for LinkedIn but then I started to notice how many people were engaging with her and how she was clearly developing relationships with potential customers or referrers. I began to question my initial impression and decided to take a more open-minded view and through this, I began to learn from her……I suggest you do the same!
Soon after this I noticed one particular post she did which really got a lot of attention (see below)
This one post went viral and attracted attention from marketing and social media experts throughout the world!
This is a classic example of the perfect ingredient for success;
- It’s an image (images are less effective these days but still worth posting)
- It’s a question – this encourages engagement
- It’s a simple alternative answer – jug or box?
The other factors that came into play in its success were the work that Kate had been doing for months previously, connecting with people and commenting on other updates. This gained her goodwill and others felt they wanted to help her when she asked for assistance – this is critical in the first 24 hours of any post. Plus luck! She has done similar updates since but without the same level of success.
Through trial and error, Kate has also understood which posts work better on LinkedIn (where her audience is largely male) and what time of day she should be posting.
These techniques are working and Kate is now winning business from corporate clients who would normally get their flowers from larger traditional florist shops in her area.
I mentioned this post (below) that Kate had done the morning of our interview at 6.30am which is very typical of what she does but at least 50% (I think more) of her activity is commenting on other members posts she sees in her stream.
As you can see, within hours she has many likes and comments, this doesn’t happen by accident it happens because she has worked hard at engaging with her network.
I really enjoyed interviewing Kate and feel she has a lot to teach all of us about how to use LinkedIn as an effective business development tool.
Here are my five golden nuggets I got from this interview;
- Be yourself on LinkedIn. Kate wins business by being authentic, not by clever marketing tactics and scripts.
- Know the right times to post updates, this will vary for every market.
- Use the LinkedIn mobile app to manage your time more efficiently
- Spend more time commenting or liking other peoples posts than posting your own. This is how you build relationships.
- Tailor content to your LinkedIn audience. What works on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc may not be right for LinkedIn.
Kate would be happy to connect with you on LinkedIn and she can also be found at;
That’s it for this week, don’t forget to leave a voicemail or email me with any questions or suggestions, until next time.
Have a great week everyone.
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