LinkedIn for Authors: An Interview with Teri Scheinzeit

In today’s author spotlight, business coach and author Teri Scheinzeit shares her insights into LinkedIn for authors.

Over the years, I’ve worked with Teri Scheinzeit a number of times.  She helped me create targeted goals, focus my efforts, and prioritize my activities in order to move forward. Teri participated in my Bring Your Book to Life® program and I edited her book Success without Stress: Simple Steps to Finding Calm for Women Business Owners, winner in the NY Book Festival and finalist in the International Book Awards.

When I gave a talk at the Stevie Awards first business conference in NYC, Teri came to cheer me on. Recently, Teri mentioned she helps clients use LinkedIn to network and generate business leads.

As Teri shared her LinkedIn expertise, I realized this would be a great topic to support this business-plan-oriented vision for book publishing and promotion.

Why LinkedIn is a Great Place for Authors Tweet This

Lisa: LinkedIn can be a great place for authors to connect to their audience, before and after publishing. Why is that?

Teri: LinkedIn is a great platform since it offers so many options and you have a huge audience. Before and after your book is published you can get the word out through posts, photos, articles and videos. LinkedIn is also a fabulous networking tool. LinkedIn easily provides ways to help you promote friends and associates. They, in turn, can easily promote your services and book.

Lisa: Focusing on nonfiction, what audiences tend to hang out on LinkedIn and what might not be a good fit as far as audience when compared to other social media platforms.

Teri: Business books are great for LinkedIn because it’s a business platform, but I wouldn’t rule out other genres. Your LinkedIn connections read all sorts of material. Self-help books, science manuals, historical novels and even memoirs are all possibilities. Remember that LinkedIn consists of your friends, associates, vendors, clients and family members. They are interested in what you’re up to. (I am a strong believer in connecting to only people you know.)

How to Use LinkedIn to Prepare for Publishing Tweet This

Lisa: What are some ways authors can use LinkedIn to help them as they write a book proposal or prepare for publishing?

Teri: Authors can inform LinkedIn connections that that they’re in the process of writing a book. They can talk about the topic, why it’s an interesting subject, what the book will include—wet some appetites. They might even include a chapter (as an article) stating that it’s a chapter from their upcoming book.

Lisa: What are some ways authors can use LinkedIn for their launch and once the book is published?

Teri: Authors can post about the launch, how excited they are, and when the book will be released. Afterwards, they can post the book itself, mention why the book is important and who the book is for. They can post reviews, awards, comments from friends.

How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Book Tweet This

Lisa: In what ways did you use LinkedIn to launch and promote your Award-Winning Book Success Without Stress?

Teri: I posted photos of the book, photos of my launch party, photos of people holding my book, photos of me lying on a deck chair with my book. I combined professional and personal photos. I used chapters as LinkedIn articles (always stating they were chapters from my book), I wrote about my book awards, I asked friends to share my posts, and asked friends to promote about my book.

Lisa: What have been some of the results of that outreach and promotion? How do the book and LinkedIn work synergistically for your business and brand?

Teri: My book (and book awards) gave me new credibility as a business coach. Suddenly I was an author and a business coach. It opened doors, provided speaking opportunities and became an excellent calling card. I also had something new to talk about. Best of all, I suddenly became a thought leader. My book was full of coaching techniques that I developed.

Using Your Book to Grow Your Business Tweet This

Lisa: I often suggest that the more an aspiring author can use projects that bring in income as their platform building and book promotion strategies, the more sustainable the whole project is. As the book contributes to income producing strategies it can generate more funds for continuing to market the book as well as sustain your business. Do you have any advice around that? Things that you and your clients have done to use the book—both before and after it’s written—to bring in income?

Teri: I continually use my book to bring in new business, secure speaking engagements and promote my services. I send digital chapters of my book to clients and prospects when they’re struggling with an issue I’ve addressed in my book. I love having written a book. It really has no shelf life. I’m still using it for additional income, promotion and marketing.

What’s to Love About LinkedIn — For Authors Tweet This

Lisa: What do you love about LinkedIn as a platform?

Teri: There’s so many ways to use it. Plus, it’s a great networking tool. I recommend that for every post you write about your services, post five about others. Post about a friend’s services, thank an associate for a referral, share a friend’s post (don’t forget to add a comment!), write a recommendation for a vendor (and then include a few sentences of the recommendation in a post), talk about a friend’s new book! It’s endless. Who do you think they’ll think of when someone needs your services? But also, be generous to others because it feels good.

I also love that you can find so much information on LinkedIn. For example, authors can see what their competition is up to. How are other authors promoting their books? How often? To whom? Read. Research. Explore. It’s all on LinkedIn.

Avoid These 5 Biggest LinkedIn  Mistakes Tweet This

Lisa: What are the biggest mistakes people make on LinkedIn?

Teri:

• Your profile is not a resume. It’s marketing pieces. Instead of writing about your accomplishments, tell the reader how you can HELP them. What services do you offer that they need?? How does your background and expertise make you the perfect person to solve their problems? Why do clients love to work with you?

• When writing your professional headline (the type under your name) don’t use accountant, graphic designer or financial advisor. Again, show how you help clients. For example, a career coach might write, Career Coach—I help ease your job transition. A headhunter might write: I Help People Find Jobs Fast. See the difference? And never write, Owner of “name of a company that no one has ever heard of and we have no clue what it does.”

• Don’t just promote. promote. promote. That’s the last person I want to work with.

• When inviting people to connect, don’t use the LinkedIn boiler plate invitation. Write a personal note. LinkedIn is about developing relationships not just collecting names and increasing your numbers.

• Learn how to use LinkedIn. I taught a class once, How to use LinkedIn to Get New Clients. I sent a questionnaire with the question—What do you do when you get on LinkedIn? 80% of the responses were “Nothing.”

LinkedIn Success Stories

Lisa: Do you have a LinkedIn success story?

Teri: A client hired me to turn her profile into a marketing piece. Within a week she secured a new client who said, “I hired you because of your profile.”

Lisa: Any other strategies or tips you’d like to share with our readers/writers?

Teri: My best tip is to send an unsolicited recommendation to a friend, vendor or associate without them asking for it. It will blow their mind and they will love you forever.

Lisa: What else would you like our readers to know?

Teri: It doesn’t take long to learn how to effectively use LinkedIn and you don’t need to spend a lot of time to make an impact.

Lisa: What kind of consulting do you offer on linked in and how can people contact you? 

Teri:  In addition to business coaching, I offer a one-hour session specifically on how to turn your profile into a dynamic marketing piece., as well as a follow-up session on how to strategically use LinkedIn a few minutes a day. Readers of this blog can contact me  for a copy of my handout ” How to Write a Great LInkedIn Recommendation.”

Teri Scheinzeit is a NYC business coach, author and professional speaker. She’s a gold medal recipient of Mentor/Coach of the Year from the Stevie Awards, a premier business organization honoring women entrepreneurs worldwide. Her book, Success Without Stress: Simple Steps to Finding Calm for Women Business Owners won four book awards and is available at Savvy Business Owner, Teri’s website.