The Art of Social Proof and Building Trust on LinkedIn with Melanie Borden

Building trust on LinkedIn can feel like an uphill battle, especially in a space crowded with professionals vying for attention. But trust isn’t just about showing up—it’s about strategic positioning, credibility, and authenticity. In a recent episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with LinkedIn expert Melanie Borden, who shared her invaluable insights on leveraging social proof to transform your online presence.

Social proof is one of the most powerful tools for establishing credibility, yet many professionals overlook it. Melanie explains that testimonials, recommendations, and endorsements act as digital word-of-mouth, reinforcing your expertise and reliability. A well-crafted LinkedIn profile isn’t just a digital resume—it’s a personal brand statement that signals to potential employers, clients, and collaborators that you’re someone worth engaging with.

One of the most overlooked aspects of LinkedIn is how it serves as a personal funnel for opportunities. Melanie emphasizes that every piece of content you share, every comment you leave, and every connection you make contributes to your online reputation. Simply being present isn’t enough—you need to be intentional with the way you position yourself. From the language used in your bio to the way you engage with others, every action plays a role in building trust.

Striking the right balance between personal and professional content is crucial. Too much self-promotion can make you seem inauthentic, while overly personal posts may not resonate with your target audience. Melanie suggests blending thought leadership with genuine insights, ensuring that your content remains both informative and relatable. This approach helps create meaningful connections rather than just surface-level engagement.

A major mistake people make on LinkedIn is failing to leverage testimonials. Melanie stresses that recommendations from colleagues, mentors, and clients add a layer of credibility that no self-written bio can achieve. These endorsements serve as proof of your skills, experience, and impact. Encouraging satisfied clients or colleagues to leave recommendations can significantly enhance your profile’s appeal.

Beyond testimonials, engagement plays a key role in building trust. Melanie highlights that LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards authentic interactions. Rather than passively scrolling, actively participating in discussions, responding thoughtfully to comments, and initiating conversations can make a significant difference. The more you engage, the more visible and credible you become within your network.

Another common pitfall is inconsistency. Posting sporadically or disappearing for long periods can make it difficult to establish trust. Melanie advises maintaining a consistent content schedule, even if that means posting just once or twice a week. Consistency signals reliability, and over time, it helps strengthen your presence as a trusted authority in your field.

Positioning yourself as an authority requires a combination of expertise and authenticity. Melanie underscores the importance of sharing not just successes but also lessons learned from challenges. People connect with vulnerability and real-life experiences, so don’t be afraid to show the human side of your journey. This openness fosters deeper relationships and encourages engagement.

Networking with intention is another key takeaway. It’s not just about adding connections but about nurturing relationships. Melanie suggests personalizing connection requests, following up with meaningful conversations, and offering value rather than immediately asking for something in return. A strong network is built on genuine interactions, not just numbers.

At the core of it all, trust isn’t given—it’s earned. By implementing Melanie Borden’s strategies, professionals can create an authentic, credible LinkedIn presence that attracts the right audience and opens doors to new opportunities. Whether you’re a job seeker, entrepreneur, or content creator, mastering the art of social proof and engagement will set you apart and turn your LinkedIn profile into a powerful asset.

 

Mary (00:00.967)
Melanie Borden, welcome to Recruiting Insider.

Melanie Borden (00:04.121)
Thanks for having me. Great to finally meet you.

Mary (00:05.824)
Of course. Yes, you too! So Melanie is truly a powerhouse. I mean, if you don’t follow her on LinkedIn, you need to. In her past life, she was a high powered marketing executive. Now she’s the founder of Borden Group and she’s worked with over 150 brands to expand their reach, amplify their messaging, and increase their marketing effectiveness.

And she’s also been featured in top publications such as LA Weekly, Entrepreneur, Good Morning America, Daily Mail, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and so many others. And you know, it seems like lately I’ve spoken with so many people who are just ready to do something completely different with their lives, but you know, they just don’t really know what that means or where to start.

So today, Melanie and I are going to discuss how to prepare for a career and package for success online. So Melanie, could you share with us just a little bit about your background and specifically how you transitioned from a corporate role to building your personal brand on LinkedIn and what motivated you to make that shift?

Melanie Borden (01:24.475)
Well, I’ll try to fit it all in at the time that we have because I know we’ve together. But when I first really started thinking about LinkedIn, it wasn’t for me. It was actually for who I worked for. And so back in 2018, 2019, around that timeframe, I was very much

Mary (01:26.674)
Yes!

Melanie Borden (01:48.709)
browsing on LinkedIn like many people are now still doing. And I was working in marketing. I was working as a VP of marketing for a CEO who had a few different businesses, including a real estate company. He had a car dealerships. He had all different types of businesses that were under him. And I was really just in the background and I had no intention or desire.

Mary, can I just stop for one second? Because I’m sweating and I don’t want to reintroduce myself and I’m sitting here looking at myself sweating and I’m like, my God. This is not the right day. I’m so sorry. Can we just start over? I’m so sorry. You’re like, Yeah, if you could do that. I’m so sorry. I’m like, why am I sweating? This is honestly, I don’t know how old you are, but I’m 40.

Mary (02:22.696)
Yeah.

Mary (02:27.384)
Yep, no problem. Yeah, absolutely. Do you want me to re -ask the question or you can just answer it? Yep. Yeah.

Mary (02:43.776)
Girl I turned 40 on my next birthday so I was just gonna say my sister and I were talking about that whole…

Melanie Borden (02:49.563)
I don’t know what’s, it’s like I’m having a hot flash. Like I would see this on TV and I’d think, those ladies are so old and now it’s me. I’m hot flash. Like I’m too young, I’m only like 26. I shouldn’t be. sorry. This is so embarrassing, but it’s real. mean, this is what it is. I mean, you might want to save this and use this as like a blooper or something.

Mary (02:52.044)
no.

Mary (02:55.431)
I know, I hear ya.

Mary (03:00.704)
I feel 26 most days.

Mary (03:07.259)
Yeah, it’s life.

Mary (03:11.749)
Yeah. Okay. I’ll ask the question again. That’s okay.

Melanie Borden (03:14.107)
I’m sorry, tell your editor. Editor, if you’re watching this, which you are, we apologize. This is what happens. I don’t know if you’re a man or woman, it is what it is. on one second. I’m so sorry, Mary. I’m not like this all the time. But right now I am.

Mary (03:19.571)
We apologize.

Yep, he’s a man. He can’t really relate.

No need for apologies.

You do you, girl.

Melanie Borden (03:40.507)
It’s just been that kind of day, I guess. All right. Welcome to my life. I’m on podcasts and I try to do the things that I tell people to do and I am not doing it. okay. All right. We can start over.

Mary (03:43.475)
Yep, yep.

Mary (03:57.222)
Melanie, can you share a little bit about your background and specifically how you transitioned from a corporate role to building your personal brand on LinkedIn and what motivated you to make that shift?

Melanie Borden (04:10.107)
This is the million dollar question because I had no idea what I was doing when I was doing it. I just knew that I had to do something. So back in 2019, I was working for someone else. I was working for a CEO who had multiple businesses, car dealerships. was a real estate developer. Say he is a real estate developer. He had his own personal brand, had a radio show. And I

thought that there was an opportunity for the businesses to actually grow more through LinkedIn because that’s where our target audience was. The primary businesses that I worked on were all car dealerships, all what we call high line in the auto industry, which are luxury car dealerships. And who is buying cars that are $100 ,000 executives and those executives aren’t necessarily at home if they’re driving a Maserati, they’re taking the train into New York City, they’re on LinkedIn.

That’s where they’re, you know, that’s where they are. And so I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the salespeople from all the businesses there at the time there was probably about, I would say, I don’t know, 70 to 80. And I thought, what if we can get all of these salespeople activating on all cylinders, promoting themselves, promoting the company on LinkedIn, and also leveraging the millions of dollars that we were spending in advertising and marketing on the platform.

Mary (05:32.832)
Mm.

Melanie Borden (05:32.891)
And it ended up turning out to be a complete bust because the pandemic happened a couple of months ago. We started the kind of the beginning of the year and then towards March, things started to seem a little unsure of what was happening in other parts of the world. And almost the entire company was laid off with the exception of like 20 of us. And there was probably about 500 employees at the time.

Mary (05:38.337)
Ha!

Sure.

Mary (06:01.962)
Wow.

Melanie Borden (06:03.001)
Yeah, so what I realized was, I was trying to lead by example and I was posting on LinkedIn, I would say once a week or so, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was really focused more on my client, not my client, my boss and his personal brand and the company’s marketing, the company’s social name, wasn’t really so focused on my own. And so I just started posting and I started documenting what was happening in my life. And I actually was…

I really started thinking about this term before we started talking, Mary, today. And I was really kind of not just building in public, which I was, which I’ve continued to do as I’ve gone through this journey of going from an employee to being a business owner, or really an operator, because I’m in the business. I’m not just kind of overseeing everything. I’m actively in my business, but I really started.

know, healing in public and going through everything that we were going through to the pandemic. And then I started sharing stories of what it was like to be a single mom, kind of climbing that corporate ladder, sharing, going through a divorce and through all these things. And it was all kind of happening at the same time. And that’s really how I got started. I just started showing up and I had this feeling that LinkedIn was going to lead to something. And that was really the first time that I ever leaned into something that I felt very strongly about.

that I had the confidence to say, okay, I know how to market and I know how to market people, so why can’t I just transfer that and market myself?

Mary (07:30.867)
Yeah.

Mary (07:35.941)
I love that and we’re gonna dig into that and we’re gonna break that down here in just a little bit. But first, know, I kind of mentioned that I do have a lot of conversations with people on LinkedIn and kind of an underlying theme that I’ve found is a lot of them are just ready for a change. I don’t know if it was the pandemic or, you know, just the different market shifts and, you know, economic trends that have happened over the last…

you year six months or so, but you know, they’re just, they’re ready for a change and they don’t know where the hell to start, right? That’s what everybody’s saying, but they’re just ready to start a new, a new career. So what are some steps that those people can take to really start to develop a strong personal brand on LinkedIn? Where do they even begin?

Melanie Borden (08:27.323)
I think the first place that somebody would want to begin is seeing who else is out there and what else is happening and to kind of explore and to lurk as we call it, lurking on the platform and kind of look around and see what other people are doing. What other people, you know, that are in the same role as you that have a role you want to have. What are they talking about? What are they posting about? Who do you resonate with? Who is that person that

you look at and say, wow, I could be doing that too, or that sounds like something I would say, or I can see an area what they’re talking about where I could do it differently. And just kind of explore. That would be my first step, and that’s why I tell everyone. The way to get started is to just actually get started by getting familiar with the app. Go on the website, look around, get familiar with all the features and see what really resonates with you. Identify some areas of opportunity on your own profile and just learn.

Most of the people that are on LinkedIn are generally there to learn and to grow. Yes, there are a lot of people who are on the platform who are looking to, you know, take their career to the next level. They’re looking for a new job. But that’s really a part of the process is really seeing what’s out there. A big mistake that I think a lot of people make is they just use it as a CV and it’s really not a CV. I mean, look, it is an updated version of a resume more so now than it ever was.

Mary (09:28.745)
Mm

Mary (09:46.75)
Mm. Yeah.

Melanie Borden (09:54.223)
but it’s a differentiator. So what makes you different? You don’t want to present yourself as like a boring corporate person. I mean, that’s not fun. It’s not exciting, but you don’t necessarily have to post photos of what you ate either or have, you know, information that’s not necessarily relevant to your career on your profile, but it’s a way for you to stand out in a very crowded space. So see what other people are doing and look around and just say, hey,

Mary (09:55.837)
Yeah.

Mary (10:03.305)
Mm

Melanie Borden (10:21.931)
I like this person, I’m following them. And also another thing that you can really do is look in your industry and say, who are the leaders in this space? And start interacting with them too. Especially if you’re looking to grow in some way, which most people are when they go on LinkedIn, they’re looking to find a way to either get to somewhere, right? So it might be a new job, it might be a new career.

in a new industry, it might be launching a business, it might be fundraising, it might be an event, the list goes on and on. But find the people that are doing what you want to do and see how they’re doing it.

Mary (11:02.122)
think that a lot of people are concerned with getting too personal on LinkedIn because it’s a much different platform than Facebook, then Instagram, then TikTok, then really any other platform that most of us are on and posting consistently. So I know that you mentioned going through your divorce and all of these really personal things and how that is part of what builds you and your personal brand. So how can we

really determine what we should post about? mean, especially for those of us that are targeting a pivot, I feel like, you know, if we’ve been in the same space for a long time, we have probably established who we are in that space. But if we’re trying to go somewhere else, it’s like, you know, usually it’s tempting to be really, really professional or kind of conform to whatever that industry standard might be. So how do we determine what topics we should actually

post about and talk about and really just start shape that personal brand.

Melanie Borden (12:06.491)
That’s a good question. I think that a lot of times we overthink all of the things that you just mentioned. And when you’re following other people, you can really identify what other people have had success with. And that’s why I mentioned earlier, finding people to follow that are having success, see what they’re posting about. I mean, at the end of the day, people follow people they know, like, and trust, and people work with those same people too.

And not everyone’s gonna wanna work with you, not everyone’s gonna like you, not everyone’s gonna resonate with you, not everyone likes the fact that I shared the things that I’ve shared over the time, but I will tell you that the people who do work with me, they know me, and people definitely have a comfort in knowing people. So there’s essentially four, we can call them content pillars, you can call them buckets, you can call them whatever you want, but there’s essentially four different ways that you can present yourself in content.

And by the way, I also think that content is not the best way to go about building your personal brand. I do feel that you’re profilist, which I’ll talk to you in one second. But there’s essentially four ways that you can really create an image of your career path and who you are by sharing educational content, because you’re teaching people and you’re positioning yourself as the subject matter expert.

Mary (13:02.153)
Sure. Okay. Mm

Melanie Borden (13:25.039)
So you don’t have to call yourself an expert. You don’t have to call yourself a guru. You don’t have to call yourself anything. You’re just teaching people what you know and you’re helping them. And when you’re helping other people, they say, OK, this is the person I go to for X, Y, and Z. As an example, I have a neighbor who is very handy. So every once in a while, I will call that particular neighbor because I know that they’re very handy because they always offer advice. It’s the same thing with sharing content on LinkedIn.

If you have someone that’s in your network who’s teaching you about something and it’s relevant to you and you’re in the right place at the right time and they need you right now, it’s gonna help you get further down the line with that particular person versus the person who isn’t doing what you’re doing and being public and teaching. A lot of people also…

feel that if they’re sharing their secrets, which nothing on earth is really new, everyone is saying and doing the same thing differently, but the same message. know, at the, essentially, my friend Heather Monahan always says, there is nothing new that’s been written other than what was written in the Bible. And it’s so true because everyone is pretty much doing and saying the same thing, but it’s coming from a different person. So don’t be afraid to share your knowledge and to share your expertise because

If you’re doing it in your industry and all these other people who may be perceived as more successful, more educated, more this, this, this, and this, but they’re not out there, they’re not gonna have the same sort of results that you’re gonna have because you’re the one that’s out there saying and doing the things. The second thing is putting out promotional content or promoting yourself and letting people know what your offer is and being specific. The first three months I started my business,

Mary (14:55.038)
Mm

Melanie Borden (15:11.963)
just because I had 50 ,000 followers at the time, I was gonna start making the money and I didn’t. And I didn’t for the first three months because of the fact that I wasn’t being specific and saying, hi, I’m Melanie. I have a marketing consulting agency. I am looking to have clients hire me. So if you need X, Y, and Z, you need to have a conversation with me and being specific in putting it out there. Because if people don’t know, if you don’t ask, they’re never gonna say yes.

Mary (15:13.023)
Golden. Yeah.

Melanie Borden (15:39.141)
So if you want to make money on LinkedIn, you need to ask for it. That doesn’t mean in every single post you need to say, hi, I am so and so. This is who I am. This is the industry I work on. No, we don’t need to see it every single post, but we can see it. We can see it every once in a while just as a reminder of who you are and what you do, et cetera. The other thing is sharing, as we talked about earlier, personal content. It’s OK to share.

some personal information. I’m a single mom. I’ve got two kids. They’re really into sports. I have a senior co -dependent Chihuahua who’s sitting on my lap right now. She was about to puff her head up, but people know this about me. People know it and I’m okay with that. So it’s good to share a little bit about you because then people know who you are. They get a sense of familiarity with you. And there are people who have known me over the years. And I said earlier, kind of healing in public.

Mary (16:12.511)
I hope she does!

Melanie Borden (16:33.807)
That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been sharing and growing and that’s what this is all about. And so people like that. People want to resonate with other people and they want to be connected to people at a deeper level. They want to be educated. They want to be entertained. They want to learn something. They want to feel something. And you can do that through sharing personal content. And then lastly, sharing social proof. Share what other people say about working with you. Let them know what the results are.

That doesn’t mean that you have to package it in a way that’s so pristine and perfect. No, you don’t need to. But if someone says something great about you and your results working with you, and that’s going to take someone to the next level of wanting to work with you, then share it. Why not?

Mary (17:16.768)
Yeah. Yeah, that’s amazing advice. And, you know, that’s something that, personally I have been struggling with because, you know, I’ve been on LinkedIn forever. I mean, since I’ve been on LinkedIn, probably since 2008 and I didn’t really start posting consistently until this year, maybe. And I’m kicking myself for that because I feel like I’ve lost out on so many different opportunities. And, you know, when I started, when I first started posting, I think that I fell into the trap of just

making a lot of mistakes. mean, a lot of the mistakes that you mentioned in terms of, you know, just being really clear in what I offer and being really clear and on, you know, who I am as a person and really bringing in some of those personal stories, but also some of the professional stories while also mixing it in with the educational piece. And I think that the trap that I fell into was just trying to give as much advice.

as I possibly could, which in turn, you know, made it so that, you know, maybe I wasn’t connecting with my followers on that personal level. And so I made a commitment, you know, even probably two or three months ago to just start to try to be more genuine in how I post. Because like you said, people love it when you can tap into their emotions. I mean, yes, they want the knowledge. They want to know that.

You know, you’re the expert in your field. Yeah, great. You can provide all this content, but they also want to know that you’re a human. And, you know, they don’t want to see posts that are being written by AI. And I’m a huge advocate. I love AI in a lot of different areas of my life, and especially in increasing efficiency and performance and, you know, business and different things like that. But when it comes to my posts, I’m not going to be using AI. And that’s one thing that I can guarantee. And that was another mistake that I made when I first started posting was I was like, I’ll just

This is easy, I’ll just run it through chat GPT and it’ll spit something out for me and it’s like, well yeah, you can do that, but you’re not going to connect with your audience on the same level.

Melanie Borden (19:21.029)
Yeah, and the thing is, Mary, is that everything that you mentioned, that’s supposed to happen. You’re supposed to, that’s part of the process with this. You’re not supposed to know what exactly you’re supposed to say or you’re supposed to do. That’s the journey that you’re on doing this. You have to go through all of these different steps to kind of figure out where you need to be and what you need to say and what you need to do. And that’s how you learn and grow.

because everyone can say you have to do it this way and you have to do it that way and you have to do it like this. But the truth is that not everybody is the same. Not everybody has the same audience. Not everything is gonna resonate with the same person. And at the end of the day, the way that you will grow is by learning through action and by doing it, not by listening to taking a course from someone or watching someone’s video on LinkedIn. I mean, that’s really what I want to do.

Mary (20:09.439)
100%. Yeah. Like I’ll write a post and I’m like, this is such great information, such a good post. And then, you know, the performance on it is just terrible. And then another one that, you know, maybe something in completely left field that I’ll put out there. And it was my top performing post for the week. So it’s just hard to know exactly what to post there.

Melanie Borden (20:31.673)
No one is harder on themselves than ourselves. And also, on that note too, no one is watching us more than ourselves. Most people are not giving a flying you know what about what we’re doing because they’re self -involved. So a lot of times we’re in our own heads about our own content and we think that other people think so much about our content and they don’t. They don’t. They don’t care. They care about themselves. How does it impact them?

Mary (20:34.271)
Yeah, 100%.

Mary (20:40.236)
Yeah.

Mary (20:43.891)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Mary (20:55.071)
No. Yeah. They don’t. They don’t care. Yeah. They don’t.

Melanie Borden (21:01.241)
And that’s why you write for people, you write for others. But a lot of times it’s very healing to also write your experiences and write personal content because other people are going through the same thing that you’re going through. And that’s how you develop those deeper connections.

Mary (21:18.537)
Yeah. Yeah. And we’ll pivot from content too. But another thing that I’ve loved to do before we do make that pivot into the next part of our conversation. Another thing what I love to do when it comes to content and I started doing this recently is anytime I’m listening to a podcast or I’m reading a book, I’ll start, you know, I’ll hear something that really resonates with me and I’ll write it down and I’ll do a little more research into it. And then I’ll start to build posts based on that.

And actually we were speaking before we pushed go on the podcast about Jessica Winder. And, you know, I’d brought her on my podcast and one thing that she recommended to me was just creating a Google doc full of ideas. And it’s like, that’s such a simple thing to do. Why didn’t I think of that like six months ago, you know? But yeah, I mean, that can be huge for somebody that’s trying to just first establish their personal brand.

Melanie Borden (22:12.047)
Yeah, absolutely. The Google Doc, know, something that I do, it’s actually very, it reveals my age, I think, a lot when I do it. But I send myself voice memos and I send myself text messages when I’m running. I so many ideas when I’m working out, even when, like early in the morning when my kids are sleeping and I’m like doing weights, I’ll get an idea and I’ll just, I don’t have a pen and paper with me, but I’ll just pick up my phone and I’ll text myself something.

Mary (22:25.289)
Mm. Yeah.

Mary (22:33.663)
Mm

Melanie Borden (22:40.813)
Any way that you can, even if you are at your desk and you’re just writing something down, just to save it for later. That’s what I’ve done with a ton of the research for my book. As I’ve been writing my book, I send myself voice memos all the time. I was driving to Vermont about a month ago from New Jersey and I was listening to podcasts and I was like, my God, that’s such a great idea. I need to write a book. I couldn’t write, I was driving my kids in the backseat. So I just did a voice memo and send it to myself. But it’s a great idea. Absolutely.

Mary (22:53.278)
Yeah.

Mary (23:00.563)
Yeah.

Mary (23:05.435)
Yep. Yeah. Awesome. For sure. Yeah. So I know you mentioned earlier that content is awesome, but really creating a LinkedIn profile is the number one thing that you would recommend. So talk to us more about that.

Melanie Borden (23:22.799)
Okay, so I’m going to say something that’s going to upset some people because they don’t like this term, but your LinkedIn profile is a funnel. And if you are in sales, you need to look at your profile as an opportunity to capture someone in the moment. And you have a very small window of time to do that. So your profile itself, it’s not just a profile. It’s not just like an Instagram profile or a Facebook page or your

X page. Your LinkedIn profile is a not just a career snapshot, but it is a landing page of you. If you don’t have a website, LinkedIn is a great place to just showcase who you are, what you do, who you do it for, the results you get. And you have all these micro moments for conversion from the time someone looks at your profile photo to your banner to your headline.

to your about section, your featured section, and all those micro moments are moments of conversion to convert someone from just being a lurker to someone who’s a potential client, partner, referral, et cetera, relationship. It is something that a lot of people don’t focus on talking about as much, but you can post 365 days a year. But if your content doesn’t match your profile, it’s a missed opportunity if the person really isn’t in the market for

working with you or hiring you or whatever it is, that’s the opportunity to really capture someone is in your profile, not necessarily always through your content. They both work great together. But when clients come to me, they’re always focused so much on content and I always try to unwind them and bring them back to their profile because that’s really where that moment of transformation happens for someone who’s working as that executive.

Mary (24:55.668)
Mm.

Mary (25:13.107)
Mm -hmm.

Melanie Borden (25:16.111)
who wants to take the leap to have their own coaching business, who wants to be a consultant, or who wants to take the leap to go to a different industry. How are you going to get them if your profile doesn’t match what your goals are? And so you have all these moments where you can essentially direct someone from your banner all the way down your profile to what you want them to do and how to do it. And a lot of people miss that opportunity and they wonder why LinkedIn doesn’t work for them.

Mary (25:18.964)
Yeah.

Mary (25:29.31)
Yeah.

Melanie Borden (25:45.307)
But in my eye, I think that that’s the way that you can convert someone. And I’ve seen the proof of it. I’ve seen the data to go from having the book an appointment button on your profile or to have a link, the custom link with the text over it if you don’t have premium or have that also again in your featured section. That’s going to create a 40 % increase of conversion because that’s what I personally have experienced from having from not having it to having it.

Mary (26:14.932)
Mm.

Melanie Borden (26:14.991)
And then I’ve seen it time and time again with clients too, who have a specific goal, like taking a new role, or they have a specific goal of hitting a revenue objective because they need to bring in more clients through the platform, but they don’t necessarily have a budget for advertising on LinkedIn. So there’s so many different ways that you can take someone through that journey, know, literally treating your profile as a funnel through that process.

Mary (26:36.798)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for those of us that don’t speak marketing language as well as you do, could you break down that concept of a funnel, know, especially for somebody that is trying to make a pivot, whether it’s, you know, like you said, pivoting into another industry or maybe pivoting to start their own business or whatever that might be. What would that look like for that person?

Melanie Borden (27:05.861)
Sure, this is a really great question. So, and it’s one that comes up a lot and it’s one that I don’t believe I see enough. When I look at someone’s profile, I look for a couple of things. So when someone books a discovery call for me, with me, I want to get a sense of who they are, what they do, who they work with, and the results that they get. And I also want to know what industry are they in? Are they industry specific? A lot of times what I see is a profile photo that’s old, right?

I work with a lot of senior level executives. I’ll say, the demographics of who I work with personally are ages 45 and up. That’s generally who I’m working with. So generally our group, or I would say 40 and up, I’ll include myself because I’m in the 40 and up category. No one can call me an agent for the rest the day. But a lot of times we’re not as savvy with technology. So what will happen is there’ll be no banner. The headshot will be from six years ago.

Mary (27:36.575)
Mm

Mary (27:51.647)
Ha

Melanie Borden (28:04.825)
The headline will either say nothing or it’ll say something like VP of marketing. Okay. Just as an example, there will be no about section or it’ll be an about section talking in the third person about the person and there’ll be no featured section in their career history. You know, that little resume section that we have, there’s really no attached media. A lot of times the company isn’t attached to the actual

the job that they have where they will just write it in and they don’t even know how to attach it to that company page on the platform. And so what I mean by a funnel is this. In your banner, you have, when someone comes onto your profile, they’re looking at you and there was a study that was done, I don’t know, a couple of years ago where it was like, you have eight seconds to capture someone’s attention, right? So we have an attention span of eight seconds.

So within those eight seconds, what you have to do is you need to resonate with that person quickly. Otherwise, they’re going to move on to the next thing. That’s why a lot of the really short form videos perform really well, because people are engaged for that short period of time. But let’s take your banner, for example. There’s all these opportunities that you can be marketing yourself at the top of the funnel, right? So if you look at the funnel as an example, creating that awareness is really at the top of the funnel, right?

Mary (29:15.135)
Mm

Melanie Borden (29:30.415)
you’re letting people know about who you are. I have a client who recently just launched a book. So in her banner, as an example, we want to have something about her book in there and perhaps some other type of social proof about her, maybe about from a client of hers or maybe about a previous book that she has written, some sort of a testimonial, having some sort of social proof. So already in her profile, we’re creating that awareness about where she’s been.

and where she’s going and who that person is. And that’s a great way for anyone, especially if someone’s looking for a new job, why don’t you use a testimonial from a previous colleague or a client that you worked with who said something to you or sent you an email and write a little something about you, right? So that’s one way that you can really create some awareness. And then you have your profile photo. And I talk about color theory a lot also with my clients and I talk to my team about this.

Mary (30:19.145)
Mm

Melanie Borden (30:28.155)
because you have a profile, right? Everyone does. But how do you stick out, right? There’s like 100 million people that do the same thing that I do on LinkedIn, right? Mary, I’m sure it’s the same.

Mary (30:30.333)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (30:38.952)
absolutely. tons and tons. Everybody. Yeah.

Melanie Borden (30:41.819)
Like I said, we’re all saying the same thing, we’re all doing the same thing. The space is big enough for all of us. There’s a billion people on LinkedIn. So there’s plenty of clients. There’s plenty of fish in the sea on LinkedIn for us. So your profile photo creates another opportunity because your photo and your banner are the two places that someone would go to that they would look at and say, huh, let me look more. A lot of times when I look at comments, I see color stand out to me. So a blouse.

as an example, or if someone has a jacket or a tie, or maybe someone’s just wearing a t -shirt and it’s a color, or they have color behind them, that’s another way, another differentiation point that someone may have over someone else. And then where do you see that? So you do see it on your profile, but you also see it in the comments. You also see it on desktop, you see it on mobile in the comments, and people have a way to see, that person stands out.

Mary (31:30.889)
Mm

Melanie Borden (31:38.383)
So it’s just another way to create the awareness and then to tap into, you know, the psyche of the person on the other side. And that’s why I said earlier, we create the profile, we create our content for someone else. Yes, it is ours, but we are thinking of our prospective client as we are building out our profile. So that’s another area. Then we come down to our headline, right? So a lot of times, like I said before, it’s usually just a role, like their title, great.

That’s awesome. You’re a CEO. Congratulations. What? What do you do? Who do you do it for? What does your company do? Who are your clients? How do I know that I’m relevant to you if it just says CEO? That’s great. I’m so proud of you. But how else can you let me understand a little more about how it benefits me as the person who’s on your profile? So you’re just creating a lot of awareness and you’re tapping into who that

Mary (32:05.919)
Mm

Yeah

Melanie Borden (32:34.939)
person is on the other side. So having an understanding of who your client or your potential client or potential employer is right a lot of times and this would be great for someone who’s in recruiting hiring managers. Who are the hiring managers at the particular company that you want to work for who are they what do they do will keep some up at night. are the demographics what colors resonate with them what fonts do you think would resonate with them if you are trying to be interviewing with

a man or a woman, might have different colors that you would have on your profile. Depending on their age, you might use different colors. So all of these things kind of factor in when you’re creating awareness for yourself. So you’re bringing them down further and further, but all these areas like having a book an appointment and having that same message repeated over and over and over again on your profile is just going to create more awareness and bring them further down to making that decision of wanting to work with you.

Mary (33:33.725)
Yeah.

Melanie Borden (33:34.287)
Your featured section does the same thing, and so does your about section. You have all these opportunities, not only to promote yourself, but to get you closer to whatever your goal is.

Mary (33:36.34)
Hmm.

Mary (33:46.164)
Yeah. Yeah, there’s so many opportunities on LinkedIn to make yourself stand out. And I definitely agree with you that your banner or, you know, the banner for most people is just one area that a lot of people don’t focus on, but there’s so much area of opportunity there. It’s like when I think about marketing, I think about companies that are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

on billboards on the side of the road. it’s like, your LinkedIn banner is your free billboard for your career and for your personal brand. It’s, my gosh. So I mean, use it. so Melanie, I’m going to put you on the spot here. I don’t know if you’ve seen my LinkedIn banner, but I’m very much, I’m a minimalist and I feel like in every area of my life, I’m a minimalist even in how I dress. Usually I have on a resume assassin t -shirt for my podcasts.

Melanie Borden (34:20.709)
That’s so funny. That’s so cool.

Melanie Borden (34:43.579)
Yeah.

Mary (34:43.648)
So my banner on LinkedIn, and I see a lot of other really neat banners out there where they’re doing a lot of the things that you said and they’re incorporating exactly who they are, what they stand for, what they do, what they offer, their value proposition. But mine’s very simple. It has my ninja chick, what I would say is kind of like my logo.

or just the chick that goes along with my company name, kind of the image there for the brand. And then it just says, Resume Assassin. And that’s it, simple and clean. What would you change about a banner like that?

Melanie Borden (35:24.431)
Well, before I answer that, let me ask you this. What are you hoping to achieve from being active on LinkedIn? Like, is your goal and your purpose behind what you’re doing on LinkedIn?

Mary (35:25.855)
Okay.

Mary (35:37.771)
I would say it’s twofold. Number one, I want to just expand my network. And number two, I, ultimately I would like to win clients for resume writing.

Melanie Borden (35:49.637)
So my advice to you, I think it’s great to have the resume assassin, especially because that’s your podcast, that’s your business. So I would definitely continue to keep that at top of mind, keep that on your banner, keep it there. But one of the best ways to get more clients is to share the experiences and the stories of the clients that you’ve had. So the number one piece of advice I would give to you is create some sort of a campaign where you can reach out to previous clients.

and ask them for the experiences that they’ve had with you. LinkedIn has this great area, it’s called a services page. Not everybody utilizes it and it’s a mistake because it’s another area of conversion where you can bring that person further down the funnel to making that decision when they see testimonials from your previous clients. So hold one of those testimonials and put that on your banner, Mary. Get one on there.

Mary (36:38.815)
100%. Yeah.

Mary (36:45.728)
Okay, okay. Yeah, I see. See, I feel like, well, that’s I think that’s great advice. And I think that a lot of people, a lot of other people that are listening to this can take that advice too. And I’ve always wondered what else should I put on there? I like the clean look, you know, and if you look at my profile, I have 200 recommendations and you know, a bunch of reviews from the services page. But, you know, I’ve never lifted those up and put to put them on my banner. But it’s like, well, hey, why not? Because

Melanie Borden (36:48.709)
That would be way.

Mary (37:14.559)
That’s the first thing that people are going to see. Who’s to say they’re gonna go scroll down and look through your profile to scroll all the way to the bottom or to the, you know, center of the page to see the reviews that are on there. So who cares if you have 200 reviews if nobody sees them, right?

Melanie Borden (37:24.24)
See you.

Melanie Borden (37:28.953)
Yeah, mean, listen, I don’t love the fact that LinkedIn has the recommendations all the way at the bottom of your profile. I think that that was a mistake and hopefully they’ll change that. I love that they have the services page and the reviews that will sit there at the top, but it’s social proof. People are influenced by other people and you could say that you’re great all day long, but if other people aren’t agreeing with that, then how do you convert?

Mary (37:34.525)
Yeah.

Mary (37:57.427)
Yeah. Yep.

Melanie Borden (37:58.011)
other people when you don’t have nine times out of 10, whenever I work with anyone, they want to either speak to someone that I’ve worked with before, or they want testimonials, or they’ve already taken that step to reading some of the testimonials that I have. But social proof is huge. You can, you don’t even have to use recommendations or testimonials from LinkedIn. You can, if you have comments on Instagram, Facebook, emails, text messages,

All of those things are social proof, all of it. And how people have their experiences weigh a ton. So I would say it’s good to let other people know what those other people say about working with you. It also will let them make the decision of who exactly works with you. Are they the same as them?

Mary (38:47.763)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I love that. Thank you for that. I put you on the spot there, but I appreciate that. That was super helpful. So I’m also curious, I’m sure you’ve seen this over and over again, or just, you know, common mistakes. So what’s one or two of the biggest mistakes that you see when it comes to either a LinkedIn profile or even content?

Melanie Borden (38:54.101)
Yeah!

Melanie Borden (39:12.569)
Negativity and bringing other people down. I think that it’s really, really gross, especially when women do it to other women. But there’s a lot of people who work in the same space and they take shots at others. I mean, listen, it is what it is. Trolls are everywhere. But when someone builds their presence based on making fun of other people or trying to hurt others, I think that it’s just… You you want to talk about cringe? People talk about cringe. That’s cringe.

because people want to work with people who, not necessarily, you don’t have to be positive all the time, but you want to be professional and you want to be presenting yourself in a way that you’re a team player. if you are, especially if you’re looking to gain clients on LinkedIn, people don’t want to work with people who make fun of other people. It’s just not a cool thing to do.

And it also just sets a really bad example for others who are getting used to being on the platform. And that’s really how you create changes by lifting other people up. And there’s so much that you can do with collaboration. And I’ll tell you this much. When I first got started with what I’m, when I started my business and other creators would approach me, I was a little hesitant at first because I thought, well, you know, we kind of do the same thing. Could they be taking clients from me? But then what I realized is this.

There is so much more power in numbers and working together with someone else because at the end of the day, I have all these people who are connected to me and I have all these followers, probably about 80 to 90 % of them I will never interact with and I will never meet in my life. Okay? And I might work with someone else or do an event with someone else or partner with someone else who has a very similar network, same audience, et cetera. And

Mary (40:49.097)
Yeah.

Mary (41:00.958)
Yeah.

Melanie Borden (41:02.363)
they might not necessarily work with him or her either, but they might work with me and someone in my network might work with them. So I think that there’s also a lot of power in collaboration and partnering with others and just being a, you know, a collective force to show other people that you can work in the same space. There’s enough room at the table for all of us. There’s a billion people on LinkedIn. Even if I wanted to work with 1 % of my network, I couldn’t.

I have 180 ,000 followers. I would not be able to work with one person. You know what I mean? So I really think that there’s room for everyone and there’s definitely so much power in collaboration and there’s power in lifting up others. And it’s just not cool to be negative and bring other people down because you never know what other people are going through also in their personal life outside of the LinkedIn bubble.

Mary (41:32.703)
Yep. Yep, absolutely.

Mary (41:53.652)
Yeah.

Yeah, and how you comment on LinkedIn and how you interact, not just what you put on your profile, not just what you post through your own account, but how you’re interacting on others’ posts and content is part of your personal brand. And so if you’re negative, that’s one pillar of your personal brand is that person that’s bringing this negative energy to other people’s lives. And you don’t need that.

Melanie Borden (42:14.651)
Yeah.

Melanie Borden (42:25.615)
Yeah, and here’s the other thing. When you comment on something, your whole network will see it. So if you say something that’s really horrible about the company you work for or about someone you’ve worked with or it just is such a bad look and it just, it just don’t do it. It’s just not cool. And don’t comment with AI either because it’s just so obvious. It’s just like wow.

Mary (42:25.703)
Other people don’t need that.

Mary (42:31.07)
Yeah.

Mary (42:42.752)
Don’t do it. Just don’t do it. Just don’t. No. What you mean when when three or four people say the exact same thing on the post? Yeah. Yeah. So, Melanie, just high level, what’s one thing that you want that you want our listeners to take away today?

Melanie Borden (42:53.28)
my gosh. Yes. Or the comments repeat. It’s the same comment repeated because they’re glitch and they’re AI. come on. Don’t do it.

Melanie Borden (43:11.173)
The one thing that I would say to anyone who’s listening is anything that you see someone doing on LinkedIn is possible for you to do too, meaning this. If you see someone who has a lot of followers and who’s grown a business or if you see someone who’s very successful, who is doing things that you wish you could be doing, you could be doing the same thing. You could be doing it too.

It’s not gonna be easy. It’s not necessarily always going to be fun, but everybody has the opportunity to create a network for themselves that will impact their career both in the short and the long term. It’s just a matter of if you wanna put in the work to get there.

Mary (44:00.383)
Awesome, where can we find you on social media?

Melanie Borden (44:02.426)
Yeah.

Okay, so obviously LinkedIn is my platform of choice. However, I recently have become more active on Instagram because I have some Gen Z working for me who says that I need to be active there. It hasn’t converted into much yet other than me being active. And thank you to those on LinkedIn who have followed me, because now I have followers there. So Instagram, LinkedIn, I also have a community and course called Humans of Brand.

Mary (44:21.055)
Yeah.

Melanie Borden (44:34.287)
where I work with individuals on a regular basis. I have a course, we do group coaching. It’s so much fun. I have that. Or someone can just come onto our website, which is humantobrand .com.

Mary (44:48.799)
Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on today.

Melanie Borden (44:51.419)
Thank you for having me. This was fun.