LinkedIn is used by over 800 million professionals worldwide who use it to expand their business networks and build their careers.
Of all the social media platforms LinkedIn is one of the only places you can specifically search out and find investors of all stripes.
As Seth Farbman points out in this conversation, “Historically the way for CEOs and management teams to get in front of investors was to go to a conference… but imagine you could give a TED talk to 5,000 of your perfect target audience five days a week.”
That’s the analogy of the size of the opportunity that intelligent use of LinkedIn can deliver to management teams.
Mr. Farbman was the Co-Founder and President of Vintage Filings which he sold to PR Newswire in 2007. In this role, Mr. Farbman serviced over 3,000 publicly traded companies to provide SEC EDGAR and financial print services related to IPOs, Proxy Statements, Annual Reports, Shareholder Meetings and all aspects of compliance filings.
Mr. Farbman was a founding partner and a Co-Chairman of Vcorp Services which he sold in October 2016 to Wolters Kluwer. Mr. Farbman currently serves as the Chairman and President of V Stock Transfer, with a focus on pre IPO, Nasdaq and NYSE MKT listed issuers. Mr. Farbman is also the Chairman of Vcheck Global, a background and due diligence services company and eSignatureGuarantee.com, an on-line resource for medallion signature guarantees. Prior to starting Vintage Filings, Mr. Farbman served as a securities attorney at a New York Law Firm with a concentration on securities regulation.
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John Newtson: All right. Hey, this is John Newtson, and I’m excited today to be joined by Seth Farman, who is the CEO of V Stock Transfer who also has an enormous amount of experience with LinkedIn marketing in particular. So Seth, thanks for being here. I appreciate you coming in here talking about shareholder acquisition.
Seth Farbman: Thanks for having me. Appreciate
John Newtson: it. So just kind of as a background you obviously as a transfer agent, I mean you have what, 800 plus clients, you’ve worked with thousands of companies. You’ve built companies yourself and exited them. So I would say I would love to get your take on kind of framing, just like the.
Issue of shareholder acquisition today in kind of the digital environment that we’re at in how important digital marketing, whether it’s the content creation, content marketing, paid marketing. Like where would you kind of place that the importance and role of digital content and marketing in the realm of shareholder acquisition?
Seth Farbman: So that’s, that’s a lot of questions wrapped up in one. So I’ll try to unpack it a little bit at a time. But yeah, I, I mean, it’s funny because I’ve been working in one form or another with, with publicly traded companies or pre i p o two two public for about 20 years. And at the end of the day, they, they never really wanna speak to me about what I do, whether it’s, you know, transfer agent or, or Edgar filings or things that.
They all have the, the core goal of, you know, access to capital and, and, and ir and PR and telling their story. And I think that, that over the years, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s transitioned to the point where, You can’t just put out a press release anymore and hope somebody reads it. It’s that’s, that’s what it used to be.
And I’d probably say around 5, 6, 7 years ago, I think, I think people started to recognize that, you know, you put out a press release. And it’s just crickets. And now, now it’s really just one slice of a very large pie of what needs to be done, whether it’s, you know, road shows and s e o and, and, and as you’re saying, digital marketing because we live in a very visual world.
So that’s, that’s sort of point number one where, You’ve, you’ve gotta get something and do something to stop the scrolling, right? Mm-hmm. So, so we wanna just be able to, oh, like, what’s that? And let me, let me, let me read this because I’ve seen that visual. So that’s something that’s important, as simple as it sounds.
And then I think also digital allows you to hit them. Often and frequently as opposed to that once every couple weeks or couple months press release. So I think digital has, has is now a very important role in in, in the life of any storytelling that that a company does.
John Newtson: Right. And that’s that grabbing the attention piece.
I think that’s one of the problems with kind of the, the press releases sometimes is that it doesn’t always grab attention in that old model. Communication strategies. A change in all digital marketing is, is essentially an arbitrage of attention. You’re trying to grab that attention and focus it on some kind of an action.
And so with, with that like. I always think of the audiences that, that when I talk digital marketing to to people, they tend to assume that we’re only talking retail audiences, which is enormous opportunities and access to retail audiences. But There’s also professional investors and there’s, there’s a whole, the whole ecosystem of potential shareholders that’s out there is engaged online.
So how do you, how do you think that people should be thinking about that? In general? In, in particular, in, in relation to kind of some of the LinkedIn stuff that you’ve been doing?
Seth Farbman: Yeah. You know, it’s funny because I think that you know, historically the way that a C E O or a management team had hoped to get in front of the right audience was to go to a conference.
And they would, they would budget accordingly to go to three or four conferences a year. They would have those one-on-one meetings with some of the family offices, the investment bankers, the institutions, and They would hope that, that that outcome would, would, would give them the relationships that they need.
But in today’s day and age, you know, if you, if you can market accordingly with social, you’re, you’re really spreading that net extremely wide. And again, extremely often. And so the analogy that I give to a lot of the CEOs is and today’s discussion, John can, can definitely focus on LinkedIn, cuz I think that that’s my, my core.
But it’s really social and digital marketing as a whole. The analogy that I give is, imagine that you’re giving a Ted Talks five days a week and you’ve got an auditorium of 5,000 people. And just make a checklist of who do you wish you could be speaking to. And who would you like to invite to that party?
So you’ve got 5,000 seats to fill. Do you wanna fill that with chief investment officers, family offices, funds? And the beauty of LinkedIn is that you can even drill down with specificity, right? Mm-hmm. If I’m in biotech pharma, MedTech, Electric vehicles, eSports, I can really invite an audience that cares about the topic and the category and and appreciate what I want to talk about.
So I think that’s something that, that that companies really can can focus on when they wanna get in front of the right audience is leveraging, leveraging social and digital marketing. To actually get in front of the right audience and tell their story to people that, that will care.
John Newtson: Yeah. So like the, the targeting opportunity is enormous. Like you said, that, that you can find people who are already invested and interested in your sector. You can find influencers in your sector. You can find all kinds of folks who are, who are very much interested in what, what you do, rather than just kind of putting out a generic.
Press or, or general press release in hoping that the right people will pick it up. I mean, you can even target journalists. You can target publishers and editors. The ability to, to find the right people for a particular company today is, I think, better than it’s ever been Absolut for sure. So, so what do you, what do you find are like the most effective things that people do in terms of like, once they start actually trying to reach people?
There’s, you know, there’s the whole issue of what kind of messaging do you do, what kind of conversations do you have, what are the kinds of things, if you are gonna talk to people on an ongoing basis, like what is it that moves the needle, I guess, for
folks.
Seth Farbman: Okay. Yeah, I mean, so I think that the world we live in, people care most about authenticity.
You know, nobody, I can only speak for myself. You’d probably agree. Nobody ever really wants to come across as, as salesy or as cheesy or as self promotional. I, I don’t think anybody wakes up trying to come off that way. So if you’re a company, let’s, let’s just say you’re a biotech company.
You may not have information about your company that often to share, so Great. You’ve got an amazing press release in January and then you’ve got, you know, something else to announce six months later. But, but what do you do to, what, how do you engage your audience for those six months in between? So there are, there are ways to be authentic.
I’d probably break it down into two categories. The first is to just share valuable information about the industry so you can take articles that your newfound connections would just appreciate nothing to do about you, nothing to do about your company per se, you know? But if you’re, let’s just.
We’ll use me as an example. If I’m constantly posting information about IPOs, about capital markets, about NASDAQ rules, s e c regulations, that has nothing to do with V Stock. But at the end of the day, people appreciate that I’m providing them with industry knowledge or industry events and You know, as a byproduct of that, I get extra branding.
Right? And so anybody can do that with providing content. Mm-hmm. Not necessarily written by themselves, but content. It takes time and effort and digging and research, but they’ve got to find good content that they can provide value. And if you give value, hopefully you get value. I think the second category, when we, when we speak about authenticity, Is, is if you’re the c e o of a company, people kind of wanna know a little bit about you and about the company, what’s under the hood.
So you know, what type of meetings are you going to, what type of conferences are you going to? Not just about the successes of the company and the press releases that announced the mega deals, but you know, if, if if you’re able to, what didn’t work and You know, those things, if you’re able to post about them, make you more real and relatable.
And, and, and I think that again, still gives you visibility so that in between those, those formal press releases you know, if you’ve got five, 10,000 connections and you’re posting twice a week, you’re getting tens of thousands of eyeballs on your symbol, on your company name, on, on, on your branding.
And I think that’s that’s slowly but surely organically effective marketing. Yeah, so.
Kind of that, that that piece of authenticity then is, is you’re talking about one, just the, you know, that there’s always, especially from an investor investor’s standpoint, there’s a lot of information that somebody who’s inside the industry is gonna probably understand or have a context for that might be at a, at a greater degree than somebody who’s outside the industry, even if they’re an investor in that industry.
And so sharing that kind of useful information, contextualizing things giving people something to think about in terms of that is really valuable. And then I love what you’re saying about the. Looking under the hood of the c e o and kind of under, like just being there, showing people, documenting, kind of you doing business, doing the business, what, what it is that you do.
And I know that that was one of those things that probably one of the greatest. Influencers prior to like Mr. Beast Gary V had did right? I mean, he basically just, he was like, I’m not putting out content. I’m documenting what I’m doing and but, and showing that I’m actually doing things. And that in and of itself is interesting.
It’s branding, it’s, it’s, it’s getting people engaged with him not only that, I think it actually like, When you do what you’re talking about, when people start to go on that journey with you and then they start to root for you.
Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a great point. And, and, and you also, it’s funny that you say that you mentioned Gary V because, you know, he, he says something that I, that I saw was so true with, with some of the CEOs that I, that I interact with, you know, very often the challenges.
People wanna wanna do this, they wanna do the messaging, but they just feel like, well, my life is boring. I’ve got nothing going on, so therefore I have no content. So I was talking to this c e o and and I said, listen. I said, Joan, what, what are you doing next week? Let’s just use that as example. So he says, well, I’ve, I got a board meeting.
I was like, okay, where’s the board meeting? He’s like, oh, actually, I could probably come up with something. The board meeting is, is is in Switzerland. I was like, okay, that’s exciting. We’re in Switzerland. He’s like, well, one of my board members has a, has a villa in the Swiss Alps and we’re all meeting there for like wine tasting and cheese, and then we’re gonna have the board meeting and we’re, I was like, John, Just take a picture in the Swiss Alps at the villa with your board, and I promise you, you will have content to talk about your board meeting that’s quasi related to business.
And, and, and the irony is that I spoke to him like two, three weeks later. I’m like, John, I never saw you post about that board meeting. It’s like, oh, I forgot to take a picture. It really takes a a training of the mind of a certain, you know, thinking to to think like a marketer, even though you’re running a business and and trying to get the word out.
John Newtson: Yeah. No, and that sounds like. What a, what a wonderfully missed opportunity because it does seem like, like there’s so many things that could have been posted around that, that, that are so engaging. And, and I think that’s one of the things that I think a lot of people miss too, is that so much of the social content of influencers it, it’s ironic because a lot of them basically built their following.
Pretending to have a lifestyle that they don’t have. And then you have all these CEOs who are actually living the lifestyle that, that, that those influencers were trying to paint a picture of. And they’re not sharing it because it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a different mentality and you don’t want to try and pretend that you’re, it’s, it’s an ego.
I dunno, maybe it’s a generational thing as well of like, I don’t wanna put myself out there and act like I’m a big deal and this and that, and, and so trying to navigate that kind of personal dynamic of , I don’t wanna seem like a jerk or, you know, and, but at the same time, like actually using that kind of lifestyle that you have in displaying it in relevant situations.
It could have a really great impact on,
Seth Farbman: yeah. I think when it comes to shareholders, you know, they respect the CEOs that, you know, we’ve had you know, I’ve had, I’ve had the good fortune to be at, at a couple, just a couple of Nasdaq Bell ringings over the years, and, you know, you’ve, you’ve you’ve got some CEOs that will, will literally tear up at the at the exchange and, and really just, Thank their teams and thank their members and, and, and come clean with how, how difficult that roadmap had been and, and the challenges of raising money till then and the, the 99 nos that they got until that one banker committed to the 75 or a hundred million.
I think shareholders appreciate that and make you know, make that company and the, the, the c e o more relatable. They appreciate the you know, the journey. Yeah. I think that’s important for, for people to to, to, to get out there in their, in their storytelling.
John Newtson: Yeah. It’s such a dramatic process.
There’s so much drama going on behind the scenes. There’s the, there’s the story of the company, but then there’s a story of like, kind of building the company. There’s a story of the money and how, how, what you need and what, what you’re gonna use it for and how you get it. And it’s a, and it’s a struggle often.
And, and people love to. It’s not even that they love, it’s like you naturally engage with that. It’s almost like, you know, it, it slips under the, the, the, the radar of kind of if someone’s trying to sell you on how great we are, you know, we, everyone puts their wall up. But if somebody’s sharing like a.
That emotional moment of Sure. Cause I, I had that, I, I had the, the, the, I was fortunate enough to be at the one N Y C bell ringing. And I remember this, the, the CEOs up there in, in the back, in the boardroom ahead of time, and he did exactly what you said. He was like, you know, I grew up here in New York.
Like this is a dream come true to be able to ring the bell. That’s great. And like he’s tearing up and like choking up. And it was, it was a beautiful moment. And I felt like even just being able to witness that like in person, I felt like, I was like, man, what an honor to have a fr to, to be able to see a friend live out his dream in person.
Right. Like that’s amazing. And, and, and it is, it’s this great, great story. But, and that kind of also brings up another point on marketing then. So when you talk about like marketing for a company there’s the company and then there’s the people. And so who’s the marketing and content? Like there’s the, what the company puts out, and then there’s kind of what the c e o and the founder and, and the team itself is putting out.
Seth Farbman: It’s a good distinction? Yeah. No, that’s, that’s actually a really good distinct distinction. I, I, I get that question asked frequently and I think that, I do think you need both. But you, in other words, there’s a mechanical distinction and then I think there’s the the perception between the two of them, the mechanical distinction is that on the, on a corporate, let’s just focus on the LinkedIn side.
On a corporate LinkedIn page. I, I feel like it’s, it’s more informative. Like you’ve gotta have a corporate profile cuz people will check it out. And if it’s not there, people will think that something’s wrong or it’s lacking. But on the corporate profile for LinkedIn, you can only attract followers.
You can’t get connections. It’s a small distinction, but it’s important because the followers that you’re gonna be attracting are generic, right? It could be, you know, John from Idaho who runs a pizza company. It could be Jane who, who runs an insurance firm. You can’t target them. Whereas on a personal profile, you’re targeting specific connections.
So you can target healthcare investor, you can target eSports analyst. So if your focus is on building that TED Talks room, you wanna be doing it on a personal profile. Where you can get a very, very curated audience. So I, I always encourage, you know, companies that I speak to, to do both. But you definitely should have, should have them going on simultaneously.
You can certainly share information between the two of them. And I also have, have certainly come across that type of c e O that says, no, I wanna stay under the radar. I don’t even wanna have a profile. I want it to just be all about the company. And I respect that. That’s certainly a personal decision.
I find that to be a bit of a challenge though, because people wanna know, I want another face, face of the company. I wanna know who’s behind the, the, the curtain of Oz. Right? Right. And people wanna do business with people and they want to engage and message with that person. So if if there is a CEO that says, I don’t want anybody to know who I am, I don’t know if that’s like the best role for a CEO of a publicly traded company.
John Newtson: Yeah. It’s, it’s kind of like a lot more people follow Elon Musk then follow Tesla.
Seth Farbman: Right, right. Exactly. That’s a good analogy. Yeah. Yeah. It’s,
it’s, it’s, I mean, that’s. You’re right. I think that’s, that’s part of the CEO’s role is to kind of be out there as the face of the company and be out there.
And, and to your po to your point, in terms of the shareholder, the shareholder component of it, whether it’s the institutional side or whatnot.
You know very often if you’re, if you’re, if you’re leveraging the platform the right way, or any social or any digital media for that matter, if you are storytelling correctly, the, the ultimate goal is to take that relationship offline and And then build from there. So on the personal side, you’ll get messages coming in from shareholders or funds or, or bankers and saying, Hey, I, I noticed your last post.
I noticed your last press release. I liked your last you know, conference. Can we set up a call That’s, That’s a forum for direct interaction with these shareholders. Which, which isn’t necessarily gonna be found on the on the corporate profile side. Mm-hmm. So, you know, that messaging component on the personal side, I think is, is just another, another way of that shareholder engagement component.
John Newtson: Right. And so when you do target Like how, you know, if we were gonna drill down on that targeting issue, then like you’re, you’re gonna try and build your perfect room. Let’s say you were you know, maybe you’re a direct to consumer e-comm kind of company. How would you look at like, I would think that there’s, you know, a sophist even that, I don’t even say sophisticated, just a, a, a thought out outable reason.
Strategy then would be kind of starting to stack types of people, whether it’s Known investors in that sector. Analysts who cover that sector, journalists who cover that sector publishers, influencers in that sector on the product side, who I think that’s a whole ‘nother area that you can kind of.
With the same effort almost start to, to, to interact with are, are people who, who have audience for the, the product itself, not just the, the investors. And so do you think about like, targeting those groups with like, creating different content sets for those groups? Do you kind of just try and get everybody engaged and you kind of have one content stream that’s kind of the different times, featuring other ones?
Or, or, or messages for different groups or like how would you think about that?
Seth Farbman: Yeah, I mean, I think it depends, again, if somebody is doing it themselves, if they’re outsourcing it, if they’re utilizing a firm depending on the size of their budget, right? It’s, it’s gonna be extremely customized depending on on what their, what their goals are.
But yeah, I mean, if, if, if you’re doing it yourself, you’re probably just gonna have one size fits all just to to accommodate everybody that’s gonna be viewing it. You know, you may be a c e O of a company that has multiple products or different divisions that have. We, we were working with one company that was in the, in the neuro brain base, but at the same time, they were touching on surgical robotic devices.
And so it’s a matter of juggling different messaging, not necessarily depending on the the types of the audience but just what you want to convey. Your company is about. Mm-hmm. So I think that it, it really, it gives you an opportunity to give a lot of different content and that that’s what makes it variety of the, is the spice of life, right?
If, if you’re if you’re a robotics company and five days a week you’re just posting about robotics, it, it, it gets a little re repetitive. But If it gives you the chance to, to sprinkle in, you know, one day about this topic, another day about this topic, e even another day about a vacation that you’re going on with your family so that people, again, are interested in following you and connecting with you because they’re exposed to different types of content.
I think that’s the best route to go.
Yeah. And then I mean, do you find, do you find CEOs are, are resistant? Or attracted more, more often than not to kind of creating a content plan for, for themselves and their company? Or do you think it’s still kind of a generational thing that kind of
It’s a good, it’s a, it’s actually a great question.
I, I think my answer has changed over the last couple years cuz I’ve started to help or guide a bunch of Friends and CEOs that we, that I, that I work with on, on sort of the LinkedIn route. And I would say a couple years ago everybody was like, oh, I’m not touching LinkedIn. And you know, kind of the way I say, oh, I’m not touching Facebook.
I mean, I’m still, I’m still like that to, to an extent, but The, the people that are totally against it are still, are still out of it. And and then the guys that are, are, are, that get it, like I could tell they get it instantly. They’re like, oh yeah, no, I’m, I’m all over LinkedIn. And then the guys that are iffy about it will, will, will try it out and start to leverage it and, and honestly, They, they, they become the worst cuz they become addicted.
They, as soon as they see the, the power of it, you know, these guys are emailing me at like six o’clock on a Sunday morning. They’re like, oh, I just saw this great article, you know, do you think I should post it? I was like, yeah, go for it there. You know? But I, I, I think that people across the board are recognizing, That when you are a publicly traded company, you want to use you know, every avenue possible to communicate your story in a healthy way.
As I said, roadshow conferences you know, digital. I spoke to somebody the other day, he said that for him, he throws in radio. I was like, radio, really? Are people still doing radio? He’s like, absolutely Every communication means possible is part of the secret sauce. In in, in telling the story?
John Newtson: Yeah.
Yeah. No, I think that’s, that’s, it’s almost like the, I mean, every, I mean, you need a, you need a, a media arm essentially anymore, and, and this is almost becoming true even on a personal level. I feel like the. Part of your career development path is building audience and people who have an audience are gonna have more advantages in just getting hired.
I mean, in general, because if you have an audience that follows you on a certain topic, then you have impact in that industry, which means that one you have when, when you need a job, there’s. There’s an audience there too. Like you can bring more to a company, you actually bring more value to a company whether it’s in business development or, or in some other area or in recruiting.
And so I, I feel like I’m seeing more and more folks across the board realizing that audience building is part of how you succeed in, in, in, in a career these days.
Seth Farbman: I think, I think, I think you hit it on the head, meaning, John, you are. You’re, you’re effectively saying what, what Gary V had had said.
I don’t care if you are a college student or a lawyer, or an accountant you’re, you’re basically a media company. . Regardless of what you do, that’s it. You need to be selling yourself and telling, you know, the story of either who you are or why your company is better, or what your product is about your, a media company, regardless.
You might be, you might be a lawyer, but that’s secondary to being a media company.
John Newtson: Right.
And I think that’s, that’s, you know, when you put that, like nothing happens in a vacuum. So if you are a company and you are not doing this, then just realize that like your competitors are. And so they’re the ones that are getting the attention.
They’re the ones who are being seen. They’re the ones whose names are out there and whose ceo. So it’s, it’s really kind of, if it’s uncomfortable, I feel like it’s kind of like one of those things where you kind of have to cowboy up right. You know and find a way to do it because if you are not, everyone else is
that’s why, that’s why LinkedIn may, may be great for some people because, you know, I’m not comfortable.
I mean, when, when I, I have, I’ve had an amazing partner over the last 20 years. I stern. And, and he’s the salesman between the two of us. I’m the guy that at a, at a conference, I’d rather be in the corner pretending to be on my phone than actually walk up to somebody and introduce myself. But, you know, with LinkedIn where I can, you know, write something or, or provide something of value and then ask for something in return.
Mm-hmm. You know, that’s different. So Yeah. I mean, when you say cowboy up, that’s that’s, that might be an alternative.
Yeah, no, I think that’s it. Like, I feel like I, I know for me, I’m always, always like you know, social media is for people who look better than me. And so but you know, I I, I, I made a commitment to myself last year that I was gonna start putting out more content, having more just.
Good conversations. I, I was like, you know what, what, what, what is valuable? The kind of content that I consume is I wanna have good conversations with smart people who are interested in the things that I’m interested in talking about. And when I kind of found that kind of pattern, it was much more useful for me.
And, and I also found that you don’t even need a large, you don’t need a large audience. You just need the right audience, right. And, you know it’s kind of like, you know, you have people who might have a million followers, but then you have this guy over here who has 250 family offices who are really paying attention to him.
That is an extraordinarily valuable audience.
And, and it also, it also snowballs meaning, you know, if you are getting in front of those 250 people and they’re re-sharing or they’re commenting or whatnot, then you know, the algorithm is getting you in front of their audience. Mm-hmm. And, you know, hopefully as a family office, You know, their audience consists of finance, institution, family offices, decision makers, things like that.
And, you know, that’s the beauty of, of, of hopefully the whole system. Mm-hmm. Is that you’re going to be exposed to their communities as well. Or if somebody posts something or re-share something in a LinkedIn group, right. You might be. You may have a thousand, 5,000 followers, the next guy might have a thousand, 5,000 followers.
But then they share that in a, in a, in an e-com group or a, you know, biotech group that has 30, 40, 60,000 followers or connections. You know, that’s, that’s where, you know, a lot of good things can happen. So, like you said, it doesn’t, it doesn’t necessarily matter. It could snowball and, and really get you exposure at any time.
Yeah. And, and I think that’s, so I, I always categorize media in three big buckets. There’s, you know, paid media, there’s, which is marketing, that you’re gonna actually go out and like, investor relations, marketing. Then you have earned media, which is someone’s gonna cover you or feature you because they just love what you’re doing.
Then you have owned media. And that could be anything from building an email list of potential investors. But I think also social channelsis owned media. It’s like where you, you control the pace and, and Conversation that, that you can put out there and. Paid media and earned media should build owned media because you’re basically using those other sources to drive things into a channel where you can find the most interested people, the most engaged investors potential partners, everybody, and have a conversation with them on an ongoing basis.
And so it’s almost like there’s a. Which just very broad funnel that should move down to that kind of owned media.
Seth Farbman: Yeah, because cuz that’s exactly what you’re doing. In other words, you know, I it’s funny cuz I, I was, I was a bit of a loner when I was in law school 20 years ago. And in looking back, I think that the greatest asset that we could develop over the years, and I tell this to like, you know, guys that are starting out, it are the relationships that we have.
And so when, when people are, are taking the time or, or hiring somebody to help them with marketing on LinkedIn or, or any social, you’re building an asset and, and, and that asset could be one of the most valuable assets that you have. Cause obviously it’s yours, you own it, you follow it. And then, you know, every 30 days you can export all those connections and then study them, analyze them, target them, email them, you know, et cetera.
But, but that’s an asset that you’re building day in and day out.
John Newtson: Yeah. And then also do, do you recommend to people that they actually go out, go, like, kind of go out and engage with the, the, like, if you have a target list of people, then it’s not just about posting comment and it’s about engaging with whatever they’re posting as well, right?
Seth Farbman: Yeah. Absolutely. Because, you know I personally have noticed when people , continuously comment or like, or I’ll be like, Hey, this, you know, This person has popped up, you know, quite a few times. Either I’ll thank them or I’ll check out what they do and see if there’s some synergy and, and I will reach out and and vice versa.
You know, there are people that I’ve wanted to start a dialogue with, but I don’t wanna just. Email them cold or, or, or out of the blue and say, Hey, I’d love to do business with you. You know, I’ll, I’ll try to, I’ll try to comment on, on their posts or thank them for taking the time to to provide information about a conference or, or an industry update.
Because at that point, when I do reach out or they need to reach out to me, it’s a bit of a warm, a bit of a warm relationship, a bit of a warm lead. I’ve seen them, I know who they are, they’ve checked me out. And so by the time it’s a yes, we’re like 30% into the relationship already, and it makes, it makes the, the, the remaining 70% a lot more comfortable.
So yeah, I, I definitely I definitely recommend that.
Yeah, that seems much better. I, I have the same experience when, you know, everyone who’s on LinkedIn or any other platform knows you just get these cold direct messages from people. You have no idea, and they just go straight to pitching you stuff.
And I, I mean, Almost,
I delete those media.
Yeah. I can’t imagine if I, if I get a connection and if I get a connection and then a, a sales pitch within the same 30 seconds, 10 seconds later, that’s the delete, you know?
John Newtson: Right. Exactly. Exactly. And so like kind to your point then is it is like, but when somebody has.
Taking the time to comment on something that I’ve posted or liked it, and then they message me about having a conversation. I am invariably open to having the conversation as seems Exactly. And so, no, I think that’s, that’s a really important kind of dynamic to recognize for folks. So, so you do, but you do directly like kind of consult and help companies then with LinkedIn in addition to everything?
I’ve started to do that, yeah. I’ve started to do that. I’m, I’m, I’m working with a bunch of CEOs and just guiding them and you know, I’m happy to speak to you know, if anybody. Is is looking to talk LinkedIn. Initially I just categorized myself as a a LinkedIn enthusiast. You know, cuz it’s something I’m really passionate about and I think it’s really effective.
But but yeah, I’ve started to work with with a bunch of CEOs, both private and public. And just always happy to help in in any way I can.
Yeah. So anyone who wants to reach out, what would be the best way for them to contact you?
They can email me directly, Seth v stock transfer.com.
Okay, great. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this, Seth.
No, this has been great. It’s it’s a topic that’s near and dear because you know, I, I know that it’s effective and you know, definitely if anybody’s listening, connect to me on LinkedIn and and follow John.
That’s for sure.
Thanks, Seth. That’s been great talking to you. All right. Thanks for having me. Thanks. Take care.
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