#065 – How You Should Be Using LinkedIn as a Safety Professional

How You Should Be Using LinkedIn as a Safety Professional - David Alto from Alto Advance
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[00:00:00] Safety Brye: Today I have something very special for you every month in the safety network, I bring in an expert to teach a master class exclusively for safety network members. So to give you a little preview of what you can expect in this month's masterclass, I am chatting with David Alto. From Alto advance. David is from Kennewick, Washington, and he specializes in getting your resume past the evil resume bots that may be holding you back.

[00:00:32] His company Alto advance can help you with resumes, LinkedIn and interview coaching. Does LinkedIn kind of intimidate you? Are you not using it because you're not currently job hunting? Well today, David is going to share how you can use LinkedIn to showcase your skills and build a meaningful network.

[00:00:55] Even if you only have a handful of followers. So let's get to it.

[00:01:03] Hey, there's safety friends. Welcome to the safety geek podcast. I'm Brye Sargent CSP and 20 year safety professional. After spending years training safety leaders across the globe for a large corporation and creating safety programs from the ground up, over and over again, I am now sharing my processes and strategies with you.

[00:01:25] At the safety geek, you will learn how to manage an effective safety program that increases your management support and employee engagement all the while helping you elevate your position and move up in your career. If you're ready to step into the role of a safety, influencer and leader, you're in the right place, let's get to it.

[00:01:49] Well, Hey there. Thank you, David. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm. Super excited to talk to you today. Why don't we start off with you? Just kind of introducing yourself to the audience and telling us what Alto advance is about.

[00:02:05] David Alto: Sure, thank you for having me on my name is David Alto, owner of Alto advance. And, you know, in simple as terms, uh, we really help job seekers, land jobs faster by using various things, but that are really simple things, including LinkedIn.

[00:02:21] Safety Brye: That's awesome. Yeah. LinkedIn is definitely a great tool for people to look for when they're trying to land a job. How would you describe LinkedIn to somebody who isn't an avid user or doesn't really use it?

[00:02:33] David Alto: Sure. And I get it too, if you're not very familiar, you think that it is just a place for job seekers or recruiters?

[00:02:40] Safety Brye: Yeah, I know. That's what I used to think. It was too.

[00:02:42] David Alto: Right. And I did too, as a job seeker when I came onto LinkedIn, but it's more than that. It really is everything that Facebook. The good stuff about Facebook.

[00:02:54] I mean, you know, you can join groups, you can message people, you can come and engage on their content, and it's not this boring business platform. Now I spend literally all day when I'm not helping clients, I'm on LinkedIn, engaging in conversation with new people that I've been connected with in industry or just people around the world.

[00:03:14] It is a networking event that is just happens to be open all the time. So I think if you take that approach and it, it's just not that boring business platform that everybody thinks it is.

[00:03:25] Safety Brye: Have you seen it change over the years? Like I remember getting on LinkedIn, I don't know, 10 plus years ago. And I did see it as that, just like, this is just for jobs. So what kind of changes have you kind of noticed over the years?

[00:03:37] David Alto: Sure. And you're right. I started my account 2012, but didn't do much with it. I was a job seeker at the time, and I think that the more people used it as a tool to build and nurture relationships. Yes. More people were chatting behind the scenes and now.

[00:03:55] Because recruiters and hiring managers are going here to look at somebody, you know, maybe they have an interview with them. Right. And they have their resume. They don't know what they look like. So they're going, you know, spy on their LinkedIn. But I think because of that, now people go have to go, oh my God.

[00:04:09] Now I need to show up on LinkedIn. Right. I need to have a nice picture. You know, it does need to really allow me to stand out amongst the other applicants. And I think that that's why. It slowly become more of a networking platform still only about 800 million users. And compared to like Instagram and Facebook, it's a very, very, very small amount.

[00:04:32] Safety Brye: Yeah. But I'll tell you, like, when I was looking, what I did was I was searching for somebody to help my audience with LinkedIn. And what did I do? That's where I found you. And I just reached out to you and said, Hey, you know, can we chat? And you said, yes. And I think that, that is the amazing part of LinkedIn that people just don't realize is that you can connect with people and then message them. And then actually start that networking.

[00:04:57] David Alto: You know, regardless if you're a job seeker, regardless of why you're on LinkedIn, everybody on LinkedIn is there to sell something. If you're a job seeker you're selling yourself, right? Yeah. Riding within those new jobs. But B2B happens, B2C happens. Everything happens on LinkedIn, but you know, you can't be that spammy person that Bitcoin, you know, person on LinkedIn that goes, and, you know, DM's you right away, you have to build and nurture relationships.

[00:05:20] If you do that over time, then the business will come to you. Whether it's in referrals or people just know you over the years, that they see your advice, they see your tips, they see you show up mm-hmm . So maybe they don't quite know you, but they kind of feel like they know the value, add that you provide and are willing to promote you and refer you, you know, to others.

[00:05:41] Safety Brye: I love that idea. So first off I have to interject here that just anybody listening, LinkedIn is not a dating site, so please stop. . Um, but anyway, what I love, what you're saying is that even if you're not a job seeker, you can then be seen as like an expert in your profession and in your field, like creating this value by posting and commenting and joining groups and things like that. Right. So are you saying that like everybody should be on LinkedIn?

[00:06:11] David Alto: Yeah, because let's face it again. B2B happens. B2C happens. I happen to know a, he's become a friend now, but he has a lawn service and he has scaled this thing multiple states now because of the funny kind of engagement that he does on LinkedIn.

[00:06:26] And you wouldn't think that, and people even occasionally say, oh my God, Dave, I can't believe the video you share, or that belongs on Facebook, but then that person interacted. And so did like, you know, 50,000 people as well too on that post. So again, you post what you wanna post, just like you do on just on Facebook.

[00:06:44] It doesn't have to be always, you know, boring business stuff, because we get to know people when we get to know people, right. Uhhuh about what they do. It's okay to share a vacation photo or whatever, but then really maybe relate it to something you do Uhhuh . Oh, heck yeah. I'll do lives on, you know, on vacation where I'm at, just because maybe people want to see, or maybe I'll talk about something about the surroundings or whatever in my post that relates to what I do.

[00:07:09] But people build relationships when they can see and know something you know about him or her other than their job. Right. You know, your friends, not just with what they do in life, but their hobbies and stuff. So that's why sharing a variety of content on LinkedIn works. And it obviously works. Cuz if this simple guy can leave his day job and do what I do posting sometimes silly stuff or sharing a photo of my dog, then anybody can grow and build, you know, their network on LinkedIn.

[00:07:40] Safety Brye: You know, we are all now gonna like stop listening and go check out David's LinkedIn and go, what is he posting? I wanna post the same thing. that's awesome. Because you know, when you talk about the lawn service guy, I actually have a friend who is a wellness instructor and she is trying to build her following on LinkedIn.

[00:07:59] And she's very local. So like even local people can end up building their following. What do you think makes LinkedIn different than like Facebook? I know like Facebook sometimes gets a lot of hate right now and it just feels different to me when I'm on LinkedIn versus Facebook, it just doesn't feel as creepy, I guess, for some reason. But what do you think the difference is?

[00:08:20] David Alto: I think over the past four, five years, mm-hmm people. Like most of the things about Facebook and when they found that they can kind of move that over to LinkedIn as well. Mm-hmm and it isn't as negative. I've had people, you know, kind of bully me or bully other people on LinkedIn.

[00:08:40] And you're just gonna have that in like trolls are everywhere. That's right. But who's on LinkedIn. The people that make the decisions. And, you know, there's people with a little bit more, you know, cashflow on LinkedIn and it is global and most people understand that it is a networking event and that networking events don't have to be boring.

[00:09:01] Right? No. So it has a lot of similarities to Facebook without yes, the stalkers and less bullying. If you take that approach. And again, that's why I think LinkedIn has really become a different type of platform. Three years ago. You would never see somebody posting a video of their cat or their dog.

[00:09:20] Safety Brye: I know that's a big difference. I'm seeing you.

[00:09:22] David Alto: You just wouldn't now. Yeah, it doesn't mean that it was like against the rules or anything like that.

[00:09:26] Safety Brye: Right. They just didn't do it. And now you see it all the time.

[00:09:30] David Alto: But because I think of the slight migration from Facebook here, people still want, maybe some of that fuzzy, warm feeling over here on LinkedIn as well. So I think that's why.

[00:09:44] Safety Brye: That's really interesting. It is more positive to me than it is negative. Like I see a lot more negative stuff on the other social media platforms than I do LinkedIn, but I do love the fact that you're seeing stuff like people are posting about their kids or they're posting about their cats or their, and stuff like that.

[00:09:59] It does make it a lot more fun to go in there. So you're getting the positive environment, but then you're also getting the business environment too. And maybe it's just because we are professionals, like most of the people that are in there, they're there for work that maybe it's kind of like setting the tone of a proper etiquette in there. I'm not really sure.

[00:10:16] David Alto: Well, you know, think about this. I mean, I don't wanna talk shop all the time. no, right. I know. Right. We don't, we don't want to talk, shop all the time. So that being said, so I post a funny video or whatever, but guess what the message in the post. Has something to do with what I do.

[00:10:32] Right. So again, you know, I could still post a, you know, a funny video mm-hmm , but then it somewhat relates to, again, there's still the message or the tips or tricks or the whatever I'm sharing. So the video, or whether it's a photo of my dog or whatever, There's still a message, I guess, behind it. It's not just, Hey, see my one year old, you know, French bulldog you know, maybe he, or she's doing a trick or whatever.

[00:10:57] And I'm talking about how do you teach her? How do you mentor people? Right. So again, yeah, I guess the delivery method is the video or the photo, but the content is still somewhat, I guess you could say, you know, business related.

[00:11:08] Safety Brye: So if people were just starting out on LinkedIn and they're not really looking for a job right now, so they're just posting whatever. Are there things that they should be cautious about? So that way future employers don't get turned off by something that they've posted.

[00:11:22] David Alto: Sure. So HR used to go on Facebook to find out reasons not to hire you.

[00:11:28] Safety Brye: Yeah, I'm sure they still try.

[00:11:30] David Alto: They do, but people go to LinkedIn to find reasons to in fact, hire you.

[00:11:34] So companies are more mindful nowadays of people that are brand ambassadors, meaning, you know, I'm happy with my job, but occasionally I'm posting that we have an opening and this department that we're having a hard time filling, or it's a ribbon cutting, or it's a, a ribbon cutting of a charitable, you know, something that we're doing.

[00:11:52] Right. So if I'm posting things like that, And I'm happy with my current job, even if I'm new to LinkedIn and only gets one, like, and that's from my brother or whatever, you know, it doesn't get much engagement. Right. But still now what I go to apply for those jobs that hiring manager sees that post and they think, wow, that person's that brand ambassador for their current company.

[00:12:13] They would do the same things for us. So companies are more mindful of that nowadays. And like you had mentioned, we're all subject matter experts about various things, right? So, what I told people is write an article about something you're a subject matter expert at, in your industry, because if I'm not hiring manager and I see you've written that article, maybe I have a better understanding of your understanding of that industry or what you're discussing.

[00:12:39] And I would never have known that unless I got, you know, on the phone with you for an interview or whatever. So there's various things you can share, but if you're new to LinkedIn, you need to engage with other content. With other people to then kind of build your network because, you know, yes. If you only have a hundred followers, you're probably not gonna get much engagement on your post. I would spend more of your time engaging with other people's content.

[00:13:04] Safety Brye: So that means commenting, liking, sharing, stuff like that. Yes. Answering all the fun polls that everybody posts .

[00:13:11] David Alto: Yeah, I know. And, you know, talk about polls, polls work polls are really good because you know, the person voting is almost giving you permission to kind of like follow up with them later based on how they answered it. Yeah. So polls are very strategic.

[00:13:26] Safety Brye: I could see, like with safety professionals, like if they're in the middle of like, I'm creating an incentive program, should I do this, this or this, and even creating a poll and throwing it on LinkedIn? Sure. And seeing what everybody is like, but bringing it back to safety professionals, there aren't that many of us in the United States, in fact, it is growing the last time I checked the bureau labor statistics, they said that we had at 120,000 in the us.

[00:13:48] So it's definitely growing. I know when I started, most companies needed to have like 200 employees before they had a dedicated safety professional. And now it's getting to the point that most industrial employees would have one. So we're getting there, but how do you suggest that a safety professional kind of find their people on there?

[00:14:07] Like find the people that they could connect with, especially if they're starting out with only like. Five followers or something like that. One of them being their mom, I'm sure. Right.

[00:14:17] David Alto: Not my mom anyway, but so on LinkedIn search parameters, you know, searching tools are so easy, but so effective. You could go into the search bar and just type a job, title your job title right.

[00:14:33] and then after you do that, then you select people mm-hmm and then you could search by, you know, country. You could search by company. If you wanted to, that is the easiest way in seconds. You will find those people to connect and engage with. And again, you know, job title people, maybe location, you know, based on state or country or whatever.

[00:14:54] And then you could even filter for company within seconds. You'll find those people. Reach out to some of them just engage with their content or follow them. LinkedIn's database of 800 million. It really is a database. And mm-hmm, the searching to find those people. It's so easy.

[00:15:10] Safety Brye: I will tell you, somebody did that with me here locally. Totally different industries. You know, I'm in safety. I believe that she is in wellness or something like that. But she reached out to me cuz she found me on a search and I was like, Hey, you wanna grab coffee? And we actually just met at a local coffee shop after connecting on LinkedIn, we kind of went back and forth on a conversation in LinkedIn for a couple of weeks.

[00:15:31] And I was like, Hey, you know, I generally go to this coffee shop. Why don't we meet up? And it was her favorite as well. And you know, it ended up creating a real life in person connection as opposed to just an online one. And I could see people doing that within their own towns as well. Like seeing the industries in your town.

[00:15:48] Like for me locally, we have a chewy warehouse, a FedEx and Amazon. Those are our big, our signature brands. Right. So, oh, I wanna see the safety people there. Let me try to connect with them on LinkedIn. And that could be a way to easily start those conversations, which are sometimes hard if you just did it by the phone. Right.

[00:16:06] David Alto: Oh, yes. And think about it. I mean, where else? I mean, unless it was at some type of networking event or annual event, and if it's an annual event, it's only with your company, not somebody else's right. So yeah, I mean, I live in a fairly smaller community, so, you know, sometimes that isn't, but you can really narrow that search down to, you know, cities on LinkedIn when you're doing that searching.

[00:16:27] So that is a great way. And that's what you do. You go back and forth a little bit, and then all of a sudden you're like, Okay, come on. Let's just meet for coffee or do so, right? Yeah. So yes, try to at least do a zoom call if they live far away or in your case. But LinkedIn is a networking event and most people are very giving.

[00:16:45] They're gonna answer question or at least respond back to you. At least that's what I have found LinkedIn, to be a very warm giving community.

[00:16:54] Safety Brye: You are so right there. And safety professionals in general, I find are always giving anyway. Like you never have to make anything from scratch. If you just reach out on LinkedIn or even some of the Facebook groups, you post your question and people are gonna be like, here's my stuff, copy it.

[00:17:09] You know? Sure. Rip off and duplicate is pretty much our standard. So that's pretty awesome. So what features do you think are the best ones on LinkedIn? We've been talking a lot about posting and engaging. Sure. But I know that there's some other features too. Are there anything that you think people should be trying out?

[00:17:27] David Alto: Sure. So you had mentioned something that somebody, you know, found you in a search or, and you found me in a search that's because the headline and that's under your name is the most valuable real estate on your LinkedIn profile. Most value if you did nothing. And we tested this a year ago, so we know this to be true.

[00:17:43] You don't put, I'm a, you know, safety manager at Walmart there and leave that like that. Here's why you can actually add a ton of characters in that space. About three lines of text. You would wanna put safety manager excelling at. And then those high level skills that you possess high levels. It doesn't need to be written in the form of a sentence.

[00:18:05] You can use these vertical lines, like on mine to kind of break it up, but you will be found in better searches when you put valuable content there. If you're a project manager at Amazon, It's project manager excelling at maybe product management, six Sigma, whatever, and a laundry list of high level skills, not, you know, customer service, but those high level skills or certificates that you possess, you will show up in better recruiter, searches, or any search when it's more related to, you know, all you have to do is think of this.

[00:18:39] How would somebody, or how would you go about finding somebody. That does what you do. What would you think would be those keywords and key skills? That's what you need and want to put in that headline?

[00:18:52] Safety Brye: I love that tip mine says something like host of the safety geek podcast and VPP specialist or something like that, too.

[00:18:59] Sure. I love that term excels at that is such a key term for somebody who is using LinkedIn just to promote themselves and their skills. So definitely that is an awesome tip. So if somebody was looking for work. How would they use LinkedIn?

[00:19:16] David Alto: Well, same thing about in the headline mm-hmm but think of this, the featured section, most people don't even know it exists.

[00:19:24] Mm-hmm the featured section allows you to share photos, links to websites, links to articles, maybe. There was this big project that you were a part of, and it's mentioned on a website, or maybe you're not mentioned by name, but it still mentions the project or something you're tied to adding things to the featured section gives social proof of some of the same things that you're saying about yourself.

[00:19:44] Maybe on your resume. Again, could be a photo of you. Volunteering could be a photo of you and a ribbon cutting or just whatever, but a mean, there are so many things that you can do to really stand out. And most people are not adding anything to the featured section. So that just means. You know, somebody comes to your profile, they're stopping looking.

[00:20:02] I know when I go to somebody's profile and ha they have something in that featured section, I'm definitely stopping and taking look because I'm gonna learn more about that individual.

[00:20:09] Safety Brye: So, yeah. So it's a great way to show off your portfolio, which is interesting that you bring that up because in the safety network this month, we do six advanced trainings every year.

[00:20:18] And the very first one is going to be creating your portfolio. And using, and I never even thought about the LinkedIn aspect of it. I have different ways that I use my portfolio and share it. And I'm like, I know cuz I've interviewed hundreds of safety managers and I love that LinkedIn allows you to do that cuz you could even upload PDFs in there too. Correct?

[00:20:39] David Alto: Oh, yes. I think you have to take your LinkedIn profile is almost like your own free personal branding website. You can share so much more than most people realize they can.

[00:20:50] Safety Brye: So what habits do you think people should have around LinkedIn? Like are we just going in there daily? Like we do Facebook and scrolling.

[00:20:57] I know you do. Cuz you already said that like annoy normal person whose job is not to help people on LinkedIn. how should they be using it?

[00:21:05] David Alto: Sure. I think that you follow either, you know, businesses, organizations, maybe people that you like, and whether you use it every day or every so many days, you know, you gotta check your messages because you might get a good one in there.

[00:21:18] You know, you don't want to miss it, but whether it's, you know, twice a week, I'm gonna go in there and engage for 20 minutes. I'm gonna take a little to time away from some of the other social media. I'm gonna engage with, again, you know, those thought leaders, those company pages that you wanna follow, maybe it's the company that you're with or somebody else.

[00:21:36] I think that is a great way for somebody to kind of start to feel out how they think they want to use their time on LinkedIn. I know that's what I did, but the more I did it, the more I of spent on LinkedIn. But we're all subject matter expert about various things. Share that in a post, share that in an article or share that in the comments of a post that you saw that asked for some feedback or a poll when you engage and comment, something that is very authentic and you took some time, not just, Hey, nice post, good job.

[00:22:12] But you actually took some thought in responding. That's when other people see it and may, might wanna follow you or connect with you or the author wants some engagement, right? That's why they posted. So maybe set a timer and spend a certain amount of time, but you don't have to spend a lot of time. But I would say I still, to this day engage way more than I post.

[00:22:34] Even though I post and comment, you know, respond on my post as well, but I engage with the other people that I've built relationships with on LinkedIn.

[00:22:42] Safety Brye: Yeah. I think that's kind of important. And I think that when you're on LinkedIn, that it's not the same as other social media. Like for me, going on LinkedIn during working hours, I'm building my network.

[00:22:54] I'm learning about my profession. I'm connecting with other companies. It's not that same, like waste of time is scrolling through TikTok or reels or something like that. Right. So maybe your employer wouldn't even mind you doing it because you're gonna get something out of it. But I love the idea. I attended this training one time where they said, block the time out on your calendar to do research, like industry research.

[00:23:17] And I was like, yeah, I, I do that. But like, what about blocking out that 20 minutes? Like you said, twice a week to have that little reminder of let's check in with LinkedIn, because building your network is just as important as learning the skills to do your job. So I love that. So anyway, I wanted to thank you because you have agreed to teach a masterclass in my brand new professional development community, the safety network.

[00:23:43] So I am super excited and you've kind of like given us some tidbits. Over what you're going to teach us. Can you tell us what you will be teaching?

[00:23:52] David Alto: Sure. We're gonna start at the top of everybody's LinkedIn profile. Go down to the bottom. We're gonna talk about some networking best practices, especially for job seekers, but we're gonna really talk about the hows and the whys, and hopefully get some time to maybe answer some questions, really enjoy doing that.

[00:24:08] But most people don't realize all the things they can share or even. Place on their LinkedIn profile. And I hope during that time, I'm gonna answer way more than, than, uh, people will have to go back and watch it. I'm sure. Or take really fast notes, because again, there's so much more that you can share on your LinkedIn profile.

[00:24:27] That's gonna just make you different. And if you wanna learn how to network and you're not looking for a job, you're gonna learn that as well.

[00:24:33] Safety Brye: Yeah, David's already warned me that he has so much information to share. I'm probably gonna have to have him back on in the group in a few months from now. So definitely be prepared to take notes.

[00:24:43] And he has also shared with me that you can volunteer and he can tear apart your LinkedIn profile during this training. So if you want to put your hand up and say, yeah, I'll be the Guinea pig for David's training. Make sure that you email me at support. At the safety geek.com before March 29th. And we'll select a few people to actually be David's guinea pig, as he goes through their LinkedIn profiles. I am not putting my hand up on this one. I am not doing it.

[00:25:10] David Alto: Let's make sure that they definitely need some, you know, help. Yes. And I'll compare something to somebody else's or whatever, cuz we want to share. You know what maybe a great profile could potentially look like, but a lot of times, again, it's just people don't realize what they can actually share. So yeah, they'll be quite amazed. They'll be quite amazed during the presentation.

[00:25:29] Safety Brye: That's amazing. So thank you so much for chatting with me today. This has been super fun. How can listeners learn more about you and your business and what if they wanted to reach out to you personally and get some help with their career coaching? Cause I know you do way more than just LinkedIn.

[00:25:44] David Alto: Oh yes. I am on various platforms, but very active on LinkedIn. If you message me or send me a connection request, I still can accept about 7,000 more connections. And then I max out.

[00:25:55] Safety Brye: What's the max?

[00:25:56] David Alto: You max out at 30,000, you can have unlimited followers. Like I have 70,000 followers.

[00:26:02] But I only have like 23 ish thousands, but just connect with me, DM message me. I'm more than happy to, you know, provide any advice or guidance or schedule a call. If you think you might need some extra help.

[00:26:14] Safety Brye: And we will definitely put links to David's website as well as his LinkedIn profile in the show notes.

[00:26:21] And I will tell you, I can tested this, cuz I literally was doing this. On the fly at an evening, way after hours, when I message David the first time and he responded so quickly, I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. So definitely if you need some help reach out to him cuz he does some great things. So did you have anything else that you wanted to share David?

[00:26:43] David Alto: I think they have to come to the vent to learn more.

[00:26:46] Safety Brye: Awesome. All righty. Well, thank you so much and I will be chatting with you again on March 29th, and I hope to see all of you there in the safety network. Bye for now.

[00:27:00] Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you have to come check out the safety network. It's my monthly professional development community. Just for those working in safety. Every month, we will dive deeper into the strategies. That'll help you become a better leader. And move you up in your safety career.

[00:27:18] If you need a roadmap on how to get from where you are now to your dream job, I got you. My safety friend, join me over at thesafetygeek.com forward slash network. And don't forget to type in the, the T H E safety geek.com/network. I would love to meet you in our next Q and a session. See you there.