165 – How to Use LinkedIn and PR Together with Jane Tabachnick

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 165.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello, I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is Episode 165 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach women simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing, marketing that is relationship based and gets you on the phone consistently with perfect people, people that look for your highest ticket opportunities, people that feature you in newspapers and magazines, people that can change your business, your life and your bank account for ever we create wealthy women here in this she’s linked up family. And if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, I love to hear from you. So make sure that you’re subscribing to this podcast, wherever you’re listening to. We love your reviews if you’d feel if you’re feeling up for that. But most importantly, if you love what you’re hearing today, share this episode on social media, take a quick screenshot, right? Hashtag good girls get rich, I’ll be sure to share your post with my audience. And then we both get more visibility. Right. So tag me @KarenYankovich. You can tag today’s guest, Jane Tabachnick, and we’ll have her links in the show notes as well. And just go to KarenYankovich.com/165. And you’ll see the show notes in the blog for this episode. And all of the links to everything that we talked about here today. I’m really excited to introduce James Tabachnick. to you this is one of my favorite topics. And you guys I’m sure if you were if you’re a longtime listener, you know this is how to use LinkedIn and PR together right. One of the things I mentioned earlier is that in our she’s linked up programs, we would there’s a lot of focus on how to use LinkedIn to get more publicity to get more visibility because that gives you more credibility. And we talked about that a lot on this episode and Jane is also a jersey girl. So just get ready some fast talking here. And I’d like to introduce you to Jane Tabachnick. We have Jane Tabachnick here with us on good girls get rich today and Jane is an award winning Digital Public relations and marketing strategist and mentor. She’s also the founder of simply good press a book publishing firm, and she brings 15 years of experience working with changemakers to help them create greater visibility and Buzz, which helps them easily attract and close more of their ideal clients. named one of the top 100 people online by Fast Company. Jane and her clients have been featured recorded in all kinds of places ABC, CBS, spa magazine, CNN women’s wear daily and many other media outlets. A former fashion designer Jane’s an adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute in New York City, where she teaches sustainable design entrepreneurship. That’s so cool. Jane, I’m so glad to have you here.

Jane Tabachnick 2:58
I’m so excited to be here. Karen.

Karen Yankovich 3:00
Thing is actually like a you know, somewhat neighbor. We both live in New Jersey, we haven’t actually managed to be in the same room yet. But hopefully that will change.

Jane Tabachnick 3:07
Yes.

Karen Yankovich 3:08
But I’m really excited to have you here. So tell us a little bit about your journey. Let’s start with that. First of all, I before we even get to that I you know, one of my favorite topics is using LinkedIn and PR. And I think that that is something that is so powerful and so overlooked. So I’m really excited about having a chance to dive deeper into that today. But tell us about your journey. How what brought you to this place that you’re working with public relations and marketing?

Jane Tabachnick 3:35
Yeah, so I did not set out to be in public relations and marketing. My first career, as you mentioned, was as a fashion designer, and this is pre internet days. So it was a different business landscape. And what I found was when people saw my designs, they really liked them, and they sold or they bought them. But I couldn’t get in front of people. That was my challenge. They hadn’t heard of me. I had a visibility and a brand recognition problem. So I realized that I needed some visibility, some publicity, so I tried it myself and I had a couple of really bad starts and once even had the hazmat team there. That’s a story for another day.

Karen Yankovich 4:20
Okay, but is there a video for that? Can we link to that?

Jane Tabachnick 4:26
Yes, we’ll do that.

Karen Yankovich 4:28
Okay.

Jane Tabachnick 4:28
But I had some success, and it was a game changer. I couldn’t believe that when I then called the buyers or their department stores. They said Oh, we’ve seen your designs or we’ve heard your name. We’d like to see your collection. And that was the beginning for me. It was so exciting. And when I decided to get out of the fashion business, I loved what I did, but I also knew I was burning out and it’s a tough business. I took stock of what I had done What I thought my strengths, talents and what I enjoy doing. And I thought, well, that’s the marketing and the PR. So right after I left the fashion business, when I went to work for a small ad agency, I discovered the internet. And this is the sense of one day to say today, but now,

Karen Yankovich 5:19
and it’s not even that long ago, but

Jane Tabachnick 5:20
it’s not. But in some ways, in terms of the way we live, it’s light years, right?

Karen Yankovich 5:26
Absolutely.

Jane Tabachnick 5:27
So I found out about it. And I thought this is going to be really big. This is going to be such a great marketing visibility communications platform. And it has been. So I bothered a lot of people, I asked a million questions, so I could learn everything I thought I needed to know, because I like to peek behind the scenes understand how things work, because I feel like it helps me do a better job. And when I first started out after living that ad agency, which was my first job after the fashion business, I opened up a digital strategy firm, and we were building websites, helping clients get set up with newsletters, email newsletters, but really the common thread, what I realized was they all still needed visibility, they all still needed brand recognition and traffic. So we evolved into a digital strategy, digital PR firm, and then the books came a little bit later.

Karen Yankovich 6:25
Wow, that’s so cool. So when you say you do digital strategy and digital PR, do you actually do public? Are you a publicist? Or do you teach people how to do publicity and marketing?

Jane Tabachnick 6:35
So I, so I have been a publicist, mostly for my author clients. But at this point, I’m just offering PR mentoring, teaching people how to do their own PR. And we do have a new service, which is a an affordable done with you services called curated publicity. But it’s done with the client. So we’re doing some of it. They’re doing some of it.

Karen Yankovich 7:01
So I you know, listen to and I love that because I think that we’re not you know, you’re we’re on the same wavelength on that. Because I think that 20 years ago, when we didn’t have the internet, we needed publicists. But and publicists are 10 or $20,000 a month. I mean, there are to fortune. I think there is so much we can do on our own. And I love the done with you. That’s what we actually do on my she’s linked up program we have, every one of our students gets time with our publicity coach, our PR coach, and we work with them to help them land some media because you’re absolutely right. When you, you know, listen, you and you know, your your next door neighbor, competitor, maybe apples to apples across the board, but when you are the one that’s as seen in, it takes you to the top. And that is absolutely completely creatable by you. And, and you know, probably Oprah’s not going to come knocking on your door, right? You’ve got to go after it. You’ve got to, you know, you’ve got to look for the opportunities and and I love that that’s what you’re helping people do. Because to me, that’s, you know, when I talk about good girls get rich, like when you are doing what you love to be doing. I want to shine a light on it. So the whole world knows. And what you’re doing is helping helping with that.

Jane Tabachnick 8:08
Exactly. And I’m so glad you mentioned that. They don’t come knocking on your door. You know, sometimes people think oh, she’s lucky. She’s getting press. She’s lucky. Yes, there is always a certain element of luck, synchronicity, timing, but really, luck is what happens, in my opinion, or publicity happens when preparation meets opportunity. And the people who were on stages who are getting publicity who were in Oprah or any other publication are out there pitching or they’ve got someone helping them with the pitching. It doesn’t just magically happen.

Karen Yankovich 8:42
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But you know, here’s the thing, once you start getting that ball rolling, and you start to get some momentum with publicity, you might start to see people come to you, right, but yeah, so look worthy of it. You have to have, in my opinion, a great Legion profile and be connecting with people on that level. Right? So energetically, you’ve got to be showing up like an influencer or somebody worthy of being in their publications and physically right when they’re checking you out. And then building relationships from that point. And then you do then it does. I mean, I’ve just somebody in my program today was just talking about the fact that she’s being interviewed in a magazine that is it’s just the perfect magazine for her and, and that’s another thing that I think I’d love to hear your opinion on that she’s not getting it met, you know, it’s not Entrepreneur Magazine, where the whole world is gonna see it. It’s a very niche magazine. That’s, that’s very specific to our industry. But for our it’s perfect, right, so, so so many people just go right for the big things, right. But sometimes it’s more money, the more the profitability of this stuff comes from, in my opinion, the more niche publications that you’re in. So tell me what you think about that.

Jane Tabachnick 9:46
Absolutely. I’m so glad you brought this up, Karen. Yeah. So I really believe that you need to know your audience. You need to know where they spend time and what publications they think are important for you. There there is public, there may be publications like Vogue or Vanity Fair they enjoyed for fashion and style. But perhaps for industry tips, information, trends, news, staying up to date, there’s some niche publication that wouldn’t make the radar or the newsstand. But it’s really important. So you need to know where your audience is, and what those publications are. And as you just said, those can be more valuable than being in Vogue, or Oprah, which, of course, is great. It’s it’s an unbelievable visibility. It’s certainly incredible for your brand. And it’s impressive, but it doesn’t always convert the way that being in a niche important for your industry publication. And,

Karen Yankovich 10:43
yeah, so alright, so tell me about LinkedIn. How would you know and I know I’m putting you on the spot a little bit here. But do you use LinkedIn with your clients, with your students, when you’re when you’re working with them on a PR plan? What does that look like?

Jane Tabachnick 10:55
Absolutely. So you know, very much like the way you teach your, your clients use LinkedIn pure is really about relationships. And so having a great profile, and also building relationships, and I’m not talking about just the same kind of things we don’t like when people are pitching us some sales or some course or something we have no need or interest in. I’m not saying to build relationships, and immediately start pitching someone but, you know, connect with the media. And I teach my clients to do something we call huggin influencer, and when I say influencer, it can be someone who is a thought leader in your industry, someone you respect a journalist, it can be an Instagram, influencer, anyone in that category, but follow them share their content and be authentic. Don’t just do this to get in their good graces, but let them know, if you like something they wrote, share it and tag them, this is a really great thing to do. A lot of people don’t do this, because some of the tools don’t make it easy. But like if you click on an article to share it, when you know, there may be a message pre programmed in that shares along with the article, but the author’s name, and the publication, they may not be programmed into that take the time to find out their social handle, and include that. And this does a couple of things. It lets them know you’re sharing, which is great, it gives them credit, which and the recognition which they deserve. And and as many more media professionals are freelancing, they need to get this visibility, they’re not on stamp, necessarily anymore. And it also helps put you in front of their audience. Because when you tag someone, it’ll get shared to their network. And so you’re increasing your visibility. So it’s really a win win win.

Karen Yankovich 12:48
Yes. And and you know, what, what you just described is really a simple thing to do. It’s so simple, right? It’s not complicated. We don’t need 10 hours of training, we don’t need to watch 14 videos, we just have to read consume content, we’re normally consuming, right? But paying attention to not just the content, but the person that that published the content.

Jane Tabachnick 13:10
Exactly. Because as you know, it’s so frustrating and sometimes a little bit unsettling. You put content out there and no one comments you think I stink, you know, all these terrible thoughts in your head? Is anyone listening? Why do I bother my contents? Not good? No one cares. You know, the whole, if you’re like me, you have all these thoughts. And you think why bother? But people aren’t listening. They’re often just not commenting. So be that person that comments and shares and acknowledges like, oh, I’ll reply to email, like, I get a newsletter and someone shares some good news. And I reply to it, and that the sender is always kind of shocked, like, Oh, thanks for replying. It’s like, Hey, you just told me something great. I had I, I’m human,

Karen Yankovich 13:54
I was gonna say that it’s human to human right. It’s human to human and which, by the way, is where the money is, right? Yes, it is. People buy a $50 something off of a, you know, funnel on a web thing. But nobody’s buying your 5000 or $10,000 stuff without a human to human conversation.

Jane Tabachnick 14:11
Exactly.

Karen Yankovich 14:12
It’s so powerful. You know, and I love that you I love that you talked about well, we just take a step back. So when we talked when you talked about, you know, doing this, that simple process, you listen, I just want to emphasize that it works best when you’ve taken the time upfront to look like you’re worthy of their time, right? Yes, I’m upfront to create a LinkedIn profile that makes you look worthy of their time because you’re making it easier for them to want to be connected to you. Right? If you do all of this with a LinkedIn profile that has dust bunnies on it, right? You’re not you have no credibility, and they’re gonna love that you did it, but chances are they’re not going to be going out of their way to continue to build that relationship.

Jane Tabachnick 14:48
So true. You know, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression and people are going to judge you on your photo on your, on your profile on the comments. You make so everything until they know you. And then they may give you a little bit more leeway. But still, you want to be on brand on message and really come across as professionally as possible. And I know you teach this. And we certainly go through a lot of this with our clients, being given that professional appearance and looking like you are media ready so that if they want to feature you in a story, they know that any of their audience who goes to check you out is not going to think Whoa, who is this person? Like out?

Karen Yankovich 15:32
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. That’s where the contents important, right? Yes. So okay, so what let’s just stick with LinkedIn for one more question here. So now I’ve you know, I’ve identified some journalists, and I’m doing all that good stuff. Do I pitch them? What do I do?

Jane Tabachnick 15:45
Yeah, so I, so you can start following them. You can comment on their posts, you can send them a connection request, without a pitch, just say, you know, I’ve read your content, it’s always good. If you’re specific, instead of, hey, I’ve read your content, which could be a cut and paste, you know, you write good content? Well, no, say, you know, I just read your article on the new LinkedIn stories. And I love that you explained how to do XYZ in great detail. If let me get into action right away something so specific, you had to have taken the time read the story. And you’re actually speaking to them not sending a blast, and just changing the first name.

Karen Yankovich 16:26
Right? Right. Awesome. I love it. And that and and you’re building relationships so that when an opportunity may come down the road where you’ve got something interesting, you can maybe reach out them exactly, and not this idea that I thought of you.

Jane Tabachnick 16:41
Yeah, or you can say that, you know, I’ve got a, I’ve got a good network here on LinkedIn, you’re welcome to look through my contacts, if you need an intro, or source, or if there’s something specific you’re looking for, I’m happy to try and make a connection for you. Just being of service and trying to give before you ask.

Karen Yankovich 16:59
Perfect, perfect. Alright, so now we know how to do this. How do we start to use this? How does this PR help us grow our business?

Jane Tabachnick 17:07
Yeah, so the thing about PR, which makes it really the most valuable form of content is that it gives you third party credibility, right, they feature you in the media, rather than your so called competition or somebody else. So that positions you as like the expert, and it’s as if they endorsed you, although technically, it’s not an endorsement. So how do you use it, you share it on LinkedIn, and you thank the person who wrote the story, you tag the publication. And again, let them know. And you share it more than once, which is good for you and good for the publication. So if you think about it like this, you know, it’s like that adage, if a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s there to hear it. So if you’re in the New York Times today, I haven’t picked up the times today. So for me, even though it’s a great, amazing accomplishment, it didn’t happen. Unless you tell me it happened. Right. So it’s important to let your audience know about press you get because we’re all bombarded with so much information. They may not have seen it, but it’s not a one and done, you can put it into your Scheduler. And six weeks later, pull out a, you know, one line a soundbite from the article mentioned, and again, add it to your media room. You can add the logo to your as seen in or as seen on.

Karen Yankovich 18:34
Right. Right. So cool. So cool. So you know, when you when you’re when you’re doing all of this, right, you are how so this is actually something that comes up a lot in my in my group. In fact, we talked about it today with the woman that I said, just got this great opportunity to be interviewed for this magazine. How do you recommend you capture that audience? Right? Like you don’t want to pitch right? You don’t want to be going in everybody should buy myself like you don’t i don’t think you’re going to say you want to I mean, I hope you’re gonna say you want to do that. Right? But you do want to capture them, right? So how can you capture you know that audience to the best of your ability while still being in integrity with the journalist and with the article.

Jane Tabachnick 19:15
You know, it really depends on the outlet. Some of them will give you a link back. Some of them will not do not put links in their publications. Some of them may allow you to mention a free report or a product or service. It really depends on the outlet and what the topic of the story is. So you’re not really in control with how that goes. You can always ask politely, but sometimes it’s not even up to the journalists that maybe the publications policy. So I would say you know if that publication has commenting you know if they have a commenting capability on their articles become visible. commenting and sharing.

Karen Yankovich 20:00
It’s such a great tip. Yes. Right. A great tip.

Jane Tabachnick 20:04
Yeah, so become a positive presence in front of their audience sharing, liking, adding value, not pitching, just adding value. And you know, there might be a way to retarget and include people who follow that publication. Yeah. So it’s possible, you could include something like that and advertising that you’re doing.

Karen Yankovich 20:26
Yeah, that’s another really good idea. That’s another really good idea. I love it. I love it. Um, so, you know, most of the people that listen to this podcast are women, we definitely have some guys, we don’t really care what your body parts are, how you identify. But, you know, sometimes, we I need to kick some of my women friends in the butt, right? Because they’re feeling like it’s just how do you how do you brag about yourself, right? promote yourself like this? How do you get how do you reach out to these journalists as if you’re worthy of their time in their article?

Jane Tabachnick 21:00
Yes, so we women sometimes struggle with this, I know I was raised, being told it’s not polite to brag. So it’s something I have to work on still on an ongoing basis. So I think the thing to do is focus on the value you bring to your clients and your audience. And that if you didn’t share, if you weren’t more visible, if more of them don’t know about you, you can help or transform more people. So you’re actually doing the world a disservice. If you’re not being visible and sharing and getting out there.

Karen Yankovich 21:38
I love that answer. I love that answer. I agree with you, I agree with you, you know, we we take for granted that we I’m going to just generalize for women here for a second, we take for granted that when I’m when we’re good at something, everybody else is good at it too. And it’s not true. You know, we need to sometimes we you know, sometimes people need help with what you do, right? And if they don’t know you exist, how are they going to get that help? And they’re going to get it from somebody who might be less qualified than you? Who does put themselves out more? Yeah, no, that’s happened. everybody listening? I know, that’s happened to you at least once. Yeah. Someone you know, or no, and you’re like, what, that I am so much better than that person. Right? Yes. The other this, you have to do it?

Jane Tabachnick 22:21
Yes. So the other thing, this is a little trick that I sometimes use, and I encourage people to use is think of your business as a separate entity. So you’re actually promoting the business like a third party instead of yourself.

Karen Yankovich 22:37
That’s cool. So that’s the, the a little bit of the energy out of it, not the and not not deflating in a deflating way, but in a personal, you know, like taking things personal, like take the baby out of it a little,

Jane Tabachnick 22:49
a little less intimidating. And, and I also want to mention, so Ann Handley, who great content marketer, says, make the customer the hero of your story. So if you can, sometimes sharing a story about your customer success, of course, having their permission to if you know, you’re going to name names and give any specifics. But if not do it in a way that’s not specific. But presenting it that way. It’s not about you. It’s like, it’s about how someone else has had success. And you happen to have been there as a facilitator. And so it the focus isn’t on you, but it’s on transformation that’s possible. And of course, you are responsible, and it wouldn’t have happened without you. But the focus is different. And it can be a really great thing, because sometimes then you both get press you and your customer and by telling a story that way, people can see themselves in it and say I need that I that’s exactly that’s, I want that.

Karen Yankovich 23:52
Yes. Yeah. So cool. So cool. So if people wanted to learn from you, how would they learn from you?

Jane Tabachnick 24:01
Yeah, so if you go to my website, it’s simplygoodpress.com I have a free visibility assessment. And it’s really fun. People get all worried, oh, it’s good. My numbers gonna be terrible. It’s not like that. It’s just a fun way to have a snapshot of where you are and what possible other visibility, authority positioning opportunities there are for you. And there are some other free resources there as well.

Karen Yankovich 24:29
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. It’s so funny that you’re saying that I think about the 90 million different assessments we take on Facebook, you know, to find out what kind of potato chip we would be right? And we’re worried about things that are going to help us with our you know, our careers and our bank accounts. So, so funny what we do to ourselves.

Jane Tabachnick 24:47
Yes.

Karen Yankovich 24:48
Oh my gosh, well, this was so good. I mean, Jane, I love that I love just, you know, so much of what you’re saying are so many of the things that are so important to me. So I love that my audience is getting to hear this from another person. With another perspective on it, because it can’t, I can’t tell you enough how I might talk to you, Janet, I can’t tell you the listener enough how life changing this can be for you, and how simple it could be. Right? If you just take these couple of steps get started with Jane, you know, with some of her visibility assessments and things like that. And honestly, I think this is the time to be doing this. This is the time now is the better best time to start this right. So start now start now.

Jane Tabachnick 25:30
Start now.

Karen Yankovich 25:32
Jane, thank you so much for being here. What’s next for you? What’s coming up in your world?

Jane Tabachnick 25:37
A little freedom. I’m about to get the vaccine.

Karen Yankovich 25:40
Oh, how exciting. I know. It’s emotional. I have I’ve had it. It’s emotional. Emotional for me anyway.

Jane Tabachnick 25:47
Yes. So I’m excited. My gym actually is doing outdoor classes starting next week. So I’m going back to work out outdoors. so

Karen Yankovich 25:59
so good, right. It doesn’t feel so good to

Jane Tabachnick 26:01
Yeah

Karen Yankovich 26:02
I don’t know. It’s just yeah, it feels so good. So we’ve learned a lot in the past year of being virtual. And I think a lot of it really is what is your digital footprint? And are you showing up the way you want to show up. And I think that now is really why I say now is the best time to do this. Because as we start to go back to being in person and things like that, we are not going to forget all the things we learned about how, you know the first impression we’re learning about people digitally. So this can all this is all a part of that this is all part of that.

Jane Tabachnick 26:32
Yes. And if you start now, you know, if you think you do one simple thing each day, it could be five minutes of commenting or connecting. By the end of the year, I’m not going to do the math, but you can have hundreds of comments and amazing things could have happened that you weren’t expecting. So you have to be in it. It’s…

Karen Yankovich 26:55
You have to and you can take control of this by by doing yourself, you can control your digital footprint by building these kinds of relationships. All right, we can go on and on forever, like we’re doing now. But we could and I could I would love to do that. But I think we need to wrap this. It was so good to do this with you. Jane, thank you so much for being here. And I can’t wait let me know when you’re fully vaccinated. And let’s find an outdoor place and meet up for lunch someday soon.

Jane Tabachnick 27:18
Absolutely. Thanks Karen.

Karen Yankovich 27:20
Take care everyone. I hope you enjoyed that my conversation with Jane as much as I did and really understand how powerful publicity could be for you how powerful PR can be for you no matter what the stage of your business is. You know even if you’re at a new you’ve got a new venture right so many women I speak to have a new venture on the other side of this pandemic that we lived with. And it doesn’t mean you don’t have experience right it just means that maybe what you’re doing is new but what it does mean is maybe you don’t have the testimonials yet right? So what publicity does is it gives you some credibility as you’re building your new chapter in your life if that’s what you’re doing so you’re gonna hear more and more about publicity on this podcast because it just is it’s baked into everything we do and I just don’t think I talked about it enough here so check that out and if you want to understand a little bit about how we do that check out our on demand masterclass go to waterthatmoneytree.com that is our on demand masterclass you know that I think LinkedIn is my money tree and it can be the same for you go to waterthatmoneytree.com check out our free masterclass we’re not selling anything on that you know, it’s just it’s just all content and you’ll learn a little bit about the shifts that we think you need to take to really succeed and elevate your business and elevate your brand and elevate the way you’re seeing the world right which is which changes everything. A rising tide lifts all boats right I do this podcast to support you I’ve got this free masterclass to help you get started, which is really the first step to LinkedIn success. Let’s lift each other up right help me help you share this podcast. Take a quick screenshot of this episode on your phone. Share that on social tag me tag Jane use the hashtag good girls get rich. We’ll share it with our audiences and we all get more visibility and let’s kick some business booty together. I will see you back here again next week for another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.