In the early 2000’s, when I was the sales manager for a local IT company in Ohio, I needed to meet and build relationships with other business owners in the area so that when they had an IT need come up, like upgrading their server or expanding their network, my company and I were top of mind.
So I attended weekly breakfast networking meetings, and showed up at fundraisers and other community events. I spent time getting to know the people in my community.
Fast forward to today and most of us are now focused on global ecommerce and building communities of followers, connections, clients and partners – people who may not live or work anywhere near us. It’s a digital community, and that presents a challenge when it comes to relationship building.
How are we supposed to develop deep, personal relationships today with people we may never meet face to face?
That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.
Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.
And today we’re talking about one of the core tenets of partnership – relationship building. But as I mentioned, so many of us are focused on building relationships on a global stage, relying on digital tools and digital networks, that we lack the capability and benefit of face-to-face meetings and in-person exchanges.
Ironically, it was at an in-person event where I met today’s guest, Raquel Borras, and she is an absolute treasure when it comes to social networking.
Raquel is the marketing manager for New American Funding and the host of her own YouTube Channel, Raq The Boat where she’s creating fantastic content for and with kids – and that aligns with her mission for RAQVISION, a safe social network for youth. What I love about Raquel is her unparalleled passion and enthusiasm, which is demonstrated in her role as Chief Excitement Officer of True To You Branding. She’s been helping others understand how to develop personal brands that are true to them on social networks, particularly LinkedIn, which lead to real connections, real community, and real conversations. And I couldn’t be more excited to have her and her expertise in the studio with me today.
Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked Raquel Borras about:
♉️ How to build personal relationships even on digital platforms
♉️ Why LinkedIn in particular is so powerful for personal branding
♉️ Top strategies and common mistakes for CMOs and other executives
Learn more about Raquel Borras
Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode
- Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
- Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo
Full Notes & Transcript:
(Lightly edited)
Using LinkedIn To Foster Real Relationships & Partnerships with Raquel Borras
[00:00:00] Mike Allton: In the early two thousands when I was the sales manager for a local IT company in Ohio, I needed to meet and build relationships with other business owners in the area so that when they had an IT need come up, like upgrading their server or expanding their network, my company and I were top of mind.So I attended weekly breakfast networking meetings and I showed up at fundraisers and other community events, and I spent time getting to know the people in my community. Fast forward to today, and most of us are now focused on global e-commerce and building communities of followers, connections, clients and partners, people who may not live or work anywhere near us.
It’s a digital community, and that presents a challenge when it comes to relationship building. How are we supposed to develop personal relationships today? With people we may never meet face-to-face. Well, that’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.
This is partnership unpacked your go-to guide to growing your business. Through partnerships quickly. I’m your host, Mike Alton, and each episode unpacks the winning strategies and latest trends from influencer marketing to brand partnerships and ideas that you can apply your own business to grow exponentially.
And now the rest of today’s episode, welcome back to partnership. I’m Pat. Selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, influencer marketing, affiliates, and relationship building. Oh, and you get to learn, too. Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy with a solid takeaway every episode.
From partnership experts in the industry, and today we’re talking about one of those core tenets of partnerships, relationship building. But as I mentioned, so many of us are focused on building relationships on a global stage, relying on digital tools and digital networks that we lack the capability.
And the benefit of face-to-face meetings and in-person exchanges. Ironically, it was at an in-person event where I met today’s guest, Raquel Boris, and she is an absolute treasure when it comes to social networking. Raquel is the marketing manager for New American Funding and the host of her own YouTube channel racked the boat where she’s creating fantastic content for and with kids, and that aligns with her mission for Rack Vision, a safe social network for youth and.
What I love about Raquel is her unparalleled passion and enthusiasm, which is demonstrated in her role as Chief Excitement officer of True to You branding. She’s been helping others understand how to develop personal brands that are true to them on social networks, particularly LinkedIn, which lead to real connections, real community, and real conversations, and I couldn’t be more excited to have her and her expertise on the show.
Raquel, welcome to Partnership Unpacked.
[00:02:53] Raquel Borras: Hi. Thank you for having me. You know, I love the intros. Thank you. My, it’s really pleasure, the ego. [00:03:02] Mike Allton: Well, I want you to feel great. I want everybody else to feel great that you’re here, cuz this is gonna be fantastic. And I always like to kind of set the stage for our listeners and community by letting them and letting you share how you got started in social media and a bit about the work that you’re doing today. [00:03:17] Raquel Borras: So I started out actually on LinkedIn. I had gotten off of Facebook, I’d gotten divorced and I didn’t want to deal with anybody, you know, having ask questions. So I got off of Facebook, Instagram was still in, in its infancy stages, and I kept getting all these invites for this network called LinkedIn, and I had just started in the corporate world, like I said, just divorce.So I thought, okay, you know what? Business platform, this makes sense if I’m trying to navigate. That world. And so I got on, but I started actually studying LinkedIn right away. Like I was like, okay, what is this platform all about? What do people post? What are people liking? And so I just every day just kind of scrolled through and just was like very intuitive and perceptive about like how the platform worked.
And it’s very different today. But that’s just how I started. And then I just started slowly posting. And when I posted, I always tried to showcase somebody else. Like I didn’t want it to be necessarily about myself because at the time I wasn’t selling a product. I didn’t have my own business. I was working for a builder.
I was a, the developing their customer service department. So for me, I’m like, what? I mean who, nobody cares what I do. So then I just started kind of like showcasing other people when I would go to events. And that’s just kind of how it like. Evolved into what it is now and which is really cool. I think the best part of it, it was really organic and it wasn’t intentional at first, and now it’s completely different and now it’s.
Allowed me to have a career and have a platform and have a voice. And so it’s just really cool how it all kind of pound out, panned out over the last decade, cuz it’ll be 10 years next year that I’ll be on LinkedIn.
[00:05:01] Mike Allton: Wow. Hi.That’s fascinating. I love it. Yeah, we’ve got Merril cost, who’s audience
[00:05:10] Raquel Borras: oddly enough too, speaking of like just building relationships. He reached out to me on LinkedIn years ago, I wanna say maybe back in like 2018 or so, or 2019, and we ended up getting on a call. Pretty soon thereafter, and now he’s like one of my biggest supporters on LinkedIn.So it’s pretty cool. So thank you for showing up, Meryl.
[00:05:31] Mike Allton: Love it. And that’s exactly why we’re having this conversation, why we’re having this conversation with you, because these kinds of digital relationships are important and they can certainly be fostered and. And found on the various social networks, but what about LinkedIn?What makes it so good for creating these kinds of personal connections for fostering your personal brand? What is it that you love about LinkedIn?
[00:05:54] Raquel Borras: I don’t know. I feel like it gives you access to people that you weren’t necessarily have. Like I feel like on Instagram, Facebook, it’s different. Like LinkedIn people aren’t here intentionally.Like they want to, you know, build their business and gain clients, build relationships. So I feel like when you reach out to someone that might feel like they’re unattainable or they’re too far outta your league, For whatever reason on LinkedIn, I’ve managed to create relationships with those people, people that I would never imagine having essentially friendships with.
So I think that part of LinkedIn is really, truly amazing. I feel like most people can attest to that, where. You can reach out to the c e o of some large company and most likely they’ll respond. I mean, I pretty much have had like a 90%, uh, return rate on my DS and you know, when I damn people, a lot of times it’s an audio message where people didn’t even realize that you had the capability to send an audio message or I’ll send a video message as well.
So even when I reach out to people, I make it very personal. I don’t just spam anybody. I’ve never done that. It’s always been. Intentional. And I’ve always, you know, if there’s a certain post that resonates with me, then I’ll comment about it. I had someone, I won’t name names, but same thing, like very pretty high up and their have their parents like very well known and I didn’t even know until after I reached out.
I was like, oh crap, I don’t think this person’s gonna respond. When I found out who this person was, and they responded right away and I had sent them an audio message and they were so appreciative and I was just in shock that this person actually. Responded in a really kind manner as well. So it just goes to show you that sometimes it’s worth the risk.
At least it has been for me to reach out to folks.
[00:07:43] Mike Allton: Yeah. And I wanna kind of underline one of the things that you said, which is that. LinkedIn as a platform makes it easier to actually connect mm-hmm. With these individuals, regardless of their title and the status. And the reason I wanna draw that out is because people have said that about other networks too, but the difference is that when we’re talking about connecting with someone on LinkedIn, what.Is created, there is a real relationship, a a real connection. And just as an example, I’m not saying this to drop names, but I was in Hollywood last week and I took a picture of myself in front of the Hollywood Stars. Mm-hmm. And I tweeted about that picture, and I tagged that individual and they responded to the tweet.
Which was super cool. I mean, it was a little bit of a, you know, wow. Kind of a fanboy moment for me. But the, and it was pretty cool for the tweet too, cuz they’ve got, I don’t know, half a million followers or something. But the thing is that individual and I do not have a relationship. We do not have a connection.
There was a fleeting moment. They saw my tweet. They thought that was cool. They said hi, and they’ve gone on with their lives. They’re now still talking about my call. They’re like, that guy, I’ll be talking about that for a while, you know? But it’s different on LinkedIn like you said, because if you’re creating a personal invitation, if you’re reaching out to somebody and you’re doing, you know, a voice message, a video message, you’re talking about them in a personal way.
Hey, I’d like to connect with you because of dot, dot, dot. And they say yes. Mm-hmm. Now it’s not just a digital connection, there’s a little bit more of an emotional, real connection there, huh?
[00:09:15] Raquel Borras: Yeah. I love, and that’s like even Merrill going back to him. I mean, he’ll send me posts that remind him of me, like UCLA or if it has to do with San Diego, and I love that.Like he truly is paying attention and you know, thinking of me when he sees these posts. And there’s something about that that I think is just. Really heartwarming. I don’t know. It just feels special. Like I don’t, I’ve never met him, you know? But there’s something there. There’s like a connection. Right?
[00:09:44] Mike Allton: Right, right. But but speaking of that, so you’ve got LinkedIn, we’re creating these connections. They’re still digital connections, right? They’re still intangible. How do you create a presence that feels so much more tangible? [00:10:01] Raquel Borras: Good question. I think it was creating content, uh, creating content around who I am and who I am as a person.And then, so then it was just really relatable to people. So that to me, I found was kind of, I wanna say like the secret sauce, at least for me, where people feel like they know me, you know? And even on Instagram, Instagram, I get even a little bit crazier and goofy. You know, I’m the queen of goofiness here on LinkedIn, but I’ll tell you on on Instagram, I take it even further.
So I just kinda like, I’m kind of an open book, and so I feel that at the end of the day, it was just being able to be vulnerable and transparent and just like a hundred percent who I am. That, that’s when just the magic happened, essentially. Right? It’s like, so it’s like bringing together the back, like the, you know, behind the scenes where I’m creating those relationships behind the scenes, but then also just having that visibility and putting myself out there in a way where even if people don’t connect with me or talk to me, they still feel a connection.
With me through the content. So I found that that was really important.
[00:11:08] Mike Allton: That makes a lot of sense, right? We’re able to feel that connection because there is something that is relatable mm-hmm. Between us, you know, you’re saying something online on LinkedIn or, or you know, for, you know, those of you listening, you could be doing the same thing on Twitter, I guess if it’s not still a dumpster fire.Right. Um, or some of the other networks. You could be saying things about yourself that. Other people, the people that you really wanna talk to, the people that you wanna reach and connect to, they’re gonna relate to that and they’re gonna have that emotional connection, which is going to feel real. And I’m stressing that word feel because that’s what’s so important about what we’re doing in digital.
Today that we’re evoking emotions and we’re causing people to feel something inside and not just passively scan or scroll with the thumb. Love it. Yeah. So now, as someone who spends a remarkable amount of time, I’m not gonna ask you how much time, but you spend a remarkable amount of time on LinkedIn using LinkedIn and other other kinds of social media.
How do you define and measure the return on that investment? How do you justify the R o I.
[00:12:16] Raquel Borras: Yeah, it’s funny how many people I’ve had that, especially being that I’m on the marketing side, you know, in the mortgage world where a lot of people, I’ve had past managers kind of question the roi. But for me it’s really the relationships and the fact that I have so many incredible connections and I can literally like connect other people to other people.Like I feel like that having that in my back pocket, every time I talk to someone I’m like, oh, you know what? You should talk to this person. Or oh my gosh, like. You need to follow this person cuz they’re doing what you’re doing and I think you would gain value. So my ROI is really the people that are in my network and in my community.
Like I can’t even tell you like the kind of six degrees of, you know, separation on this platform and it’s. Allowed me so many opportunities and to get in front of so many people that I wouldn’t have. It’s the people. I mean, even today I was, uh, commenting on one of my friend’s posts about, cuz he had said the six things to do on LinkedIn.
I said, the one thing that I feel like is missing too is that why are you on these social media platforms? Like, I’m not, like, I’m not selling a product, I’m not selling a service. I’m helping. Our loan officers with their social media, I’m helping people with their brand. So really like why am I doing this?
And a lot of times I have to remind myself, and it really is about attracting like-minded people, cuz I know that to further my mission, to further my passion. It’s the people that are gonna get me there, and it’s the right people that are gonna get me there. So that’s why I am very intentional on this platform with reaching out to certain people and to connecting people.
You know, once again, it’s, you have to add value in some way, and I feel like that I really do add value. In those connections. And the people that I know, cuz I love to share ’em, like I have people, you know, DM me, Hey, can you gimme an intro with so-and-so? And if it makes sense, yes, I’ll do it. You know, obviously if it doesn’t make sense and it’s a little awkward, you know, I’ll say something.
But usually I’ll do the intro.
[00:14:17] Mike Allton: It’s about the people. Such a great underlining statement. Love it. In fact, that’s why we do the podcast. It’s, it’s the same principle. It’s really hard to demonstrate numbers in terms of ROI from podcasting, just as it’s hard to demonstrate numbers in terms of ROI from relationship building.But if you can create strong relationships with individuals that you can recommend and then they can in turn recommend you. Later. That’s fantastic. Now, real quick, I’ve got a message that I wanna share with you from our CMO at Agorapulse, Darryl Praill, on some other ways that you can track the ROI of social media.
It’s the arc triumph. Can you imagine if you’re in charge, if you’re the CMO of marketing Paris? What are your main channels? Wow, there’s. The arc of Triumph. There’s the Eiffel Tower, there’s the Louvre. Those are your channels you’re gonna use to drive tourism dollars in. Okay, now, but you’re not the CMO of Paris.
In fact, you’re the CMO of your company product service. So what are your main channels? So I’m gonna guess they’re things like pay per click, maybe trade shows, events. Maybe content. Those are all pretty predictable, right? Let me ask you this question. Are you treating social media as a main channel? By the way, only 1.8% of you today measure social media and can prove an ROI in that investment.
HubSpot and Gartner say social media is the number one channeled invest in this year. Are you doing it? If not, I can tell you why you’re not doing it. Because you don’t have the tools, you don’t have the mentality, and that’s okay. We’ve got you covered. You changed the mentality. We’ll give you the tool work.
Pulse tracks all the ROI for you. One place to manage all your social media activity, your number one channel, change your success. Treat social media as the Channel one CMO to another. My name is Darryl. I’m with Agorapulse. I’ll talk to you soon.
All right, so now we’re back with Raquel.
[00:16:15] Raquel Borras: What’s that? I said, and I’ve met Darryl, so that was kind of cool. [00:16:19] Mike Allton: That’s right. Yeah. You and I, we met Darryl at the same time in San Diego, which is fantastic. It’s one of our v I p. Events are Tactics and Tastings tour, which just a quick aside for those of you listening, one of the things that we do at Agorapulse, one of the things that I do is I schedule these v I P senior marketer events at different cities around the world all year long, purely for networking, purely to sit down and have that face-to-face time with the individuals in different cities that we wouldn’t necessarily get to see or talk to otherwise and create those wonderful connections.But, A lot of us can’t do that. A lot of us don’t have that opportunity. I can’t be in every city every single month. I can only get to pick one city each month. So that’s why we’re talking to Rick out because we want to figure out how we can use the tools and the networks and the digital platforms at our disposal today to build these digital relationships.
So for the CMOs and the partnership leaders who are listening, how would you recommend Rel that they get started on LinkedIn if they. For some reason, haven’t been paying a lot of attention to LinkedIn up until now.
[00:17:23] Raquel Borras: Well, I will tell you this, I was at a conference about a month ago. It was called Social Con, and it was a social media conference geared towards real estate agents in the mortgage industry.But they brought on people of influence outside of the industry that had influence on like TikTok, Instagram, and it’s. Really funny because all these, you know, people that were on stage speaking, they were like millions of followers on TikTok, Instagram, but when it came to LinkedIn, like they just didn’t know how to tap in.
So this is where you have to take a risk and you have to have a little bit of like, you know, chutzpah there and the guts. And I went up to these. So-called, you know, social media influencers. And I didn’t know, I just learned about them on stage cuz I’m not a big talker. And I went up and I said, Hey, you know, I’m on LinkedIn and I love it and I’d be more than willing to kind of get you guys on this platform in a way that like could be really fun.
Do you wanna do a video? So two of ’em that were huge on TikTok. Did a video in that moment, and that’s how I introduced ’em to LinkedIn and what they’re doing because obviously they’ve mastered those other social media platforms they got on and they’re sharing their TikTok, which is fine. Like I feel that it, you know, at the, in the start of it all, you know, LinkedIn was kind of like, This boring platform.
And now a lot of people brought, you know, their content from other platforms and it seems to work. You know, people are, you know, the Instagram reels and the TikTok, so they’re doing that and they’re slowly gaining an audience, like I’m trying to support them. You know, I told them that they should engage in other people’s content, that they should just post.
And I feel like slowly they’ll start understanding the platform because a lot of times I can sit here and tell you, What you shouldn and shouldn’t do. But at the end of the day, like you have to be able to experience it yourself and kind of, you know, make mistakes, fail on the platform a little bit. You know, there’s plenty of things that I’ve posted where just went, wha wha right?
And just be consistent with it. So for me, I just tell people, get on in a way that feels comfortable for you. Don’t worry about what everybody else is doing, because I think that’s what happens too, is that everyone gets caught up in what, like the influencers on that certain platform are doing. And at the end of the day, it’s you that’s gonna stand out like you, your personality.
So that’s why I always encourage people just to do what feels right for them and then it can naturally evolve cuz my brand essentially has evolved and the way that I, that content that I put out there, the way that I. Utilize. LinkedIn has evolved over time and that’s okay, that’s gonna happen, but I think so many people think they have to get on and go viral right away or automatically get business, and that’s not the case.
It does take time and patience, but the first step is just to get on and do it, and that’s I think sometimes the hardest part for people.
[00:20:18] Mike Allton: My gosh, I love this advice so much and there’s two fantastic points. That you just made that I wanna draw out. The first is that we can’t look at social networks and the people that are already successful mm-hmm.On those social networks and expect to immediately replicate that success. That’s not reasonable. You wouldn’t look at a job or any other kind of activity. I wouldn’t expect to walk onto the Wimbledon Court today and play tennis as well as a tennis star. That’s not possible or reasonable. And the second thing is to think about the fact that everything that you’re doing is a journey and there’s an evolution.
And so, The content that you’re creating today, the networks that you’re building, the activities that you’re doing, the work that you’re doing, it’s all going to be better in a day, a week, a month, a year from now. And I can swear to God, if you go back and read my first blog post from a decade ago, they are garbage.
I don’t wanna read them, but they were a necessary step, right? I, I wouldn’t be the writer that I am today. If I Hadn started writing over a decade ago. Yeah, so I I video for me too.
[00:21:21] Raquel Borras: When did my first videos, they were awful. To this day, my ex-husband and my kids make fun of that first video that I did for Logan since thousand 18.I had this weird angle. I was kind of stiff. I wasn’t being me, but I thought that I had to put on this persona cuz I was on LinkedIn. So I thought, oh, I gotta be like, Super buttoned up and very professional and I don’t know why, but over time I just, I guess, loosened up and showed more of my personality.
And as I did that, that’s when I realized I was attracting more people and more people were relating with me. And that’s where I had that like light bulb moment one day where I was like, wait, I could be a hundred percent me and still be considered professional and business and you know, have make business or do business or whatever you wanna say.
But yeah, so that’s where. I realize that yeah, people can see right through that kind of fakeness and that when you’re trying to be someone you’re not, you know, maybe at first they’ll buy into it, but I feel like over time, mm-hmm. You know, and then plus who can sustain that? I know I wasn’t able to sustain that either.
I think that’s why I started showing my personality. Cause I was like, this is not me, and I just feel really awkward being somebody I’m not.
[00:22:35] Mike Allton: So true. Absolutely. So now let’s take it deeper. Let’s go more advanced. So again, you know, we’re talking to people, we’re, we’re trying to help them. Yeah. Level up on LinkedIn.What are some advanced or, or like next level strategies that you’ve seen a lot of success with on LinkedIn, particularly when it comes to like networking.
[00:22:55] Raquel Borras: The engagement piece of it. I think people forget that if you’re gonna post and you expect people to engage and like your content, guess what? You have to reciprocate.And I feel like there’s a lot of people that it’s hard for them to reciprocate, and I feel like that’s really where a lot of the kind of. Yumminess comes in is is through that engagement and commenting on other people’s posts. And also what happens is, is for instance, if there is a client or a future client that you wanna work with or someone that you would love to connect with, but you know, feels kind of odd to reach out to them right away, then guess.
What you could do, and it’s worked for me and for other people. Just start engaging in their content. Be a fan. Cuz what happens is when that person realizes that that person’s a true supporter like Merrill, like he’s been supporting me, like I feel like he’s a true fan. Guess what? When he reaches out to me, I’m going to respond.
Or if he asks for something, it’s human nature and it’s like basically human decency to reciprocate if that person’s giving all that time and energy into your content. Like, why wouldn’t, as gratitude, why wouldn’t you respond? And so I’ve done that in the past where I didn’t feel. Kind of comfortable reaching out to someone at first, but I was like, all right, I’m gonna show them I’m, I’m super fan of their, so that when I do reach out, they already feel like they know me too because of the way that I comment on their posts.
Like, so when I comment, I basically write it out the way that I would say it. Like I’m goofy about it. I’m. Smart ass, you know, emojis, you know, I make it silly. I’ll put, you know, I have like my bitmoji with my little queen thing and I’ll do something kind of fun. And so a lot of times people can get a sense of who I am, just through the comments.
And then when you do reach out, they already feel like they know you too. So I have found that that engagement piece is really important. Where I think before people didn’t take it as seriously and people are realizing that you can be like a great engager commenter. And still have a name on this platform and not post any content like there is someone on this platform that is probably one of the biggest cheerleaders for everybody, and he rarely posts anything.
But when he does, guess what? Everybody is quick. To respond, to engage. I mean, his posts like tend to go viral now because everybody is so that’s like their way of showing gratitude for this guy, for him being a super fan of, of their content. So I really feel like at the end of the day, it’s this reciprocation piece that is really necessary.
Cuz yeah, we tend to forget that if we’re gonna want, you know, if we wanna receive, we have to give as well. So I think that’s really. Very important.
[00:25:43] Mike Allton: I couldn’t agree more. When I’m telling brands how to start influencer marketing, one of the things I tell them is identify the influencers they wanna work with and then begin by following them.Mm-hmm. On their preferred social networks. And LinkedIn makes it so easy because. While you could issue a connection request, if I don’t know you, I’m probably not going to accept it, but you can follow me. I can follow other influencers that I wanna work with. And just like you said, I can pay attention to what they’re posting and when, and I can comment.
And that’s where we’re gonna start to build rapport as individuals. We’re gonna start to get to know each other a little bit more, and like you said, have some of your own personal. Personality come through in those comments so that when you do wanna connect, when you do wanna reach out and do something really interesting with that influencer, it’s so much easier.
To do that. But one thing I’ll tell people too is be careful how often you do that. Don’t just like every single thing that somebody posts or share every single thing, because then you become a bit of a stalker and we don’t want that. Right. So what would you say would be a cautionary tale that, that’s kind of along the same lines.
What should we not do on LinkedIn? What are CMOs and other executives that, what are they getting wrong today?
[00:26:53] Raquel Borras: I think this has gotten better and I think because LinkedIn, the algorithm got a little smarter about it, was there was a time where people were posting everybody that had a large network and had influence on LinkedIn and oh my gosh, it was so annoying because I would see that I get tagged on these people’s posts and they had nothing to do with me.I didn’t even know who they were. They never engaged in my content. So I just thought it was really obnoxious. I’m sorry, I’m gonna say, I’m like, this is gross. Like what makes you think. I’m going to like your post so that it can reach more people when you’re not putting the time and energy to even engage in mine, or I don’t even know who you are.
Right? So like that to me was a complete turnoff when people were doing that. Like I said, I feel like it’s gotten better, the algorithm. I think what happens is I’m not like super technical when it comes to LinkedIn, but I think what happens is if you’re gonna tag people, make sure it makes sense and make sure that they, they respond so that the algorithm understands, like these people that I’m ta, the people that are being tagged are actually responding and commenting.
Okay. They make sense. We’ll go ahead and keep pushing that post. I think what was happening before is all these people were tagging in the comments. No one was responding and the algorithm was just like, okay, this is just junk. And then they were pushing it down. So I think the tagging aspect of it, it’s really important that it make sense on LinkedIn, on any platform.
Cuz Yeah, cuz that could be very detrimental. To you as a person because yeah, you don’t want the reputation that you’re just someone taking advantage, cuz that’s how I see it. I see it as this person is trying to take advantage. They’re trying to use me as a. To get more views on their content. And, you know, some people might have say something differently, like, the more views the better.
The more people it reaches, the better. But I don’t know, for me, I’m, I’m, that’s not the way I think.
[00:28:40] Mike Allton: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more if someone does that to me more than a couple times. Mm-hmm. I dropped that connection. Yeah, so you know, they’re putting their relationship with me at risk, which means they’re putting their relationship with my network at risk because they’re doing it because they wanna reach my network, which I completely understand as an influencer marketing professional, I get it right.I want to reach the networks of the influencers that I’m working with. But it’s incumbent upon us to do it the right way and to make sure that they’re doing it in an authentic way.
[00:29:08] Raquel Borras: Well, I, I love my network and my community, and I hold them dearly. And so the last thing I want them to feel is that I’m taking advantage of them either, you know, like I don’t wanna exploit my, my network.And so it’s that trust factor. Within your community and network, which is really huge too, where I feel like a lot of people forget that you still need to respect your community and have respect on the social media platforms. You know how you get a lot of trolls and haters and they’ll just say stuff.
I’m like, yeah, but would you say that in person to someone in real life if you actually knew them? You know what I mean? So it’s like, just remember that there’s still a human on the other side of this. So if you’re trying to exploit take advantage, like it just doesn’t feel right.
[00:29:49] Mike Allton: So true. Yeah, do exactly what you would do in real life.Love it. So my last question, and this is always my favorite question, I ask this of every guest, regardless of how I know how they’re gonna answer, which in this case, I’m pretty sure how you’re going to answer, but I love it. How important have relationships been and their partnerships have been to your career and your professional success?
[00:30:11] Raquel Borras: I’m here because of LinkedIn and because of my relationships hands down. Like when people, you know say, oh, did it really change your life? It literally changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my life by sharing certain personal things on this platform and just the relationships. Can I give you just like a, a cool story that Please, and give you an idea of like kind of how relationships can work and how you can meet the most.Like people that you would never think. So several years ago, or maybe four years ago, I had a guy reach out to me in the mortgage industry, but was like a speaker and he wanted to get into kind of more of the, uh, affiliate organizations in the mortgage industry. He reached out and said, you’re an influencer, and that was before influencer was a word.
And I’m like, I don’t know what that means, but I’ll connect you. And so I was able to get some connections for him. I think he ended up doing some speaking engagements and then. He turns around and says, Hey, there’s a guy that does a mental health awareness campaign and I’m big on mental health. He’s trying to tap in LinkedIn.
Can you help him with LinkedIn? So we connected, he’s in Australia. I helped him with his brand with marketing on LinkedIn. We built a friendship and then I was on one of his calls and meanwhile, Justin Guarini from American Idol and Diet Dr. Pepper, he was on the call for this mental health awareness campaign.
He and I end up connecting. Then Covid hits, guess what? Broadway shuts down. He’s trying to basically still make money and he is like, well, I have a book and I have these audition street secret course. I need to go ahead and promote it. So I got him on LinkedIn, helped him, he did, you know, did Shea Row bottoms, LinkedIn Live, all these things.
And then just kind of fast forward, I was just in New York City last week, went to go see him on Broadway cuz we remained friends and we met once before at the show in DC and now it’s on Broadway. He’s starring in like, you know, one of the starring roles. We went out to dinner before, got to see him on there.
And like it was just, it’s just really cool where everyone’s like, how do you know Justin? We, I’m like, it all comes back to LinkedIn. And they’re like, what? So, and then because of him, I’ve had an interaction with Michael Buble on social media, like Michael Buble and I interacted because he and I had done an IG Live and Michael Buble like came on and started interacting.
So like how cool is that? Like, right. I mean, it’s an instance that most people couldn’t imagine, but it’s because of the relationships that I’ve managed to create and build and nurture on this platform. So it’s like it goes beyond. So much more. And that’s, I think what it’s really important that it’s a long game.
It’s bigger picture thinking, at least for me.
[00:32:52] Mike Allton: Love it. Love it. And again, this is why I ask this question every single episode. I love hearing these stories. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. And I love the basic. Truths that keep coming out, even though it, it looks and sounds different for every individual that I talk to, it always boils down to yet relationships have been everything.Here’s why I wouldn’t have the job that I have. I wouldn’t have the friends that I have, I wouldn’t have the network that I have. I wouldn’t have the fame. Whatever. So, you know, for me a lot of it boils down to I wouldn’t have the mindset that I have if I didn’t have the people around me that I have met through social media.
We’re now, you know, lifelong fast friends and they support me as a mastermind and you know, best friends and it’s fantastic. So, Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for being our guest here today. This has been terrific. You’re so amazing and this has been such an important interview because I wanna stress to everybody listening, you need to be investing more time in LinkedIn.
So with that, please share with everybody. Obviously they can find you on LinkedIn and we’ll have the, the links and the show notes. But tell us more about where they can learn more about you.
[00:33:54] Raquel Borras: LinkedIn and Instagram are my two platforms. I’m not on any other platforms. I’m on TikTok, but I don’t, I just, I can’t figure it out yet.So LinkedIn and Instagram and then I would love it if people would hop on over to YouTube and check out My Rock the Boat Channel where I have conversations with kids. Cuz that is a passion project. I really wanna continue to. To focus on. You know, it’s just hard cuz there’s only so much time in the day.
But if I could have your support with that, that would be fantastic as well.
[00:34:21] Mike Allton: Love it. And like I said, we will have that link in the show notes and everything else, the Rock the boat videos are fantastic. Just go to YouTube right now and look ’em up. They’re wonderful. And that’s all we’ve got for today, folks.I do wanna tell you one interesting development is that. I now have a newsletter on LinkedIn. It’s fantastic. It’s the partnership unpacked newsletter. So every week, every Monday there’s a new podcast that gets dropped and there’s a new newsletter. While I’m going back to one of the past episodes and we’re really pulling in apart, in unpacking some of the lessons that were learned, we’ve talked to Dr.
Mark Brigman, we’ve talked to Nicole Ponce from SEMrush and so on. So subscribe to that newsletter on LinkedIn if you’re not already, and check that out. That episode, those issues. And the new podcast episodes are coming out every single Monday, so until next time, keep on partnering folks.
Thank you for listening to another episode of Partnership Unpacked, hosted by Mike Alton, empowered by Agorapulse, the number one rated social media management solution, which you can learn more about@agorapulse.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to leave us a review.
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How Relationship Marketing Can Strengthen All Your Partnerships w/ Jessika Phillips