LinkedIn Content – The New (Underutilized But Widely Read) Marketing Channel
Did you know that over half of the one billion+ members on LinkedIn come on to the platform at least once a week and for a minimum of five minutes?
Did you also know that executives (Director+ titles) spend an average of 42 minutes on the platform during their weekends?
The kicker? Just over 1% of the platform’s members consistently post once a week.
What that means is that you have an incredible opportunity to capitalize on the attention of a massive audience and with very little competition.
Even better news?
Edelman research shows that C-Suite and VP+ titles who post on the platform get nearly 600% more reach than any other employee and that their content makes their company’s brand nearly 90% more trustworthy.
The time to build a brand and strike out is now, before everyone else catches on and competes with you.
Before I Consider This, What’s The Tangible ROI?
To directly address this question the answer is simple: it’s difficult to tie direct attribution to your presence on LI, but it’s also not necessary.
We get so tied up in having that direct thread that we often miss some of the best opportunities to market ourselves.
Consider this post penned by our CEO, Sam McKenna. Even if we don’t spend the money to speak on stage at a conference but rather spend 50K on a conference booth, we’re doing it with the hope that our buyers will come by, that our reps will book meetings, and that we’ll see ROI. We hope. And? It’s a one and done event.
The better question to ask is this:
What’s the opportunity cost of NOT doing this? What’s the cost to our organization if our competitors are showing up and we aren’t? What’s the advantage we have today because we KNOW our competitors aren’t showing up on LinkedIn (yet) and we have a massive edge?
Imagine that same conference scenario – you don’t know what you’ll get out of it so you don’t go and you miss the chance to be in front of your buyers, except here, you miss the chance to be in front of them Every. Single. Day.
Who Should I Hire To Help Me?
When you consider who to hire for help, note that there are very few true experts on how LinkedIn works.
Before you hire an “expert”, consider these key points:
- Follower count doesn’t necessarily equate to expertise or quality content – note that followers can be purchased easily and inexpensively, and that numbers are meaningless without understanding the demographic makeup of the followers.
- Look at the ratio between followers and engagement. Anyone with over 10,000 followers should get an average of 0.25-0.5% of their followers to “like” their posts frequently.
- For example, if someone has 50,000 followers, they should expect 125-250 “likes” per post. Those with purchased followers will frequently see far less than that average.
- High engagement doesn’t necessarily equate to expertise or quality content – note that engagement, just like followers, can be purchased.
- One easy way to gauge the quality of the followers is to look at the type of comments the expert receives. If you notice lots of “Preach!” and “Let’s Go!” back to back to back, it’s a signal that the followers might be purchased.
- Further, there are ways to game the algorithm to get more engagement, like using selfies. That gives the author more exposure, but, as with all things, you’ll want to vet the quality of the advice they give.
- Consider the quality of the content they write – the methods they use for themselves are the methods they’ll use for you.
- Are they often using selfies and pictures of themselves to artificially boost engagement?
- Do they tell you WHAT to do in the posts but not HOW to do it?
- Is there a tangible lesson in each post or something you can use to learn from?
- Are they often contrarian?
- Do the first few lines of their posts hook you in a meaningful way? ← this is the most critical part of the success of your posts, so it needs to be effective.
- Credentials of the expert. Named a 2024 Top Voice by LinkedIn, our CEO, Sam McKenna, has an unparalleled number of distinctions from LinkedIn, including being one of 20 brand ambassadors and one of 40 LinkedIn Sales [In]siders, as well as being a former Enterprise sales leaders for the LinkedIn Sales Navigator product line, who has been posting on the platform since 2011.
What Do I Need To Do To Get Started?
When it comes to building a brand on LinkedIn, it’s critical to remember that this is a brand new muscle to build, that doing it yourself + building consistency is often hard, and that a few algorithm and administrative factors can make or break your success here.
When we support our clients, there are three critical motions that need to happen:
- Writing the content that gets posted
- Managing the administrative aspects of engagement, DMs, followers, and profile views
- Systematically targeting your desired audiences (buyers, channel partners, journalists, etc.)
The first two pieces are the most vital to your success with the third being next-level effort that will effectively allow you to spear fish your way to success, but is not as critical as nailing the first two parts.
Again, this is a hard muscle to build, so if you don’t have the time or discipline to execute these first two components, you’ll want to outsource to experts.
Okay, So What Kind Of Support Do I Need?
“I’ll do it myself!”
This CAN work if you’re disciplined and ready to roll up your sleeves. The easiest way to begin here is by purchasing our LinkedIn Executive Branding Playbook and then adding some sessions with our team to vet and redline the content you’ve written to ensure you’re on the right track.
Secondary to this, hire an assistant or source part time support that can help you execute the administrative tasks related to your engagement, all of which is detailed in our playbook.
“I’ll simply hire a ghostwriter!”
This is often the wrong choice.
When a ghostwriter is hired, buyers often think, “How hard can writing a post be? I’ll hire someone based on who is the least expensive”
The trouble here is that there’s no long term strategy play or consistent investment in developing content that relates to you, your industry, or the buyers you’re targeting. For $100-200 a post, you will hire someone who will draft words for you to post, and often who doesn’t understand structure and the algorithm.
“I’m an exec for a brand that has recently raised funding or has at least 100 employees – I want to get serious about the presence I and/or my execs bring to LinkedIn.”
You’ll want the support of a full service agency like ours. As part of this engagement, we fully revamp your profile to ensure executive presence, interview you to create content in your voice, focus on your company but mostly your thought leadership and human interest pieces first, assign a team to manage the administration of your profile, provide ongoing support every month with reporting, 1:1s, and further interviews, and bring our proprietary sales processes to your teams to ensure you’re maxing out your exposure and success on the platform.
This support is suited for organizations who already spend six-figures to millions on marketing, branding and communications efforts, who have an opportunity to repurpose dollars from low-ROI/traditional methods to more modern efforts as outlined here, and who already see the potential in LinkedIn but simply need a team of experts to lead them forward.
Ready to get started on your journey? Contact us today!