Building Impactful Executive Influence on LinkedIn: Strategies from Miranda Head, LinkedIn's Corporate Engagement Lead

In an era where digital engagement has become a cornerstone of corporate leadership, the presence of CEOs on social media platforms like LinkedIn is more critical than ever. Surprisingly, a substantial portion of top executives remain absent from these key channels, with only 48% of S&P 500 and FTSE 350 CEOs establishing a social media presence. This gap is noteworthy, considering the significant influence a CEO's online persona can have on their company's reputation and market value. In fact, research points out that nearly half of a company’s overall reputation and a similar proportion of its market value are intricately linked to the CEO's digital footprint, underscoring the profound impact their online visibility has on their company’s overall success.??

With many of our Media Quake subscribers having shared with us their aspirations and efforts to elevate their CEOs presence on LinkedIn, we thought it would be fitting to interview Miranda Head, Corporate Engagement Lead at LinkedIn for our latest edition of ‘LinkFluence’. Miranda Head's role uniquely blends executive eminence and social strategy, as she collaborates with CEOs from the world's largest companies to enhance their LinkedIn profiles and elevate their digital presence on the platform.?

In this interview, she shares insights on crafting an engaging executive presence on LinkedIn, focusing on authentic connections, quality content, and leveraging the platform for impactful news sharing and industry insights. Check out the full interview below:??

As more executives turn to LinkedIn for both building their executive brand and communicating with stakeholders, could you share your insights on what effective executives do on LinkedIn to build genuine influence???

Influence comes from real connection and community. When executives approach their content with that in mind, we see their content thrive – whether they are breaking news, sharing a timely insight or congratulating their teams. It starts with high-quality, productive conversations at the core. And the most influential executives take it to the next level by delivering what's most relevant and valuable to their community in an authentic voice. While execs are typically spokespeople for their companies, they don’t necessarily need to copy the brand voice. They should focus on topics that they’re genuinely passionate about and write how you speak normally.?

Lately, we are also seeing more and more executives turn to LinkedIn to break big news. They know that this is the space where the right audience is paying attention – employees, investors, industry peers – and by sharing the news on LinkedIn first, they are able to reach that community directly. Here are a few examples:?

• Slack CEO Lidiane Jones shares learning from her first 100 days as CEO behind-the-scenes experience at Dreamforce, and insights on results of working with small business in an open dialogue with the community.?
• Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi introduces Intuit Assist assist a new GenAI financial product, shares quarterly earnings, and his learnings from Intuit’s interns.?
• Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins provides insights around cybersecurity awareness.?

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Could you tell our readers what kind of commentary typically attracts the attention of editors for inclusion in LinkedIn's trending timeline??

Our news stories typically center around breaking business news or trends in the workforce. Commentary that attracts our editors’ attention for inclusion is specific to the story and offers a compelling perspective or insight on the topic. It’s an added bonus when the commentary comes from a member who has unquestioned expertise to weigh in on the story.??

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With LinkedIn surpassing a billion users globally, how would you advise an executive communications team on the benefits of allocating more resources to content creation on LinkedIn, as opposed to other platforms like Twitter or Instagram?

LinkedIn is the place where employees, potential employees, clients, and customers can hear from their leaders. If you’re not investing in content creation on LinkedIn, especially as an executive, you’re missing out on an (easy) way to share who you are as a leader, what you care about, and why you make the decisions you make.???

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LinkedIn newsletters have gained significant traction recently, with a tenfold increase in creation as per Microsoft's latest quarterly report. Could you share insights into the creative, editorial, or content strategies that contribute to a successful LinkedIn newsletter??

A LinkedIn newsletter is an incredible tool to bucket your content in a thematic way. Instead of relying on individual posts in the feed, a newsletter can be a “home” to a specific topic you want to consistently voice your perspective on. One of my favorite use cases for a newsletter is to promote a podcast or event – using the article format to share more behind-the-scenes context or to go deeper on the takeaways from the podcast or event. It’s a less obvious promotional tactic because you are still giving your newsletter subscribers knowledge and expertise while also reminding them, “Oh hey! Subscribe to my podcast if you liked this!”???

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Many CEOs aspire to achieve 'top voice' status on LinkedIn. While each journey is unique, what are some commonalities you've observed among those who attain this verification and elite level of influence on the platform??

In the last year, we have revamped our Top Voices program (previously referred to as our “influencer” program) to include more diverse voices covering a range of topics across the professional world, helping members uncover valuable knowledge relevant to them. We vet these members to ensure they are meeting our high trust standards and that they are consistently active on the platform while also sharing valuable expertise through content that demonstrates unique, original contributions to a topic. Top Voices build community through their insightful content. You’ll often see incredible conversations happening in the comments section of their posts - where members are asking questions or sharing their perspectives on the topic and the Top Voices are responding.??

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What is one aspect or development on LinkedIn that you are particularly excited about for the year 2024??

There are two recent developments I’m excited to see take off in 2024. The first is our verification status. You might have seen profiles with the check-mark symbol indicating that they are who they say they are! With so many people relying on LinkedIn for finding a job or hiring a candidate, it’s critical we continue to provide members with high standards for trust. The second development is increased newsletter analytics. We’ve heard from our members and companies over the past year that they love the newsletter tool, but wish it had more analytics. Well, that’s coming soon! Expect to hear more from us on that early next year.?

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