EP #028: Turns out, you CAN promote your company on LinkedIn

Executive Summary:

• Rethinking Company Promotion: Conventional wisdom suggests not to over-promote your company on LinkedIn, but Cody Barbo, CEO & Founder of Trust & Will, challenges this by successfully engaging with his audience through primarily promotional content.
• Content Breakdown: An analysis of Cody's posts reveals that 67% are promotional, far exceeding the advised 20%. Despite this, Cody's posts receive high engagement due to their diverse and compelling nature.
• Effective Promotion Techniques: Cody’s success lies in weaving stories and valuable insights into his promotional posts. Examples include highlighting company culture, setting ambitious goals, and sharing leadership perspectives.
• Impactful Storytelling: By combining promotional content with narratives about leadership, culture, and personal insights, Cody builds a strong connection with his audience, making his promotional efforts more effective.
• Engaging Evangelism: Executives can effectively promote their companies by showcasing their passion, leadership, and company culture, thereby creating a deeper affinity with their audience. This balanced approach can be universally beneficial.

Deep Dive:

One of the #1 things I tell every executive: don’t promote your company too much. If >20% of your posts are about your company, people are going to tune you out.

Well, last week I started following a CEO who is proving me wrong. In fact, I’ve gone deep down the rabbit hole of figuring out what he does. Not only is it showing me an alternate perspective on promotional posts on LinkedIn…. but it’s also turning me into a better evangelist for Executive Presence.

So, this week, I wanted to do a deep dive on what I’ve learned so far from Cody Barbo, who is CEO & Founder of Trust & Will (which I also signed up for…so his posts are working as a customer acquisition tool as well, I guess).

A look at the numbers

I took a look at the last year of Cody’s posts on LinkedIn. The first thing that stood out to me is: this guy is breaking all my rules. Here’s how I classified his content:

• Company promotional posts: 67%
• Leadership & Culture posts: 7%
• Personal posts: 19%
• Industry posts: 11%

Ordinarily, I would advise someone like Cody to be doing at least 50% industry related posts - TEACH your audience, ADD VALUE!

However, the vast majority of Cody’s content - 67% - is entirely promotional. And…it…kills! Cody gets mega-engagement on nearly all of his posts.

Next, I did a further breakdown of the subcategories Cody is posting about when he does company promotional posts:

• Event: 29%
• Employee spotlight: 13%
• Partnership: 9%
• Award: 4%
• Milestone: 4%
• Recruiting: 3%
• Product: 3%

There’s plenty of variety in the ways in which Cody promotes his company.

So, I asked myself… what is it that makes people love Cody when he promotes his company, rather than shrug and unfollow?

Promotion with a story

What makes Cody so effective - in my opinion - is how he promotes his company. Here’s an example that caused me to start wearing EP branded gear whenever I travel:

In this post (linked here), sure, he is promoting his company, but he’s also giving a valuable perspective to other business leaders: be on when you’re working, and off when you’re not.

Here’s another example, in which Cody talks about his company (and uses their logo in several images), but ALSO takes the opportunity to talk about his company’s culture:

Within the post, he talks about a tradition at Trust & Will, a shout out to an employee, and shows the type of leader he is.

One more example. In this post, Cody promotes Trust & Will. He showcases a major milestone (partnering with the San Diego Wave Fútbol Club), but he also sets an example of a CEO setting a fantastically ambitious goal: of advertising at the Super Bowl.

Anecdotally, this post got me thinking about how I think about marketing EP, and also how I’m thinking about big hairy audacious goals at EP.

Starting next month, I’m going to be testing this strategy with my own account. YES, I want to add value and teach about LinkedIn. YES, I want to build in public as I grow EP. AND…Cody has shown me that I can accomplish this while also being a better evangelist for my company.

Tl;dr: don’t be afraid to be an evangelist

I still believe most executives benefit from taking a lighter touch on LinkedIn when it comes to promoting their company. However, people like Cody are showing me that you can be enthusiastic about your brand while also imparting wisdom.

As I’ve re-read his posts, I’ve noticed how much more affinity I have for Cody, his team, and their service. But that’s not because he talks about what they do. It’s because he showcases the type of culture he’s building, the type of leader he is, and how excited he is to help his target client.

Seems like that is a pretty universally applicable formula, doesn’t it?

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Reply to this email - I’d love to hear your $0.02.