Making The Most of LinkedIn: People and Strategy.

Recently, I had a conversation with a Marketing Manager. I could see that they were putting a lot of work into their company LinkedIn content, it looked amazing, our discussion quickly dived into tactics.

But as we talked, it became clear that the benefit in the conversation for them wasn't about tactics at all—they already knew how to do all the things. It was actually about the Strategy and the Team.

Without knowing what the LinkedIn specific strategy was, and how to engage their people to support it, they were not going to get the best from implementing the tactics.

A LinkedIn Strategy isn't just about knowing the "how"—it's about understanding the "why" and "what." It's about how your LinkedIn efforts support the broader business and marketing strategy to achieve strategic priorities.

?? But there's another key piece to this puzzle—the people in the business. And as the Marketing Manager, shared with me, "I just spend so much time on this content, how do we get team members to share it to their networks?"

And depending on the business influences the strategies you use here, but some ideas I shared include:

?? Make LinkedIn Part of Your Strategic Marketing Conversations: Integrate LinkedIn into your regular strategic discussions and marketing conversations. Make it clear how LinkedIn supports you in achieving your overall goals and how your team can use it as a tool to compliment (not replace) what they are already doing.

?? Provide Insights and Communicate Value: Show your team how their actions, such as sharing posts, impact post-performance. When they see the direct results of their engagement, they're more likely to participate.

?? Involve the Team in Content Creation: Engage team members in the content creation process. When they contribute ideas and are able to provide feedback, they are typically more engaged in the process.

?? Foster a Supportive Community: Build a sense of community around your LinkedIn efforts. Use internal communication tools to share successes, tips, and encourage collaboration.

?? Offer Support and Training: Make sure your team feels comfortable using LinkedIn. Provide training and resources to help them understand how to use the platform effectively and with confidence.

The clients I work with who do really well on LinkedIn don't just know the tactics. They know the what the strategy is and how to engage their people to support it.

Earlier this year, I presented at the Brisbane Women's Club a Masterclass, "Leveraging LinkedIn for Personal Branding"

During the presentation, I asked the attendees if they were sharing content on LinkedIn, and if not, why not.

For those who weren't, the responses varied from "I don't want to overwhelm my audience" to "I'm not sure how to make a post look great." In fact, in no time at all, we were able to compile a list of the 10 top reasons people don't share content on LinkedIn.

When we looked at the list was that what we found was that they were all "I" statements – they focused on personal feelings and concerns.

As I shared with the audience, one easy way to overcome this is to shift the focus from "I" to "We."

?? You don't always need to make your content about you.

?? You can make the content about your community.

?? Share stories about your industry, team, clients, industry and your community.

You can read some tips to get started to make your community the stars of your content in this post.

Events and Presentations

?Earlier this month I got to spend the day online with some amazing Marketing, PR and Social Media professionals from all across the Southeast Asian region, as the Trainer and Facilitator for the MARKETING-INTERACTIVE , "Social Media Crisis Playbook Masterclass". This Masterclass is essentially a deep dive on the essential plays for responding to a social media crisis.

? Thank-you to Gary , Samantha and the National Team from Industry Partners Australia for hosting me as part of their member professional development program series, with an online session, "Getting More from LinkedIn".

?Last week I attended the Aussie Athlete Fund lunch hosted at the Queensland Cricketers' Club . For those who might not be familiar with it, the Aussie Athlete Fund was founded to create a sustainable athlete economy so our next generation and those who follow, can wear the green and gold and can retire not in debt, but with the education, connections and skills required to flourish outside of sport. You can read more about this here.

What's Coming Up?

??LinkedIn Local Brisbane CBD is next week. We're excited to have Tom Potter the Founder of Australia-owned Eagle Boys Pizza, as our speaker. For those of you in Brisbane, you can book your ticket here.

??I will be in Sydney and Melbourne in July, and then in Sydney again in September for in-house client trainings and conference presentations. If you would like to discuss training or programs in these cities during this time, reach out at [email protected] .