Olivia Atkinson
Ty Heath, the Global Leader for Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn, teaches B2B marketing, inbound strategy, social selling, content marketing as well as leadership, diversity and inclusion.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyronaheath/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tyrona
Increasingly leaders are expected to share their insights and ideas on social media, making it essential to develop an effective approach. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 600+ million members throughout the world.
Ty promises from the session:
- Define the anatomy of a strong LinkedIn profile and summary
- Invest in an effective content strategy to grow engagement around your though leadership with a goal of generating leads
- How to amplify your voice and curate powerful conversations to guide prospects through the buyers journey
Thought leadership is not about selling a product.
Company leaders are expected to share their insights and ideas across channels such as LinkedIn.
Benefits include:
- Establishes your expertise and reinforces your value
- Tells your colleagues and your network what you are working on
- Invited collaboration and collective learning with others
- Sharing your throughs and knowledge on industry trends keeps you visible.
We are the most important source of inspiration for each other
- Brands are struggling to maintain their eminence
- HR is waging a war for the brightest talent
- Sales people fight for customer attention
- Employees struggle to find meaning and purpose in their network
LinkedIn is the most trusted social platform to share content.
What are your goals for investing in thought leadership?
Thought leaders are key to your go to market plan.
You can increase engagement with your content.
You can boost marketing with brand awareness.
You can boost sales by positioning reps are though leaders.
When people are LinkedIn they are in a professional mindset, to get answers, to network, to see news, how to become a better leader and they want to hear what its like to be in different organisations.
But it’s not just about that information your sharing but the conversation your driving around the information. It’s not just about likes, its about conversation. People are looking for content that’s both useful and entertaining.
If your going to invest in your LinkedIn profile to become a thought leader, make sure you have the below setup:
- Add a photo
- Choose meaningful background image
- Craft compelling tagline
- Write summary that embodies your message – make it SEO friendly
- Crate a vanity URL
- Add video and content assets
- Get recommended
- Write posts and articles
Not everyone in your organisation will be a thought leader. People that turn out as though leaders are those that are continuously learning, love explaining complex issues, people that show up as real and show up with potential and empowerment.
4 Steps For LinkedIn Thought Leadership
Execution requires participation at the company and individual levels.
- Create compelling thought leadership
- Define your approach
- Engage and nurture your audience
- Measure and optimise
Share Thought Leadership Powerfully by Defining Your Niche
1. What is the unique perspective you can provide?
2. What are the symptoms and triggers that send your audience on a search for information
3. What are the questions your audience commonly has?
4. What are the key trends in your area of expertise?
5. What are misconceptions or objections about your area of expertise?
Distribution is key, talk about what matter to you, talk about what you're passionate about. Don't think that every post on LinkedIn has to be standard with a link and CTA. Add your voice to the content you share.
Video On LinkedIn
Take advantage of video capabilities, be creative and timely with video.
Show it - see a piece of technology that will make waves in the building materials industry?
Transport us there - Hear an interesting talk at a conference event?
Teach it - Have a work hack or trick that other should know about?
Share it - Have a unique perspective or industry news?
Your take - Have a different approach idea, we can't wait to see it.
Ty notes that videos perform best when they are between 30 seconds and 5 minutes long. she also points out its best to be consistent with your videos, either shoot horizontally or vertically, not both.
Best Practises For Short Form Posts On LinkedIn
- Post between 9-5 working hours. Test posting hours before and after to find your specific audience.
- Try to post between 1 - 3 times a day.
- Diversify your posts. 80% of the content should be someone else's.
- Use a post scheduling tool or support
- Tag influencers and colleagues (when relevant). This can double your reach.
- "Megabatch" your content creation. (Create a few videos at once to last the coming week or two).
- Plan for content capture at events.
- When you write posts use a three-sentence teaser lead in.
- Use relevant hashtags.
- Don't leave people hanging in comments.
Best Practises For Long Term Publishing On LinkedIn
- Ask yourself : would I click that?
- Link to content that reinforces your points
- Give credit where credit is due
- 800-2000 words drives the most engagement
- Don't forget to add pictures
- Write you byline
How To Nurture Leads On LinkedIn
Step 1: - Establish goal. e.g. - download resource, schedule consultation, attend a webinar, hop on a call.
Step 2: - Create a priority list of target prospects.
Step 3: - Connect with intention.
Step 4: - Build relationship. Share useful content, interact with their content, send helpful assets.
Step 5: - Connect and talk outside of LinkedIn for next steps.
Measure and learn what resonates with your audience. understand who is engaging with you and how. Focus less on page views and more on conversations with people. Test different approaches, do more of what works.
Conclusion
To recap the session led by Ty, authenticity matters. Make sure you bring realness to your though leadership. Have conversations as these are key. Ask yourself how can I serve my audience?
Finally Ty advises to be patient. It will take time to build up and it won't happen overnight. Be consistent with what you do but also try out new posts and types of posts to see if they perform better.
The most important thing is to be yourself and be real. People like people, you won't become a thought leader by selling or coming across as spamming. Be genuine and give people the time of day.