Guest post by Kotryna Kurt, Founder & CEO at Linkedist
LinkedIn is much more than a place to showcase your previous work experience and recent certificates. Over time, it has developed into a social media platform where people read news and stories from their favorite CEOs, get tips & tricks from experts, and catch up with the latest trends in their industries. Of course, all that is only possible if you follow the right people.
When it comes to startups and founders, thought leadership and personal branding can catalyze success and increase company growth. Integrating this type of content with your LinkedIn presence can help you grow your company and boost your sales, especially in the world of B2B products and services.
Here are some tangible steps to get you on track to becoming a thought leader for the world of B2B startups:
☕ Transparency as a hook
Honest storytelling is still the best strategy and a fast-track towards a stronger personal brand. Those who share their struggles, achievements, failures, and wisdom will create an audience 3 times faster than those who share only general tips. Keep in mind that everything you put out there tells other people what kind of a leader you are. There is a thin line between being transparent and oversharing, so once you have your text ready, ask yourself how your stories reflect on you as a professional and as a leader.
☕ Personal Positioning
Your brand as a thought leader must be easily understood. This means that when someone visits your profile, it should be clear how you or your company can help them. I often see co-founders who struggle with positioning, and they create content about 100 different topics, which makes the brand seem unfocused and confusing. We all know the rule of 80/20, so put it into use when creating content on LinkedIn. 80% of your thought leadership needs to come from a narrow group of topics that are closely tied to your brand identity. You have an entire world of topics that you’re interested in, but you need to focus on only 20% of those topics for most of your output. At the end of the day, it is important that you treat your profile in the same way as your company website. The content you create should quickly give the reader a clear idea about your interests, passions, offerings, or hero abilities.
☕ Virtual Selling via LinkedIn
Do not forget to sell a little. If we are ultimately aiming for more inbound leads, we need to remember our basic skillset of selling.. It takes a while to get to the point where you are getting daily messages and inbound leads without any effort. Usually this requires at least three months of consistent content on LinkedIn, at least two to four times a week. Through the use of personal branding, transparency, and focused content, you will begin to see results. Don’t be shy about your product and don’t forget to create those sales-oriented posts. From my experience, these types of posts might not get as much engagement as the other ones, but they are as vital for your content strategy as the storytelling ones if you want to generate leads. Sales-oriented posts give your audience a nudge, enticing them to contact you or your team to learn more about your offering.
☕ Research, Read and Reshare
People love to follow content that they feel makes them smarter. Sharing the latest industry news, articles, field research, trending stories and adding your own opinion will really be a deal maker for your personal brand. People follow you because of how you communicate, and because they are interested in the industry you work within. It’s important to keep in mind the 3Rs: research about your topic, read the latest pieces, and reshare content while showing where you stand in regards to the critical issues in your industry.
To summarize:
🦉 Personal content over general content
🦉 Personal LinkedIn Profile = Website
🦉 Nudge, and then nudge once more
🦉 Industry News + Your Opinion = Trending Content
Personal branding and thought leadership involve constantly beating the drum, building momentum over the long term. This type of content is a marathon commitment that can take your and your company’s brand to new heights. If you want to be less dependent on cold outreach and create a stream of inbound leads, then it is probably a good idea to begin investing more time into your personal brand on LinkedIn. Don’t be late to the game; join while the scene is not overcrowded and organic reach is still making wonders!
To learn more about making the most of LinkedIn, feel free to reach out to me via
LinkedIn: Kotryna Kurt
Instagram: Kotryna.kurt
Twitter: @KotrynaKurt
Facebook: Kotryna Kurt
For more LinkedIn News follow Linkedist: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedistpage
