LinkedIn is the perfect platform for building thought leadership for both individuals and brands to influence B2B buying decisions and drive business growth.
Today's episode is sponsored by Metricool. Make sure to register for a FREE Metricool account today. Use Code MICHELLE30 to try any Premium Plan FREE for 30 days. https://i.mtr.cool/NEDXVZ
Key moments in this episode:
00:00 Introduction to Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
01:44 Defining Thought Leadership
03:48 The Importance of Thought Leadership for B2B Growth
06:54 Leveraging LinkedIn Profiles and Company Pages
12:13 Creating and Sharing Thought Leadership Content
13:55 Engaging with Your Community
17:43 Tracking Metrics and Analytics
19:09 Actionable Tips for LinkedIn Success
20:18 Final Thoughts
Check out these episodes on Thought Leadership with Ashley Faus - https://socialmediaforb2bgrowthpodcast.com/episode/redefining-thought-leadership-what-it-truly-takes-with-ashley-faus-atlassian
ABOUT MICHELLE J RAYMOND
Michelle J Raymond is an international LinkedIn™️ B2B Growth Coach. To continue the conversation, connect with Michelle on LinkedIn™️ and let her know you are part of the community of podcast listeners.
Connect with Michelle J Raymond on LinkedIn™️ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellejraymond/
B2B Growth Co offers LinkedIn™️ Training for teams to build personal and business brands and a LinkedIn™️ Profile Recharge service for Founders/CEOs.
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#LinkedIn #ThoughtLeadership #B2B
00:00:00
Michelle J Raymond: I want to be clear up front that if you are interested in being
00:00:03
a thought leader, it is going to take a lot more than just posting any old random content.
00:00:09
But if you are interested in how to really genuinely leverage LinkedIn
00:00:14
to create thought leadership in your industry, this is the episode for you.
00:00:37
G'day everyone.
00:00:38
It's Michelle J Raymond here.
00:00:40
And this topic seems to be the topic that everybody is talking about.
00:00:44
It is the topic du jour for 2024.
00:00:48
What is that topic?
00:00:49
Leveraging LinkedIn for B2B thought leadership.
00:00:53
It seems that everybody wants to be a B2B thought leader, just like back in
00:00:57
2021 it was all about personal branding.
00:01:01
And there were so many misconceptions back then.
00:01:03
And I think we're seeing the same thing now.
00:01:06
I just want to put it out there that I absolutely do not think just because you post content
00:01:12
or you post content regularly, that you are immediately by default, a thought leader.
00:01:18
That's not how this works.
00:01:20
I think it's important to understand the definitions of thought leadership,
00:01:23
why it's important for business growth, and more importantly, how do
00:01:27
you leverage the whole of LinkedIn?
00:01:30
Not just content, but all the other features that we have access to.
00:01:35
How do you leverage that to really position yourself, someone within your business, or
00:01:41
even the business itself as a thought leader?
00:01:44
But what exactly is thought leadership?
00:01:47
And I always have Ashley's voice in my mind and it goes like this, have thoughts, be a leader.
00:01:56
It's a combination of those two things, according to Ashley and I have to say
00:02:01
for me, it's very much those two things.
00:02:04
But I'm also going to go another step and say those thoughts are not
00:02:07
regurgitating somebody else's ideas.
00:02:09
Those thoughts are original, or they take somebody else's thoughts and expand on them.
00:02:15
Maybe you contradict them.
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Maybe you want people to think about it from a different angle, but
00:02:21
ultimately we want your point of view.
00:02:25
We want your take on these things.
00:02:28
I very much believe that brands can do this equally, if not better to what individuals can.
00:02:35
The reason that I say this is that brands have access theoretically to a
00:02:40
lot more resources than most individuals.
00:02:43
If you think about the size of the companies, the variation of people within them, you might
00:02:48
have subject matter experts, technical leads, those people that are well known in the industry
00:02:54
that really drive conversations that have built a community, that leadership piece, you can
00:03:00
have that in multiple people and bring that all together under one thought leadership banner.
00:03:06
For an individual to keep up and do all of those things it becomes a little trickier.
00:03:12
And so for me, that's why I want people to think when I'm listening to this podcast,
00:03:18
that the opportunity is there for both.
00:03:21
Think about it.
00:03:22
You don't just have to cut off one half of LinkedIn, i.
00:03:27
e.
00:03:27
your company page and building your brand just because people on LinkedIn only talk about
00:03:33
building people as thought leaders, right?
00:03:36
So anyone that listens to this show, I'm all about the power of two.
00:03:39
I'm all about leveraging the whole platform.
00:03:48
Why is thought leadership important for B2B growth?
00:03:52
Why should we even pay attention to this topic as much as what we are in this episode today?
00:03:57
Well, put simply, you know, that I worked in sales for 20 years.
00:04:01
Every action that I take on the platform has at the end of it, a dollar figure in mind.
00:04:08
But if you haven't read the 2024 Edelman Thought Leadership report, which was done in
00:04:14
combination with LinkedIn, there was an really interesting stat within that report amongst
00:04:20
many, but the one that stands out for me is this.
00:04:23
According to the Edelman Thought Leadership report in 2024, they said that over 55 percent
00:04:31
of the people that they surveyed, these were decision makers in the B2B space, say that a
00:04:37
strong thought leadership piece had directly led them to award business to a company.
00:04:46
What is happening is people are using this information to make buying decisions.
00:04:53
Therefore, by being seen as thought leaders, you can influence those buying
00:04:58
decisions and be included and hopefully awarded the lion's share of opportunities.
00:05:05
And in today's world where information is readily available, we can Google anything,
00:05:10
we can use ChatGPT to get answers.
00:05:13
I think it becomes even more critical that we level up.
00:05:16
And this is why for me, thought leadership, isn't just something that I can Google and get an answer
00:05:23
from 500, 000 different pages on the internet.
00:05:27
And the thing that always drives me crazy as an individual.
00:05:31
When I'm looking to buy something and I jump on Google and I look for the answer to
00:05:37
whatever I'm looking for, it could be recently I wanted to buy a new webcam or a new camera.
00:05:43
And what happened was whether I went to YouTube or whether I went to Google and looked at
00:05:47
articles the answers were all exactly the same.
00:05:52
Nobody really had any opinion for themselves.
00:05:56
They all pointed out exactly the same things.
00:05:58
There was no one that went out on a limb and went the opposite way.
00:06:02
It's just there to keep the SEO engines happy.
00:06:06
That is not what thought leadership is, but let's come back to it.
00:06:11
55 percent of the decision makers said that they'd used a thought leadership
00:06:17
piece and the information that they'd learned to award work to businesses.
00:06:23
That is why we're doing this.
00:06:24
So as long as we've got that clear, how do we leverage LinkedIn to take advantage of this
00:06:30
and really build that thought leadership.
00:06:54
When it comes to leveraging LinkedIn for B2B thought leadership, there are really three
00:06:59
key areas that I think you have to consider.
00:07:02
And those areas are your LinkedIn profile or the company page, depending which way you're going,
00:07:08
if it's brand or individual, and then you have to think about the content that you're putting out
00:07:12
there and you also have to think strategically about the community that you're building.
00:07:19
It is not just content.
00:07:21
But let's have a look at your LinkedIn profile and let's think about why does this contribute
00:07:27
to how you're seen as a thought leader?
00:07:30
And again, the same applies to the company page.
00:07:33
You can create all the content in the world and it can be really well thought out.
00:07:38
It could be thought provoking, but ultimately all roads on LinkedIn lead back to people
00:07:45
checking out your profile or company page.
00:07:48
Now, when they do that, what's the impression that they get?
00:07:51
Does that align with the content or is it out of step and therefore creates a
00:07:58
trust issue where people are not quite certain whether the same person wrote it.
00:08:05
It is so easy for people to get content written by someone else or ChatGPT and not
00:08:11
be able to back it up over on their profile.
00:08:14
LinkedIn profiles are all about backing it up with your industry knowledge, your credibility,
00:08:21
the trust, your values, your experience, you know, all of those pieces come together and
00:08:28
that can start from the headline, the banner, your profile, all of these things contribute.
00:08:35
And then often when I've been working with clients and they've been running these amazing
00:08:39
businesses for a long time, either as CEOs or business owners or heads of, you know, high
00:08:45
up departments and I go to their profile and they kind of look just filled in- at best.
00:08:53
And the longer that they've been in those roles or owned the business,
00:08:56
the less information is on there.
00:08:58
What happens is it just takes away the shine.
00:09:02
A little piece of credibility is missing and from that perspective, it makes people wonder.
00:09:09
And when you break digital trust, it's much harder to regain it.
00:09:14
Why?
00:09:14
Because the space is so competitive.
00:09:17
We already have an inherent distrust of the things that are out on the internet, or I think
00:09:23
that we should, so that we question things.
00:09:26
And so spending some time or investing to get someone like myself to update your profile so
00:09:33
it reflects who you are, what you're trying to achieve, who are you out in the industry and how
00:09:39
are you coming across on your profile as a leader?
00:09:42
And that can be things like, when was the last time you received recommendations on your profile?
00:09:47
If they're out of date or have never happened at all, you've got some work to do.
00:09:52
If you haven't bothered to put certifications in there, you haven't updated your latest projects.
00:09:57
Your about section has two lines instead of the full 2600 characters.
00:10:02
Your work experience barely has the latest up to date information in there.
00:10:07
You can see very quickly how many different ways that you could update your profile
00:10:12
to reflect who you want to be seen as
00:11:38
Over on the company page, we have exactly the same thing.
00:11:42
Company pages are often given no love.
00:11:44
They're neglected.
00:11:45
They are set up by someone in a rush to get the page set up with no strategy behind it.
00:11:51
And neglected forever and a day I can assure you that with company pages, content isn't
00:11:57
always the solution, especially if you haven't done the page set up correctly,
00:12:01
or you haven't gone back and refreshed it.
00:12:03
So it really reflects the brand you are today.
00:12:07
So that's one area that we're going to have a look at, but of course, content comes down to it.
00:12:13
If you want to be seen as a thought leader, you need a regular and consistent posting schedule.
00:12:20
You cannot just post once here and there all over the place or pay somebody else to
00:12:25
write a thought leadership piece disappear for a couple of months, come back again.
00:12:29
That is not how it works.
00:12:31
There is a certain level of frequency and being consistent over a long
00:12:38
period of time that comes into play.
00:12:40
And so it's not just what's in the post, but also how often that you're posting.
00:12:47
And when you do have those pieces of content going out there, then they can be in all
00:12:52
different formats and I think sometimes it's important to make sure with some of those
00:12:56
content formats, it's not just all written.
00:12:59
People want to see, can you talk the talk?
00:13:01
How do you show up on video?
00:13:03
These things I think need to be mixed in for genuine thought leaders.
00:13:08
So the content that you're putting out there for me needs to be original.
00:13:13
I also would like to see things where it's your point of view on topics
00:13:18
that are going out on the industry.
00:13:19
Not just what is going on, but why it matters from your perspective.
00:13:25
I want you to be the person that others go to, to find out what you think
00:13:31
about certain topics that are going on.
00:13:33
There was an interesting question that I saw on LinkedIn not that long ago.
00:13:37
Can you call yourself a thought leader or does somebody else have to call you or see
00:13:42
you as a thought leader for it to be true?
00:13:44
I'd love to know what you think.
00:13:45
So let me know in the comments or drop me a DM over on LinkedIn to tell me, do you think
00:13:50
you can name yourself as a thought leader, or it needs to be done by somebody else?
00:13:55
The next piece of the puzzle is engaging with your community.
00:13:59
You have to be seen as a leader.
00:14:02
Like Ashley says, have thoughts, be a leader.
00:14:06
And if we look at those pieces, a leader has to have an audience.
00:14:10
You have to have a community.
00:14:11
I also think that there is a certain level of number that you need to hit
00:14:17
to make you relevant in the industry.
00:14:20
So if you only have a few hundred connections or followers, I don't think that that's enough.
00:14:25
I think we need to be talking in the thousands.
00:14:27
And the other way around is just because someone's got 200, 000 followers does not
00:14:33
automatically qualify them as a thought leader.
00:14:36
They could be posting viral rubbish.
00:14:39
They could be buying followers.
00:14:41
They could be in engagement pods.
00:14:44
There's a lot of people that have big accounts on social media that did not get there through what
00:14:50
we're talking about today, thought leadership.
00:14:53
And so you have to be for me active in conversations.
00:14:59
You have to be connecting with new people in your community.
00:15:03
You have to be out there and I think even hosting events like LinkedIn lives or LinkedIn
00:15:08
audio rooms and driving conversations, building community, making yourself available.
00:15:15
It's not just again, stick the piece of content on LinkedIn disappear, run off, have your busy life
00:15:22
and ignore it and hope that a VA or somebody else that's managing your account looks after it all.
00:15:28
That is not thought leadership that is posting on LinkedIn.
00:15:57
Those are the three pieces of the thought leadership puzzle we've got setting
00:16:03
up your company page or your LinkedIn profile, so that it best reflects who you
00:16:08
are and doesn't destroy your credibility.
00:16:11
That's one piece.
00:16:12
We've got the content, making sure that you're driving conversations, leading conversations
00:16:18
with original thoughts, original expertise that you're sharing and really guiding people
00:16:24
within industry to help them make decisions.
00:16:28
I think it's a really important distinction to understand that building yourself as a thought
00:16:33
leader is to help other people make decisions.
00:16:37
Buying decisions especially.
00:16:40
Not to make yourself look amazing.
00:16:42
That's a by product of it.
00:16:44
One that we love, but ultimately you're in service of that community.
00:16:49
And the more that we create content, create community and engage with that community,
00:16:55
the more opportunities that come our way.
00:16:58
And I think if we look at where LinkedIn's going with the LinkedIn algorithm, you know,
00:17:04
this really plays really well into that because LinkedIn tell us that they want you to create
00:17:10
content that's based on knowledge and advice.
00:17:13
And I think that is part of thought leadership.
00:17:17
They want you to talk to one specific target audience.
00:17:20
Perfect.
00:17:21
That's the community that we've built strategically.
00:17:24
And the other part to it is they want you to stay on topic.
00:17:30
I think by focusing on that one thing and reinforcing your messages over
00:17:35
time is how you build your reputation.
00:17:38
It's how you build yourself up to be seen as a thought leader, you or your business.
00:17:43
If you're leveraging LinkedIn to become a B2B thought leader, either your brand
00:17:48
or personal, what metrics should you be tracking to see if you're working towards
00:17:53
those goals or have gone off track?
00:17:56
Now, last week's podcast episode was all about LinkedIn analytics, and
00:18:01
there's lots of great tips in there.
00:18:02
If you missed that one, go back and have a listen, because I think there's a really
00:18:06
important piece of that puzzle, which once again is not just measuring post impressions,
00:18:12
but also your demographic analytics.
00:18:15
So demographic analytics include things like who is showing up in your audience?
00:18:19
Who are your page followers?
00:18:21
Who have you recently connected with?
00:18:23
What industry do they come from?
00:18:25
Are they in a target location?
00:18:28
These kinds of things, make sure you know that what you're creating is
00:18:32
resonating with your right audience.
00:18:35
So if you're not friends with your LinkedIn analytics as yet, go back to the last episode,
00:18:39
have a listen and go and do a quick check.
00:18:42
How do they know it's not working?
00:18:44
Well, it's simple.
00:18:45
The goal that they had, which is quite often to get more leads for the business isn't happening.
00:18:50
If you aren't having the right conversations with your target audience to have those opportunities
00:18:56
come up, then chances are you've either got an audience problem or you've got a content problem
00:19:02
and the analytics will help you discover that.
00:19:09
This is my favorite part of the podcast every week, where we talk about the
00:19:13
actions that you can take to take you towards the goal of business growth.
00:19:17
Now, when it comes to your LinkedIn profile, first action, I want you to go and take
00:19:21
a look and look for immediate and obvious gaps where you haven't updated information.
00:19:28
If you're somebody that hates writing about yourself, and there are many people out there
00:19:31
like that, or you found it difficult or you don't have the time to get around to it.
00:19:37
That's something that I work with clients on.
00:19:39
So just reach out and connect with me.
00:19:40
We can have a conversation more than happy to help you cross that off your list.
00:19:45
And I have a second actionable tip for you this week, and that is.
00:19:49
To go and check your metrics.
00:19:51
Just like we did in last week's podcast episode.
00:19:53
If you genuinely want to be seen as a thought leader, you need to go back and check
00:19:58
them and it's time to start tracking them.
00:20:01
You need to know if you are making progress towards your goals.
00:20:05
I want you to write down what those goals are.
00:20:07
Is there a follower number that you need to increase to?
00:20:11
What are the numbers impressions that you're getting from your post?
00:20:14
Who are the people that are reaching out to have conversations?
00:20:18
As we wrap up today's episode, I just want to say that I am excited about the
00:20:23
opportunity that there is for B2B businesses to grow by leveraging thought leadership.
00:20:30
I also want to set the scene to say that it is not as easy as what it sounds.
00:20:36
It is not about paying someone to write content.
00:20:39
It goes the next level.
00:20:41
You are going to need to heavily invest in your team, training and processes
00:20:46
to get this off the ground and get that consistent action over time, where your
00:20:52
business does start leading conversations.
00:20:54
If you are stuck on this, not sure where to start and feeling overwhelmed.
00:20:59
That's something that I can help you with.
00:21:01
And so I hope listeners today that I've inspired you to look at LinkedIn beyond
00:21:06
posting content, beyond post impressions, and start to look at how can we leverage the
00:21:12
whole platform, including our company page, to Including our profile and our content to build
00:21:18
a powerful community that views us through their eyes as a thought leader until next week.
00:21:24
Cheers.
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