Episode 184
Business Growth on LinkedIn Starts With This
Is your B2B LinkedIn strategy falling flat, despite all the effort your team puts in? Hint: You don't grow on LinkedIn by doing more. You grow on LinkedIn by working together.
Key moments in this episode -
00:00 Why Your LinkedIn Strategy Isn't Working
01:09 Common Issues with B2B LinkedIn Strategies
05:31 The Power of Alignment
07:26 Improve Your LinkedIn Results
11:05 Shared LinkedIn KPIs
12:50 LinkedIn B2B Strategy Fails
14:03 Grow by Working Together
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Transcript
You've tried content calendars, you've tried employee advocacy, you've tried
Speaker:marketing campaigns, you've tried every algorithm hack under the sun, and still
Speaker:your business isn't growing from all that time you're spending on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I've got a pretty good idea what's happening, and in today's
Speaker:episode I'm gonna share why.
Speaker:G'Day Everyone, it is Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide for building
Speaker:your brand and your business on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And one of the things that happens to me, because I'm pretty narrowed in on
Speaker:my niche that I target and the types of clients that I work with, is I often
Speaker:end up having very similar conversations with very different people spread all
Speaker:over the world, throughout the week.
Speaker:And in this case, the same thing kept happening over and over and over again.
Speaker:And I was thinking, uhoh, I think I really need to do a podcast episode on this.
Speaker:Because what is happening out there is I'm talking to marketing people who are
Speaker:responsible for executing the LinkedIn strategy that they've created and they're
Speaker:pulling their hair out because the sales team isn't doing what they should be or
Speaker:the other you know, team members that are meant to be involved, and it feels
Speaker:like everyone's going every which way.
Speaker:And then you've got the sales team that are scratching their head going, why are
Speaker:the marketing team creating this campaign?
Speaker:You've then got employees who are, you know, part of the
Speaker:employee advocacy program.
Speaker:And they're busting their chops, but they're wondering why isn't the
Speaker:leadership team involved in this, and why are they doing all the work?
Speaker:And so what's happening is there's a lot of effort going on on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Everybody's working hard, and then there's no results, no ROI and people are left
Speaker:wondering, is this really worth it?
Speaker:And is LinkedIn just one big waste of time?
Speaker:You know my answer.
Speaker:No, it's not, but it really is if you don't fix this problem.
Speaker:Let's take a look at where the disconnect is happening and what are the signs
Speaker:and symptoms you should look out for.
Speaker:Do any of these things sound familiar to you?
Speaker:Is there a business wide strategy for LinkedIn, or do individual
Speaker:teams have their own strategies?
Speaker:If the answer is there isn't a business wide one, well, I'm
Speaker:pretty sure you're smart enough to know where this is heading.
Speaker:Within those strategies that you have in place, are there conflicting KPIs?
Speaker:And quite often this is a big one where one team is measured on one thing, eg. It
Speaker:could be brand awareness, and then another team is measured on something different.
Speaker:eg lead gen. So the classic sales versus marketing.
Speaker:That happens often because no one from both teams has ever sat in a
Speaker:room and said this is our goals.
Speaker:This is how we're gonna get there and work together as a team.
Speaker:Another classic one that I come across all the time is that marketing has
Speaker:no idea what sales is working on.
Speaker:They don't know who the primary targets are for the sales team, who are the
Speaker:really hot leads that they're working on that with a little bit of a nudge
Speaker:they could get them across the line.
Speaker:They don't know what customers they're no longer focusing on.
Speaker:Or maybe that there's, you know, target industries because the sales team created
Speaker:their strategy and the marketing team have their own, which is focused on
Speaker:different KPIs like I was just saying.
Speaker:And then there's a classic when the company page itself feels like it's
Speaker:on a completely different planet to everybody else that's active on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Now, employee advocacy, we know how great it is.
Speaker:I'm a huge fan, but even when that is executed without everybody being
Speaker:on the same page, and by everybody I mean the company page is well.
Speaker:Then ultimately you've got another big disconnect.
Speaker:It's that whole push pull, like where should we be focusing our attention?
Speaker:One of the symptoms that this is all breaking down is that employees
Speaker:who may have started to post in the beginning who were really keen about
Speaker:being a part of your employee advocacy programs, all of a sudden they vanish
Speaker:off the face of the earth and nothing you seem to do gets people active.
Speaker:They are some of the key symptoms that I come across
Speaker:when everything's breaking down.
Speaker:And the real question that we should be asking ourselves is how do we get
Speaker:everybody on the same page without turning it into more red tape?
Speaker:Because the more rules and regulations that we put in place, the harder it is
Speaker:for people to actually take action, and that is the last thing that we want.
Speaker:So let's take a look at that next.
Speaker:When you think about it, if LinkedIn is feeling like a huge time and
Speaker:resource strain in your business, and you're not generating an ROI.
Speaker:We know that they're the clear symptoms, but what is the answer like that is why
Speaker:you are here today, listeners, and I think the simple answer to this is alignment.
Speaker:And I often talk about it in the context of the Power of Two.
Speaker:IE you get better results when things work together.
Speaker:So whether that's sales and marketing, whether it's company page and
Speaker:employee advocacy, whether it's employees and business leaders.
Speaker:All of these ways that we can bring in the Power of Two within your LinkedIn
Speaker:strategy where people work together will give you faster results and
Speaker:ultimately cut down the amount of time and energy that these programs take
Speaker:and generate the ROI that justifies them existing in the first place.
Speaker:And this is what we all want.
Speaker:We all want to see a return on the time and effort that we're putting
Speaker:into LinkedIn, but without having a strategy around the Power of
Speaker:Two and bringing everybody into alignment, honestly, you'll feel like
Speaker:it's just an internal tug of war.
Speaker:Don't even worry about what's going on over on LinkedIn and the
Speaker:algorithm and all the other crazy things that are going on there.
Speaker:You are too busy fighting your own internal battles, even if
Speaker:you don't realise it yourself.
Speaker:So the Power of Two is something that I wanna bring back to people.
Speaker:We spoke about it in the LinkedIn Branding Book, you have to build personal
Speaker:brands and company brands together.
Speaker:What is it that I think that you can do to really put some things in place to make
Speaker:sure that your team's working together?
Speaker:Let's have a talk about that after this quick break.
Speaker:Here are the practical tips that I think will help you align your teams within your
Speaker:business to help you grow from all of that effort that you are putting into LinkedIn.
Speaker:And first of all, I think it always starts at the top.
Speaker:Leadership teams, you set the tone by showing up.
Speaker:You set the tone by showing that it's important to your business,
Speaker:that it is a priority, and the right amount of resources will
Speaker:be allocated to the program.
Speaker:Everybody's looking to you for guidance and they will copy
Speaker:what actions you are taking.
Speaker:So if you are invisible on LinkedIn, chances are your team will then
Speaker:say, well, if it's okay for you, it's okay for them as well.
Speaker:'cause at the end of the day, they probably think they're
Speaker:not as important as you.
Speaker:So we have to start at the top.
Speaker:Now, B2B marketing teams.
Speaker:It is important for you to understand that providing frameworks to other
Speaker:teams to follow and learn and messaging guidelines is really important.
Speaker:And if you go back to last week's episode, if you missed it, we were talking about
Speaker:not assuming that LinkedIn is easy.
Speaker:So many people think that it's as simple as write a few sentences, throw
Speaker:up a graphic post and we are done.
Speaker:And it really isn't.
Speaker:It is so much more complicated than that.
Speaker:Now, the teams that I work with, when we implement my G.R.O.W.T.H
Speaker:framework, they all then know.
Speaker:What they should be working on, what actions are gonna make a difference?
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because the very first step in the G.R.O.W.T.H framework,
Speaker:so the G stands for Game Plan.
Speaker:None of my clients after we finish training are allowed to go past
Speaker:onto all of those other steps like creating content before they
Speaker:have actually sat down together across the business and worked out.
Speaker:What are the resources?
Speaker:What are we focusing on and what is it that we will measure to know that
Speaker:we're successful during this program?
Speaker:And that involves having multiple teams have a say.
Speaker:It is not a, uh, I am the head of marketing, so therefore everybody
Speaker:should listen, or vice versa.
Speaker:The sales team, you can't do that either.
Speaker:It is about coming together.
Speaker:This is where the better results come from.
Speaker:The same applies if you are running the company page for your company and
Speaker:you are, in competition internally with the employee advocacy team.
Speaker:This blows my mind.
Speaker:This is happening all the time and people are super frustrated.
Speaker:And they're wondering like, what is going on?
Speaker:Why don't we talk to each other?
Speaker:And again, sometimes the most simple thing is sitting in a room and figuring
Speaker:out what is important to both teams and how can you work together to get there.
Speaker:That is the essence of this Power of Two LinkedIn strategy.
Speaker:Now you can help other teams by building confidence with them and helping them
Speaker:with training and templates and making sure that everybody has those guidelines.
Speaker:A good social media policy can actually, you know, not be red tape.
Speaker:It can actually come across as clear guardrails for people to stay
Speaker:within, to take actions without having to check all of the time.
Speaker:Set people up for success.
Speaker:Invest in their success.
Speaker:Training is the obvious answer because it makes sure that you are not assuming
Speaker:where people's knowledge is or isn't at, and the whole team can grow together.
Speaker:Now, we also, need to have shared KPIs across some of these teams,
Speaker:like brand metrics that apply to everybody so that everybody wins.
Speaker:I have seen this play out even in some bigger marketing teams that we
Speaker:don't even get to talk about what's going on externally versus their
Speaker:competitors because the teams are so big that internally there's a struggle.
Speaker:And that could be from global marketing teams versus regional.
Speaker:That could be product marketing teams versus go-to marketing teams versus
Speaker:field marketing teams like there are so many teams that look after the
Speaker:umbrella term of marketing that is then broken down, but in conflict
Speaker:'cause you've all got different KPIs.
Speaker:So of course then we start fighting over what should be posted.
Speaker:Why aren't you posting my stuff?
Speaker:And it's awful.
Speaker:Like it really is.
Speaker:The other flip side to that is often nobody owns things like the company page.
Speaker:It is everybody doing whatever they want, and the results make the brand
Speaker:look like it has multiple personalities.
Speaker:So I want you to think about who is it that you could have
Speaker:in a room that as a business.
Speaker:You could sit down and work out what are our priorities over the next quarter?
Speaker:Who is it that we're targeting?
Speaker:What is the main product or service that we'll be promoting, and how will
Speaker:we all work with our content and our actions to build community to get
Speaker:the business towards those goals?
Speaker:I've just given you a whole bunch of tips that are mostly focused
Speaker:on improved communication to bring your team into alignment.
Speaker:But before we wrap up, here's what happens when you don't do this.
Speaker:If you really want your business to grow from the efforts that your
Speaker:business is making on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Having alignment within your teams is a must.
Speaker:Because if you don't, here's what happens.
Speaker:You'll miss out on opportunities from inconsistent messaging.
Speaker:Employees won't feel empowered, so there's gonna be less employee advocacy.
Speaker:Your competitors who are aligned are literally gonna steal
Speaker:things out from underneath you.
Speaker:And you know, listeners that I'm fiercely competitive and this one really presses
Speaker:my buttons because the more teams are aligned, the more they work together,
Speaker:the better results that they will get from their time spent on LinkedIn.
Speaker:If all of this sounds really overwhelming to you for your business, then don't
Speaker:forget you can do things like outsourcing to companies like mine where we do company
Speaker:page management, and also we can create a strategy that works across your business
Speaker:and facilitate these conversations.
Speaker:You don't have to do it all yourself.
Speaker:I know the struggle is real.
Speaker:I don't expect anybody out there that has got the title of, say, marketing
Speaker:manager or sales leader, or any of these job titles, to know LinkedIn inside
Speaker:out like I do, that is exactly why my business exists so I can fast track
Speaker:your success and bringing your team into alignment is one of my special skills
Speaker:that I think makes all the difference.
Speaker:And I've seen it with my clients.
Speaker:When we get on the same page, then all of a sudden where the growth
Speaker:has stalled, it takes off again, and it just is amazing to watch.
Speaker:It then becomes a much easier process and LinkedIn goes back to being enjoyable,
Speaker:but most importantly generates that ROI that businesses are looking for.
Speaker:You don't grow on LinkedIn by doing more.
Speaker:You grow on LinkedIn by working together.
Speaker:So until next week, cheers.
