CEOs, Consultants and Differentiating with Original Content

As more and more CEOs and Consultants become comfortable with their own thought leadership style and the ability to reach more people than ever, LinkedIn should be a definite channel for them to share their insight, expertise and wisdom.

LinkedIn’s publishing platform is one of my favorite features when members use it correctly. I like to see and understand what people find interesting, know about and share. It provides great background when getting to know someone. I was preparing for a group last week and as I checked out their profiles I noticed one of the CEOs, Sean Murphy, had several articles on the Post section of his LinkedIn profile. They were excellent articles, each more than 500+ words, had references to other people and information. The posts highlighted this CEO as wicked smart, a deep thinker and a generous teacher. I also had the sense that these articles were actually written by him. Why? They were so in-depth and the style was similar to his profile.

When I asked him about whether he wrote them his response was an emphatic, “Yes.”  I was glad to hear that they were his original content. It gave me a good sense of how he consults and works with his clients.

I’ve written a couple of posts on how to think about original content for LinkedIn and why managing your own profile and writing original content strengthens your brand.

Here are the top 5 reasons CEOs and Consultants should consider writing and publishing a Post on LinkedIn.

1. Anyone who views your LinkedIn profile can see it without going to your website or any other site or social channel (i.e. Medium). If you are active on LinkedIn and others view your profile, you have the opportunity to be seen and read by more people than you would otherwise. Don’t squander that opportunity with quotes, less than well edited insight or content that should be an Update and not a Post.
2. Better than just anyone who views your profile, being able to read your Posts, allows your current and potential clients to learn more about you, your service, product, company and industry. Now we are getting to the VIPs.
3. You can share your Post with other channels, LinkedIn Groups, your network, and individuals who might be interested in what you have to say.
4. You strengthen your digital footprint. These Posts (articles) are searchable in all search engines. Yes, that means Google too. Right now, what do people see when they Google your name? Try to make sure it’s what you want them to see.
5. You know something that distinguishes you from your competitors. Maybe it’s the way you say it or explain it that sets you apart from others. That’s good. The person that can explain their services and products in a way that makes it easy for others to understand, stands out. This is especially true for complex products and services in technology, sciences, and manufacturing. Use this to your advantage.

In thinking about this I reached out to two people: one of whom is writing his own Posts and another who is considering it because it is the next logical step for him on LinkedIn.

Paul Riecks is the Principal of INSIGHT, a CEO Peer Advisory Group in the Baltimore area and Rich Rubinstein is the Managing Director of All Covered IT Services, a division of Konica Minolta and former CEO of America’s Remote Help Desk. I wrote about Rich Rubinstein last year in a post call A Rock-Solid CEO Rocks LinkedIn to showcase how Rich was effectively used LinkedIn to generate more than $270,000 in new revenue in less than five months and has more than $400,000 in the current pipeline.

A brief chat between Colleen McKenna and Paul Riecks on publishing on LinkedIn:

CM: What do you see as the value to publishing on LinkedIn?

PR: The value to reinforce the brand. I believe that part of my brand is the desire to share information that could be helpful to business owners, with the information based on conversations with business owners and organizational leaders.

CM: Have your Posts started any new conversations for you?

PR: When I have talked with people personally who have read the posts the answer is “yes.” I have not started any conversations online with anyone.

CM: New business/consulting?

PR: Not yet.

CM: Do you read other people’s original content?

PR: Yes, if the headline catches my attention and interest, which is based on adding good information to my base.

CM: What could make publishing on LinkedIn even more valuable?

PR: Sincere desire to inform and not to sell something. We are all grownups. We know why the post is there. The push to sell something is a turnoff.

A brief chat between Rich Rubinstein and Colleen McKenna on next steps for being effective on LinkedIn:

CM: Why LinkedIn?

RR: LinkedIn is the present and future for business connection and connecting.

CM: What is your primary purpose for using LinkedIn?

RR: LinkedIn provides me the avenue to stay in touch with business contacts whether it’s to help them out, send them information that they could use or creating a connection where we could potentially do business together.  I spend 90 minutes weekly going into LinkedIn to create new contacts or stay in touch with existing ones.

CM: How do you use LinkedIn? What are the top three actions you take on LinkedIn regularly?

RR: I use LinkedIn three ways and they include:

1. Stay in contact with existing contacts
2. Send communications that make prospective clients think about their current IT situation
3. Find new people to connect with.

CM: We worked on a Center of Influence strategy together. How has COI changed your marketing/sales process? What are the top three benefits of COI?

RR: It has helped us be top of mind with our prospects. Sending the right type of communication to the right people with the right amount of frequency enables our COI strategy to be effective.

CM: How do you think organizations could better use LinkedIn for recruiting, business development, thought leadership, and perhaps, even customer service?

RR: We found success on LinkedIn because we wove it into our weekly meetings and measured our activity.

1. Commit to consistently spending time on LinkedIn.  
2. Add value, create your own following through some aspect of your business where you are interesting and adding value.

CM: What three attributes do you consider critical for a successful COI implementation?

RR: Our COI campaign is a mindset now. We are focused on our:

1. Commitment
2. Content
3. Helping Others

CM: What’s next for you on LinkedIn? What do you want to be doing on LinkedIn?

RR: I want to start creating interesting content on my next chapter in my life where I can help people become better leaders and business-minded professionals.

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You see, after you’ve built a strong personal brand, expanded and strategically connected with good people, using LinkedIn as a means of staying in touch, leveraging LinkedIn as a platform to showcase your knowledge and subject matter expertise makes sense.

Don’t be daunted by the challenge. Shoot for the following:

1. A post at least once a month, if not, twice a month or weekly. Have a couple of posts ready so you’re not scrambling to keep up (it does happen to the best of us though)
2. Length 500+ words
3. A great headline and an interesting photo to draw people in
4. A hyperlink to something else you’ve written or read that substantiates your thinking
5. A call to action to learn more from you or your company

Don’t worry about how many people viewed it. You may not be among LinkedIn’s 500 Influencers, but if you can be influential within your own network, that is what matters. If one person interacts with you as a result of your article and that person could be a client, that is good. It would be well worth it, don’t you think?
Would love to hear if you have any success with your Posts on LinkedIn.

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