01.16.2024 Ryan Humphreys
Employee networks have an average of 10x more followers than branded LinkedIn accounts. This means your employees have the potential to become your best influencers. Even if they don’t expect or plan to be one.
That’s what happened to Peter Marshall, Portfolio Marketing Manager at Ericsson. He never planned to become a tech influencer, but it happened organically because he was a subject matter expert sharing his passions.
In this LinkedIn Live, featuring Peter, Tribal expert trainer and coach Julia Dixon, and Tribal Account Director Sarah Winter, he recounted his journey and shared some tips on getting started using LinkedIn.
You can read our recap in this blog, watch the recording here, or listen to the full interview on our podcast below.
How Peter Got Started On LinkedIn (Accidentally)
In 2020, Peter was part of a team getting ready for an industry event. We were working with Ericsson to coach them along their LinkedIn journey. Everyone involved was at different stages, so we tailored the support to them.
Peter was a part of that group. In his own words, he feels he was the equivalent of being “in infant school, maybe going into junior school” when he started out on LinkedIn. He saw it as an excellent networking opportunity, but that was it.
When he started his 5G journey, he felt it would be rude not to share his passion. But he didn’t want to do it too much or make it too extensive.
After some encouragement from Julia, he let go of his hesitations around sharing his passions. He shared what he was excited about and why.
Julia finds that when people start out, they can be quite formal, overthinking what they write and how they write about it.
However, she’s noticed that audiences connect with content more if you write how you talk and share your passions with them.
What To Do When You Feel Awkward Posting On LinkedIn
Peter advised taking it in small, bite-sized steps. Start by trying something and seeing if it works.
“Reach out to people that you respect on LinkedIn or people that you respect within your company or within your network. Tell them what you want to do and ask for their opinion.
If you can reach out to your peers and ask for their ideas to help, then it becomes a shared experience too.” - Peter Marshall
Peter also offers reassurance that although growing your presence on LinkedIn can feel scary, making it a shared experience also gives you an extra level of conviction.
LinkedIn Posting For Introverts
If you’re an introvert, Julia said it’s ok to feel uncomfortable posting on LinkedIn.
Instead of focusing on that, she advised considering how you can help people. Posting helps other people discover things. It also helps when you take the focus away from yourself and start looking outwards instead.
Who are you not to share this information that might help someone?
As a subject matter expert, you have interesting things to share that don’t just grow your thought leadership, but your audience’s knowledge, too. That’s part of why it’s our mission at Tribal to help you activate your experts on social media.
“It’s all about progress, not perfection. Nobody’s posts are perfect. You learn as you go. You experiment. You see what works for you and your network.” – Julia Dixon
How long does it take to build your personal brand on LinkedIn?
Julia explained it’s about consistency, as well as finding your voice and message.
It’s probably going to take 3-6 months before you see real impact and notice people reaching out to you because of your LinkedIn presence.
Over time, you’ll notice second-degree connections engaging with your posts and looking at your profile. You can then take those conversations offline.
Building these relationships is a slow process, but it’s worth the effort – 4 out of 5 members drive business decisions, according to LinkedIn. So even if you only have a small audience, the chances are, you’re reaching a decision maker or two.
The Keys To LinkedIn Success
Julia shared the surprising statistic that less than 5% of people on LinkedIn actually post. That’s out of 875 million total members, 48.5% of which are active every month, according to Statista.
These stats show the significant number of members who are there to consume content, making it a great opportunity to share your passions. It’s no wonder that 40% of B2B marketers have found LinkedIn to be the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads.
It starts with focusing on being you. Stay in the zone of talking about what’s important to you. This gives people a reason to follow you.
Conclusion
Success on LinkedIn is all about being yourself and sharing your passions.
The key to growth is consistency. It takes months to grow your presence and start building relationships, but over time, you’ll start to see second-degree connections engaging with your posts and those engagements turning into leads.
You can check out our full interview with Peter right here.
If you’d like to learn more about turning your leaders into influencers, discover more about how we can help with your expert activation.
