Love it or loathe it, if you are a B2B company in 2023 you can’t afford not to be on LinkedIn – here’s how to avoid cringe posting as a CEO
CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Management Today
LinkedIn offers several appealing aspects despite its imperfections, particularly during these unsettled times when much public discourse appears to involve opposing factions loudly taunting each other without genuinely listening or comprehending opposing viewpoints.
Discussions on LinkedIn tend to be quite serious and business-oriented, yet they generally exhibit less inclination for unwarranted personal attacks and general hostility. This could be attributed to the fact that posts are linked to your professional profile, implying that individuals seeking to incite controversy have more at stake compared to other platforms.
Amidst the current circumstances, LinkedIn emerges as a sanctuary of rationality and community-mindedness, distinct from the aggressive atmosphere prevalent on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Moreover, LinkedIn aligns well with the era of hybrid work, where expressing thoughts online has become customary. If casual interactions around the water cooler are missing due to the absence of colleagues, posting on LinkedIn serves as a viable alternative.
Although LinkedIn has never been considered ‘trendy’, it possesses a far more enduring quality – a solid business model. While competing platforms often trace their origins back to tech enthusiasts’ college projects that unexpectedly gained immense popularity, LinkedIn was conceived with commercial viability in mind right from the outset.
According to the company, in the UK alone, 700,000 companies and 4.9 million recruitment professionals utilise LinkedIn’s talent solutions.
Nonetheless, a prevailing notion remains that LinkedIn might appear somewhat middlebrow for the upper echelons of society, featuring fewer profiles from top executives than one might anticipate, and notably lacking in world leaders as well.
Nevertheless, this scarcity of presidents and prime ministers compared to other platforms could be perceived as advantageous by many. Even a sophisticated media outlet like The Economist is starting to show a somewhat increased interest in LinkedIn.
Certainly, there’s a fair share of cringe-worthy content in the LinkedIn realm. How can one avoid replicating some of the most glaringly ill-advised posts? Here are a few guidelines for users, along with reasons why even hesitant leaders should embrace the idea of engaging with LinkedIn.
The dos and don’ts of LinkedIn
Do:
Think about how what you post and share reflects your professional interests and profile. LinkedIn is not Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, it’s your career shop window – unless you are a professional pet groomer, no-one wants to know how your cats are doing.
Don’t:
Treat your LinkedIn page as just an online CV. Your LinkedIn profile should be more personal and conversational – it should tell your career story as well as listing what jobs you have had.
Do:
Share posts that support others in your network and show how you have worked with them to achieve success.
Don’t:
Brown-nose (or at least not to excess). Be selective and try and add to the conversation rather than just replying with a breathless ‘Great!’ to everything your boss posts.
Do:
Engage in conversations on issues that interest you, where you have specific knowledge or when you can offer some particular insight.
Don’t:
Brag – or humblebrag – about how amazing or successful you are at your job. Especially not if you have a leadership role. Smart-arses are hard to like, and even harder to follow.
Do:
Use your LinkedIn network like you use your personal contacts – for context, support and to help make new connections.
Don’t:
Spam them with trivial or tangential requests, and never hit them with an unsolicited sales pitch.
Do:
Respond quickly to connect requests, even if it’s only to say no – leaving people waiting for days is bad manners.
Don’t:
Automatically reject connect requests from people you don’t know. Check out their profile – do they look interesting or potentially useful? Do you have connections in common? There’s not much point being on LinkedIn if you aren’t open to making new links – the clues in the name.
Do:
Get a decent professional photo for your profile. Save the holiday snaps and family groups for Facebook or Instagram.
Don’t:
Be the ‘crying CEO’, aka Braden Wallake, who in August last year fronted an update about layoffs at his Ohio-based firm HyperSocial with an apparently irony-free picture of himself in tears at the horror of it all. He may have been aiming for radical honesty but what he got was an online roasting for his lack of eQ.
Why leaders should be on LinkedIn
The platform’s origins as the go-to place for jobseekers have resulted in a degree of LinkedIn elitism among more senior individuals throughout the years. “I don’t need to be on LinkedIn, as it’s not where I’ll discover my next significant role,” asserts the type of exclusive c-suite executives who maintain a roster of headhunters on speed dial for when they decide to pursue a career change.
In 2023, this attitude is remarkably out of touch. To start with, LinkedIn provides an excellent means for leaders to engage with customers and employees within a trustworthy and well-established environment. No other network boasts better reach – there are over 35 million LinkedIn accounts in the UK alone, exceeding one for each member of the working population.
Actively participating on LinkedIn has the potential to greatly enhance your personal brand like nothing else can. It’s effective for Bill Gates – the most prominent figure on LinkedIn with over 36 million followers – and it can be advantageous for you as well.
Furthermore, it’s becoming an increasingly valuable source of information and industry insights, akin to the virtual equivalent of all the interactions at conferences that you likely engaged in more frequently before the era of hybrid work. Just as in the past, you might have had to sift through a certain amount of meaningless conversation, but the valuable nuggets of wisdom are still present.
Consider the scenario of new employees. What do they do when they receive an interview or a job offer from your company? They assess the company’s leaders on LinkedIn to gauge whether they come across as genuine individuals, corporate chatbots, or outright sociopaths. Thus, if you aim for your business to stand strong in the talent competition, establishing a presence on LinkedIn is essential – and strive not to come across as excessively pretentious.
Be the first to comment