Using LinkedIn for strategic communication

The capability of LinkedIn to be an effective platform for strategic communication is both constrained and advanced by its unique properties. Make no mistake, however, organisations can leverage LinkedIn in a number of potent ways – e.g. market research, differentiation, positioning, viral marketing – to help build reputation and increase sales.

It is my view that organisations using LinkedIn for professional communication need to be operating in a B2B environment and primarily be providing services, as opposed to products, to their customers or stakeholders.

The B2B characteristic is imperative because of the nature of those who populate and utilise LinkedIn. It is a social network designed for, and populated by, those with an interest in business-related matters. It is a social network, in fact, that is ‘social’ only to achieve business-related outcomes.

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 My bias towards believing LinkedIn is better for service-leaning organisations is because of LinkedIn’s proclivity for supporting thought leadership and inbound marketing.

Thought leadership and inbound marketing at the heart of LinkedIn

At the core of any effective LinkedIn communication strategy is an absolute, no-compromise necessity to apply the approaches thought leadership and inbound marketing.

 Value will only be perceived in the communicating organisation, and its credibility will only be enhanced, by the creation and sharing of content which enriches the professional lives of organisational target audiences. Furthermore, the sharing of content and expertise without pushing out too many calls for sales (outbound marketing) must be the default.

The opposite of taking a thought leadership and inbound marketing approach is manifested in the following:

• Only sharing content not original to the organisation and/or it being of a low-level and not very useful nature
• Communication from the organisation frequently, if not entirely, being sales call nature (e.g. all about me/the organisation and not frequently enough about the customer/target audience and what their needs are).

To gain true, full value out of the thought leadership approach most content needs to be created by the organisation. A significant amount of content not created by the organisation can also be shared through LinkedIn, too. This is ‘curated’ information. A few points to bear mind with curated content include:

• It is an invaluable means of maintaining a consistent stream of content
• By using valuable content from a non-organisational employee offers 3rd party credibility and it also implies humility
• When sharing content from others, it is important to try to add value to it with an additional comment or two. This provides some stamp of originality from the organisation and aids in its branding.

Integrated communication for effective outcomes

Communication via LinkedIn as a stand-alone strategy is unlikely to yield results. It needs to be part of a broader, more holistic strategy containing a diversity of communication channels.

When using the approaches of thought leadership and inbound marketing this should be self-evident. One reason for this is that when generating thought leadership content an organisation will want to leverage it across multiple platforms. This is not just to share the content, but to facilitate the viral impetus which will help propel it to as many of the target audience as possible – influence and resonance.

NB. I am soon to publish A Communicator's Guide to Successful Change Management, featuring contributions from a number of highly qualified communication professionals - for free. Watch this space!