EP #060: The CMO of LinkedIn Validated Our Strategy

LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for brand growth, reach, and engagement. Learning how to make the most of your LinkedIn presence is a necessary step for every executive.

And we’re not the only ones who think that: during a recent interview on The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, LinkedIn CMO Jessica Jensen shared key tips for improving your LinkedIn strategy.

If the tips sound familiar (as they definitely did to us), it’s because they’re exactly what we put into practice every day at Executive Presence.

Here’s how to craft a LinkedIn profile that drives influence, not just impressions.

Be human and authentic

Unless your goal is to end up on r/LinkedInLunatics, sounding like a real human is a non-negotiable.

Your followers want to hear stories from you about your big wins, vulnerable moments, and personal experiences - not how the birth of your first child influenced your B2B strategy. 

When in doubt, just tell your story. That’s what readers want to hear.

Identify what you bring to the table

The reason why founder, CEO, and executive profiles are so crucial is because LinkedIn users want to feel a personal connection with the companies they are doing business with.

Your audience is overwhelmed with choices, and sometimes feeling like they know the person behind the business is all they need to choose you. 

Your personal LinkedIn page should be just as much a priority as your business’s company page. Use the two to create an authentic connection with your readers.

Show, don’t tell

You wouldn’t walk up to a potential lead on the street and start preaching the benefits of your products, so why would you approach LinkedIn that way?

People respond better to opportunities for shared knowledge, and your LinkedIn platform is a great place to start.

Here are some topics to share knowledge with your readers:

💡 Industry Insights: What’s happening in your industry? Is there any new product release your audience would be interested in?

🎬 Behind-the-Scenes Content: Is there a colleague you’d like to showcase? Any recent team meetings, offsites, or events that you’d like to share?

🧠 Professional Knowledge: What have you learned recently? Is there a mistake you’ve made that made you rethink your approach, or made you question a longstanding belief?

Post consistently to maximize engagement

Creating a real connection with your audience will require more than a couple posts dropped across a few weeks or months.

As we recently revealed in The LinkedIn Playbook for Modern CEOs, posting consistently is one of the most important (and easiest) ways to build a network of engaged readers.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

🗓️ Posting 1X per week ➡️ 46.8 engagements per post
🗓️ Posting 2-3X per week ➡️ 65.2 engagements per post
🗓️ Posting 4X per week ➡️ 73.6 engagements per post

For additional insights around posting frequency, be sure to check out pages 8-9 of the playbook. It’s based on data from 8,000+ posts, and is free to download.

Match the format to your message

From multi-image carousels to videos and selfies, LinkedIn is one of the few social platforms that supports various multimedia formats, and recent studies (including ours) show that posts with images perform significantly better than those without.

Include a podcast clip, photo from your last team dinner, or even create a carousel of tips and tricks: versatility is your friend here.

Use analytics to level up

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you wouldn’t make pretty much any business decision without consulting some data beforehand. 

Am I right? Thought so. So why would your social media presence be any different?

Use a cost-efficient tool like Shield to track engagement metrics and understand the types of content that resonate with your audience - then make changes based on what you’ve learned.

Embrace AI tools, but don’t forget the human touch

AI tools are an incredible resource - you won’t catch me claiming otherwise. But as ChatGPT seemingly takes over LinkedIn with its em dashes, buzzwords, and lists of three (see what I did there?), adding that human touch to your content will set it apart from the rest. 

Authenticity is what resonates most with LinkedIn users. Don’t lose it. 

PS: Know a CEO who should be sharing their knowledge on LinkedIn? Send them this newsletter!

PPS: Are you a CEO who needs support sharing your insights on LinkedIn? That’s what we do for a living… let me know if we can help.

PPPS: Want to go deeper? Check out my CEO’s Guide to LinkedIn. This 83-page PDF contains everything I know about LinkedIn… and it’s 100% free.

— Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

Executive Presence specializes in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.