Your product and service is not your brand, that's simply what you sell?

Your brand is what people say you are, and this is based on how they 'experience' what you promise and one of the most important factors in this is based on how relatable you and your company are to them.

It seems that for those CEO’s who have addressed the health crisis on LinkedIn post engagement rates are up 90%. (link below)

While more CEOs post on Twitter, the study concludes they are missing an opportunity by not publishing on LinkedIn, where their employees spend more time. The study also found that the most successful posts express gratitude for internal teams, address business continuity and explain how the companies are giving back.

Whatever your social media goals are, what matters is that you bring value to your audience.

Some brands and leaders make the mistake of having a passive presence on social media or in some cases they have an active one. The active ones assume that what’s valuable to them is also important to their audience. So they use their social platforms to broadcast, to “sell, sell, sell”, rather than considering what really matters to people they're trying to reach.

A lot of people I talk to about starting a blog, or simply just wanting to share knowledge and expertise seem to defer doing it because "I'm not sure everyone will like what I write about", and you know what, they're correct........

We often get hung up into thinking that everyone should like what we talk about, or what we do, which inevitably adds to our procrastination.

Instead of using your social platforms to broadcast, try to use them to join conversations that are already happening. Listen to what your audience is already discussing, read what influencers are writing -then pitch your content to respond to these cues. 

When I look to benchmark strong 'social leaders' they all seem to adopt five key behaviours. 

They are…

1) Authentic – They are “real”; in other words, genuine, believable human beings that you warm to. It’s one of the reasons why leaders are increasingly outperforming brand social media channels.

2) Conversational – They get involved in the conversation, by replying to comments and questions. “Likes” aren’t enough. And, it’s not just a broadcast all about them. Connected leaders listen.

3) Have a purpose that inspires – Connected leaders’ content isn’t just there for the sake of it, rehashing posts from the PR team. It has a purpose that relates to their core beliefs and mission.

4) Share insights – Leaders haven’t got there by accident – it’s because of a lot of hard work, commercial acumen and talent. People want to know how they got there. So their insights and opinions are invaluable.

5) Present – This is both about having a regular cadence of posts and activity (no drive-by Likes) and thinking holistically about their digital footprint and public profile. For top leaders it’s not enough just to be on LinkedIn. They need to think bigger and more broadly.

As in real life you only get out what you put in, so if you only post something on LinkedIn when you want something its more likely to turn people off.  - you simply can't avoid the effort that goes into building relationships in real life, and the same is true for LinkedIn.

There are far too many people (the ones who won't be reading this anyway) who are still on LinkedIn because of FOMO, they surface when they need a new job, or  send 'let's connect' spammy messages in order to pitch 2 minutes after you've accepted that invite, because they are still stuck in the old advertise and promote mindset.

So, share content regularly on LinkedIn, even if some people see you as Rick Astley. By that I mean, lots of people LOVE Rick Astley and think he's awesome and hung the moon. Other people think he's a treacly hack. 

The point is, like Rick says by 'never ever gonna give you up' and consistently sharing content that puts your ideal prospect's needs front and centre - you cannot fail here.

So, how does your leadership team stack up?