FORTUNE FAVOURS THE WELL PREPARED ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO LINKEDIN BRAND BUILDING FOR BUSY EXECUTIVES

There is an amazing woman I know from LinkedIn. She has a PhD and is a highly successful, global leader in a masculine dominated industry.  Despite being a more mature executive she has prioritised LinkedIn and podcasting for her global branding and profile building efforts. (“Crash! Bang! Smash!”  Listen to the sweet, sweet sound of a negative stereotype shattering somewhere 💕).

As a result of her consistent brand building she is regularly invited to speak, contribute and commentate in her areas of expertise.  This enables her to win lucrative corporate contracts much more easily and be in the running for future even better opportunities.

WHAT DOES SHE DO?

One of the reasons for her success is that she is highly organised. Here’s what she does –

• Once a month she sits down and plans all her content in advance
• Her posting cadence is twice per week
• Her goal is to stay visible with clients, potential clients and other stakeholders, even when she is busy inside the business (and she is incredibly busy across a range of time zones)
• She aligns her content with her business strategy, industry initiatives and career goals
• Her tactics include celebrating others, championing projects she is involved with and sharing personal updates to inspire others and build connection.

This is what I call strategic visibility – ideal for the busy executive who wants to halve their effort and double their impact. Not to be confused with strategic invisibility that women often engage in, which is a blog for another day.

And if you’re not doing this you should be.

WHY DOES THIS WORK FOR HER?

• Her content is pre-prepared so always on brand and aligned with personal and professional goals
• She isn’t chasing likes so doesn’t get distracted or worried about how her content compares, but rather focused on engagement and connection with the right audiences
• She is consistent and the rule of thumb on social media is that consistency trumps frequency and even virality
• Being organised and strategic like this helps her get out of her own way and depresses the modesty norm which can be a trap for many women.

WHAT YOU CAN DO? FOUR STEPS

1. Begin with the end in mind – Work out what you are trying to achieve for yourself over the next 12 months so you can theme your LinkedIn posts and content in alignment with your career or business goals.

2. “A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Try this 12 month Content & Visibility Planner to keep track of key themes and any dates you might want to capitalise on. Remember:

• Your minimum effective dose is once every 30 days (it’s an algorithm thing)
• For most, I recommend one/week so you can focus on the quality of your writing and get more ROI from each piece of content and not get sucked into a vortex of negative self comparisons from spending too much time on LinkedIn
• For the super busy executive I’d suggest once every two weeks, combined with some strategic weekly commenting on industry leaders’ content so you not only turn up in search results, but stay front of mind with decision makers.

3. Prioritise brand you over brand busy – Make a non-negotiable appointment with yourself in your calendar to consistently post. As keynote speaker Dan Gregory says, “design beats discipline”.  Having a non-negotiable system and structure to systematically tackle LinkedIn posting, will not only help keep imposter syndrome at bay, but also help you minimise the impact of brand busy.

4. What gets measured gets done – Keep an eye on post views and track results. They’re easy to measure. But also track messages, notes, invitations to speak/write/meet, business leaders reaching out, recruiters invites and conversations that arise as a result of your content.  That way you can course correct as you need if your content really isn’t resonating with your target audience or leading to anything.  After all, doing something over and over again and getting very little result is simply not smart.

When you’re this organised, luck has very little to do with your success. In fact, the people winning all the glory are definitely creating it for themselves and you’ll be one of them.

#womenofimpact #LookOutCSuiteHereSheComes #ICreateSheroes