“Is your team part of the 3%”

I recently facilitated a small group training session with a sales team. Out of the 8 participants, 6 people considered themselves to be very active on LinkedIn.

After some conversation, it became apparent that this was true, but only when it came to connecting with people and consuming content. It was not the case for creating and sharing content.

LinkedIn has more than 900 million members from more than 200 countries across the world (LinkedIn, 2023), and yet only 1 million users have published an article on the platform. Additionally, only 3 million users create and content weekly on LinkedIn (SMperth).

PR Daily shared that only 3 percent of employees share company content, but they generate 30 percent of all content engagement for a typical corporate business.

 Why should you care about these stats? Well, to be succinct, it’s an enormous waste of an opportunity.

There are so many people who are great at what they do, but without the confidence to use LinkedIn or a clear strategy, they are not utilising the platform in a way to get optimum benefits.

For a sales team, this is especially important as potential clients will likely learn about them online before they ever meet in person.

Why is sharing content on LinkedIn important?

Using LinkedIn to not only consume content, but to create and share it, is important for a number of reasons:

•  LinkedIn favors peer-to-peer content. If you’re not creating and sharing, you’re not reaping full rewards from the platform.
•  It gives you the opportunity to have a voice and share your point of view on LinkedIn. Your connections are connected to you for a reason – they want to hear from you!
• Content helps build relationships. The more you create and share, the more opportunities there are for conversation and connection.
• Sharing content helps to broaden the reach and strength of your personal profile and company brand. By elevating the personal profiles of your team members, you will elevate the brand of your company as employees are connected to the company page.

How do you get a team confident using LinkedIn?

It’s one thing to talk about creating and sharing more on LinkedIn and another to actually do it.

We find that one of the biggest barriers to sharing content is lack of confidence. So, how do we address this?

• Communicate your goals and objectives. The more your team understands why engaging on LinkedIn is important, the more likely they are to engage and commit to it.
• Demonstrate best practice and have senior team members leading by example.
• Provide your team members with a social media policy. If they understand the parameters of which they can play, they are more likely to do so.
• Support team members to update their personal profiles. Employees who are satisfied with their profiles are likely to be more confident in posting.
•  Share successes and celebrate team members.
• Provide training and support!

Next steps

Wondering where to go from here? Here are three steps to get you started:

• Review your team members’ LinkedIn profiles – What do they say about your business?
•  Reflect on your internal policy – Are there frameworks such as a social media policy in place to guide and support staff?
• Assess team member capability – Does your team have the skills and confidence to engage on LinkedIn?

If you need some extra support, feel free to get in touch or click here to book a time and we can provide some advice to help you maximise the benefits of LinkedIn.