In previous posts, I shared how CMOs at Xerox, Lithium, G2Crowd, Wiley, and XOJet are getting LinkedIn wrong as they simply focused on brand awareness, reach, and filling the funnel. I showed how the actions of these CMOs and others are the reasons behind why 8 out of 10 sales and marketing leaders are unable to prove a clear social media ROI on LinkedIn. Click here to read the post on the Biznology.com blog.
Now, as I review the actions, thoughts, and ideas from some of the most recognized social media and social selling authors, experts and consultants, I understand why business leaders and sales and marketing professionals are failing to drive demand on LinkedIn. These experts including Jay Baer, Viveka von Rosen, Josh Turner, Christine Hueber, Brynne Tillman, Alice Heiman, John Nemo, David Meerman Scott, Dave Kerpen, and others are even getting LinkedIn wrong. Keep reading my most controversial and provocative article yet to see what I mean….
Jay Baer Wrongly Believes Shotguns Trump Rifles in Social Media
On his blog, in LinkedIn group discussions, on LinkedIn Pulse, and even in his presentations (including the one at Social Fresh), Jay Baer mentioned that shotguns trump rifles in social media. He mentions that a shotgun approach gets a bigger reach and has a better opportunity for going viral. He believes that social media should be a volume play, and that you should be focused on broadcasting the same content to the widest possible audience, regardless of the different needs, wants, and expectations of your followers or connections.
Jay’s approach is taking the “social” out of “social media,” and those sales and marketing executives that follow his approach are just seeing social media as another advertising medium to gain more brand awareness. When you have a high-priced solution with a complex sales process that requires strong relationships, you better be sure you’re focusing on specific audiences and that you are relevant. Rifles trump shotguns in this case!
Wayne Breitbarth and David Meerman Scott Thinks You Should Be More of a Resource
David Meerman Scott (best-selling author with more than 250,000 books sold worldwide, keynote sales and marketing speaker) believes that only 10% of the content you share in social media circles (including LinkedIn) should be your own. Wayne Breitbarth (author of The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success) believes that for every 10 updates, 6 should be for content you didn’t create!
This positions you as a resource rather than a thought leader! LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to go directly to key decision makers and communicate to them your business value. Your business value shouldn’t be that you can curate content that would be relevant to them!
Keep in mind that a recent LinkedIn study shows that 80% of IT buyers say that thought leadership content is crucial in their decision making process – and I’m sure that if LinkedIn completed the study in other industries, they’d get similar results. If thought leadership content was key, why would I focus on sharing other people’s content more?
Viveka von Rosen, Stephanie Sammons, Melonie Dodaro, Donna Serdula, Christine Hueber and Kurt Shaver Wrongly Use the LinkedIn Publishing Platform
These experts fail to understand that the LinkedIn publishing platform posts are tools that are meant to position you Using it ineffectively takes away from any positioning work that you may have done on your profile as they are linked directly from it. Most importantly, they should challenge thoughts and actions, and drive demand for an alternative option. The platform is not just another place to share content, despite what these experts may believe:
- Viveka von Rosen, author of LinkedIn Marketing in an Hour a Day (and one of the most well-known LinkedIn marketing consultants) talks about how to customize your invitations on LinkedIn. Can’t that be found on almost every social media consultant’s website?
- Melonie Dodaro – a contributor to LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog (and the best-selling author of The LinkedIn Code) shares on the LinkedIn publishing platform “7 messages that you should not send on LinkedIn, including the default message” (like this hasn’t been written about a million times in the last 5 years.) In her posts about LinkedIn profiles (as well as the posts from fellow Social Media Examiner contributor Stephanie Sammons), you’ll find tips about having a professional photo, a strong headline, and a summary written in first person that is prospect-centric. Notice that this is the same old information, just written by another author.
- Christine Hueber, who self-proclaims herself as the #1 LinkedIn All-Time Top Female Expert, mainly uses the LinkedIn Publishing Platform to promote her events, workshops, webinars etc. Most of the posts are blatant self-promotions, even though B2B buyers are calling for more value. They want relationships first. They want to see real, differentiated value, and how you turn their vision into results they want to achieve. When Christine provides any value in her platform posts, it is generic value. For example, in a post where she talks about how to increase your website traffic 500+% with a simple strategy – she talks about consistent, compelling blogging (like, no duh!) and then you have to sign up for a strategy session to learn about an effective system that makes blogging easy, fast, and fun.
- Donna Serdula, a LinkedIn profile makeover expert – uses the LinkedIn publishing platform to share information about completely overdone topics like “Should Your LinkedIn Profile Be Written in 1st Person or 3rd.” She also discusses things like the Microsoft Acquisition of LinkedIn, the LinkedIn lawsuit, and how LinkedIn caps the number of searches you can complete with a free account. Now, how do these topics relate back to driving demand for LinkedIn profile makeovers?
- Kurt Shaver (Founder of The Sales Foundry) and many others ineffectively newsjack and push out content. When the news broke about the Microsoft + LinkedIn acquisition, everyone started creating and sharing articles and posts about it. Kurt Shaver started writing posts about how it’s mostly a tactic to beat Salesforce (who cares? except for anyone in marketing automation) and “Why Microsoft Buying LinkedIn is Like the Warriors Signing Kevin Durant.” This may have gotten 2000+ views, hundreds of likes and comments, and even Jeff Weiner’s attention, but if there is no next step action, what good is it? If the acquisition isn’t changing anything now or in the near future for my prospects, why would I write about it?
Mark White Fails to Recognize the Importance of Mixing Content with LinkedIn Marketing
As of this writing, we’re at the end of August, and Mark White (who has been training UK businesses how to use LinkedIn before I even founded GetLinkedInHelp.com) only has 4 LinkedIn publishing platform posts and 3 blog posts for this year. He hasn’t blogged since March 14.
This LinkedIn consultant fails to understand that content plays an important role in:
- Getting prospects to self-identify themselves inside LinkedIn groups as a prospect who is in need of your services or solutions
- Challenging your prospects’ current approaches and opening their minds to alternative options
- Communicating and demonstrating your unique business value
- Making connections and nurturing key relationships with B2B decision makers as you move them through the buyer’s journey
Judy Parsons and Alice Heiman Try to Sell How Quick and Easy It Is For Sales Leaders to Use LinkedIn.
Judy Parsons, a UK LinkedIn trainer, has a free ebook: One Hour to a LinkedIn Profile That Gets You Noticed! If she truly understood LinkedIn and how important it is for your profile to not only get noticed but to drive next steps, then she would not be promoting getting it done in just one hour. Recent studies show that most sellers are out of sync with buyers, and that most sales people fail to communicate business value in person (and we find that even more fail on LinkedIn!) That’s why most of the time we spend on providing LinkedIn profile makeovers (10 to 14 hours overall) is actually spent on the positioning and messaging strategy. This is not something to be rushed, as your personal profile is the foundation to your LinkedIn success.
Alice Heiman, one of the top sales consultants, coaches clients that they can achieve success on LinkedIn in just 15 to 30 minutes a day. Do you really think that you can make the right connections, engage in real conversations, and nurture relationships in just 15 minutes per day? These experts are speaking to their potential prospects’ lack of time to show sales professionals that they can do it. LinkedIn is becoming a shopping list of tactics for sales professionals rather than strategic actions that are leading to real outcomes. LinkedIn ROI should be qualitative, with results that can be traced to activity, as opposed to actual time on the site.
Now, This Is Only Part 1 of My Series on How Social Media and Social Selling Experts Are Getting LinkedIn Wrong.
In part 2, I’ll be talking about Brynne Tillman, Josh Turner, Judy Schramm, John Nemo, and others. These experts may get mad at me for calling them out – but I am trying to initiate change in how we approach LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and business development. It’s time that we go beyond awareness, reach, and pushing out content on LinkedIn. It’s time that we stop focusing on “time spent.” It’s time we focus on creating real relationships and, most importantly, on driving demand and revenue.
In my Biznology webinar with Mike Moran, I show how to go beyond brand awareness and drive demand. Click here for the slides I shared.
