Best of LinkedIn: Social Selling CW 37/ 38

00:00:00: Brought to you by Thomas Alguyer and Frennis, this edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on social selling in weeks thirty-seven and thirty-eight.

00:00:07: Frennis supports enterprises with enablement and insights, providing data-driven sales intelligence, flexible support, team augmentation, and data quality improvements.

00:00:17: so social engagement turns into a measurable pipeline.

00:00:21: Welcome to the deep dive today.

00:00:23: We're really zeroing in on the social selling trends popping up on LinkedIn specifically over the last couple of weeks.

00:00:29: This deep dive is all about pulling together the data the expert takes Focusing on how people are really shifting towards well precise ICP focus conversations led by DMs and making sure that profile actually converts views into real pipeline.

00:00:42: We're mapping out the new playbook.

00:00:43: essentially

00:00:44: It's definitely an interesting moment.

00:00:45: Things are maturing fast, aren't they, where I think well past just surface engagement or chasing vanity metrics now.

00:00:51: Yeah,

00:00:52: feels like it.

00:00:52: Everything really points towards building genuine trust, personal authority, and making sure there's a measurable impact.

00:00:59: The end game from everything we've looked at seems to be becoming that obvious credible choice before the prospect even thinks about a discovery call.

00:01:08: Credibility.

00:01:10: That takes us right into our first big theme doesn't it?

00:01:12: the shift towards executives using personal brands to build trust.

00:01:17: It's not exactly news that people engage more with people than brands But what's really striking now is seeing this become like actual corporate strategy.

00:01:25: exactly The sources we reviewed, they consistently show the executive's personal profile acting as that crucial trust layer.

00:01:32: It's what drives reach, offers proof, and ultimately conversion.

00:01:36: It's the human face.

00:01:37: And we're seeing more talk about creator collaborations, co-created assets, because that kind of synergy seems key to turning, you know, cold attention into genuinely warm, qualified conversations.

00:01:48: People buy from people they trust.

00:01:50: Jordan Murphy put it well, if your expertise isn't visible, it's basically worthless.

00:01:53: And making it visible is starting to look like a serious corporate investment.

00:01:58: I mean, that example Jada Perrick shared about PayPal, hiring a full-time head of CEO content just for the CEO's LinkedIn.

00:02:06: That's a significant commitment.

00:02:07: It really

00:02:08: signals a structural shift, right?

00:02:09: It suggests the ROI on that personal executive authority is seen as high enough now to justify a dedicated person.

00:02:16: Absolutely.

00:02:17: And when you consider the potential scale, Fernando C shared a pretty eye-opening number.

00:02:22: LinkedIn's got over three hundred and ten million users, but apparently only about one percent post-weekly.

00:02:28: Only one percent,

00:02:29: wow.

00:02:29: Yeah, but that tiny fraction, they capture something like nine billion views.

00:02:34: That massive gap shows exactly why executive visibility isn't just nice to have anymore.

00:02:39: It's becoming essential to compete because the reward for showing up consistently is huge.

00:02:43: Okay, so let's say the executives, the sales team, they commit.

00:02:46: They're building that trust, generating traffic.

00:02:48: But then what happens when someone actually lands on your profile?

00:02:52: Which I think brings us neatly to theme two, profile optimization.

00:02:56: Right.

00:02:57: And this is where you have to ask that fundamental question.

00:02:59: Is your profile basically an online CV or is it truly working as a landing page?

00:03:04: Nick Meleco's made a great point about decision makers often being lurkers.

00:03:08: They might read everything you post, check your profile, but never hit like.

00:03:13: So the profile itself has to do the selling.

00:03:15: when you're not there.

00:03:16: You don't get long to make an impression.

00:03:18: Tim Hughes' data on this is well.

00:03:20: Pretty blunt.

00:03:21: Seventy-six percent of B to B buyers apparently decide in less than six seconds if a profile is worth digging into.

00:03:28: Six

00:03:28: seconds.

00:03:29: Yes, six seconds.

00:03:29: I mean, that headline, the first couple of lines of the about section, they have to instantly scream, you know, one problem, one ideal customer, one proof point.

00:03:38: It just sounds like a job history.

00:03:39: You've lost them.

00:03:39: The consensus, and Jasmine really emphasized this, it's all about reducing friction.

00:03:44: Make it dead simple.

00:03:45: The profile should point towards one clear call to action, one easy next step.

00:03:50: maybe it's a lead magnet maybe a booking link?

00:03:52: okay and that focus needs to be echoed everywhere.

00:03:55: the banner image the featured items guide them smoothly from who is this?

00:03:59: okay I'll click that.

00:04:01: it feels like this shift from profile as resume to profile as conversion tool is where efficiency really matters.

00:04:07: and interestingly This is where even AI is starting to play a role, not just for, say, writing posts, but for nailing that positioning.

00:04:14: Yes.

00:04:14: Anika Chetri shared a really smart prompt structure for that.

00:04:18: Instead of just vaguely asking the AI to write an about section, the prompt forces the AI to answer five key questions.

00:04:24: first.

00:04:25: Ah, OK.

00:04:26: Like what?

00:04:27: Things like specific goals, the target role or ICP, measurable achievements, even the desired tone of voice.

00:04:34: That

00:04:34: makes sense.

00:04:34: So you're guiding the AI towards a specific commercial outcome.

00:04:38: based on real human experience, not just letting it churn out generic fluff.

00:04:42: Exactly.

00:04:42: It's less about AI replacing the thinking and more about using it to speed up the process of creating personalized conversion focused positioning.

00:04:50: Got

00:04:50: it.

00:04:51: Okay, so the profile is the landing page.

00:04:53: Then theme three, content strategy and engagement, must be the engine driving traffic there.

00:04:58: And the source is here, really hammer home.

00:05:00: Generic tips are out, teaching is in.

00:05:02: Definitely.

00:05:03: The aim, as Bogomil Stoyev put it, is dialogue, and that's sparked by narrative content that actually teaches the market something useful.

00:05:11: He made a really interesting point for experts, too.

00:05:14: Don't just share the wins.

00:05:17: Yeah, he argued that sharing struggles and failures can actually be more powerful.

00:05:21: Success might attract attention, sure, but it's the struggles that create that human connection, that vulnerability, and apparently that's what really resonates with high value clients.

00:05:31: That idea of high value connection.

00:05:33: It fits perfectly with those metric shifts Bianca Cole has pointed out, doesn't it?

00:05:36: Yeah.

00:05:37: LinkedIn now highlighting saves in DM shares and analytics.

00:05:40: Exactly.

00:05:40: It's like LinkedIn itself is saying, hey, stop chasing reach for reach's sake.

00:05:44: The focus should be on creating genuinely save-worthy content.

00:05:48: Like

00:05:48: checklists, maybe, or deep dives.

00:05:50: Precisely.

00:05:51: Things people actually want to refer back to.

00:05:53: Frameworks, mini guides, solid analysis.

00:05:56: So it's quality over the sheer volume of eyeballs.

00:05:59: But that demands focus, right?

00:06:00: Yeah.

00:06:01: Richard VanderBloom's advice was pretty clear.

00:06:03: Ignore vanity metrics.

00:06:05: Focus on dominating one buyer pond at a time.

00:06:08: Don't try to be all things to all people.

00:06:10: And that consistent high quality focus gets rewarded by the algorithm in maybe surprising ways.

00:06:17: Both Liam Darmity and Robert Heinecky mentioned this.

00:06:19: Strategic engagement.

00:06:21: You know, commenting thoughtfully on other relevant posts.

00:06:25: that can often generate more valuable visibility than just posting your own stuff constantly.

00:06:29: Comments drive deeper conversations, which the algorithm seems to love.

00:06:33: That's a huge insight, especially for smaller teams, maybe.

00:06:36: Focusing energy on high value comments could yield better ROI than just churning out.

00:06:39: posts.

00:06:40: And that level of interaction feeds right into our next theme, DMs and outreach.

00:06:45: Warmth is definitely the new cold here.

00:06:47: Oh, absolutely.

00:06:48: The sources make it crystal clear.

00:06:49: The sheer volume of spammy irrelevant in males has just, well, it's poison the well for cold outreach on the platform.

00:06:56: Totally.

00:06:57: Dan's Makoska story really stands out.

00:06:59: He booked what, a hundred and sixty plus qualified meetings.

00:07:03: not from blasting hundreds, but by sending just five highly researched, personalized DMs a day.

00:07:10: Quality over quantity.

00:07:12: It always wins in the long run, especially in B to B. And

00:07:14: so.

00:07:15: And this failure of generic cold outreach, it highlights the need for a proper warm-up system.

00:07:21: Eddie Bonham laid out his process quite clearly.

00:07:24: What

00:07:24: did that involve?

00:07:25: It's systematic.

00:07:26: engage with the prospects content-liking, commenting meaningfully for maybe three to five days, wait for them to respond to a comment, then send a DM that directly references that interaction you just had.

00:07:37: Ah, so it's contextual.

00:07:39: Exactly.

00:07:40: And he reported getting forty-sixty percent response rates doing that.

00:07:43: It's slow, it's deliberate, but it works because it's built on relevance.

00:07:46: Johann Dorval framed this as the difference between just personalized outreach using the first name tag, and truly personal outreach.

00:07:53: Right.

00:07:54: Personal means you mentioned something specific, a recent post they wrote, a shift in their company news, it proves you actually paid attention.

00:08:00: And timing matters too.

00:08:03: Sending that DM right after they've interacted with you publicly, it shows you're engaged in real time, which must create more impact.

00:08:10: Definitely.

00:08:11: Now this always brings up that old debate.

00:08:14: Social selling versus cold calling?

00:08:16: Daniel Disney actually ran an experiment showing spammy, untargeted in-mails basically got zero results.

00:08:23: No surprise there.

00:08:24: Right.

00:08:24: So the expert consensus seems pretty clear.

00:08:27: Social selling isn't meant to replace cold calling entirely.

00:08:31: It's the essential tool to warm up those calls.

00:08:33: So you're not eliminating the phone call, but you're making sure that when you do pick up the phone, you're not a complete stranger.

00:08:39: Yeah.

00:08:39: Ivan Baranenko said it well.

00:08:41: You're already seen as credible and familiar.

00:08:43: You've

00:08:43: removed that initial friction, that inherent distrust because they've likely seen your profile, maybe read a comment, maybe even saved one of your posts.

00:08:50: Makes sense.

00:08:51: And that credibility is ultimately built by people, which leads us to our final cluster.

00:08:56: Theme five, employee advocacy and community management.

00:09:00: Leveraging the company's own people seems critical.

00:09:03: Absolutely critical.

00:09:04: The company's most powerful asset, really.

00:09:07: And the stats back it up.

00:09:09: John Aspinall mentioned employee voices getting up to eight times more engagement than the corporate accounts.

00:09:15: Eight times.

00:09:16: Yeah.

00:09:17: It just humanizes the brand, cuts through that natural skepticism people have towards big company logos these days.

00:09:23: Okay.

00:09:24: Sounds great in theory, but there's a potential pitfall here, isn't there?

00:09:29: Luke Brinley-Jones warned about creating fools communities.

00:09:32: Yes, that's a crucial warning.

00:09:35: It happens when the employee engagement becomes purely internal.

00:09:38: You know, all the junior sales folks just liking and commenting on each other's posts.

00:09:42: Recreating an echo chamber.

00:09:43: Exactly.

00:09:44: And the algorithm sees this internal activity and starts targeting other junior salespeople, completely missing the actual customers you want to reach.

00:09:51: The organic reach gets skewed.

00:09:53: So the activation has to be strategic, focused outward.

00:09:57: Eric Jacobson shared how Nihal Tenenimawani approached this at Clary.

00:10:01: They created content activation documents.

00:10:03: What

00:10:03: did those involve?

00:10:04: Templates.

00:10:05: Not really templates in the copy-paste sense.

00:10:08: More like thought starters, prompts for first-person stories.

00:10:11: The idea was to ensure the posts were authentic, drawing on the employee's actual experience, not just sounding like recycled marketing slogans.

00:10:19: And even small tweaks make a difference there.

00:10:21: Studies show that even minor personization of shared content, like changing just one percent from a template, can triple the engagement compared to just hitting share.

00:10:30: Interesting.

00:10:31: Finally, though, we have to address that human element Jacoli Eunice brought up.

00:10:35: Why do some advocacy programs fail?

00:10:38: Often, it's fear.

00:10:39: Fear.

00:10:40: Yeah.

00:10:41: Employees worry their boss will see them posting on LinkedIn and think they're just self-promoting or wasting time instead of working.

00:10:46: Ah.

00:10:47: the perception issue.

00:10:48: Exactly.

00:10:49: So there needs to be a clear mandate from the top.

00:10:52: Employee advocacy is a win-win.

00:10:54: It builds the individual's brand and it builds the company's visibility.

00:10:58: It has to be positioned as a core strategic activity, not just some optional side task.

00:11:03: That's a really important point for successful implementation.

00:11:06: So as you wrap this up, if there's one big takeaway from all these insights, it really feels like social selling is a long game.

00:11:13: It's cumulative.

00:11:14: Yeah.

00:11:15: Not about one viral hit.

00:11:16: Definitely not.

00:11:17: It's about the compounding effect of consistent value-driven actions.

00:11:21: Every thoughtful comment, every relevant piece of content, every personalized DM, it all adds up over time.

00:11:28: The goal is simply to build that trust and familiarity.

00:11:31: So when your buyer is finally ready to engage, you're already top of mind as the credible, helpful choice.

00:11:36: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:11:40: Also, check out our other editions on account-based marketing, field marketing, channel marketing, MarTech, GoToMarket, and AI, and BDB marketing.

00:11:48: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into social selling.

00:11:51: Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an edition of the deep dive.