The LinkedIn Strategy Playbook

Highlights from the LinkedIn Playbook and Unmute’s Innovative Workshops

LinkedIn is designed to create opportunities for every B2B professional. Whether you’re generating opportunities for your business, building your career and network, or trying to position yourself as a thought leader, LinkedIn can be a catalyst for those ambitions. 

The LinkedIn Playbook, a collection of Unmute workshops on engagement-driven LinkedIn strategies, outlines the ideal path to creating a digital presence and initiate opportunities. Covering topics like content strategy and creation to networking and engagement, the sessions form the trifecta of building a LinkedIn presence: Connect, Post, and Engage.

(Introducing the LinkedIn playbook series was Skaled’s resident LinkedIn maestro and Unmute MC, Mackenzie Boli.)

Creating Opportunities Through a LinkedIn Strategy Playbook

Tapping into the bank of opportunities on LinkedIn isn’t a passive process. Authenticity and intentionality are the guiding principles that unearth those opportunities. 

Start by defining your goal and then use the trifecta Connect, Post, and Engage to build your strategy.

Step One – Define Your Goal & Audience

• What are you trying to accomplish on LinkedIn, and how will your activities drive towards those goals? When defining your goals, you’ll need to be specific about what you want the true outcome to be. To generate leads for your company? Become a voice in your industry? Create a reputation and network you can take to your next role?
•  After you’ve defined your main goal, who is your true audience that you’re trying to reach? 

Step Two – Create a Content Strategy 

• Next, ask yourself what kind of content will resonate with your audience? Your content strategy should align with your defined goals and be relevant and interesting to your target.

Step Three – Connect, Post, Engage 

If your goals, audience, and initial content strategy in hand, step three is getting started.

• Connect: Proactively add your buyers, decision-makers, and anyone else in your ideal audience. This serves to expand your network while also making sure the right people see your content.
• Post: Post regularly and consistently to stay top of mind for people. Showing up consistently with educational, relevant, and inspiring content will speak to people and get them to engage.
• Engage: Talk to your network — spend 15-20 minutes every morning engaging with other people’s content. Your engagement will incentivize them to return the favor. It’s all about creating an interactive environment that sparks conversation and positions you as a thought leader.

Key Takeaways from Three LinkedIn Strategy Workshops

The Unmute workshops were designed to help people build their own tactical LinkedIn strategy playbook. 

Hosted by Skaled’s team of LinkedIn pros — Mackenzie Boli, Marion Ting, and Jake Dunlap — each workshop outlined the best practices for connecting, posting, and engaging on LinkedIn. 

The key takeaways from each session will help you dive deeper into what it takes to build a LinkedIn strategy playbook.

Develop Your LinkedIn Posting Strategy

“Develop Your LinkedIn Strategy” began with defining how to present yourself on LinkedIn and what kind of content will fuel that presence. Here are the three main takeaways:

• If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, your content won’t hold water. Passion is a token of authenticity, and your audience craves it.
• Use your buyer personas as motivators for attracting an audience and inspiring new buyers to engage with you. 
• Create relatable content that speaks to who you are outside the office. People are more inclined to engage with you when they can relate to you on a personal level.

Related Content: What should I post on LinkedIn? 99 Ideas.

Write Content that Converts

Be a resource, not a resume — that idea was the cornerstone of “Write Content that Converts.” Through educational, inspiring, and entertaining content, you can build a reputation within your network as a reliable source for quality information. The main points included:

• Pick a Question and Answer It: Be a pillar of information. For your area of focus, YOU have the answers and can become a trusted resource for your audience.
• Be Aware of Post Structure: Make your posts easy to read. Posts that are creatively structured with the reader’s eye in mind are more likely to get shares.
• Embrace Variety: Text-only posts are great, but having variety (i.e., videos, slide shows, infographics, etc.) will help your audience create an encompassing idea of who you are. 

Sell More with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most powerful tools in a sales rep’s arsenal. During “Sell More with LinkedIn Sales Navigator,” Jake walked the audience through his tried-and-true method of outreach and engagement using Sales Navigator. 

• Growth happens through intention. Finding the right audience, connecting, and engaging: these are great for growing your network and should be a staple of your routine.
• Engage and make people feel heard. Commenting and liking people’s content will ignite a little relationship capital. So when you reach out, they’ll be more inclined to reply and start a conversation.
• Comment first and DM second. Through Sales Navigator, you can reimagine the sequence: comment on a couple of their posts, possibly write a post for them, then message, phone calls, and email. Build the dialogue before reaching out.

Leveraging the Power of LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a tool to grow your network, elevate your voice and brand, and help you conquer new opportunities. 

Our LinkedIn Playbook workshops were geared toward showing that versatility and inspiring the audience to realize the many possibilities LinkedIn creates.

Passion, authenticity, and consistency work in tandem with connecting, posting, and engaging. When you have the right balance of all three, the opportunities of LinkedIn present themselves daily. 

But maybe you’ve hit a snag in the process — you’re not sure how to engage with your audience or you’re not seeing the results you expected — and you’re looking for someone to refine your LinkedIn strategy. We can help.

Fill out the form below, and we’ll get you headed in the right direction by auditing your current strategy and building a playbook that works for you as a leader or for you and your team.