Grow Your LinkedIn Presence with Company Ambassadors

Leveraging Your Network to Amplify Your Brand

As a business owner or marketer, one of your most powerful assets is your network. This applies both to you as an individual and to your company as a whole. It’s clear then that actively growing this network and getting the right people involved in your business should be a top priority.

In this in-depth blog post, social media expert Erendiz Ates will teach you how to engage the right people on LinkedIn and turn them into ambassadors for your brand. You’ll learn:

• How to actively and passively reach the right people on LinkedIn
• Strategies for creating brand ambassadors from your network

Shifting from Attention to Trust

When it comes to sales and marketing, our natural instinct is often to try and get to the destination as quickly as possible – whether that’s filling job openings, closing sales, or promoting an event. We look for shortcuts, automation, and other tools to help us scale and speed up the process.

However, Erendiz cautions that this approach often backfires. The reality is that the majority of people on LinkedIn are “latent prospects” – they’re not actively looking for what you have to offer right now. So our focus needs to shift from grabbing attention to building trust.

The Power of Personalization

One key way to build that trust is through personalized outreach. Erendiz shares some eye-opening statistics on the impact of personalization:

• Personalized connection requests have a 50% acceptance rate on average
• Non-personalized connection requests have a 55% acceptance rate

The reason for this surprising finding is that most connection requests and messages on LinkedIn are generic and impersonal. By taking the time to craft a personalized message that shows you’ve actually looked at the person’s profile, you immediately stand out and demonstrate that you value them as an individual.

Of course, the downside of personalization is that it’s more time-consuming. Erendiz suggests a balanced approach – focus on personalizing your outreach to your “unusual suspects”, the people who aren’t already in your immediate network but could be valuable connections. For your “usual suspects” (existing connections, colleagues, etc.), a more generic message is often fine.

Building a Community of Ambassadors

Once you’ve made those initial personalized connections, the next step is to start turning them into brand ambassadors for your business. Erendiz outlines a “double impact strategy” for doing this:

One-on-One Outreach

The one-on-one approach involves systematically adding new connections, sending personalized messages, and then following up with them over time. This could involve:

• Adding 10 new marketing or sales contacts per week
• Posting new content each week to ensure your new connections see it
• Sending a thank-you message after someone accepts your connection request
• Nurturing the relationship over time through further outreach and engagement

The benefit of this approach is that it allows you to build genuine, personal relationships. The downside is that it’s very time-intensive and doesn’t necessarily scale well.

One-to-Many Outreach

The one-to-many approach involves leveraging your existing network and company page to amplify your message. This could include:

• Encouraging your colleagues to share and engage with content from your company page
• Using LinkedIn’s “Recommend to Employees” feature to notify your team about new posts
• Utilizing third-party tools like Sidecar to make it easy for employees to re-share content

The benefit of this approach is that it can help you reach a much wider audience with less individual effort. The challenge is ensuring that your colleagues are genuinely engaged and excited to share your content, rather than feeling like they’re being forced to do so.

Erendiz emphasizes the importance of striking the right balance between these two approaches. The one-on-one outreach helps you build deep, personal relationships, while the one-to-many approach allows you to scale your reach. Combining the two can be a powerful way to grow your network of brand ambassadors.

Leveraging Your Company Page

In addition to building relationships with individuals, Erendiz also highlights the importance of optimizing your company’s LinkedIn presence. Here are some key tips:

Analyze Your Company Page Analytics

Take a close look at who is visiting your company page and engaging with your content. Are they the right people – your target audience and potential customers? If not, you may need to adjust your content strategy to better reach the people you want to connect with.

Encourage Employee Engagement

Your employees are a powerful asset when it comes to amplifying your company’s message on LinkedIn. Encourage them to follow, share, and engage with content from your company page. You can use features like “Recommend to Employees” to make it easy for them to do so.

Leverage Timing and Frequency

Erendiz shares some insights on the optimal timing and frequency for posting on your company page:

• You can expect around 4-5% of your followers to see your post in the first hour or two after you publish it
• More than 80% of your followers will likely see your post, so don’t feel like you need to post constantly
• Aim for a consistent cadence, whether that’s once a week or a few times per month – quality over quantity

The key is to post content that is genuinely valuable and engaging for your audience, rather than just pushing out promotional messages. By doing so, you’ll be more likely to turn your followers into active brand ambassadors.

Measuring and Optimizing Your Efforts

Of course, no marketing strategy is complete without a way to measure its effectiveness. Erendiz recommends using tools like the Shield app to dive deep into the analytics of your LinkedIn campaigns:

• Track key metrics like reach, engagement, and cost savings compared to paid advertising
• Identify which types of content and outreach strategies are performing best
• Continuously optimize your approach based on the data

By taking a data-driven approach and constantly refining your tactics, you can maximize the impact of your efforts to build a powerful network of brand ambassadors on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Growing your presence on LinkedIn and turning your network into a team of brand ambassadors is a powerful way to amplify your business. By shifting your focus from attention-grabbing to trust-building, leveraging personalized outreach and community engagement, and measuring your results, you can create a sustainable, scalable strategy for LinkedIn success.

Remember, the key is to approach LinkedIn as a platform for genuine connection and value-sharing, not just promotion. When you put in the time to build real relationships and provide your network with useful, engaging content, you’ll start to see the dividends pay off in the form of increased visibility, thought leadership, and new business opportunities.

So what are you waiting for? Start putting these strategies into action and watch your LinkedIn presence – and your business – grow!