Winning on LinkedIn Starts with Coaching–Not Luck

This article is part two of the blog series, Building a SME LinkedIn Program. Check out part one, “Designing a Business-Forward SME Program: Identify Your Thought Leaders.”

Reality Check for Marketing Leaders

As a B2B marketer, you already know LinkedIn isn’t optional. You’ve identified the eager subject matter experts (SME) on your team who are ready to take their personal brands on LinkedIn seriously. But here’s the part we don’t say out loud often enough: as many as 50% of thought leadership producers say the main barrier to creating more effective content is that it’s under-resourced (Edelman).

Hope is not a workflow. We recommend appointing a SME coach in order to ensure your SME program gets off the ground— and lasts. In “Identify Your Thought Leaders,” we talked about spotting the right internal experts—employees with credibility, curiosity and a pulse on the market. Now it’s time to talk about what happens next: a four-stage “Order of Operations” coaching sequence that turns those experts into trusted LinkedIn voices (without turning them into copy and pasting robots).

• Stage One: Getting started
• Stage Two: Engaging
• Stage Three: Community-building
• Stage Four: Providing value

Stage One — Getting Started: Build the Muscle

Most thought leadership programs fail during the first step because organizations don’t take the time to help employees grow their personal voices on LinkedIn. The key is to build habits that stick. Support is part of the process, but consistent coaching is essential to build repeatable behavior.

The first stage requires the most hands-on coaching from the leader of your SME program and aims for two key outcomes during this one- to two-month phase:

1. Establish weekly coaching touch bases to help SMEs identify topics and draft posts.
2. Aim for SMEs to post once per week on LinkedIn.

Your SMEs should be motivated to get started, but it won’t look the same for everyone. Some may be inclined to overproduce in the first few months, or they may be overwhelmed by the thought of developing new content every week. Either way, it’s up to your coach to help your SMEs figure out what they can manage on a consistent basis. Otherwise, you risk burning them out.

*Hard truth: You have to get your head into the game now. If you can’t get them to publish consistently in the first few months, the program is dead.

Stage Two — Engaging: Find Your Voice

LinkedIn’s algorithm loves conversation more than content. So the second stage flips the spotlight outward. This is the chance to move your SMEs from building the consistent LinkedIn presence they established in Stage One to a more strategic approach, representing their personal voice.

Your designated coach should help your SMEs think strategically about their professional networks. Encourage them to tag the decision-makers, partners and peers who matter, commit to showing up where they are engaged and take part in impactful conversations.

SMEs should post five meaningful comments before their next post goes live. No drive-by emojis; we’re talking questions, clarifications or quick examples that move the discussion forward.

*What to watch:  Your SMEs will want to chase vanity metrics—views, likes, follower count. Remind them (and yourself) that the real scorecard is relationships sparked, introductions made, pipeline nudged.

Stage Three — Community-building: Grow on Purpose

Once engagement is natural and consistent, it’s time to encourage your SMEs to be more strategic about the community they are fostering on LinkedIn. This is about expanding their networks to the prospects they are nurturing and the connections they are meeting at professional events.

One of the easiest ways for your SMEs to do this is to start with their strongest connections— the people in their extended networks. Encourage them to ask for introductions or propose publishing joint content to help grow their connections’ networks as well.

*Why it matters: In complex sales, your next opportunity often comes from the second-degree connection who trusts in your brand and the expertise of your team.

Stage Four— Providing Value: Stake a Claim

Here’s where real thought leadership begins. Up to this point, the coaching program has focused on building the LinkedIn muscle. Now that your SMEs are managing their LinkedIn networks and finding new connections, it’s time to focus on their unique voice and expertise.

The final stage is where you’ll help your SMEs identify the primary topic area that sits at the intersection of their own expertise and the challenges their (targeted) networks are facing. You can learn from their new connections in Stage Three and help your SMEs build robust content strategies that add their unique expertise to the most important conversations.

*Success signal: An unsolicited invitation—to speak on a webinar, guest on a podcast, or answer a prospect’s follow-up question. When strangers start the conversation, you’ve hit escape velocity.

What “Good” Looks Like in the First Six Months

• Month one: Three to four posts are/go live, a few interactions in the comments.
• Month three: Posting feels routine. Your SMEs leave a handful of thoughtful comments a week and have new, relevant connections.
• Month six: Your SMEs are well on their way to managing their own networks. They are proactively identifying connections to go after and are starting to get a feel for their voice on the platform.

Is this the only trajectory? Of course not. But if you’re six months in with none of the above, your program needs a reset.

Your Next Step

Ready to trade random posts and one-off comments for a repeatable, business-forward machine? Download the SME Order of Operations infographic.

Part three of our series will unpack the next leap: amplifying SME voices through your corporate channels without stripping out authenticity. If you need help getting started with your SME program build-out, a program partner can help you think through the right strategies to ensure your online impact translates to real business dollars.

Standing Partnership has spent three decades turning deep expertise into effective marketing. Contact us at inquiries@standingpartnership.com.