The benefits of companies being active on LinkedIn are endless. The platform allows companies to nurture and grow their business relations, promote open job positions to find the right candidates and highlight their work culture, brand personality and more. According to data released by prophet.com, socially engaged companies are 40% more likely to be perceived as more competitive, 57% more likely to get increased sales leads and 58% more likely to attract top talent.   

But in this digital age, customers and employees want and expect more. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer report found that 86% of people expect CEOs to speak publicly and share their views on various matters like community issues, job automation, and the impact of the pandemic.   

This clearly highlights the need for C-suite executives to be active on LinkedIn and showcase their unique opinions and views on various issues. Further, research carried out by LinkedIn also revealed that 56% of professionals agreed that a business executive’s presence on social media positively influenced their purchase decision and 66% said they would be more likely to recommend a company or brand if they followed a company executive on social media.  

But how can companies encourage leaders to leverage social media and build trust for the business using LinkedIn? Read on to learn more.  

Defining Your Executive Program Strategy  

In order to create an effective Executive Program Strategy, the first step is to identify the goals and objectives of the program. This will help you gain insights into who the ideal target audience would be. For example, if the goal of the Executive Program is to gather leads for the business, the ideal target audience would be relevant executives that make purchasing decisions at the target businesses and the main influencers.  

With this data, it is then possible to understand the size of the audience, what kind of content they would be interested in and a lot more.   

The next step would be to conduct a quick competitor research on LinkedIn to understand what other influencers and competitors are posting and what kind of content their audience is engaging in. Such competitor research helps understand key content themes, the most effective content formats and more.   

With this information, it is then possible to create a rough content framework for the proposed Executive Program.   

Getting C-Suite Buy In  

After you have your strategy mapped out, it is time to get your leaders to buy into it. Here are some ways to get them to be active on social media to build connections and gain the trust of the target audience:  

Explain the Benefits of the Program  

The main way to get executives to buy in is by getting them involved early on and providing a clear rationale and highlighting the benefits of the program. This will help them understand its importance and is more likely to get them to participate.   

Make it Easy for them  

In order to ensure participation, it is important to make it as easy for them as possible. We recommend doing that by identifying the content themes and creating the draft content for them to personalise and post. Having pre-approved content ready for them to post will help the business reach its goals more efficiently.   

Look into Getting Access to their LinkedIn Profile  

In case of resistance, you could also suggest gaining access to their LinkedIn profile to post on their behalf. This is especially useful in cases where the leader has a packed schedule and does not have the time to dedicate to posting. Don’t forget to ensure them that nothing will be posted without their approval to improve your chances of getting them onboard with this plan.   

Need help creating the perfect Executive Program for your B2B business? Reach out to our team to learn more about how we can help you set it up.