Are you an executive assistant in charge of your exeutive's LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn is an important platform that can help position your executive as a thought leader, raise their profile and increase their network. And it’s all in your hands. By getting into the habit of engaging with LinkedIn regularly, you can deliver plenty of benefits for your executive. 

Plus, these tips also work for yourself too. You’re a part of the company and you can leverage your own network to celebrate the wins, gain expert advice and boost your career prospects.

More than an online resume 

The way people use LinkedIn is evolving. In the early days, it was very much a recruitment platform. Even though it is still heavily used by recruiters, it’s becoming a great way to connect and network beyond recruiting.  People use LinkedIn to:

• establish themselves as a thought leader
• increase their network 
• secure incoming leads 
• direct message potential customers and clients
• establish an in-demand employer brand to attract valuable job candidates 

LinkedIn: the statistics 

The numbers don’t lie. LinkedIn has more than 600 million users, including nine million in Australia. 

• 91% of executives rank LinkedIn as high value
• 80% of executives rank LinkedIn as useful for lead generation
• LinkedIn drives more traffic to blogs and websites than other social media platforms
• 40% of LinkedIn users visit the site daily 
• Only three million users share content on LinkedIn weekly

Source: Kinsta and 99Firms

LinkedIn has plenty of untapped potential. People on LinkedIn may be decision-makers with a budget to spend. They may be less active on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Use LinkedIn strategically and you’ll have the chance to get your executive’s message in front of the right influential people.

Build a personal brand 

What does your executive want to be known as? An expert in their field, a thought leader, a generous value-adder? Perhaps even a controversy-seeking guru? (It works for Gary V.)

LinkedIn is a platform to establish that reputation. People follow people on LinkedIn, so it’s a valuable part of human-to-human marketing. By sharing the human face of your company you are more likely to make an authentic connection. It’s worth being strategic and thinking about what personal brand your executive represents. An amazing decision maker? A fascinating hobby? A captivating speaker? Share those insights to build a following of people, who know, like and trust your executive. It’s also a valuable resource to cultivate your own personal brand. Sharing insightful posts as to your own page helps you grow connections and establish your reputation as an in-demand EA. 

Curate your connections 

One reason people don’t like LinkedIn is they feel it’s full of spam messages and self-serving posts. The way to manage that is by cultivating the connections. Create a network of people who add value to your business, either as peers, customers, collaborators or stakeholders.  Proactively add them as connections, block anyone annoying and your feed will begin to fill with content that’s genuinely useful.  

LinkedIn profile basics

Your executive’s (and your) profile should have all these elements:

• a professional photo
• a background image 
• detailed relevant career history 
• an accurate bio and job title 
• a summary that appeals to the target audience 

In your executive case, it’s an overview of their key responsibilities and achievements

In your case it’s an overview of your key skills, experience and competencies, plus the attributes that make you a high performing EA

LinkedIn company profiles

You may be tasked with managing the company profile as well as the personal profile of your executive. Often, this is a responsibility best left to the marketing team, as part of a broader social media strategy. But, if it’s your responsibility, you should manage it well by:

• sharing company posts to your executive’s personal page (thus giving it more visibility)
• inviting relevant contacts to follow the company, both employees and stakeholders
• posting regular updates, aiming at helping, not selling (about one in five post should be promotional)
• sharing company news, team bios, achievements, events, opinion pieces and projects

Most people prefer to follow a human rather than a company on LinkedIn. But larger organisations can do well out of company profiles. The key is to have a strategy for producing content and engaging with audiences, and be consistent with it. 

A word on managing inbound messages

If you are managing your c-suite executive’s LinkedIn messages, you are likely to receive plenty of sales pitches. Your executive, MD or CEO is a senior leader and everyone wants to sell them something. Don’t feel obliged to respond to every message. It’s likely been sent by a bot, not a real person. Give it a quick scan, ignore and move on. If people continually harass your executive for a ‘10 minute discovery chat’ then block and move on. 

Six daily actions for LinkedIn success:

• comment on posts shared by influential stakeholders
• share content produced by others and add your executive's thoughts (do the same for yourself too)
• share a post: tip, company news, opinion, video or question 
• check the ‘news and views’ section and comment (you increase visibility by commenting on the most popular articles of the day)
• add connections concentrating on the ideal stakeholder, client or customer of the business
• check who’s viewed the profile and if appropriate, message or connect with them 

Connect with Altitude EA founder Anastasia Kelly

Whether you’re a candidate seeking your next exciting EA position or a client looking to recruit a high performing executive assistant, Altitude EA can help. Connect with Anastasia on LinkedIn. Or call 0421 16 55 96.