For PR professionals looking to provide thought leadership on LinkedIn, “Put your executives front and center,” Callie Schweitzer said. “People want to interact with people.”
Schweitzer, head of scaled programs at LinkedIn, was the guest on Dec. 17 for Strategies & Strategies Live, PRSA’s monthly livestream series on LinkedIn.
“What we have found is that LinkedIn is such an important external communications tool for executives, but it’s also so important for internal communications,” she said. Many executives understand “that their constituents are both employees and customers.”
Posting video on the career-networking site helps convey an executive’s sense of humanity and gives viewers a glimpse behind the scenes, she said. With timely, insightful and authentic posts, “CEOs are advancing the conversation” on LinkedIn.
John Elsasser, editor-in-chief of PRSA’s Strategies & Tactics and host of S&T Live, pointed out that videos on LinkedIn showing executives behind the scenes don’t need to be slick, expensive productions. Instead, they can be short clips, from 30 seconds to two minutes long.
PR professionals have a “huge opportunity” to create videos previewing executive speeches and events. Such segments can reach viewers who might not otherwise be able to attend those events.
Communicators can also share company news on LinkedIn. But beyond posting a press release, Schweitzer said, executives should offer commentary and insight. For example, after an earnings call, a CEO might post a short video or written message offering two or three takeaways. She said that newsletters are another popular way for executives to share updates on LinkedIn.
In some cases, executive posts lead to media coverage. This past May, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz published an essay on LinkedIn in which he urged the coffee chain to overhaul its U.S. operations after the company posted disappointing quarterly earnings. News organizations widely covered Schultz’s LinkedIn essay.
Connecting with reporters
“Be part of their conversation and their world before making that pitch” to a reporter on LinkedIn, Schweitzer advised. A common mistake that media relations practitioners make is pitching story ideas to journalists without first establishing a connection with them.
“It’s about making that longer-term investment,” she said. “Even if you haven’t had a one-on-one conversation, just being part of their conversations or providing a source to a journalist” can start to build the connection you’ll need to pitch that reporter directly in the future.
You’ll be notified every time the reporter posts something new by clicking the bell icon below a journalist’s LinkedIn profile. Schweitzer called this approach an “underutilized tactic that is essential to forming great relationships with journalists because you can answer them in real-time.”
Here, Schweitzer discusses how PR professionals can leverage LinkedIn for company news announcements and effectively drive media coverage.
Illustration credit: keBu.Medien
