LinkedIn vs. PR

You could pay a PR agency $10k/month to write and place articles in publications that few of your actual customers will ever read.

Or — through only text + images — you could build a following for your CEO/Founder/Company Page on LinkedIn and reach customers directly.

Maybe you’ll get the PR bump of you land a massive feature in a Tier 1 publication, but that is pipe dreams for most B2B software companies today.

So instead you get the random blogs so the PR team can feel good about “placing” something.

Forget that approach.

Spend your time sharing your thoughts & POV on LinkedIn.

You’ll build an audience. Which is not a vanity metric btw. Followers is not a vanity metric. I’ve seen it directly influence a company’s sales. We just don’t like it because it’s hard to directly measure. But if more people follow the CEO, more people will see their thoughts & POV, if more people see their thoughts & POV more people will remember the company, if more people remember the company, more people will think of you when they need something like you provide. And that can all start with followers.

You will also FEEL the impact. There will be more DMs from people that want to:

- work at your company
- invest in your company
- partner with your company

And as you build an audience on LinkedIn, when you need to promote something, you’ll be able to drive traffic to that on your own without having to rely on “finding” eyeballs.

AND!

LinkedIn gives you direct feedback on your POV and perspective. You see reactions. You read comments. You discuss with commenters. Then you can tweak your POV. Or learn and iterate. Social media is an incredible way to get the feedback loop going. And it’s not understood this way for PR. You can be using social media to your advantage beyond vanity metrics. It’s a real time source of feedback.

Anyway. LinkedIn is where I would be spending my thought leadership budget on the CEO if you believe in that. Not traditional PR.

PS. We'll help create written thought leadership content for your blog, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We are in a unique position to do this and have already seen this make a big impact on both growth and employment branding with a few founders behind the scenes. If you are interested in being a client starting in September 2022 fill out the info here and we'll reach out if there's a good fit. Demand for this service will be high, so we're only going to be able to work with a limited number of founders in the beginning so for now this is application only.

Speaking of LinkedIn ... Chris Walker Podcast Is Out

This week my guest on the Exit Five podcast is another person you have probably seen on LinkedIn --> Chris Walker. He's CEO at Refine Labs and has some of the strongest opinions about what an effective B2B marketing strategy looks like today. I love getting the opportunity to talk to Chris and pick his brain.

Search for the episode "Exit Five Podcast" wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the link on Spotify so you can listen now if you want.

Hiring Marketers? Looking For A New Job?

Reach thousands of B2B marketers every month through the Exit Five job board.

It's 100% free for any company to post a B2B marketing role, plus you can promote jobs to reach more people over 30 days.

There are currently 46 open roles and the job board and I get emails like this a few times a month.

I also added a new option that will allow you to get your job promoted in this newsletter here and on the Exit Five podcast.

Here's where you can post a job on the Exit Five job board.

Event For Demand Gen Pros (FREE) To Register

Have you registered for DEMAND yet?

That's Metadata's virtual event coming this fall and there's a list you can get on now so you can get access to all of the content.

You'll hear from some mediocre / washed up marketing leaders like myself. I'll be there live in NYC.

And most importantly you'll get actual, practical, tactical advice from some great people like Amanda Natividad, Ross Simmonds, Peep Laja, and more. Hope to see you there virtually or in-person.