Trends.ceo analyzed 3,000 posts published by 150+ Enterprise CEOs, and found that just 20% of a CEO’s LinkedIn content is written for their industry or customers. Does this surprise you?
We call this category 'Customer Content' -
By our definition, 'Customer Content' includes items like industry news, reports, thought leadership, whitepapers, or as simple as sharing observations and ideas.
The remaining 80% of a CEO's posts speak to the remaining 3 categories:
2) Company News
3) Leadership & Mentoring
4) Employer Branding
The Enterprise CEO has a broad scope, and it makes sense to publish on these broad topics.
That said, I believe this balance is off.
CEOs should strive for ~50% Customer Content. And here is the rationale:
1. LinkedIn is a go-to-market channel
I have numerous testimonials from small, mid-market to enterprise CEOs, including my own customers, who attribute substantial revenue to the channel, even though it gets low investment overall.
CEOs who don't treat it as a go-to-market channel are losing out on revenue and visibility.
What was once a channel for "personal branding" has become one of the most engaged channels for B2B audiences.
2. Visibility is the new business currency
Okay it's an old currency, but the scale of visibility that is possible today, is remarkable. Those who are winning at visibility stick to one main topic, and for a CEO, that's their industry.
And in 2023+, visibility is best created on social media. Adding value to your industry will generate thousands of views, which adds followers, which grows views.
Posting is making a drip investment into a long-term asset.
3. Your CEO performs better than your Company Page
And I don't mean relatively. Even with a fraction of the followers, A CEO's channels will often produce more impressions than their LinkedIn Company Pages.
It's time to get organized on how to activate the channels of your executives and Key Opinion Leaders, just as you would any other corporate channel.
3 ways to produce Customer Content for your CEO
Take existing corporate campaigns, get your CEO's perspective, and combine them into long-form content that shares the report findings + unique views.
Interview your CEO with prepared questions that speak to customers, strategies and industry. Translate these into content. At Trends.ceo, we conduct 1-hour monthly interviews that produce 1-month of customer posts and videos.
Treat LinkedIn as a channel to share 'top of mind' findings after they depart a customer meeting. "I just met with 10 customers over 2 weeks, and here is what's top of mind for them: 1) The economic downturn..."
It's not simple. It's not written in your old Playbooks. But I find this an exciting time for marketing
You have the opportunity to turn your corporate leaders into industry celebrities.
After 15 years at it, I’ve built a turnkey system for this, and I’m happy to walk you through it.
#LeadershipMarketing
Notes about the research
The CEOs analyzed are primarily from the professional services, accounting, and management consulting industries, based in the USA.
We used a combination of manual and AI-based analysis
To be considered a post, the CEO had to write original text, and basic "reshares" of other posts were not included