Build a LinkedIn Flywheel, not a disconnected social strategy
How to combine your influencer, executive thought leadership, paid social, and signal-based campaign efforts into a compounding growth machine
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You’re doing LinkedIn wrong. No, this isn’t a rant about the algorithm or a personal manifesto on quitting LinkedIn. LinkedIn is still one of the best places for B2B startups and marketers to spend time right now (that’s why I basically live there).
The problem is your LinkedIn strategy isn’t really a strategy—it’s a collection of disconnected efforts.
You might have the right ingredients: an influencer program, an exec thought leadership calendar, a few ads running through an agency, and occasional follow-up DMs to social commenters. Adding insult to injury, these efforts are usually handled by multiple marketers. But this is not a strategy, it is random acts of marketing, as I love to say.
If you combine these ad hoc efforts, rework the recipe, and streamline ownership, you can build a LinkedIn Flywheel that actually spins out pure gold. Okay, I’ve gotten carried away. But it is not an exaggeration to say that most startups doing any of these individual activities are truly sitting on a LinkedIn goldmine; they just have the wrong tools and workflows to mine it.
The fix isn’t to post more, spend more, or switch agencies. It’s to build a LinkedIn Flywheel™ that makes these pieces work together, helping you avoid wasted effort and allowing your results to compound. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to LinkedIn, but there is a method to the madness you can adapt for your startup.
In this newsletter:
What is the LinkedIn Flywheel?
Step 1: Executives and influencers post on LinkedIn
Step 2: Boost organic posts with Thought Leader ads
Step 3: Qualify LinkedIn post “engagers”
Step 4: Send follow-up campaigns to LinkedIn “engagers”
Why you need a Gen Marketer to own your LinkedIn Flywheel
Templates & resources (for paid subscribers): Influencer campaign brief, Walkthroughs: How to run Thought Leader ads and extract “leads” on LinkedIn
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Part 1: What is the LinkedIn Flywheel™?
The LinkedIn Flywheel combines ecosystem marketing and executive thought leadership, with organic and paid LinkedIn posts, and signal-based campaign efforts into a single program. I’ll break down each piece in detail.
When done in this specific order, you’ll get high-quality “fuel” from people who know your space best to kick-off the process, boost distribution on the best posts, and finally follow up with engagers. This engagement will drive more social followers, both the individuals who posted and your company, and you’ll be able to rinse and repeat.
Before I go any further, I know what some of you might be thinking: SPAM! In my previous LinkedIn post teasing this topic, I heard these concerns about building this flywheel.
So let me just get this out of the way: Don’t spam people. Every LinkedIn “like” shouldn’t trigger a 12-step outbound sequence. The trick is to identify people who may be interested in more content, community, and products your company offers and engage with them in meaningful and valuable ways.