CEO Interviews: Why LinkedIn is Worth My Time

Why do CEOs prioritize being active on LinkedIn?

Sure, LinkedIn is undoubtedly the platform for people who want to do business. With 1+ billion members and 67 million companies around the world, LinkedIn has proven itself worthy of the attention of entrepreneurs and enterprises.

But, why do CEOs invest their time on LinkedIn when they have so many other opportunities, issues, and people vying for their attention?

To better understand how CEOs think about LinkedIn — and to share that wisdom with other CEOs — I interviewed three SaaS CEOs and asked three questions:

1.      Why is it worth your time to be active on LinkedIn?

2.      How do you use LinkedIn?

3.      What advice can you offer other CEOs?

The CEOs

First, let me introduce the CEOs:

• Ben Howard is the co-founder, co-CEO, and a board member of KinectAir, a premier, app-based, private charter service.
• Daren Lauda is the CEO of Outset, a predictive revenue planning and forecasting tool for SaaS businesses.
• Brad Messer is the founder, CEO, and CTO of Structure AI, an AI and software engineering strategy and consulting business.

“Why Is It Worth Your Time to Be Active on LinkedIn?” 

Ben: I’ve been on LinkedIn for about 15 years now, and I sure didn't think that posting and LinkedIn would be an important part of doing my job as a tech entrepreneur. I started with a really simple LinkedIn profile.

Then I quickly realized that the connections to my next job, to partnerships, and things like that were all on LinkedIn — like the connection to a company that manufactured something that I needed or a company that had AI technology that I wanted to have access to. That's where those other resources were.

And when it came time to reach out to investors or potential hires that I wanted to have — like how do I find the person who knows how to manufacture this specific part or who has the chops to write this code that I need to get made — I realized I wanted those people to come to me and to look forward to working on one of my projects someday.

So I started posting a little bit here and there, basically, as almost a fishing lure to attract interesting people who make interesting things and who have interesting connections, so when they have their next idea, they’ll say, “Let's call Ben. Go pull Ben into this project.”

So it keeps me in that world, in that consciousness, as far as being in a space of interesting people who do interesting things.

Daren: There are two reasons. One is to build my personal brand as a CEO, so that the company I represent becomes more attractive to people who might want to work here, to people who might want to become customers, those sorts of things.

The other is to build the company's presence. As a startup founder, anything I can do to give scale and size to the company helps. And the right content on LinkedIn is a great place to start.

I've been on LinkedIn for a long time as kind of a passive observer. I started getting really active and pushing original content about a year ago. Then four to six months ago, I put more of a framework and thoughtful process around it--what to post, when to post, and not just what content to post, but how I interact with other posts to make sure that I'm kind of surfacing in the algorithm and making sure people are seeing what I'm writing.

Brad: LinkedIn is a good place to set your sales and marketing. It provides a decentralized peer network, like Reddit and Quora. Through LinkedIn, you will get access to opportunities you've never dreamed of.

Mission begets service, which begets business, and sharing your mission — talking about it, being passionate about it — leads you to want to help people. And, the more you help, the more your business grows.

“How Do You Use LinkedIn?”

Daren: I've just defined LinkedIn as a priority and said it's something I have to do in this growth stage.

Challenge #1 is not starting with a blank sheet. I have a swipe file, and when I see something, I put it in the file, and I reference that.

Challenge #2 has been deciding clearly on the persona I want to have. Do I want to be a positive educator? Do I want to be a contrarian? Figuring out where I want to fit and be consistent with that is something I've had to work on. I was given a piece of advice that your posts are probably working well if 10% of the people disagree with you a little bit.

I make sure I'm consistently posting, too. If I'm on the road traveling, the easiest thing to do would be to skip a post. But being consistent is a big deal, making time to engage with people who interact with the post. If I put something up and never go back and look at it, it defeats the purpose. If I can make time to engage with people who engage with me, that’s certainly helpful.

Brad: I’m not a marketer, and I don't work from a content schedule. I post about what I’ve been through or am going through, about events, etc.

I invested time in building my brand on LinkedIn, and now opportunities to — advisory boards, invitations to speak, corporate restructures, and turnarounds have come to me. That's what's possible when you commit to this.

Ben: I'm an introvert all the way through, and it's a purposeful effort on my part. Because LinkedIn is how I meet those interesting connections, the people who I want to work for, who I want to work for me, or people who might invest in my company or have connections to other technologies that I might need.

It's also hard in the sense that to write successfully for a public audience, you have to play the game of social media writing. So, if you give away the punchline in the header of your post, people read that and walk away and don't read the post.

Then, LinkedIn sees that nobody reads the post, it stops getting shared and it doesn't go anywhere. So you have to purposefully write in a way that you ask the question and the answer isn't visible in the header, so they have to open the document to read the content. So, now it gets shared with more people, people actually read it and engage with it.

“What Advice Can You Offer Other CEOs?”

Brad: I intentionally built my brand, which is about establishing credibility. And my sales pipeline is through LinkedIn. So many deals are under the radar, and all these opportunities — podcasts, advisory boards, corporate restructures and turnarounds — have come to me because of what I posted on LinkedIn.

Ben: I very purposefully test out headlines, the preview, and subjects, so they have good hooks and so you have to read and engage with the content because it'd be a shame to write a bunch of content and just get it kicked.

My purpose for doing it is, again, to be there in that presence of mind both for people I want to work for and people I want to work for me, so I have to get my content read to do that. For me, it's purposefully engineering those things — so that I can get the other things I want done.

Daren: The easy advice is just start. Just do it, if I may borrow the Nike model. Start with a base-level plan, post, and interact with others. Just start.

There are a couple of things I do. Number one, about once a week, I post related to what my company does. It's about predictable revenue or predictable forecasting, making sure that I deliver on SaaS metrics. I try to have at least one post that's thoughtful in that regard and has a level of detail to it.

Twice a month, I try to post something a little more personal. Making myself accessible and personable is not in my nature, but posting that my son is a firefighter and the lessons I've learned — making it something that people can relate to — is helpful, too.

Lastly, don't overthink it. If you're posting at least twice a week, that thing that maybe you didn't like that you posted two weeks ago, it's a distant memory. Short of being rude or evil, you really can’t go wrong. Just get out there and do it.

Make LinkedIn Work for You

I enjoyed talking with Ben, Daren, and Brad to learn how they’re using LinkedIn to connect, engage, and drive their businesses forward. They are great models of how active participation on the platform not only builds a personal brand but also enhances a company’s visibility and credibility.

Whether you're sharing insights, connecting with potential partners, or attracting top talent, your presence on LinkedIn can create ripple effects that benefit your business in countless ways. If you’re ready to take your LinkedIn strategy to the next level or need guidance on how to make the most of your online presence, our team can help. You can reach out to me directly on LinkedIn or book a consultation. Let’s connect and explore the opportunities that await you.