Garry Mackay: Mastering LinkedIn as a Financial Planner

Who is Garry Mackay?

Garry Mackay, a Chartered Financial Planner with St. James’s Place (SJP), shares his insights on leveraging LinkedIn to become a key person of influence. With 26 years of experience and a focus on senior city professionals, Garry’s approach to LinkedIn reflects a deep understanding of investment markets and his audience. You cannot go far on LinkedIn without seeing his content.

How Garry was introduced to LinkedIn

While Garry has had a LinkedIn profile for many years, his journey took a significant turn following a course by Daniel Priestley, designed to enhance one’s influence in their professional sphere.

This course, recommended by Robert Gardner during the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraged Garry to enhance his online presence. Inspired by figures like the late Daniel Kahneman, Morgan Housel, and Dr Daniel Crosby, Mackay uses LinkedIn to showcase his expertise in financial markets and behavioural finance.

He dedicates about 30 minutes daily to LinkedIn, part of his broader routine that includes reading extensively—up to two hours a day—to stay abreast of market trends and professional literature.

Top Tip: Utilise LinkedIn's Extensive Network — LinkedIn boasts over a billion users globally. If you are not currently active on the platform, you are missing significant opportunities to connect and engage with a vast professional community.

Profile Optimisation

Understanding the critical role of first impressions in the digital age, Garry emphasises the importance of a strong LinkedIn profile. He believes in maintaining an up-to-date presence that succinctly communicates his offerings and expertise, focusing on how he can assist potential clients rather than detailing his entire professional background.

His approach includes using bullet points in his summary to clearly outline how he can meet the needs of prospective clients, enhanced by recommendations that add credibility and attract the specific client families he serves.

Top Tip: Craft a Relatable Profile — While you might want to promote or ‘sell’ your product or service, focus on crafting a profile and content that resonates with your audience. Highlight the benefits and your brand USP (unique selling point) of your offering to provide compelling reasons for potential clients to engage with you.

Effective Networking Strategies

Garry’s networking strategy on LinkedIn is subtle yet effective.

He does not use the platform for overt promotion but rather to establish himself as a thought leader. This strategy has not only helped him reconnect with former colleagues, like recently a school friend from years past but also enabled him to build a network within SJP and the broader financial community in the city.

Garry’s posts regularly go ‘viral’ across the SJP community and amongst investment professionals. A visual, usually a chart of some kind, is supported by clear and concise words explaining what you’re seeing. His approach aims to be inclusive, and as such, he connects with a wide range of individuals and will always respond to messages, fostering a rich dialogue that he feels is important to his brand.

Top Tip: Broaden Your LinkedIn Connections — While it's strategic to connect with potential clients, the true strength of LinkedIn lies in its community. Expanding your network beyond immediate business prospects can enhance your reach and influence on the platform.

Content Engagement and Sharing

In terms of content, Garry focuses on two main types: investment-related updates and daily relevant intelligence. He strives for simplicity in his communications, adhering to the principle of explaining complex ideas in terms anyone can understand.

This strategy is particularly evident in how he translates market jargon into accessible information, which has proven invaluable in client meetings and peer interactions. His most satisfying moments come from feedback that his insights have been practically useful to his peers.

LinkedIn is integral to his daily activities. It serves as a platform for reflection and professional development, helping him to continuously improve his engagement strategies and content quality. He finds mobile devices like iPads and iPhones more conducive for LinkedIn activities, highlighting the ease of use compared to traditional PCs, even though he maintains a premium account.

Top Tip: Provide Context with Shared Content — When sharing articles or visuals, always include a clear, simple explanation. Aim to make your content understandable to a five-year old, as this approach ensures clarity and enhances engagement by making your posts accessible to a wider audience.

Garry's advice for How to Win on LinkedIn

Garry’s advice for excelling on LinkedIn is straightforward: be consistent, provide value, and keep communications brief and relevant. His guiding principle is to simplify content to make it as accessible and as useful as possible to his audience.

My thoughts on Garry’s LinkedIn approach:

LinkedIn is not just a networking tool for Garry; it’s become a way for him to connect with his peers, meet new clients, and become an influential investment markets commentator—there are not many in SJP who don’t know Garry.

He has a topic that all his content is centred around. His proactive approach to reading and staying updated has transformed him into an expert in his field—a testament to the power of dedication and the desire to share knowledge. His journey underscores the importance of adapting one’s strategies to include digital and social media platforms to remain influential and relevant in today’s fast-paced professional environment.

Inspiring content

You can follow Garry Mackay here. To help you with your own content, here are 9 LinkedIn posts created and shared by Garry Mackay that follow his Top Tips:

1. 7 timeless lessons from 7 legendary investors
2. Why 2022 was a tough year for investment markets
3. Which of these assets below would you choose?
4. What impacts the volatility of investment markets?
5. Required gains to get back to being even
6. Would you rather $1 billion or $1 on 1st December that is doubled every day in December?
7. Learnings from Tom Morgan's book What Nobody Tells You
8. What moves markets?
9. 13 years of working with my Practice Director