How long do I need to "get"social?

How long does it take to "crack" Linkedin?

3 months, there's your answer. You can leave now. Nothing more to read. 

Oh you’re still here. Good, then I’ll continue.

Every single creator I have ever spoken to has always said that number.

Why is that?...

Neuroscience baby!

James Clear of Atomic Habits says

On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally's study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. 

He goes on to say

In other words, if you want to set your expectations appropriately, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behavior into your life — not 21 days.

Take me for example, I meditate every day (without question) first thing in the morning and sometimes once during the day too.

And I journal daily which I attribute to a growth mindset.

This didn't happen overnight it took sustained effort over a period of time (3 months to be exact). Yes it was hard and there are still days I don't want to do it, but it's part of my neural makeup now.

You’ll start to see a rhythm and a pattern emerge with your content creation over a sustained period of time. This is part of the reason why we take teams (notice I said teams and not individuals, we believe social is a team sport) through a 12 week programme. Because that’s how long it takes for this to embed across a team.

In some cases it can take many more months after to really embed itself within an organisation. We find people are having to unlearn decades of entrenched behaviour around sales, marketing and BD and how much that has changed.

In order to transform a team (as everyone works at different speeds and learns differently we operate a cadence of group and 121 sessions).

No amount of a 2 day workshop or 1 hour "Linkedin coaching session" is going to impact behavioural change within your company. The neuroscience backs it up. That takes months.

Patrick Saracco of Cyberhawk one of my colleagues Eric’s client said this of social -

A social organisation recognises that building a more humanised relationship with all its stakeholders from customers to investors and employees, develops trust and the sense of belonging required to differentiate from an ever growing digital marketplace.

That's a powerful statement.

Patricks words as a modern CRO! One who took the plunge and built this habit within himself to change and own his personal brand and build out his companies digital footprint.

Andrew Ferrier one of our clients who is the CEO of Display Technology Ltd and in this article it talks about why Display Technology have adopted social selling.

Their social media mission statement is

“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”

Andrew also says in that post

"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).

Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results. Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.

The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."

Once you build that habit it becomes part of the structure and framework of HOW your organisation operates and that in turn affects EVERYTHING inside your company.

Social Media directly improves Marketing, Business Development, Sales, Employee Advocacy, Supply Chain, R&D, HR, Safety, Technical and Engineering and Quality and more…. all organisational functions that require people connecting and growing relationships with people.

We just need to build the habits across the team. (Just he says 😂).

And you can all walk forward as a team safe in the knowledge that WHAT you do on social (not just Linkedin, as social sellers we use a a number of different platforms all with different purposes and functions) will have a positive impact on ALL of the above and your bottom line and revenue stream.

Are you ready to step on that treadmill and get digitally shredded? Or would you prefer to couch surf and eat ice cream?

I stepped on a few years ago and I’ll never look back. This platform changed my life.

It can change yours and your companies too, if you let it!