Previous to launching my very own advertising enterprise, I labored at athletic attire firm Gymshark, driving our advertising technique round neighborhood. I knew that bringing folks collectively was highly effective. I simply needed to transfer that idea out of the health area and into enterprise. How onerous might it’s?
So, after I launched my neighborhood advertising company, Butterfly Impact, I took a brand new strategy. I placed on my “skilled” voice. I attempted to stay to enterprise discuss and hold interactions transactional. However as I constructed extra genuine relationships with decision-makers, I seen that behind each company e-mail deal with was a human being dealing with actual challenges.
That’s after I had my greatest perception: B2B isn’t simply business-to-business — it is human-to-human. The strategy didn’t must be chilly and calculated. I needed to take the community-building playbook I knew effectively and adapt it to a brand new platform: LinkedIn. Right here’s how I did it.
How LinkedIn Reworked Our Enterprise
I seen that regardless of having over a billion customers, just one% actively submit on LinkedIn. But, that 1% drives 99% of all attain and engagement. By persistently displaying up there, I not solely constructed affect however created one of the engaged private manufacturers on the platform.
So, as a substitute of treating LinkedIn as a digital CV or occasional broadcasting channel, I made it the middle of my enterprise improvement technique. This strategy wasn’t simply marginally profitable — it remodeled my profession and enterprise trajectory utterly.
After we launched Butterfly Impact, we weren’t ranging from zero — we had some funding. However as a substitute of spending it on a gross sales workforce or aggressive advertising, we poured it into the service expertise. Our cash went into constructing the type of company we’d need to work with. We wished to be rooted in worth, creativity, and neighborhood — not chilly calls and shutting scripts.
So we decided that scared most individuals within the room: No gross sales workforce. No chilly outreach. No funnels. No efficiency adverts. Simply neighborhood.
We believed that if we confirmed up with actual worth, constructed belief in public, and put folks earlier than pitches, the suitable purchasers would come to us. Everybody advised us we have been mad. However, because the momentum constructed, our neighborhood did the promoting for us.
Inside 12 months, we hit £2 million ($2.6 million U.S.) in income. All inbound. No outbound.
So, I decided: LinkedIn wouldn’t be a billboard. It could be the heartbeat of the enterprise.
Three Methods You Can Use LinkedIn to Construct Connection
1. Bear in mind: LinkedIn isn’t for company updates — it’s for constructing credibility.
Most B2B manufacturers deal with LinkedIn as an afterthought, posting company updates that nobody engages with. I’ve fallen into that lure too.
My gentle bulb second was after I realized that behind each emblem was somebody making an attempt to resolve one thing. Behind each inquiry was an actual particular person with an issue, a aim, or a dream. LinkedIn was the place these folks have been gathering, listening, and in search of readability.
So, I moved away from “look-how-great-we-are” updates. As an alternative, I wrote open playbooks and helpful insights. Each submit grew to become a dialog starter, and each remark grew to become a connection. Our messages have been open doorways, not pitches.
This strategy allowed the workforce to construct credibility. Every submit constructed on the final, compounding visibility into fame. When folks have been able to work with us, they already felt like they knew who we have been and what we stood for.
Motion you may take right this moment: Audit your final 10 LinkedIn posts. What number of present real worth versus speaking about your organization? Decide to an 80/20 cut up — 80% invaluable insights, 20% enterprise updates — and watch your engagement remodel.
2. Leverage your individual LinkedIn, not simply your organization web page.
In case you solely focus in your firm’s LinkedIn web page, you’re lacking out. My enterprise blossomed after I acknowledged that consumers belief folks greater than logos. To seize that belief, I wanted to leverage my LinkedIn presence.
Because the CEO, I gained credibility as an professional in my area, constructed direct relationships with companions, and turned my private model right into a enterprise progress engine.
From there, I saved a detailed eye on who was interacting with my posts. I knew my best buyer personas (ICPs) and tracked their engagement carefully. If I noticed an ICP who may be serious about our work, I might then attain out whereas I used to be nonetheless top-of-mind.
As an alternative of generic gross sales pitches, I used DMs strategically, partaking in heat, high-intent conversations that felt pure and invaluable. Probably the most highly effective shift got here after I constructed real inbound demand. My content material offered a lot worth that prospects began coming to me, eliminating the necessity for conventional outbound gross sales totally.
This strategy went past simply me. My entire workforce engaged actively. They didn’t must turn out to be creators. They grew to become contributors otherwise. Whether or not it was leaping into remark threads, sharing POVs in DMs, or amplifying the conversations occurring on our posts, their presence helped lengthen the belief we have been constructing.
Motion you may take right this moment: Take a look at your small business targets for the subsequent quarter. For every one, ask: “How might neighborhood connection assist obtain this sooner or higher?” Then, implement no less than one community-driven strategy to your most essential goal.
3. Rework your LinkedIn right into a hub to your ecosystem.
After I seen the ability of LinkedIn, I dedicated to displaying up day-after-day — sharing concepts, telling tales, asking questions, and most significantly being myself.
That consistency modified every thing. Over time, my private LinkedIn advanced into our greatest progress engine. It powered my private model and ensured our firm web page wasn’t only a static placeholder — it functioned like a residing, respiratory homepage.
Folks returned to our LinkedIn to grasp who we have been and the way we thought. We grew to become a cease for actual collaboration, not simply networking. LinkedIn was a city sq. — the place the place we proved our pondering earlier than anybody stuffed out a kind.
With that fame, we have been capable of increase past the digital realm. We launched Catalyst, a sequence of occasions bringing collectively advertising professionals to sort out trade challenges. The aim? Construct belief, change data, and forge actual connections.
From that basis, I took an excellent bolder step with Butterfly Impact — a devoted area the place companies dealing with related challenges might come collectively to resolve issues collectively. This wasn’t simply one other networking group or shallow discussion board. It grew to become an area the place collaboration led to actual outcomes, not simply conversations.
Motion you may take right this moment: Determine the highest downside your prospects or trade faces proper now. Publish your strategy, then create a easy collaborative area (even a primary LinkedIn Group) particularly centered on fixing that downside collectively. Do not promote — facilitate options.
Driving Success By means of Group
The outdated methods of utilizing LinkedIn, preserving data proprietary, and sustaining synthetic distance are falling behind. The trail ahead requires:
- Being your self brazenly so folks belief you.
- Constructing a neighborhood of people that share your values.
- Sharing what you already know to assist everybody develop.
- Working collectively to make progress that lifts your entire trade.
The second enterprise grew to become private for me was the second every thing modified. By embracing genuine human connection in each facet of my work, I did not simply discover a aggressive edge — I discovered which means, impression, and sustainable progress that advantages everybody concerned.
And, all of that occurred on LinkedIn.
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