How to leverage LinkedIn for the end of the fiscal year

While to some this may seem to belabor the obvious, it still surprises me how many companies in our market are not leveraging LinkedIn in ways that are truly easy to do.

With that in mind, I offer these thoughts for some end-of fiscal year activity that can pay dividends…

First, for the passive branding approach, the use of the background banner (the field behind your headshot) is widely overlooked by many contractors. The background should be used at minimum for branding the company, using the company logo.

However, a few innovative contractors offer their employees multiple backgrounds, including backgrounds for recruiting and highlighting areas of company expertise. What I have not seen yet are backgrounds designed specifically for end-of-fiscal year positioning. For example, if you are a reseller with GWAC contracts like SEWP V, why not develop a banner to highlight how easy it is to buy from you before Sept. 30?

Second, fresh content always helps if it gets in front of the right people, and many contractors are already developing and deploying content for the end of the fiscal year. This content should be available on your web site AND your LinkedIn company page.

From your LinkedIn company page it is easier for your employees to share with their networks on LinkedIn, creating more impressions and driving more traffic. Encourage or incentivize your employees to share the content.

Third, as some know, I do a census of Feds on LinkedIn every year by locating federal company pages and doing a raw count. This year I found over 700 Federal company pages and identified over 2.8 million feds from every department and agency, including the intelligence community. I work with my clients to use this data for agency-based marketing (ABM) programs that yield huge results.

If you have a beachhead or more in a specific agency, it is worth investing to expand that and maximize the value of that relationship. Using the agency or operating division company page, click on the “employees”, then use the “All filters” option to search for specific job functions. Reach out to engage and get key players from each agency into your network.

Fourth, if you are attending events in the next 90 days, publicize your presence at each event well in advance of attending. Most events have official Hashtags, for example the big Navy event in San Diego hosted by AFCEA and the US Naval Institute is #West2024.

Announce your intention to attend and start tagging session speakers and other people you’d like to meet. Set up meetings ahead of time, especially if you have a meeting room. Pre-event, at event and post event content helps build awareness for your company and can lead to some great relationships.

Finally, the more each employee engages in the last quarter, the more likely it is you will stay high on the radar of those you need to influence. Communicate with your sales teams that the company will be highlighting a few key posts and enlist their help to like, comment and share.

The more quickly they do this after you post, the better for the LinkedIn algorithm so organize participation for certain days and times. Prepare comments for them and share the post link so it is effortless for each employee to support the effort for maximum reach and impact. Of course, have them update their background first (see number one).

With just a little planning and coordination, you can start to leverage LinkedIn in big ways. I am always happy to discuss leveraging LinkedIn with any and all in the GovCon arena.

Not that I have an opinion.