Six Strategies to Encourage Economic Development Leader Engagement on LinkedIn

Economic development leaders often need more than encouragement to post on LinkedIn. They need convincing. Social media—even LinkedIn—can take a backseat to the higher level of thinking and decision-making that economic development leaders engage in daily.

They are missing an opportunity, however, to make an even bigger impact by nurturing a presence on LinkedIn.

If your region or state is looking to attract site selectors and investors, then it’s time to sit down with your leadership and business development team to make it clear why individual participation on LinkedIn should be part of the strategy.

1. Show the Stats

One easy way to show economic development leaders that LinkedIn is worth their time is by presenting a few key figures. Engaged employees help contribute to eight times more company page views and four times more company page follows. However, leaders at all levels must feed into this engagement to boost brand awareness.

Also, make it clear that LinkedIn isn’t just some social network for job seekers. There are more than​ 65 million senior-level influencers and decision makers on LinkedIn, proving that they’ll be in good company if they engage more.​

2. Facilitate Sharing

Whether they lack the time, the skills, or the desire, economic development leaders can always find a reason not to engage on LinkedIn. Make it easier for them to post, and thus harder for them to say no, with help found directly on LinkedIn. 

By using the My Company tab to curate pre-approved content for executives to easily share, economic development marketers make it easier for their leaders to post. In addition to reducing the steps to engagement, it takes human error out of copy/paste typos and allows you – as the marketing arm of the organization – to track the business development team and other executives’ impact on social media.

3. Remind Them of Reach

Economic development leaders on LinkedIn are connected to many people both personally and professionally, but not everyone is going to be following their company page. It’s normal that followers simply miss updates. The platform’s algorithm doesn’t show everything to everyone, so it’s important to post things more than once to cast a wide net.

Posting frequently on their own pages is an important way to stay top of mind with investors and prospects on a more regular basis. It’s also a powerful strategy to stay top of mind with national journalists and local media looking for their next story, since the good work your region is doing could spark an idea.

Moreover, business development leaders who post on LinkedIn regularly help show the impact of an economic development organization’s work among the local community, underscoring the beneficial work economic developers are doing.

4. Report the Impact

If your economic development leaders agree to embrace LinkedIn, they’ll want to see the payout. By curating content throughout the My Company page on LinkedIn, you can report on the analytics of content that your leadership team and EDO employees are sharing. 

It’s possible to review the total impressions and engagements, along with the top regions and companies being reached to see if they align with other efforts. These insights are vital to ensure your organization’s business development efforts are hitting the right targets.

5. Gamify Sharing

While data and ROI are enough for most boards, maybe your team will be invigorated by a little friendly competition to boost your region’s visibility across LinkedIn. Gameify sharing across the business development team by offering incentives to whoever shares the most posts or receives the most engagements on their posts each quarter. Include leadership on it to set the tone and encourage employees to take it seriously.

6. Offer Individualized Support

There are times when a cookie cutter post for your entire leadership team won’t suffice. If an executive goes to a speaking engagement or is quoted in a major publication, it’s a wise idea to help draft their LinkedIn post to share the news. This step ensures that all mentions, company tags and hashtags are written appropriately for social media. 

Finally, if your EDO has more to say or if you’re simply facing difficulty placing a byline in traditional media, consider ghostwriting an article for executives. These editorial placements provide deeper insights or points of view on topics important to your EDO.

No matter the length, you can amplify executive posts by resharing your leadership’s content from the EDO’s company page. If your economic development leadership sees that they can get the tailored assistance they need in an efficient and effective way, they’ll be less reticent next time they think about posting on LinkedIn.

Looking for ways to up the engagement of your economic development leaders on LinkedIn and beyond? Get in touch with Hanna Gbordzoe at [email protected] to learn more about how DCI’s economic development marketing team can help apply its valuable insights to your EDO’s goals.