Thoughts from a LinkedIn 5 Percenter

Posted by Kim Mozingo
Contributing writer

LinkedIn has been sending email to members with the top 5 percent and 10 percent most viewed profiles on their site to thank them for helping LinkedIn reach their 200 million member goal. I received one of these prestigious emails. What an honor! I was impressed and felt special and a bit unique. But only for a moment, until I did the math and realized that, as a 5 percenter, I’m in the company of 10 million other 5 percenters.

It’s an interesting marketing strategy, as many bloggers have already noted.

But there’s wisdom in this, for people who are willing to consider what it means for their business. Significant information to consider includes:

• LinkedIn has over 200 million users worldwide. Let that sink in.
• According to the McKinsey Quarterly article, Six social-media skills every leader needs, “Organizational social-media literacy is fast becoming a source of competitive advantage.”
• In their July 2012 report, The Social Economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, the McKinsey Global Institute explains how the use of social technology could contribute two thirds of the nearly $1.3 trillion in value that can be created across four commercial sectors they studied by improving collaboration and communication.
• In a December HBR blog post discussing the need for speed in innovation, Alexandra Samuel describes how social media can be used to boost and effectively quicken the pace of innovation
• This last bullet could include equally compelling stats or information from MIT Sloan Management Review, Inc., Forbes, Financial Times, or any other reputable source describing the impact, necessity, or fear surrounding the use of social media for business.

For businesses, this means you need to pay attention to the people in your organization who are attracting attention. Each time someone looks at your 5 percenter’s profile, they see your business name. It doesn’t matter how many connections they have; I am a 5 percenter with only 393 connections, but people look at my profile, open the articles I comment on and share, and reply to posts in groups I belong to.

Each time your 5 percenter posts or comments on a thought-provoking article, there’s your company name. People begin to associate your 5 percenter with Thought Leadership in their specific area. Then, they begin to view your organization as one that hires Thought Leaders. Your 5 pecenters are creating value, lots and lots of value.

Every one of your employees is an ambassador for your organization. What would happen if you encouraged all of your employees to join LinkedIn with strong, compelling profiles? What if you encouraged them to post to groups and share articles, making meaningful comments? What if people began to view your company as one full of Thought Leaders, technical experts, and oh by the way, a great place to work?

Five actions to take NOW to increase your visibility and strengthen your reputation:

1. Encourage employees to develop strong profiles with compelling words for search engine optimization (SEO). Consider putting resources behind this commitment; bring in help to develop professional profiles for all employees as well as instruction on how and when to post to maximize visibility.
2. Encourage employees to post and comment frequently, not just on Linked In’s thought leader articles, but to join groups related to their area of expertise … and everyone has an area of expertise!
3. Encourage active participation with appropriate incentives that fit your company’s culture. But see this Linked In article on the idea of paying employees for their use of social media.
4. Develop an internal social network to drive conversation, learning, knowledge sharing, and innovation.
5. Most important, keep up with what’s going on regarding the use of social media. Learn from others’ mistakes and successes. Keep pace with industry Thought Leaders. Don’t let a lack of information dissuade you from jumping into the deep end; hire an expert and get moving!

According to the McKinsey article noted above, for example, the total value at stake across the professional services value chain is between 8 and 11 percent. Can you afford to leave that sitting on the table?