When it comes to social media for your business, one of the platforms that you are going to need to get to grips with is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social media site that is designed for professionals to use to promote and advertise their businesses and what they can do. 

This is especially true for businesses like property firms. The thing to remember with LinkedIn is that if you want to yield the best results from it, you need to ensure that you are seen as an expert, as a firm that knows what they are talking about. Particularly when you are a property firm.   

This is where thought leadership can help. The idea of thought leadership is that you take the time to deliver content for your firm that is not only going to be able to provide an insight into the expertise that you have but will also be seen to be genuine and authentic too.   

Thought leadership is where you create value and share wisdom with those around you. Particularly those that you want to try and advertise and promote your services to.   

Choose a face of your firm  

When it comes to thought leadership, the best way to make it work for you is to ensure that it is as human as possible. People, by their very nature, react better (and stronger) to things that have some human element to them.   

This means that when you are trying to promote the voice of your property firm and present yourself as a thought leader, you are going to need to bring the human to it!   

To best do this, you are going to want to have someone who can be the face of your firm, at least in the LinkedIn world. Depending on the size of your firm, this could be one or two people, but it is always best to start small and then build up if you think that you need to.  

To ensure that you have selected the right person you are going to need to make sure that they are:   

• Able to talk about not only your firm but also the property industry too  
• Feel willing to be the face of the firm (never push this on anyone)  
• Be good on camera, such as in videos   

When you have all of these things in place then you are one step closer to having the face for your firm. It is also worth noting that the person who you have at the forefront of your plans, will need to be able to utilise and use LinkedIn in a way that will help with promotion.  

This doesn’t necessarily come easily to everyone and you are going to want them to have a personal profile that matches the ethos and approach that you want for your main firm profile.   

Consider thought leadership and your profile  

Thought leadership isn’t just about the content that you create, it is also about the profile that you put forward and the way that you present to the world around you. The thing to remember, particularly if you are a smaller firm and you only have one thought leader out there, is to ensure that any profile that appears on the platform, is created with this goal in mind. 

You want to ensure that no matter whether the person is viewing the firm’s page or the page belonging to the person who is the face, they are still seeing the same message. The profile of the firm (or should that be the message that it is putting out there) needs to be very similar to that of the “face”.   

Not only this, but you want to present these profiles in a way that is going to easily appeal to your target audience. The content that you create and share should be easy to read and follow, the key points and ideas should stand out and be visible.   

In addition to breaking down your profile content for easier reading of key messages, consider using videos and imagery to enhance understanding.  

Get to know how content can work for you  

Another key feature of thought leadership is sharing the right content in the right way. Content, when you get it right, can help to give that human touch to your profile (and in turn your firm too). This means that you need to think about how you can combine news, trends and also keep it engaging too.   

You want to combine the information that you need/want to share, with ensuring that your audience stays interested in what it is that you have to say.   

A good way to do this is to diversify your content. Not only should you think about what your content will say, but also the type of content that you can create too.   

There are lots of different content types that you may see on LinkedIn; however, the top four are polls, carousels, videos and newsletters.   

Polls are multiple choice questions, perhaps in the form of a quiz, or opinion based. The person then chooses an option and votes on it. Not only is this interactive, which helps with engagement, but it also gives you valuable insight into their thoughts.  

The focus of carousels lies more on the information and content rather than their presentation. More often than not carousels will share PDFS but they can also be used for eBooks or guides that are relevant to your property firm and the services that you offer.   

If you mix up the content that you share, then you can often improve your engagement. This means that another form of content that can work well is videos. Videos are really easy to watch and digest, which means that they are going to help your audience to relate to your firm and what you are trying to tell them. Not only this, but it has also been found that clients often have more trust in content that is presented as a video than they do when it is just words.   

Finally, we have newsletters. You can see these types of articles on LinkedIn. You can post these on a schedule that works best for you. This could be daily, monthly or weekly. The aim of these is to educate your audience, sharing news and information. Whilst still working on that all-important connection.   

Prove it!   

It is important to ensure that the content that you create for and share on LinkedIn is going to show your property firm in the best light possible. You want to be able to use it to prove that you know what you are talking about when it comes to property and that if they are looking for advice or guidance, you are going to be a firm that they can trust.   

A great way to do this is to share real-life examples of how your expertise has helped people that need your services and what your help has meant for them in both the short term and long-term too.   

Try to educate through your thought leadership  

In addition to balancing all of these things, make sure that the content you share on LinkedIn aims to educate. You want to show that you know what is important in the world of property and that you are happy to share that expertise where needed.  

In doing this, you not only help those who need it, but you are also showing those who are reading through your content that you are experienced and knowledgeable when it comes to property and you can ensure that they have all the help that they may need.   

As I have mentioned already, it can be hard to try and balance all of the different aspects of thought leadership on LinkedIn. However, this doesn’t mean that you should give up on the idea. What you should do instead is focus on the key aspects of thought leadership and try to apply them to your overall profile and content. If you know what you want to say (and you can think of the right ways to say it) then you are already going to be well on your way to creating a successful profile for your firm.   

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If you would like help with your marketing then bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, UK and Europe as well as specialising as a Legal Marketing Consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.