LinkedIn: The Key to Creating Viral Content

It can be de-moralizing to spend hours on LinkedIn and get no results.

We all know that sinking feeling.

Worse though is not knowing what is wrong.

But what if the problem is not your offer?

What if the problem is simply the way you talk about your solutions, products, or services?

Simply put, words sell!

Fact is that people are drawn to clarity but run a mile from confusion.

I have seen companies lose to an inferior product if their competitor communicates their offer clearly.

The question we need to ask ourselves is if our marketing efforts are too complicated to be fully understood. Simplicity will create predictability because it is easier for the brain to digest.

Remember Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Our brains are tasked to set up to a system in which we can survive and thrive, meaning helping us to eat, drink, find shelter, create a sense of belonging, build a tribe, and experience a deeper sense of meaning.

When your tribe are exposed to a lot of confusing noise, they have no choice but to ignore you as it is their defence mechanism kicking in.

The reality is that people are looking for brands that will help them to survive or thrive. Is your communication simple enough for them to find that? Sometimes it is not about what we say but rather what we don’t say.

Storytelling vs Storyselling

It has been said that the easiest way to organize your thoughts and information so people will understand is using a story format.

This has given birth to storytelling.

But it posed yet another problem.

The idea is to focus on telling your customers story not yours. By now we have all heard that the customer is the hero not you.

However, focusing on just telling a story is not enough.

We need more.

We need to sell them the story they want to hear.

How?

Before we can even start telling the story we need to focus on formulating the story we need to sell, the marketing message.

Within LinkedIn that is achieved through the Profile and Page.

The process is then easy. First you compile the storyselling within your profile and page before you create your storytelling content. The storytelling content must relate to the storyselling message within your profile and page.

What you need is a roadmap that will guide you step-by-step.

Social Selling Roadmap

The Social Selling Roadmap is a content map to help our customers survive and thrive. It is a step-by-step method to formulate your brand message, first storyselling then storytelling, that is going to be fun, simple, and highly effective.

In using the Social Selling Roadmap, you will be able to define the storyselling as well as the storytelling messages and content, that your ideal client will relate to and find relevant.

First you need to identify your ideal client by using the 4 criteria search filters i.e. Title, Industry, Size of Company and Industry.

Next you need to formulate what it is that they want.

Use the 7 steps of the Social Sell Roadmap as your guide:

1. Cope – Find your ideal client and determine where they are and what it is that they want in relation to your product and/or services. It is important to fully understand this. It will be the start of the story, their story.

2. Complication – Things are not going all that well and your ideal client is experiencing a complication, a challenge, or a specific problem. Detail this which will assist in drawing them closer to you.

3. Counsellor – Position yourself as their help meet by introducing yourself as the solution they were looking for. They must view you as the one person that can help them and not your products or services.

4. Clarity – When introducing yourself you must come across as a person with a plan. They need to feel secure in that you have been here before and can provide them with a solution while fully understanding the next steps. Clarity now is of essence if you want them to act.

5. Claim – Unless they take action you will not progress. You need them to claim your next step plan as their own and to achieve this you need to tell them what to do e.g. Buy Now, Schedule and appointment etc.

6. Crash – Competitors have been viewed as a threat to our businesses but the biggest competitor you will ever face is an ideal client that take no action. You need to tell your ideal clients what is going to happen if they do not act now, without scaring them or come across as a fearmonger.

7. Complete – Your ideal client must see the big picture, the transformation once he walks this journey with you and it must provide confidence that it will provide in his survival needs

Final Word

Creating content that goes viral and more importantly convert your LinkedIn tribe into clients, will save you time, effort, and money.

By focusing on drafting a message with clarity will result in your tribe listening, asking questions, affording you an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations.

It is important to work in a well-defined, structured manner as your results will be measurable and manageable with a predictable outcome.

Ultimately you can serve an online community with the value they are looking for, affording you the opportunity to dominate your LinkedIn Online Footprint!