Value of a Presence on LinkedIn for Marketers

Jenny: Hi friends! Welcome to today’s episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, a health care marketing podcast. I’m your host Jenny Bristow, and I’m also the CEO and Founder at Hedy & Hopp, a full service, fully healthcare marketing agency. I’m so excited to have with me today Nicole Knight. She is the marketing and communications manager at Virginia Heart, and I 1,000% bullied her to be on today’s episode. So thank you, Nicole, for joining me today.

Nicole: Thank you for having me.

Jenny: So Nicole and I connected through SHSMD. We were both posting on the forums and then we connected on LinkedIn, and we’re going to hop on this call just to do a little bit of networking, getting to know other people in the industry. And we started talking a little bit about the value of LinkedIn.

And I told Nicole that to build her professional network, she should start posting regularly on LinkedIn. And she said, “Why? That sounds ridiculous.” And I said, “This is a podcast. We’re going to start recording.” So thank you, Nicole, because people have this question, they want to know, like, why should I post on LinkedIn? Shouldn’t I just post for my employer?

So if you are an employee in house and even wondering if LinkedIn is worth your time as an individual, this episode’s for you. So Nicole, talk to me about your LinkedIn journey so far.

Nicole: I don’t post, but I do connect with people. I read other people’s posts. Sometimes I’ll comment. I do a lot of liking. But no, I am recluse on LinkedIn. So I’m one of those silent watchers.

Jenny: And what I think is amazing about this is you actually are quite successful at building out your, employer’s and clients’ social media accounts. You were telling me that one doctor has over a million views for some of the work that you’ve done.

Nicole: Yeah. And I really, I think that some, you know, social media is huge in building your own business and building your brand and your reputation.

And I think it’s a really powerful way to connect with people on a more casual, you know, face to face level. They feel like they’re actually talking to you, especially if you make those videos and the reels, of a doctor explaining something. So I think it’s really powerful. I just don’t want to do it for myself.

But, I think, you know, makes sense if that’s what you think.

Jenny: You’re open to the idea.

Nicole: Yes.

Jenny: But you hate it.

Nicole: Yes. Hate it, absolutely.

Jenny: I think you’re very representative of most marketers that I chat with that are in house. Most of them think exactly the way that you do. So this is going to be a fun episode.

So let’s step back a little bit. One of the things that I like to tell people, because if you go on my LinkedIn profile, you can see I post all of the time. I comment on other people’s stuff all of the time. I engage with other people all of the time, and I am more of an extrovert, so I get joy and like at the human level by doing it.

But I also do it because that’s the way to stay top of mind and build out my network. So, if you’re an in-house professional, you should be doing this because one of the things like if you look at the studies about how long people stay in their roles in marketing, it’s on average, what, like three years, maybe four years.

So people are changing positions really often and, the job market at this moment is extremely inundated, of people trying to submit for open positions. A lot of positions are filled simply by, networking. And LinkedIn is really the new version of networking. Even if you’re not looking for a new opportunity, right? Just building your network of like-minded individuals can be your own little community to be able to talk shop, so you can talk about and build networks for people that do similar work around the country. You know, idea-share. When you go to a conference, there’s lots of familiar faces. So, definitely a positive across the board.

So, Nicole, let’s chat a little bit about your posting because I challenged you that I think in order to build your personal, professional reputation as a human—not the great work that you’ve done, but just for Nicole—I think you should start posting once a week with a goal of engaging in other people’s posts daily—whether that’s a comment, or whatever on somebody else’s posts.

So tell me, first of all, tell our listeners how you feel about that.

Nicole: I don’t know what I’m going to say. I feel like it’s super uncomfortable. I do think that I am more of an extrovert when I’m talking to people one on one, or if I’m at an event or if I’m somewhere like that. But online where everyone is watching you feels super daunting. And it lives on the internet forever, so …

Jenny: True. Yes, it does.

Nicole: Yeah. So it just feels like a bigger audience. I don’t necessarily want to be on stage, so …

Jenny: All of that is fair. What I recommend marketers do when they’re in your situation, Nicole, is to take a step back and kind of think about the work that you do and what you’re passionate to talk about, like, what are the things that you bug your family about?

You tell them you’re so excited about the work that you’ve done or the results that you’ve done, or something new that you’ve learned. If you’re so excited that you’re talking about it to people outside of your immediate work group, that’s the kind of stuff that you want to talk about.

So, for me, for example, at Hedy & Hopp, I’ve really stepped back, and created kind of my own content strategy and approach about the things that I like talking about and the things that I will not talk about.

So I talk just a little bit about my personal life—only when it’s relevant to work. So if I do a personal trip that bleeds into work, or if I do, like I log off, or something like, something that really impacts like the day-to-day of my work. On my personal life, I’ll chat about it, but I don’t talk too heavily about my personal life on LinkedIn.

Other people talk really heavily about their personal life, and they’re totally comfortable with this. That’s a barometer that you can kind of set yourself. But for content, trends and themes, I have a couple of topics that I think, I’m pretty great at talking about, like compliance, analytics, media strategies, kind of the more technical aspects of marketing are things that I really enjoy talking about.

So you can just kind of look at your own experience and work that you do, and kind of think about all of the things that get you excited to talk about, and that can be where you start building out some of your content, thought-starters.

Nicole: Yeah, no, I know I feel like my brain is moving a million miles a minute. I don’t know where I would start. It’s so daunting.

Jenny: Well, one idea is, as you’re thinking about how you’re creating content, you know, at Virginia Heart and as you’re creating content around for all of these physicians, what are the questions you ask them? You know, what if you created content that would guide marketers that are doing roles similar to yours across the country about how you do what you do, because you’re clearly excellent at it.

Nicole: Oh, thank you. No, I think that’s a great idea. I think the relationships you build with the physicians that you’re representing is so huge. And if you, you know, create those good relationships, I think it helps you do your job better because I’m not the one actually providing the care. To be honest, I don’t know anything about the care that’s being provided if I don’t learn from the doctors, you know? So even if I’m trying to make a media appearance, you know, the doctors need to tell me what’s coming up. Because if I Google something, it’s already in the news, so it has to be something that they know.

Jenny: That is such a great point. And that is your first post right there. That’s an excellent example: the value of building relationships with physicians.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: Right. What that looks like, how you structure it, how you approach it, like that’s really meaningful, helpful content for somebody—like if you think about yourself 5 or 10 years ago in the industry, what are things that you wish somebody would have helped you with or guided you on? And those are great, usually content thought-starters.

Nicole: Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are afraid of doctors, you know, and they’re afraid of working with them. And it’s always, I just don’t feel that way. I don’t know, I just think that they’re humans and really smart people, and I’ve always liked to be around people that are smarter than me.

Jenny: Absolutely. Same. Same.

Nicole: Being in a room with a bunch of people that know way more than you know. I think that’s awesome.

Jenny: I completely agree. I love being the dumbest person in the room because I know I’m going to walk out learning a handful of things every time.

Nicole: Yeah. Me too. I feel that way all the time.

Jenny: Yep, absolutely. One of the things that I have found really valuable in building out my professional network over the last 20 years is whenever I do connect with somebody online and it is, it seems meaningful or it seems like there’s a shared connection, I’ll reach out to them to do a virtual coffee, even just like 15 minutes, or see if they’re going to a conference that I’m going to in the fall and and try to sync up with ZERO expectations.

Right. It’s always about like, how can I help them, not, or provide value to them—not like, how will it ever benefit me? It’s always the long game of just like being a good human and eventually something positive will come back, whether it’s from them or not, just like the universe will pay you back in that. And I can tell you already have that philosophy because you reached out, you know, to chat. So kind of continuing that to build out your professional network is a great direction to go.

Nicole: Yeah. No, I, I love talking to other people who are doing similar things or maybe something different than what I’m doing, because I feel like sometimes I get I get stuck in my own little silo of what I’m doing every single day.

And, it’s nice to hear what other people are doing and what they’re thinking about, because then that kind of helps me take a step back and be like, oh, what if we do something different? You know?

Jenny: Absolutely. It’s phenomenal you view it that way. So many people can get, like, defensive or stuck in their ways. That’s absolutely, you know, a great way to view it.

Nicole: Yeah I feel like I just take the mentality that I’d rather be a lifelong learner, you know, and you could always do something different or better. And I don’t think that there’s any right way to do certain things, you know.

Jenny: That actually is a really good point about one of the reasons I like LinkedIn. So I know quite a few people that hate LinkedIn or like it’s so spammy and it’s like, that’s why you have to curate your feed.

You have to literally go seek out people that you respect in the real world and go follow them on LinkedIn and then unfollow those people that are creating spammy posts.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: Just spend like a week or two every day consistently, like unfollowing people or adding new people to your feed. And then every time you log on to your feed, it’s actually something super inspirational and curated for you.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: So it’s a way more positive experience. Like mine at this point is successful, powerhouse healthcare marketers across the country—in house and agency, and it’s so inspiring to follow them. And a lot of compliance attorneys who write very long, dry posts. But it’s very helpful information.

Nicole: That is definitely my weakness, is compliance. It’s so, you know, technical.

Jenny: It is you definitely have to be, dedicated to learning the craft, so …

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: We’ve put a lot of time and energy and learning and then creating content that I share a lot on LinkedIn. You know, and other people kind of deepen their skill sets and understanding in the area.

Nicole: So do you think it’s not, you can’t just comment on people’s posts—you have to make your own posts too?

Jenny: Yes, you can start by commenting on other people’s posts, like build up a little bit of muscle around there, but you absolutely have to be a content creator.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: I know, I know.

Nicole: And I love to do it under someone else’s name. A ghost Instagram, right?

Jenny: But you’re the one that deserves the credit. In our conversation, all of the really cool things that you’ve done with your career and with your healthcare marketing skills are so impressive. You know, putting those out there for the world to see and building up your own reputation is something that nobody can ever take away from you. Like, I tell this to people younger in their career all of the time, like it does not matter how happy you are at your current position and if you think you want to stay there forever, you have to always be investing in your own reputation in the industry because life changes, everything changes.

And so, at Hedy & Hopp, for example, we invite all of our team members to participate in the podcast. I want their individual reputations to be phenomenal, so they have all the career advancement opportunities, you know, that they may ever want in the future. So you really have to take control over that yourself because regardless of what you want to do, you know, it will help make sure that every door is open for you.

Nicole: Yeah. It’s so daunting. I feel like I, I see people post all the time and even people don’t get that many likes or comments. And I’m just like, that is so scary and I think you’re amazing for doing it. But oh my gosh, I can’t, I don’t know. It’s like, you know, when Instagram first started and you didn’t really care if you got that many likes? Do you remember that?

Jenny: Yes, I do. Girl, I remember MySpace! I’m old, Nicole!

Nicole: I had MySpace, too. But I, you know, you didn’t really care. You would post these things with, like, the weird sepia filter, and it was just like your burger or your fries, and it was like the most ugly picture. And you didn’t care what people wrote or liked. And there were probably five, ten likes.

Now it’s like if you don’t get 100 likes, you’re like, oh, is that bad? Should I have posted that? And I’ve just recently started to not care anymore. I’m like, you know what? Whatever. It’s my life. And I’m also on private, so it’s all just my friends, but I feel like, you know, LinkedIn is so public and it’s to all these professional people and maybe they know more than I do, or they think that what I’m posting is wrong …
Jenny: That’s what’s called imposter syndrome.

Nicole: I know.

Jenny: No, you got to shake that imposter syndrome off. You are in the trenches doing the work. You have valuable things to say. So there will always be people that know more than you, always. But that should not stop you from posting, because they are always going to be way more people that are interested in what you have to say.

And right now is such an interesting time on LinkedIn. Like, you can post content and truly become a thought leader in like less than six months or a year with regular content updates. But to start, it’s progress over perfection. You do not have to worry about the number of likes or comments that you have, but by engaging with other people’s content, that is absolutely how you’ll get more engagement on yours.

Nicole: Right.

Jenny: So it’s like a nice cycle.

Nicole: Yeah. Because the algorithm kind of drives those comments and posts and things to other people’s pages, and then they come back to yours.

Jenny: Absolutely. Yep, yep. And then it keeps you top of mind, as well, because they’ll all see that you commented on their notifications. And so it just is a really nice, like, ecosystem cycle.

Nicole: Yeah. Ugh, I know I read other people’s stuff. It’s just so hard.

Jenny: Well, Nicole, I have faith. I think this podcast is going to be an awesome first post for you when it goes live. And then I really look forward to staying in touch with you and seeing what you do, as far as building your engagement, proactively looking people up on LinkedIn and connecting with them. Like if people are saying smart things in the industry and you see that on like a publication or a forum or whatever, like look them up and follow them and see what they’re saying in other places, and just use it as a platform to continue your own learning within this industry in a way that you can control it.

Nicole: Yeah. No, I think that’s really, really good advice and valuable skill to take forward and kind of force myself out of my shell. And I guess we’ll see what happens. So how long do I do this for? Forever?

Jenny: Forever! So Nicole, what I recommend—do this for six months or even shorter between now and the end of the calendar year.

Make a challenge for yourself between now and the end of 2025 that you’re going to do one post a day, or, sorry, one post a week, and then one engagement a day, or whatever cadence you want to commit to. You set that for yourself. Do it through the end of the calendar year. And then as you go into 2026, take a step back and say, like, what did I get from this?

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: How much time did I put into it? Did I get that amount of value back? And then you can decide for yourself if it’s something you want to continue or not.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: Every year I do that and I always am like, yes, I’m going to do even more because it has been extremely fruitful for me. So I’m excited for you to do it and see what it does.

Nicole: How often do you post?

Jenny: At least weekly, Sometimes multiple times a week.

Nicole: Wow. And do you—do ideas just pop into your head, or do you have to brainstorm and really think about what you’re going to say?

Jenny: So ideas. I am always looking at content, like trying to find content—that’s just the way that my brain works. I am, like an idea generator, so, just ask my team. So always throwing new ideas on top of it. But that’s the way my brain works. So I always, have my phone with my notes app or my notepad with me, and I write ideas down. Then I always have it to go back to, but often the ideas that I spent the least amount of time planning, usually that I literally took the picture, wrote the post and did it on my phone get the highest engagement because people aren’t looking for super polished stuff on LinkedIn.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: They want real stuff. They want something they can relate to.

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: So those are the posts that I always find do the best. So I don’t spend a ton of time doing content strategy—Hedy & Hopp does as a brand …

Nicole: Right.

Jenny: And people at Hedy & Hopp do that. But like for my own personal one, it very much is just like, what are people talking about?

What is trending? What is bothering me in the industry?

Nicole: Yeah.

Jenny: Or how can I add an interesting POV based off of my own lens of how I see the world.

Nicole: And you don’t always add a photo, right? You just—sometimes it’s just your thoughts.

Jenny: Sometimes it’s just my thoughts. Usually you get way better engagement if you have a photo or a link, something that gives, a visual like enhancement to the post. So I almost always put a photo in.

Nicole: Oh you do? Okay.

Jenny: Almost always. Mmhmm.

Nicole: Wow. Okay.

Jenny: Yep.

Nicole: All right. Well, this will be interesting. I will report back.

Jenny: I love it. Well thank you, Nicole. And thank you for listeners. Hopefully if you are an in-house health care marketer and you’ve been kind of thinking about the pros and cons of spending more of your day on LinkedIn or just generally building your online reputation for your individual professional brand, even if it’s platform agnostic, hopefully this was helpful to you.

We’ve done episodes in the past talking about the value of submitting for and winning awards for your work, as well as the value of speaking at conferences and building out your professional reputation that way. So you can go back and give those episodes a listen. We are going to link to Nicole’s LinkedIn in our show notes, so if you’d like to connect with her and watch her posting journey, she would absolutely love that.

And just thank you so much for tuning in today. We will see you on a future episode of We Are, Marketing Happy. Cheers!