Using LinkedIn to share thought leadership

According to socialbakers[i], LinkedIn has over 155 million members, nearly 10 million of whom are in the UK. And if our own experiences are anything to go by, LinkedIn can be a very valuable resource for hiring, sharing thought leadership, identifying connections within target clients, and giving a good impression to people you may wish to work with.

Whilst I’m not in a position to comment about the use of LinkedIn for hiring purposes and will save for another day my comments about ensuring profiles are well-presented,  I did decide to dig a little deeper into how consulting firms are (or aren’t) sharing their thought leadership. Without a spade and with limited time a big hole wasn’t possible but I could at least look at how my own contacts are using LinkedIn. Okay, it’s not very scientific but, in my defence, I do know quite a lot of people working at consulting firms.

So, are consultants using their status updates to share thought leadership? Well, based on my sample of nearly 300 contacts, the answer is a resounding ‘no’. In fact the only people aggressively embracing the LinkedIn update are two of my entrepreneurial business school friends who regularly highlight their company’s activities or post articles relevant to their sector, and one independent consultant who passes on interesting snippets related to team and individual development. Interestingly, all three use Twitter to post these updates on LinkedIn. The only other activity is sporadic updates about events from a marketing director at a small consulting firm and the occasional contribution from our own Fiona Czerniawska. There’s not an update to be seen from my contacts working at other consulting firms.

It seems like we’re all missing a great opportunity. I know I’m quite likely to look at a link posted by a colleague from LinkedIn and can’t believe that I’m alone. And, based on the LinkedIn weekly update, it’s obvious that business articles from newspapers (Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Washington Post) and magazines (Fast Company, Forbes, Harvard Business Review) are trending across companies. Surely consulting firms' thought leadership could be riding this wave too?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what stops consulting firms from using LinkedIn to promote thought leadership.