Best of LinkedIn: Social Selling CW 33/ 34

Relationship before pitch remains the dominant success pattern on LinkedIn, with warm engagement outperforming cold outreach in competitive categories

Practitioners link all social activity to CRM lead sources to prove pipeline and revenue, pushing SSI and follower counts into supporting roles

Mobile consumption, dwell time and saves drive distribution, so formats and hooks must be engineered for fast comprehension and continued reading

Team-based routes into enterprises via Sales Navigator TeamLink and internal networks accelerate access to buying groups

Simple employee advocacy mechanics, including team competitions and public scoreboards, materially lift internal posting and brand reach

Lead with credibility and context, not automation or generic pitches, to protect personal brand and increase reply rates

If assets and social proof are thin, defer broad cold programs and compound warm plays that showcase domain expertise

Treat content as a market entry motion that opens doors with stories about solved problems and peer outcomes

Configure CRM lead sources for LinkedIn inbound, outbound, DM, voice note and video to attribute opportunities and revenue cleanly

Run social selling reviews against opportunity creation, pipeline value and closed-won, with SSI and engagement used only as diagnostics

Prioritize qualification and disqualification discipline to protect margins and improve forecast reliability

Use LinkedIn Premium features deliberately to find warmer paths and surface context that sparks relevant conversations

Leverage Sales Navigator for TeamLink mapping and decision-maker identification before any approach into target enterprises

Expect feed volatility and plan for shifts in format performance, keeping a backlog of modular post types to rotate quickly

Write for mobile, front-load value in the first seconds, and earn saves to signal utility to the algorithm

Long-form text posts around ~1.2k–1.4k characters and native video were highlighted for strong engagement when execution is tight

Design posts to trigger specific reader reactions like surprise, immediate applicability, shared belief, intended change or relatability to catalyze comments

Reverse-engineer winning patterns in your niche to inform angles and structures, then publish consistently while engaging target accounts

Stop spam sequences and connection-then-pitch behavior to avoid throttling and reputational damage

Replace first touches with visible engagement on buyer content, thoughtful DMs and personalized assets tied to observed needs

Build compact cadences that integrate content interactions, short DMs and timely asks rather than long, automated chains

Turn advocacy into a team sport with simple competitions, public dashboards and recognition to nudge consistent posting

Provide prompt libraries, examples and light coaching so non-marketers can publish confidently and on brand

Celebrate posts that mention customer outcomes and learning, not just product, to amplify authenticity

For named accounts, sequence plays as content that signals relevance, TeamLink routes for warm intros, identification of five key roles and pre-engagement before the ask

Coordinate internally via Slack or similar to locate connectors, then reward non-sales colleagues who open doors to reinforce the behavior

Operationalize LinkedIn-specific lead sources in CRM and publish a weekly pipeline roll-up to keep teams focused on revenue impact

Ship a mobile-first content sprint with clear hooks, scannable structure and a save-worthy asset to test dwell time gains

Run a two-week employee advocacy challenge with simple rules, team standings and leadership visibility to lift organic reach