Why post on LinkedIn? There is no "ROI"

Author's Note: this is a special op-ed by our co-founder, Jake Ross.

Shocking blog title coming from a LinkedIn Content agency owner, huh?

Hear me out...

I’ve been asked some version of the same question since May 12th, 2022 (the day I started Build You Marketing): "how do you measure the ROI of posting on LinkedIn?"

For a long time, I didn’t have a good answer … and it took me a while to understand why.

When most people ask about ROI, they usually mean it literally. I put one dollar in, how many dollars come back out. That’s a fair question, but it was never the question I could answer well because the return I’ve gotten from posting consistently on LinkedIn almost never arrived as a clean, traceable dollar. It’s arrived as access to places I have no business being in, relationships I’d never have, and a reputation as an expert, which has led to dollars indirectly.

I’ve been invited to dinners that turned into clients. I’ve been pulled into pitch competitions with judges who turned into clients (actually how we got our first client haha). I’ve gotten referrals from people I knew growing up. I’ve had people offer to mentor me. I’ve been featured in Entrepreneur and in my college’s Thought & Action column. And when I show up to events now, people already know who I am. They walk up, they want to talk, and they ask their LinkedIn questions, which has led to sales calls.

None of that fits into a dollar-in, dollar-out equation. So I stopped trying to force it.

What I want to do in this piece is explain what the return actually looks like, why it’s so hard to measure, and how you can start capturing it yourself. Because over hundreds of posts and a few million impressions, I’ve found that the real "ROI" of LinkedIn comes down to four things that compound: visibility, trust, authority, and staying top of mind.

Return #1: Visibility

People know who you are and exactly what you do.

It’s actually pretty damn cool in practice. I've been recognized on the street in New York City, in line at Chipotle, 10+ times walking home from the office in Boston, at the airport, at a random event in LA, and even in the sauna at my gym (still a little strange to type that in a sentence).

Now, not all of these sightings immediately led to anything in specific, but each touch point keeps me even more top of mind (which I write more on below) when people or those they know are in the market for my services.

For example:

• The guy I met in LA? He referred me business an entire year later.

• Someone I met on my way home from the office? Invited me to his event where I met a now client.

Every single post is basically a chance to make an introduction of yourself to thousands of people, which is extra helpful when you end meeting them in-person.

Return #2: Trust

It’s funny, I get more people that know me because of their friends who interact with my posts than anything else.

They’ll say, “Actually, my friend X always likes your posts, so I see them on my feed.”

When your post comes across someone’s feed and they see names they recognize liking it and adding their own thoughts in the comments, it instantly builds trust.

They think, “Oh Christy knows this guy? He must be a good guy.” You are inherently tapping into the trust people have with one another. It’s why referrals always convert at the highest rate in sales.

Plus, in professional services, trust is the entire product.

You can be the most knowledgeable person in the room, but if people don’t trust you, you will have trouble getting business.

Not to mention, if you are in the sales process with someone and you have mutual connections, especially ones who engage with your content, it eases fear that your prospect may have.

Again, hard to measure, but a huge ROI of posting on LinkedIn.

Return #3: Authority

When you post about the same topic over and over, you start to own it in people’s minds. You show them, repeatedly, that you actually know what you’re talking about and that you can deliver real value.

There’s some overlap with trust here, for sure. Though, the distinction I’d draw is this: trust is whether people believe you’re honest, and authority is whether they believe you’re the expert. You want both, and consistent posting builds them at the same time.

The goal I’m always working toward is "name and topic association." When someone thinks about LinkedIn, I want them to think of me. So that the moment they hit a wall with their own posting, or a friend mentions they want to start, I’m the first name that comes up.

It has led to countless referrals for me. Even today as I am writing this, a buddy of mine hit me up to chat with his internal ghostwriting team about how to make his LinkedIn content better, which is now a potential paid consulting opportunity for me or he'd be more likely to refer me to someone without an internal team once we have our call.

Did that happen JUST because I post on LinkedIn? No. This person happens to be someone I’ve known for a long time, but my association as THE person to go to for LinkedIn prompted him to pull me in.

Additionally, the authority around LinkedIn I have established has led me to be featured in Entrepreneur and other publications (I have an exciting one coming soon), which gives me more 'at bats' in front of my target customer and builds trust within my network. People think, “if Entrepreneur Magazine trusted him, I can too.”

Return #4: Top of mind

You can’t control when someone decides they need you.

Sales comes down to timing and intent. People buy when they’re ready, not when you’re ready, and you almost never catch them at the exact moment their readiness flips on.

Consistently posting on LinkedIn has solved that for me. I show up once a week, every week, to stay present in people’s minds over time. So, when they finally are ready to buy, or they meet someone who is, they’re thinking of me.

This screenshot is from a connection of mine that knew me growing up and referred a PR client to us that we ended up collaborating with and landing 8 articles for.

Again, very challenging to measure because people usually don’t say they thought of you because of a specific post or even from your content in general.

So Why Post on LinkedIn? The Bottom Line (pun intended)

Even after laying all of this out, I still can’t hand you a clean ROI number. So some people will think there is "none." And that's ok. I've learned it's not worth trying to change their mind.

Posting on LinkedIn should be just one part of your marketing and sales mix. It does a wonderful job at supporting your other efforts, but not great when it stands alone. Notice how every example I wrote about required something else; such as being at an event? That’s what I mean.

That said, I encourage you to just start posting once a week for 2 months and you will see exactly what I mean. To truly understand this article, you just have it to experience yourself

Here is our 43 page Founder LinkedIn Strategy Playbook to get you started.