If you’re a journalist, one of the things you learn is that the first-day story, the breaking news, is never the whole story. Sometimes you have to go back and assess the impact of whatever it was you covered in the first place. It’s invaluable, and sometimes inevitable.
This is especially true in business, and doubly so in social media for business, where customs, standards and values change rapidly. In the professional world, the most essential social network is LinkedIn. Two years ago, we spoke to Colleen McKenna, founder of Intero Advisory, a 15-year-old company dedicated to helping associations, membership groups, and professional-services firms activate the networks they’ve already built—for growth, opportunity, and engagement.
In that conversation, we touched on the genesis of her business, and where she saw the need for companies to improve their useage of LinkedIn, which she positions as a business tool, not a social network. Needless to say, a lot has happened in those two-and-a-half years. We thought it was the perfect time to circle back and continue the conversation, picking up where we left off in 2024. Here’s our conversation.
Fox Tales: How have leaders and teams changed the way they use LinkedIn?
Colleen McKenna.
Colleen McKenna: Years ago, the question I heard all the time was, “Do I really need to be on LinkedIn?” We don’t hear that much anymore. People know they do. What’s changed is the perspective and level of sophistication. Our best clients no longer see LinkedIn simply as a marketing channel or a place for sales to prospect. They recognize that their employees collectively represent an enormous network—customers, prospects, partners, alumni, candidates, industry colleagues. They see their people and their networks as a business asset.
And yet most organizations still don’t really know what they have. With leadership buy-in, some education and a roadmap, those networks can be activated to build valuable business relationships. Companies make a significant investment in creating content. But if that content never moves beyond the company LinkedIn page and into the networks of their people, they’re missing much of its value. For most small businesses, the collective networks of their employees—leadership and sales—in particular, typically outpaces their company page’s followers.
Marketing knows how many followers their company page has. They probably don’t know the reach, relationships and influence sitting inside the networks of their own people. That’s the opportunity.
Fox Tales: How has LinkedIn itself changed?
McKenna: LinkedIn has gone from being largely a professional directory to becoming a business destination. People don’t just go there to look for a job anymore. They go there to research someone before a meeting. They look at a leadership team. They evaluate a company. They look for expertise. They look at who they know in common. They read what people are saying and, importantly, what they’re responding to.
I can often learn more about a company in several minutes on LinkedIn than I can from its website, because the website is highly curated. LinkedIn lets me see the people. What does the company want to be known for? How do its leaders show up? Who works there? What expertise sits inside the organization? You can get a sense of all of that very quickly on LinkedIn—for better or worse.
Fox Tales: What approach breaks through the noise?
McKenna: I would encourage a different perspective because it’s almost impossible to drown out the noise. It’s everywhere, and there’s another rabbit hole every second calling our name. I encourage being relevant to the right people. That’s different. Know who matters to your business. Build the right network. Pay attention to what those people are doing. Comment when you have something worthwhile to add. Share useful information. Make introductions. Stay visible. And yes, create content—but don’t create content simply because somebody told you the algorithm wants you to post three times a week.
There is enough mediocre content on LinkedIn already. LinkedIn has even added a “Seems like AI slop” option. That tells you something. A thoughtful comment in the right conversation can sometimes be more valuable than another post.
And eventually, get off LinkedIn. Have the conversation.
That’s what I mean when I say, “It’s Business, Not Social.” LinkedIn it isn’t the relationship, it facilitates the relationship.
Fox Tales: What mistakes do people make?
McKenna: The biggest one is probably activity without intention. Posting because we’re supposed to post. Connecting because someone told us we need 500 or 5,000 connections. Chasing impressions. Automating messages. Liking things without really engaging.
And then wondering why nothing happens. Another mistake is being too self-focused.
- Our award.
- Our event.
- Our people.
- Our product.
There’s nothing wrong with talking about your company, but eventually you have to ask: Why would the person on the other side care?
And I think organizations dramatically underestimate commenting. Not everything requires a post. Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is join someone else’s conversation and add something useful. We confuse visibility with value. And then wonder why nothing happens.
Fox Tales: What’s a company that does LinkedIn particularly well?
McKenna: It’s hard to choose one company and I rarely look at a large enterprise organization, because of course they have the resources to make sure it works well. I always want to encourage our clients to think about it differently and that includes:
- They understand that LinkedIn isn’t just the company page.
- Their executives show up as people—not just extensions of the corporate brand.
- Their subject-matter experts show up.
- Employees have strong profiles and are comfortable building professional relationships.
- People engage with one another rather than simply being asked to reshare corporate content.
- And there is some connective tissue between marketing, sales, recruiting, leadership, and the employees themselves.
That’s when it becomes powerful.
Because now you’ve moved from “What should we post on LinkedIn?” to “How do we activate the network we already have?” It’s the water cooler without the walls. That’s a much more interesting opportunity.