Posting Isn't Business Development

I spend a fair amount of time on LinkedIn.

I share blog posts, celebrate the accomplishments of people in my network, talk about community involvement, and occasionally share a story that probably has very little to do with business development (until I find a way to connect the dots, anyway).

I've made a conscious effort to show up consistently, and I encourage many of the business owners I work with to do the same.

Naturally, I'm going to write an entire blog about why posting on social media isn't business development. 😂

Hear me out.

There's a difference between being visible and being engaged, and I think we occasionally confuse the two.

It's easy to feel productive when we're creating content. We spend time writing a thoughtful post, finding the right photo, adding a few hashtags, and hitting publish. Then we check back throughout the day to see how many people liked it, commented, or shared it. Maybe we gained a few followers or noticed an increase in profile views.

Those are encouraging things to see! They tell us that people are paying attention, and there's absolutely value in that.

But what happens next?

That's the part I think deserves a little more attention.

I've had conversations with business owners who are frustrated that they're consistently posting on social media but aren't seeing the business growth they expected. They're doing what they've been told to do, showing up regularly, sharing information about their services, and trying to stay top of mind. Yet, the phone isn't ringing.

I don't necessarily think the problem is what they're posting, or even how frequently they're posting. I think it's that we've started treating content creation as the entire strategy rather than one piece of a much larger business development effort.

There's actually research that supports looking at social selling more broadly. A 2022 study published in Industrial Marketing Management, titled Measuring B2B Social Selling: Key Activities, Antecedents and Performance Outcomes, identified three important dimensions of social selling: generating insights, connecting with relevant people, and engaging with customers.

What I find interesting is that those three activities require us to do more than publish content.

Generating insights means paying attention to what's happening around us. What are people in our network talking about? What challenges are they facing? Are businesses expanding, hiring, changing direction, or celebrating something significant? Social media gives us an incredible opportunity to learn about the people and organizations we want to build relationships with, but only if we're paying attention.

Connecting is another piece of the equation. And I don't mean sending 50 generic connection requests followed immediately by a message asking for 15 minutes on someone's calendar. I'm talking about identifying people we genuinely want to know, finding common ground, and making an effort to establish a connection that could become valuable to both parties.

Then there's engagement. I think this is where we have an opportunity to do better.

When someone in your network shares a major accomplishment, do you congratulate them? When they ask a question, do you offer a thoughtful response? If someone shares an article that challenges the way you think, do you take the time to read it and join the conversation?

Or do you scroll past, publish your own post, and call it a day?

I ask that knowing I'm guilty of it, too. There are plenty of days when my calendar is full, I'm bouncing between meetings, and I barely have enough time to get my own content published, much less thoughtfully engage with everyone else's.

But I also recognize that the relationships I've built through LinkedIn haven't come exclusively from the things I've posted. They've come from conversations.

A comment that turned into a direct message. A direct message that turned into coffee. A post that reminded me of someone I hadn't connected with in a while. An introduction to someone whose work I admired, or an opportunity to celebrate someone else's success.

And sometimes, the most valuable thing I've done on LinkedIn that day had absolutely nothing to do with my own content.

That's the part of social selling I think gets overlooked.

We're so focused on making sure people see us that we forget to make sure we're seeing them.

I also think it's important to recognize that not every interaction needs to turn into a sales opportunity. Just like the coffee meetings I wrote about recently, there's value in learning about someone, supporting their work, and developing a relationship without immediately calculating what it might produce.

That doesn't mean we should abandon strategy. Quite the opposite.

If you're investing time in social media as part of your business development efforts, you should have some idea of what you're trying to accomplish. Are you hoping to become more recognizable within a particular industry? Develop strategic partnerships? Better understand your ideal clients? Establish credibility in your area of expertise?

Those goals should influence not only what you post, but also who you connect with, whose conversations you participate in, and how you follow up when an opportunity presents itself.

I still believe consistency matters.

Showing up regularly gives people opportunities to become familiar with you, your business, and the way you think. It creates visibility, and over time, that familiarity can help open doors.

But visibility alone doesn't build a relationship. You still have to walk through the door.

For me, that's where the real business development begins. It's taking what we've learned, making a thoughtful introduction, reaching out to someone whose work caught our attention, or following up on a conversation that started in the comments.

It's recognizing that social media isn't just a place to tell people what we're doing. It's an opportunity to learn what everyone else is doing, too.

If all we're doing is broadcasting, we're missing an enormous part of that opportunity.

So, I'll continue writing blogs, sharing my thoughts, celebrating my network, and encouraging business owners to show up consistently.

I'll more than likely even share this blog on LinkedIn, which feels appropriately ironic.

But I'll also continue reminding myself that publishing the post isn't the finish line.

It's one more opportunity to start a conversation.

Because posting might help people know who you are. What you do next helps them discover what it's like to know you.

Built on Relationships. Driven by Growth.