Alternative Investment

Your Marketing Toolkit – The Role of LinkedIn for Fund Managers

We are honored to continue our Capital Raising Education Series, partnering with experts in the industry to showcase this video from HS Marketing.

LinkedIn drives relationship building at scale. This growing global community now exceeds 1 billion members and 67 million+ company listings (source: LinkedIn). What are the implications and actionable takeaways for firms, employees, and service providers in the alternative investment community? Why / How / When should you incorporate this platform within your marketing toolkit and overall communication strategy as a professional and for your firm?

WHY?  Consider the importance of branding, which is intrinsically connected to perception, reputation and trust at the personal and company levels. Strong messaging helps differentiate each investment firm’s brand and reinforces trust. Your LinkedIn presence offers a widely used platform to establish and share valuable content at the company and individual levels. Unlike Google, LinkedIn is not a search engine; however, LinkedIn content such as profiles and articles are readily indexed, appear in search results, and provide a valuable tool, benefitting your digital marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. Many (if not most) business professionals quickly look up prospects and networking contacts online or in many cases, directly on LinkedIn during a conversation or at networking events. Why would you risk not using this tool and therefore not appearing on this highly popular business communication platform?

HOW?  LinkedIn content development is framed by multiple interconnected levels of valuable messaging including your profile and your posts (new and curated). Use both levels to build awareness, expand your contact network, and improve your firm’s visibility. Compelling content is your ticket to creating online dialogue, leading to relationship building opportunities. Authenticity of voice is critical, especially as LinkedIn has evolved recently to feature more personalized stories and points of view alongside conversational content.

Actionable advice: Consider LinkedIn best practices, focused on creating engagement. Rather than viewing this opportunity as a 1-time set-up project followed by passive membership, effective participation calls for profile management/updates together with ongoing monitoring of your network and notifications to create and/or share fresh content.

What content should appear on LinkedIn?

• Include a profile head shot, header image and firm logo(s).
• Develop a concise (“About”) profile synopsis; highlight your strengths and accomplishments.
• Update your profile experience including credentials and volunteering roles.

Posting tips:

• Personalize your profile URL and maximize public visibility settings.
• Create compelling copy with a strong headline and/or summary to pique interest.
• Curate relevant thought leadership, like, add comments/takeaways and repost/share.
• Tag relevant people, companies, and topics to increase reach.
• Optimize engagement with video content (fastest growing LinkedIn format).

Traps you should avoid:

• Do NOT specify any private funds or identify investment vehicles online.
• Avoid using multiple LinkedIn profiles; merge them into a single account.

WHEN?  Start now. Actively monitor your LinkedIn presence, review others’ updates and participate in conversations to create engagement. Stay abreast of contacts, prospects, companies, influencers. Use your discretion with the frequency of posting. The global LinkedIn community’s activity is growing, now exceeding 1.7 million feed updates viewed per minute and over 13 thousand connections made per minute. (source: LinkedIn). Prioritize quality content vs. quantity or frequency of posting. Focus on identifying knowledge-driven, actionable content such as company announcements and/or professional news, industry developments, topical questions, career tips, behind-the-scenes spotlights on your team members and more. Consider the often-quoted age-old question: “If not now, when?”

About Holly Singer and HS Marketing
Holly Singer is president and founder of HS Marketing LLC, a marketing communications and public relations (PR) firm specialized in the alternative investment community.  For decades, Holly has been dedicated to helping clients articulate their capabilities, develop marketing tools, build brand with thought leadership, and apply PR initiatives to raise visibility.  Our trademarked tagline – Communication Alpha® – reflects the capability and willingness to create and deliver clear, consistent, frequent and targeted communication.  Having served 150+ clients among investment managers (emerging and established), asset allocators, and service providers within this space, HS Marketing offers a flexible team approach.  Project work has spanned many strategies: long/short equity, derivatives, currencies, digital assets, credit, PE, real estate and variations of each.

Holly Singer,
President, HS Marketing LLC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollysinger
holly@hsmarketing.com

Talk to us. Richey May specializes in audit, tax, and accounting services for the alternative investments industry. If you need further guidance, reach out to Steve Vlasak, Business Development Partner, Alternative Investments Practice.