LinkedIn Posts Are Turning Into Deals & Dollars

On average, I sign up one ISO every time I post a message on LinkedIn, says Jennie Villano, VP of Business Development at Kalamata Capital Group. They don’t all end up submitting business, she adds, but overall it works. It costs her nothing more than her time and it produces results.

Villano is among the growing crowd of industry insiders attempting to convert social media posts into measurable business. With more than 600 million users on LinkedIn, there is no question about the potential to reach clients. The prevailing wisdom is that you need to be on social media and sharing, but share what exactly?

New Hampshire-based Everlasting Capital is building a window into the business lives of co-founders Josh Feinberg and Will Murphy. One of their recent social media posts focused on their search for a new office lease, while another was a video stream of Feinberg making a real live cold call. The rewards span the gamut, from merchants seeking funding to offers to speak professionally in front of large audiences. And it’s not just about them. “We have worked with our employees to get confident on camera which is making them a lot more comfortable on the phone,” Feinberg said.

Anthony Collin, CEO of New York-based Smart Business Funding, also attests to LinkedIn. “We definitely generate sales from posting online,” Collin shared, explaining that it was a mix of ISOs and merchants who reach out. Collin said that he and two others in the company meet weekly to generate ideas for the daily posts. They try to make the posts timely, either related to something going on in the industry or to current events, like national elections.

For Jennie Villano, it’s not always a sales pitch. She has posted about being a single mom and about how to keep an upbeat attitude. “Your co-workers, your friends. Are they positive, or are they always complaining?” Villano asks in the video. “Try to surround yourself with positive people who see the best in everything.” She’ll typically extend the offer to do business in the videos that she makes and shares, but not all of them. She shares 2-3 videos a week and her posts typically receive thousands of views.

Sometimes a video needs a little bit of priming to draw the viewer in. Everlasting Capital, for example, filmed an executive making a sales pitch in their conference room to company CEO Josh Feinberg. But it’s something you must watch, or so the title of the post suggests, because they say the executive drove 10 hours to the office for the opportunity.

Though other social networks are being used in full force by many industry players, LinkedIn is definitely a platform to consider. “We’ve gotten tremendous value from posting to LinkedIn,” Smart Business Funding’s Collin said.

Todd Stone was a reporter for deBanked.