Case study · Thought leadership
Verve, an international research agency, wanted its people to use LinkedIn better and its experts to become known names in their fields. We ran a two-tier LinkedIn masterclass for staff across four countries, then sat down one to one with its subject experts to build each of them a personal plan.
- 45 staff invited
- 4 countries
- 11 subject experts
- 2 phases, the second booked off the first
- Client Verve
- Sector Research and insight
- Training LinkedIn, personal brand, thought leadership
- When July to September 2022
- Audience Staff in the UK, USA, Australia and South Africa
- Format Recorded online masterclass, then one-to-one coaching
What did Verve need?
Verve’s marketing team looked after the company page, but “there is a need for individuals within the business to ‘tune up’ how they use the platform.” It also had specialists, in areas from semiotics to behavioural science, who could win work by being visible in their fields.
- Business objective: build Verve’s reputation and new business through its experts.
- Training objective: help everyone use LinkedIn better, and help subject experts build a personal brand and become recognised voices in their niche.
What was the insight?
One course wouldn’t fit everyone. Most staff needed the essentials. A smaller group of experts needed a plan of their own. So we built two tiers, and then went further with the experts, one person at a time.
What did the training cover?
- Timed for four countries. An 8am session reached the UK, Australia and South Africa, a 4pm session caught the US, and both were recorded.
- LinkedIn Essentials. Individual and company pages, content types, the algorithm, building a network, measuring success and supporting Verve.
- Advanced for experts. Personal brand, owning your niche, tone of voice, content planning, and where content should live.
- Phase 2, one to one. Each expert got a “strategy on a page” with themes, a content calendar and weekly targets, such as one original post and three new connections a week.
- A way to measure it. We scored each expert’s LinkedIn influence out of 100 before coaching, covering profile, posting, engagement, outreach and impressions.
What did it achieve?
Results by stage of the AMEC evaluation framework, with the source for each figure.
| Stage | Measure | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outputs | Staff invited to the masterclass | 45 across 4 countries | Attendee list, July 2022 |
| Outputs | Masterclass sessions | 2 x 90 minutes, recorded | Training deck, 27 July 2022 |
| Outputs | One-to-one expert sessions | September 2022 | Phase 2 plan |
| Inputs | Baseline influence score, five experts | Average 52 out of 100 | Influence benchmarking, September 2022 |
| Impact | Follow-on work | Phase 2 coaching booked after the masterclass | Phase 2 brief |
What did Verve get from it?
A team more confident on LinkedIn, and experts with a written plan, clear weekly targets and a baseline score to measure themselves against. The masterclass led straight to a second phase of one-to-one coaching.
What did we learn?
- Experts need their own plan. A strategy on a page turned good intentions into a weekly routine.
- Record it. With staff in four time zones, recordings did as much work as the live sessions.
- What we would do differently. Book the re-score at the start. We set up the baseline but never re-measured, so the change can’t be shown.
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