Check out some of FMWF’s most essential business leader social media content
LinkedIn can be an immensely beneficial tool for those in the business world. Whether it’s developing new connections, sharing breakthrough news or searching for new career positions to better yourself, LinkedIn proves to be a great resource. One of the most overlooked tools, however, is arguably the advice that everyday local community leaders post on their LinkedIn pages.
Read on to check out some of our community’s local leaders’ LinkedIn leadership!
Mike Meagher, Founder and CEO of Sagency
Mike Meagher is the founder and CEO of Sagency, an executive search and leadership consulting firm. Under his leadership, Sagency was the winner of the 2020 ChamberChoice Small Business of the Year award. As a highly regarded coach and consultant, Mike has worked with hundreds of top organizations to help them achieve their goals by finding, developing and aligning top leadership talent.
What advice have you learned through LinkedIn that has stuck with you?
LinkedIn’s past reputation as a static, boring platform “where resumes go to die” couldn’t be further from how it functions today. Now, LinkedIn is the place to learn from people who are unpacking in real-time what they do—from solopreneurs to C-suite execs to working parents re-entering the workforce after stints at home. My favorite part of LinkedIn is learning from people with expertise in areas that diverge from Sagency’s specific wheelhouse. I spend a lot of time researching books and articles on business strategy and leadership, but I have less time to think about other things that would be useful for growing our own business. That’s where LinkedIn provides a space for free, supplemental learning. I read about things I wouldn’t even know to search for elsewhere.
I follow people who share practical and actionable insights about content marketing, sales, investing and creating online courses. I’m grateful for the smart and generous people serving their audiences with great advice—advice they don’t get paid to provide.
What advice have you shared with others through LinkedIn?
Earlier this year, in January, I started posting four to five times a week. I share insights and strategies for leaders who want to attract, develop and engage top leadership talent. I’ve noticed over the past 10 months that people want to hear a little bit about my life outside of work, so I’ve been incorporating some stories and lessons that I’ve learned in my personal life as well. LinkedIn isn’t just a place to learn; it’s also a place for community, networking and connection.
What do you see as the benefits of using this platform in the business industry?
Sharing on LinkedIn is another way to fulfill Sagency’s mission to help leaders, teams and organizations maximize their greatness. We aim to educate and inform on topics like talent search, leadership development and strategy. Ultimately, we know what we do makes a big difference for leaders and organizations, so we want to share our knowledge and experience with a broader audience. We don’t sell directly on LinkedIn; however, we do get clients who say they first learned of Sagency because of one of our LinkedIn posts.
Whom do you recommend that people follow on LinkedIn that could have a positive impact on their knowledge and growth?
One person I follow is Eva Rose Daniels. She just launched a company focused on helping leaders become stronger public speakers. I’ve incorporated many of her tips to help me improve the delivery of our in-person, facilitated leadership development sessions.
Furthermore, I think the team at Fjell Capital is knocking it out of the park with LinkedIn content. They have clearly identified their target audience and are adding value through specific, educational posts about what can sometimes be a complex topic (investing).
Did You Know?
Sagency is a leadership coaching and executive search firm helping leaders, teams and organizations pursue greatness.
Maddie Craig, Founder of Blue Cypher Bookkeeping
Maddie Craig, founder of Blue Cypher Bookkeeping, is a detail-oriented entrepreneur with a love of finance and an eye for efficiency. She is a Fargo, ND native and Minnesota State University Moorhead alum. Maddie understands the importance of accurate financial data and loves digging into the data to pull out the full story of her client’s financial picture. She loves seeing clients able to make confident business decisions and support their businesses and nonprofits as they grow. Her mission is to make bookkeeping easy, efficient and understandable for small business owners and nonprofit organizations. She and her team take care of the day-to-day bookkeeping and accounting tasks all year round, freeing up leaders to focus on what they love and take their ambitions and vision even further.
What advice have you learned through LinkedIn that has stuck with you?
One thing that has stuck out to me the most is when people are always authentically and openly themselves or share some of the genuine struggles they’ve gone through. Hearing other people’s experiences and stories is always something I love and, to be frank, being a founder/entrepreneur can be a lonely endeavor sometimes. It’s uplifting to hear from others who have been there as well or gone through something similar. LinkedIn isn’t just for sales or jobs anymore; it’s a place for people to personally and professionally connect and learn from each other.
What advice have you shared with others through LinkedIn?
I tend to share bookkeeping and accounting tips, along with stories of things I come across in my work. I also try to share things I learn in my entrepreneurial journey. Whenever there are local events, opportunities or just cool people doing cool things, I always try to share and highlight those as well!
What do you see as the benefits of using this platform in the business industry?
It’s a great platform to connect with different types of people in different industries and areas. I see it as kind of like a Facebook for business. In the past, I feel like it was mainly for people to have a digital resume and professional history; to connect for jobs. Now, it seems LinkedIn has tried hard to make it more like other social platforms by broadening the ways people can interact on it, and people use it a lot differently now. It’s become more of a platform for open discussion and active interactions. I’ve personally met some really awesome people on LinkedIn that I wouldn’t have run into in person, but being online in the same virtual spaces allowed us to meet and stay connected!
Whom do you recommend that people follow on LinkedIn that could have a positive impact on their knowledge and growth?
I enjoy following a variety of leaders and seeing what’s happening in our community! A few I’ve been enjoying content from most recently are:
- Greg Tehven, who is someone that is super involved in our community and well-respected. He is constantly sharing about local events, businesses and ventures doing great things. I love seeing the impact that people and organizations from our area are making in our community and beyond.
- Emma McIntyre is a friend that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for a few years now and I always love following her. She is one of the most energetic and positive people I know! Her posts are always something fun, uplifting or highlighting local organizations and I love that.
- Sue Skavlem is an awesome gal I recently got to know through She Starts Week and we connected instantly. Her page is full of fun tips around marketing and branding, and she is very down to earth. As a graphic designer, she always has great colorful posts and graphics that catch my eye when I’m scrolling!
Did You Know?
Blue Cypher Bookkeeping is an entirely virtual firm and was founded in 2019 solely by Maddie Craig!
Jacob Radke, Capital Markets Analyst of Fjell Capital
As the team’s Capital Markets Analyst, Jacob conducts market and investment research and assists in the development of a business strategy to serve clients more effectively. He graduated from NDSU in the fall with a degree in finance and a minor in economics. At NDSU, Jacob served as the President of Pathway Ventures, a student-run venture capital fund start-up, and was an Analyst for the Bison Fund, a student-managed investment fund.
What advice have you learned through LinkedIn that has stuck with you?
It’s not about what you post on LinkedIn, it’s that you post on LinkedIn in the first place. The content doesn’t necessarily have to be super amazing or on a regular basis. While I started off posting once a week, I now aim for five to seven posts per week of quality content. What stuck with me most is if your posts are bad, people won’t see them in the first place, as LinkedIn only wants to show good content to keep your attention for longer. That alleviated a lot of my fears about posting.
What advice have you shared with others through LinkedIn?
I have basically shared what others have taught me, but the biggest thing that I share is to just be present. Like other people’s posts, comment well thought-out responses to the point the writer was trying to communicate, that gets you super far and builds loyalty. I’ve talked to several college students recently and what I’ve basically said is if you aren’t on LinkedIn, get on LinkedIn. If you don’t post on LinkedIn, start posting on LinkedIn. And if you aren’t present on LinkedIn, be present on LinkedIn.
What do you see as the benefits of using this platform in the business industry?
LinkedIn generates different awareness than other social media channels. People don’t go to LinkedIn to watch a collection of funny videos and share selfies with one another. They go to LinkedIn to build more genuine business relationships with other business leaders, whether that’s to get hired or to generate sales.
Whom do you recommend that people follow on LinkedIn that could have a positive impact on their knowledge and growth?
I would highly recommend checking out Rob Ashe (Microsoft), Jimmy Slagle (generAI) and any of the folks at Rocketshipping.
Did You Know?
During his time at NDSU, Jacob served as the President of Pathway Ventures, a student-run venture capital fund start-up and was an Analyst for the Bison Fund, a student-managed investment fund.
Tom Stadum, CEO and Founder of Fjell Capital
Tom Stadum is the CEO and Founder of Fjell Capital, a wealth management firm based out of Fargo. Along with Fjell Capital, Stadum also has a significant hand in launching Lykkly, a financial wellness and enablement platform that encourages people to view their money differently. As he’s seen immense growth and success in this line of business over the years, he’s learned a handful of critical tips and advice from past experience, as well as his peers through the social media platform.
What advice have you learned through LinkedIn that has stuck with you?
Consistency is key to growing your audience. Businesses today, successful ones, in particular, have large audiences, particularly in their market. You need to talk with that audience frequently to build trust and rapport.
What advice have you shared with others through LinkedIn?
People do reach out to us frequently on our company’s LinkedIn presence. Our advice is always the same. Just start and never stop. It’s incredibly easy to be a part of the digital community in Fargo. Simply liking and commenting on posts adds value, even more so sharing with the community your unique knowledge that can add value. It’s not hard but requires discipline and foresight.
What do you see as the benefits of using this platform in the business industry?
It’s where successful people socially hang out. The statistics are clear that the average LinkedIn user, in the US, is successful in growing their network. We’ve seen large success on the platform and across the country simply by sharing our story.
Whom do you recommend that people follow on LinkedIn that could have a positive impact on their knowledge and growth?
Jimmy Slagle and Jacob Radke have been putting out some amazing content recently. Definitely worth following on with them!
Did You Know?
Tom Stadum was named to Forbes’ Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list in 2020.
Anthony Molzahn, CEO of Project Phoenix and Devii.io
Before Devii, Anthony co-founded a custom software company to build applications for companies in education, including B2B, Agriculture and IoT. He leverages educational and career experiences in art, hospitality, leadership and engineering to move good ideas forward, faster.
What advice have you learned through LinkedIn that has stuck with you?
Get LinkedIn Premium and try Sales Navigator for three months. There are several casual upgrades with Premium (e.g. messaging, trends, search management) and Sales Navigator is, for a lot of business professionals, the primary open dataset to use when researching markets and pairing leads with customer personas. This was particularly valuable when I first started establishing business development relationships as a part of my journey into sales.
What advice have you shared with others through LinkedIn?
First, keep your profile recent. LinkedIn has become the de facto first step for business executives, investors and partners to establish a professional connection, so make sure your profile and message align with who you are and what you do in real life.
Second, repost articles you like (and actually read), but you MUST provide a comment on why that article was of value to you, how it helps others and a TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) summary. Do not just make the repost all about you, either. Your followers will appreciate you better if you describe the utility of the article and how it might be useful to them alongside an example of how it brought value to you.
What do you see as the benefits of using this platform in the business industry?
Every connection and follower relevant to your company will increase your reach for those you intend to stay in front of. For instance, I focus on connecting with software development companies, tech businesses in the middle market and competitors of Devii.
Another benefit of LinkedIn is if you follow the technologies you and your business use, then you will be able to stay on top of new features, prices and other trends on their roadmaps. For instance, I learned that Salesforce has sunset their free tier of Heroku and, because of this, Devii will be able to step in and offer a free database hosting tier as a quick replacement to those who’ve been cut out of Heroku’s sales pipeline.
Whom do you recommend that people follow on LinkedIn that could have a positive impact on their knowledge and growth?
This completely depends on your industry and interest. For a business, follow at least 30 ideal local customers and as many competitors as you can identify in the region. For an individual, follow 30 local leaders that you’ve taken advice from previously. There’s a good chance they may have another tidbit or two you’ll appreciate and they will see you interacting with their profile! That counts as an impression.
Regardless of industry or interest, this is a good starter pack to follow for North Dakotans: Emerging Prairie et al. and Grand Farm, your regional Chamber and other business collectives (SBA, NDWBC, SBDC, your local EDC, TechND, Dakota Medical Foundation) and any event-driven groups connected to your downtown. Also, follow non-profits that you believe in because they could use your influence.
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