How SaaS Founder should brand themselves on social media to navigate easily through the fundraising journey.
What is included in a in this article
Introduction
State of SaaS Fundraising, 2023 How VC's schedule their first meeting with Founder
LinkedIn Checklist for Profile optimisation
Advantages of Founder/ CEO branding.
The Pitchworks VRICE framework for Fundraising
CEO Personal Branding Playbook
Conclusion
Download Free CEO's Personal Branding Playbook for Fundraising PDF
Introduction
We have discussed about how the founder should think about positioning their team in the eyes of VC, though the team presentation to investors is very critical for securing funds from Investors, this blog talk about one of the effective ways of reaching out to VCs : The inbound way. As SaaS founders on an early stage to IPO B2B social media branding and presence is no longer an option as Venture deal suggest 95% VC funds have at least one team members who are active on linkedIn and 80% of them are using the platform to scout for startups. Adopting social selling skills to brand yourself not only get you the customers you are seeking for but also has additional benefit of attracting talents but also get you the right set of investors as an inbound
Bonanzaaaaa. State of SaaS Fundraising 2023 Given conditions SaaS fundraising is becoming like war cry scenarios as SaaS Valuation is all time low in last 3 years Its Important for founders to note that
It’s estimated that by 2025, 85% of business apps will be SaaS-based.
Each year there are around 800-1000 SaaS deals.
There are around 1450 VCs firms around and 60 funds leading the investment on core only on SaaS venture.
What above the data points signifies is that there is clearly a supply and demand problem and you are certainly competing to fundraise with other players who are not in your vertical. Your competition is not just other SaaS player in market, but even the consumer tech and other PLG products are fighting with you to grab the fund from VCs, and as you know there are finite funds to be deployed. Day by day its becoming tougher to get the attention of VC partner due to their limited bandwidth. You have to know more than 78% of SaaS VC funds have less than 10 employees in their team size which clearly signifies that have less 2-3 scouts do the first meeting with the founders.
How VC's schedule their first meeting with Founder
Before knowing why this social branding activity is important let's see how senior partners of VC firm get their startup founder meetings. 1. References & Introductions (LPs, Portfolio companies, other close network): While the References & Introductions are the best approach, even the well connected early stage founders in a survey by open view partners said they are connected with only 20-25 VC firms, 10-15 angles, 5 Investment Bankers. While it very critical to build relationship with with top tier VCs, you also need angels and micro VC and other VC firms to close the round, this is reality even in your Series-A and Series-Bs. Your source of reference can be Accelerates, angels, CAs, Law firm, portfolio company founder. 2 Cold Outbound Email You cannot avoid this method and its been adopted by each and every competitor, if you have a great message, personalised meaningful subject and great Pitch included you can get 30% to 40% open rate and 1-4% of reply rate. We will take up a separate article on how to cold outreach to VCs, 3 Social Media: Like cold outbound email, you could also do a cold linkedIn outbound as 1 an invite 2 in-mail 3 LinkedIn message. With added great message personalised pitch you could get somewhere between 3-5% response rate. 4 Events There around 15 SaaS and 20 well-known generic fundraising events where actual Partners of VC companies come, your chances of actually doing an great pitch and raising funds is around 10-20% given the competition and less time availability. 5 VC Scouting activities and program This is the core work of analysts or scouting intern or the outsourced scouting agencies. So the process is they use tools like Crunchbase, Pitchbook or Traxn to research and identify the startups and reach out the startup founders via mail or LinkedIn in-mail or through known sources. Almost 20-30% of active meetings for partners are sourced out of VC scouting. 6 Inbound on VC websites All VC websites have an inbound form which each of them are customised according to their requirement, any startups founders can go there and apply to wait for get a reply back. If you have a great pitch, you can hit the doors, 10% of the VC partner meetings are though inbound website forms.
7 Investment Bankers:
There are quite a few investment banker and startup consultants who can connect you with VCs or pitch on behalf of you in their investors circle and events. It's a lot of time saving but comes with disadvantages,
VCs expect founder who are owners and pithing with passions. Some of the IBs work on variable commission models and they usually tend to carry 3-15 startups when they are pitching, still you hold a chance if you strike a great deal with right IBs.
8 Accelerators, Angels, angel networks
Earlier investors like your angles, accelerators directors founder if they have the right network can be a great introduction point to LP, GP, MP of Funds. Great accelerators like Y Combinator or 500 startups have a better brand presence which helps you navigate your fundraising via online.
9 Fundraising platforms
Letsventure
Fundable
Republic
Ourcrowd
SeedInvest
Fundersclub
There are "n: number of platform which offers Crowdfunding to ICO tokens to Defi to Debt options. This is also a way for validating your idea with your startup from consumer investors, very less in SaaS space though.
Advantages of Founder /CEO branding. In the above section we saw what are the chances for you as SaaS founder to get the first shot with VCs. What if I sad your chances of increasing in most of the above channels is gonna increase by minimum 50% by building a better Personal brand as founder / CEO digitally ?
By building a familiar profile brand on LinkedIn, you get these following advantages
Boost Your LinkedIn invite acceptance by 50 %.
Increase your in-mail reply or any message rate by 100%.
Get noticed by VC Scouts, make them reach you, instead of you reaching the firm.
Enhance cold email open and response rates ( VC Scouting activities)
The more inbound from VC, save hours of outbound on a daily basis.
Familiarity of brand will help your application shortlisted when you apply on the website.
Already building a familiarity with you, VCs cut the pitch time and move to a next level discussion.
Though above all are the advantages during fundraising, you also have the following good side effect of this specific branding activity .
An unfair edge in customer prospecting and getting meeting space.
Win over competition in deals.
Helps largely on attracting talents.
Customer references.
High esteem for employees.
The first step on building a great community.
Pitchworks is been working with 100 + founders and has detailed out its own fundraising playbook :VRICE framework which has 50 + activities for founder to cross the fundraising journey. One important section is Social Branding for the founders which we call it as Voice out : CEO Social media brand framework
With our total 150M on SaaS fundraising, we found the exact process for anybody to follow and implement, with our own experience we found the following benefits for the founder.
🌟 Founder get 3x time faster meeting with VC within 6 weeks of this activity.
🌟 85% of founder who followed Voice out framework landed in any one type of securing funding.
🌟 Almost all the founders started seeing the benefits of singing customers, singing JV partnership or hiring a great leader at the end of 8 weeks of these activities.
🌟 Founder's personality perception & products perception have improved 140% at the end of 12 weeks of consistently working on the activity.
Now that we know the innumerable outcomes of building your social brand as a CEO / founder lets take a look at the our VOICE-OUT blueprint and top level efforts on implementing the process.
CEO Personal Branding Playbook What is included in a CEO Personal Branding Fundraising playbook?
VOICE_OUT Framework.
Define your Audience.
Strategies for content & social.
LinkedIn Checklist for Profile optimisation.
Twitter Checklist for Profile optimisation.
LinkedIn Checklist for Posting Original content.
Twitter Checklist for Posting Original content.
LinkedIn Checklist for Engagement.
Twitter Checklist for Engagement.
CEO Newsletter checklist.
VOICE-OUT Framework
Define
Define your Audience
Define Brand Perception
List Content Themes
Type & Frequency
Define your Audience
Defining your target audience is critical for personal branding, because it helps you tailor your content, messaging to meet the needs and interests of your target audience. When you know who your target audience is, you can create content that is relevant and meaningful to them, increasing the chances that they will engage with your content.
Lock-in Target Audience:
This can be various personas which can include investors: VC Analyst or Angles or Partners or even your ideal user persona (who are gonna use your product): For example, it can be data analyst, data scientist or it can be your Ideal Buyer persona (you are selling to): For example, it can be Founders, CTO, CROs. You could have up to 2-3 personas, so when you plan your content and engagement strategy it can address each of the content draws attention from each persona.
Here is real-world example of an early stage SaaS Sale-tech company could adopt as their persona.
Persona 1: Angles who invest in Sales tech SaaS firms
Persona 2: My buyers: head of sales, leadership in sales
Persona 3: My users: SDR, AE
If you are gonna target angels and VC, it may not greatly work for social strategy as there is very handful of them and most of the are limit themselves to the social interaction due the nature of the job, its better attract they keep them on your connection
Note: this persona is not the ICP which ideally you create to sell the product but those ICP can also be part of your social branding targets. This activity is a combination of your ICP + your Ideal Investor Profile + Ideal User ProfIle. Create Audience Expectations : List down assumption about each person
What is their problem, what kind of content would be valuable to them, What kind of Content they consume right now, what kind of content will be redundant to them, What time they consume the content, where they consume it, is it on web on mobile. Consumption capacity
The attention span and content consumption habits vary greatly based on different age groups, job nature, geo, culture. Though it broadly said that the short form of content has better engagement, 40 + or 50 aged C- suite and VC prefer the depths of the content rather than the form or attractiveness which requires long article.
If you are able to define the audience, your brand and content themes become much more easier. In a separate article we will discuss the process of arriving at your target audience and how define your audience content using consumption capacity meter.
Perception you want to create :
Pitchworks have a had a conversion with Balaji Bhoovarahan of Kern Consulting and their key product Identity2.0 which helps individuals create their personal brand by applying the science of brand storytelling. With their 3 step process individuals can craft their own personal brand stories, We also look forward to work with them on crafting stories for SaaS founders. On having a detailed call with Balaji, he explained me the process which is fascinating. They talk with their clients , Clients friends and families as well as their professional network to understand their personal brand perception.
Based on this understanding, identify a brand perception through followers and other parameters the team creates a list of themes which is persuasive, compelling, and engineered to Achieve the individual’s branding goals.
Finally, they bring the brand story to life through the offline and online channels most relevant to these goals. They have worked with numerous individuals they have cracked the same for for some stalwarts too, explaining about SaaS industry he find there is no deviation in the process and the steps can be adopted here. We did a detailed podcast on identifying the brand perception, watch it once we upload it here Video work in progress, to come here.......
Vision Mission & Values Vision: A brief statement of where you see yourself in the future, what you aspire to be known for, and what impact you hope to have. Example:To be recognized as a thought leader and respected expert in Chat-GPT-3 no code products, inspiring others to achieve their own greatness. Mission: A brief statement of your purpose, what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to achieve your vision. Example:To share my knowledge and experience with the world through speaking, writing, and empowering individuals to reach their full potential and achieve their dreams. Values: A list of a few core principles that guide your actions and decisions, such as honesty, integrity, hard work, creativity, and so on. Example:
Integrity
Continuous learning
Positive impact
Empathy
Build in Public
Identify and Define your Unique voice Unique voice is very important in seeing separating your profile in the social media noise, everybody is posting, you need to develop a signature style and create a distinctive look and tone that reflects your personality and values. Identify content areas where you can showcase your Background and personal stories
Create your own style: Develop a visual and written style that is distinct and reflective of your personality and values.
Find areas where you can offer a unique perspective.
Consistency: Consistently using your voice across all communication channels helps to build recognition and trust with your audience
The tone can help convey emotions, build rapport and create an emotional connection with your audience. Based on your audience type you need to define voice, some of the commonly used tones are listed below.
😂 Humorous
🤔 Thoughtful
💭 Inspirational
👩💼 Authoritative
Define Content Themes
Based on your definition of Audience, Your Vision , Mission, Values and Tone shortlist content themes or top level category and sub category of content which can help you discover topics for your content. Content Themes are the central topics or subjects that you choose to focus on and talk about in your personal brand content. By selecting specific content themes, you can tailor your personal brand content to your target audience, showcase your expertise and experience, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your field.
For SaaS founder who wants to raise funds, broadly we suggest three top categories.
👉 Personal story themes: Choose moments in your life that have shaped who you are today and showcase them in an engaging way. Ensure that your story is relevant to your target audience, such as potential employers, clients, or collaborators. Use your story to communicate your unique value proposition, what sets you apart, and what you bring to the table. Investors love personal story has the potential to be in Forbes headline.
👉 Product Story: Grab your audience's attention by highlighting a unique aspect of your product, the benefits, the problem it solves, unique aspects customer stories, testimonial. Video Testimonials, short audiogram, quotes, product gifs are great hit on twitter.
👉 All about ICP: persona & problem: Be the users companion, share their issues, engage with the users on polls and share the stats, make sure your audience are engaged on each and every post, the core concept of posting the users problem is they are able to relate to it, this is nothing on product selling. The frequency and content quantity may change for each theme, but we need to first list all possible sub-categories and post topics can be created under it. Some of the Sub-categories Highlight a colleague: Personal story Personal experience: Personal story Most commonly asked question Industry: ICP persona & problem Industry future predictions: ICP persona & problem Insight on your process: Product Story Mention a customer: Personal story Build in public: Product Story Business meme on problem: ICP persona & problem Share how was this feature build: Product Story Create a poll: ICP persona & problem Define Content Type and Schedule. Defining content type and its schedule is hold up to 50 % of your success for your post reach. It's important to consistently share high-quality, relevant, and professional content that aligns with your personal brand and showcases your skills, knowledge, and expertise in your field. Just by posting right type of content and right time your audience are active you can increase your audience engagement to 200%. Here are some of the top engaging form of content. Video content: Video is one of the most engaging forms of content on LinkedIn, with studies showing that it generates more engagement than any other type of content. Long-form articles: LinkedIn's publishing platform allows you to share long-form articles with your network. These articles provide an opportunity to showcase your expertise and thought leadership, and can generate high levels of engagement if they offer valuable insights and information.
Infographics: Infographics are a great way to present complex information in an easy-to-digest format. They tend to perform well on LinkedIn because they are visually appealing and can communicate a message quickly and effectively. Now lets deep dive into type of content
Type of content
Once theme, sub-themes and topics are finalised and jotted down, map the kind of content you want to post to your persona. Create an outline or bullet points that outline the key messages or points you want to cover in each piece of content. This will help to ensure that your content is relevant and engaging to your audience. These are some of the top level categories of content
Slideshows
Short videos
Long videos
Opinion articles and thought pieces
Industry analysis and trends
Podcasts
Infographics
long-form articles
Webinars
Future predictions and scenario planning
Expert advice and best practices
Case studies and success stories
Online workshops
Product and service reviews
Original research and studies
White papers
e-books
Frequency of content The frequency of content on LinkedIn depends on several factors, including your industry, target audience, and goals. However, as a general guideline, it is recommended to:
Establish a regular posting schedule and stick to it, this will help you build a loyal following.
Quality over quantity: Focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your audience, rather than just posting frequently for the sake of it.
Avoid over-posting: Overloading your followers with too much content can lead to fatigue and a loss of engagement, so it's important to strike a balance.
It is important to strike a balance between maintaining a consistent presence on LinkedIn and not overwhelming your followers with too much content. Find a frequency that works best for you and your audience and stick to it.
For SaaS Market, as there are enough founders making noise, Pitchworks advices to post at-least 3 times a week a meaningful content on LinkedIn and 2 tweets per day and 1 newsletter per week.
Time to post to post
Posting at the right time is important because it can help you reach your target audience, increase engagement and visibility, and achieve better results from your Social marketing efforts. Posting at the right time ensures that your content is seen by the maximum number of people when they are active on the platform. Knowing the best times to post helps you reach your target audience when they are most likely to be online and engaged with the content. Posting at the right time can help increase the visibility of your content, leading to more likes, comments, and shares.By posting at the optimal times, you can maximize the impact of your content and see a better return on investment. By posting at the right time, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and stand out in the crowded LinkedIn feed. Posting regularly at optimal times helps you maintain a consistent presence on the platform and keep your followers engaged.
As general Industry stats Monday Wednesday Friday Morning 9-10 AM is the where the great engagement happens.
VCs are usually active on mornings and evening 6 PM
Send them a gentle peek which they can consume easily in the morning time Setup the Content calendar A content calendar is a useful tool for organizing and scheduling your personal branding content on LinkedIn. Here are some steps to create a content calendar:
Find the right LinkedIn / Twitter / Newsletter scheduler tool
Make it visual: Use a visual format, such as a table or calendar, to help you easily see and track your content schedule.
Keep it flexible: Remember to keep your content calendar flexible and adaptable, allowing for last-minute changes or opportunities to cover timely topics.
Decide on the right tool stack
We have give our favourite to define, create and schedule your content, comment us what tools you would like.
Setup the whole Branding process A study by Millward Brown found that strong brands can deliver up to a 23% premium on their stock market value compared to weaker brands when they are setup the right way. This is so true for Personal brands too, for which founders need to invest some time on research to build a better brand. here is the rpcoess
Keyword Research
LinkedIn Profile optimisation
Twitter Profile optimisation
Email Newsletter setup
Keyword Research
Keyword research is very critical for LinkedIn and Twitter because it. Helps you understand what people are searching for and talking about related to your business/industry. Helps you optimise your profile and content to rank higher in search results and reach your target audience. It also enables you to track the audience’s behaviors, interests, and pain points.
Gather seed keywords: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find relevant keywords related to your target audience and objectives. Though these tools are largely for google SEO planning, the keyword outcome also has an impact of the same persona who is alos social media
Analyse Keyword in LinkedIn, Twitter: a) How they are used b) How often they are searched c) Combination of keywords
Analyse competition: Use the keyword in LinkedIn and Twitter search to find-out people and posts, use tools to analyse the competition for each keyword and identify those with low competition and high search volume.
Evaluate keyword relevance: Ensure the keywords you've gathered are relevant to your target audience and objectives, find the search density for each keyword.
Shortlist the keyword which you wanted to use in your LinkedIn and twitter a) See if you can use the popular keywords as part of your profile optimisation. b) Split the keyword into their usage c) See what is the combination keyword you want to use. d) Keep experimenting.
Linkedin Profile Optimisation
Yes, a well-optimised LinkedIn profile can 65% increase the chances of appearing in search results and getting noticed by potential Investors, SMEs and scouts. The minute the you are given a connection request people are gonna have a look at your profile make sure it's 100 % and professional enough. In offline when you meet a person you introduce yourself and your background Profile optimisation is equivalent of it. It builds your brand perception and it influences your chance of
Invitation acceptance
Response to you in mail message
Response to your comments
As the profile optimisation is key part of the branding journey, and one needs to keep on optimising as a practice for better results. LinkedIn Analytics offers who viewed your profile and you can keep track of people who you have sent invites, who come to your profile and didn't want to accept invite, that's where you need to change if the numbers are high.
Profile Optimisation also involves using relevant keywords, having a professional profile picture, writing a clear and concise headline and summary, and showcasing your work experiences, skills, and achievements in detail. These elements help LinkedIn's algorithm understand your expertise and relevance, making it easier for you to be found when people search for professionals with your skills and experiences.
Update a great looking headshot DP
Add a right Cover Image
Short but effective bio
Complete “About” Section with 2500 words and using right keywords here
Add all info about the past & the current experience
Add Educational Qualification info
Add Skills & get minimum 10 endorsements
Add minimum 3-5 Interests info
Add info on Publications, Patent,Volunteering, Awards, Recongincation
Add Contact info
Join in all relevant communities / groups
Get minimum 3 recommendations from relevant people
Give minimum 3 proper recommendations
Highlight minimum 2-3 post / activities
Follow great influencers & companies
Some of the SaaS Founders Profile which is greatly optimised
Will Allread of Lavender.ai
Jonathan Reimer of Crowddev
SaaS Superstar - Girish of Freshworks
Some of the profiles optimised by Pitchworks team Sudharsan Srinivasan of Meindoc
Madan Kumar Gandam of Honebi
Twitter Profile Optimisation
Twitter can be used to connect with potential investors, industry experts, and other startups in your field. Twitter has been found to be one of the most effective social media platforms for startups looking to raise funds, with 59% of startups reporting success in raising funds through the platform. 75% of SaaS founders use Twitter as part of their marketing strategy. Twitter is one of the most effective social media platforms for SaaS companies, with 40% of SaaS companies reporting that they have generated leads through the platform.
With regards to twitter profile optimisation
Bios with keywords see 2X more engagement than those without any proper bio.
Make sure the bio is both professional as well as personal
Regularly updating your Twitter profile can increase your follower count by up to 30%.
Regularly updating a great headshot DP can increase your follower count by up to 30%.
Add proper cover image, location and website info
Pin great tweets you have done
Follow great influencers and companies
Some of the SaaS CEO a doing the twitter personal branding rightly, some of them are listed below for inspiration. Derry Holt
The super start here is Jason of SaaStr
Newsletter Setup
Choose the right tool, Mailchimp, Hubspot, LinkedIn newsletter, Sendinblue, Sendgrid, Tilt among 100s of options choose the one fits the budget and use-case.
Create an opt-in form: This form will be used to collect email addresses from people who want to receive your newsletter. You can place this form on your website or use pop-up forms to collect email addresses.
Create a sign-up process: Once someone fills out your opt-in form, they will need to confirm their email address before they start receiving your newsletter.
Design your newsletter template: Choose a template that fits your brand and create a professional don't make it too much of the content, just plain text might work to start with
How you are gonna send cold news letter matters without spamming your target's inbox.
Nathen Latka of founder path newsletter is also famous among SaaS communities.
Tool stack setup tools
Planning and posting By consistently presenting your thoughts and ideas, you reinforce your personal brand and position yourself as a knowledgeable and active professional in your network. Consistent posting of relevant, high-quality content can establish you as a thought leader in your industry and build your credibility on all the channels.
LinkedIn planning and posting Posting original content on LinkedIn is important because. Posting original content helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors, setting you apart as a knowledgeable and innovative professional.Consistently presenting yourself in a certain way helps establish trust with others and reinforces your personal brand. Consistency in personal branding reinforces your credibility and expertise, helping you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Planning is crucial for achieving consistency in posting. A few reasons why planning is important for consistency in posting include. Planning helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by the task of consistently posting, as you can break down your content creation and posting into manageable chunks.
Incorporate Research insights into the content
Original+ Personal +relatable 1900 to 200 words
Minimum 3 posts per week (don’t over post)
Diversify all 3 posts (Visual , Personal, Product)
Use right #hashtags
Make sure your post valuable to your potential Audience
Create Content pipeline.
Shortlist and add to content calendar.
1/3 post is supported by visuals (Infographics, Slides, Images, Chart)
1/3 Post is supported by Video.
1/3 post make it short and Fun supported by a meme.
Not everything should be about selling, be generous in sharing what you know.
Come up with topics of your niche themes to generate ideas.
Tag people who are related to the post
Reference and Tag few great companies, influencers, Schools Some of commonly popular content
a) Reference studies or reports relevant to your field.
b) Summarize key findings and highlight their implications.
c) Provide links to the original research for those who want to learn more. d) Offer your own interpretation and perspective on the research findings. e) Ask for your audience's thoughts and opinions on the research.
Twitter planning and posting
Age of tweeting right from twitter started there has been various playbook, you just have to wait for your right tweet to hit the trending list but consistency here is the key again.
Incorporate keyword research insights into the content.
Original+ Personal +relatable tweets with 90 to 110 words
Minimum 3-5 tweets per day
Don't shy to re-post what you have done on LinkedIn
Diversify your tweets
Using right hashtags
List your Tweet pipeline
Shortlist content and add it to content calendar
Not everything should be about selling, be generous in sharing what you know
Make sure your tweet valuable to your potential audience
1/5 post is supported by visuals( Info-graphics, Slides, Images, Chart)
1/5 Post is supported by Video
1/5 post make it short and Fun supported by meme
Post a threaded tweet at-least once a week.
Tag people who are related to the post.
Come up with topics of your niche themes to generate ideas
Newsletter planning and sending it across.
An email newsletter can play a crucial role in building and promoting your personal brand. It provides a direct and personal way to communicate with your audience and stay top of mind. A well-crafted newsletter can demonstrate your expertise, personality, and values, help establish your thought leadership, and build strong relationships with your subscribers. Additionally, it can drive traffic to your website and other online platforms, and provide valuable insights into your audience's interests and behaviors. Overall, a consistent and high-quality email newsletter can be a powerful tool for building and promoting your personal brand.
Choose a clear and attractive subject line
Write engaging content that offers value to your subscribers
Incorporate calls to action throughout the email
Use eye-catching images, graphics and branding elements
Optimise the email for mobile devices and different email clients
Test the email before sending to ensure it looks and functions as intended
Include an unsubscribe link and physical address in the email
Monitor and analyse the email's performance with metrics such as open and click-through rates
Continuously refine and improve your email campaigns based on data-driven insights.
Execute Social Interactions
By actively engaging with others on LinkedIn,Twitter and your newsletter subscribers , you can establish a consistent presence and become more recognisable. This can help you stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression on your followers.
Building relationships: Social interaction can help you build relationships with others on social media. Responding to comments and messages, participating in discussions, and engaging with others can help foster a sense of community and create deeper connections with your followers.
Demonstrating expertise and personality: Through your interactions, you can demonstrate your expertise in a particular area, as well as your personality and values. This can help you establish yourself as a thought leader and build trust with your followers.
Increasing visibility: By participating in conversations and engaging with others, you can increase your visibility on social media. This can help you reach a larger audience and gain more followers.
Engagement rate: Posts with comments tend to have a higher engagement rate compared to posts without comments. This can help increase the visibility of your post and improve your overall reach.
Network growth: Engaging with others on LinkedIn can help you expand your network and make new connections. The more you engage with others, the more likely you are to grow your network and build relationships.
Perception of expertise: By demonstrating your knowledge and expertise through your comments, you can improve the perception of your expertise among your network. This can help you establish yourself as a thought leader and increase your credibility.
Brand recognition: Engaging with others and participating in discussions can help increase your visibility on LinkedIn and improve brand recognition. The more people see your name and engage with your content, the more likely they are to remember you in the future.
Linkedin Network engagement
Most important part of growing your network in engaging with your existing audience, when you talk about engagement, what we mean is regular meaningful deeper conversation which you could have with your audience, this helps building connections and relevance. Make sure these conversations are thought provoking and help you move the needle and has an ability towards virility.
Daily, send Personalised Connect to 30 in your ICP.
Greet people who have accepted the invite
Send In-mails & messages to build meaningful relationships.
Engage on the ICP profiles (recent article, post)
Daily Like 40 relevant posts.
Daily, do 5 meaningful comments on relevant posts
Convert comments to posts.
Convert post into comments.
Promote you post on groups
Join LinkedIn groups in your domain.
Weekly Engage with one post on the groups.
Daily Engage with 5 members from the group.
Build a relationship with a niche set, whom you can reach out to.
Engage on the profiles, recent article, comments, featured news.
Daily Engage with 5 members from the group.
Twitter Engagement
Daily :Follow 30 relevant Profiles.
Daily: Like & Retweet 20 relevant tweets.
DM people who have followed you back.
Daily add 5 influencers to list.
DM People who are open to DMs.
Engage on a trending post in your #Hashtag
Build Relationship in tweets & DMs.
Newsletter engagement
Respond to people who have replied to you.
Track people who have replied.
Track people who have opened multiple times.
Connect with them on other channels
Mention your followers in the newsletter
Encourage feedback and open communication with your subscribers.
Use a consistent branding strategy across all platforms and make sure your newsletter aligns with your overall personal branding message.
Share behind-the-scenes stories and insights that give readers a glimpse into your personal and professional life.
Make optimisation is a continuous habit
Analytics and optimisation are indeed important components of personal branding. By regularly tracking and analysing key metrics, you can identify what is working well and what needs improvement in your personal branding strategy. Here are some steps to consider:
Determine what metrics are most relevant to your personal brand and goals. For example, you may want to track website traffic, social media engagement, or email open rates.
Use analytics tools to track your progress and measure the effectiveness of your personal branding efforts.
Regularly review your analytics data to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.
Make data-driven decisions about how to optimise your personal branding strategy for maximum impact.
Experiment with new tactics and approaches, and continue to refine your strategy based on the results.
By incorporating analytics and optimisation into your personal branding strategy, you can continually improve your efforts and achieve your goals more effectively.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the personal branding of a SaaS CEO or founder is not a hard math it just needs consistency, but the effort you put into plays a crucial role in successful fundraising. By defining your unique value proposition, building relationships, establishing thought leaderships your chances of Raising funds gets doubled. It one only the first meeting but also the impressions VCs have on your before they meet you, helps in closing the deal 2.5 X time faster. Happy Fundraising About Pitchworks We at Pitchworks help B2B SaaS companies of all stages with their pitch deck and fundraising journey, we have already helped more than dozens of first-time SaaS founders to reach their fundraising goals and we have raised more than 150M in funding working with startups of all stages. We provide end-to-end services right from pitch deck to running a complete co-founder Campaign, Making your team VC-ready, to CEO Personal Branding. Book a free consulting session with us .