Course 15A · Lesson 7 of 12
Social selling, content and professional visibility
| Work | Grade | Verdict | What we take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Selling (Hughes, 2016) | Weak | Caveat | Profile, network, content; leaders post first; conversations, not pitches |
| Social Selling Mastery (Shanks, 2016) | Weak | Caveat; never quote "74% of deals" | Find, educate, engage, develop |
| The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business (Disney, 2021) | Weak | Caveat | Four pillars of social selling |
| Known (Schaefer, 2017) | Weak | Caveat | A sustainable interest, a space, one format, an audience that acts |
| Content Inc. (Pulizzi, 2015) | Weak | Caveat | The sweet spot and the content tilt; audience before selling |
| Show Your Work! (Kleon, 2014) | Weak | Caveat | "Share something small every day" as an idea habit, not a posting rule |
| Create Once, Distribute Forever (Simmonds) | Weak | Caveat | Distribute and repurpose every piece |
| Demand creation and dark social (Refine Labs, 2023 to 2024) | Vendor data; Mixed | Caveat | Self-reported attribution; ungated expert content |
| SLAY framework (a LinkedIn creator) | Weak | Caveat | Story, lesson, actionable advice, a prompt to the reader |
| Content OS (a LinkedIn creator) | Weak | Caveat | Templates written in your own voice |
| Commenting as growth (a LinkedIn creator) | Weak | Caveat | On-topic commenting by the owner |
| Algorithm Insights 2026 (van der Blom) | Weak | Caveat | Two to three posts a week; topical consistency |
| LinkedIn posting frequency study (Buffer) | Vendor data; Mixed (also a competitor) | Caveat | Two to five posts a week, with diminishing returns |
| Edelman-LinkedIn B2B research (2017; 2024; 2025) | Mixed (sponsored, self-reported) | Caveat | Named experts and a distinctive style win; poor content harms |
| Managing the Professional Service Firm (Maister, 1993) | Weak | Caveat | Demonstrate expertise rather than assert it |
| Visible Expert research (Hinge, 2020) | Mixed (agency research) | Caveat | Referrals, media and speaking build visibility; clients pay more for visible experts |
| Employee advocacy studies (Cervellon, Lirio; Korzynski and others) | Mixed (small samples) | Caveat | Voluntary, trained participation; about 80% own voice to 20% company content |
| LinkedIn Elevate and SSI figures (2015) | Vendor data; Weak | Caveat on the dated figure; do not teach the index's quota claims | Employee networks about ten times the page's following (dated) |
| Employee advocacy benchmarks (DSMN8, 2023 to 2025) | Vendor data; Mixed (also a competitor) | Caveat | Planning for low participation |
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