1. Client Snapshot
A Fortune 100 technology company headquartered in Palo Alto engaged Manhattan Strategies (MHTN) in 2019 to offset a shrinking earned‑media footprint with direct‑to‑audience influence. Over five years, MHTN transformed eighteen C‑suite and regional leaders into LinkedIn power users who now outperform the brand page on reach, engagement and clicks—while advancing sales, recruiting and reputation goals.
Who was helped?
Industry: Technology.
Scale: Over $50 billion USD in annual revenue and more than 50,000 employees serving 170 countries.
Decision makers engaged: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief People Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chief Communications Officer, ten regional managing directors, four global division presidents and the Head of U.S. Federal sales.
Why LinkedIn?
Channel influence. Channel partners generate roughly three‑quarters of the company’s revenue—and those partners live on LinkedIn.
Declining earned media. Executive voices needed a direct distribution channel to maintain thought‑leadership share of voice.
Operating uncertainty. Rapid market shifts, geopolitical tension and supply‑chain pressure required leadership to communicate quickly and credibly with global teams.
Talent competition. As the company pivots from transactional hardware sales toward software‑driven services and AI solutions, it competes fiercely for top engineering, data‑science and cloud‑platform talent in EMEA, India and Latin America.
2. Objectives & Initial Challenges
A Fortune 100 technology company headquartered in Palo Alto engaged Manhattan Strategies (MHTN) in 2019 to offset a shrinking earned‑media footprint with direct‑to‑audience influence. Over five years, MHTN transformed eighteen C‑suite and regional leaders into LinkedIn power users who now outperform the brand page on reach, engagement and clicks—while advancing sales, recruiting and reputation goals.
Primary objectives
Increase executive influence among partners, customers, employees and opinion leaders.
Replace one‑size‑fits‑all employee‑advocacy posts with persona‑driven storytelling.
Establish clear success benchmarks and a governance model suitable for a publicly traded enterprise.
Pain points at kickoff
Content silos among business units caused redundant or conflicting posts.
The organisation lacked an agreed definition of “success” for executive LinkedIn activity.
Periods of heightened uncertainty strained morale and internal communications, underscoring the need for authentic leadership voices.
3. Strategy
Four strategic pillars
Executive positioning and SEO‑optimised profiles. MHTN audited each leader’s audience keywords and rewrote headlines, “About” sections and featured content to maximise discoverability.
Persona‑based editorial and visual storytelling. Annual narrative architectures guided monthly themes, while a mobile‑first design system—carousels, subtitled video, quote cards—maximised dwell time.
Real‑time data intelligence. Weekly Vector pulses and monthly/quarterly Quant dashboards surfaced outlier performance, SSI shifts and content whitespace.
Tiered governance framework. A three‑tier risk matrix plus fifteen‑minute Monday micro‑syncs reduced approval cycles from more than a week to fewer than 48 hours. A pre‑approved “quiet‑period bank” kept the feed active during financial blackout windows.
Technology and AI stack
Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Rev AI transcription and proprietary MHTN Quant analytics delivered rapid creative iterations and granular performance insights.
Program governance model
The engagement operates on a governance playbook that balances speed, compliance and authenticity:
Program Purpose & Scope – Defines whether a post advances thought leadership, brand elevation, or relationship building, and clearly notes what falls outside the program.
Executive Swimlanes – Personalized swimlanes align each leader’s priorities, business objectives, and target audiences.
Approval & Review Workflow – Content creation, review, and executive sign‑off are tailored to each office’s cadence.
Engage‑to‑Own Ratio – A mandated mix of original posts and value‑adding comments keeps leaders visible in ongoing conversations.
Rolling Four‑Week Content Calendar – Major milestones are locked four weeks out; agile inserts ride timely trends without derailing cadence.
Dynamic Visual Standards – Photo‑led or motion assets featuring the executive wherever practicable.
Success Metrics – KPIs map directly to executive OKRs (impressions, engagement rate, lead quality, speaking invites).
Data‑Based Feedback Loops – Weekly dashboards plus ad‑hoc performance memos translate insights into next‑week tweaks.
Comms‑Team Enablement – Ongoing training sessions arm corporate comms with the latest LinkedIn best practices.
Risk Management & Escalation – Negative‑comment triage and customer‑follow‑up paths agreed in advance.
Regulatory & Compliance Filters – Quiet‑period and public‑official engagement rules embedded in the pre‑publish checklist.
4. Execution Highlights
Content at scale
2,047 executive posts published between April 2024 and April 2025, reaching audiences in ten priority markets.
Campaigns like an “American Innovation” series that delivered targeted visibility with U.S. federal and education buyers seeking trusted domestic suppliers.
High‑impact formats and why they work
Carousel documents. Multi‑frame PDF carousels boosted dwell time and accounted for about 28% of total reach and 34% of comments in the first quarter of fiscal 2025.
Native subtitled video. LinkedIn now prioritizes rich media; fully captioned clips doubled watch‑time versus link‑out videos.
Polls and interactive posts. Lightweight interactions grew the follower base by roughly 11% year over year.
Behind‑the‑scenes imagery. Authentic photos (team selfies, workplace tours, throwback shots) earned two‑to‑three times the engagement of traditional link posts.
Partnership amplification
Content co‑created with Deloitte, Intel, NVIDIA, Microsoft, WWF, Ferrari and others broadened reach into adjacent networks. Select Thought‑Leadership Ads targeted IT decision makers exploring AI and future‑of‑work solutions, supplementing the primarily organic program.
5. Results
Content at scale
Reach. Executive posts reached about 13 million unique viewers in fiscal 2025, while the five‑million‑follower brand page reached approximately 8.25 million organically.
Engagement. Average reactions and comments per post rose from 161 in 2020 to over 555 in 2025, confirming that content quality (not paid distribution) drove interaction.
Influence increase. The company’s top executive moved from roughly 102,000 post reach per month in early 2020 to about 936,000 per month by late 2024, an increase of nearly nine‑fold sustained over time.
Followers. One division president added more than 16,000 new followers between mid‑2022 and April 2025.
Qualitative impact
One division president earned LinkedIn’s coveted Top Voice badge in 2025.
Senior leaders were invited to keynote global industry events and appear on high‑profile podcasts and YouTube series.
Internal advocacy. Program analytics show employees reshared executive posts at approximately four times the previous rate (from an average 0.3 cross‑shares per post in Q2 FY23 to 1.2 in Q2 FY24), generating authentic, non‑duplicative amplification across regions.
Return on investment
Compared with the AOR, MHTN delivered equivalent creative volume at around 35% lower cost per thousand impressions.
Post‑engagement surveys indicate that clients working with senior‑led partners like MHTN report 28% higher satisfaction and over 35% lower coordination costs.
6. Biggest Hurdles & How We Solved Them
Hurdle
Executive buy‑in – Some leaders underestimated LinkedIn’s strategic value.
Solution
Showcased peer benchmarks and program analytics demonstrating revenue‑adjacent outcomes.
Hurdle
Secured full C‑suite participation within two quarters.
Hurdle
Moment identification & content sourcing – Timely, high‑impact posts required deep visibility into exec calendars.
Solution
Established a 360° intel loop with executive assistants, sales leads, and chiefs‑of‑staff; supplemented with evergreen industry content.
Hurdle
Kept a consistent 3–4 posts per week per exec without lulls.
Hurdle
Authentic executive voice – Early drafts risked sounding corporate.
Solution
Captured executives’ preferred phrases and informal tone; maintained a living style bank.
Hurdle
94% of employees surveyed say posts “sound like our leaders.”
Hurdle
Timely content approvals – Heavy travel schedules slowed sign‑off.
Solution
Provided four‑week horizon packs and mobile‑friendly review formats; escalated chronic delays to chiefs‑of‑staff.
Hurdle
Reduced missed moments by 70%.
Hurdle
Algorithm updates & platform shifts – LinkedIn ranking changes affected performance expectations.
Solution
Monitored platform changelogs, updated content mix quarterly, and coached stakeholders on new KPIs.
Hurdle
Maintained positive engagement growth every fiscal year despite algorithm shifts.
Return on investment
Challenge
Algorithm shift in 2022 deprioritised external links.
Pivot
Replaced 50% of links with native carousels and quote cards.
Outcome
Reach increased by 42% YoY; engagement per post rose 58% YoY.
Challenge
Quarterly quiet‑period and M&A blackout windows.
Pivot
Deployed evergreen STEM‑career and sustainability stories requiring no forward‑looking statements.
Outcome
Retained ≈70% of normal engagement during blackout periods.
Challenge
Increased scrutiny of sustainability claims in the EU.
Pivot
Added third‑party citations and proof; emphasised progress over perfection.
Outcome
Achieved 100% legal approval for sustainability content.
Challenge
Leadership turnover in 2024.
Pivot
Introduced a 30‑day on‑ramp kit: profile refresh, three flagship posts, audience‑transfer shout‑outs.
Outcome
New leaders matched baseline reach within six weeks.
7. Five Lessons for Enterprise Marketers
People beat pages
Authentic executive voices can eclipse even multi‑million‑follower brand pages when stories resonate with niche communities.
Governance accelerates performance
A risk‑segmented workflow and time‑boxed approvals cut time‑to‑publish without sacrificing compliance.
Data is a creative brief
Weekly deltas surface fresh angles every Monday, fuelling continuous iteration.
Visual vocabulary matters
Image‑led and carousel posts deliver superior dwell time and shareability.
Localization scales
Template libraries and translations turn one core story into market‑ready assets overnight.
8. Ready to Transform Your Leadership Bench?
Schedule a 30‑minute strategy call and receive a complimentary audit that maps a 90‑day win plan for your C‑suite.
.svg)
.avif)
