#514 Guest Interview with Eli Igra Serfaty – LinkedIn Strategy, Leadership and Business Growth | Niels Brabandt
LinkedIn Strategy, Leadership and Business Growth
Guest Interview with Eli Igra Serfaty
In the evolving landscape of digital leadership, visibility is no longer a secondary consideration. It is a strategic imperative. In this interview, Niels Brabandt speaks with Eli Igra Serfaty about why LinkedIn has become one of the most powerful platforms for decision-makers, organisations, and B2B growth.
The conversation begins with a common misconception. Many professionals still view LinkedIn as a platform reserved for job seekers. Eli Igra Serfaty challenges this perspective with data and strategic clarity. With more than 1.3 billion users worldwide, including tens of millions of decision-makers and senior executives, LinkedIn is now the central platform for professional influence and business development.
However, the true transformation goes beyond scale. LinkedIn is increasingly functioning as a trust layer for AI-driven systems and answer engines. This means that the presence of individuals and organisations on LinkedIn directly influences how they are perceived not only by human audiences but also by technologies such as ChatGPT and other AI platforms. For Niels Brabandt, this reinforces a critical leadership principle. Authority today is built through credible digital presence.
The implications for decision-makers are significant. In B2B environments, buying decisions are rarely spontaneous. They are the result of long-term exposure, trust-building, and repeated interaction. Research indicates that buyers typically consider only a limited number of providers. If your organisation is not visible and credible within that set, you are excluded before the decision-making process even begins.
Eli Igra Serfaty emphasises that LinkedIn success is not reactive. It is proactive. Building a strong presence requires consistency, clarity, and long-term commitment. Leaders must engage before they need results.
A key insight from the interview is the dual importance of content and engagement. While posting content is essential, commenting is equally powerful. High-quality comments function as micro thought leadership pieces. They allow leaders to enter relevant conversations, demonstrate expertise, and increase visibility within targeted audiences.
For Niels Brabandt, this aligns with a broader leadership philosophy. Influence is not achieved through broadcasting alone. It is built through meaningful interaction and dialogue.
Another critical aspect is profile optimisation. A LinkedIn profile must function as a strategic asset. It should clearly communicate value, expertise, and relevance. Keywords, clarity, and structure are essential, particularly in an environment where both humans and AI systems evaluate credibility.
The discussion also addresses the role of metrics. Vanity metrics such as impressions and likes provide limited insight. The true measure of success lies in meaningful engagement, conversations, and business outcomes. Profile views, direct messages, and qualified interactions are far more relevant indicators of impact.
One of the most valuable sections of the interview focuses on content creation. Many professionals hesitate to post because they believe they lack interesting material. Eli Igra Serfaty reframes this entirely. Every professional already has access to relevant content through daily work, client interactions, and industry developments. The challenge is not finding content, but articulating it effectively.
The recommendation is clear. Define a small number of content pillars and consistently create insights around them. Over time, this builds authority and recognition.
Finally, the interview concludes with a practical framework for immediate action. Consistent network growth, meaningful engagement through comments, and proactive conversations form the foundation of a successful LinkedIn strategy.
For decision-makers, the conclusion is unambiguous. LinkedIn is no longer optional. It is a core component of modern leadership, business development, and digital visibility. Those who understand this and act accordingly will create sustainable competitive advantage. Those who do not will increasingly struggle to be seen, heard, and trusted in a rapidly evolving business environment.
Niels Brabandt
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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
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Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
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Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
LinkedIn, you're probably on it. However, is what you do really what you should do? Because some people say, "Well, I'm not looking for a job right now. I have my profile there, and I don't really know what to do." And we want to change this today, and we have an expert on the matter with us today. Hello and welcome, Eli Igras Safati.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Hi Niels, it's great to be here.
Niels Brabandt
Thank you very much for taking the time and following my invitation. So when it comes to LinkedIn, when people now say, "Look, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm not particularly now looking for a job, so why should I have any kind of premium profile? Why should I hang out there? Why should I do anything on there when I'm not looking for a job?"
Eli Igra Serfaty
It's a great question. So really, many people are probably familiar about LinkedIn since it came out in 2002, way before Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and its other counterparts. Today, it has 1.3 billion members globally. Out of them, 65 million decision makers, 10 million C-levels. So it's transformed way beyond just a platform for hiring, HR, and job seekers. Today's the number one B2B and professional platform that we have.
Eli Igra Serfaty
And we'll talk about it even more, so Niels, it's also becoming the trust layer for LLMs and for GEO or AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, and how brands and individuals are appearing in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, all of these chatbots. So today, organizations and individuals looking to create awareness, influence, pipeline, fundraising, really across the scale of HR, sales, and marketing, and fundraising for their organization, LinkedIn is relevant.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Also beyond, Niels, even from a hiring standpoint, those who do choose to go look for a job, you want your profile to be ready before you make that decision. You want it to already be working for you and have awareness. And by the way, we can take that all the way from hiring to anything that's relationship-driven, which is the real value behind LinkedIn, from sales as well.
Eli Igra Serfaty
We know in B2B, a typical sales cycle takes 9 to 12 months. That's a long time and many different stakeholders and touchpoints that you need to create. These are all things and way before our B2B buyers decide to make a buying decision, we know that they're going to think of two to three brands. That's what research shows. And if you're not there, if they're not seeing your organization, if they're not being influenced by your thought leadership, you're not going to have the you're not going to have the chance to even get on those lists. And then if you're not on those lists, 80% of the time, Bain and Google talk about the first choice being the choice that the companies end up going with. So you need to be doing this consistently and long term.
Niels Brabandt
So that means it's all about proactivity. You shouldn't consider LinkedIn when you desperately need it. You need to build it up way before you actually need it.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Yes, it's creating the foundations for a consistent presence. A presence splits into creating content and posting and commenting. Commenting today, Niels, is no less important than posting on LinkedIn. Posting takes more effort, and you can kind of look at it as creating the conversation, which also sometimes feel people feel more sense of responsibility or exposure to post. And you also then don't have control over who necessarily sees that post because the algorithms control to where that post is distributed. But when you comment, you're then able to choose who you want to comment on. It could be a partner.
Eli Igra Serfaty
It could be a current client. It could be a potential prospect. It could be an investor. Or it could be just someone's profile who they're active on LinkedIn, and you know that your ICP, your ideal client profile, your audience, is hanging out in that comment section. So by joining that conversation and when I say comment, Niels, it's not, "Well, thank you for this insight," or, "This was great or interesting."
Eli Igra Serfaty
Right? No, that's yeah, exactly. That's not what we're talking about. A comment here is a mini post, a power comment, right? If someone left five tips, so you're adding a six. If you don't agree with the post, you're saying, "I disagree."
Eli Igra Serfaty
And why? So you're creating these conversations to where even if someone hasn't been connected to you or familiar with you, they're able to then see your profile, see your name, see your picture, click on you, and then come to your profile, which is also a very important point. Anyone listening to us today, Niels, needs to go and update their personal profile. They need to make sure that it reflects what you're doing today, who you're serving today, how you can help them, right? Depending on what your position is, if you're a business owner, if you're a senior within an organization, your profile should be descriptive. It should have keywords. It should be aesthetic, right?
Eli Igra Serfaty
Just like we invest in websites so that people don't enter and then drop off, you want the same thing on your personal profile. When someone clicks on you from a post, from a comment, from a podcast, from a search, they come into your profile and they continue to stay there and ideally reach out to you because they've resonated or seen something of interest from there. That leads to another point, which is the profile views. Do you look at your profile views, Niels? Are you familiar with it?
Niels Brabandt
Yes. However, I always say profile views are a nice indicator of what my outreach is. The currency which I value at LinkedIn is how many people actually end up in my inbox saying, "Hey, I think we should do business together."
Niels Brabandt
That's the real number I am looking at because I know some people who say, "Oh, look, I had 10 million views," and what they post is just wild rage bait on LinkedIn where people just disagree because it's deliberately controversial to stir a pot and cause anger. And of course, you have a billion views, but no one's going to do business with you because everything thinks you're a lunatic.
Eli Igra Serfaty
So I want to clarify. When asked about profile views, I wasn't talking about the impressions that you get from a specific post. I agree with you in that sense, by the way. The vanity metrics, the impressions that we get, is not important if you have 50,000, 100,000, or a million, right? The amount of likes and comments is also secondary to the engagement, the conversations that you're having.
Niels Brabandt
So the problem is you mean who is looking at my profile, which I see because I have a premium profile. Of course, I mean, when I look when I see who is on my profile, they probably were interested, so most likely I am going to contact them or I am going to add them to my network.
Niels Brabandt
I go once a day, I go on the list of people visiting my profile, and quite frequently, there are really interesting people there. And when they went on my profile, they must have been interested in something. They must have been interested in at least who I am, and potentially, they are the right people who I'd like to talk to, and now I can just connect from there, way easier than doing a cold call.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Exactly. You said it exactly how it is, is the people that landed on your profile, that viewed your profile, didn't appear there by accident. They either saw a comment, they saw a post, they got your URL, they searched for you. There's some level of interest, of intent.
Eli Igra Serfaty
And if they didn't reach out, which happens many times, Niels, imagine a situation to where a startup is pitching investors. Maybe they didn't hear back from them for several weeks. All of a sudden, they notice the managing partner at the VC viewed their profile. That probably didn't happen because it's a random Tuesday morning. Probably they were talking about it in the deal flow meeting.
Eli Igra Serfaty
I worked in venture capital for two and a half years, so I understand also how long it can take, the conversations. It could be that another level of due diligence that's being done, and this could also be the same for a client or a potential opportunity that you had a conversation with. And now you see they've viewed your profile.
Eli Igra Serfaty
You can either leave it at that, or you could take the extra step and start that conversation with them, try to understand whether it's you're reigniting a previous conversation, or even asking them, "What's going on? What brought them to your profile? Is there something on top of mind?" You see where they work at or something maybe that they posted about, and you can kind of connect, "Okay, probably what I'm offering could be relevant to them." Let's just ask them, "Hey, are you looking for hiring services? Are you looking for to improve your conversions? Are you looking for whatever your company or your service can be?"
Eli Igra Serfaty
People just want to have conversations. I think sometimes too many people overthink how we should be on LinkedIn, all serious. No, it's like you're going to an event, like you're having conversations. Again, like I mentioned before, the relationships. It's not a social media platform. It's a professional platform, a professional network, a relationship platform that has social elements, right? But how we interact, even before, if you want to sell, there's better ways to do it before going straight to the pitch or to the offer, right?
Eli Igra Serfaty
Just as you would create a relationship with your friend or with family or someone offline, these things take time. It takes frequency of posts. It takes consistency of showing up to build credibility, authority, and trust. Trust takes a lot of time, right?
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely. So what about people who tell you, "Look, I really want to hang out on LinkedIn. However, I really don't know what to post"? Maybe you heard that phrase, and people say, "Look, my life isn't that interesting. I don't know what to post. I don't consider myself that important or that interesting." I really sit there and think, "No, this is awkward, and this is not really interesting."
Niels Brabandt
So they sit there and think, "This is not Facebook. I can't just say, 'Oh, I just had pizza.' So what do I post on LinkedIn that actually adds to my reputation and my personal branding and doesn't harm it?"
Eli Igra Serfaty
So you said something interesting, people feeling that they don't want to talk about their personal lives or that they're not interesting enough. So there's a lot that can be said and that should be said beyond your personal life. It's not to say that it's not an important part of your personal brand or your content, but it is to say that it's not a zero or one game. You can talk about industry reports. You can talk about interesting articles or products or things that happened in your country, in your industry globally that you want to also talk about. So letting other people know about said topic, letting people ideally know how you think about said topic, agree, disagree, taking an event and talking about it in your industry, right? It doesn't have to be something within.
Eli Igra Serfaty
That's also interesting to see how it is cross-referencing from that. It could be about your employees. It could be about internal culture. Really, there are a lot of things that can be said without talking about what you're doing personally. People sometimes think you always have to talk about, "Well, I did this, and I did that," and only self-glorifying. No, that's not how LinkedIn should be done. And especially from a business standpoint and depending on who your audience is and who you're focusing on, sit down, try to come up with three to four different pillars that you can talk about and rotate between them.
Eli Igra Serfaty
And as time goes, you need to be posting to then understand what resonates more with your audience way before, "Is this interesting or not?" And also, don't be too hard on yourself. You are interesting. You have been in the industry. You are doing incredible things for the last 10, 20, 30 years. There are many things that you can say.
Eli Igra Serfaty
You have calls all day with people. You're talking about interesting things all day. That could also be a great starting point, Niels. Go look, everyone. Most people are using AR. Many people are using AI transcriptions for their calls. If you are, go look back, see the conversations that you're having, see the questions that you're getting asked about your company, about your product.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Again, ideally, you should be talking about things that can advance you in your career or with your product, and there are many different angles from there. But I really want everyone listening to just start, right? Don't focus on, "Is it going to be viral, or is everyone going to like or resonate with it?" No, actually, most people that are going to post tomorrow will probably be disappointed with the amount of impressions and social engagement that they get from it because their profile is probably new. But you can't look at it as one post. You have to look at it as the next four months, six months, a year from now. It's not a sprint.
Eli Igra Serfaty
It's a marathon. It's two to three posts a week, at least one post a week consistently for the next year. And then you have more to really understand what content's working, who's resonating, and a lot has happened over the course of that year.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah. Excellent. So to wrap this interview up, when now people sit here and think, "I really should do something," two things I'd like to hear from you. First, when someone says, "What are your top three tips to start right now?" And of course, when someone now thinks, "Hmm, I think Eli could really help me because you help people professionally with LinkedIn," how can they reach out to you?
Eli Igra Serfaty
Three things you need to do today, Niels. Everyone should be putting in their calendar 60 minutes at least. It could be 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 15 times 4, whatever works for their calendar, but putting it in their calendar and then doing three things. One, adding people into their networks every day, 20 to 25 people daily, 150 people a week. Two, leaving 5 to 10 comments daily with their connections, with people out of their network finding those conversations that they can be part of. And three, sending DMs and having conversations, just getting their profile out there. People that you DM are more likely to see your content as well. Those three things, of course, with posting that we spoke about over the next few months will significantly improve the power of your profile. To your second question, "Where can people find me, and how can I help?" LinkedIn, which you're probably not surprised, right? So my LinkedIn or our company, Maya Digital, and we work with B2B companies and leaders on everything and anything LinkedIn, from company page management, organic and paid, thought leadership for the executives who don't have time and need an external partner to manage it for them, and also trainings for teams and organizations. We love talking about LinkedIn and helping organizations take it to the next level.
Niels Brabandt
Brilliant. I think these are perfect final words. We see that LinkedIn is extremely important, so you better get started today. So at the end of this podcast, there's only one thing left for me to say. Eli, thank you very much for your time.
Eli Igra Serfaty
Thank you for having me, Niels.