Making visible the authority we already carry.
Over the next two weeks we are activating LinkedIn as GMA's second major channel — not by building an audience from scratch, but by making visible the reputation capital we already carry: faculty of the calibre of Paddy, Anneloes, Pavel, Shanaaz; Ferial's authorship; the LCE network; the methodology of going-in-first.
By 30 May — two days after the next Preview Circle — six unified profiles, a rebuilt company page, six cornerstone posts pinned, a coordinated event-wave around 28 May, and a working swarm rhythm will turn what is currently invisible into a recognisable surface that compounds with every post, faculty mention, and Preview Circle that follows.
What everything stands on.
Coordinated profile + page infrastructure sprint
All 6 profiles + the company page brought to a single standard within 48 hours.
One cornerstone post per member · Featured pinned
One anchor post per person = permanent authority page. Same structure across all: HOOK → STORY → BRIDGE → CTA.
Team swarm protocol
Within the first 60 minutes after publish — 5 substantive comments from the team. LinkedIn algorithm 2026 → 5–10× reach. Cost: $0.
Event-cycle content rhythm
Every Preview Circle = a predictable wave from 7 days before the event to 3 days after. 25–40 coordinated posts over 10 days. The heartbeat of the system.
Sales Navigator pilot · 1 seat in Phase 1
Not cold InMail. Four functions only: saved searches · Smart Links · activity insights · tags & notes (mini-CRM for warm contacts).
7 atomic steps · 16 days · max 90 min/day per person
The seven steps, up close.
① Visual identity — unified banner + custom URL
What's prepared for you, ready to use:
- Banner template — Swiss red + parchment + Georgia. One line: your role and GMA affiliation. PNG with preset.
- Custom-URL formula —
linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname - Replacement instructions — short text walkthrough, no design work on your side.
Output by end of Sunday: 6 of 6 banners uploaded, 6 of 6 custom URLs fixed.
② Headline + About — your verbal signature
What you receive and what you write:
- Headline formula — [role / lineage] · helping [audience] [outcome] · Global Mayors Academy.
- About — 4-block template — HOOK → STORY → METHODOLOGY → CTA.
- One filled example (Ferial) + an empty template you fill in.
Output: 6/6 headlines live · 6/6 About drafts v1 in the shared doc.
③ Cornerstone post draft — your reputation-capital story
Structure and constraints:
- Structure — HOOK (3 lines) → BODY (work + what it taught you) → BRIDGE («brought me to GMA») → CTA.
- Your angle is yours alone — no overlap with teammates' framing.
- Format constraints — no emoji in the first line · 1300–2000 characters · links go to the first comment.
- Cross-review round in the shared doc before Friday.
Output: 6 drafts reviewed and ready to publish on Fri 22.
④ Cornerstone publish + first team swarm ★
Event of the week. What happens:
- Publish your cornerstone in the agreed window.
- Pin immediately to your Featured section.
- Swarm — react and leave a substantive 2-sentence comment on the other five within 60 minutes.
- No template comments. Real thought only.
Output: 6 cornerstone posts pinned · swarm protocol activated for the team.
⑤ Company page rebuild + Native LinkedIn Event
What ships and what you receive:
- Company page — banner + tagline + long-form About with faculty stories (not a list).
- Affiliated pages linked — Integral Africa · GEF · EARTHwise · Living Cities Earth.
- Native LinkedIn Event — «GMA Preview Circle · 28 May 2026 · Anneloes + Pavel» live.
- Admin invites — 6 team admins + faculty (Paddy / Anneloes / Pavel) as content admins.
Output: page rebuilt · Event live · ready to feed the wave.
⑥ Event-cycle wave around 28 May
Five-day countdown to event day (Thu 28 May):
- Sun 24 · 4 days before — each of 6 writes «why this theme» in their own angle. (6 posts)
- Mon 25 · 3 days before — speaker-focus: Anneloes + Pavel highlight posts. (2–3 posts)
- Tue 26 · 2 days before — faculty pre-event reflections (Paddy + 1). (1–2 posts)
- Wed 27 · day before — Ferial's personal reflection + appeal. (1 post)
- Thu 28 · event day — «Today I sit down with…» from each + LIVE event. (6 posts)
Output: 20–25 coordinated posts across team + faculty over 5 days.
⑦ Post-event reflections + Sales Navigator pilot
Closing the loop, opening the next:
- Per person — 1 reflection post: key insight, video clip, or partner mention.
- Sales Navigator pilot — saved searches, Smart Links setup, activity monitor. One seat in Phase 1.
- 20 warm contacts identified from engagement of Ferial / Paddy / Anneloes / Pavel during the month.
- No cold InMail — warm list handed to Ferial for personal touch.
From 1 June onward: operating rhythm of 2–3 posts per week per person.
Six commitments — without these, the strategy doesn't work.
- Team swarm in the first 60 minutes. Every team or faculty post is read, reacted to, and commented on by the other five within an hour — substantive comments only (two sentences of real thought, never a template). The LinkedIn algorithm reads the first hour as the quality signal; one or two missing team members visibly weakens the wave.
- Your own voice on the cornerstone post. Each cornerstone post is written by the person themselves — not drafted by AI, not delegated, not paraphrased. This is the one permanent Featured artefact representing your authority on the platform; it has to sound like you.
- Shared publish window. Cornerstone and event-wave posts go out Tue / Wed / Thu, 9–11am in our main audience timezone. Synchronous timing is what allows the swarm to operate — drift of a single day fragments the wave.
- Own angle, not repetition, during the event cycle. Each of the six writes their own framing on every event phase — never a copy or near-paraphrase of another teammate's post. Same theme, different interpretive lens. The algorithm punishes duplication; the audience tunes out repetition.
- Mutual visibility commitment to faculty. Five minutes a day reading and commenting on Paddy, Anneloes, Pavel, and Shanaaz posts — not as performance, as a real practice of staying inside the circle of people whose authority compounds with ours.
- Hold the guardrails. No cold InMail, no urgency-CTAs, no scarcity language, no automated connection requests, no templated swarm comments. GMA's non-pushy, integral tone is part of the strategic edge — the moment we break it, we look like everyone else.
What we never do.
Five lines we don't cross
These are not preferences. They are part of GMA's strategic edge — the moment we break them, we look like everyone else.
- No cold InMail spam. Sales Navigator = warm-touch only.
- No template swarm comments. Minimum two sentences of real thought. The algorithm punishes copy-paste.
- No urgency or scarcity CTAs. No «limited spots», «last chance», FOMO framing.
- No automated connection requests. Personalised only — 20–30 per week per person, written by hand.
- Never «Mayors only». The audience is explicitly widened in the first line of every post.
KPIs.
Foundation in place
- 6 / 6 banners + headlines + About v1 live
- 6 cornerstone posts published and pinned
- First team swarm cycle executed
Rhythm operating
- 25+ coordinated posts across team + faculty
- 20 warm contacts tagged in Sales Navigator
- 2 swarm cycles run cleanly
- Operating rhythm from 1 June: 2–3 posts / week / person
The strategic principle, in one line.
We are not growing an audience — we are making visible the authority the team already carries, and letting it compound through swarm and faculty.