Sarah Clay: The No-Fluff LinkedIn Queen

With a straight-talking style and a passion for connection, Sarah Clay has built a global reputation as the go-to expert for LinkedIn marketing that actually works. From students and CEOs to entire teams, she helps professionals turn their profiles into powerful lead-generating machines—without the jargon or overwhelm. As a speaker, trainer, and founder of Sarah Clay Social, she’s making LinkedIn human again—one no-fluff strategy at a time.

Whether she’s leading workshops, speaking on global stages, or mentoring business owners behind the scenes, Sarah brings clarity, confidence, and a touch of fun to every session. With over 20,000 followers and a business built entirely through LinkedIn, she’s living proof that showing up authentically online does work.

You’ve built a thriving business and a 20,000+ following on LinkedIn—what initially inspired you to focus your energy exclusively on LinkedIn as a marketing platform?

LinkedIn is THE most powerful place for B2B and also B2C business growth right now – and is growing all the time. With over a billion personal profiles and over 69 million company pages, your audience is almost definitely there; you just need to find them. If you’re job hunting, LinkedIn is becoming increasingly popular and looks like it will soon beat ‘Indeed’ as the most used platform for job search. 88% of recruiters say those people hired via LinkedIn are higher quality employees, and they stay longer in the companies. I can identify lots of reasons for that, but for here, just take note that hiring good quality employees will save a company thousands in revenue.

Many professionals struggle with showing up authentically on LinkedIn. What advice would you give to someone just starting to build their brand on the platform?

People have a fear of LinkedIn. Many feel they have to speak and act differently – be more ‘professional’ if you like. This stops them from being authentic. I help my clients get over that fear and feel more comfortable on the platform and enjoy being there! I use a lot of analogies to help people understand what LinkedIn REALLY is – it’s not social media – it’s networking! It’s the biggest networking party in the world! This is the basis for my book, ‘Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn’, which I published towards the end of 2024.

You’ve trained CEOs, employees, and students alike. How do you tailor your approach when working with such diverse audiences?

What I love in life is variation, change and being constantly challenged. I encourage my clients to have a niche –  I feel LinkedIn is niche enough, so I like to vary my audience! 

I feel that, over my years of training, I have got to know each sector pretty well, so I am aware of their problems and needs. However, I always take time to research the content and activity of my clients before I work with them – even the problems of one engineering firm over another can be different.

As an Employee Advocacy trainer, what do you think companies often get wrong about empowering their teams on LinkedIn?

Many companies don’t use the word ‘empower’ at all!  There seem to be two main approaches to companies using LinkedIn:

1. They’re not doing anything at all, or 2. They instruct their employees to repost and ‘like’ posts from the company page – and that’s it. It’s an instruction rather than a process.
Once employees understand WHY they’re doing something and what the benefits are for themselves as well as for the company as a whole, the buy-in is much greater. I always begin each training with the ‘why’ as I understand that giving something time is an investment for each employee. 

You transitioned from running a general social media agency to focusing solely on LinkedIn training. What prompted that shift, and how has it transformed your business?

I was using LinkedIn to find clients for my social media agency and had started to train people how to use LinkedIn alongside my agency. However, when we went into lockdown, I lost many of my social media clients as they were mainly in the hospitality industry. At the same time, there was a flood of people realising they needed to be active on LinkedIn to promote their businesses during lockdown. They came to me and asked me to train them – I simply answered a need, and it grew from there! 

You’re known for your fun yet no-nonsense teaching style. Can you share a memorable moment from one of your training sessions or keynote talks that captures this balance?

Ha, ha, I have many stories I can tell! One thing I do is get people to take action during the workshop. I have had sales directors calling out ‘He replied already’ to connection requests, and – from the sales director of a tile manufacturer in the south east of England: ‘I’ve got 3 meetings booked for next Tuesday with 3 companies I didn’t even know existed before today!’
On the fun side, the attorney in the law firm got a standing ovation from all of her colleagues when she posted her first post!

You’ve been a guest lecturer at several UK universities. Why is it important for students to learn how to leverage LinkedIn early in their career journey?

In this era of high competition from students all over the world, it’s important that students stand out and make themselves known to potential employers.  With 82% of jobs not even being advertised, getting to know the right people within a company can mean students being invited to apply for jobs before anyone knows the job exists! It’s never too early to start building a LinkedIn presence. 

How do you stay updated and innovative with your own LinkedIn strategy, given how fast the digital landscape evolves?

The reason I realised that I had to niche into one platform was because of the amount of changes and updates that are constantly happening on LinkedIn alone. One of the things which I love about being a LinkedIn trainer is the support and community I have with other LinkedIn trainers. Although we’re competitors, we LinkedIn trainers all get together and share updates, changes and ideas. I’m a member of several forums and groups, which ensure I don’t miss a thing!

With your growing media presence and speaking engagements, what’s next for Sarah Clay Social? Are there any upcoming projects or goals you’re excited about?

2025 has been a whirlwind so far, and I’m looking forward to that continuing! Since the publication of my book ‘Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn’, I have had enquiries to work with bigger and bigger organisations, which has been fantastic. 
I’m also speaking on the subject of ‘TRUST’. I started applying the idea of establishing trust on LinkedIn to get more clients and open more doors. With my research, I am now applying the concept of building trust to foster better relationships within the workplace for better outcomes for the company. I’ve spoken a few times on this topic, and it’s an area I would like to share with more people going forward!

Look out for Sarah Clay, the TrustBuilder!