In times of transition, LinkedIn is more important than ever

We are now several months into the new administration and the landscape is becoming unrecognizable with changes in procurement, mission, personnel and more.

Depending on the source, the number of Feds laid off or retired is approaching 300,000, which means you may have fewer connections in client and prospect agencies today than you had in December. And new people are coming into government decision-making roles that don’t necessarily come from the community.

My annual census of Feds on LinkedIn came out in late December 2024, with a total of 2.86 million feds including DOD, uniformed services, IC and civilian. This was based on the numbers I found in 740 company pages for DOD and civilian departments, agencies, operating divisions and special units.

We can safely assume my next census will have a somewhat lower headcount. 

However, this is still a relationship driven market, so it is time to double down on making new relationships. This was a major point made at the recent GovExec FedPulse briefing (6/6/25) at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner. FedPulse is the new name for the GovExec Leading Brands study, and “brand” remains a key focus of FedPulse. 

There were a few panel discussions on how OEMs (Dell & Intel) and other contractors (SolarWinds and GDIT) were adjusting to the new market conditions. These discussions often came back to how and where one can develop relationships with key players in the new administration.

As I mentioned, many of the new influencers are not native to our market and may not be attending the events previously populated with key decision makers. Regardless, the attendance by Feds is down at many traditional venues making it harder to meet the new people. Even for local events many Feds are being told to use PTO to attend.

Once again, LinkedIn has become the best first place to identify and connect with incoming influencers. As Katie Helwig pointed out in her LinkedIn post recapping the GovExec event, “Relationships Are Non-Negotiable.”

Another key FedPulse takeaway was the importance of agency-based marketing (ABM), selling where you are embedded and known. LinkedIn is great for ABM and many companies I have advised were able to grow significantly leveraging LinkedIn to further develop relationships inside agencies and deliver the all-important content directly to those who need it most.

Both passive and active branding tactics can and should be deployed via LinkedIn, and too often they are overlooked.

As Helwig pointed out, the theme of “Familiarity is Everything” begs the question of why so many companies don’t employ an actual strategy when it comes to their company presence on LinkedIn.

Only once during the entire FedPulse 3-hour session did anyone mention LinkedIn, and it was in a backhanded kind of way. Wrong answer! 

LinkedIn is and remains a significant part of the GovCon ecosystem and it also remains underutilized by many contractors.

If you are not running on all cylinders and your LinkedIn use is not supporting your branding, ABM and delivering your content directly to your core audience, you are losing market share.

With so much uncertainty in GovCon as changes continue to roll out from the current administration, and while we work out our respective strategies in response, connecting with the incoming team should be job one.

Not that I have an opinion.