How GovCon Firms Get Findable on LinkedIn | The Waldo Problem
28m | Oct 27, 2026Mark Amtower has marketed to the government for more than 40 years, and he calls the federal market a vast Where's Waldo picture.
A Partner at Amtower & Company, he has hosted Amtower Off Center on Federal News Network for 19 years, contributed to Washington Technology for 18 years, and written 10 books, 5 on GovCon, including the new Findable.
Your firm can be fully capable and still invisible to the one buying office that matters. In a market of hundreds of federal activities, being capable and being findable are two different jobs, and posting more, connecting with everyone, and giving yourself a bigger title only add to the noise.
Mark's sequence is to differentiate first and connect second. Describe what you do in terms that resonate with a particular agency or type of activity, share past performance if you have it, and build educational content around that expertise. Only then should you connect with the agencies using that technology and the companies embedded inside them. He walks through his annual census of feds on LinkedIn, which by his count covers 820 federal activity pages and about 2.7 million feds. He also explains why a seat on an Army vehicle means sorting through 130 Army URLs to find the actual buying activities. He unpacks Army Directive 2026-17 and why consolidating official accounts does not make the people behind them disappear.
From there, the conversation turns to how he vets every connection request, why content should educate rather than end in a pitch, and why account-based marketing matters more for small businesses as agency information gets harder to find. Mark shares how he uses Gemini to sharpen his own ideas without handing it the writing. He describes the 18- to 24-month runway he puts in front of new entrants, and why the market, not the author, decides who earns a leading voice. If you use LinkedIn for GovCon business development, this one resets where the effort goes.
Timestamps:
02:06 Is LinkedIn still a business platform for federal contractors, or is it turning into Facebook?
03:28 How should you ask an established GovCon voice to connect with you on LinkedIn?
06:57 How do you tell whether a GovCon expert on LinkedIn is legitimate?
07:56 Does refusing most LinkedIn connection requests limit your reach in GovCon?
10:00 How long does it take a new federal contractor to win its first contract, and what does it cost?
12:13 Do small business set-aside programs still help new federal contractors under the current administration?
14:37 Are the recent executive orders actually speeding up federal procurement?
16:03 How should a small business differentiate itself to a federal agency?
16:47 Why is it so hard to stand out in the federal market, and should your content end with a sales pitch?
18:15 How can small businesses use LinkedIn to find the buying activities inside an agency?
19:55 Is the Army shutting down its LinkedIn pages, and what does that mean for contractors?
21:31 Why does account-based marketing matter more when agency information gets harder to find?
22:48 How should GovCon professionals use AI to write content without losing their voice?
24:48 Can you give yourself a leading title in GovCon, or does the market decide?
25:33 Is there a legitimate path to building a subject matter expert platform in GovCon?
Resources:
- Connect with Chelsea Roberts
- Connect with Mark Amtower
Other Resources:
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