We’re all aware of the importance LinkedIn plays in connecting millions of professionals. It’s often referred to as ‘the social media of the business world’ for a reason.

The platform offers brands increased visibility, lead generation, and networking opportunities, as well as recruitment, talent acquisition, and partnership. 

However, just how can you gain these benefits for your brand without the knowledge of LinkedIn marketing and advertising strategies?

Well, the key is engagement with your followers and prospective leads on LinkedIn. And it can often be simpler than you might think.

So If you’re wondering how to increase engagement on LinkedIn, we’ve outlined five tips below to set your account apart so you can begin seeing results for your brand. Read on to find out more…

Why is engagement important on LinkedIn?

Like any social media platform your brand utilises, engagement on LinkedIn is important simply because the chances of visibility are high.

The number of people using LinkedIn continues to grow every day. Since 2017, the number of LinkedIn users across the globe has continued to increase at an exponential rate. And in 2023, this figure amounted to 1 billion active users on the platform.

How is engagement measured on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has two different engagement variables: ad engagement and organic engagement. 

Ad engagement includes the “number of likes, comments, clicks, shares, and video views” on an ad, while organic engagement is the “number of likes, comments, clicks, and shares on a post from your LinkedIn page”. In this case, we are focusing on organic engagement. 

We want this engagement rate to be as high as possible on your profile because it reveals to your followers that you are a credible source. The more likes and comments you have, the more visible you are becoming on LinkedIn, and the more intriguing it looks to potential opportunities. This engagement increases something called your social selling index… 

Tip 1: Boost your SSI

Your social selling index or SSI on LinkedIn measures how effective you are at establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. This formula assesses your performance on LinkedIn against others in your industry or network to determine if your posts resonate with your audience. Listed below are the 4 elements that determine your SSI:

Putting it into practice: How does StraightIn help clients boost their SSI?

At StraightIn, we aim to continuously boost this SSI for our clients. Our dedicated campaign managers aim to build this SSI from the start of a campaign by doing a profile optimization of our clients’ LinkedIn. They make notes and create ideas to help cater their profile to the right type of brand they want to build and ensure they’re attracting the right audience for their network.

After the start of the campaign, the campaign managers will continue to post regularly and be active on the platform as a part of our boost and content packages. An increased SSI sets up our clients’ profiles for a higher success rate when trying to generate those opportunities. 

Tip 2: Create a content strategy

When establishing a personal brand, you must post content that corresponds to the type of people you are trying to attract in the industry. To do so, you need to first identify prospects by establishing a customer persona; looking specifically at your customers’:

  • Age
  • Location
  • Gender

Once you’ve done this target audience profiling, you can begin to understand what type of queries these individuals are making so you can utilize the keywords that relate to them. For example, if you offer consultancy services, have a look at the common search queries that focus on this term on Google.

Putting it into practice: How does StraightIn create a content strategy for clients?

At StraightIn, we create content marketing strategies by fully immersing ourselves in the objectives of our clients. We take time to understand their goals by researching their brand and industry to devise a content strategy that engages and converts leads into customers/clients.

Once we’ve confirmed the types of content their customers are seeking, we get to work creating them; positioning them as an expert in their industry and a thought leader.

Tip 3: Utilise LinkedIn connection messages

Another way you can increase your LinkedIn engagement is to utilise your connection messages on the platform. Not only will it help you to build your network, it will also increase the visibility of your brand and even find opportunities for collaboration.

One way you can do this is by sending messages whenever you request to connect with someone, and whenever they request to connect with you. This helps your connection get a better representation of your character, as well as your business. What’s more, it provides a platform for you to engage with them in the future.

Putting it into practice: How does StraightIn help clients with their connection messages?

StraightIn creates tailored messages and strategic outreach campaigns to ensure clients’ messaging resonates with the audience they are trying to target, whilst also driving connections and higher-quality leads.

We navigate an approach that focuses on making a long-lasting impression with personalised connection messages. We deliver brief yet effective introductions to ensure we capture the attention of our client’s target audience.

Tip 4: Create native videos

Creating and sharing ‘native videos’ is our fourth tip for increasing engagement on LinkedIn. These native videos are uploaded directly from your camera roll or can be recorded on LinkedIn. As there are no links involved, it won’t take the potential lead to YouTube or another website. Users prefer these types of videos because they can stay in the app instead of being directed to another site that is of no interest to them.

What’s more, these videos can help you stand out because of how much LinkedIn promotes these videos. LinkedIn doesn’t want people leaving their site, so they prefer this type of content that keeps the audience more engaged on their platform. This type of content shows authenticity while displaying to your target audience that you have a credible connection with relevant content. 

Putting it into practice: How does StraightIn help clients make videos a part of their content plan?

As experts in LinkedIn marketing and advertising, our team at StraightIn knows all too well the importance of video content when it comes to increasing engagement with our clients’ target audience.

We work with our clients on existing content they might have produced on other platforms to repurpose it for LinkedIn, we consistently advise to ensure this content aligns with their professional goals and portrays them accurately.

Tip 5: Make your status updates public

Finally, our last tip to increase engagement on LinkedIn is to make your status updates public. You want to draw as much attention as you can on Linkedin, so naturally, it’s important to interact with not only your network, but people in your industry when you have something to share.

This not only increases visibility but allows you to promote your LinkedIn updates or posts on other social networks. You can optimise your LinkedIn profile discovery by sharing your LinkedIn posts on these other platforms, ultimately strengthening your network by connecting with others away from LinkedIn. 

Putting it into practice: How does StraightIn ensure their clients develop the best LinkedIn marketing practices?

Consistency is key to any LinkedIn marketing and advertising strategy, and we make sure our clients are aware of its importance when we work with them.

Whilst our specialty is creating industry-specific SEO articles, we know what the best marketing practices are on LinkedIn, and strive to keep our clients informed of them throughout our working relationship.

Seeking a LinkedIn marketing strategy that increases your engagement? Reach out to the experts at StraightIn today

To sum it up, LinkedIn is a very powerful tool that can expand your business. And can be used in so many ways.

As one of the leading LinkedIn lead generation companies, we understand the importance of this platform that we use every day to help achieve our clients’ goals. We know how to develop and transform your LinkedIn to stand out against your competitors, and the engagement factor is one of the first steps.

We take into consideration all the components of building up our SSI, your content to share on your profile, and how your profile is perceived by your target audience and network. This ensures that we are attracting the right people to your profile to help you generate successful connections that lead to business growth.

Our services include Outreach Marketing, LinkedIn Advertising, Content Marketing, and Personal Branding. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can help you. Call 0161 518 4740, or email grow@straight-in.co.uk.