We’ve said it once, and we will say it again. LinkedIn is THE go-to network for B2B brands. And according to a recent study conducted by Statista and data from LinkedIn, the reports highlight the platform’s expanding user base.
LinkedIn demographics and usage
- Number of monthly active users: 810 million
- Largest age group: 25-34 (58.4%)
- Gender: 48% female, 52% male
- 63% of LinkedIn users access the network weekly, and 22% daily
(Sources: Statista and LinkedIn)
As the platform grows considerably every day, due to more professionals herding to the platform, standing out can be somewhat difficult. So, if you want to get more eyes on your personal account and your company page, it’s not going to happen magically. And this post we are going to break down how to create an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy, whilst highlighting the best practices and ideas for personal use and business gain.
How businesses use LinkedIn for marketing
Firstly, there is one thing we want to address. There is no right way to use LinkedIn. Depending on how you use LinkedIn, either branding or recruiting, everyone’s strategy is going to be different. It is important to understand that the big priority is to build a presence on the medium, becoming a valuable and credible online user.
Content distribution
The more content you distribute to your audience, the better.
Over the last couple of years, LinkedIn has become the distribution platform for B2B content. Particularly, content that helps brands position themselves as industry leaders. For users who are using LinkedIn for personal gain, content distribution is all about establishing your expertise and credibility.
There are plenty of forms of content that you share with your audience, for starters:
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- Reviews and testimonials
- Customer success stories
- Videos (think: interviews, webinar snippets, tips)
- Infographics
- Articles
Announcing company news and memorable successes
Even if LinkedIn is classed as a social media platform, it is important to consider it as a new source. If you want to find out the latest news for any business in your sector, they are probably discussing it on their company page right this second. Brands and personal accounts can announce their news by promoting:
- A new launch of a new product or services
- Important company milestones
- New projects
- Previewing prominent pieces of upcoming content
- Rebranding
Remember, positive press and PR should be employed in your strategy. Brands and LinkedIn marketing is a popular way to spread the word, as the platform is an exceptional place to get in front of B2B leaders, journalists and other major participants in your industry.
Highlighting your company culture
In terms of positioning and recruiting purposes, many brands centre their LinkedIn strategies around business culture.
Again this is another way for companies to stand out from the competition. Most importantly attract new talent. Some favoured ways to spotlight culture include:
- Celebrating new hires for the business
- Taking a stand on social issues
- Company events (Team bonding, end-of-month celebrations, conferences, and behind-the-scenes posts)
For example, The Lounge regularly showcases their employees in the workplace. The company even allows employees to take over the company account from time to time.
These sorts of posts humanise brands, creating more a personal and authentic outlook.
Lead generation
If you didn’t know this already, LinkedIn exceeded $1 billion in ad revenue last year, while increasing organic engagement. The social platforms’ status has become the ultimate B2B selling forum. However, businesses and working professionals still need to be cautious about how they gain their leads and how they sell on the platform.
For example, LinkedIn marketing is immense for marketing and advertising companies looking to gain more users. This can be done through:
- Promoting company events
- Announcing new products, product plans or pricing tiers
- Running Paid LinkedIn ads
- Personalised messages
Why personal accounts are so valuable for LinkedIn marketing
Even though the platform is literally all about your business, personal accounts are just as effective and useful on LinkedIn. Whether you’re an employee, Founder or Freelancer, using your personal LinkedIn account can play an important part in your marketing strategy, acting as an extension of business accounts for the sake of advertisement.
That is why employee advocacy is so important for businesses on LinkedIn. In the next paragraph, we are going to explain why personal accounts harbour so much power on the platform.
1. Earn more engagement than a Company Page
Whether you like it or not, “thought leadership” content is a staple of B2B social media and marketing. This includes:
- Storytelling posts
- Firsthand advice and experiences
- Discussions and threads
Have you ever noticed that the majority of the viral LinkedIn post comes from personal accounts? Certainly not a coincidence.
Personal stories and anecdotes attract the most engagement, on the platform, and are considered to be the most compelling type of content. As a consequence, employee content typically gains way more engagement and reach than what’s possible from a personal page.
2. Employee advocacy is your best friend.
Based on the point above, brand accounts are limited when it comes to reach. However, through employee advocacy, brands can boost updates with help from their teams. Doing this can increase the chances of your content being seen on a wider scale. Also, employees can add their personal touch to their posts through captions.
3. Support your hiring and recruiting
It is not surprising just how much hiring happens on LinkedIn. It is not surprising to consider your employees to serve as your company’s biggest cheerleaders. Empowering workers to highlight the benefits of working for your business is a great way to attract great new talent.
5 LinkedIn marketing tips to strengthen your strategy
When it comes to LinkedIn, it is important to stress that marketing strategies take time to perfect and to find the solution that helps you gain footing on the platform.
If you want to earn more engagement and increase brand awareness at an efficient rate, here are a few LinkedIn marketing tips to stick to.
1. Post original content
We can not stress this enough, but you can’t just post links to blogs and expect top-notch engagement. Social platforms in general don’t want you bouncing online users off-site. This explains why repurposing content is a staple piece of LinkedIn marketing.
For instance, many businesses will break up or consolidate blog content into smaller, text-only posts or others will create a slideshow or infographic as an alternative to an external link.
If in doubt spend a bit of time on LinkedIn ( maybe a minute or two) and take note of all the written-text posts. If you are unsure, post content that keeps people on the forum.
2. Fine-tune your publishing frequency and participation on LinkedIn
Frequency and consistency considerably matter on LinkedIn. Just as they do on any other platform, so don’t neglect it.
For business accounts, we usually don’t see multiple posts a day. However, those that do post regularly do tend to see the most engagement during the weekday mornings and early afternoons.
However, posting multiple times per day is literally fair game for personal accounts. It’s all about finding out what is optimal, which is going to require some testing.
Whilst frequency is essential, being an active participant on the platform is more important. That means engaging in the comment section of the popular and relevant posts (be part of the discussion!), sharing resources and answering questions. Doing this can help you get in front of industry leaders.
3. Don’t be “too” professional
As stated earlier, LinkedIn might be THE professional network, but that doesn’t mean your presence should feel stiff and ‘stale’.
It is important to remember, that LinkedIn marketing should be personable and relatable. So, bare in mind marketing messaging and voice.
Prioritise noteworthy tips and experiences over jargon. Don’t be afraid to show off your sense of humour and wit!
4. Empower employees to promote and engage on the businesses behalf
For business accounts, employee advocacy is literally the make-or-break in terms of content distribution and reach! As noted earlier, in employee advocacy, brands can help boost updates with help from their teams. They literally have the power.
Sidenote: Businesses need to be aware of how employees portray themselves on LinkedIn. We do believe that they should 100% have autonomy and freedom. However, do take steps to avoid potential social PR problems. Make sure your employees are on the same page when it comes to how they represent your brand.
5. Utilise LinkedIn analytics
Because LinkedIn offers you creative freedom, you can be spoiled for choice in terms of what you can post, most importantly what works.
Highlighting the significance of regularly evaluating the performance of your content. Looking at your LinkedIn analytics, you can understand by the numbers:
- Which types of posts earn the most attention
- Whether there’s a time or frequency that influences the performance
- How your employees and personals impact your company’s reach
- Whether your LinkedIn content is generating traffic and leads
What does your LinkedIn marketing strategy look like?
Growing on LinkedIn doesn’t happen overnight. The best accounts on the platform provide meaningful help and offer a sense of personality and authenticity. Once you position yourself as a reliable resource, you might be surprised at how fast you can scale your presence on LinkedIn.