LinkedIn has over 760 million members. For businesses, this means that your target audience is definitely using it. The platform hosts 55 million companies, which is no wonder why it makes the perfect business ecosystem to reach both B2B prospects and consumers through LinkedIn marketing.
LinkedIn, like most communication mediums, exists in the digisphere for a specific reason – in this case the site focuses on professional networking and career development rather than leisure networking. On LinkedIn, there are over 260 million active monthly users, but there’s a catch. These users only spend about 17 minutes on the site the whole month.
In order to make your business presence worthwhile, tap into the useful features and try these LinkedIn social media marketing tips to connect with your audience quickly, and in the right way.
Share posts with rich media
Across the board of social media platforms, posts with images and videos typically perform better. Even on LinkedIn, posts with images perform better with 98% more comments than those without.
To switch things up and make things more interesting, try posting photo collages that consist of 3-4 images. According to LinkedIn, these practices perform well for pages. However, do try to avoid stock images as custom images perform better and generate more engagement.
In case you’re wondering, you could also upload PDFs, PowerPoint or SlideShare presentations to support your posts. It is known that videos get 5X more engagement and Live videos get 24X more so try your best to make use of the LinkedIn native video tool as by the auto-play feature itself, it does a good job catching people’s attention. Another good thing is that videos are organised by an algorithm so you can reach a like-minded audience.
Optimise posts for reach and impact
When it comes to coming up with content, curating posts and posting from your company page, there are a few best LinkedIn practices to consider.
LinkedIn Algorithm ranks posts based on the following signals: personal connection, interest relevance, and engagement probability. As the LinkedIn Algorithm works to show people content that will interest and engage them, your posts should do the same.
Aim to post impactful and relevant stories/write-ups in your business and make sure you keep in mind the audience you would like to engage with.
On LinkedIn, you can also notify employees if you think they’d be interested in a post. And as advocates of the industry/business, they’d be able to jumpstart engagement on a post and boost visibility.
Choose the right time to post
When strategizing the marketing plans for your business, it is important to note that posting regularly helps build an audience on your platform. LinkedIn recognizes that brands that post once a month gain followers six times faster than those that don’t. Companies that post weekly see two times the engagement. Brands that post once a day gain even more traction.
However, no matter how often you post, it’s best to aim for the most impact by posting at the best time. Research by Hootsuite found that the best times to post on LinkedIn are 7:45 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. EST. The best day for B2B brands is Wednesday. For B2C brands, Mondays and Wednesday are best.
Understand that all audiences are different. So make sure you check your LinkedIn analytics to verify that these times work for you.
LinkedIn Live
Just when you think you have nailed your content by shooting, editing and posting a video on LinkedIn. But what’s more engaging than a video? Going live.
Live broadcasts see 24 times the engagement than a pre-taped video does. This is because, going live allows for instant connection with audience members, especially if you respond to questions and comments.
There are plenty of reasons for businesses to go live, from roundtable chats to interviews and webinars. Some have even hosted virtual events. But before hosting a LinkedIn live, make sure to promote your event on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Spreading your word across all your audience touchpoints allows you to hype up the crowd for your upcoming Live. No matter what you choose to host, genuine engagement can never be bought and always counts for something.
Launch a Showcase Page
Creating a LinkedIn Showcase Page allows you to show off a special initiative or engage a target community. These pages give LinkedIn members another way to follow you, even if they don’t follow your page.
Showcase Pages are extensions of your LinkedIn Page, designed to spotlight individual brands, business units and initiatives. Once created, they’ll be listed under ‘Affiliated Pages’ on your main LinkedIn Page.
For example, Adobe has five showcase pages for its different products and communities – Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Document Cloud, Magento: An Adobe Company, Adobe Experience and CMO by Adobe – all highlighting different aspects of their entity.
Learn from LinkedIn Analytics
As a business, it is best practice to check your LinkedIn Analytics regularly to improve your LinkedIn marketing strategy. Track post metrics to see what people engaged with most, what drove the most action, and what flopped. Adjust your content calendar accordingly.
From the analytics dashboard itself, you would be able to monitor how people find your page and what sections they engage with. Compare how many page views your tabs get, and if you manage a Showcase Page, see how much traction it’s getting. These visitor demographics give you a sense of who’s interested in your company so make sure you utilize fit!
Also, to see how your page is performing relative to competitors, check the Companies to Track table. This section lets you compare where your page ranks when it comes to total followers and new followers. You would also be able to see how many updates each page posts over a selected period and the overall engagement rate.
Go the extra mile by learning more about client or competitor employees from the People tab of their LinkedIn pages. You’ll be able to see where they studied, job titles, skills—and the employees themselves. This especially helps when you are meeting a new client and need some background info about them before the meet-up.
We share more on How to tell whether your social media strategies are working.
Know how to target the right audience
On LinkedIn, one of the most noteworthy marketing tools is the organic targeting options for posts. This allows page admin to target posts based on follower profile data, including organization size, industry, job, seniority, geography, and language preference.
If the budget of your business allows, you can step up your LinkedIn marketing strategy with LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn ads allow brands to target and reach members outside their established following. Get more personal with people you reach out to with LinkedIn’s Personalization options that allow you to address LinkedIn members by name, which could make a huge difference.
All in all, while this social media platform may not be as easy to master as the others in the market, once you learn your way around it, you’d realize that LinkedIn is a powerful platform and can be used for so much more than just making connections and scrolling through job-postings. When it comes to marketing, you’d realize that LinkedIn is very well-equipped to cater to all your business marketing needs – you just have to look a little deeper!
Want to know more about LinkedIn marketing for your business? Drop us an email at [email protected]
I highly recommend using LinkedIn as a complementary lead generation tool to flesh out your digital presence. Start by creating a high-powered, convincing Company Page that is linked to your website. Remember to share quality, actionable content multiple times per day. Then start utilizing LinkedIn’s paid ads to reach new audiences. Don’t forget to retarget your existing leads with Matched Audiences.