As the world’s largest professional network, there’s no doubt about it, LinkedIn is the place to be. Not only is the platform the go-to for businesses, but when it comes to generating business leads, there is no better place.
But as a business, how do you go about maximising your time on the platform? What’s the secret recipe for success in a B2B world?
In our new two-part LinkedIn series, we aim to cover all areas of LinkedIn success, from engaging your internal teams to engaging with key decision-makers. In part one, we’re here to discuss the right type of content and how to implement a forward-thinking strategy that delivers.
Creating a content strategy that works on LinkedIn
Any successful content marketing or social media strategy takes research, planning, and careful implementation. Knowing the audience you’re trying to engage with is key here in order to speak to them on a human level.
Once you’ve set out what you’re looking to achieve (our best-practice guide can be a great tool to share with colleagues, grab yours here), planning the steps to get there becomes 10x easier.
Here are some of our top tips for good practice on LinkedIn, helping you to make the most of your content:
Share your marketing/social plan with the team
It can be incredibly difficult to ‘go it alone’ on LinkedIn with company updates often struggling to get any organic traction. This is of (many) reasons why your team is your greatest asset for furthering your reach on LinkedIn.
By sharing your marketing/social plan with your team, everyone involved is aware of what you’re trying to achieve. Including your team with your goals sets you up for greater success, with the opportunity to push your company updates further via personal profiles.
Support your team in creating their own LinkedIn content
Many of us are unsure what to post on our personal LinkedIn profiles, but simply using it as an online CV is a thing of the past. The more active your team is on LinkedIn, the higher the chance of them naturally sharing and engaging with your company’s content.
Where possible, include your team in relevant posts and tag them accordingly. This is a great way to start conversations with future connections, existing clients and within your team. You never know where a new connection may lead, so don’t be afraid to connect with someone who engages with your content.
Notify your employees of important posts
Many of us aren’t as active on LinkedIn as we’d like to be. When you reach the point of a particularly important post being published, if you’re keen to get fast traction, there is the opportunity to ‘notify employees’ of the update. Simply click the three little dots on the post to action this.
Of course, sharing your plan with the team ahead of time can help avoid having to do this at all! But of course, not everyone will be keeping an eye on your strategy document day-to-day.
Create content that reflects company culture
Having a strong company ethos can really make your content stand out from the noise of a busy LinkedIn feed. Putting a face to the name/role can encourage connections to comment (and employees to share their team members’ efforts).
Avoid making every post an opportunity to sell a product/service, but instead, focus on the values of your business and your overall company culture.
Build (and nurture) connections with clients
Aside from being a great way to connect with those you meet, connecting with your clients – and maintaining that relationship – is key for engaging them in your content.
For example, if you were to meet a prospect at a networking event, be sure to connect with them within 24 hours, so they remember who you are. Continue to nurture that relationship, by engaging with their posts, sending/replying to messages and meeting in person. From there, if a post that’s relevant to them/their business was to go live, tagging them in the post (or comment) wouldn’t appear unusual.
How to make your content stand out
LinkedIn, as a mirror of the business world, is pretty fast-paced. This means that encouraging users to stop mid-scroll can be a challenge. Thankfully, we have some tips to help make that happen.
Above the fold content
Even a relatively short post on LinkedIn crunches your content into a small section with a ‘see more’ link. The fold can be quite annoying and can stunt clicks, so to encourage people to read more/comment, you need to ensure the main crux of your content is above the fold.
If you’re asking a question, don’t be afraid to include it at the top of your post to catch the attention of scrollers, as well as at the bottom of your post – especially when there’s a large amount of text.
Content with images
We have to remember that LinkedIn is a busy platform, and it’s easy for your content to get lost. The best type of posts includes an image, as not only does it take up more space in a user’s feed, but it’s also far more eye-catching than a text-only post.
Alongside this, images with text on it always work well on LinkedIn, as they are easy to digest. You can accompany this type of post with the full text above, too.
Experiment with formats
Polls naturally get more weight in LinkedIn’s algorithm. As you can only use four options with polls, use the first three as answers and then leave the fourth as other (comment below) to encourage more comments. Let your team know that a poll is going live to kickstart the votes, and help your poll reach more connections.
Furthermore, one of the best things to do is ask questions and then reply to the questions to create nested conversations.
Further your reach with more connections
Being connected to people really helps with engagement, the more people you are connected to, the more reach your company posts will have. So, get connecting!
Grow your LinkedIn and optimise your page for leads and sales
With the above tips, you’ll be well on your way to mastering your LinkedIn content strategy. Be sure to look out for part two in our LinkedIn series.
Did you know that you can also grab our FREE best practice guide to LinkedIn?
Download yours now and share our tips with your colleagues for effective LinkedIn marketing.
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