LinkedIn’s professional approach to social media gives it a very different feel to Facebook, Instagram, even Twitter. Many companies use the platform for recruitment purposes and PR leads as opposed to social media marketing but if you are one of them, there’s a high chance you are missing out.
If you are like most businesses, your social media marketing strategy is to:
Increase brand awareness
Reach new customers
Engage with your fans
The formal nature of LinkedIn compared to other social networks makes it an easy platform to put on the backburner when you are thinking about achieving these goals. They require you to show off your brand personality, entertain your audience and befriend customers with a human persona – all of which the seriousness of LinkedIn doesn’t seem to facilitate.
However, with the average time spent on LinkedIn at over six minutes per session, there appears to be little issue with engaging users. The key to success, it seems, is knowing which type of content your brand should be putting out there to find your target audience and captivate their attention. Here are 5 top content ideas to do just that, and help make LinkedIn part of a social media marketing strategy that will grow your business.
1. YOUR COMPANY CULTURE
Developing a unique company culture and displaying it on a professional social media platform is a great way to attract new recruits and retain your employees, as well as a great marketing tactic for attracting loyal fans. Posts which show Linkedin Lead Generation Software users what goes on behind the scenes in your company gives them exclusive access to the reality of your brand, making them feel like a trusted insider and helping them build confidence in your authenticity. This could be an entertaining scene from the office, a project one of your employees is working on, a shout-out to a staff member doing a charity marathon – whatever “private” glimpse you want to share, demonstrating love and respect within your company will make your customers have love and respect for you. In addition, company culture content encourages your employees to share your posts and be active advocates for your brand – LinkedIn currently estimates that 30% of engagement for a business on the platform is generated by employees.
2. YOUR INDUSTRY NEWS
Showing that you are up-to-date with the latest trends and posting breaking industry news tells LinkedIn users that your brand is a leader in the field with a genuine passion for what you do. On top of this, you are providing your audience with valuable content, making your account worth following (nobody likes to get left behind) and sparking discussion on your feed that can lead to a huge increase in reach and engagement. Try to put your own thoughts or opinions on the article in your post, rather than simply copying and pasting the link, to make it more interesting, generate more responses and get more shares. Standing out from other people posting about the same topic is key to achieving engagement. Contributing your own ideas will also help you relate the topic back to your brand, ensuring that you’re building maximum brand awareness at the same time as demonstrating expertise.
3. YOUR PARTNERSHIPS
Partnerships with other brands or influential individuals are a powerful tool to make your business stand out on such a competitive platform for professionals. Company collaborations show everyone that other important people in your industry trust you, find your brand beneficial to theirs, and want to work with you. They tell people that you are creative, community-driven and have the needs of your customers at the heart of your business. They allow you to reach relevant new audiences through the connections of your partner. For example, you’re into energy drinks, so you choose to support the high contact rugged game of football. The beauty of this collaboration shows with your brand on the Customizable Footballs on trial day. On top of this, they are often a good way to use pre-existing content already created for the collaboration. Coming up with a joint social media strategy with your partner is worthwhile to make sure you are sharing leads, tagging the right users in your posts and helping each other get the most out of your joint project.
4. YOUR BUSINESS EXCLUSIVES
There’s almost no content more engaging on any social media platform than exclusive access to information, and LinkedIn is no exception. While on Instagram or Facebook it might be a photo of a new product, or a special promotion your brand is putting on, LinkedIn is more geared towards giving your followers exclusive business information. This could be an annual sales report, new store opening announcement or the details of an upcoming partnership with another business. Whatever your company secrets, letting the people following you be the first to know will ensure that you are rewarding them for their loyalty while encouraging more relevant people to connect with your brand on LinkedIn so that they can have that privilege too.
5. YOUR EVENTS
LinkedIn is a great resource for event marketing, even outside of business-related conferences or panels. LinkedIn users are made up of senior level professionals and recent college graduates with either the budget and independence or the ambition to attend the events your brand is putting on. Posting about your events will not only generate excitement around them and build up your list of guests – it will also help you reach like-minded companies and individuals with an interest in your niche. You can post about your event in your status update, use the publishing platform to post a longer article with all the event details, send direct InMail messages, share your event in relevant LinkedIn groups (or even create your own LinkedIn Group especially for your event) and pay for promoted content to reach new people who you aren’t connected to yet. Regardless of whether you are using organic or paid-for methods, remember to tag any influential guests or speakers who are attending in order to reach their audiences. On top of increasing brand awareness and making new connections, broadcasting your event tells your current fans that you provide value outside of the everyday operation of your business.
