With a lot of brands focusing on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok social media marketing, LinkedIn seems to be the forgotten one. However, with over 100 million active users daily, LinkedIn is a great place for individuals and brands to get noticed. The fact that it's a networking site for professionals means it can be an excellent place for targeting this niche. Therefore,you should add LinkedIn to your social media marketing strategy.

However, like other social media sites, to grow your LinkedIn account, you need engagement. If you only post content with nobody liking, commenting, or sharing your posts, you might not get a higher visibility level. However, if that sounds like you, don't worry, as we have put in place information to help you grow your LinkedIn engagement level and take your account to the next level.

Understanding the Type of Content You Can Post on LinkedIn

The competition level on LinkedIn can get serious, so it is important to post exciting and creative content. Unfortunately, most users simply post the content that comes to their minds. If you want your LinkedIn content to generate engagement, you need to post content that has the following features:

Informative and Inspiring

LinkedIn is a professional platform and, therefore, best suited for serious content. Post inspiring and informative content if you want to position yourself as an expert on the platform and grow your audience. LinkedIn users usually look for industry news, trends, and insights. Therefore, posting content that adds value to them will show your level of expertise.

When posting content on the platform, ensure that it is insightful, relevant, and offers a fresh perspective on the story. This can include tips on the industry's best practices and stories that inspire users. 

Well-organized and Skimmable Content

Creating content that your LinkedIn users will enjoy reading is also advisable. You need to present your content interestingly while providing value and insights. The content should be well organized and broken down into small sections. Since most social media users are always in a hurry, they should be able to skim through the content quickly.

The content should be concise and contain tips, a carousel, or how-to posts. If you put your content in a long format, readers are more likely to drop it off; therefore, you need to ensure that you get your message across fast.

Add Visual Content 

Your content should also include visuals such as videos, images, and infographics to drive engagement on the platform. Creating content that contains visuals is a great way to stand out from the competition and break down the monotony that arises from endless texts.

Why LinkedIn Engagement Matters

After creating LinkedIn content, one way to measure its performance is to look at the engagement level. On top of that, there are some good reasons why the engagement level matters. These include:

More Visibility on Your Profile

We already mentioned that the more engagement level you have on your posts, the more preference the LinkedIn algorithm will give it. That means that you will get visibility on your posts and profiles.

Relationship Building

Imagine a situation where LinkedIn was full of content with no likes or comments. That would be quite boring, considering that the discussions are what add to the website's appeal and are therefore, a key part of LinkedIn marketing.

Chain of Reactions

LinkedIn posts can have a chain reaction when people comment on your content, their network will see your content even if they aren't directly related to you. Therefore, engagement can ensure that your content spreads far and wide.

Keeps the Conversation Going

At times, you may not be able to post content due to your busy schedule or writer’s block. In such instances, engagement can help keep your account active. Similarly, you can compensate for your lack of posting by engaging with other people’s content.

Top Tips to Increase Your LinkedIn Engagement

Now that you understand the importance of engagement, you need to know the top tips for driving engagement on your LinkedIn profile. These are:

Leverage Employee Advocacy

If you are a brand trying to increase your engagement, one of the great resources you can use is your employee's network to promote your brand. For instance, when you post something on your LinkedIn company page, you can ask your employees to engage with it by liking, sharing, and commenting on it. When you do that, the content will be shown to their connections. Alternatively, the employees can also create brand advocacy content and post it on their profiles.

Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing works because it puts your brand in front of the target audience. This is an effective strategy because most social media users suggest that they trust the recommendation of their celebrities when buying products or services. Traditionally, influencer marketing involves paying an influencer to post about your brand. While this is still effective, there are other ways you can leverage influencer marketing, such as: 

• Inviting the influencer to your podcast and then repurposing the content for your Linkedin posts.
• Co-host an AMA or joint webinar with the influencer and live stream it.
• Interviewing an influencer or sharing their story.

Post Authentic Content

A common mistake brands make when trying to remain professional is posting other people’s content. This can negatively affect the brand as users lose their trust in it. Therefore, you should create authentic content, such as behind-the-scenes videos. Such content can help create emotional connections with customers, increasing trust and brand loyalty, and is therefore a good way of optimizing your LinkedIn profile.

Use Storytelling

Storytelling is an effective strategy for driving engagement as it brings out the context and points of a story in a way users can easily relate to. A deeply personal story can easily get shared widely on LinkedIn. When creating such a story, start with a captivating hook. Make the story short and punchy. If there is something eye-catching you can add to the story, go ahead and add it. Here are a few tips for using storytelling on LinkedIn:

• Keep the story concise. Remember that LinkedIn has a limit on characters, so you should keep the story short and to the point. A good idea would be to keep it 100 to 300 words so that the target audience can read it.
• Use vivid language. Use words to paint a picture of what you want your audience to learn from the story. Use descriptive language that appeals to people’s senses.
• Use a clear language. Your story needs to have a message or purpose. You need to decide what you want your audience to decipher from the story.
• Keep the story personal. Personal stories drive the highest LinkedIn engagement as people easily connect with them. Therefore, use them to share your successes, challenges, and experiences. 

Post High-quality Content Regularly

Unlike websites or blog posts, social media content has a lifetime of 24 hours before it becomes outdated and irrelevant. If you want to maintain a high engagement level, you need to post consistently. Create a wide variety of content consisting of videos, vlogs, ebooks, case studies, articles, industry reports, and infographics.

Stay Consistent

If you are inconsistent, it will be hard to achieve meaningful outcomes. However, avoid compromising on the quality of your posts, as this will lower your engagement level and cause you to easily lose favor with your connections. If you are running out of ideas and time, you can consider different measures such as:

• Scheduling your social media content ahead of time.
• Repurposing old content. If you have an old video, you can transcribe it and share it as a LinkedIn article.
• Reporting your previous content that performed really well.

When scheduling your LinkedIn content, you need to create room for trending content or industry events. Also, take time to engage with other users' posts.

Understand LinkedIn Algorithm

The LinkedIn algorithm plays a major role in deciding the type of content that gets higher visibility on the platform. This is because it considers the attributes of a post immediately after it is posted, the details of the user who posted it, and whether it contains any images or attachments. It uses these details to determine who to show the post to. Therefore, you should consider these factors when posting content to ensure that you have the most relevant audience.

Highlight Your Company Values

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, and most users who visit your company profile are interested in learning more about your company. Sharing your company values and views can easily drive engagement on the platform. Such a strategy will help promote your business, reach your target audience, and reach clients who share your values and views.

Use Relevant Hashtags

Just like in other social media sites, hashtags are used to organize content. In fact, LinkedIn uses hashtags more subtly than other platforms. Therefore, you need to use hashtags to organize content on the platform. This will increase your chances of connecting with the right audience. However, avoid overusing hashtags and instead use a maximum of two or three hashtags.

Engage with Other People's Content

When you engage with other people’s content, they are also likely to engage with your content, too. When you join LinkedIn, you will first be recognized as an active user, and this will cause your content to appear favorably on other people's streams. Additionally, when you engage with other people's content, you can strengthen the bond between you and them. This may even open a door for you to get new audiences. If people make inquiries, be ready to respond to them.

Provide Value to Users

The only reason why LinkedIn users follow you is because of the value you offer them. To increase your engagement level, you need to create content that adds value to them. You can do that by creating content that is smart, useful, and actionable. You can also provide them with resources such as templates and worksheets.

Build a Community

While there are different ways in which you can use LinkedIn, one of the most important is community-building. Find a community where you can become a member and take part in discussions involving your niche. This way, you can establish connections and build your network.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform that can help your business establish meaningful connections, market your brand, and reach your target audience. However, to get the best results with LinkedIn marketing, you need to drive engagement. If you are looking for a way to drive engagement, the above tips will help you get started. You can also check out our guide on growing your LinkedIn followers fast.

With over 875 million users, LinkedIn is a great platform for brands that want to reach professionals and position themselves as industry experts. Having a LinkedIn business page can help brands get noticed. They can also use the platform to engage with their audience. However, brands must understand how to use LinkedIn effectively in social media marketing. In this article, we will provide everything you need to know about using LinkedIn for business.

Steps in Creating a Linkedin Company Page

To successfully use LinkedIn for business, you need to have a page. Here are the steps to follow:

Opening a LinkedIn Business Page

To open a LinkedIn business page, you will need a personal account. This will act as the administrator of the company page. Once logged into the individual account, tap the business icon at the browser's top left. Go to the menu’s bottom and tap on the Create Company page. You will have the option to create three different types of pages. These are:

• Company
• Educational institute
• Showcase page

While the other two are self-explanatory, a showcase page refers to a company that needs to have a sub-page for a particular division that links back to its main page. The showcase page usually appears under the main page. Once you have chosen the kind of page you want to create, you can fill in your company details, such as the business name, industry, logo, and company website. Focus enough time on creating a logo and a tagline, as this will create the first impression for most users. 

Page Optimization

Once you have created a page, the next step is to start optimizing it. You need to use a more descriptive headline, select a page topic, and use hashtags. You will need to connect with relevant pages to enable your page to be discovered. Once your page is created, you will be prompted to add all the key page sections. Remember that filling in all your page details will increase its visibility. You can use the following LinkedIn page optimization tips:

• Use translations. The translation feature can enable you to reach a global audience in their language if you target a global audience.
• Optimize with relevant keywords. Google usually indexes LinkedIn business pages for the keywords you optimize for. That means you must add relevant keywords in the first part of the descriptions. The description should be in three to four paragraphs describing your products, services, vision, and values.
• Add the relevant hashtags. Ensure that you include about three hashtags.
• Include a branded cover image. The cover image can be a good option for showcasing your latest products or announcing your biggest news.
• Custom button. This button is what users will see on the page, and it is located near the Follow button.

Building a LinkedIn Network

Creating a LinkedIn company page isn't enough. You need to put the information out there that you have one. Here are a few ways to publicize your page:

• Link to your site. You can add the LinkedIn icon at the footer of your page.
• Ask employees to tag your page. Ensure that your employees have included their business page in their LinkedIn profiles. This will make it possible for their contacts to find your business page, and they will follow you. When someone taps on your company link while checking out an employee's profile, they will be taken to your business page. On the other hand, you can display a list of your employees to establish your company's credibility.
• Ask your followers to follow your page. You should also ask the people who follow your profile to follow your page. However, you will be limited on the number of accounts you can invite to avoid spamming users.

Determine Your Page Goal

You should have a goal for your LinkedIn company page. Consider the kind of people interacting with the post and the contribution of the LinkedIn page to your overall business goal. The goal could be generating leads or boosting brand awareness.

Implement Your Content Strategy

For a company page to succeed, you need a social media content strategy defining the goal of a LinkedIn page. This strategy should guide how to use the page for lead generation, recruitment, or conversion. The strategy should provide details about the kind of content to create to meet your audience’s needs. It should also define your competitors, what they are doing right, and how you will create better content than them.

Once you have a strategy, the next step should be to make a plan covering your posting frequency, the topics you will cover in the post, and how you plan to repurpose your LinkedIn content. This plan will also highlight how you should curate content from other sources. You can go ahead and auto-schedule content so that it is auto-published.

Consistently Post Content

The next step is to start posting content. According to LinkedIn, you should use a 3-2-1 format. This means you should create three industry-centric posts, two posts outlining your updates or achievements, and one post to showcase your brand. Depending on your company’s schedule and content catalog, you should decide on your posting frequency. A good idea would be to use a content calendar to show what content should be posted and when.

The kind of content you will post depends on your LinkedIn goals. If you want to generate leads, you can post helpful product updates. Another option would be to post case studies snippets to show how your customers love the product. A product demo would also work well.

For the best visibility on LinkedIn, post multimedia content consisting of visuals, texts, and carousel posts. LinkedIn suggests adding an image can increase your engagement by 2x. Similarly, when the relevant video accompanies a post, its engagement can be increased by five times. Adding several relevant hashtags in your niche is also a good practice. These could be related to posts, products, and industry.

Engage with Your Target Audience

Like other social media sites, you must keep showing up and responding to people’s comments. When they DM you, you need to answer their messages. Take time to interact and comment on the posts of your employees, networks, thought leaders, and other businesses in your industry.

Use Showcase Pages and Product Pages

We noted earlier that LinkedIn allows you to add a LinkedIn showcase page. You can combine these with product pages to highlight your product catalog. You can also use them to add product media, product highlights, featured customers, and more. 

The product pages are excellent for generating qualified leads and building a community around a product. They leverage media like videos and images to showcase featured customers, get reviews and ratings, and drive action with the call-to-action button, such as the contact sales form or a demo request.

Use LinkedIn Analytics

A key part of any social media marketing strategy is tracking the results. That applies to LinkedIn marketing, too. The good news is that LinkedIn comes with many analytics that allow you to track data on page visitors, content performance, lead generation, follower growth, and more. If you are running ads, you will see the data on the ad's performance.

Best Ways to Get Started with LinkedIn Marketing

Here are ways to use LinkedIn for business.

Showcasing Your Expertise

One thing that sets LinkedIn apart from other social media platforms is the ability to post long-form content and showcase your position as a thought leader. The LinkedIn algorithm gives long-form content prominence, which can help businesses gain more visibility on the platform.

Therefore, businesses can share advice, insights, and knowledge with the people in their network. They can post these articles either from their personal or business pages. However, since the goal is to grow your business using LinkedIn, we advise you to post from your company page.

Remember that publishing articles on LinkedIn works the same way as running a blog. You can format your posts, add videos and images, and even save posts as drafts. Several tips can also increase your chances of success when publishing on the platform.

• Stay consistent. You must determine how often you will post: weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
• Remain original. You can be tempted to regurgitate other articles. However, this may not provide you with the desired results. Therefore, create original content that forms an opinion and provides a strong argument.
• Keep promoting your content. Creating new posts should not hinder you from promoting your old ones. Keep sharing them to increase their visibility.

Talent Acquisition

One of the reasons why many users are on LinkedIn is to seek jobs. According to data from the platform, over 5 million people search for jobs on LinkedIn weekly.  For businesses searching for talent, LinkedIn is a great place to start. The platform allows recruiters and companies to post free or use paid ads. You might even want to use a recruiter account if this is your goal.

Lead Generation

LinkedIn has many company decision-makers. Besides, about 40% of B2B marketers confess that the platform helps them drive high-quality leads. Therefore, if your goal is to get your brand in front of customers and convert them, there is no better platform to do that than LinkedIn.

Employee Advocacy

LinkedIn has an employee advocacy feature known as the My Company tab. This tab enables employees to share organic and curated company posts. Businesses can also use it to interact with their team members and improve employee advocacy.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn is a great platform for companies to take their brand to the next level. From recruitment to generating leads and conversion, there are many ways to use the platform. If you are wondering how to use LinkedIn, our guide will help you get started. You can follow our guide to grow your LinkedIn page fast and boost your career.

LinkedIn is a great place to market your business. Statistics indicate that the audience on LinkedIn has twice the buying power of the average site. That’s why it should be part of your social media marketing strategy. If you are starting LinkedIn marketing, one option to consider is using ads.

With over 1 billion users, LinkedIn ads enable you to reach a vast audience. They can be a good choice for reaching your target audience, finding new leads, and promoting your brand. This article will guide you in using LinkedIn ads to take your brand to the next level. We will also share some of the best practices while using these ads.

Types of LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn ads run on the social media platform with the aim of reaching the target audience. The ads can range from a boosted post to a comprehensive campaign aimed at a well-defined audience. The good thing about LinkedIn ads is that they allow you to create highly targeted ads according to criteria such as job title, company size, and industry. That said, there are different types of LinkedIn ads. These include:

Sponsored Content

These native ads are usually shown in the user's desktop and mobile LinkedIn feed. They appear like regular posts but with the Promoted label, distinguishing them from the other types of content. The Sponsored ads can be in different formats, such as:

• Single image ads
• Carousel ads
• Video ads
• Document ads
• Events ads
• Thought leader ads
• Carousel ads

Sponsored Messaging

With sponsored messaging, you can send personalized messages that target your target audience. These ad formats are usually categorized into conversation ads and message ads. They appear as DM messages in the users' inboxes and include a call to action button leading users to an external website link. Users are more likely  to see these ads since they don't appear in the highly crowded feed. In fact, according to LinkedIn, this ad has the highest engagement rate.

Text Ads

Text ads are the simplest form of LinkedIn ads as they are usually clear and to the point. They only feature a simple headline, a small image, and a short description. While they may lack the color and glamor of the sponsored ads, they are beneficial, cost-effective, and appear prominently on the LinkedIn page. 

Dynamic Ads

These are great ads for personalizing and automating your campaigns. They are, therefore, an excellent choice for brand awareness, conversion, and driving traffic. Also known as Spotlight ads, they feature the name of the target LinkedIn user. That enables them to catch their eyes and leave a lasting impact.

Choosing an Objective For Your Linkedin Ad

LinkedIn has an objective-based advertising model where advertisers can choose the objective they want to build their campaign around. That lets them use LinkedIn to meet their business goals. Therefore, businesses can create ads targeting the three sales funnel stages. These are:

Awareness

Advertising in this stage aims to make LinkedIn users aware of the existence of your business and position it as an expert. That means you will aim to get people to talk about your brand when you run ads for the awareness stage. Some of the goals of running this kind of impression-based marketing can be to:

• Increase views.
• Improve engagement.
• Gain more followers

All the ad formats we discussed earlier can help to increase awareness. However, single-image and carousel ads are the most effective ways to achieve this goal.

Consideration 

A consideration ad is a good choice for targeting an already familiar audience with your brand. That means when running these types of ads, you can have different objectives, such as:

• Website visits. You may have a goal of more people visiting your site and landing pages.
• Video views. You can use ads at this stage to share more about your latest product, business story, or behind-the-scenes videos.
• Engagement. The aim could be to increase comments, likes, and shares. You may even want to drive traffic to your other social media pages.
• Messaging. In this stage, you can use ads to engage with your connections through direct messages in their inbox.

There are different ads that can help you nurture leads in the mid-funnel. These include videos, conversations, carousels, and text ads.

Conversion 

Conversion ads aim to convince users to take action as they are already familiar with your brand. The aim could be generating leads, making sales, reaching job applicants, or boosting your job search on Linkedin. These ads can have different objectives, such as:

• Website conversion. Conversion ads aim to make users take action, such as buying a product, downloading an ebook, or filling out a lead generation form.
• Lead generation. Use a prefilled form with your audience's profile data to get leads. 
• Job applicants. At this stage, LinkedIn ads can be used to find the right people willing to join your team.

Some of the ads that can help you achieve these goals are:

• Text ads
• Conversation ads
• Job ads
• Carousel ads
• Lead generation ads

How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Ads

Follow the steps below to set up your LinkedIn ad:

• Go to the campaign manager. You will see a small icon at the top right corner labeled Advertise on your profile. You will be taken to the campaign manager when you click on it. Tap on it and then click the Create button. You will be required to add a campaign name followed by the currency. You can connect your company page to access the different ad formats.
• Choose an ad objective. Once you tap the Create button, you will open an object for your campaign. As discussed earlier, the aim could be awareness, consideration, and conversion.
• Choose a campaign group. Have a group name for your campaign to define your spending method and frequency. You can automatically distribute your budget by toggling on budget optimization, ensuring a better ROI.
• Select a target audience. Under the Audience menu, you can change the details of your target audience with job title, profile language, location, skill, or industry. Add your desired attribute and exclude the one you don’t want. If you aren't sure of the right target audience, you can select one of the LinkedIn options.
• Choose an ad format. As explained above, your chosen format will depend on your ad goal.
• Change ad settings. You can see the guide for adding your URL tracking parameters. You can also add where to place your ad from LinkedIn to other third-party publishers.
• Set budget and publishing schedule. You can now add how much you are ready to spend and how often you want to run the campaign. You can set your campaign to run daily, for a lifetime, or both. You can change your bidding strategy and LinkedIn optimization strategy.
• Conversion tracking. Conversion tracking measures people's actions when they visit your site after clicking your LinkedIn ad. You should tap Create New to add an introductory text for your ad and the destination URL, then upload the image. You can also add the headline and call to action. Finally, click on Save Ad.
• Add an ad variation. You can add a variation to the ad by tapping on Create New Ad.
• Launch the ad. You can now review the details of your ad before clicking on Launch Ad. At this point, you must add your billing information, such as company information and credit card details.

Best Practices When  Creating LinkedIn Ads

To increase your chances of success when creating LinkedIn ads, there are several tips you should follow. These are:

Personalize the Message

You want to ensure that you create an ad that speaks directly to your audience, inspiring them to take action. One ad format that is good for doing this is dynamic ads. However, even as you personalize your ad, you want to avoid making your audience feel like you are spying on them, as you may lose them.

Keep Testing

While LinkedIn allows you to create a maximum of 15 ads for a campaign, they recommend making at least three ads for split testing. You can change a few things, like the headline and the call to action, to find your best-performing ad. This is one of the fastest ways to grow your LinkedIn account.

Bid Higher Than the Suggested Range for a Higher Click-through Rate

When bidding for a LinkedIn ad, you can easily be tempted to bid in the suggested range. However, this may not be a good strategy for a higher click-through rate, as you will not have an edge over the competition. That is why we recommend bidding 10% higher than the suggested range. Doing that will help you increase your average click-through rate and, at the same time, compete with others.

Bid Within Range for Higher ROI

If your goal is to get the highest return on investment, it's advisable to bid within the suggested range. Bidding higher will mean you will not receive the best value for money while bidding lower will result in fewer impressions. To get the best ROI, we advise you to bid within the suggested range.

Use Concise Copies

Like other social media sites, many LinkedIn users have a short attention span. That's why creating content that is concise, useful, and creates a sense of urgency is advisable. The ad should have a clear call-to-action. Therefore, every word in your ad should add value and showcase the value you want to offer.

Get a Sweet Spot for Your Audience

When you have good targeting for your ad, you can improve its performance. Refine targeting your ad to enable it to resonate with your audience.

Mistakes to Avoid When Creating LinkedIn Ads

To ensure the excellent performance of your LinkedIn ad, you should avoid several mistakes. These are:

Wrong Messaging in the Ad

When creating a LinkedIn ad, you should talk to the person reading the ad instead of talking about your company. You want to use a timely message to get leads that solve the audience’s problem. Therefore, use ad messaging that shows you understand the audience’s situation and have a solution.

Optimizing Early Enough

During the early days of an ad campaign, you can expect to see high fluctuations. If you rush to see results, you can be tempted to start adjusting your campaign. However, this is wrong as LinkedIn takes a  few days or weeks to determine the right audience for your campaign when they are online, and the best context for showing them the ad.

That means if you adjust the campaign before the learning phase is over, this can impact the LinkedIn algorithm's ability to understand the ad and its target audience. Therefore, avoid making significant changes to your ad audience, budget, or format before seven to ten days are over. Otherwise, you might be taking your ad back to the learning phase.

Overspending on Ad Traffic

When you create an ad that focuses on driving traffic, there is a chance that it may not deliver your desired results. This is because LinkedIn gauges the performance of an ad by considering different metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-throughs. The ads with the highest engagement are given the highest engagement.

When you invest a lot of money in your ad’s learning phase, you will blow the budget before you are provided with precise results. Most ads also have a frequency cap limiting the number of people shown the ad every 48 hours. It is advisable to create multiple formats of an ad to see which one brings the best results.

Final Thoughts

Social media advertisements sometimes feel like they do not generate the desired results. However, this can be attributed to most advertisers using the wrong approach. With the right LinkedIn advertising method, it's possible to get your desired results with social media advertising. By following our guide above, you can quickly get a high return on investment in your LinkedIn ads. We also recommend you learn how to boost your career by growing your Linkedin followers.

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When looking for opportunities, the first place that comes to the minds of many professionals is LinkedIn. This is understandable, considering the immense potential offered by the networking site. However, with over 100 million active daily users, the competition to get noticed can get stiff.

One of the ways that you can increase your visibility on the platform is by creating high-quality content. With the right content strategy and LinkedIn profile optimization, not only will you appear as an expert on the platform, but you can also increase the visibility of your profile. In this article, we will guide you on how to create an effective LinkedIn content strategy.

What is a LinkedIn Content Strategy?

A LinkedIn content strategy is a plan for creating and sharing content to enable you to achieve your personal, professional, or business goals. It involves determining the type of content that is likely to be most effective in achieving the goal, whether articles, blog posts, news items, videos, or updates.

A good strategy also considers the content creation calendar, determining if to post daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. It also determines your target audience, their goals, challenges, content needs, and language. Once you have determined these factors, you can focus on tailoring your content to their needs and ensuring that it meets them.

Benefits of Having a Linkedin Content Strategy

If you are wondering whether having a LinkedIn content strategy is worth it, here are several benefits:

• Lead generation. Creating helpful content helps position you as a thought leader in your industry, opening up new employment and business opportunities. For instance, If you are a business regularly creating high quality content on Linkedin, you can easily attract the attention of potential customers.
• Build your authority. By creating high-quality content on Linkedin, you can easily establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. This will not only set you apart from the competitors but also enable you to build the trust of your leaders.
• Relationship building. A good content strategy involves planning, creating, and distributing content to achieve a certain objective. To be successful in the corporate world, you need to build relationships. That applies when connecting with potential customers, professionals, and companies in your industry. A good content strategy will help you build relationships with customers, clients, recruiters, and more.
• Better visibility. One way of boosting your visibility on LinkedIn is by publishing content. If you create high-quality articles that get shared, they can be seen by thousands or even millions of people. When your target audience reads and shares the article, your brand's reach can be significantly increased. The higher the reach of the content, the more brand awareness there is. 
• Increase traffic to your site. You can use your LinkedIn content to drive traffic if you have a website. You can do that by adding links to your site. You will get qualified leads that can turn into customers.
• Improved SEO. Adding strategic keywords in your articles can enhance your SEO, resulting in better search engine rankings. When people search for articles related to your industry, your articles will appear in the search engines, resulting in better visibility.

Steps in Creating a LinkedIn Content Strategy

If you are getting started with a LinkedIn content strategy, here are the steps to follow:

Determine Your Content Goal

Any successful marketing program should begin by determining exactly what you are trying to achieve and how you will achieve it. When creating a LinkedIn content strategy, some of the goals you can have in mind are to:

• Drive traffic to your site.
• Generate leads using LinkedIn sales navigator and convert them.
• Increase brand awareness.
• Boost your reputation and credibility as a thought leader.
• Improve your SEO ranking.

You should have your long-term goals in mind when thinking of a content goal. All your actions should ultimately lead to your brand growth. Also, ensure that you have the right Key Performance Indicators. Choose goals that work hand in hand with your marketing goals and keep tracking them to ensure they are progressing well. If not, you should pivot accordingly.  Some KPIs can include click-through rates, page views, conversion rates, visitor demographics, and unique visitors. Finally, set SMART goals. That means the goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.

Determine Your Key Pillars

The goal of any branded content is to provide value to the leader. That means the content should:

• Inspire and educate. 
• Resolve the audience’s problem.
• Cause an interest in your brand.
• Entertain readers.

How you will deliver value to your brand is important and should reflect your brand. If your brand offers help, creating educational content would be a good idea. If you are lighthearted and fun, focus on developing humorous content. Remember that a LinkedIn content strategy can involve several other parties, such as marketers, in creating the content strategy. Doing so can enable you to create value in different ways.

Creating a LinkedIn Content Plan

After understanding your goal, the next step is creating content to help you achieve that goal. When creating a content plan, here are a few tips to consider:

Understand Your Target Audience

Before you create LinkedIn content, you need to understand the people who will be consuming the content. You can understand this by checking your website data and social media analytics. Once you have the right information, consider which demographic seems to stand out and the type of content, topics, and messaging they would be interested in. Then, you should use this information to plan your content while paying attention to the feedback you get.

After determining your target audience, you must also find out their identity on the platform. You can do that by checking the profiles of your current customers, going through descriptions, and checking their professional experience. The goal is to understand their tone, the kind of content they post, and the structure of such content. You will also determine how well they interact with others, the type of content they engage with, and their response to the comments section. Once you have this information, you can tailor your content to their needs.

Determine a Content Niche

The next step is determining the niche in which you will create content. When deciding this, there are two key considerations: the kind of content you are an expert on and the type of content your audience wants to read. When considering your area of expertise, consider a topic unique to your brand identity and the challenges your business solves.

Since you already determined your target audience, this is not the time to create content that meets their needs. Also, consider if there are areas where the two kinds of content overlap and add that as your key topic.

Create a LinkedIn Content Calendar

If you want your content strategy to stay organized, one of the best ways of doing that is using a content calendar. This will also enable you to remain consistent with your content marketing. Instead of waking up and starting to think of what to post on Linkedin, schedule your content in advance. 

This will ensure that your audience knows when to expect the next piece of content. While creating a content calendar, ensure that you have left room for creating content that is relevant, trending, and hot news. Keep reviewing and optimizing your content calendar.

Use a Hook in the Beginning

LinkedIn usually shows the first few lines of a post, with the rest of the article appearing under “See More”. Therefore, start your article with a hook that will catch your audience’s attention. However, the introduction should give a clear picture of what is in the rest of the content. Use it to show the reader the value you will add to them and the kind of story you want to tell them.

Consider the 4-1-1 Rule

It's advisable to keep things balanced, engaging, and interesting when creating a content calendar. A good idea would be to adhere to the 4-1-1 rule. The requirements are:

• Curate four posts from an outside authority source.
• One post should be an original, in-depth post you created.
• One post should be a promotional post with a CTA.

Creating High-quality LinkedIn Content

A key part of a good LinkedIn content strategy is to create unmatched content that your audience will notice. There are several tips you can use to do that:

Alternate Long Form and Short Posts

One thing you will realize is that LinkedIn prefers posts with short phrases. This can be attributed to the fact that they appeal more to readers. To implement such content, every idea should be turned into a phrase. Also, ensure that your phrases are simplified for better readability. Readers can easily skim through the content to find what they are searching for.

However, long content also has its place on Linkedin. That's why it is advisable to include different kinds of posts, such as a quick status update, a text-only post, or powerful infographics with a good caption. Having a variety of content for your feed can help to cater to different audiences.

Mix Visual and Text Content

When people scroll through the LinkedIn Feed, they search for content that will capture their attention. If they keep seeing text content, they will keep scrolling. However, they will likely pay attention if they see a mix of text and visuals. Since you are looking for visibility, you need to combine texts and visuals. While you don't have to make all your posts to be about visuals, be sure you are mixing things a little.

Consider the Content Structure

One way to increase readership for your LinkedIn content is by structuring it correctly. This is particularly important when you are creating in-depth or long-form content. Organize it in subsections that can be easily skimmed through, using headings and subheadings. Increase the relatability of the content by using storytelling. Use a conversational language that is accessible and easy to follow.

Meet Your Audience's Needs

When creating content on LinkedIn, you need to focus on creating content that meets your audience’s needs. To create such kind of content, you need to ask yourself three key questions:

• Will my audience find this content interesting?
• How helpful is this content to my audience?
• How valuable is this content to the businesses of my audience?

If your answer to the above questions is Yes, you are on your way to creating great content that users will notice. They will read the posts, comment, and share them, increasing your visibility.

Implement Linkedin SEO

LinkedIn SEO is essential for increasing the visibility of your posts. LinkedIn is also a search engine that allows people to search for helpful information concerning their careers or industries. Besides, Google and other search engines have started giving a lot of prominence to LinkedIn articles. That means when you implement LinkedIn SEO, your articles will appear in the Google SERP, increasing its visibility.

Some of the best practices in Linkedin SEO are:

• Use the relevant keywords in the headline, About, and description.
• Use a bold headline.
• Use high-quality images.
• Complete all sections of your LinkedIn profile.
• Have a customized LinkedIn URL.
• Use hashtags correctly

On top of that, ensure that you are creating high-quality, relevant, and timely content. Start conversations on the platform. When people comment on your posts, engage with them.  Add a call to action to enable your readers to understand their next action.

Understand the On-site Features

If you want to succeed on LinkedIn, you need to understand the different features of the site and how to leverage them. LinkedIn has many features that enable users to create documents, polls, videos, and in-depth articles. Keep experimenting with different features and leveraging the ones bringing the best results.

Have a Unique Brand Voice

If you try to sound like other users, your lack of authenticity will be noticeable, and your profile will put people off. If you want to remain unique, you should share your unique perspective. Have a point of view that resonates with other users. You can add your unique voice by sharing what you do, sharing behind-the-scenes videos, and providing a personal perspective to a story.

Tag Relevant Persons and Pages

Once you have written your post, you can drive engagement to it by tagging relevant persons and groups. This will help increase the post's visibility, increasing the chances of people commenting. Remember that you can even tag people outside your network. For instance, if someone says something that inspired you to write the post, you can tag them. Similarly, tag a LinkedIn company page if you are writing about your experience with a certain company.

Interact with Other LinkedIn Users

Ensure that you engage with relevant content in your niche. Follow all the leaders and people in the space, including competitors. This way, you can determine their content strategy. Find out what they are posting about. Read their posts and understand how your brand can contribute to the conversation. Leave a comment on the content, adding insight and value.

If you are following an industry leader, make sure you are among the first ones to leave a comment on the post. You can even search for their most recent post so that you can be among the first ones to comment.

Promote Your LinkedIn Content

It isn't enough to just create content. You need to have a strategy for how you will have the content seen by as many people as possible. Here are a few tips you can use:

• Ask your team to share the content. One way to enhance your post's engagement is by asking your team to share the content. By default, LinkedIn will start by showing your content to your network. If they like, comment on, or share the content, it helps grow its reach.
• Use your network. After your team members, the next group you should leverage is your network. Reaching out to people outside your business to share and comment on your article is a great way of driving engagement. Simply ask them to check out your comment and share their thoughts or share it. This would especially work for networks you have interacted with, such as responding to their DM messages.
• Share to LinkedIn groups. If you want to connect with people in your niche, LinkedIn groups offer you a perfect opportunity to do that. You can share your content with the group when you join relevant groups.
• Cross-promote across social media channels. Just because you create LinkedIn content doesn't mean it is the only place to share it. You can increase the visibility of your content by cross-promoting it on other social media channels such as  Facebook and Instagram. By doing that, you will introduce the content to a new audience. You can share a link to your LinkedIn profile, increasing your network and number of followers.
• DM your connections. Another way you can use your content to grow your connections is by sending DM messages to them. You can send personalized messages to each of your contacts to genuinely connect with them.

Tracking and Optimizing Your LinkedIn Content Strategy

A good content strategy cannot be complete without tracking the results to see whether you are moving towards your goal. This helps you adjust your strategy to reflect trends and changes in the LinkedIn algorithm. You can track the performance of your LinkedIn content through the following:

Checking Engagement Levels

A good way of determining whether your LinkedIn content resonates with your target audience is by checking the engagement levels. If people like, comment, and share your content, it is a sign that the content is performing well. Therefore, check and compare your post's performance stats, particularly if you are implementing a new type of content or testing a LinkedIn feature.

A/B Testing Content

Another effective way of determining if your content is working is through A/B testing. Also referred to as split testing, this strategy involves publishing two versions of an article, ad, or other content to see which performs best. After that, you compare the results to determine which of the versions performed better.

This can be a good strategy for determining which content to post, the approach to use, or even the choice of language. Leverage performance testing, research, and analytics to determine the success of your LinkedIn content marketing approach and get better results. Be sure to receive your audience's feedback and suggestions on the content they want to see.

Conclusion

A LinkedIn content strategy is a hybrid between content marketing and social media marketing. One of the key elements of social media marketing is engagement, such as likes, comments, and shares. On the other hand, content marketing involves creating content that meets the needs of your target audience, such as blog posts, ebooks, case studies, and guides. 

Therefore, a good LinkedIn content strategy should aim to create content that meets your target audience's needs and drives engagement. If you are wondering how to create such content, our guide can help you. Once you understand it, you can read our guide on how to create a LinkedIn showcase page.

LinkedIn is the biggest professional networking site, with over 134 million daily active users from 55 million companies. This makes it the perfect choice for networking and growing professionally. You can use it to network with other professionals and experts in your niche and develop your skills. It is also a great place to find and hire candidates if you are a recruiter. 

On the other hand, business people can use it to find business partners for their ventures. However, to successfully use the platform, you need to understand how to network on the platform. This is especially true when starting, as LinkedIn can be confusing. There is much to learn from writing a professional description, gaining followers, approaching professionals, and more. Fortunately, this article will provide information on how to network on Linkedin.

Why LinkedIn is Great for Professional Networking

With the world population increasing, the competition for jobs and other opportunities has gotten stiffer. People who network with other professionals and experts are more likely to be aware of opportunities when they arise. LinkedIn is the best place for marketing and professional networking for several reasons. These include:

• Specializes in professional networking. There are many social media sites where you can network, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. However, most of these platforms focus more on personal connections and entertainment. The only social media site that focuses on professional development is LinkedIn. That makes it perfect for finding professionals serious about career advancement and creating meaningful connections.
• Wide range of professionals. LinkedIn has professionals in nearly every field. Whether in sales, IT, or freelancing, you will find like-minded professionals you can connect with. Similarly, you can find professionals at different levels of the career ladder, from fresh graduates to seasoned executives. Therefore, no matter your level in your career, you will always find people who can provide valuable advice and insights.
• Lots of career growth opportunities. Unlike what some people think, LinkedIn isn't just for people looking for jobs. The platform has many features to enable professionals to grow their knowledge and skills. These include industry-specific groups, online courses, and more. Therefore, it's a great platform to expand your horizons.
• Wide range of networking opportunities. Whether you want to connect with other professionals in other industries, attend online events, or join group chats, LinkedIn will enable you to do that. You can quickly grow your career opportunities when you network with others.
• Ability to stand out. LinkedIn enables users to use unique keywords to showcase their skills. This allows them to stand out in the search results and quickly get noticed by potential employers.
• Create engaging content. LinkedIn lets users showcase their expertise by sharing valuable insights, industry news, and thought leadership content. That way, you can quickly establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

Top Networking Tips on LinkedIn

Networking on LinkedIn requires more than creating an account and inviting people to follow you. It requires deliberate efforts to make your account noticed, positioning yourself as an expert in your industry, and optimizing your LinkedIn profile for maximum visibility. Here are tips to enable you to do that.

Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is your best opportunity to showcase your skills and expertise. Therefore, you need to ensure that it enables you to position yourself as an expert in your industry. Start by ensuring you have filled your profile with all the relevant details, with no blank spaces or gaps. This is important as LinkedIn also prioritizes complete profiles. 

If an employer is searching for employees in your industry and niche, your profile will likely be shown in the search results if it is complete. Besides, when your LinkedIn profile is incomplete, employers will not take you seriously, similar to having an incomplete resume. Those who visit your profile will think you have little to say about yourself professionally.

 Some of the details to fill in your LinkedIn profile are:

• A headline.
• Linkedin summary.
• Profile and background photo.
• Current job title.
• Work experience.
• Education level.
• A minimum of five relevant skills.
• Country and zip code.
• Hobbies and other volunteer work.

A complete profile is a key part of LinkedIn marketing.

Linkedin Profile Optimization

Once you have filled out your profile, that is still not enough, as you need to optimize it to enable you to stand out from thousands of other job seekers in your niche. There are several profile optimization tips you should use. These are:

• Use a professional-looking profile picture. Ensure that you have a high-quality image with a clean and neat look. You should be smiling and as close to the camera as possible. If possible, use a professional headshot.
• Add an outstanding headline. The headline appears in the recruiters' searches and lets them know who you are in a few seconds. Ensure that you are using the relevant keywords on the headline. You can find such keywords on the LinkedIn job board by searching for the most commonly used terms and phrases. These are usually recruiters' most widely used terms, which will help you get noticed easily.
• Add an eye-catching summary. In the summary, you can add your most relevant skills, experience, desired job position, and more.
• Work experience optimization. A common mistake job seekers make on LinkedIn is simply listing their previous employers and their positions in the work experience section without giving it much thought. This shouldn't be the case, as this section should be filled with the same seriousness you do in a resume. Include all the necessary details, such as job titles, duties, responsibilities, accomplishments, and your results in each job.

Pay Special Attention to the Professional Summary

Remember that the About section, also known as the professional summary, is the heartbeat of a LinkedIn profile. Therefore, use this space to share your story and aspirations. Avoid leaving it blank or using a generic resume. Instead, share your passions, journey, and your motivations.

Add character to the professional summary to make it relatable and memorable. You can do that by using an outstanding mission statement or humorous anecdote. This is important as this is where you will build rapport with your target LinkedIn audience.

Get Endorsements

Getting endorsements from colleagues and former bosses can be a great way to prove your expertise in your industry or field. Therefore, the more endorsements you get, the more your LinkedIn profile will look legit. To trigger endorsements, start endorsing others. You can begin by endorsing your close friends, colleagues, and family. Many of them will not have a problem returning the favor.

To start endorsing others, go to their profiles and tap Skills and Endorsements. Search for the exact skills you want to endorse them for and tap on the plus sign next. This will turn to  “✓.”  Once you have endorsed them, remember to ask them to endorse your skills or project. You can also ask people to endorse you even without having to endorse them first. However, you need to only ask them for endorsement in a skill they know you have. This is one of the easy ways to grow your LinkedIn following.

Start Connecting Your Circle

When job seekers want to connect with LinkedIn, they think they need to connect with employers and other industry leaders. While there is no problem with that, it's advisable to start by connecting with people in your circle with similar skills. The good news is that LinkedIn makes it super easy to do that, as you can import your phone contacts. 

Afterward, you can search for people in your circle using the People You May Know feature. This will show other connections from the same school, company, or industry you may be interested in connecting with.

Connecting with Strangers

A common misconception LinkedIn users have is to think that to make genuine connections, they need to connect with as many people as possible. However, this shouldn't be the case, and the goal should be to make valuable connections that will help you grow professionally. These include recruiters, managers, and company representatives in your field who can inform you of openings in their organizations.

For instance, if you are in the engineering field, connecting with professionals in the music niche may not add much value. You may only annoy them with the content you create. To connect with professionals in your industry, send them a personalized request. The request should explain briefly why you want to connect with them.

Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups

We have noted the importance of connecting with professionals in your niche. LinkedIn groups are a great place to start if you are wondering where to find such professionals. These often have professionals in the same industry with similar interests. They use the groups to ask questions and share ideas and knowledge. The groups are, therefore, a great place to show your knowledge and expertise, create connections, and grow partnerships.

Finding such groups is very easy on Linkedin. You only need to search for a keyword that fits your interests or industry. For instance, if you are a content creator, you can search for groups using the keyword content marketing. By joining several groups in your industry, thousands of people will see your profile. However, to increase the visibility of your profile, you need to interact with other participants, ask questions, and post relevant content.

Create Helpful Content

To grow your connections, you need to be active in liking, commenting, and sharing content made by your connections. However, you don't have to stop there: create your content. This will not only help boost your credibility but also position you as an expert in the industry.  There are several content creation tips you can use on Linkedin. These are:

• Use language that suits your LinkedIn demographic. Since LinkedIn is a platform for professionals, using a professional and authoritative voice is advisable.
• Post as often as possible, usually several times a week.
• Add relevant visuals such as pictures and infographics to make your content attention-grabbing.

When one of your connections shares or comments on your posts, send them a message. Ensure that you also respond to the messages you receive on LinkedIn. If you stay silent on LinkedIn, you will never grow your relationship.

Ask for Advice

Building connections isn't only about searching for a job or business opportunity. It should be about building relationships. Therefore, instead of asking your connections for a favor, why don't you ask them for advice? This can help you to have a common ground. When asking for advice, you can create a meaningful connection by quoting a phrase from a recent article or speech at a conference. 

Highlight your common connections and interests to make a more friendly relationship. If you contact them and they don't respond, be ready to approach them once again. If they respond, remember to send them a thank you note. Gratitude can be a great way of building relationships. While reaching out to strangers sometimes seems awkward, it gets easier with time. The best part is that it might lead you to your next job when it works.

Mistakes to Avoid When Networking on Linkedin

We have already seen how to network on LinkedIn. Let's look at how not to network on the platform.

Avoid Sending Generic Messages

The good thing about LinkedIn is that it allows you to network with professionals worldwide. With so many professionals to connect with, sending a generic message to your contact can be tempting. However, this can be a turn-off and may prevent you from genuinely connecting with prospects.

Therefore, spare a few minutes to research the person you want to connect with before creating a personalized message. Explain to them how you found them and mention the exact reason why you want to connect with them.

Be Ready for Rejections

Don't expect everyone you contact will gladly accept your connection request. Doing so will set you up for frustration. There are many times your connection requests will be ignored, while others will not notice your comments, likes, or messages.

This can be attributed to several factors. Some users prefer to keep their accounts private, while others are inactive. Other users might have different ideas about the kind of people they want to connect with.

Avoid Spamming People

If you are flagged as a spammer, this will affect the credibility of your account. Some of the reasons why you might be flagged as a spammer include:

• Automatically adding users to your newsletter subscription.
• Sending many connection requests to strangers with whom you have nothing in common.
• Sending mass messages to all your connections.

Therefore, to avoid getting flagged as a spammer, avoid the above.

Posting Personal and Unrelated Content

If you post a picture of your adorable pet, it might attract a lot of likes. However, this will not help to showcase your professionalism. Since LinkedIn differs from Instagram, you should not share personal content, controversial opinions, or memes. Instead, you should only post professional content relevant to your field.

The content could be articles, news, or trends that showcase your level of expertise in the industry and add value to your network. Remember to add your comments and insights when you share other people's articles.

Neglecting Engagement

If you attend a networking event but do not speak to anyone, you will barely build meaningful connections. That happens when you connect with people on Linkedin but do not engage with them. Therefore, you should connect with people by liking, commenting on, and sharing their posts. Doing that will show your contacts that you are not only interested in promoting yourself but also in promoting others.

When a connection posts about their new job, send them a congratulatory message to prove that you are genuinely interested in their success. If a post resonates with you, comment, share insights, or ask questions. Doing that will prove that you are genuinely interested in the content shared by your connections. In return, they are also likely to show interest in your content. This will help you to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Not Leveraging Tools

With your LinkedIn connections growing, it will become harder to be updated with the daily interactions, tasks, and activities. One of the ways you can overcome this challenge is by leveraging LinkedIn automation tools. These tools can help you save time by making your outreach easier and managing your connections better.

Some of the tasks you can automate include:

• Visits to profiles.
• Sending connection requests.
• Sending messages en masse.
• Following up on messages.
• Skill endorsements.

The good news is that with the coming of AI, it is not easy for automation tools to personalize connection requests while creating messages that sound humane.

Conclusion

As a professional social media site, you must tread carefully when creating a networking strategy. A slight misstep can cause your account to be considered spam and lose credibility. However, following our guide makes it possible to network on Linkedin. We also recommend you read our guide on how to grow your LinkedIn followership to boost your career easily.