Much like the rest of them, LinkedIn is a social media network, but its core purpose is fundamentally different from that of something like Facebook or TikTok. LinkedIn started out as a way for professionals to connect with each other. Since its acquisition by Microsoft, it has grown into a bona fide behemoth and now presents marketers with an incredible B2B marketing opportunity.
LinkedIn is so much more than a job search engine. While it’s a great way to look for open positions and to reach out to recruiters, it’s now also the place where thought leaders and industry veterans share their views and where companies set forward their vision. It’s important for B2B organizations to now have a presence on this professional social network. It will provide them with great networking and business opportunities.
LinkedIn is also great for content marketing but what might work on other social networks isn’t necessarily going to work here. Marketers need to take a slightly different approach in their ideas for LinkedIn content marketing.
Here are a few that will set you up for success nicely in 2023.
1. Prioritize thought leadership content
Thought leadership content tends to perform very well on LinkedIn since the audience is highly receptive to opinions and views from the leaders of the industry. Businesses can capitalize on this trend to share content that can include research, whitepapers, case studies, and more to lead the conversation on topics that concern the industry.
It can be a bit challenging since it’s entirely possible that some may not agree with your opinions or conclusions. However, that’s just a part of the process and ultimately it does lead to higher engagement on posts, which is always good when it comes to posts on social media networks.
2. Capitalize on Poll Posts
Poll Posts are now performing very well on LinkedIn and the social network itself is heavily promoting them. These posts do what the name suggests, enable you to create a poll that others can participate in.
The post is then shared widely and surfaces prominently in the LinkedIn Feed. Companies can use Poll Posts on LinkedIn to understand customer sentiment about their products and services. They can also utilize them to receive feedback and suggestions about how they can improve the products and services that they provide.
3. Leverage employee engagement for posts
On all social networks, the engagement rate dictates the reach of a post. If there’s high engagement on a particular post, the algorithm views this as a signal to show the post to more people. That’s how it works on LinkedIn as well.
Organizations can rely on their employees to engage with their B2B content posts on LinkedIn as a way to increase the engagement. This will help improve the reach of the posts while also making it appear more credible and trustworthy to the readers.
4. Use company page for lead generation
LinkedIn can be a great source to generate leads for your business. You can bring in more leads by utilizing your company page as a lead generation page. So instead of maintaining a page that simply provides some information about the business, develop the page as a pipeline for leads to filter through.
This would require structuring the page in a way that leads to people clicking through to your website. The best way to do this is to use header images that advertise your main offerings, writing a great pitch as a company description, and making sure that all of the recent updates on your page are optimized for a conversion action.
5. Create groups for more effective networking
Groups on LinkedIn are a great way to create networking opportunities and to reach out to other businesses that may have a need for your products and services. One of the easiest and most effective ways to take advantage of this is to create your own group on LinkedIn. Owning or moderating a well regarded group also leads to widespread recognition in your industry.
The key is to ensure that all of the content and conversations that the organization posts in the group that it owns are informative in nature and not try to sell too hard. The content should be genuinely helpful and provide a solution to problems that other businesses face. Only then would leads start to pour in from the group.
6. Promote your business using a Showcase page
If your business has multiple brands, you can use a Showcase page on LinkedIn to promote each individual brand. They are a great way to compartmentalize the traffic that lands on your LinkedIn page, since it ensures that only the most relevant information is shown to the visitors, despite there being multiple brands under your organization’s umbrella.
Every Showcase page has its own header image, updates posts that are shown above the fold, and plenty of opportunities to link back to your website. These characteristics go a long way in promoting conversion actions that visitors can take.
7. Share engaging video content
Social media loves video content and LinkedIn is no different. Posts with videos see higher engagement rates on the professional social network. It’s a great medium to talk about the business, share its vision and goals while also providing viewers with essential information about how your products and services can help them.
The script for these videos can be structured in a way that helps increase conversions to your website, ensuring that the traffic that consumes this content has a much greater chance of clicking through.
Why you shouldn’t be ignoring LinkedIn for B2B marketing
LinkedIn often tends to get ignored since most businesses would much rather focus their energies on behemoths like Facebook and Instagram. However, you may not find the quality of leads that you can on LinkedIn. It hosts a highly qualified and engaged audience that’s looking for content from organizations in industries that they’re involved in.
This traffic is ripe for conversion and it only requires a bit of effort to provide them with the information that they seek to win conversions from those leads. The formula for success on LinkedIn may be different compared to other social networks, but it’s well worth the effort.
