Why do brands get on to LinkedIn in the first place? Yes, every business needs an online presence, but isn’t having a website enough? It is, as long as you don’t want too many people visiting your website. Let’s look at it this way: your website is your castle and you are having a grand ball (read product launch), and you want to invite people to the ball.
In days of old, the king’s messenger would go to the town square and ring his bell shouting “HEAR YE, HEAR YE!”, or in today’s lingo - “Listen up y’all!”. Well, LinkedIn is the town square to your website castle, and your company page is your messenger. It’s the messages you send out to the crowd that will determine if they’re interested in visiting your castle or not.
What to shout out, how to shout it?
Anyone who has used LinkedIn for some amount of time knows that things can be a bit hit and miss. Some days the simplest content gets maximum engagement, while that video you spent two weeks putting together didn’t generate much of a buzz. Finding the sweet-spot of engaging content can be tricky.
So how exactly do you create the perfect content for your LinkedIn audience? Heads-up: it’s going to take a bit of work. There’s a lot going on, on the platform. The audience is constantly changing, the algorithm is ever-evolving, and new trends can make excellent content obsolete overnight. But there is still hope, and it all boils down to a few key strategies that can bring you more hits and fewer misses.
Let’s dive deeper:
Coronations, Balls, Tournaments and More!
It goes without saying that whatever content you put out into the world has to be top-notch. Having said that, you need your content to be relevant to your audience. So, take your time to know your audience; are you targeting job seekers, clients, business associates, or venture capitalists? Just like knights got invited to tournaments and fair maidens to the ball in the olden days, the purpose of your content will depend on who you are targeting and why. Once you are clear on that, you can craft your material accordingly.
Insight from 2019: When it comes to content, top marketers agree that it has to be great. Whether you create a team of specialists inhouse or outsource to an agency, you must make sure that the content is fresh, factually correct, and easy to read.
When Does the Messenger Ride?
Do you know that LinkedIn has a peak time of use? According to an article in The Balance Small Business, this time is at 12.00 PM and between 5.00-6.00PM on weekdays, with Tuesdays being the winner for maximum likes and shares. So, what does this mean for you as a brand? Your time of posting should ideally be before people start checking their feeds. Studies have found that posting between 7.00-8.00AM, at lunchtime, and between 5.00-6.00PM generates the most engagement.
However, every brand should try posting at various times of the day to see what works best for them. Use the times mentioned here as a reference point, but don’t be afraid to explore other possibilities. Keep in mind that content targeted at one type of audience might perform better when posted in the morning, while a different target audience might be more active post-lunch. You post and you learn. But just like how a king’s messenger never calls out in the dead of the night, posting on LinkedIn in the wee hours doesn’t garner much traction.
Insight from 2019: Consistent posting garnered more impressions because most LinkedIn users log in occasionally, rather than on a daily basis. Considering that they might visit once a week or a month, make sure that you post consistently so that users have something to see when they do log in.
Spread the Message Far and Wide
To be heard by a wide audience, the king’s messenger has to be loud. If he wants to reach an even bigger audience, he has to be louder and maybe even use a megaphone. And he might also need to send out his minions to spread the message to the smaller towns and villages in the kingdom.
On LinkedIn, we depend on likes, shares, supplying the content with images or videos, and even repurposing content after a few months. LinkedIn also has the option of sponsored content which helps to amplify your content to reach the feeds of more users; even those that don’t follow your page. Choose your target audience well because more views only matter when it’s the right people seeing the content.
Insight from 2019: 2019 saw LinkedIn making target marketing easier. Thanks to their investment in big data, they are able to provide your brand with more accurate insights on what audiences are consuming.
Daily Tidings are Good Tidings
It cannot be stressed enough how important consistency is. You can’t simply drop one amazing content piece and expect it to be the gift that keeps on giving. LinkedIn doesn’t work that way. You need to be churning out relevant content with unfailing regularity to be taken seriously on the platform. The best way to go about this is to strategically plan what you’re going to post and when.
Make a calendar for each month, decide what goes up on Tuesday and at what time, and so on. Have a bank of ready content so that you always have something on hand, and then get started. However, remember to be flexible so that you can adapt your content to match current events and gain maximum mileage from the trending hashtag.
Insight from 2019: Calendars that included a variety of topics were found to get more impressions. Plan to post content that’s also not directly related to your industry because you never know who from another industry might find your post and engage with your brand.
Are the Numbers a Coming?
Everything you do, won’t serve you well unless you take stock of the impact your content is having. Whether it’s weekly or monthly (no longer), you need to review your activity and measure certain metrics. Factors like follower growth, engagement, impressions, and click-through rate are all measurable and extremely good indicators of how well your campaigns are working.
This enables you to do more of what works, and make the required changes to what doesn’t. After all, did a coronation even happen if no noble-bloods attended?
Insight from 2019: LinkedIn has 2.5 quintillion bytes of global data coming in every day. If you want to increase your engagement you need to stop depending entirely on machine-generated reports and give the data some human attention to truly understand your audience.
LinkedIn has been pegged as the best professional networking site online. There’s no magic formula for getting noticed on the platform, but you can vastly increase your chances of being heard by putting these strategies in place.