LinkedIn has over 500 million users. 40% of these use the platform daily. More than 61 million of these users are employed at senior positions and there are another 40 million users who are involved in making key business decisions.
All of these, make LinkedIn a potential gold mine for your digital campaign. And one of the best ways to tap into LinkedIn’s potential is through content marketing.
LinkedIn distributes available content to the audience through LinkedIn Pulse – an online feed that aggregates blog posts, news, and insight from industrial influencers and business experts that willingly share insider information in an attempt to increase their reach.
The feature provides members the option of sharing self-published content directly with their audiences, but the content is tailored to the needs of each individual so viewers only see posts that they would be interested in or find relevant.
Initially, Pulse was only open for well-known influencers, but anyone can post content on it now. In fact, 92% of B2B marketers are already doing so and are prioritizing LinkedIn in their digital marketing mix.
The Whys
What makes LinkedIn pulse more preferable than other content platforms? It’s the stepping stone towards stronger relationships and a bigger professional network, which allows you to connect with your targeted audience at a much deeper level than other platforms do.
Greater Visibility
LinkedIn Pulse delivers content to employees at all organizational levels, boosting your visibility and also helping your SEO rankings. Whenever you publish something, all your connections are notified automatically, ensuring that your post doesn’t get lost.
Higher Engagement Levels
If your content offers value and focuses on the goals of your targeted audience, you can generate greater engagement levels. A research conducted by LinkedIn itself claims that 62% of users engage with educational and informative content, and another 61% engage with relevant content. What does this mean for you? If you post relevant, educational and inspiring content on LinkedIn, then you’ll soon have a large fan following.
The Features
When you log into LinkedIn, most of the content that you see is delivered through Pulse, where more than 130,000 original articles are published every week. Posts are shared through feed as well as weekly emails.
Pulse provides personalized content based on interests, connections and industries. The interface has been designed for skimming and quickly reviewing large batches of content. If anything seems too interesting, users can also save content.
The How's
1. The Headline
LinkedIn posts must be specific and not mislead or direct users elsewhere. Cover only a single topic, but cover it better than anyone else.
Research claims that headlines containing figures work best on LinkedIn and generate higher conversion rates. LinkedIn users like specificity, so your headings must be fixed on a single topic only. Figuring out the most effective headlines can be hard, but you’ll soon get the hang of it. Bring on board experienced blog writers, and they’ll come up with attractive headlines.
Generally, “how-tos” and listicles work best. Refrain from headlines that ask a question because they’ve been known to perform poorly, having only 13,832 views on average.
Also, try to limit your titles between 40 and 49 characters – because they have the maximum number of views on average.
2. The Word Count
LinkedIn doesn’t limit posts to a specific number of words, but generally, longer posts perform better. Ideally, your posts should be between 1,900 and 2,000 words because this length has been known to receive more than 42,000 views, 550 comments and nearly 139,000 likes on average.
3. The Images
Yes, LinkedIn is for the professional industry, but even in the business world, pictures are more impactful than just plain text. So do add illustrations and infographics to your post, but they must be relevant. Generic pictures will only repel away your viewers. Also, avoid using company logos, cheesy stock photos and roadway signs that display optimistic phrases.
As per studies, every post must be accompanied with at least one image. Increase them to 8 if possible so that the post gets greater likes, shares and comments.
Is it the same for video as well? A single video is preferable, but adding too many of them decreases views. On average, posts with just one embedded multimedia generated 15k views, but posts with three multimedia items generated only 8k views.
4. The Connections
As already mentioned, whenever you post something on LinkedIn, your connections receive a notification. Sounds good, right? But it’s only as good as the size of your network. In order to utilize the feature to the utmost, you must have a bigger network with many first-level connections. So how do you increase followers? Build your profile, optimize for keywords, personalize connection requests and post regularly.
5. The Frequency
Regular posting is mandatory; not just on LinkedIn, but on any content platform. Generally, you must post two times or more in a week. Hiring professional blog writers ensures that content goes out on LinkedIn at a desirable frequency.
6. The Timings
While posting you also have to ensure that you post at appropriate times and on suitable days. HubSpot claims that the best days to post on LinkedIn are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, between 5 pm to 6m. Other preferable time slots are 7 am to 8 am and at noon.
7. The Channels
LinkedIn Pulse comprises of over 10 channels including technology, leadership and management, social media and entrepreneurship. Try to get your posts featured on some of these so that you can reach out to a bigger audience. Browse through these channels, understand the kind of content that gets featured, and avail content writing services so that they can produce similar blogs for your company.
8. The Promotions
Share your LinkedIn posts on other social media platforms as well, preferably on Twitter for greater visibility.
LinkedIn is, indeed, one of the best ways to connect and engage with your target audience. When developing content, keep the above-mentioned points in mind, and you’ll soon enjoy greater visibility and conversions.
About The Author:
Dave Brown is a Sr. Editor at Content Development Pros – a leading inbound marketing company that provides comprehensive content solutions, web design and development, SEO, reputation management and content writing services to small and mid-sized businesses. With more than a decade of experience and over 60,000 completed projects to their credit, they enjoy the trust of hundreds of regular customers from all industries and parts of the world.
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