How to use LinkedIn for Content Marketing

LinkedIn as we all know is a professional networking site. You can think of it as a place to share resumes and find jobs, but there’s more to do than just that for businesses.

LinkedIn can be an integral part of your content marketing plan. You can find leads, brand awareness and sharing content on LinkedIn. Actually It’s one of the best platforms to find qualified leads, such as CEOs and Directors. According to some statistics 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn vs. 13% on Twitter and 7% on Facebook.

Content Marketing Strategy for LinkedIn

As with any social media platform, LinkedIn needs to have a planned content marketing strategy to achieve successful results.

You will need to consider the following when defining how to make LinkedIn work for your business.

• Set Targets: Choose your LinkedIn content marketing targets. Choices may include growing LinkedIn followers, increasing brand awareness, or generating traffic for your website.
• Know Your Audience: Researching and creating an audience persona is important for content marketing. Take the time to know an audience’s needs, pain points, and why they use LinkedIn.
• Do Competitor Research: Take a look at what your competitors are posting on LinkedIn. What is getting interaction? What isn’t engaging? If you find a gap in information, you may be able to fill it.
• Create Content: Once you’ve done the previous steps, you can start creating content for your audience. There are a lot of different types of content, and we’ll discuss that more later. Remember to keep track of what you’re posting with a content calendar.
• Measure Success: No strategy is complete without measuring the results. Your audience engagement, or possibly the lack of it, can help guide you to success with LinkedIn content marketing.

Personal Profile vs. Company Page: Which is Better?

There are obvious reasons for using a company page on LinkedIn. A company page can link together people and businesses. Being able to interact with a business helps audiences determine if they like your business.

However, there may be some advantages for using your personal profile to promote your business.

If you’re looking to establish yourself as a thought leader, consider posting on your personal profile. Using a personal profile can help you develop relationships within or with people close to your network.

Ultimately, your LinkedIn content marketing goals will determine which is the best option for you.

If you’re looking to share company news and other announcements, use a company page. If you want to establish yourself as an expert on a topic, your personal profile is best.

Publish Posts on LinkedIn:

There are many different types of content you can post on LinkedIn. Besides captions, you can post photos, videos, documents, and polls.

Posting once a day will help you build a community and stay relevant on the platform. LinkedIn is also a great place to share industry news, even if you didn’t necessarily publish it yourself. Sharing relevant and helpful content will also help you gain a following and establish some industry authority.

You can also publish articles just like with a blog. However, this is only an option on personal profiles and not company pages.

Pro Tip: Add hashtags to your posts. Using hashtags can help you add relevant keywords. A hashtag strategy can help your post show up in the LinkedIn search engine. You can discover hashtags in your posts by inserting “#” and then a keyword, and LinkedIn will provide some great recommended hashtags to go along with it.

Utilize Video Marketing

There are two ways to utilize video marketing for LinkedIn.

The first option is to use LinkedIn Live. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as a click of a button like on Facebook or Instagram.

You have to apply and get approval to use the LinkedIn Live feature. There are also rules like no promotional streams, and live video must be longer than 10-15 minutes.

However, if you do get approval and follow the rules, LinkedIn Live is an exciting way to interact with your audience.

The second option is to post videos as a status update, and you can use tools like YouTube or Vimeo to do this. Pre-recorded video can still lead to a 5-time increase in engagement.