According to LinkedIn, as of April 2017, their networking platform has 467 million users, 40% of which use LinkedIn daily. In order to make the most of the platform, it is essential you have a plan for content marketing. You can reach out to your audience through updates on your page, by interacting in groups, by messaging individuals and through sponsored content. Here’s some tips for utilising content marketing on LinkedIn, to help you grow your network and increase leads and sales for your business.
Build your network
The most important thing to do before you focus on content marketing is to build your network. You will continue to build it as you do more content marketing but make sure to have a good foundation of followers first. One way to do so is by personalising every invitation to connect you send. This will help you build trust and improve credibility and will prevent you looking like spam. Outline, exactly why you want to connect and state how connecting with you, will benefit them.
Status updates
This feature is massively underused on LinkedIn, but by posting regularly, and showing off your expertise, you will undoubtedly build your LinkedIn network and connect with your target audient. You also need to engage with other posts by liking, commenting and sharing and generally having an active presence.
Optimise your company page
Ensuring your company page is optimised will help you rank higher on search engine results pages. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find your page and engage with your content.
Use showcase pages
Showcase pages are niche pages created off of a company page. This allows companies to promote specific products to a specific audience. For example, pet shops may create a showcase page just for their dog-lovers, so they don’t have to filter through posts about birds to find posts that are relevant to their pet. This is a great way to keep your content relevant and interesting.
Join groups
Joining groups allows you to share your expertise with other people in your field. Make sure to join relevant groups, regularly take part in discussions and provide relevant content for that group.
Utilise Pulse
LinkedIn pulse can be used to post your own blogs or articles and is a chance to show off your expertise. Short articles, under 1000 words, perform best and the more you write, the more you will build up your followers. Make sure you select a winning topic and focus on creating an eye-catching headline. Once posted, these articles become attached to your profile but make sure to promote these articles outside of LinkedIn. If your article makes it into the Pulse, you can get even more exposure by promoting it to your followers on social media.
Create sponsored content
Finally, LinkedIn allows for sponsored posts to allow you to reach more people. LinkedIn gives you the option to sponsor a post you have already posted or to create an entirely new post through the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. You can include a link or image in the post as well as a geographical location you want to reach and set a budget for your campaign. For optimal engagement, LinkedIn recommends starting by sponsoring 2-4 posts to run simultaneously in the same target audience, in the same campaign.
Please note, if you check the box stating that you would like to acquire followers for your company or showcase page, you will be charged for each follower in the same way you would be charged in a pay per click campaign through Google. For more information, watch LinkedIn’s video guide to sponsored content.
For more advice, please get in touch with Webahead today.
