LinkedIn: The forgotten platform in your social media strategy?

Discover what separates this social media platform from the rest when it comes to business marketing.

So, you want to expand your social media marketing efforts, and you’ve heard that LinkedIn can help you build brand awareness and establish more strategic partnerships. There’s just one problem— you aren’t sure how to use LinkedIn for business marketing.

Before you dive deep into Google search engine results looking for the latest tips and trends, anxious to give this professional social media platform a try, it’s important to think critically about how LinkedIn can support your current social media strategy, and what, exactly, you’re hoping to get out of establishing a LinkedIn presence.

After all, without carefully considering and confirming your goals, you’re putting your cart before the horse— investing in paid advertisements and online marketing without having a clear idea of where you want your campaigns to take you.

To prevent this, we’ve decided to take a deeper look at the LinkedIn platform, and dig into the most compelling reasons businesses should be using it as a part of their overall marketing plans.

HERE ARE THE TOP 5 REASONS BUSINESSES SHOULD INCLUDE LINKEDIN IN THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY:

1. THE B2B MARKET

Did you know that 93 percent of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn is the most effective site for lead generation?

A percentage that high is always worth acknowledging, and begs the question: what is it about LinkedIn that makes it so successful in this space?

The answer can likely be found in the high number of top-tier, decision-making users who are active on LinkedIn.

To be more precise, 91 percent of executives rated LinkedIn as their number one choice for professionally relevant content.

That’s a lot of business professionals! When you think about the sheer number of executives who log into the platform regularly, it becomes much clearer why businesses are choosing to dedicate more time to the platform, opting to have their messages delivered directly to professionals who are in charge and who can make purchasing decisions more quickly.

In fact, LinkedIn is 277 percent more effective at lead generation than Facebook and Twitter, for this very reason.

If you’re looking to connect with other business professionals who hold management-level positions, and who have the ability to move business transactions forward, there simply isn’t another platform that can offer the success rate that LinkedIn offers.

2. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn provides users with the ability to publish their own articles. This unique feature is one of the most beneficial reasons to use LinkedIn for business marketing.

Why you may ask?

Data from 2015 and 2016 shows that the total shares of content published on the platform has more than doubled, from 31M to almost 73M.

This shows that LinkedIn users enjoy reading and engaging with articles that have been published by knowledgeable professionals within their industry.

So, what better social media strategy could there be than establishing yourself (and your business) as a leader in your market by writing and sharing thought-provoking articles using LinkedIn Publisher?

Still not convinced?

What if we told you that 39 percent of C-suite execs and decision makers said thought leadership content had influenced them to ask a vendor to participate in the RFP process, and 47 percent said such content had a direct impact on awarding business?

If that doesn’t convince you to consider using LinkedIn to promote your business, we’re not sure what will.

Remember, when writing thought leadership articles for LinkedIn, ask yourself what value you are providing to your readers, and do your best to remain true to who you are. Sure, you want to come across as professional and savvy, but not at the expense of being boring or overly technical.

The more natural, helpful, and personable your articles seem, the better!

3. WEB TRAFFIC

When it comes to social media marketing, no other platform delivers on website traffic the way that LinkedIn does.

That’s because research shows that the referral traffic to a website from LinkedIn produces a lower bounce rate, a higher number of pages visited, and longer time on site than traffic from other social channels.

And let’s face it— directing more traffic to your website should always be one of your primary objectives when developing a social media strategy.

The more times you post engaging, eye-catching content on LinkedIn that leads back to your site, the more quality traffic you will see on your site, ultimately leading to more conversions.

In fact, LinkedIn makes up more than 50 percent of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs.

These statistics show that LinkedIn is a valuable asset, providing results that go beyond “followers” and “likes”.

4. TARGETED ADVERTISING

While several social media platforms offer the ability to run paid advertisements, few provide access to such relevant prospects. On LinkedIn, over 44 percent of users have incomes over $75K, and 43 percent hold a decision-making role at their place of employment.  

This means that by using LinkedIn marketing, business owners are able to deliver their messaging more directly to their target audience, increasing the efficiency of their promotional efforts.

On other social media channels, like Facebook, the process of targeting managers and executives becomes more cumbersome, forcing advertisers to narrow down their targeting strategies in hopes of reaching the right people.

For most businesses, it just makes more sense to go where your target audience already is. So, if your target audience is comprised of businesspeople, LinkedIn is the obvious choice.

Additionally, since LinkedIn users are already in a professional mindset when they log into their accounts (since that is the purpose of the platform) business-related advertisements seem more genuine and relevant. When users log into Facebook, they are most likely using their accounts for personal reasons, and are thus less likely to make major business decisions based on ads they see there.

5. CREDIBILITY

What LinkedIn lacks in personality, it makes up for with credibility. It truly is the responsible, mature, and level-headed older brother of all the social media networks.

In fact, 71 percent of users report they feel LinkedIn is a credible source for professional content.

Thus, investing in LinkedIn marketing is a fantastic way to build brand authority and demonstrate the value of your business to people who are already in the entrepreneurial mindset.

No matter how many other platforms try to encroach on this aspect of LinkedIn’s success, no one has managed to surpass them. To this day, it remains the safest platform for digital advertisers and boasts the highest social media referral rates (with a 64 percent social referral rate versus Facebook’s 17 percent and Twitter’s 14 percent).

So, if solidifying your brand as a dependable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy company in the eyes of your target market is important to you, using LinkedIn to market your business is unquestionably a strategy you should look into.

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