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Thinking about posting that funny cat video you shared on your Facebook to LinkedIn? You might want to think twice.
Posting on LinkedIn isn't quite the same as posting on other social media platforms. Not only does LinkedIn have it's own communication style, it also caters to a different audience: professionals.
Whether they're searching for a job, researching trending news and topics or learning about new brands and companies, LinkedIn users are actively not passively browsing the platform.
Not to say that funny cat video can't be shared to your LinkedIn because it can—as long as it reflects your brand.
What does your audience want? What are you a credible expert in? Are there unchartered waters that your brand can sail through and help fill the void? Once you determine where your brand fits into the platform, you'll set your company up for ultimate success when creating posts.
Our team watched LinkedIn Marketing Lab's Building a Content Marketing Strategy and found the presentation to be substantial and fascinating!
If you don't have time to watch it yourself, here are our team's top five takeaways to help position your brand to perform better on LinkedIn as well as some helpful tips on creating posts.
Users are intent driven on LinkedIn
Users are two times more intent driven when they're on LinkedIn compared to any other social media platform. Their mindsets are different than when they're on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
According to the LinkedIn Marketing Lab, 75% of users are trying to accomplish a task when using the platform, not trying to mindlessly scroll through their newsfeed to kill time.
Pro tip: Develop your brand's content to reach your customers' pain points and solve their problems. When creating a post, put yourself in your audience's shoes and ask yourself questions like:
- Will this post accomplish a task?
- Does this content solve a problem?
- Can individuals learn something from this?
LinkedIn hosts a variety of newsfeed features
LinkedIn has created a variety of newsfeed features to capture your audience's attention.
The platform offers posting options, such as photos (static and dynamic), videos, polls, articles, documents, job postings and more to help you enhance your brand's newsfeed. Combining these features will help your newsfeed stand out amongst all the others.
Keep in mind, LinkedIn users are seeking relevant, educational and informative content. Stay on top of the latest brands and trends, be inspiring and help with skill development whenever you can.
Pro tip: Users are spending three times more watching video ads than viewing static content. Post videos that are thumb-stopping! Animoto is a great tool that's free and easy to use to help assist your marketing team with video creation.
Ideal content split: 60/40
The ideal content split on LinkedIn is 60% brand marketing and 40% acquisition marketing.
Brand marketing posts are educational pieces. These are helpful, enjoyable and nonpromotional. Share industry trends and news stories, position yourself as a thought leader, promote events and more.
Acquisition marketing posts are action pieces. These provide a solution for specific next steps. Display gated and ungated content, introduce lead generation forms, share product and services information, initiate offers and more.
Conversion rates increase with combination posts
Combine brand marketing and acquisition marketing in each of your posts for the highest conversion rate.
The average conversion rate is 0.2% for acquisition marketing posts and 0.3% for brand marketing posts. However, when you combine both elements, the conversion rate increases to 1.2%.
The higher conversion rates, the better your statistics will be when you go back and analyze your performance down the road. Only 4% of marketers measure the impact of campaigns beyond six months, so make sure to put in place measurable goals to help when evaluating performance at that six-month mark.
Don't gate all your content
When content is gated, individuals can be hesitant to give their information if they aren't familiar with your company. Make sure you have a mixture of gated and ungated content.
Pro tip: If you don't think you'll capture new, useful and qualitative data about the user from the lead generation form or content piece, don't gate the content. Consumers will feel like they're receiving free information from an industry leader and will be more likely to come back for more.
Key points when creating posts on LinkedIn
Now that we've shared our top five takeaways from LinkedIn's Marketing Lab, here are eight tips and tricks to help your marketing team when creating posts:
- Be compelling, clear and concise.
- Create eye-catching and thumb-stopping artwork for static and dynamic images and videos.
- Leverage your brand as a trusted company. LinkedIn is considered the most trustworthy social media platform compared to all the others.
- Ensure your lead generation forms are consistent with your brand's messaging. You don't want to throw off the momentum by having an eye-catching post lead to an inconsistent form.
- Make sure your posts and forms are mobile-friendly. 80% of sponsored content clicks are from mobile.
- Don't forget to put yourself in the audience's shoes.
- Share how-to guides, trend reports and relevant news to your industry.
- Repurpose content.