LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools for B2B marketers, and it even has a place for B2C marketers as well. Whether you're looking to reach more of your audience for free, get incredibly granular and accurate ad targeting, or just make some new connections, LinkedIn is the place for you and your brand to be.
Here are three takeaways that you can use for your LinkedIn marketing efforts in 2017:
Do social outreach on LinkedIn - Facebook and Twitter aren't the only places to do social outreach. LinkedIn is full of great opportunities to get involved in relevant conversations and make new connections too.
Where should you focus your outreach efforts on LinkedIn?
- Comment on other people's posts on LinkedIn Pulse. Unless your post is getting significant exposure you won't tend to see too many comments on your LinkedIn Pulse content, so anyone who is interacting with you there consistently is sure to stand out.
- Look for LinkedIn status updates to engage with. LinkedIn Pulse isn't the only way to publish content to LinkedIn, both company pages and individuals can post status updates that you can interact with. Just like with LinkedIn Pulse, if you consistently engage with a brand or individual's updates, you will stand out and they will remember you.
- Find and join relevant LinkedIn Groups. Make sure you choose the right LinkedIn Group for you, and that you interact with others in a way that is beneficial to everyone (so don't just go spamming your own content or talking about your company and products all the time) and follow good LinkedIn Group etiquette.
Learn how to choose a LinkedIn Group that will benefit your business - Whatever your goals may be, joining and building a reputation within a community is a long tail strategy. The last thing you want to do is invest all of that time and effort only to find out that you've been spending it on the wrong group. Here's how to vet a LinkedIn Group before you join it, so you can make sure that it's fit for purpose.
What do you need to look for in a group you're considering joining?
- Is someone (ideally more than one person) posting every work day? Look back a few days or even a few weeks to make sure this really does happen consistently.
- Are the posts relevant to the group and not overly self serving? Ideally they won't include any product links or overt attempts to sell you something. You're looking for other people who are contributing to the group, rather than just using the group as an opportunity to sell.
- Do other people comment on each other's posts? Is there some type of meaningful reaction happening between all of these people posting, or is it just an echo chamber where people only hear and see themselves?
Use curated content to reach 60% of your LinkedIn followers - Organic post reach is incredibly high for LinkedIn Company Pages, with the opportunity to reach 60% of your followers if you post just 20 times each month. Very few organizations have the resources to create new content every single day though. You can use curated content to help you post more content that your LinkedIn followers will find valuable.
How do you know when you should create a new piece of original content and when you should post a curated piece of content?
- Create content that supports your business goals - Focus on creating content that is related to your core business offerings and will help you convert traffic into leads and customers. Use curation as an opportunity to round out your content mix with other topics that you have authority on and will add value for your customers, but aren't as likely to result in new business.
- Reuse your existing content- Upcycling your content is a great strategy to help you take one piece of content and use it in part to create another piece of useful content. You can use parts of multiple blog posts to create an ebook, a guide, or a newsletter. By upcycling and repurposing your content you can create original content faster and get one piece of content in front of multiple audiences who might otherwise have missed it.
Want to learn about more great ways to help your business succeed at marketing on LinkedIn in the upcoming year? We literally wrote the (e)book on it! It's a free download, so what are you waiting for?
