6 Pillars of What to Post on LinkedIn

Welcome to the first edition of B2B Marketing Mastery Insights

Every fortnight, I'll be sharing practical tips and techniques you can immediately apply to your B2B marketing and sales activity so you get better results and shine in your role.

Fun with serious intent is how I roll. Prepare for engaging insights and examples garnered from 20+ years as a marketer, business growth and more latterly, LinkedIn, expert.

Why Post on LinkedIn?

If you're marketing to other businesses, LinkedIn is your #1 social platform.

With nearly 800+ million members, everyone you want to reach in a profession or business can usually be found on LinkedIn.

Only 1% of LinkedIn users post their own content on LinkedIn. So when you post your own content, it's easy to stand out ??

Here are just 3 of the many reasons why posting regularly should definitely form part of your routine.

1. You're front of mind with your network
2. Your connections share your material so you reach even more members, including prospects, introducers and potential employees
3. Regularly offering intelligent, relevant and insightful value to your network positions you as a thought leader in your industry.

What to Post on LinkedIn: 6 Pillars

Before they've completed my LinkedIn training and coaching, many understandably wonder what on earth to post on LinkedIn.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

Pillar 1: 80/20 rule

80% of your content should be non-promotional, which means it adds value and insight to your audience instead of selling.

Why? Because...

... you need to earn your audience's attention BEFORE going into promotion mode.

If all of your content leads with I/me/we/our it alienates your audience and won't enable them to be receptive to you or your products/services.

Pillar 2: Be yourself ?? authenticity wins the day!

We’re all craving real content from real people, so as a rule, stock images and video won't get the traction an original image or personality-led video, for example, generates.

Below is a post of mine, which as well as endorsing an associate, is sprinkled with personality and ties into my headline of being an Earl Grey tea lover.

I get a lot of outreach based on my tea preference as it provides an easy conversation starter.

The post uses a photo I took on my iPhone and contains relevant hashtags, a tag and a sticker provided on the LinkedIn mobile app.

Here's another example of content that converts.

It's a video I made that promoted my webinar, "How to Create LinkedIn Polls that Pinpoint your Prospects in Just 10 Mins" (msg me if you'd like a recording of the training).

As well as my iPhone, I used a light ring (?? light rings as they knock ten years off and provide a better visual effect!) and Clipscribe, user-friendly software that adds graphics and captions in minutes.

Props are also fab for videos and photography. I used a magnifying glass to add a fun and more visually compelling element and intrigue.

Tone of voice and personality are vital. What's your personal and/or corporate/brand personality and does your content represent that? For example, my personality is fun, creative and constructively challenging. While authenticity is key, keep your posts neutral or positive, unless part of your brand is to be provocative.

Pillar 3: Content type

Here's a snapshot of just some of the content types you can post from your personal or company page:

• Short and long-form posts
• Video, including animations
• Documents: storytelling, reports, brochures
• Polls
• Solo graphics and multiple images
• Newsletters
• Live streams

While video can be incredibly powerful (make sure you upload native, rather than a link so views aren't restricted by LinkedIn), well-written text-only posts also packs a punch.

LinkedIn now gives you a whopping 3,000 character limit for a post from your personal page, up from the previous 1,300.

This means you can better convey stories and in-depth information. Remember to pin the post as featured content too.

Even if you're going for a short-form post, ensure you have enough text to create the 'see more' button.

LinkedIn's algorithms uses the number of 'see more' clicks as one of the identifiers of a post's popularity, and so enables more of your network to see your content.

Pillar 4: Content Ideas

So what could your content be about? Here are a few of the many topics:

1. A day in the life of... e.g. your customer, team member, product, part of your business
2. Spotlight on e.g. problems experienced that your product or service solves
3. Do/don't lists or checklists (lists of all kinds work really well on LinkedIn, which is why you're reading this right now)
4. Answers to frequently asked questions
5. Industry news. Always ample opportunities here (remember to give your take on it)
6. Seasonal events relevant to your network
7. Surveys (launching your own, or commenting on your own or others' results)
8. Discounts/promotions/special offers
9. Comparisons/reviews
10. Case studies.

Pillar 5: Polls

A mechanism that engages your connections and followers, and if used in the right way, an amazing prospect puller too.

Result? Polls had to be one of my top 6 pillars!

Even if you decide to ask a more casual question, such as people's favourite coffee, you can use the responses as a conversation starter with those that are a target audience for you.

The poll I created below generated 20,157 views, 239 votes and 46 comments.

Alternatively, you can do a poll that is highly relevant to a niche audience.

Pillar 6: Newsletter

As this is my very first LinkedIn newsletter, newsletters had to be one of the pillars!

Newsletters are an easy way to stay front of mind with your connections and grow your reach and have rapidly replaced articles as the 'go to' for content creators on LinkedIn.

Newsletters are only available to members that have activated creator mode, which has distinct advantages as well as disadvantages.

Final thought

A very quick whistle-stop tour of a big subject. I've only mentioned six pillars here - there are many more, including:

• What times of day and which days to post and what frequency should I aim for?
• Should I /we be posting from our Company or personal page?
• What's this LinkedIn algorithm I keep hearing about and how do I work it?
• What are posting pods?
• Should I post to groups, and if so, how?
• How do I get more engagement: Likes, comments, shares, sends?
• How should I use hashtags and tagging?
• What analytics are available?
• What copywriting tactics should I be using to get more engagement?

Want this essential knowledge? Book your zero-risk Power Hour and let's get your content working for you.

Here's a snapshot of what your Power Hour can cover, including how customers found the experience:

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About me, Sarah Hughes, The "B2B Marketing Expert"

An award-winning marketer, business growth and LinkedIn lead generation expert, I founded?Boost Business Growth?to?give business owners and directors more focus, more sales, more profit.

This is achieved through strategy, training, implementation or mentoring that blends the power of sales psychology with the latest marketing and sales techniques.

Global brands through to solopreneurs choose to work with me, including SUEZ, ClearCycle, FounderCatalyst and LG Futures.

The uniting feature of those I work with is that they market to other businesses and want to do what works in their marketing.

While working across many sectors, I particularly love working with businesses that are on a mission to help our planet ??.

Got a B2B marketing, business growth or LinkedIn problem you'd like solved? Or perhaps an opportunity you're determined to maximise?

“Thanks to Sarah, we’ve enjoyed a 79% uplift in sales to ￡430,000 of our most recent product, The Financial Intelligence Toolkit, with figures still rising.” Jude Ranasinghe, Founder, LG Futures

Your next step is to book a discovery call with me. I'll be honest about if I think I can help.

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