Achieving 100,000 LinkedIn views per month

One of the areas I get asked about most is LinkedIn. In particular how long I spend on the site? The truth is about 10-15 minutes a day, but if done well, those 10-15 minutes can make a huge difference to any business.

At present I receive circa 100,000 views on my LinkedIn content posts a month, helping to raise awareness of the good causes and positive impact Bignall Group are having in the community, with our workforce and across the industry sectors we operate; documenting our journey along the way.

If done well your social media is working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week whilst you're busy doing other things.

What do you say?

The most important thing for social media is good content. Speak honestly and openly about your business, the industry and challenges you're facing. Humility and honestly go a long way, but always try and add value to the network. You don't even need to create the content yourself. A great start is adding your personal opinion to a relevant article which your network might find interesting.

Creating an emotional connection.

The diagram below demonstrates the 'elements of value pyramid'. The higher up the pyramid, the greater the impact of your communications. You will notice this is why motivational posts are so popular - because they make you feel good. Talking about your business in the themes of these social elements creates a win win, and this is where you should be targeting your content and overall brand visions and values.

How best to say it?

So now you know what to say, but how best to say it? Text, Video, Images? For each of the type of post you still want to aim as high up the pyramid as possible to create an impact with your audience. These below are my feelings on the positives and negatives from each type of content.

• Text only - Profile raising impact 2/10, emotional connection 2/10, added value 4/10 = OVERALL 3/10
• Post with a generic image from Google - Profile impact 4/10, emotional connection 2/10, added value 3/10 = OVERALL 3.5/10
• Post with custom made company image (and relevant industry commentary) - Profile impact 6/10, emotional connection 5/10, added value 7/10 = OVERALL 6/10
• Post with a selfie - Profile impact 9/10, emotional connection 7/10, added value 5/10 = OVERALL 7.5/10
• Posting of a relevant industry article (with no added value comment) - Profile impact 5/10, emotional connection 4/10, added value 5/10 = OVERALL 5/10
• Posting of a relevant industry article with added value comment from your experience - Profile impact 8/10, emotional connection 8/10, added value 8/10 = OVERALL 8/10
• Written Blogs - Profile impact 5/10, emotional connection 8/10, added value 8/10 = OVERALL 7/10
• Video Blogs - Profile impact 7/10, emotional connection 9/10, added value 8/10 = OVERALL 8/10

Real Life:

• Phone Call - Profile impact 1/10, emotional connection 8/10, added value 8/10 = OVERALL 8/10
• Meeting in person - Profile impact 1/10, emotional connection 10/10, added value 10/10 = OVERALL 9/10
• Industry Conference / Networking Event - Profile impact 7/10, emotional connection 8/10, added value 8/10 = OVERALL 8/10

So which is best?

A combination of the above. The truth is, ranked only after meeting in person, video creates the greatest emotional impact - as the audience gets a feel for who you are as a person, in addition to the value from the content; however video can be difficult to make and the amount people who watch them in full is smaller. Although there are fewer overall viewers, this is a higher quality interaction so use them once or twice a month and you will still achieve good success.

Posts with images get the most likes, and selfies in particular always do well - largely because its friendly, informal and personal. An image takes 0.5 seconds to consume, so your time-poor audience is more likely to interact with images than a video or written blog. This does not mean blogs are less worth-while, quite the opposite (as they can add a great deal more value or demonstrate knowledge on a subject) but the immediate mass-reward is lower.

Meetings: nothing beats getting out and seeing people in person, or a casual catch up phone call, but that is something you can only do one at a time. Social media allows you to be in 1000 places with 1000 virtual interactions anywhere in the world all at once... but never lose sight of human interaction. That is always #1.

Whatever you decide, simply ensure that the content replicates your brand visions and values. For Bignall Group our communications are all about; Do something good in the community; Act with honesty and integrity; Promote and grow local employment, and Ensure quality of service. We also try and recreate our visions and values within the imagery we use. The example below was used internally to accompany giving our staff an extra day off before Christmas, as we appreciate the importance of spending time with family. Simple but effective, and this post received around 15,000 views within the two weeks around Christmas... hopefully helping to convey that we're a business that cares about our team.

Does is bring actually bring a business return?

Yes.

For a business, it is critically important to share your story with the world. You may have the best product or service, but if nobody knows about it you are unlikely to do well. Social media is not about the hard sell, quite the opposite. Social media is there to add flavour and context to your brand. Being more visible keeps you on more people's radar, which then positively impacts sales. By no means will it cure your woes, but it will help accelerate your momentum.

From experience, social media presence is also self perpetuating. You get asked to write more articles for the newspaper, speak at more events, receive more invites to dinners, and this too has a positive overall effect on business. Suddenly a business which was flying below the radar now has thousands more potential customers every month, who before might not have even known you existed. But when all is said and done, best of all, it costs nothing!

Steve

Video Blog - Friday 12 May 2017:

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