FACE to FACE, FACELESS, FACE IT

When I think about LinkedIn and it’s growing 760 million users worldwide it feels pretty faceless to me. I don’t know about you, (and before you point it out) I recognise I’m part of an older demographic but I miss the face-to-face and let’s face it, while I’m sat in my home office rolling my eyes at the word ADAPT, I recognise I have indeed adapted, sometimes subconsciously, sometimes happily and with gusto, sometimes through gritted teeth but most importantly (and thankfully for Ninjas), our clients recognised and leveraged new ways to adapt using LinkedIn.

If creating a LinkedIn business strategy was not a sales, marketing and communications priority for you, then maybe my article will shed some perspective in light of yesterday’s lockdown news and how Ninjas and LinkedIn can help you change to adapt from faceless to familiar and bring the personal touch back to your business. 

Maddy Osman quotes on the KINSTA blog that although the US has the most LinkedIn users at 171 million, over 75% of LinkedIn users are from outside of the US. Interestingly, the UK is one of the most active regions with 30.9 million users, the last time I looked in October there was 27 million, so there’s no doubt it’s surged during the pandemic. When it’s broken down by region, it’s not so over-facing as it turns out, the worlds a small place.

She also explains that although Facebook may be the largest social networking site in the world today, LinkedIn has been supporting its users for a longer on a professional and business level and when it comes to networking and business connection, LinkedIn users recognise the platform as a professional networking site. Ah face-to-face Networking, do you remember when we used to do that, the last bastion of a liquid lunch.

At Ninjas, our service aims to help people and businesses grow by getting the most out of the platform via their profiles and company pages. We help you manage a balanced mix of scaled activity, profile interaction, targeting, connectablity and dissemination of purposeful and audience relevant content.

At this point in the story, it’s important to emphasise that LinkedIn is a text-heavy platform, 6 out of 10 users are prepared to read and expect to see relevant content about business and professional topics written in a more personal way. It’s why long-format articles perform well compared to other social media platforms.

These LinkedIn stats are easy to Google, so how do we drill in and understand how we make our presence less faceless and more productive, and while we're about it, what exactly are these 760 million people up to while there on there? Well by my reckoning, most of them, not a lot, they’re voyeurs, looking, watching and READING ??

In fact, out of all these members, the average user spends 17 minutes on it a month, while 40% are accessing it daily. Don’t panic that’s still 100 million people to go at! But 17 minutes, that's intense and it's why there are thresholds set for copy, for example, ‘Start a Post’ these posts are 700 characters long on company page posts and 1,300 characters individual posts. LinkedIn will cut off your posts with a “See more” button at the 140-character mark. 

Were in the era of the 8-second social media attention span so this suddenly makes those 17-minutes users spend on Linkedin a month a lifetime! I've just read that 8-second attention span is less than a bloody goldfish ?? more eye-rolling! This makes your headlines grab lines just like the subject bar in an email, you have to go for it!

One of the stats that’s consistent on LinkedIn is the ratio of users who actively post, it’s low by membership comparison meaning it creates a big opportunity for optimised visibility and it’s what makes it personal, it’s how you make your profile human. It’s important because C-suit decision-makers are hungry for dynamic visual content, combining a mix of data and product storytelling, good quality imagery, and HUMAN interaction. They want perspective at both an analytical and personal level and in theory, you have 17’ish minutes a month to catch someone’s eye.

Content on the LinkedIn feed receives over 9 billion impressions per week, this means that circa 1% of LinkedIn’s users share posts, so basically 3 million or so users net the 9 billion impressions. Think about that for a minute ?? get it into the context of not being so faceless.

When you talk about the consumption of information for business or leisure, for evidence that Covid-19 has accelerated universal media trends, you need look no further than the UK magazine market. Sales of digital books by British publishers are set to hit an all-time high as the public turns to read to escape pandemic cabin fever.

Although 23-million of us still like to pick a magazine (me included) market analysts suggest niche and specialist titles are more desirable and successful, especially when people want to research key purchases and buy a high-end product. It’s this group that’s often missed by the hyperscalers and big advertisers, and I believe it’s this group that’s consuming content on LinkedIn and why it's so important to go beyond your profile and think in scale ?? think big.

By targeting and serving these high-value connections with quality content, reviews, events and offers, you will secure and build valuable relationships and serious decision-makers capable of influence. Or like me, valuable business contacts, mentors, an employer, clients and new friends.

Here's some more food for thought ?? LinkedIn drives more than 50% of social traffic to B2B sites and is now widely considered the most credible source of business content. On top of this, images improve your posts’ popularity and by including photos you can increase the comment rate by 98% and engagement by as much as 200%.

LinkedIn generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). This is consistent with what we see at *Ninjas.

According to LinkedIn, 52% of buyers say LinkedIn has the most influence on their research process before purchasing a product and nearly 15% of all LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers.

When I consider all these stats, it doesn't feel at all out of reach, you can make it tangible and we can help you achieve that. So what are you waiting for? LinkedIn allows you to put a name to a face in a business space, so not so faceless after all? 

Call Ninjas to discuss how we help you create a profile and visual content strategy because if there was ever a moment to jump in, it's NOW ??

If you'd like our *Business Case ROI resource, just email me, [email protected]