#SocialSaturday- Developing a Strategy

LinkedIn is the B2B social media powerhouse with a following of over 690 million individuals in over 200 countries and regions globally.?

LinkedIn currently clocks in as the largest social media marketing platform for business professionals. From networking to sales lead generation to brand building, businesses, both large and small, find a place to build a community and drive objectives on this powerhouse platform.

If you aren’t already sold on the benefits, let’s drill down on some reasons you should be spending some time on LinkedIn as published in by Hootsuite :

• 44% of professionals report spending more time on social media during the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Engagement on LinkedIn has increased 50% year over year.
• 30 million companies worldwide are using LinkedIn.

Here are 5 Tips to Succeed with Your LinkedIn Strategy

1. Create a content strategy.

Your messaging on LinkedIn should reflect your brand. It should reinforce what your business stands for. Start by exploring some best practices to develop a strong content strategy.

• Customer-Centric: Your content should serve up the things your customer wants. Many businesses make the mistake of making it about themselves, losing the interest of their audience.
• Must-have: Define the problem you solve and why your audience should choose your business to solve that problem.
• Wrapped in a story: Find a story in your brand and tell it. Create entertaining messaging that attracts and engages.
• Credible: Your credibility is a powerful edge in the crowded marketplace. From endorsements to testimonials to case studies, find ways to put your credibility on display.
• Individualized: Be personal and targeted in your content by understanding who your audience is and crafting content directly to them.

2. Timing matters.

Part of your LinkedIn strategy should include best practices around timing and frequency. Your audience may be unique, but there are some parameters that you can start with and measure along the way. The key to any best practice like this is starting here and watching to see how your audience reacts.

3. Understand the algorithm.

The LinkedIn algorithm favors quality content and engagement. The order favors content types in this order:

LinkedIn videos (native), LinkedIn articles, links, images, text, and then videos (YouTube). Understanding the process is the key to success on LinkedIn. Without this understanding, you may be wasting a lot of your business’s time and money for zero results. The engagement of your posts is the key.

Here are some steps to drive engagement and feed the LinkedIn Algorithm.

1. Sharing video is good for engagement. (Native videos are prioritized.)
2. Tag wisely. Limit tags to five profiles that you feel certain will engage.
3. Use three hashtags maximum per post and keep track of the ones that drive engagement.?
4. Respond to every comment, and aim to comment within 30 minutes for maximum effectiveness and reach.

4. Focus on quality over quantity.

If engagement is the name of the game, it warrants a deeper conversation about quality. Many businesses spend tons of their hard earned resources and budgets posting content on LinkedIn that does not yield results. Understanding your audience and the LinkedIn algorithm is important. Taking that understanding and posting compelling content consistently is the final step to gaining traction on this powerhouse of a social media channel.

5. Define your metrics.

Any good marketer will mention measurement as the key to understanding what you are doing well and what is not working. Define your metrics and then keep a close eye on them to see what’s resonating with your audience. And, then do more of that!

#SocialSaturday #Networking #MakeaConnection