A LOOK AT LINKEDIN: WHAT’S WORKING FOR MARKETERS IN 2018
Hard to believe that LinkedIn is still technically only a teenager. But time moves quickly in the world of social media. At age 14, the employment-oriented social networking service is mature beyond its years.
Thanks to its most recent growth spurt, it now supports more than 500 million users and promises serious marketing and branding opportunities for businesses. If you thought it was simply a place to park your resume or sniff out your next career move, we’re here to enlighten you.
As we’ll see, the social media network is evolving itself into a content-first platform ripe with customizable marketing solutions. Maybe that’s part of what Microsoft foresaw when it purchased LinkedIn for a cool $26.2 billion in 2016.
Looking to refine your social media marketing strategy in the New Year? See how LinkedIn is coming into its own.
LinkedIn Loves Content Marketing
Everyone from big brands to solopreneurs is looking for a place to publish and promote their original content. Today, LinkedIn users are more interested than ever, reading articles that pop up on their feeds at a voracious rate.
It all started with a little class project. In 2010, students at Stanford University set to work on what is now LinkedIn Pulse. Since 2014, it’s been a publishing platform for members to share their organic content. Now, hundreds of thousands of organic articles are published worldwide every week, solidifying the Pulse portion of LinkedIn as a content-first social media platform.
In a content-first world, B2B marketers know guest blogs are an effective way to reach customers. Sharing professional insights with LinkedIn’s audience of half a billion may prove an inestimable way to generate more traffic to your site. However, it’s just one of the ways LinkedIn is helping prove that content is still king.
LinkedIn Lures with Video
LinkedIn has also recently adopted video capabilities, offering marketers an additional channel to get eyes on their brand.
Since late summer of 2017, LinkedIn has supported native videos, tracking results and comparing their performance against other popular platforms. Surprisingly, the initial limited release has received wide praise from select marketers. We’re told that brands hoping to use LinkedIn as a video publishing platform should be able to take full advantage soon.
LinkedIn’s Business Marketing Solutions
When it comes to pushing out branded content on social media, the rules are clear: you have to pay to play.
Facebook’s recent algorithm change drives this point home. Ahead, posts from FB friends will get boosted while posts from brands will receive a demotion on users’ news feeds.
While LinkedIn views professional connections as more or less equal, the platform still offers a way to pay your way onto the news feeds of your target audience. If you’re looking to promote your business on LinkedIn, paid online advertising and sponsored forms of content could help close the gap, build your lead base and increase conversion rates.
LinkedIn is also making it easy to move beyond your company page and move directly into the LinkedIn messages of your targeted audiences with Sponsored InMail. The idea is that driving referral leads could be as simple as personalizing a note and sending it to your targeted prospects.
The final component of LinkedIn’s Business Marketing Solutions is desktop text ads. Using Simple PPC or CPM, the service promises to help drive quality leads to your landing page.
A Maturing LinkedIn
LinkedIn remains a unique social media platform that serves as an indisputable part of any comprehensive marketing strategy in 2018. We predict continued feature releases as LinkedIn continues to grow and mature.
For now, an increasing focus on written content and video marketing best capture LinkedIn’s signature ability to assist marketers in engaging highly targeted audiences.
Need help capitalizing on LinkedIn’s content-first promises? Link up with our full-service digital marketing agency.