What if there was an established, legitimate platform that was still aching for quality content? A place where you could gain traction if you knew how to do content right? And what if it had much less competition than other social media platforms?
There is. It’s LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a platform focused on business and professionals. There are 900 million members on LinkedIn. Of those millions, only a few are creating quality content compared to other platforms. This presents an opportunity for you to fill the void with standout content. To grow your brand on LinkedIn, focus on thought leadership content.
What’s the difference between thought leadership content and SEO content?
SEO content is all about getting found online. You focus on your potential customers and search engines alike.
Thought leadership content is based on building relationships with potential customers. You’re not just trying to get people to click. You’re showing your leadership in your field through insights and first-hand experience. The ultimate goal is to build a solid reputation of trust with your target audience.
So, what does a solid LinkedIn content strategy look like?
Content goals: every piece, every time
Whatever type of content you are creating on LinkedIn, you need a goal. What do you want the post to achieve?
Here are some questions to ask about every piece of content:
- What insight are we sharing?
- What challenges are we solving?
- Will this post increase our brand awareness?
- Will this post increase our authority?
- What benefit does this post give to our audience?
- If I saw this post in my newsfeed, would I be interested in the content?
Keywords researched and used strategically
While the goal of your LinkedIn marketing is creating thought leadership content and building relationships, you can still use keywords to help people find your content. LinkedIn allows users to add up to three keyword tags to each long-form post. Tags make your content more discoverable by readers that don’t yet follow your posts. When they click on a shared tag on another user’s post, they might come across your content as well. Choose tags that specifically relate to your post. Also consider crafting posts that relate to some of the most popular tags on LinkedIn such as innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
Get to know your LinkedIn audience
LinkedIn is a social media platform, but it differs from other platforms. If you copy and paste your content from other platforms over to LinkedIn, you probably won’t get the results you want. This is because the audience that follows your LinkedIn account is probably very different from those that follow your other accounts. LinkedIn provides an audience of professionals seeking career growth advice and decision-makers.
Create fresh content for LinkedIn with your content goals in mind. Then get to know your audience on the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn offers people and industry insights from its members all over the world. Look at who your followers are and adjust your content to offer value and help them overcome the challenges they face.
LinkedIn is also different in that people want to see thought leadership content. Not generic content about your business and services, but content that will position you as a thought leader in your industry. Show that you are growing and learning and leading the way, but in a way that gives value to your audience. You’re building those relationships and building trust. That is what will give your brand long-term results.
How to write thought leadership content for LinkedIn
When it comes to writing thought leadership content, think about the experiences you have that are unique and helped you grow in your career. Also, think about the problems and challenges that you have overcome and how you can lead others to do the same. Use relevant stories to share your experience that people can relate to. Even if you are just one or two steps ahead of someone else, you can lead the way. Research your topics and work to be as clear and helpful as possible.
Use a mix of content types
Using written posts to expand your thought leadership is just the beginning. LinkedIn allows these content types to be added to the platform:
- Live video
- PDF uploads
- Articles
- Newsletters
- Video and slideshows
As with all platforms, some content types will be received better than others by your audience. Try out some different types and see what brings not just the most engagement but the most messages and sales too. For some profiles, slideshows will do very well. For others, long-form articles could be the key. Continue to offer a few different types to keep your audience engaged.
According to the LinkedIn blog, “Video is 5x more likely than other types of content to start a conversation among members.”
Audit your strategy to see what is working
Remember your content goals with LinkedIn? We discussed having a goal for every piece of content you put out. But what about your overall goals? With LinkedIn, you don’t want to focus on vanity metrics. What you want to focus on are the relationships that are being built. Those relationships can turn into long-term and loyal customers.
After you’ve implemented your content strategy for a while, review what is working. Are there posts with a lot more views than others? Do they have anything in common? Are overall profile views going up or just certain posts? Which hashtags seem to be getting results? What topics are people engaging with? Are people reaching out to connect?
Ask strategic questions, track the data, and adjust accordingly. It is a good idea to audit your strategy every quarter.
Elevate your team as thought leaders, too
As you are building trust and authority for your brand, you want all the top executives on your team to be seen as thought leaders and experts in their fields too. This is going to elevate the whole company. The founders of top brands are sometimes controversial but you hear about them and not just the company because they are leading and growing in innovative ways. Work to raise the profiles of key company executives by creating strategic content that shows their expertise.
Ready to create your LinkedIn strategy?
Create content with purpose in a way that others are failing to do on LinkedIn and you could gain so much traction for your business on a platform that is being underutilized. If you are struggling to build out the right LinkedIn content marketing plan, we can help you with a content strategy session. Book yours today.
