Wondering how to post effectively on LinkedIn as a business? In this episode, I will give you my FIVE tips for developing the ideal content your customers want to see in their LinkedIn feed and how to ensure your LinkedIn company page audience grows!
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiebrinkley/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hey there. This is Katie Brinkley, and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado bass small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode.
Welcome back to the podcast. Today, I’m going to discuss LinkedIn. And now a lot of people might not be thinking LinkedIn is right for their business. But I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. And I’m going to tell you how to get your LinkedIn up and running so that it is optimized not only for your personal page, but for your company page as well. Because once your company page is up and running, it’s going to make your personal page even better. Now, LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for both personal profiles and business profiles. The catch, you have to be active on it. Facebook gives business pages one of the lowest rankings on their algorithm, organic content on Facebook only reaches between one and 3% of your total audience, if people do not engage with it. So if you have 10,000 followers on Facebook, you’re only going to be reaching between one and 3% of your audience, unless people start engaging with it. Instagram also incentivizes those who are the most active on their platform. So the more active that you’re on Instagram, the more time you spend, the more times you’re liking posts, and you’re saving the posts and you’re commenting on it, they’re going to give you a higher ranking in their algorithm. But good old LinkedIn, they just keep on giving. One of the best things about the LinkedIn algorithm is there isn’t one, I mean, not really, if you like, comment or share a post that you see in your feed, LinkedIn is going to then put that post into your second connections feeds. If one of your second connections then likes that same post, then that post will start appearing in your third connection feeds, it’s pretty simple. And again, you’re not required to share it, you’re not required to comment on it, all you have to do is just like the post, and then it’s gonna start showing up and more and more feeds. It’s pretty simple. And it doesn’t mean that you have to just like I said, you don’t have to share that post in order for the post to appear in other people’s feeds, like you do in Facebook, for example. Now, Instagram is a little tricky, and they don’t, they’ve kind of built their entire platform against sharing content. So it’s really hard for you to share content in Instagram. And, again, it’s pretty simple to get your post out there in your second and third connections feeds just by engaging with the content. Let’s back up. Let’s start with the basics of LinkedIn for your business. You might be saying what is a what is a LinkedIn company page, the company page is the absolute perfect spot for you to share more about what your company does, what your brand stands for. And any potential job opportunities is the perfect spot for you to establish your company as an industry leader is not just another Hangout for your HR team to post new career opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very good spot for that. But there’s so much more to LinkedIn company pages, your company page is the perfect spot to educate potential customers, establish a community for your employees, and join the conversation on relevant topics with your peers, you will want to fill out your page in its entirety. So when you’re creating your LinkedIn page, they’ll give you a little checkmarks at the top of your setup process and tell it tell you what else you can do to fully optimize your page. Listen to LinkedIn, they’re telling you all these things because they want your business page to do better. So not only do business pages that are completely filled out get 30% More weekly views. They also help tell your audience what your company is all about. Completing your company page will help your small business gain credibility online. So make sure that you’ve taken the quick, easy steps outlined by LinkedIn. Okay, ready to start optimizing your LinkedIn company page. Great. First, we’re going to need to get your employees on board. Make sure that your employees have their LinkedIn pages and they’re properly connected to the company page. Once they are connected, they can be easily notified when your company page has a new post. LinkedIn reports that employees have on average 10 times More first degree connections than a company page has followers. And companies with a strong employee advocacy program in place are 58% more likely to have engagement and growth. So, encourage your employees to engage with your page, whether it’s just a simple like on the post, leaving a comment or if it’s a great post that they want to share and comment on, have them share it in their feed. That is how you will see growth and see impressions go up for your company posts.
Having your employees share the content is only half the battle. The other half is creating quality content that is not just about yourself or your company. sharing content from your page three to four times per week will help you stay in front of your followers newsfeeds, and stay in the forefront of their minds. LinkedIn does encourage companies to post daily, but I’m of the belief of quality over quantity, if you’re putting out daily posts, but they’re really not that great. Don’t be putting out daily post. Focus on having posts that makes sense for your company and give value back to your followers. The content should be information that would benefit your followers, presenting yourself as a thought leader and presenting yourself as a thought leader in your industry will require you to post articles and informations from external sources. So sharing content that doesn’t come from your company or your company’s website will show that you’re up to date on the latest trends and are always listening. Additionally, it could potentially lead to valuable new partnerships and new opportunities with other industry leaders. Now if you’re having a hard time figuring out what type of content to post, here are five tips that I use when I’m trying to decide on what to post. Number one, what value will my audience get out of this post. Remember, if your page gives value to your audience, the page will grow organically on its own. People will look for your content in their feeds, they’ll get excited about it showing up. I always like to reference the guy in the room that is always talking about himself. You don’t want to be that person on your company page. Try to give your audience something that they’re going to learn from something that will have your audience walking away from their social media feed. And they’ll still be thinking about your post and want to take an action on it. Number two, well this post make them laugh. Don’t forget social media is a social platform. LinkedIn is no different. People are going to go to LinkedIn, because they’re expecting to have those business conversations, they’re expecting to have those discussions about their work. But if you can provide them something to laugh about, everyone needs to have something to laugh at during the day. If you’re able to make your audience laugh, they’re more likely to share it, like it or comment it, thus putting your content into their second and third connection feeds. Number three, will this post inspire them and make them feel good? Motivational Quotes are always great to share. If you can share a quote that motivates somebody that has them thinking about, yes, I do have this this is this is the next step for me. I do need to refocus my priorities on work and get that project done. Try and inspire them to give them something that’s going to make them want to just take that next step. And again, try and create that inspirational post, because they’re going to be more likely to share it or like it. Number four, will this teach them something new? What can you provide your audience that they could potentially learn from? What does your company offer that they can take into their homes or entered their businesses and apply? If you’re a restaurant, maybe you could teach them a recipe off of the menu. If you’re a leadership development company, provide them with a leadership skill that that they can then take to their team and try and implement immediately. On Facebook, I think that we all remember when those cooking tutorials were really taking off. And we you’d sit there and watch someone make a dish from scratch. Maybe it was a bread or a guacamole dish or a cake. But those videos, people love them because they’re able to sit there and watch it be like oh cool, I can learn something from this. If you’re able to ride something new that your audience can learn from. They’re going to start thinking of you as an industry leader and start coming back to you for when they want to learn more.
And number five, will this post want to make them get to know me more as a person. Remember, even as a company page, there’s a person behind your company. Let them know more about the people that are at your company, introduce them to your marketing director, introduce them to your social media team, introduce them to different employees, introduce them to the chef, introduce them to the people that make your company unique, because social media has made it so that consumers want to know more about a company than ever before. If you’re able to give your audience a key to the back room, they’re gonna feel a sense of loyalty. And they’re gonna want to stick around and do business with you when it comes time to make that purchase. LinkedIn is different from any other social network. Yes, it’s still a social network. But the people on LinkedIn are there for information and to talk business is the perfect spot to build your company’s credibility and to put your company’s leaders in the position to be viewed as industry leaders. Be ready to share your quality information and engage in the feed your company’s feed, and start creating a meaningful network. If you’re sharing content from other companies and joining in on the conversation, find those relevant hashtags, that makes sense for your company. If you’re if you’re a property management company. Start doing research on different hashtags that makes sense for your company. You can do a research on property management, hashtag property manager, find those hashtags that makes sense for your company. And then start engaging with it. If you comment on these pages, as your company page, other people who are commenting and engaging with that post are going to see your comment in there. They’re going to see that you’re willing to listen to other thought leaders, other companies. Find those companies find those conversations, and engage with them. Be social on social media. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. Just look for Katie Brinkley. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.