LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tool for brands and professionals but, as it happens with any other tool in life, it only works if you use it correctly. A strong presence on LinkedIn can help you show you are an authority in your field, make contacts for projects, and attract new customers. Here you will find some tips to consider when planning your LinkedIn content. 

KNOW WHAT TYPES OF CONTENT YOU CAN CREATE

One of the virtues of LinkedIn is that it allows you to publish different types of content while keeping the professional tone you are looking for. 

1. Posts

LinkedIn posts are short texts (usually accompanied by an image) of no more than 230 words. For this type of content it is important to have in mind that most people will only read the heading of the post and then choose whether to continue reading or not. That means the start has to have a punch and be eye-catching, or people won’t go beyond the first three lines. 

2. Videos

Videos are a crucial part of any modern social media due to their capacity for engagement, and LinkedIn is no exception to that. As it happens in most social media, it is important to include subtitles, as most people watch them with the audio off. Still, LinkedIn’s videos differ from those of other social media in that they work best in a square format. 

Keep your videos native to LinkedIn. Otherwise, the algorithm will “punish” them by not giving them as much exposure. Your first impulse may be posting that great video your brand has on Vimeo about a success case, but why would any social media prioritize content that takes people out of their platform? 

If you can’t edit your videos to give them a square format, at the least upload them all over again on LinkedIn, so the algorithm will work in your favor. 

3. Articles 

Articles have a longer format than posts as they are designed to talk in-depth about a specific topic and add real value to your audience. Articles are important because they are a space to show your expertise in a subject and share the new ideas you developed. 

STUDY YOUR COMPETITORS’ CONTENT

Before creating your social media strategy, study your competitors’ content. Even more, check your competitors’ and other brands’ content, even if they are not related to the products or services you sell. 

This step is vital because it will help you understand your field’s tendencies, give you new ideas on how to create engaging content, and allow you to know what you are competing against.  

Identify which content you find most straightforward and interesting and try to find the pattern behind the posts that you read until the end or the videos you watch more than once. It is also a good practice to create an “idea bank” with posts you see when you are not actively searching because it is then when you find the publications that diverge most from what you usually do. 

Taking a look at content from other industries is a good idea because the chances are that within your niche most people talk using the same terms and even, probably, similar design ideas. So, looking at other sectors’ content can help you refresh your imagination. 

FIND YOUR NICHE

As it happens with every marketing channel, the most important thing you need to know to plan your strategy and create content is understanding who your audience is and who can benefit the most from what you have to offer. 

Perhaps you have a B2B business model, but if you make your target audience even more specific, you will create better-thought content. For example, you could make your audience more specific by targeting small-size ice cream companies, and even more if you target small-size companies in Florida. Once you find your niche, you begin exploring what type of content your audience wants to get and, by trial and error, you will learn how to create competitive, relevant, and actionable content for them.

CREATE A CONTENT STRATEGY

Once you understand the types of content you can create for LinkedIn and the market tendencies, have a list of creative ideas for your content, and have made them specific to your niche, you are ready to plan your LinkedIn content strategy. 

Here are a few tips for building it:

1.     Preferably, post once per weekday. But, most importantly, post relevant content. Your audience is more likely to react to up-to-date content that provides valuable information than to a post that simply repeats what you have said in the previous fifteen posts. 

2.     Try varying the posts you publish. If one day you publish an image, the next an article, and the third day a video, your LinkedIn profile will look much more dynamic, and it will force you to bring different ideas to the table, which, in turn, will make your posts more creative and appealing.

Also, having various kinds of posts will help you target people with different thought styles. So, if a part of your audience is more visual, they will be attracted by the images and videos, and those with a more rational style will be more attracted to the explanations in the posts and articles. 

3.     The best times to post on LinkedIn are Wednesday to Friday between 8 am and 3 pm. That makes sense given the nature of this social media: on Mondays, people are getting ready for their week, planning what to do, and on Fridays, people are thinking of their weekend. 

4.     Always include a CTA in your posts. Whether it is registering for a webinar, writing a comment, or downloading an eBook, CTAs will help you know if your content is appealing to your target audience. 

5.     Include hashtags. Hashtags are essential for your content to be found by new audiences. Use relevant tags; avoid tags such as #post #content and #brand as they are too general and won’t help drive traffic to your profile. 

USE THE RESOURCES YOU ALREADY HAVE

Writing content for social media can be challenging as you are expected to be creative and produce new content all the time. However, if you use the resources you have at reach, it can be less burdensome. Here are some options:

1.     Interview the product owner and post 1-minute fragments explaining your product or service

2.     Post a review from a customer

3.     Tell a success case 

4.     Explain different contexts in which your product or service can help solve a problem

5.     Explain the vision that makes your company work every day 

After you have implemented your strategy for a month, it is time to evaluate its performance, improve and repeat. 

What strategy has worked best for your LinkedIn content? Share your insights with us!