The landscape of LinkedIn continues to change, and the way businesses use it is changing too. LinkedIn is great if you are searching for a job (or someone to hire!) and networking with people in your field, but it can be useful in B2B relationships.
At its core, LinkedIn is a platform to build relationships. That’s the key to using it, even for B2B relationships. It’s important to have an engaging, active page to nurture, cultivate, and maintain business connections.
Here are some steps to take your LinkedIn strategy to the next level!
Your Content Is Allowed To Be Fun On LinkedIn
People are posting more fun content on LinkedIn, which is a departure from how people utilized the platform years ago. People aren’t afraid to infuse their personality into their content. Lighthearted, uplifting, inquisitive, and serious are all tones that work well on LinkedIn.
Work anniversary parties with cake and soda? Post it! Ugly sweater party? Post it! According to LinkedIn, posts with photos receive 98% more comments than posts without photos. Life is already too serious, and people enjoy engaging with businesses that appear less stoic and more authentic.
Leverage Your Employees To Get Additional Reach
When employees post about your company on LinkedIn, engage with it! Not only does this make them feel valued and seen in the workplace, but engaging with your employee’s content gives you access to their network. It’s easy to “Like” content, but take the extra step to add a comment in the comment section.
When you engage with content on LinkedIn, a few things happen. First, LinkedIn’s algorithm views this content as potentially more relevant since there is more engagement on it.
Second, the content you engage with will be shown to the rest of your network. A good amount of the posts you see on your LinkedIn feed, you’ll notice have a banner on the top that says, “Liked by Kevin Nelsen” or “Kevin Nelsen commented on this.” You may not be connected with this person or company at all, but you’re still seeing this. This is the real power on LinkedIn and works equally as well in B2B interactions.
Lastly, you have the potential to start real conversations with real people. You may even consider sharing an employee’s post to the company page and offering some additional comments.
Being social on social media – crazy how that works, right?
Similar to All Social Media Platforms, Consistency Is Key
While interacting with your employee’s content can get you additional reach, posting regularly to your LinkedIn company page gives an opportunity for employees to engage with your content. And as we’ve described above, people who are connections with your employee will most likely see your company’s post as well. As with all social media platforms, consistency is key!
For example, if you normally post on Mondays and Fridays, make sure to consistently post on those days. Anything extra is a bonus, but your audience will expect to see your content at least on Mondays and Fridays. Getting into a rhythm is not only good for your audience, but it’s good to keep yourself on track too!
Give LinkedIn Features A Try!
Stories
Stories…they started on Snapchat, then hopped to Instagram, then Facebook, and now LinkedIn. Yup, LinkedIn stories are a thing!
Stories may be an exciting opportunity if you have something random or off-the-cuff to share that doesn’t necessarily warrant a formal post. Maybe an employee surprised you with a coffee or someone came into the office with a funny hat…post it to LinkedIn Stories! See how your audience responds and consider integrating Stories into your LinkedIn Strategy.
Live
Once again, something that started on another platform and made its way to LinkedIn. Now more than ever, people are utilizing Live features on social media platforms due to the growing need for virtual events and meetings.
If you’re interested in using LinkedIn live, you’ll have to submit an application for approval first. LinkedIn takes these few things into account while reviewing your application:
- Video and overall content creation history
- Audience size and engagement history
- Member or Page account in good standing
- Two Factor Authentication enabled in account settings
Polls
Polls are a great way to not only learn more about your audience but is also an awesome feature to quickly drive engagement. Poll topics can be something as light as asking if, in the future, people would prefer to work remotely or back in the office, or as genuinely curious about something relating to a product or service at your company.
As you can see, there are many ways to create a content strategy on LinkedIn as a B2B business. Try some things out, get consistent, and revise and reiterate. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away – consistency is key!
You may be also interested in our post on how to get more personal reach on LinkedIn.