The world of social media is forever evolving, and if you don’t evolve with it, you’ll find yourself easily lost in the crowd.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll probably know that LinkedIn is the go-to place for B2B companies, and with over 500 million members using the platform, it’s no wonder that businesses are competing to be noticed. If LinkedIn is a focus area for you, it’s important to understand how to maximise your efforts and utilise the platform in the best possible way. In this post we’ll share with you the 4 key LinkedIn trends that will help you to boost your engagement rates.
#1 Use hashtags to increase visibility
Hashtags you say? This isn’t new news?
For social media as a whole, no this isn’t new news. If you’re an avid Instagram user, you’ll know that once upon a time, you could hashtag pretty much anything on your photos to gain followers and likes (#love #follow #instadaily #picoftheday were always popular ones that were guaranteed to rake in the likes on a really poor quality photo taken on your iPhone 4). Whilst we’ve all been hashtagging like crazy on Twitter & Instagram, LinkedIn hashtags have been a slow growing trend that has recently gained momentum.
The difference between LinkedIn hashtags, is that they need to be used wisely and kept to a minimum. They need to be readable, focussed and relevant to the post accompanying them, and definitely not overused. Hashtags can be used at the end of a status or update, but also incorporated within the content of the post and weaved into your comments to navigate users towards relevant topics. See an example below:
#2 Bring your content to life with video
It’s no surprise that social videos are a sure-fire way to increase your engagement rates.
With Facebook & Twitter making cute dogs viral stars, and YouTube introducing the world to the likes of Justin Bieber and The Weekend, it’s no wonder LinkedIn want a slice of the video pie.
Having finally jumped on the bandwagon and introduced video into its own newsfeed, many B2B companies have already begun experimenting with video on the platform. So far, they have presented an extremely positive outcome, and research shows that 71% of businesses find the use of video has converted better engagement than other content types¹.
With this in mind, just like hashtags, it’s important to use videos wisely, and by wisely we mean:
- Tell a story: Try to avoid script-like videos and instead steer towards presenting real challenges that your audiences are facing and showing how your products or services can help them to overcome those challenges.
- Optimise your video length: Limit your videos to a maximum of 10 minutes.
- Use compelling visuals: Create something that instantly grabs your viewers’ attention. Excite them by using powerful imagery and animations.
- Speak to your audience’s emotions: Videos that are relatable (make your audience laugh, feel inspired – or even cry), have a much better chance of being shared.
- Keep your branding consistent: Your brand should be recognisable, and if you want to stand out and be remembered, keeping your brand consistent is key.
- Add subtitles: Your audience could be watching your video on the train, at work, or even at Starbucks on their lunch break, which means it’s likely that the sound is muted. Adding subtitles is a great way to allow them to understand the content so that your message doesn’t get lost in translation or lose impact. It’s reported that over 85% of videos on social media are watched on mute!
- End with a clear call-to-action: Whether it’s to follow your page, fill out a form or request a meeting about your services, let your audience know what they need to do next with the help of clear CTA’s.
#3 Get your employees involved
With most of us now fully-fledged social media addicts, it’s safe to say that it plays a significant role in our daily lives. In fact, research shows that the average time spent on social media platforms is 142 minutes per day², which works out at just over 2 hours!
So, imagine if your entire workplace took just 2 minutes out of those 142 to share the content that your marketing team creates to their personal LinkedIn profiles. Just a few extra shares on each post can boost engagement and deliver your message to a wider audience, resulting in more qualified leads.
#4 Join LinkedIn Groups and share your content within them
LinkedIn is primarily used for career advancement, whether that means employees expanding their knowledge within the industry or department they are in, sharing promotions, or simply just to get ahead in their job, the best place to start on LinkedIn is with Groups.
LinkedIn Groups are known as community hubs for like-minded people who share similar interests, want to find answers from a professional to a question they may have, or simply just to share their content with a wider audience. Keeping a high profile on industry-relevant groups will give your business an additional channel for delivering content, engaging with members and building relationships. Sharing posts to relevant groups will expose your business to even more of your target audience and increase your engagement, resulting in more interest and leads.
Ensure your business getting noticed and staying relevant by keeping up-to-date with current trends that will put you front and centre.
