LinkedIn Insights from Social Media Marketing World 2024: 3 Secrets to Increasing Your LinkedIn Engagement
Why is it vital that you – and the company you work for – understand how to effectively use LinkedIn as far more than a job-hunting tool?
- There are 1 billion users on LinkedIn, 65 million of whom are business decision makers.
- There are 60 million companies on LinkedIn.
- 40% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is their most effective lead gen channel.
- 77% of B2B marketers see the best organic results from LinkedIn compared to any other social platform.
Many of our Minneapolis PR agency’s B2B clients have recognized that their most sought-after audience targets – the hardest-to-reach decision-makers who could be worth millions of dollars to them – are accessible on LinkedIn. Inspired by a number of the sessions at the 2024 Social Media Marketing World conference – the industry’s largest social media marketing conference – I’ve pulled together three key takeaways to increase the impact of your LinkedIn performance across the platform.
First, when to post on LinkedIn.
Did you know that you’re competing against yourself if you post on LinkedIn more than once every 24 hours? And if you need to post more than once in a day, you should wait at least three hours before adding a second post in the same day. At the same time, though, LinkedIn advises that organizations that post at least weekly get two times more engagement than those that don’t.
And the best date and time for you to post? Here’s some guidance:
- Generally, the best posting time on LinkedIn is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., or on weekend mornings.
- Ultimately, though, it’s important to keep an eye on your own analytics.
- Regularly take a look at your unique followers to establish when and how they’re active on your page to determine when the best time to post for your audience is.
- Visit the “Analytics” tab of either your personal or business LinkedIn page to see content metrics including impressions and engagement rate – these numbers are a good indication of what your audience is resonating with, how and when.
Second, what to post on LinkedIn.
While there are differences between how to maintain a successful personal page versus a successful business page, one thing is universal across the entire LinkedIn platform: be human.
People engage with people. So communicate consistently on LinkedIn – cadence isn’t the priority, but content ratio, or the frequency at which you post different types of content, is.
Use LinkedIn to show your followers, prospects and current partners alike that you and/or your company know their industry, the problems your customers need to overcome, and how you and/or your business is the solution to their toughest problems.
When counseling our PR agency’s clients about LinkedIn strategy, we also advocate for the 4-1-1 rule – which says that for every piece of content you share about yourself (or your organization), you should also share an update from another source, and, most importantly, share four pieces of content written by others. (Ahem, this means your Company Page shouldn’t be used to showcase your own marketing materials only to sell sell sell!)
Then, how to continue the conversation on LinkedIn.
What’s the most effective way to keep your discussion with your target audiences active, both on and off of LinkedIn? A call to action (CTA)!
Below are seven action words, and when to use them, in a CTA on LinkedIn:
- Comment – for higher visibility
- Re-Post – for post to be shared further
- Follow – to build community
- Read – a newsletter (and subscribe!)
- Register – for an event
- Message – to discuss sensitive topics
React – low commitment ask (but ask a question, too!)
LinkedIn success beyond the platform
Not only has LinkedIn proven itself to be a trusted platform for B2B marketers and decision makers, but LinkedIn pages are also indexed on Google – for free!
Don’t miss the opportunity to let visitors know they’re in the right place by using a branded banner, a tagline after the personal or company name, and filling out the “about” section on your LinkedIn profile, using keywords that are not only optimized for search engines but for humans too.
Want to learn more about how Maccabee can help with your social media efforts? Visit https://maccabee.com/what-we-do/social-media-and-online-marketing/.