Why It’s So Important To Market Your Business On LinkedIn

Previously regarded as a recruitment marketplace where people went to find new job opportunities, LinkedIn is now considered to be one of the most important content marketing platforms in the world.

Find out why LinkedIn is critical to your digital strategy – and how to harness its undoubted power to build influence and create leads.

What Is LinkedIn?

You’re kidding, right?

Well, in brief, LinkedIn has 750+ million global users and is one of the world’s key social media platforms.

The LinkedIn user experience is fairly similar to Facebook’s, except that your feed is going to be focused on business rather than stuff from your mates or relatives.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and newcomer TikTok all have their respective niches, and LinkedIn’s is that it’s the only major social media platform that’s 100% dedicated to business.

It’s a place where you can:

1. Make connections with 1000s of fellow professionals
2. Alongside your broader digital strategy, attract the potential B2B (and even B2C) customers your business needs to thrive
3. Share your company’s success stories
4. Promote your company’s brand and values through great content
5. Recruit new talent
6. Keep a close eye on what your competitors are up to and benchmark yourselves against them
7. Learn from thought leaders – and build your own influence as an extension of your company’s brand

Why LinkedIn?

Of the 750+ million global users on LinkedIn, most are service-oriented professionals.

Of course, you can’t reach all of them.

But – and this is the exciting bit – you can create tonnes of convertible leads by:

1. Identifying your target audience
2. Connecting with them
3. Understanding what kind of content they will find useful and valuable
4. Appearing in their feeds by consistently posting great content at times when they are most likely to be on LinkedIn
Consistently engaging with targeted individuals and communities

Why Is Social Media Important for Business in General?

Social media gives us the ability to quickly and creatively tell the world about ourselves, our customers and industry.

It’s therefore one of the most potent digital communication and sharing tools at any company’s disposal. It has a big part to play in increasing brand awareness, positive sentiment and even sales. 

Just think about how incredibly important social media has been for companies during the uncertainty of the pandemic. 
Companies have had great success in continuing to tell their story through their colleagues and customers – chiefly via social media and its powerful platforms.

And here are some staggering audience behaviour insights and stats to ponder:

2 hours and 22 minutes 

That’s how much the average person spends on social media each day! 

That’s 2 hours and 22 minutes’ worth of opportunity to engage your B2B and B2C audiences.

Social media influences purchasing decisions 

The increased usage of mobile and social media has had a significant impact on purchasing decisions.
The widespread availability of smartphones and increased connectivity options have made it extremely easy for customers to shop online or make quick B2B or B2C purchasing decisions.

Social media is playing helping online shopping skyrocket

Mobile shopping is projected to reach a staggering$2.5 trillion in 2021.

Social platforms provide efficient targeting tools that allow you to laser in on and engage with those leads and potential customers.

34% of consumers say they purchase products directly through social media

There has been a huge increase in ‘social commerce’, resulting in a mind-boggling amount of spending: nearly$29 billion in sales in 2021 already (about 35% more than in 2020!).

What is social commerce? Well, in short, it’s where people can buy products or services directly on social media platforms without having to click out of the app. It’s hugely convenient, significantly shortens purchase journeys and massively increases shopping.

Chinese social platforms have been offering social commerce functionality for quite a while now and Facebook Shops is a good example of Western platforms trying to catch-up with the powerful social commerce trend. 

People want product and service recommendations from social media connections

83% of consumers rely on their Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter connections for product and service recommendations.
Yes, they will trust actual virtual strangers and make purchasing decisions based on this kind of brand advocacy!

Did you know…?

That social media helps: 

• Increase the potential for repeat business?
• Improves customer relationship management?

Why Promote My Business on LinkedIn Rather Than Twitter or Facebook?

Hang on a minute! We’re not saying that you shouldn’t be looking to promote your business on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and so forth, so long as they’re relevant to your audiences.
What we are saying is that LinkedIn is effectively the last bastion of FREE and level playing field social media content.

You want your business’ Twitter content to be visible to your target audiences? You’re going to have to pay for the privilege!
Once a place where small businesses could easily reach the right people at the right times without having to spend any money, Facebook’s algorithm is now entirely geared towards paid content.

TikTok? Well, that ‘for teenagers, by teenagers’ ideal disappeared pretty quickly, didn’t it? And this controversial platform is now awash with big brands spending big bucks to make their B2C products more visible than their competitors’.

We daresay that LinkedIn is trying to make the shift to becoming a ‘pay to play platform’ but, for now, businesses can reach their intended audiences at the right time without having to pay out any cash. And this is what currently (and for the foreseeable future) marks LinkedIn out as the place where businesses of all shapes and sizes really can compete with much bigger competitors on a level playing field.


What Should Our LinkedIn Strategy Be?

Just as no two businesses are the same, nor are any two LinkedIn strategies. 

Your LinkedIn strategy must align with the rest of your content marketing strategy and you’ve got to find your own way (or, ahem, work with a digital agency like Chetaru!) to develop a great LinkedIn content strategy that will help you stand out from the competition and attract customers.

Here are some top tips for you, though:

• Truly understand who are your audiences are before you start posting content
• Always add value. Give your connections actionable insights or advice they can take away with them and use ASAP
• Get your timings right. What times of the day are your target audiences most likely to be on LinkedIn? Think about differing geographies and timezones
• Create a monthly, quarterly or annual content calendar!
• Mix up your content. People will soon grow bored of the standard ‘Text + Static Image’ approach – so consider video, carousels and other content types to keep engagement high
• Don’t follow the crowd. Find a tone of voice and approach that actually makes you stand out
• Develop a great sharing strategy, whereby colleagues feel inspired (or, ahem, incentivised) to share company content via their personal LinkedIn accounts
• A great LinkedIn strategy will – alongside your broader digital marketing strategy – help your business to develop all the leads it needs to really thrive

Looking for expert help to build and maintain your influence on the world’s most business-focused platform? 

Then drop us an enquiry today!