Content Marketing: How to Make LinkedIn Work For You

For B2B brands looking to engage audiences with invigorating content, the content stream should not simply begin and end with the corporate website. In order for a company to be successful in its content marketing strategy, social media channels must become a priority. For example, the professional social network LinkedIn has emerged as one of the key cogs in the content marketing strategies of Businesses over the past number of years and its role is only going to grow, if CEO Jeff Weiner is to be believed.

“The definitive professional publishing platform, where professionals come to consume relevant content and publishers come to share it,” said Weiner in a recent interview, describing his view of LinkedIn as a growing platform for businesses and professionals to not only connect through candidate profiling, but also through the production, consumption and sharing of content, organically-based on the specific interests of communities.

Whether you’re an ‘All-Star’ LinkedIn user or a novice B2B Marketer looking into kick-starting your LinkedIn profile, understanding the workings of the growing network is essential. Here’s how to make the most of LinkedIn as part of your Content Marketing Strategy.

Define your objectives

Analysis conducted by LinkedIn itself, based on the behaviour of users, shows that the job board aspect of the site has taken a backseat with content engagement levels outgrowing job interaction. Taking the unprecedented growth of content engagement into account, it is important to know where to begin when setting out to create engaging, must-read content.

First and foremost, it is essential to define your marketing objectives. Asking yourself questions like: What message am I trying to communicate? What outcome/s am I hoping to achieve? How am I currently working towards achieving these objectives? By identifying where you want to be, you’ll have a clear idea how to get there.

Tailor your content for the professional audience

LinkedIn is very different to other Social Media Channels in that it is heavily focused on the Professional circuit. Therefore, the content which you produce for LinkedIn should be tailored to meet the demands and requirements of that professional audience. The advantage of this is that you are able to focus on certain subjects that appeal to certain LinkedIn groups and communities, customize that content to meet their interests, thus increasing the possibility of positive results.

Both Businesses and Professionals who use LinkedIn will look for informative, entertaining, educational and insightful content directly relatable to their work. That means defining your objectives and identifying your marketing targets, considering the audiences you are looking to engage with and subsequently creating accessible, current, shareable content that is tailored to meet the objectives of your audience.

Promote your posts

Part of LinkedIn’s B2B marketing model includes a content promotion feature which allows Businesses to specifically target other businesses and groups with their content. Similar to Facebook’s style of ad promotion, Businesses pay for ad space that helps them to engage professionals directly without over-saturating their feeds or over-selling themselves. While it does require a financial investment, the investment return is a wider audience, increased activity and it ultimately gives Businesses an added dimension to their Content Marketing Strategy.

Monitor the Metrics

Whether you’re a content writing master or a novice blogger, understanding the metrics of your work is crucial in assessing whether or not it is doing the job it was intended to do, and that is engage with readers and increase productivity. It’s important to make use of your analytics to assess content reach and engagement so that you can bring your content marketing process to the next level.

While it may sound simple, the potential success or failure of your Content Marketing Strategy hinges on the investment of time, effort and finances to establish yourself on LinkedIn as well as other Social channels. LinkedIn offers brands a rich, growing, interconnected network of professionals to target and with inspiring and engaging B2B content, LinkedIn is key to that winning strategy.

Get ahead with your Content Marketing Strategy by downloading our Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media, for free.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/linkedin/content-marketing-make-linkedin-work-0605459?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=content-marketing-make-linkedin-work