As illustrated through our previous blog posts on social media advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media has created a multitude of opportunities for businesses to reach consumers through a more casual medium, and now LinkedIn has hopped on the bandwagon. Although initially created as a platform for networking among business professionals, LinkedIn has certainly taken advantage of the opportunities that lie within advertising on the site.
Within the last year, LinkedIn has seen a massive increase in activity and engagement among users of the platform. In addition to a 50% increase in membership engagement, the platform has over 590 million members and is the #1 channel for B2B marketing. The statistics don’t lie – LinkedIn has truly manifested into a platform that cannot be ignored by marketers. We’ve highlighted our top tips to help your brand take advantage of one of the most pivotal points in LinkedIn’s history:
- Locate Your Target Audience
While of course LinkedIn has proven to be a social channel of significance for many brands, the platform itself caters to a specific individual. Therefore, it’s crucial to evaluate your target audience and determine if LinkedIn is the right platform for your brand. Although LinkedIn is one of the more expensive platforms for digital advertising, the expense is well worth the cost if your brand’s target audience has a strong presence on the platform.
- Embrace Organic Posts
Paid content and organic content work hand in hand, especially on LinkedIn. As such, it is crucial that all businesses initiate their LinkedIn activity through the creation of a compelling organic presence. LinkedIn has even created a Playbook with simple steps to cultivate an integrated organic and paid strategy for marketing via the platform. As emphasized by the platform’s Playbook, a well-integrated organic + paid strategy is what sets top companies apart from the rest.
- Use an External Analytics Tool to Track Your Ads
Unlike many of the other social media platforms, LinkedIn does not offer businesses any internal analytical tools to track the performance of ads. The use of an outside analytics tool aids in the process of gaining knowledge on the types of posts that resonate with your audience. In order to ensure that your advertising efforts are leading to a positive ROI, we recommend utilizing an external analytics tool, such as Google Analytics.
- Optimize for Mobile
With over 63 million monthly mobile users, it’s clear that LinkedIn’s numbers reflect the mobile boom that is currently reigning supreme with society today. Therefore, now more than ever it is important that brands are optimizing content for mobile viewing and interaction with easy to navigate landing pages that are smartphone-friendly. Considering that upwards of 57% of all web traffic is sourced from mobile devices, marketers need to adopt and implement a mobile strategy that ensures users are able to interact with their brand on the go.
It is clear that LinkedIn has shown no signs of slowing down and with user engagement within the platform on the rise, marketers should take note and move toward incorporating LinkedIn content into their advertising strategy.