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Linkedin is one of the most important social media platforms for both B2B and B2C brands. Creating effective content helps them attract new leads, drive traffic, hire new talent and cultivate a relationship with their followers.
MixBloom's Linkedin handbook for agencies and brands helps you craft your perfect Linkedin post, with curated Linkedin post examples from leading brands.
Share what your brand stands for
Some people care about the problem you solve. Most people care about why you solve it. Share your brand's values, beliefs, and reason to operate.
Inspire your audience
As humans, we are attracted to the success of others.
We like to hear where they came from, what they achieved, how they achieved it, and where they are now. We especially like to hear these stories when it could potentially serve as a roadmap or framework for our own success.
This concept can be utilized when it comes to sharing content on LinkedIn. By identifying your LinkedIn users’ goals, what they are trying to achieve and the challenges that stand in their way, you can share content that focuses specifically on that.
Expand upon your ideas
There are many questions you and your team will continuously hear from your audience. Write them in a spreadsheet, prioritize based on the frequency and your expertise, and publish blog posts where solve these concerns.
Solving the questions from your audience brings three benefits:
- You build a stronger relationship with your existing audience.
- Blog posts will help you reach the 81% of shoppers who conduct online research before buying.
- You will position your brand as the problem solver across your industry.
Whenever you plan to share a blog post, brainstorm the reasons and benefits that someone would receive after reading it, and use them as a hook inside your LinkedIn post. Otherwise, LinkedIn users won't have the motivation to leave the platform and hear from your brand.
Present your team's workplace
Have your team film a video or take a photo of their work-from-home setup or office cubicle. Describe how each office element helps them stay focused, motivated, or looking forward to each workday.
Connect with your audience through video
According to LinkedIn, video content receives 5x more engagement than regular posts. Video allows potential customers to feel a similar connection to having a face-to-face conversation.
The more videos you upload, the stronger the bond will be.
The videos you film can differ in length, angle, and goal. For example, you can turn a successful LinkedIn post into a ten-minute video that leverages images and sound to provide more detail about a given topic. Furthermore, you could create a series of two-minute videos that share the work routines of your team.
Provide value to your audience
Create content that helps LinkedIn users solve doubts, concerns, and problems they face and that you can solve. You can identify what your audience values by creating feedback mechanisms: surveys, calls, online meetings, or in-person appointments.
For example, you could run surveys to find out why a customer chose you over the competition. You could also meet with them to discuss the benefits and downsides of your product and service. Lastly, you could call them to discover the exact problem they were looking to solve when they arrived at your website.
Each question, doubt, or concern that you solve increases the likelihood of being followed and messaged by a qualified lead.
Build in public
Explain what you are doing, why you do it and document the process of doing it. Sharing your progress and struggles attracts like-minded individuals and supporters willing to spread the word about your brand.
Challenge the status quo
There are activities that we do on autopilot. Someone else taught us it was the right way to them, and we never took the time to question them.
By challenging them and backing our claims, we will position our brand as an expert.
Identify what your brand does better than the average company. It can be a process that you manage to do faster, an unusual deliverable that you deem indispensable, or a method to optimize the results for a well-known industry framework.
The goal is not polarization. It is to share a new way of doing things that LinkedIn users can replicate to see benefits.
Share your favorite non-business related tips
Publish a post that shares the go-to game to build interpersonal relationships inside your company, the preferred lunch meal of your sales team, or the newsletter that your founder reads every Sunday.
Create a story
According to LinkedIn expert Heidi Medina, storytelling engages all parts of the brain. It triggers emotions and senses. Since most of our purchase decisions base themselves on emotions, not logic, stories lead to action.
While video engages the most senses, write or design images if it is more comfortable for you and your team.
Whichever format you choose, remember to start with a hook that grabs the attention of LinkedIn users. Near the end of the text or video, encourage people to do an action of your preference: comment their opinion, share the post, or learn more on your website.
Make your message clear and succinct
People scroll LinkedIn in search of interesting content they can quickly read and digest. If you have something important to say, communicate it in the least amount of words.
The well-known internet writer David Perell claims that most writing advice to write well is simple. Make your sentences simpler than you think you should. Use simple words and delete anything redundant. Communicate with a natural and jargon-free tone, as if you were talking to a friend in a bar.
Recommend a book
There are recurring topics that interest your followers. Suggest a book based on the comments, messages, and questions that you receive from LinkedIn users.
Before sharing it, have clarity over the most relevant aspects of the book so that you can highlight them during your recommendation post.
Backup your claims with data
Statistics and examples add credibility to what you share. They separate your brand from those used to generalizations and unproven claims.
The sources depend on your industry. A fashion or retail brand interested in sustainability can refer to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for data around the circular economy. Similarly, a small business can refer to eMarketer to find out about relevant social media trends that they can use to grow their LinkedIn.
Showcase an early version of your product or company.
Produce a video, image, or text post where you tell a story from the past sacrifices your founder made, a screenshot from the onboarding dashboard from three years ago, or the first promotional video you created.
Expose your brand to your team’s network
Your team's social media accounts are underrated sources of brand exposure.
Their followers trust them, so they will listen to what they have to say.
Create incentives so that employees feel motivated to tell others where they work, post consistently, and share news and updates related to your company. You can make the sharing process easy by giving employees templates, roadmaps, and video breakdowns that show them how to share content.
Abbreviate in-depth content into multiple LinkedIn posts
Even if you create valuable content, there is a chance of not reaching LinkedIn users. To avoid this, divide a guide or video you created by its core ideas and create standalone posts that you can share across LinkedIn. Each post increases the likelihood of reaching potential customers.
Publish a recent achievement
Sharing the results of a seed round, acquisition negotiation, software improvement, design sprint, or international expansion campaign strengthens the bond between your company and its fans.
There are two principles to keep in mind. First, humans are attracted to numbers, so include numerical data if you have it. Second of all, you do not have to wait for the results to come. You can also share the actions your company is taking to reach a goal.
Engage in conversations with other companies
Few brands are brave enough to recommend, challenge, or talk to other brands publicly. Ask a question to an industry known company, a less known brand, or even your competitors. Your followers will be as surprised as them.
Host a Q&A
Host a live Q&A that focuses on a specific problem your audience is trying to solve.
For example, a fitness center could let its nutritionist debunk common myths around the Paleo Diet. Another example would be a law firm offering free tax advice to US digital nomads working from Asia.
Be unexpected
Following visual and written guidelines creates familiarity. But it also makes you blend in. You can avoid this by mixing up the angle and format of your posts.
If you are writing, publish lists, quotes, one-line advice, and questions while following the same tone. If you are filming, start each video with a different hook, vary your b-roll, and record in multiple scenes while following visual guidelines.
Borrow the audience of industry leaders
Real-life fame does not always translate into social media recognition. When you start posting on LinkedIn, aim to leverage the audience from a brand or individual to grow yours:
- Comment on their posts with information that adds value or sparks conversation.
- Tag them whenever you include them on your lists of recommended resources or people to follow.
- Condense their latest podcast interview into an actionable post.
- Collaborate with them so that their audience is exposed to your brand.
Encourage discussions
People love a healthy debate. Each time you share an opinion or piece of content that can generate discussion, add a question at the end. Asking people if they agree or disagree can unravel dozens of comments between you and LinkedIn users.
