If you still think that LinkedIn is just a social media platform for job seekers and recruiters, think again. LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and today has over 500 million members and more than 250 million members logging in each month.
A large number of those members are the movers and shakers of the business world. Approximately 61 million are senior level influencers, and 40 million are in decision-making positions. It’s the most-used social media platform of Fortune 500 companies. More than half of all social traffic to B2B sites comes from LinkedIn, and 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content.
How do you know if it’s worth the time and investment for your business? And if it is, where do you focus your efforts? Here is some research to help you answer those questions.
Deciding if LinkedIn is Right for Your Business
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What Industries are
Using LinkedIn?
Although LinkedIn doesn’t share the number of users with
specific types of accounts, they do report that Human Resources is the most
connected job function on LinkedIn followed by product management, business
development, marketing, and consulting. In addition, LinkedIn has over 10
million job listings.
Staffing and recruiting is the most connected industry on
LinkedIn followed by:
·venture capital and private equity
·human resources
·management consulting
·online media
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Revenue Generators
for LinkedIn
According to a recent LinkedIn earnings report:
·talent solutions made up about 65% of its
revenue
·marketing solutions made up about 18%
·premium subscriptions made up about 17%
So, where do you think LinkedIn will put most of its focus? It’s
a safe bet to say talent solutions because it makes up more than two-thirds of
the platform’s revenue. This suggests that LinkedIn probably won’t be putting
as much effort into marketing and advertising improvements as other social
media platforms do.
Therefore, consider other ways – besides paid advertising –
to utilize the power of LinkedIn.
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Long-Form Content on
LinkedIn
One way to leverage LinkedIn is to focus on developing long-form
content. The amount of material posted on LinkedIn has had phenomenal growth.
Data shows that in 2014, approximately 1,000 blog-length articles were published
each month. In 2015, that number went up to 80,000, and by 2016, there were
about 130,000 articles posted on LinkedIn each month.
Unlike other social media platforms where visual content
performs best, it appears that long-form content performs best on LinkedIn. The
most shared content were articles of 1,000 to 3,000 words, but surprisingly
only a small amount of material posted on LinkedIn was more than 1,000 words
(approximately 17%).
BuzzSumo discovered that the subject matter that seems to
perform the best on LinkedIn is focused on personal, professional, portraying
(a path for change), and point (towards past experiences). The popularity of
this more serious content on LinkedIn makes sense since it is more of a business-networking
site than other social media platforms.
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LinkedIn From a
Marketer’s Perspective
There is a lot of interest in LinkedIn among marketers. More
than 56% of marketers surveyed, currently use LinkedIn as part of their social
media marketing strategy. It’s no surprise that 81% of B2B marketers use
LinkedIn while only 44% of B2C marketers are using it, that’s nearly a 2:1
ratio.
Over the last year, 31% of marketers have increased their
use of LinkedIn, and they’re posting an average of four times a day. Over the
last year, approximately 31% of marketers have increased how frequently they
post on LinkedIn.
As for the future… More than half say they’re planning on
increasing their posting activity and only 2% say they’re planning on
decreasing their activity on LinkedIn.
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Facebook Overtakes
LinkedIn for B2B
However, for the first time in the history of Social
Media Examiner’s social media marketing industry report
, Facebook
has surpassed LinkedIn by a minimal margin as the most important social media
platform for B2B marketers.
It seems that many marketers are still trying to figure out
how to make LinkedIn work for them.
Get Your Social Media
Marketing Plan on Track!
Still not sure if or how LinkedIn fits into your online
strategy? Give Power Marketing International a call at 484-297-6395
or contact
us online
. We can help you design and manage a digital marketing strategy that’s
optimized for your business!