What content strategy works on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a powerful way to get leads for your business. It’s also a growing social media platform. And because most of the people you connect with on there have some kind of real-life connection to you, then it’s going to supercharge your content.

However, you need a content strategy that works for LinkedIn so you can leverage this platform for your business. Else you’ll be wasting a lot of time and not making much progress (much like on any other social media network).

Content on the LinkedIn platform increased by 60% last year and continues to grow. So using the platform for content marketing is an increasingly attractive option for businesses.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can create a content strategy that works for LinkedIn.

Frequency of posting

Let’s start with how often you should post on LinkedIn. Common thinking is that once a day is the ideal posting frequency. But common advice may not work for your business and goals.

The key is to post consistently rather than post constantly. This does not mean you need to post every day. Great, if you have the time and capacity to do this but don’t worry if you’re better at posting two or three times a week rather than daily.

What matters more is that your content is interesting and relevant. That is helpful and your followers can find it relatable. A lot of the time, content on LinkedIn is people saying the same thing but in different ways. It’s boring and repetitive.

The posts that stand out at the ones that are different. That make you laugh or make fun of those other try-hard posts. It is better to have consistently good posts that get engagement than it is to post every single day.

Besides, a lot of what happens on LinkedIn does not necessarily happen in the feed. And I’ll come onto this in a moment.

Kinds of posts on LinkedIn

So what should you be posting on LinkedIn? There is nothing more off-putting than a feed full of people telling you to buy their stuff. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have a sales post or two, but that these should be used sparingly.

Instead, think about this as a “getting to know you” platform. You don’t want to jump in and invite a stranger to your party. You want to check they aren’t going to trash the place first. Get to know them a little, build up your relationship. Then you’ll find they are curious about what you do.

So, if you’re not posting sales adverts — what should you be posting? Generally, the rule for all social media is to be helpful. Posting helpful content that solves a small problem or gives someone a lightbulb moment will help them build trust in you.

You should also sprinkle in some stories that highlight your expertise and a bit of what you’re about. And some customer testimonials. You can also give your take on what is happening in your industry. Or use it as a place to do some market research. Some careful questions can give you a lot of data.

Using all the LinkedIn features

LinkedIn is more than posts. You can stick to the text and photo post or add video (note here that you can only upload video on the app and not schedule it from a third-party app).

Then there are polls which are a bit marmite. Or documents, which you can use to create an Instagram-style slider. These are good as they increase the ‘dwell time’ on your posts. This is how long someone spends on your content so the more time, the more valuable LinkedIn sees your content as being.

You also have articles where you can share your long-form content and repost your blogs. Some people in Creator Mode can also get access to a newsletter feature through the article section. Sadly, at the time of writing, I am not one of these people. This is another part of LinkedIn that is a bit marmite — they drip release features to their users and not all in one fell swoop.

You may get access to a new feature before someone else. Or like me and the newsletters, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. I quite like that they do this. It stops everyone from jumping on the new thing and declaring themselves an expert.

And don’t forget groups. I was never a massive fan of LinkedIn groups until I joined John Espirian’s group. This has convinced me otherwise and while they do not have quite the same usability as Facebook groups, they do have potential and are a content feature to watch.

Remember the DMs

As I said earlier, not all content happens on the feed. Remember to use direct messages. There is absolutely a message etiquette to LinkedIn.

Send a message when you send a connection request and make it relevant to the person with who you want to connect:

• Don’t send sales pitches in your messages
• Do reply to messages and take time to maintain conversations in DMs
• Don’t be afraid to send a voice note — but perhaps don’t make this your first message to a stranger.
• Do be respectful of other people’s inboxes.

I think that’s it but let me know if I missed anything. I’d say taking the time to build a relationship with someone over DMs is a great thing to do. If you’re a bit like me and you forget to do this, stick it in your diary to make time. I’ve started doing this through Click Up and I’ve been a much more helpful contact as a result.

Be yourself

Finally, the most important element to any LinkedIn strategy is to be yourself. Remember that people buy from people and building good relationships can only be done by being yourself.

As LinkedIn expert, Sabrina Lee explains: “If you have that philosophy of showing your value rather than what you do, people will listen.

“Then reach out and ask questions of people in your network. Be genuinely interested in their answers.”

This means that it’s not always a good idea to outsource your personal LinkedIn content. In fact, it’s very rare that I’d ever take something like that on as a project and what I instead offer is repurposing longer-form content to LinkedIn posts, such as blogs or podcasts.

LinkedIn Business Pages

A business page, however, needs a different strategy than your personal page. It can be harder for business page content to be seen on LinkedIn but that does not mean you shouldn’t bother. Quite on the contrary, a good business page will get a lot of attention if the content is right.

It is a good idea to have a business page strategy that includes building a strong community around the page. For a couple of examples, look at how well THIS have leveraged their page on LinkedIn to market their product. Or the dating app Thursday. Both are not necessarily the obvious businesses to have a LinkedIn strategy and yet they are putting time and effort into this.

Another great example is VFC — who I think has a brilliant content strategy — where they get more mileage from their outdoor advertising by reposting it on their LinkedIn page. This is then supported by the founder of the company. As a family, we recently tried to spot as many VFC adverts on the underground as we could. My son won spotting three times as many as I did.

LinkedIn Strategy

If you are creating a content strategy that focuses on LinkedIn, you can’t go far wrong by treating it as a conversation rather than a broadcast.