26th July, 2018
Publishing on LinkedIn can feel like yelling into an empty room if your content isn’t cutting through. Here are four ways to get your followers clicking.
In recent years, LinkedIn has become the place for those in professional services to polish their CV until it gleams, while also cultivating their brand using content.
By creating and sharing thought-provoking posts, individuals can demonstrate expertise in their chosen field and generally position themselves as “thought leaders”.
MYOB’s social media lead, James Curnow, has seen the trend play out in real-time over the past five years.
“It’s getting harder for businesses [and individuals] to cut through and stand out against the competition,” he told The Pulse. “Content provides a huge opportunity to do something that helps you differentiate your brand.”
He said the best content builds an affinity between the creator and their audience. One of the best ways to doing this is to create content that demonstrates you understand a potential customer’s pain points.
“An accounting firm could do this by producing articles communicating the latest tax law changes and providing commentary on what impact these changes will have on their clients,” said Curnow.
“This tells the target audience that you know what you’re talking about, but it also gives them valuable information that will genuinely help them.”
He said the most important thing anybody can do to help build an audience is to post regularly.
“If your aim is to drive brand awareness and consideration, it’s unlikely that any individual piece of content is going to do that,” said Curnow.
“It’s about exposing your target audiences to enough content over an extended period of time …so that when the time comes for them to make a purchase decision you’re the first company they think of.”
READ: How to content when you have no time to content
What makes any individual post stand out? LinkedIn has some ideas around that.
Last year Nielsen and LinkedIn teamed up to analyse the most successful posts on LinkedIn and look at some of the not-so-successful ones in the financial services sector.
They came up with a series of four principles which were linked with increased click through and engagement.
Want to know what they are?
It turns out that numbers help people make sense of the data and give the content credibility.
People are much more comfortable believing things involving numbers. That’s why statistics are such a powerful way of storytelling.
By linking a number to your content (like this post), you give the statement you make specificity, and therefore credibility.
The research found that people preferred whole and absolute numbers as well.
Financial services content using numbers to frame a post do 291 percent better than those that don’t.
Let’s face it, nobody’s whiling away an afternoon on LinkedIn to be entertained. Instead, they’re on it for networking and getting resources that will help them succeed.
By framing a post around a problem, you’ll attract people who are suffering that same problem – but that’s only half the equation.
Nielsen and LinkedIn found that the best content offers a solution to that problem, because it gives the reader or viewer an emotional payoff.
Financial services content posing a problem and offering a solution had a 41 percent higher engagement rate than those that didn’t.
It goes without saying, but LinkedIn content is most likely being viewed on mobile screens.
If you want somebody to stop on your content, you’ve got to make sure the post’s simple.
This means no reams of text for people to trudge through to find the point you’re trying to make.
People’s working memory is fickle – it can only really process about seven things at once. For the best chance of being remembered, keep it simple.
Posts that adhered to the KISS principle had 64 percent higher engagement rates than the norm.
This one’s all about knowing your audience and who you’re trying to reach.
Offering people content that relates to their experience is a great way to make sure your posts are engaging.
Our brain processes information that directly relates to ourselves first, so framing your content in a relevant way to your target audience is key.
Content that directly relates to the audience is 204 percent more effective than a regular post.