By Susan Horn, Head of Content Marketing and Creative Services at Keep Left
These days, according to Edelman’s 2019 Trust Barometer, 59% of people trust a brand’s social media presence over and above their advertising (41%).
Clearly, with more than 3 billion people using social media (and counting), it’s incredibly important to nail this mode of communication.
After all, “only those who publish bold, exciting and engaging content will prevail,” says Linkedin’s Global Social Media Lead Steve Kearns.
Find the right audience, get the right engagmement
According to Linkedin’s research, almost half of all traffic to brand homepages comes from their platform. And not just any old traffic: 61 million Linkedin users are senior-level influencers and 40 million hold decision-making positions, which goes some way to explaining their high cost per click rates.
In this case, your chances of engaging someone who has the power to actually act on their interaction with you (and potentially convert into customers) are high. And while business presence in other media landscapes can seem intrusive, Linkedin users are there by choice, ready and willing to engage with relevant content from and by brands and businesses.
The takeaway? Relevancy is key. Make sure you are targeting an audience that you know your presence will resonate with, and that have the influence needed to act on their intrigue.
Thought leadership drives demand
According to research conducted by Edelman and Linkedin, 91% of business decision makers view thought leadership as important. Everybody wants access to expert insight, and every brand wants to be seen as an expert. By tapping into the magic of storytelling, creating a content roadmap that ensures you’re bringing timely, authentic and valuable insights to life, and then making your social media page a destination, you can build trust and relevance in the eyes of your audience.
Your profile is the atlas to your thought leadership if you will, where your content and engagement are hosted for all to see. It paints a picture for your audience of who you are as a business and also what you’ve got to say.
Set goals, get goals – even organically
Want to reach 1 million followers on social media without paying for reach? Linkedin’s social media experts say you can: that is, as long as you set engagement targets, pay attention to what your audience wants and needs, and maintain consistent publishing cycles. This means having a plan and sticking to it. One post a day is Linkedin’s suggested optimal cadence, but every brand and audience is unique, so trial and error is important.
The quality of the content is obviously imperative. Every post has to add value or you risk simply spamming and alienating your audience. Lean into highly visual, eye-catching content formats (text-only is dead), experiment with new visual trends, engage with users in the comments, use hashtags and calls to action, and above all – analyse…
Analyse your audience for ultimate value
You’ll only grow your audience if you understand your audience, and this requires monitoring how your existing content and presence performs. On Linkedin you can do this using the in-built Linkedin Page Insights function, but all social platforms have insights functionality, or access to third-party options to analyse your performance and understand your audience.
From measuring reach and engagement to giving you future content suggestions based on top-performing pieces, mapping the ongoing successes and supposed failures of your content helps to improve your performance and bring even more value to your readership in future. Always remember that the brands or business that people want to engage with are those that provide real value to their audience.
The cherry on top? Tap into paid media
Paid media is less about the volume of audience than it is about the targeting of audience. Boosting a post with spend will obviously help improve your reach, but using your budget to really narrow down the people you want to reach helps improve your ROI tenfold. Whether you’re investing in top performing organic content, or creating ads from scratch, you have the chance to reach the right people, at the right time – it’s all within your control.
Ultimately, adding value will return better results. So whether you’re a social media manager or a CMO, ensuring we’re all on the same page. The digital landscape can be a bridge between brand and audience, but to make the most of this opportunity you have to put the needs of your audience first.
