5 Essential LinkedIn Content Techniques to Engage Your Audience

This is an article on LinkedIn content techniques by John Desyllas of Moosend.

I added some text formatting here and there. Nothing substantial.

A little more than two decades have passed since LinkedIn’s launch in 2003.

The social media platform now has over 660 million users in more than 200 countries. 

It has evolved from being a humble platform that connected job seekers with potential employers into one of the most powerful marketing tools.

Evidently, LinkedIn is a proven channel able to help in 

• driving more traffic
• generating quality leads
• and building brand awareness.

However, it seems that a lot of people get LinkedIn wrong!

This results in the content being awfully boring and people not engaging with it.

It ranges from posting cheesy content to copy-pasting your latest blog post link.

This is not what people want to consume on the platform.

Therefore, I’ve compiled this list of 5 must-do content techniques!

You can can implement to make your content highly engaging and differentiate your brand from the competition.

So, let’s dig in!

1. Use Short Educational Videos

It’s true that most people spend huge amounts of time on social media platforms. 

According to Facebook statistics, people spend more than 50 minutes on the platform.

Also, people spend almost an hour on Youtube and similar amounts of time on Instagram and Snapchat, per day.

This is great, of course. Unfortunately, this is not the case with LinkedIn.

People spend considerably less time on the platform compared to the other social media. 20 minutes approximately, if we’re being generous in calculations.

This indicates that people on LinkedIn browse content fast and efficiently.

Therefore, a ‘dull’ blog post link along with a featured image might not bring the desired clicks and shares you want.

People will just skim through that pasted link and move on.

All the more reason to employ video content, which should ideally be short and concise.

Videos convey tons of information in less time and they are much more engaging and fun to consume.

You know the famous phrase “too long didn’t read” right? People will appreciate a more digestible video than a long wall of text.

What’s more, LinkedIn videos are 5x more likely to start a conversation.

This is excellent for a brand since it gets people talking. Thus, a relationship can be formed with your audience, which is something that most brands strive for.

It is also advisable to upload your videos directly to LinkedIn. As with Facebook, it makes sense as LinkedIn prioritized native videos over YouTube videos on the feed.

You can also use tools like LinkedIn scheduling tools, to schedule and post your content on LinkedIn.

So, overall, short informational videos capture the audience’s attention.

They also provide more value than a blog post link to new content.

Editors note: Neil Patel is a prime example of this technique:

2. Post Industry Trends and How-tos

The number one rule when posting content on social media networks is that you need to customize it for the specific audience you’re talking to.

In order to retain and engage your audience, you have to provide them with meaningful content that resonates with them.

The format doesn’t really matter. What matters the most is quality.

So, to be able to give your audience what they seek – what they want to read – you need to have an in-depth understanding of why they spend their time on the platform.

Fortunately, we have the answer to this.

A study by Buzzsumo indicated that the two types of content that stand out and work well on LinkedIn are industry trends and how-to articles.

You may have come across the following phrases in the headlines of popular articles:

• Industry trends – “the future of,” “in the world,” “the power of,” etc.
• How-to articles – “X ways to”, “how to get”, “how to make,” etc.

What these statistics show is that LinkedIn users are interested in informative and educational content that’s of value to them.

It also indicates that they prefer content that helps them keep up with the latest developments in the industry.

So, be sure to post content that meets the needs of your audience and your LinkedIn marketing strategy will see tremendous benefits.

3. Write Content Directly on LinkedIn

For the majority of people, social media is the way to drive traffic to other places.

For LinkedIn however, keeping people on the platform can often yield better engagement.

It may feel nice to have more clicks on your recent blog posts, but I’m sure you seek real engagement.

So, it’s a good idea to stop sharing links that your audience is ignoring.

Use LinkedIn’s native content system to create short stories that hook your audience, without disrupting their experience on the platform.

You may not see more direct traffic on your site, but you’ll be playing the long game, engaging people and building your brand at the same time.

It is a fact that quality content wins people over every single time.

So why not use the “Write an article” feature on LinkedIn and post short blurbs that focus on storytelling and improve your branding?

When using LinkedIn’s native article feature, your connections get notified every time you publish a piece of content.

This could give you the opportunity for more engagement than organically posting on your feed.

Pro tip: Don’t make the mistake to try and link out in order to drive traffic elsewhere.

People click because they’re interested in what they see, not because they want to be redirected to your blog. So, give them what they want.

4. Use Commitment Openings

In the previous section, we talked about LinkedIn’s powerful native post platform where you can share updates, stories, and information.

However, even the best content cannot be effective if the reader doesn’t read it.

What I mean by that is that you need to hook the reader ideally in the first few lines and get their attention.

This is where commitment openings come into play. Here is an example:

The purpose of such an opening is to elicit a mental agreement from the reader, since once this agreement is established they are more likely to continue reading the post.

The best way to approach this is by asking the reader a closed question, such as:

• “Are you”
• “Have you”
• “Do you”

Then you need to add a struggle in the mix. Find out what your target audience’s greatest problem is. 

For instance “Are you having a hard time generating consistent leads and driving more sales?”

And then comes the rest of the content, of course.

So, highlighting your audience’s pain points and establishing a commitment on their part allows you to tell them how you can help them since you have piqued their interest.

5. Post Thought Leadership Content

According to LinkedIn itself, the content posted on the platform must seek to answer the audience’s questions and solve their pain points.

Even if it’s tempting, you should avoid putting “salesy” content on your LinkedIn page since it generally doesn’t work well.

LinkedIn suggests that “publishing thought leadership content on your Company Page is one of the most powerful ways to grow your LinkedIn audience.”

You can create the following types of thought leadership content:

• Industry thought leadership: Your perspective on recent developments in your industry.
• Product thought leadership:  Positioning yourself as the best solution for your customers.
• Organizational thought leadership: Seen through the vision and ethos of your company.

So, it’s essential to comment and share on thought leaders’ content and also add your own view on the subject.

This technique is excellent since it shows your audience that you keep up with the most recent trends in your industry.

Here is a real example of what I’m talking about.

Finally, with this tactic, you can bring something new into the feed of your Company Page and start building relationships with other brands.

Conclusion

LinkedIn offers an abundance of opportunities to connect your brand with the right people.

Moreover, it has grown into a powerful marketing tool able to help you build brand awareness and promote your products or services as solutions to the users’ problems.

So, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to engage your audience with digestible educational videos that provide value to them.

Make sure to establish their commitment and you’ll see more interest in what you’re offering them.

Keep providing them with the latest trends and thought leadership content and you’ll see high levels of sustained engagement.

All in all, use these 5 essential content techniques to skyrocket your LinkedIn content’s effectiveness.

Author Bio

John Desyllas works as a Content Writer for email marketing automation software Moosend. He is very passionate about marketing and business translation. In his free time, he enjoys searching for new technology gadgets to experiment with and amaze his friends.