Over 530 million users worldwide, 200 countries, and 24 languages – this is Linkedln in numbers. And the numbers don’t lie. When Reed Hoffman created a social network that competed with Facebook in 2002, which then triumphed, he had no idea that it would soon become the world’s largest network of business contacts.
This is why it’s important to have a LinkedIn content marketing plan in place.
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Today, Linkedln is still a dynamically developing platform, which is increasingly used as a channel for effective content marketing. Linkedln’s intention was created as a place to establish professional and business contacts. It’s not as popular as Facebook, it doesn’t have the same firepower as Twitter, and yet over 530 million people today have LinkedIn accounts, and 40% of them visit the website several times a day.
Despite this, advertisers still underestimate LinkedIn. There is an opinion that advertising on it is expensive, difficult to set up, and inefficient. They often say that the site itself is not friendly towards companies that would like to entrust their promotional budget to it.
Nothing could be worse!
If you want to reach certain business recipients with information about your products or services, or business owners and company executives.
LinkedIn should be your first choice when it comes to social networking sites.
Of course, you need to start with effective communication: open a business account and regularly publish interesting content. However, without the use of advertising mechanisms, you will quickly lose control of your reach. 
To prevent this, use the LinkedIn advertising panel
- Reach the right people with your message
- Achieve your business goals
- Generate new leads
The popularity and effectiveness of content marketing stem from the fact that it quickly provides the recipient with the information they need and thus solves their problem. If content marketing is well implemented, when solving problems, it also provides entertainment to the recipient – on the principle of “play and learn”.
Content marketing activities conducted in this way additionally build the authority of the brand, which in the eyes of the recipient becomes an expert in its field.
The recipient knows that he can trust her and thus becomes her client.
Content marketing is also a great way to attract people who are interested in a given topic, even if they don’t become customers in the beginning.
We search the Internet for information on various topics that interest us – and we look at websites and profiles that convey that knowledge. In this way, recipients become involved in the life of our profile and increase the reach of our social media.
Content marketing in social media
Content marketing is often associated with blogging and writing articles, e-books, or guides, posting answers on Quora, creating e-books and guides…
On social networks, this is a bit limited, although long texts (as long as the given platform allows) are very popular and are easily accepted by many target groups. On the other hand, for example, you can post articles on LinkedIn in the form and length of similar blog entries – but reading them requires additional clicks and exits from the platform’s main “timeline”.
Therefore, it is worth using other forms in social media, such as infographics, photos, digital jigsaw puzzles, podcasts, live shows, presentations, and webinars. Of course, a lot depends on the platform itself and your target audience. If you can’t find out which shape they prefer when creating people and target groups, try different solutions and analyze reactions.
Linkedin Advertising Account
To be able to run a LinkedIn account at all, you must meet two conditions. The system requires you to:
- setting up your own profile (well, that’s obvious, but let’s mention that)
- creating an account for your company – the local equivalent of a fan page
Then you need to link yourself (or someone else) to your corporate account. Otherwise, you will not be able to display ads on his behalf. After these steps, access to enterprise account management and advertising options will appear in your account.
It’s time to create the third and, fortunately, the last order – Campaign Manager. They must be linked to the corporate website. So go to the ad creation panel and select ‘Ad Management.’ The system will ask you to log in. Use the same information you use to log in to your private profile.
This is how you will find yourself in the advertising panel. From here you have access to all your advertising accounts (yours or those shared with you) or you can set up new ones.
Let’s consider the last case. Just click “Add Account”.
Remember to choose the correct currency for billing. Unfortunately, for now, you can pay for ads on LinkedIn in dollars or euros. The currency of the account cannot be changed, so make this decision based on the information!
The era of content marketing in the history of Linkedln
According to his assumption, Linkedln was supposed to play primarily a social function, but today his role exceeds the original assumptions. The platform is increasingly focused on providing high quality content, reaching a wider group of users, and gaining recognition among marketing professionals.
Significant changes began in 2012 with the purchase of Slideshare content, a website for publishing presentations and documents. From now on, information about each added presentation is automatically published in the news.
Two years later, Linkedln bought Pulse, which transformed it into a longer platform for publishing content (LinkedIn Publisher), and in 2015, it bought the LinkedIn e-learning portal, which offers online courses.
The purchase of these platforms has given LinkedIn users new opportunities.
Today, it is not only a tool for efficient networking and talent recruitment but also a great place to conduct content marketing activities, enabling you to reach valuable business partners and customers. The trust of users in this portal and the content on it is very high, which means that the content of marketing that is conducted in its field has a huge potential.
LinkedIn is constantly changing, both in terms of appearance and in terms of the functioning of a private profile or company page. Therefore, it gives users and merchants more and more tools for publishing interesting content.
Until recently, only video material that was already available on YouTube could be found on the site (by posting a link to it). And to add several photos at the same time, you would have to create a collage in the appropriate graphics program.
In 2017, changes were made to allow the creation of photo albums. 
A year later the Vimeo platform was fully integrated into the company’s website on LinkedIn, giving participants the opportunity to review analytics and review statistics.
At the end of 2018, a tool for curated content was introduced on the site, which enabled efficient search and publication of articles popular among the target group. The above figures are another confirmation that publishing and distributing interesting and engaging content via LinkedIn can bring satisfactory results.
Use LinkedIn Pulse to distribute your content
The LinkedIn Pulse platform allows you to create and publish longer texts, and thus – build the image of an expert. It has a very easy-to-use, intuitive text editor; Allows indexing in the search engine (in the “Articles” section), notifying contacts about the publication of the article, and checking the number of its views.
All statistics on the published article are just below the title.
Just click on the number of likes to see who was interested in the article and who shared it.
This information can be used effectively if the persons involved are contacted later.
1. Write regularly
According to LinkedIn research conducted in 2017, companies that publish about 20 posts per month on their LinkedIn page are able to reach up to 60% of their followers. While this number is lower than the 100% reach that was possible through social media in 2014, it is still the most effective way for companies to grow their online presence.
2. Make sure the title of your post is interesting and engaging
Use keywords – remember that the title is indexed in the Google search engine. The use of keywords in the title is one of the most important aspects of SEO. A title should be concise and informative, but also include as many keywords as possible without sacrificing clarity.
3. Make your message more appealing
Enrich your content with photos, videos, and links. Remember that you can also add a slide-sharing presentation to the content of your post. Visual content is a powerful way to engage your audience and make your content more appealing. Look for videos, pictures, or other relevant links to add when it’s appropriate. Slide-sharing presentations will help you share your content on a wide range of social media platforms and expand your reach.
4. Post content during the week, in the morning, or in the middle of the day
It’s no surprise that the best time to post content is when there is a higher volume of people online. But what type of schedule suits your company best? Should you post in the morning when your audience is at work? In the middle of the day, when they’re commuting home from work? Or during the evening hours, when they’re winding down from the day? Make sure your timing is right.
5. Targeted entries
Depending on factors such as industry, country, or company size – edit / compile them to reach your target audience. In the case of sponsored posts, you can further adjust the size of the company, business, and other parameters.
Linkedin content formats and types
1. Publications – formats and possibilities
Posting on LinkedIn is the equivalent of posting on Facebook. Unlike Facebook, you have a limited number of characters: 1300 including spaces.
The advantage is the ability to add PDF files, which no other social network can offer.
What format can a Linkedin publication have?
- plain text
- text + photo
- text + video (maximum length: 10 minutes)
- text + PDF file
- text + link to link (video, blog, etc.)
- surveys and other features available only on Linkedin
2. Articles on LinkedIn, this is your content available on the Internet
Remember that links on LinkedIn can be up to 1300 characters long? There are 40,000 characters with spaces in the article, and you can attach various materials.
How to publish an article?
Select “Write an article on LinkedIn” and the portal will take you to the LinkedIn microblog.
Join groups to share content
On LinkedIn, there are thematic groups that differ in terms of industry, market, and professional group. It is a perfect place to share knowledge and enter into discussions with other participants of the website.
To find an interesting group, all you have to do is enter the appropriate password in the browser, even to point to the target. Below are examples of group search results for “content marketing”.
Create your own group
There are many benefits to creating your own group on LinkedIn. Thanks to that, you are free to promote a given topic by placing it at the top of the group, controlling the content that is published on it. Leading a thematic group on this portal is a good way to build the image of experts in a given field or activity, as well as to reach the desired target group.
To remember!
Starting a group on the portal allows direct access to the e-mail boxes of its members.
Each person who joins the group has a default consent to receive messages.
Distribute content using sponsored posts
On LinkedIn, it is worth betting on sponsored content that is displayed in the news feed – it can be content prepared by the creator or a post published in company profile updates. Sponsored posts can be charged using cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) methods.
LinkedIn offers the possibility of business targeting, which means that it is possible to indicate the industry, position, or size of the company of the potential target group. Therefore, it is an effective way to reach decision makers and industry leaders. To start your campaign, go to the “Products” section and then click “Advertise.”
The Ads Wizard will allow you to set up the correct configurations. Thanks to this, updates will be displayed on the boards of the selected target group. Regularly tracking your impressions, clicks, demographics, and clickthrough rates will help you better adjust your ads. LinkedIn has highly accurate analytical tools, which allow a precise comparison of the effectiveness of content, sponsored and unsponsored.
Sponsored content on LinkedIn – what should you remember?
Make sure sponsored content is useful to your audience. Don’t use spam and intrusive advertising. Connect your content with different target groups to see which one gives you the best results.
LinkedIn is a website that is dynamically developing and enables the implementation of content marketing activities and effective communication with the target group, both for individuals and businesses. On this platform, you can publish professional articles, sponsored content, e-books, presentations, videos, podcasts, white papers, and reports.
The main thing is to act regularly and remind your audience of yourself. Thanks to that, the published content will be up-to-date and your brand will be visible. The greater the useful value of the content you distribute, the greater the chances that you will be appreciated.
Worth reading:
3. Articles on marketing activities on Linkedln in “Marketer +”
Final thoughts on a LinkedIn marketing plan
If you have ever had the opportunity to place an ad on Facebook or Twitter, then you will feel at home in the Linkedin advertising panel. Let’s be honest: all PPC (Pay Per Click) systems on social networks are more or less similar to each other.
Why do we especially value Linkedin?
A contentful content, a unique approach to people by name and surname, and above all high positioning of articles on Linkedin in Google.
The relatively high reach and life cycle of the publication cannot be overestimated. If you’ve ever analyzed the reach of the same publication on Facebook and LinkedIn, you know that publications on LinkedIn convert better and live longer.