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By Dora Salemi, CEO of SpicyMinds
LinkedIn has become a controversial network in recent months , as it has implemented a new visualization and has included some functions such as stories, which for some users have not necessarily clicked with their strategies.
As entrepreneurs, on LinkedIn it is important to have context to make a decision whether or not it is worth developing some simple habits to grow our network and our business.
At this moment, LinkedIn is positioned as the number 9 network in the world, its users are 43% women and 57% men (a fairly balanced percentage), and most of the users of this network are between 25 and 34 years old.
In the third quarter of 2020, LinkedIn reported having more than 722 million active users worldwide , of these, more than 107 million are in Latin America, and particularly Mexico is in the top 3 in number of users.
Like other social networks, one of the options we have within LinkedIn is to run advertising campaigns through paid ads. Unlike other networks, LinkedIn has a minimum daily investment amount of $ 10 , making it a not very accessible network for small businesses, and one of the most expensive among Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to name a few.
Today more than 50 million companies have created a business profile within the platform, using it to disseminate content, or to publish vacancies or job opportunities. Do not forget that LinkedIn was born with an important objective of connection between employers and potential candidates, and this continues to be one of its main functions, since three hires per minute are made through this platform , and more than 40 million are registered. of users looking for a job opportunity.
Therefore, the most important investment you can make in this network is your time, but this does not mean that you have to dedicate too many hours, with a set block of time per day, you can start generating valuable results.
HubSpot found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads , unlike Facebook and Twitter, but you have to be very clear that it is a trade-off between quality and quantity. What does this mean? On LinkedIn you will get a much lower number of leads than on Facebook, however, their level of qualification and interest is higher.
Clearly one of the strengths of LinkedIn is the advanced segmentation capacity , in which you can not only generate an audience linked to interests, you can also segment by position, industry, seniority and specifically even by company. This goes well beyond the targeting of demographics, interests, and geographic locations offered by other platforms.
This is particularly relevant for the B2B industry, where the target is a small, niche and decision-making audience .
A study done by LinkedIn reports that a decision maker consumes a minimum of 10 content before making a purchase decision , these can be articles, notes, webinars and that this network (more than other networks), is a place where They feel comfortable in searching or consuming this type of content, since it is shared by experts in the sector and it is not lost in the middle of publications of different types, such as entertainment or memes (very common in other social networks).
The same study shows that 94% of marketing departments use LinkedIn constantly for content distribution , and 79% of them declare that LinkedIn is an efficient source for lead generation.
One of LinkedIn’s strengths is its advanced targeting capabilities / Image: inlytics | LinkedIn Analytics Tool via Unsplash
Although LinkedIn offers the opportunity to generate business pages, the best and most effective way to spread content to your niche of users is using personal profiles.
LinkedIn has become a spectacular tool to become a benchmark in a business environment, but beware, that is not going to happen only by sharing content from others or giving “like” to publications, you have to put something on the table, generate interest and be a true ambassador not of what you sell , but of the problem that you manage to solve through your product / service.
Also remember that LinkedIn is full of people looking to recruit others, looking for work, or wanting to sell something. The way to stand out is by sharing valuable and useful content for a target audience. Do not use LinkedIn to make sale, sale, sale, use it to become a benchmark in the industry, your sector, your product and the only way to achieve this is by sharing your knowledge, your experience and your opinion.
Definitely doing it can become a commitment, but analyzing the data that LinkedIn shares with us on the increase in conversions and specialized traffic, it is probably a good idea to move your personal efforts to generate content on Twitter to do it via LinkedIn, especially in B2B and if it is a very niche service or product that requires executive and / or managerial decision making.
There are some habits that can be developed for when this happens in a dynamic of very busy days:
1. Spend 15 minutes a day scrolling on LinkedIn, but not a navigation to waste time, but an intentional scroll. What do I mean by this? Review and almost study what the people in your network are talking about that you think may be potential customers. In those 15 minutes interact with them, not only with a simple reaction, seek to comment with something that adds value, if they made a publication talk with them, as if you were in a real conversation, an article can be the beginning of a valuable interaction .
2. Invest 15 minutes to write a short content of value that may be of interest to your audience, share data or information from third parties but always include a personal comment or opinion. Unlike other social networks, users on LinkedIn seek that exchange of ideas on professional, market or business topics.
3. Intentionally grow your network , I do not mean to add to your profile all the people who ask us for permission, you want your network to be as close as possible to the type of users with whom you really want to relate, from a point of view of business.
Ultimately, LinkedIn is a very valuable network if it is used in the right way. It requires time, attention and individual and personal involvement in order to achieve business goals and effective virtual networking.
