Posting Best Practices
Yasmina Akni Ebourki
Last updated: Aug 28, 2024
If you've been on LinkedIn for a while, you know it's one of the platforms that provides access to a massive audience of up to 1 billion members, making it an excellent place to showcase your business.
But be careful, selling your service in a pushy, "salesy" way just doesn't work anymore, and creators on LinkedIn know that.
Most people, including yourself, can spot when someone is trying to sell them something, and it’s a major turn-off.
What works is providing value, solving problems, and speaking the same language as your client. To start, you can do this organically through LinkedIn.
But then, how do you use LinkedIn to promote your product?
One of the techniques that’s gaining traction—and will likely continue to grow—is promoting through personal accounts.
Let me explain more about personal branding, how to leverage it for promotion, and how to optimize your strategy to make the most of this approach.
TL;DR: To enhance your company's visibility on LinkedIn, try using thought leader ads. This strategy promotes your product through content created by influential figures who have mentioned your product. It boosts visibility by leveraging personal branding and the credibility of these creators.
Personal Posts vs. Company Page Posts
The first thing you need to know is that personal accounts on LinkedIn and company pages don't have the same impact and therefore don’t achieve the same visibility.
Why?
Because LinkedIn, at its core, is a social network, and as such, it favors creators over companies.
A personal post, with a real face behind it, is going to stand out more than a post from a company page with just a logo and no human element.
That’s why even when the content is identical, it often has a much greater impact when shared on a personal profile than on a company page.
Once you understand how the algorithm works and who it favors, it’s time to adjust your promotion strategy accordingly.
But be careful—not having a company page is not an option. You need one.
However, if you want to promote your product effectively, you’ll need to approach it differently.
How to Promote LinkedIn Posts?
One way to give your company the boost it needs is through LinkedIn ads.
The LinkedIn Ads feature allows you to promote or highlight specific posts.
But how do you do this effectively, knowing that your company page won’t get as much visibility?
The strategy I want to show you gained traction during the pandemic and has only grown since then.
LinkedIn refers to it as "Thought Leader Ads".
What are Through Leader Ads?
Thought leader ads are a way to promote your product through the accounts of established creators.
By using this approach, you ensure that your content gains more visibility, target a creator who has already cultivated the niche you're interested in, and, most importantly, build trust with the audience.
It focuses on giving visibility to content generated by company accounts that engage in personal branding and have mentioned your product in one of their posts.
It might sound similar to influencer marketing, but it’s not exactly the same.
If you’ve decided to give through leader ads a try, here’s a strategy to follow:
Define your goals
As with any paid advertising campaign, clearly outline your goals. Understand your market and niche, and determine what you aim to achieve with this strategy.
Identify the Content
This is where you’ll spend the most time. Search through numerous posts to find the ones where a creator has mentioned your service.
Ensure the message aligns with your brand and that there are no inconsistencies.
However, don’t seek perfection—authentic, personal content often resonates more than polished, robotic posts.
Look for posts that spark conversations, provide valuable information, or offer unique perspectives.
Metrics like comments and likes can help gauge engagement, though impressions might be harder to access unless you request them from the creator.
Request Permission
Ask the creator for permission to promote their post. You can manage this directly through LinkedIn Campaign Manager from your company page.
Keep in mind that the creator’s public profile and trustworthiness add credibility to the content, making it more relatable to your target audience.
Promote the Content
Use LinkedIn’s sponsored post feature to promote the content as-is. Consider adding visual elements to enhance its appeal if necessary.
This tactic can be used with established creators on LinkedIn, but you can also do it yourself.
The first thing to know is that you can start by doing personal branding on your own CEO account.
Sharing stories about your business and leveraging storytelling, allows your product to reach audiences through you.
This way, you can promote your brand by highlighting your personal value.
The second option is to give visibility to your employees' posts.
If your employees actively engage on LinkedIn and create valuable posts, it’s a great way to highlight them while indirectly promoting your business.
Finally, if you prefer not to center your brand around yourself or your employees, you can always collaborate with established content creators.
You can propose sponsoring one of their posts where they highlight your product or share how they use it.
Just remember, it's important to avoid a salesy or overly pushy approach, as this is what often turns potential buyers away.
In summary, by using this tactic, you not only gain credibility and build trust but also humanize your company through personal branding.
Additionally, you grow your community with the help of thought leaders who are likely to generate much more engagement than other types of posts.
Analyzing Performance
Once you’ve shared your content, it’s crucial to thoroughly analyze its performance to determine if you’ve achieved your objectives.
Performance Metrics Overview
If you’ve followed the correct stages, you should be able to gauge the success of your strategy with a few key metrics.
LinkedIn provides real-time data and insights that are essential for fine-tuning your approach.
Start by examining how your post has performed in terms of likes, clicks, impressions, and overall engagement.
This will give you a general sense of how well your content resonated with your audience.
To gain deeper insights, consider performing A/B testing if you used different visuals or messages.
Compare the performance of each variation to determine which was more effective.
This method can help you understand what specific elements contributed to higher engagement or better results.
If your initial goal was to drive sales or specific actions, focus on analyzing conversions.
Check conversion tracking links to measure how many sales or desired actions were generated from your post.
This will help you connect your content efforts directly to tangible outcomes, providing a clearer picture of its effectiveness.
Tracking Engagement and Reach
Evaluate engagement metrics such as comments, shares, and the overall reach of your content.
This will help you understand how well your content is driving interaction and spreading through your network.
Look at demographic insights to see which segments of your audience are most responsive, and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
Based on the data collected, refine your approach to improve future content.
Identify patterns or trends in what worked and what didn’t, and use these insights to optimize your content strategy.
Adjust your visuals, messaging, and targeting to better align with your audience’s preferences and behavior.
By continuously analyzing and refining based on performance data, you can enhance the effectiveness of your LinkedIn content strategy, ensuring that each post contributes to your overall goals.
