On average, a LinkedIn post gets 30% more inbound traffic than its corresponding blog article. Here’s how to increase your chances of getting discovered by targeting the right people. Using social media to get accurate results is one of a marketer’s most challenging things. Anyone with tens of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising may do so, but not all firms have that sort of money. The good news is that you can accomplish it for a lot less money, even for free (minus your time)—it’s just more difficult. Today, I’ll show you four different methods to leverage LinkedIn to deliver traffic and quality leads to your website. LinkedIn has over 300 million users and receives over 187 million unique visitors every month. LinkedIn is the most extensive social network in the United States, surpassing Facebook and Twitter. But, more crucially, LinkedIn is an even better marketing tool for your company than those other social networks because of the way it’s constructed.
Advantage of LinkedIn
A marketer’s finest weapon is organic reach. It refers to the number of followers or contacts you may get on a social media platform by updating your status (without paying). The majority of networks are transitioning to a “pay to play” model, in which you must pay to reach all of your followers. This is usually due to an overabundance of material being produced. Feeds would move too rapidly if the site didn’t restrict everyone’s access, and users would lose a lot of value. However, the reality remains that in 2015, the average Facebook reach was just approximately 2.6 percent.
And it’s not going to remain there for long. Facebook’s organic reach has been slowly falling for years:
Meanwhile, on Twitter, the second-largest social media platform, a tweet may reach approximately 10% of followers. However, some claim to have only reached 3.61 percent. Furthermore, the engagement rates on such tweets are often relatively low. However, there are two distinct networks. The first is Instagram, which has a roughly 20% organic reach. That sounds reasonable given that it’s an image-based network and people digest visuals quicker than words. LinkedIn is the second social media platform. Although it’s a content-based platform (similar to Facebook), your status updates and posts should still reach around 20% of your network.
I’ll teach you how to get the most out of this present chance. But first, there are a few more things you should know about LinkedIn, beginning with the traffic quality. People aren’t utilizing LinkedIn to pass the time or enjoy themselves on other social media platforms. They are actively seeking to develop their brand, learn more about their sector, and advance their careers. They’re searching for ways to interact with individuals and businesses on the network. This is why business websites get much more referral traffic than any other network, including Facebook. LinkedIn drives 64 percent of social media referral traffic to companies, while Facebook comes in second with just 17 percent.
Hubspot discovered that LinkedIn traffic converts at 2.74 percent in a survey of over 5,000 organizations. That is an incredible average rate. Compared to Facebook and Twitter, which convert at 0.77 percent and 0.69 percent, respectively, this is a significant difference.
LinkedIn may be a terrific platform for your marketing efforts, whether you provide goods or services to companies or professionals. Finally, since I know some of you are curious, I must say that it may boost your search ranks. Some links will be dofollow and have a little beneficial influence on your rankings if you create material on LinkedIn Pulse (I’ll teach you how to do it soon).
Some of your links will be nofollow, and I have yet to find an apparent reason for this. However, according to some preliminary research, links in the body of your articles are far more likely to get dofollow, so keep that in mind for the time being.
Some LinkedIn traffic-driving strategies:
1. LinkedIn Pulse is still going strong: With little effort, you can increase your traffic.
LinkedIn purchased Pulse for $90 million in 2013. Initially, it was a content publication platform to which only those who had been invited could contribute. This featured well-known CEOs such as Mark Cuban. After its takeover, Pulse has remained a content publishing platform, including stories from anybody who writes on LinkedIn. This is your chance to reach a massive audience with your material. One word of caution: just because you publish anything on LinkedIn doesn’t imply it will appear in the Pulse channel. Only items that seem to be gaining momentum are shown on Pulse. In a moment, I’ll go through how you can improve your odds.
First and foremost, you must comprehend why all of this work is worthwhile. Getting picked up by Pulse is similar to guest blogging on the most popular blog in your field. How many subscribers might a regular guest post get you? If you guest-post correctly, you’ll probably get 100 or so. Are you a LinkedIn Pulse user? What if you could get 200 subscribers with just one article? You won’t always strike that mark, but you can get close if you develop the appropriate kind of material. Andrew Hutchinson learned more about which posts weren’t included on Pulse via a case study of 20 LinkedIn postings. On one of his first successful pieces, he was also able to convert visitors at a 2% conversion rate (89 subscriptions from 4,500 views).
- How does LinkedIn posting work?
All of your followers are alerted when you first submit a post.
Your followers are made up of your first-degree connections and anybody who follows you after reading one of your posts. Although not all of your followers are likely to be active on LinkedIn or interested in reading your post, a significant portion of them will get the notice quickly after you publish it. You’ll need some contacts to get started on LinkedIn, but that won’t take long. You can locate connections in groups (which is a different method I’ll teach you) if you have no ties in your industry—returning to your original post. Your material will be assessed based on those first impressions. The quality of your material is determined by a mix of likes, comments, shares, and views on LinkedIn. If it is high enough, your score may be picked up and shared on the Pulse channel. When it comes to LinkedIn posting, becoming featured regularly is crucial. It makes a significant effect, with an average of 10x more views and 30x more comments.
That initial Pulse feature is crucial since it’s via it that you’ll begin to grow your following. It will be much simpler to meet the quality score requirement and get picked up by Pulse after you have a substantial number of followers interested in your subject. Do you recall Hutchinson? With his first featured piece, the writer I described before increased his following count by 50%. His following count climbed 50% when the next highlighted report received even more views. Even while the short-term outcomes aren’t bad, as I’ve shown you so far, this technique, like many great social media methods, has to be continued over time to achieve the best results.
- What can you do to increase your chances of getting featured on the Pulse channel?
Let’s begin with the material. You must generate content that these targeted consumers desire to view and share, just like you would with any other marketing channel. Since we’re on LinkedIn, this primarily implies professional information that is informative, useful, or thought-provoking (e.g., career choices or business strategy). It all begins with a compelling title and a persuasive issue. Don’t simply wing it if you don’t know what to write about. Instead, use BuzzSumo’s content explorer to find a suitable term and arrange it by LinkedIn shares. This will pull up the top popular articles for that term on LinkedIn:
Copy the first 5-10 results (that’s all you get with a free account). Then, repeat the search for 5-10 other crucial keywords for your company. Finally, you should have 25-50 subject ideas that have been proven to work.
Start thinking about enhancing the concepts or giving them a new spin at this phase. Your article may be:
- more based on data
- bigger and better (longer)
- more sensible (step-by-step instructions)
- modernized (if the topic changes over time)
For example, announcing the 2015 10 Most Influential Brands on LinkedIn is now the 4th most shared item on LinkedIn. Even if it isn’t constructive, I will make a mental point to produce a 2016 version to get reliable data next year. You might also publish an article in 2015 on the 20 or 30 most influential brands on LinkedIn. Never plagiarize. First, imitate, and then improve. At this stage, you must compose the article. If you’re having trouble with this section, there are a lot of resources on Quick Sprout and the NeilPatel.com blog that can help: Aside from excellent writing in general, there are a few things to remember while posting on LinkedIn.
In 2014, Paul Shapiro investigated LinkedIn publishing in-depth to see why specific articles were successful, and others were not. He discovered several important recommendations that you should follow:
- create “how-to” pieces that are instructive
- Throughout the article, use 5, 7, or 9 subheadings.
- add a lot of pictures (8 appears optimal)
He also discovered that your postings should be on the longer side, ranging from 1,900 to 2,000 words.
Some may advise you to write brief articles (under 1,000 words). The difficulty is that it’s based on out-of-date information. I have yet to come across a more thorough or up-to-date critique than Shapiro’s. The reasoning for the brief pieces was that you shouldn’t devote time to them if Pulse doesn’t take them up. However, I would never advise preparing to fail. Instead, offer yourself the greatest chance of succeeding by producing excellent long posts (if they need to be). The featured picture, the primary image you chose to put at the head of your article, is the next important aspect of its success. It’s what other Pulse readers view before deciding whether or not to read your article, along with your title.
If at all feasible, use a photograph with a face. Our gaze is drawn to individuals in pictures. Darker hues will also show out against Pulse’s white backdrop. Finally, make sure that you get the most out of your views. Include a clear CTA after the content to accomplish this. For example, you could wish to invite your readers to leave a comment, share your content, follow you on social media, or visit your website.
Choose one or two CTAs to put after the content. You don’t want to give your readers too many options or take action. If you invite them to visit your website, offer them a content upgrade and direct them to the appropriate landing page. You may expect a conversion rate of roughly 40% from those who click through.
- How do you get the word out to the rest of the world about your article?
Now that you’ve created a LinkedIn-optimized piece, it’s time to share it. To begin, choose to Publish a new post from the drop-down menu. A link to this may always be seen at the top of your personal LinkedIn feed:
Simply paste your article and format it as you would in WordPress—that it’s easy.
If you want to come back to it later, click “save” or “publish” if it’s ready to go. One reason you may want to store it instead of releasing it right away is to give yourself more time. According to LinkedIn, content submitted within regular business hours have a greater chance of getting picked up by Pulse:
I recommend trying a few various times throughout your first few dozen posts to see which ones tend to get you the most views and interaction. All that’s left for you to do now is start publishing articles on LinkedIn. Don’t get disappointed if your pieces aren’t highlighted by Pulse straight away; it might be challenging at first. Even if it takes a dozen or so high-quality articles to get started, your results will skyrocket once you begin rolling. Last but not least, your posts do not have to be unique. You are allowed to copy and paste sections or complete articles from elsewhere. Although this is beneficial, do not get complacent. Don’t utilize a report from your blog if it doesn’t match LinkedIn nicely. Stick to the material you’re confident will increase your chances of being highlighted.
2. How to use groups to focus on your target population?
All marketing bloggers advise going where your target audience congregates to connect with them and encourage them to visit your website. So, what’s this? Unless you’re in a tiny niche, almost every target audience hangs out on LinkedIn groups. This is fantastic news for businesses like ours.
- Step 1: Look for relevant organizations of good quality.
On LinkedIn, there are millions of groups. Some of them are useless, while others are ideal targets for you. This is how awful groups look:
Regrettably, this is a rather typical occurrence. Everyone in the group is primarily interested in promoting their stuff. There is no conversation or involvement; thus, all original serious members go. Fortunately, some groups’ moderators take a more active role. For example, they may remove spammers from the group if they observe anything that looks like spam. That’s how great brands emerge, like this one:
Every post is read by at least a couple of dozen people. Many others will also like, share, or comment. The trick is to avoid being detected as a spammer, which I’ll explain in a moment. Let’s start by locating the groupings. In the top search box, type in your specialty. Ensure the “groups” filter is selected from the drop-down menu beside it. You may be very detailed about your thing and develop a few viable solutions.
Look at the most recent posts in each category separately. You’re seeking organizations that not only publish and exchange material often but actively participate in it. Making a list in a spreadsheet or creating a folder with bookmarks has shown to be the most efficient approach to keep track of groups. Many of the high-quality groups will need you to request to join. Almost all organizations should allow you if your profile is relevant and accurate (you’ve filled it out and have a photo).
- Step 2: Become a genuine member.
There’s no secret to avoiding being called a spammer—you just have to avoid becoming one. What are the activities of spammers? They never communicate with the group and just post links to their stuff. If you don’t want to be considered a spammer, act normally. Begin by enjoying, sharing, and commenting on posts shared by other members for at least a few days. If you do this on every post, it will be evident that you’re simply attempting to get credit. Then, start sharing other people’s material. Not just any stuff, but valuable and engaging content to the group’s members. Remember those popular articles we previously copied down? If you don’t have anything else, you can always share a couple of them. Yes, you may publish a link to your material after you look to be a legitimate member. It might be in response to a LinkedIn post (a fantastic method to get early traction) or a blog article. The trick is to post correctly. Don’t simply leave a link and go away. Create a unique description and attempt to elicit a response:
Also, reply to and “like” any other comments you get in the group on your post. Finally, there’s one more thing to do.
- Step 3: Don’t over-post your stuff.
Although there is no specific promotional to non-promotional material ratio, the 4-1-1 rule is a reasonable starting point.
Post at least four pieces of other people’s work for every part of your own, and re-share at least one other post in the group for every item of your material. To be on the safe side, having a larger ratio is usually a brilliant idea, particularly when you’re new to a group.
3. Increase the size of your network by a factor of ten.
LinkedIn’s primary goal is to help you expand your network. As I indicated in Tactic 1, having a responsive private network that cares about you or your specialty is critical for gaining early traction with a new article and assisting it highlighted on Pulse. Growing a vast network may help you with outreach while advertising your company, as well as allowing you to apply Tactic 4 more successfully, which I’ll discuss later. It’s not a massive problem if you have to start from the beginning. Make contact with everyone you’ve previously worked with or are now working with. Connect with friends and family as well, but only if you believe they will read and share your material and status updates. Otherwise, LinkedIn may reduce the quality of your material and restrict its exposure. With it, you should be able to make at least 20-50 connections, if not more. From there, you have two options for expanding your network.
- To begin, form bonds with others in groups.
You’ve already learned how to create and utilize groups, but there’s one more technique to make the most of them. You already know that such folks are interested in your topic and part of your target market. If you connect with them on LinkedIn, they will get an automated notice anytime you submit a post on the site. Even a small number of active connections, such as 50 or so, may help you get your postings seen. It’s critical that they’re happening, however. Otherwise, your alerts will go unnoticed. Likewise, if someone is commenting or likes stuff in a group, they are almost undoubtedly active on LinkedIn as well.
Hover over someone’s name and click “Connect” when you see them make a new remark or contribute material to the group:
You must choose between “friend” and “I don’t know [name].” After then, send a brief message like this:
Hello, [name],
I spotted your remark in the [group name] group on the [subject] article. To be honest, I’m now attempting to expand my [niche] network. [Explain what you do/offer] I’m a [niche] professional who [describe what you do/offer]. So please let me know if you ever want assistance with [specific relevant requirement].
Regards,
[name]
This is how it will appear on the network:
While most individuals will be delighted to connect, some may refuse. Some people may even go so far as to say, “I don’t know this individual.” If this occurs often enough, your connection choices may be limited. Furthermore, if you send a large number of invitations, your account may be temporarily stopped. This is a helpful strategy, but it carries a danger. Just keep that in mind before you utilize it.
- Once you’ve made a connection, give something back.
While you might just post your material and hope that your new contacts will notice it when they get a notification, you can almost ensure that they will read it if you assist them. You have to give before receiving in every connection you wish to develop. As a result, when you create a new relationship, you must contribute something of value to establish trust. There are several possibilities available to you, but I’ll outline a few simple ones. First, you may start by simply liking and sharing their material. Although not everyone blogs regularly, those who do will find this helpful. Second, carefully review their profile. You may see something that might assist them (like recommending a book). Alternatively, you may always recommend someone for their abilities to impress future employers:
Simply go to the bottom of the page and choose 4-5 of their most valuable abilities. Overall, this isn’t a scalable plan, but you’re only trying to get that highly engaged network of 100-200 individuals to help you get started.
4. Distribute the appropriate material.
Every LinkedIn member has a feed, much as on Facebook. The difference is that, unlike Facebook, LinkedIn’s stream is an afterthought. Anyone with whom you’re linked has a chance of seeing what you’ve shared. It might be a link to your own or another person’s post. It’s the same as if you were in an open group. Again, you’ll have a 20 percent organic reach, which means that a large percentage of your contacts will see your updates. This is because LinkedIn has much less material exchanged than Facebook. This is beneficial to you! Go to the top menu bar and choose Home to share an update. Then select “Share an update” from the drop-down menu:
You’ll be sent to a standard text form where you may input text, photos, or a link. The goal of providing information on this platform is to (a) establish yourself as an authority in your subject and (b) provide helpful content that will teach your contacts to pay attention to your postings. If you provide advisory services, the first element is crucial. Your contacts may not need your services right now, but if you consistently publish helpful material, you’ll become their “go-to person” when they want assistance. The second advantage may also assist you in driving traffic to any article you choose. People will ultimately notice that you only link to stuff they are interested in if you continually add links to genuinely beneficial information. They will also see your articles if you link to them. You may provide links to your blog, an offer, or stories on LinkedIn that you’re seeking to be featured in. You don’t want to be called a spammer again. Your connections will just conceal your posts if you are. LinkedIn put an extensive marketing guide on the site, claiming that 20 postings per month are the ideal rate (or one per weekday). This will enable you to reach around 60% of your target market. As previously, I propose following the 4-1-1 rule, which states that for every self-promotional status update, you should provide links to four additional resources. Because personal feeds are less crowded than group feeds, you won’t be banned, and you may be a bit more aggressive here if you want to.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is a vast platform that will only continue to expand in the future. It presently has over 300 million users, and the company’s next objective is to reach 3 billion. While you won’t be among the first to use LinkedIn to sell your business, the network is still relatively untapped. If you position yourself correctly over the next year or two, LinkedIn has the potential to deliver a significant quantity of traffic to your website. The four strategies I’ve shown you in this post should be utilized in conjunction with a comprehensive LinkedIn strategy. If feasible, I advocate utilizing all of them since each one can improve the efficiency of the others.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I promote my blog on LinkedIn?
A: LinkedIn is a social network that helps professionals connect and grow their careers. To promote your blog, you can share it with people in the Websites category of your professional profile.
How do I announce a blog post on LinkedIn?
A: LinkedIn allows you to use their Share button for sharing the content of a blog post on your profile.
Related Tags
- how to promote blog on LinkedIn
- LinkedIn pulse
- how to drive traffic to the LinkedIn company page
- how to get traffic from LinkedIn
- benefits of blogging on LinkedIn