This is part five of a series. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four.
LinkedIn Business Pages
LinkedIn’s business pages serve many excellent B2B marketing functions. From thought leadership and sustainability marketing through to recruitment and internal branding, nothing comes close to LinkedIn for B2B audience reach.
While LinkedIn is one of the smaller social media platforms in Thailand with 3.6 million active users in 2022, it’s quality not quantity that counts on this platform.
Users tend to be decision makers in their organizations, and thus represent the ideal target audience for most B2B organizations.
Unlike Facebook/Meta, LinkedIn is ideal for targeting advertisements to B2B audiences as it is possible to filter ads by company, industry, job title, location, company size and many more meaningful B2B indicators.
LinkedIn advertising is not cheap, but clearly-defined, ROI-driven acquisition campaigns can pay dividends. However, given the cost of advertising here, it is not recommended to use advertising on the platform purely for brand awareness campaigns as there are more cost-effective approaches (see below).
One recent addition to the platform is the ability to invite 250 of your connections to follow your organization’s business page each month. With 3,000 new, free followers each year, this approach makes sense for companies thinking about the long-term.
In order to have success on LinkedIn, you need to have a predictable content calendar and a clear strategy with objectives and KPIs figured out at the start. Importantly, you need to understand your audience and the questions they have about your business in order to ensure your making content designed to engage your targets.
As LinkedIn is primarily a B2B platform, thought leadership is the name of the game. That can mean white papers (see below), blogs (like this), and increasingly podcast production. This longform content is usually turned into many smaller pieces of content, all designed to tell the same story from different angles.
In summary, below are a few off-the-shelf tactics you can start implementing today to start having success on LinkedIn.
- Post thought leadership content: Share content that is informative, valuable, and relevant to your audience. This will encourage them to engage with your posts and share them with their network.
- Use eye-catching visuals: Incorporate images, videos, and infographics to make your posts stand out and grab your audience’s attention.
- Post at the right time: Timing is everything on LinkedIn. Post your content when your audience is most active to increase the likelihood that they will engage with it. Generally, this is going to be during the daytime as people tend to use LinkedIn while at work. So 9am is generally a good time to post.
- Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages, ask for feedback, and participate in conversations. This will show your audience that you are interested in them and value their input.
- Use hashtags: Incorporate relevant hashtags into your posts to increase visibility and reach a larger audience.
- Share pictures of real people: Showcase content featuring your customers or staff to encourage others to engage with your brand and build a sense of community.
- Optimize your profile: Make sure your LinkedIn business page is fully optimized with a clear description, relevant keywords, and a professional profile picture and banner image.
LinkedIn Personal Accounts
The true secret to success on LinkedIn involves harnessing the power of individual accounts.
Individual LinkedIn accounts are better than business accounts for reach and engagement because they allow for a more personal and authentic connection with other LinkedIn users.
Personal accounts on LinkedIn are more likely to be viewed by other users, as compared to business accounts. This is because LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes content from individuals over company pages. When a personal account posts content, it is more likely to show up in the newsfeed of their connections and generate more visibility than if the same content had been posted on a company page.
One strategy for leveraging the potential of individual accounts is to grow the number of relevant connections you have. One of the primary benefits of a personal account over a business account on LinkedIn is that you are able to connect directly with your target audience, which you can filter by job title, industry, and location. More and more business leaders are tapping into this resource. For example, 80% of marketing executives (such as CMOs) say they are actively developing their own personal brands.
The data for the use of individual accounts is compelling. According to Edelman, 64% of B2B decision leaders say that thought leadership provides proof that an organization genuinely understands or can solve your specific business challenges. In another survey, 76.9% of B2B marketers indicated that “an executive’s social media presence can help organizations’ sales growth.”
Lastly, personal accounts on LinkedIn allow for a more diversified content strategy. Individuals can share not only business-related thought leadership content but also personal insights, industry news, and other interests. This creates a more well-rounded profile and can lead to increased engagement with a wider variety of LinkedIn users.
Video content is also increasingly important on the platform as videos are shared 20x more often than other forms of content. Research also shows that brands which publish video content earn revenue 49% faster than those that do not. We know a good video production company if you need some help.
In summary, personal LinkedIn accounts allow for a more personalized and authentic approach to engagement, which can lead to increased visibility, stronger relationships, and more diversified content strategies. This is why personal accounts are better than business accounts for reach and engagement on LinkedIn.
This article is part of an ongoing series exploring social media trends in Thailand 2023. Next we’ll explore more of the key social media platforms to keep an eye on. If you can’t wait, you can download the whole series as a 4,500-word white paper right now below:
Enter your email address to download the whitepaper
About the Author
David Norcross is an award-winning LinkedIn marketing & Executive Branding expert with over 15 years of experience in the industry and over 20,000 followers on LinkedIn. He’s the founder and CEO of Lexicon as well as the Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Thailand Marketing & Communications Committee.
Lexicon is an award-winning brand storytelling agency focusing on telling impactful stories for clients based in Thailand and South East Asia.
English