7 LinkedIn Marketing Tips to Increase Your Visibility
Do you want to know how to increase your visibility on LinkedIn?
Whether you are trying to build a professional network, generate more leads and prospects, or just increase your brand’s awareness on LinkedIn, you need people to be able to find you.
LinkedIn has upped its algorithm in recent years and without a solid strategy, it would be difficult for your target audience to find you on the platform. LinkedIn’s algorithm has two primary goals; to prioritize relevant content and to promote engagement.
This is the reason why the homepage feed is set by default to “top” posts.
Tens of thousands of posts are created on the platform every second, so to break through all this noise and get your content in front of your target audience, you need to do the work.
In this article, we would be looking at seven LinkedIn marketing tips to increase your visibility and also increase your chances of being seen by the right people on the platform.
1. Share status updates
A simple yet effective way to increase your visibility on LinkedIn is by consistently posting status updates. Publishing status updates keep your LinkedIn connection in the loop concerning your latest content, work, business development, and other updates.
In your status updates, you can share article URLs, images, videos, information, documents, and more.
LinkedIn statuses are also unique from the status you find on other social media channels.
Why?
When you share a post to LinkedIn, your professional status is shown along with other helpful features like your name, title, your photo, the update itself, and your engagement metrics (likes and comments).
A single status update occupies up to 80 percent of your screen. So, with the right kind of posts, you can increase the amount of visibility you receive.
When you post regular LinkedIn status updates, you get noticed by people in your network. In fact, according to research done by LinkedIn and Buffer, when you post every weekday, you can reach up to 80% of your unique audience, now it’s true that recently we have seen the visibility of posts decreasing, but there is still tremendous potential to get in front of your network and beyond.
When your first-degree connections interact with your status updates, your content becomes visible in the feed of their own connections (second-degree connection) and so forth.
You can also use relevant hashtags to help people beyond your own network to find your updates when they look for that topic in the search. Be sure to use popular hashtags related to that topic in your status update.
What kind of updates should you share on LinkedIn?
To ensure that you have significant engagement in your status updates, post content that your followers would find interesting and valuable. The more relevant and informative your posts are the more engagement your updates will get, increasing the visibility of your posts.
Also, post images that attract attention and provide value. Since images occupy a significant real estate on the screen, upload images that are interesting and valuable.
2. Post articles to LinkedIn Publisher
Publishing articles using the LinkedIn Publisher feature can give your profile, content, and reputation a significant boost. When you post articles using LinkedIn Publisher, the content becomes searchable in LinkedIn’s post search box.
Beside your articles showing up in search, your followers and their connections can also see your article. Sharing your own content and publishing articles is a great way to build up thought leadership on your topic.
LinkedIn has also started using an algorithm called dwell time to determine the ranking of a post on the feed as opposed to viral actions like reactions, comments, and shares.
What is LinkedIn dwell time?
LinkedIn dwell time refers to the time a user spends on content after clicking on an update (posts or articles) in the feed. LinkedIn algorithm sees dwell time as a reliable indicator of the quality of a post. LinkedIn has built dwell time into its feed algorithm to increase the likelihood of users seeing posts they’ll engage with.
To ensure that this algorithm is favorable to your posts, publish content that holds the attention of readers for a long period of time. This is an example of an article posted using LinkedIn Publisher.
When posting on LinkedIn Publisher, there are several elements you need to take into consideration to create an article that people will want to read and share.
Create a catchy headline: The headline is the first thing people will see when they come across your post. Ensure that you use a headline that would urge people to want to click on the article. Learn how to write the perfect headline.
Be visual: Make sure that you add images to your articles. Including multiple images to your LinkedIn Publisher articles is associated with an increased number of views, likes, comments, and shares. Make sure that one of those images appears at the top of the post to serve as the header image.
Break up the text with subheaders: Use subheaders throughout your article to make them easily digestible. Adding headings would help your articles perform better.
Write long-form content: Most users on LinkedIn are professionals who are looking to improve their own skills. When you give them content-packed with value, they are more likely to read it, increasing the dwell time and to engage with it or even share it. On average, the longer the post, the better it performs. Post articles that are between 1900-2000 words.
Use hashtags: Add hashtags to the post to increase the visibility of the article. To find a suitable hashtag, add the pound symbol (#) followed by a term related to your article.
For example, if you are writing an article on content marketing, you can search for the term #content to find suitable hashtags.
Promote your LinkedIn Publisher articles on other social networks: To increase the visibility and reach of the articles you publish on LinkedIn, also share them on other social networks.
3. Upload documents in status updates
By uploading documents on LinkedIn you share more in-depth content and build your authority on your topic. You can upload PDFs, slideshows, Word documents (DOC/DOCX), and PowerPoint presentations (PPT/PPTX) to your status updates.
This is an example of a document published on LinkedIn.
To use this feature, visit your feed and look into your update box. You would see the option to add three kinds of media; photo, video, or document.
To attach a document to a new status update, just click on the paper icon and upload the document you want to use.
After you have selected the document, LinkedIn will upload it and add a dialogue box. In this box, you would add your document title. After that, click “Next” and add some text to be included in your post and then publish your document.
As with any other content format on LinkedIn, make sure the document offers value. If there are images in the document ensure that they are visually appealing and captivating.
One of the easiest ways to get started with documents on LinkedIn is by turning your best-performing blog posts into documents and sharing them on LinkedIn. You can use a tool like Canva to create these documents with ease.
4. Use LinkedIn's native video
Native video allows LinkedIn users to record and upload videos directly to their personal profiles or company pages.
Why should you bother with LinkedIn’s native video feature?
Native video was launched on LinkedIn in 2017 and in just one year, it had already garnered over 300 million impressions. An article from LinkedIn also stated that “Company Page video is 5x more likely than other types of content to start a conversation among members, based on results in our beta program.“
Moving away from LinkedIn, videos have also proven to be one of the most effective marketing channels.
Studies have shown that 57% of customers want to see more videos from brands that they love. Brands that use video also see a 54% increase in brand awareness than brands that don’t. So if you haven’t started using video on LinkedIn, you should start now.
How to publish a native video on LinkedIn:
Publishing a native video on LinkedIn is very easy. On mobile, you can record videos in-app and also add filters/stickers. On a desktop, you would have to pre-record your videos and then upload them.
Desktop
- Go to your homepage, click on share an article, photo, video, or idea.
- Click the video icon.
- Upload the video you want to share.
Mobile
- On iOS, look for the share box at the top of the feed. It is called the post button on Android.
- Tap the video icon.
- Record a video in the app, or upload something you pre-recorded.
- Tap the filters or text button.
- Add filters and/or text.
Here are some LinkedIn video best practices that you should implement before uploading your videos:
Optimize your setup: When creating your video, take into consideration factors such as lighting, camera position, background, and camera type. A quality video will receive more engagement.
Get straight to the point: People have short attention spans. It is important that you capture their attention from the beginning of the video. If the first few seconds of your video isn’t captivating, you would have a high bounce rate. LinkedIn research finds that attention to videos usually drops after the 10-second mark.
So it is important that you put your hook in the first few seconds of the video. This increases the chances of the viewer watching the rest of your video.
Choose the right video length: LinkedIn recommends that you keep videos under 30 seconds for brand awareness and brand consideration. Their study showed that videos under 30 seconds had a 200% increase in completion rates than longer videos. Having said that, if you are teaching something that takes longer, don’t let that stop you from creating a longer video.
Close with a call to action: Make sure you end your video with a strong call to action. Leave your viewers with a clear direction on what to do after watching your video, perhaps it’s leaving a comment, or to go to another piece of content.
5. Make use of LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn live allows you to communicate with your community in real-time.
Live video is great because it brings traffic to your business, creates engagement, and holds the attention of your viewers. Plus, streaming live video is free, but not yet available to all members, if you don’t have it yet, keep an eye out for when LinkedIn rolls it out to your profile.
If you want to expand your reach, gain exposure and increase your visibility on LinkedIn, then you should definitely check out live video. In fact, 80% of people say that they prefer live videos from brands than regular social media posts.
These are the steps you would take to get started with live video on LinkedIn:
- Apply to become a live broadcaster via LinkedIn Live application. They will eventually roll it out to everyone so if you don’t get accepted you’ll just have to wait.
- Review the approval email and follow the onboarding instructions.
- Select your streaming tool. LinkedIn partners with several third-party live video tools.
- Log in to your tool with LinkedIn.
- Go live.
Some best practices to follow when you go live on LinkedIn.
Be prepared: Before you go live, have a good grasp on the subject matter of your video. Viewers would be able to ask questions via comments and they would want answers. So research on the common questions that they might ask.
Be consistent: To increase your visibility and engagement, ensure that you are consistent with your live videos. Have a fixed timeline so that your audience can know when to expect new content.
Use multiple devices: Use one device for streaming and another one for monitoring the live comments so you can engage in real-time.
Test your internet connection: You’ll need an internet speed of 3 Mbps for a smooth live video. You can use speedtest.net to check the speed of your connection.
If your signal is too weak, plug in an ethernet cable.
Optimize your set up: When on a live video, take into consideration factors such as lighting, camera position, background, audio, and camera quality.
6. Use LinkedIn Stories
Similar to Instagram Stories, LinkedIn Stories is a feature that allows users to share images and short videos on the platform for 24 hours.
With LinkedIn Stories, you can share insights on a trending topic, snippets from a just-concluded live video session, information on a product launch, share Q&As with thought leaders in your network, share a video of customer testimonials, and build a relationship with your professional community.
The feature is currently still in its testing phase and is available on LinkedIn profiles located in Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the UAE. However, they will be launching the feature globally soon.
To create your LinkedIn Story:
- Go your LinkedIn homepage
- On the left corner of your screen, tap the + icon above Your story
- Capture or select the content you want to add to your story
- After selecting your content, you can add stickers, audio recordings, and texts to your story
- Review your creation and tap the Share button
7. Use the new LinkedIn Polls feature
After a period of testing, LinkedIn has officially launched its new native polls feature. This feature allows you to create polls, used correctly, it can boost your engagement and visibility on the platform.
People love answering questions and polls provide the perfect avenue for this. When your poll has a high engagement rate, they also reach even more people organically, with the LinkedIn algorithm favoring interaction.
To boost the performance of your polls, keep it relevant and interesting. Ensure that the topic you create your poll on is relevant to your audience.
TIP: Do not overload your network with too many polls. They might find it repetitive and would stop engaging with them.
To create your poll from your home page:
- Click start a post
- Click create a poll
- In the create a poll window, type in your questions and choose the options
- Select the poll duration
- Click Next
- In the edit the post section, select who you want to see your post. (Choose “Anyone” to increase the visibility of your poll)
- Tap Post
As the poll creator, you can track the results of your poll in real-time. This insight would be useful for future content and strategic planning.
Test out these LinkedIn marketing tips
LinkedIn has so many features and tools on the platform to help you increase your visibility, generate leads, communicate with new prospects, boost brand awareness, and also deepen existing relationships with professionals in your network.
To take advantage of these LinkedIn marketing tips to maximize your visibility and bring more attention to your business. What are your favorite LinkedIn features, let me know in the comments below.
Marvellous Aham-adi is a freelance writer and Head of Content at TheZeroed. Where he writes on sales tools and actionable marketing channels you can use in growing a brand. He has been featured in top blogs like Social Media Examiner, GetResponse, Mention, and Wordstream.
