How to Post on LinkedIn: Step by Step and Tips for B2B Success
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms out there for professionals, executives, and businesses alike, especially when it comes to B2B marketing. When used correctly, LinkedIn can help you create meaningful connections with like-minded professionals, establish yourself as an industry thought leader, and gain credibility in your field.
But, if you’re new to the platform, you may be wondering how to post on LinkedIn and what content strategy is right for your business. Fear not, dear reader! In this article, we’ll be exploring how to post on LinkedIn, step by step, as well as providing some tips for B2B success along the way.
Step 1: Create a LinkedIn Account
To make your first post on LinkedIn, you need to create an account. After that, you’ll need to ensure your profile is up-to-date and professional. Your profile picture should be a high-quality headshot. Make sure your bio is up-to-date and thoughtfully written, let people know who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.
Step 2: Determine Your Post’s Purpose and Objective
Before making a post, pause for a minute and think about what you want to achieve with this specific post. Do you want to inform your network about some recent news or accomplishment, showcase a piece of content you’ve published, or provide insight and commentary on a relevant topic? Knowing the post’s purpose and objective will inform the tone, content, and expected outcomes of the post.
Step 3: Create Engaging and Relevant Content
Now that you have a clear purpose in mind, it’s time to create the content. Always aim for high-quality content that is relevant, informative, and engaging to your target audience. You can include images, videos, or links to relevant articles or studies. If you’re stuck, try answering the following questions:
● What is the pain point or challenge that this piece of content solves?
● Why does this post matter to your target audience?
● Who will benefit from the information you’re providing?
● What can your target audience learn or gain from your post?
Step 4: Utilize Relevant Keywords
When it comes to understanding how to post on LinkedIn as part of your content strategy, using relevant keywords is essential. These keywords help your post appear in LinkedIn searches and make it easier for your target audience to find you. Take some time to research the keywords relevant to your niche, industry, or topic before posting. Some easy-to-use tools to try are Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google’s Keyword Planner.
Timing is everything when it comes to posting on LinkedIn. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to posting times, but generally speaking, the most active times are Tuesday through Thursday, between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Posting during off hours, like weekends, can reduce engagement and visibility on your posts. Keep in mind, people’s interest wanes after a couple of weeks, so keep your post evergreen to keep attracting an audience.
Step 6: Engage with Your Network
Posting on LinkedIn is not a “one-and-done” process; it’s a movement that requires engagement, conversation, and collaboration. Once you’ve posted the content, share it with your connections and groups relevant to the post topic. Start conversations by asking open-ended questions and responding to your reader’s comments publicly. Responding to people once the conversation has gone cold may seem like old news when you finally do it.
General Tips for B2B Success
1. Collaborate with partners or other businesses in your industry
Collaboration is key in the world of business and digital marketing, especially on LinkedIn. By partnering with others in your industry, you can increase your visibility, and credibility, and reach a wider audience. Collaborations can come in various forms, such as co-creating content or organizing events together. The resulting content will be more engaging and will expose your brand to the new audience of your partner. Cross-promoting each other’s content on the platform can result in the posts reaching further and getting noticed by a whole new audience.
2. Create a content calendar to plan ahead
A content calendar helps you create and maintain a strategic approach to your content marketing efforts. Consider upcoming events and topics relevant to your industry, and creating a schedule ahead of time can ensure that you have enough content created to get the most out of all your efforts. When creating your content calendar, you should also follow trending topics on the platform, taking advantage of hot-button issues that are already gaining a lot of attention. If you’re not sure where to start, try using LinkedIn’s Content Suggestions tool to give you inspiration on what to post about.
3. Quit selling!
One of the most significant mistakes businesses make when learning how to post on LinkedIn is that they focus too much on self-promotion. While it is crucial to let your audience know what products or services you have to offer, there is a thin line between sharing and selling. If you post about what you do every day, your content can come off as repetitive, dull, and will lose the interest of your audience. To keep your readers engaged, focus on creating educational, actionable, and engaging content that addresses a specific pain point or provides a unique perspective on a topic.
4. Analyze your post data regularly
When you post content on LinkedIn, you want to know how it’s performing. If you can analyze the data, by monitoring things like engagement rates and user responses, you can determine what is working and what isn’t and adjust your approach accordingly. This will help you refine your content strategy and improve performance over time.
LinkedIn has an analytics tool to help you measure your performance. You should also keep track of how well your page is doing and if it’s attracting the right traffic. By doing this, you’ll have a better understanding of how to optimize your content strategy to achieve the desired results.
5. Keep your content evergreen
To maximize the value of your content on LinkedIn, it’s essential that you keep it evergreen – relevant and up-to-date all year long. Doing so will help you remain visible and relevant to your audience. This means that when creating content, try to avoid mentioning trending events, as they date quickly. Instead, focus on offering more timeless pieces with insights that will be valid months down the line. This will ensure that your content continues to be useful to your audience over time, even after you’ve moved on to the next post.
6. Use LinkedIn Groups to expand your network
LinkedIn Groups can be a powerful tool for expanding your network and getting your content in front of more people. Join groups relevant to your industry and start engaging with the members of those groups before you start promoting your own content. You could also use LinkedIn Groups to gain insights into your target audience and see what types of topics they are engaging with the most.
Discovering how to post on LinkedIn isn’t complicated. It’s all about creating the right message, sharing it with the right people at the right time, and analyzing your data to create better results over time. Remember, don’t focus too much on promoting yourself and what you sell, instead try to share useful and interesting content that will benefit your audience.
Once you have built credibility and trust with your audience, you can begin to promote your products or services on the platform. Stay consistent, focus on your goals, and remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Building your LinkedIn strategy takes time, effort, and dedication, but if you follow these tips, you’ll surely start to see some success along the way. 7. Use visual content to attract more attention.
Visual content is a powerful tool to attract your audience’s attention and engage them in your message. According to LinkedIn, content that includes images receives 94% more views than content without visuals. Additionally, videos on LinkedIn receive a whopping three times more engagement than regular text posts. Use images, videos, infographics, and animations to make your content visually appealing and memorable. Just remember to keep a consistent brand image across all the visual contents you post.
8. Include a call to action in your posts
A call-to-action (CTA) is a statement that tells your audience what action you want them to take, such as clicking on a link, downloading a resource, or subscribing to your newsletter. CTAs act as a guide for your audience and boost your engagement rates when they take action. Including a CTA in your post encourages your audience to engage with your message and helps move them down your marketing funnel.
9. Engage with your audience in the comments.
Engagement is key to building your presence on LinkedIn. Engage with your audience in the comments section of your posts, and answer any questions they ask. This helps to build a rapport with your audience and humanizes your brand. Responding to comments also shows that you are committed to creating a conversation and listening to your audience’s feedback, which leads to increased engagement rates and brand loyalty.
10. Try different post formats.
LinkedIn offers different post formats, including text posts, photo posts, video posts, live videos, and articles. Experiment with different formats to see which ones resonate with your audience the most. By diversifying your content strategy, you can keep your audience interested and leverage new opportunities to capture more leads. You can also create a content series to address one topic in a series of posts, making it easier for your audience to follow along and consume your content.
11. Don’t underestimate the importance of timing
Posting at the right time is critical to maximizing your content’s reach and engagement. LinkedIn recommends posting during business hours on weekdays, with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday being the most popular days to post. Make sure to post when your audience is most active on the platform to boost your engagement rates and visibility. You can use LinkedIn analytics to track your followers’ behavior and keep track of when they are most active.
12. Balance your personal and professional brand
Building a personal brand is as important as building a professional brand on LinkedIn. Your personal brand showcases the unique perspective and personality that you bring to your industry. It helps you connect with your audience on a more personal level and differentiate yourself from other businesses in your industry. However, make sure that your personal brand aligns with your professional brand and values. It’s essential to maintain a consistent image across all the content you create and share on the platform.
Conclusion
Creating a successful LinkedIn content strategy takes time, effort, and dedication. However, by following these tips, you can start crafting attention-grabbing content that resonates with your audience and drives results. Collaborate with others in your industry, keep a content calendar, analyze your post data regularly, keep your content evergreen, and use LinkedIn Navigator.
Groups, use visual content to attract more attention, include a call-to-action in your posts, engage with your audience in the comments, try different post formats, don’t underestimate the importance of timing, and balance your personal and professional brand. Above all, be consistent and stay true to your brand and values. Happy posting!
At WriterArmy, If you need to save time or would rather that a professional writer create the content, check out our LinkedIn services. Our social media strategists and an army of writers will create the content you need at scale and on time. Feel free to book a call with us, we would love to help you further optimize your LinkedIn business strategy!
