We asked marketers for their honest thoughts on LinkedIn

Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is a non-negotiable part of any marketing strategy — especially in B2B. We asked some of our fellow marketers for their honest, unfiltered thoughts on LinkedIn.

For marketers worldwide, LinkedIn is heralded as the most important platform to master. But does this sentiment hold up under scrutiny? We took to the proverbial streets to find out what those in the weeds truly think about the potential for LinkedIn to deliver on business goals. Here's what they said.

On transcending the "job board" mindset: 

''What I wish I had known — and what other people should know — is that LinkedIn is a great platform for growing your business and it is not strictly a corporate job-seeking business-focused social platform. You can build a community and you can build your business with LinkedIn alone." - Alexis Quintal , Rosarium

Abe’s reaction

We like to think of LinkedIn’s advantages as falling into one of two categories.

On one side, you have the external advantages that you can apply to the platform (like strategy or methodology).

On the other side, you have LinkedIn’s very real inherent advantages that make it a good investment before your approach even hits the table. One of these inherent advantages is that LinkedIn is the only social media platform where people go in expecting to talk shop, not watch cat videos. We couldn’t agree more with Alexis.

On the humility to be proven wrong

"I was surprised to learn that most people reading my articles were not the buyers but someone on their behalf. I used to write my articles expecting the freight managers or the heads of procurement to read them.
I then discovered the actual conversations and questions were from their assistants, advisors, or individuals from the same department observing quietly. It shifted the way I wrote my articles. I made the words straightforward and emphasized clear outcomes. This resulted in more referrals and fewer cold starts." - Allan Hou, TSL Australia

Abe's reaction

We often find ourselves telling our clients that we are (ironically!) the worst people to make assumptions about the behavior that our ICP will engage in. And it’s not because we’re not good at our jobs. It’s because we’re too in it!

Much like we sometimes need a close friend to tell us something about our own lives that we are unable to see ourselves, we often need to take a step back and observe our ICP without preconceived notions. This takes a degree of humility, but if you get into that mindset, you might be surprised at what you learn. 

On thinking outside of the post

Conventional wisdom said, flood LinkedIn with posts, daily if possible. It’s what’s supposed to drive reach. But the real shift came when I dialed back and focused on something less obvious: strategic commenting. 
Instead of scattershot content, I mapped out a list — a handful of industry folks, a few possible client companies — and made it a habit to actually contribute to their posts. Not generic, “Nice post!” stuff, either. Instead, taking the time to add a dissenting idea, or to flesh out a point left hanging.
Profile visits increased. The right kind of DMs landed, too. It became a testing ground: refining your ideas in front of peers without burning out on your own content treadmill." - Yevhenii Tymoshenko, Skylum

Abe's reaction

We love this idea from Yevhenii because it brings up the most important attribute of networking of any kind: authenticity.

When you’re sharing opinions you actually care about with people who are well positioned to care, that’s where the magic happens. And where you’re much less likely to be accused of being a bot programmed to comment “great post!” 10,000 times.

On why brand advertising remains relevant

Early on I was way too focused on perfecting my posts and waiting for the ‘right moment’. But instead, I found out that by being regular, even with simple, natural updates, the momentum would be there quicker. Publishing about projects, lessons learned, and wins contributed to raising our engagement by approximately 22% for six months.
For someone who is beginning, I’d say keep up with your real story, make sure your content is relevant to your audience, and don’t hesitate to display the human face of your business." -Daniel Roberts, Dan Roberts Marketing

Abe's reaction

Imagine you had to sit through an award ceremony — an Academy Awards or a Grammy’s, if you will — and all the hosts did was rattle off stats. Boring, right? You don’t watch these shows to know how many tickets a movie sold or how many streams a single received. That might be an interesting supplemental detail, but it’s not what makes the event special. You tune in for the story and the passion. 

As Daniel eloquently states, brand marketing lives by the same rules. Don’t put your accolades or even your features at the forefront. Decide what your purpose is, what your belief is relevant to that purpose, and proliferate it to the highest degree possible. Your audience will follow, more tuned in than ever.

On resisting the urge to Cmd C + Cmd V

"For the new ones, be patient and try out. What will go down well with a specific group of people may not necessarily work in the same way with another group of people, hence the need to try using different content, messaging and the best times of posting will be a good idea.
This trial and error process is one of the elements of developing a LinkedIn strategy that will work." - Tracie Crites, HEAVY Equipment Appraisal

Abe's reaction

As tempting as it is to adopt a copy cat approach, this is good advice from Tracie. When we analyze competitors for our clients, we always make it clear that we are only seeing a sliver of the entire picture. While we can see what’s going on on the outside, we can’t see in their first-party analytics, their CRM, or their business goals. These are important determinants in how any strategy will perform. It’s best to stick to your own parameters.

On relying on empathy above all

"Our bios are about US but for THEM. In other words, you should promote yourself but think about how that serves a potential employer or client or customer. What are they struggling with that you can help them with?" - Danielle Z Hughes,  More Than Words

Abe's reaction

This comment from Danielle gave us pause, because it’s not one that we hear spoken of often. But it is actually such a uniquely good point. The ability to take a step back and ask yourself what kind of clients you want to work with, or what kind of customers you want to attract, is a necessary way to make sure that you're fulfilling real business goals to the depth of their potential. Otherwise, your performance might look okay on paper, but actually distracted you from your greater purpose.

Let Abe help you scale with LinkedIn advertising

If you want to elevate your platform with a LinkedIn advertising strategy that will land you a steady flow of ideal-fit clients for your business and maximize your ROI — talk to us. Our true, unfiltered thought on LinkedIn is that we know how to win.

By: Team Abe

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