LinkedIn is a powerful tool for B2B businesses of all kinds. For marketers in particular, LinkedIn can be a great way to reach new audiences and promote content. But reaching a large audience on LinkedIn can be difficult without paying for promoted posts. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to boost the reach of your LinkedIn posts without breaking the bank. Here are five tips to get started that work great for us.
The number of LinkedIn users in the DACH region is steadily increasing. According to Statista, around 17 million people from the DACH region were registered on LinkedIn at the end of January 2022. That's why LinkedIn has developed into an excellent marketing channel over the years, especially for B2B companies and for the search for new employees. In this blog article, we share our nine best tips for a successful LinkedIn post, so that your LinkedIn posts stand out from the crowd, and all without paid advertising.
9 Organic Ways that matter on LinkedIn
1. Define your Goals
Be clear about what you want to use LinkedIn for: Are you aiming to build a real brand? Do you want to increase awareness of your company or find the best employees? Or would you like to acquire new B2B customers via LinkedIn? Of course, one does not exclude the other. Still, you should know what your ultimate goal is. This will help you tremendously when creating your LinkedIn posts.
2. Do your Research
You now know what goal you want to achieve with LinkedIn. Now you should prepare a list of post ideas based on that. Make a list of topics that you want to cover and that are relevant to your target audience (applicants, clients, prospects, etc...).
Let yourself be inspired by others in your industry. Find experts in your industry who are already active on LinkedIn and analyze their LinkedIn posts. In particular, look at the posts that get a lot of interaction and pay attention to the following things:
- What posting format do these posts use?
- What topic is the post about?
- Which image is used?
- How long is the text?
- Are links used? If so, where do the links point to?
3. Use your Personal Profile – and that of your colleagues
Traditionally, company-related posts are published on LinkedIn on the LinkedIn company profile. Sounds logical right? In principle, nothing speaks against this approach. But don't just limit your LinkedIn activities to your company profile, also use your personal profile and the profiles of your colleagues and employees. There are, among others, the following approaches:
a. Publish the posts on your company profile and then ask your colleagues to interact with the post and comment on the post. This will show LinkedIn that the post is relevant and your post will get more organic reach. In addition, you and your colleagues can also share the post. This also ensures additional range. We recommend not simply sharing the posts without comment, but always adding your own personal opinion.
b. Another possibility is that you define experts in your company for certain topics. These experts then publish the articles that are thematically related to their area of expertise on your personal LinkedIn profile. The company is mentioned by tag in the post.
In our experience, posts from individuals tend to get a much higher organic reach than posts from business profiles. Of course, you can also share the contribution of your colleagues on your company page.
We at Kohldampf therefore use the second strategy and have noticed that our posts get more reach and interaction this way.
4. Use different content formats
There are a variety of different content formats on LinkedIn that you should use for yourself. Do not just limit yourself to the classic “image-text” posts, but also use other formats. This brings variety and increases interest in your posts.
“Text-only” Posts: The classic post with text and nothing else
Image-text posts: Also a classic, an image and a text above it
LinkedIn Articles: For longer content
Videos: Videos uploaded directly to LinkedIn
Polls: You ask a - preferably controversial - question and let LinkedIn users vote
Carousel Posts: Perfect for telling a little story with pictures
A very good overview of all LinkedIn post formats including the relevant specifications such as text length and image size can be found in LinkedIn itself.
5. Interact with other Users
Even if we sometimes forget: As the name suggests, social media is primarily about the “social” aspect, i.e. about interacting with other people. LinkedIn rewards this behavior and is more likely to rate your posts as more relevant and show more users if you are an active LinkedIn user yourself. Connect with thought leaders who are active on similar topics as you on LinkedIn and interact with posts from others: comment, react to others' comments or share interesting LinkedIn posts and add your own thoughts to them.
A nice side effect: You expand your network and users who are not yet following you will also become aware of you.
6. Use Keywords that are relevant to the Content of your Post
If you want to achieve a large reach, it's important that your LinkedIn post is not just interesting but also keyword-relevant. And we're not just talking about specific keywords, as that would only lead to a low number of views. We're talking about keywords that are relevant to the content of your post, so that it's easy for people looking for topics like yours to find your post. If you do not use these "keyword anchors" as we call them, you will achieve a low reach.
7. Post on Weekday Mornings:
Do not be shy about the weekend. Do not tell yourself that no one would want to read an article during the week because it is Saturday or Sunday. On the contrary, you will be surprised how many people are looking for information on LinkedIn on the weekend. Everyone has a mobile phone and it is easy to access LinkedIn when you have just finished your shopping or have time for lunch.
Use this time to post an article that fits perfectly into this kind of "free time". If you do it, a lot of people will be interested in your content.
8. Use #Hashtags
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn does not use hashtags to index content. This means that you cannot get a keyword like #bloggers onto a global search on LinkedIn. But if your hashtag is in the headline of your post, it can help you achieve better visibility in the newsfeed of other users.
9. Include a link to your Website on the Bottom of your post now and then
When you choose to include an image or video in your LinkedIn post, a promo code for your website can be inserted into the text for a link to your site. In this way, you will always have fresh content that is relevant and can be found easily from other users. Just make sure that the link is visible on the headline of the link at all times, otherwise it will not work.
Conclusion
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for businesses and professionals of all kinds. For marketers, LinkedIn can be a great way to reach new audiences and promote content. But reaching a large audience on LinkedIn can be difficult without paying for promoted posts. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to boost the reach of your LinkedIn posts without breaking the bank. With the right content and some time, you can reach a large number of B2B users with your LinkedIn posts without paid advertising. We hope our tips will help you.