Hey there.
And welcome back to my channel.
If you're new here, I'm Latasha James.
I've spent many years working as a social media marketer at
agencies in in-house roles.
And now as an entrepreneur in today's social media marketing for beginners
video, we're going to cover LinkedIn.
I also want to invite you to an upcoming live class for online business owners.
It's free and the registration link will be down in the description box.
So be sure to register for that.
And let's hop into LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has 810 million members.
And while that might be smaller than Instagram tick-tock or
Facebook for a professional platform, it's pretty impressive.
LinkedIn is the hub of professional networking and social media for both
individuals and businesses alike.
57% of LinkedIn users identify as men with 43% identifying as women.
And over 77% of users are from outside of the U S so your individual
audience might look different.
On LinkedIn, but this is a good baseline to understanding who
spends time on that platform.
And with almost 60% of LinkedIn's users aged between 25 and 34 years
old, it's definitely the place to be if you're just starting your career or
at the associate level, if you're brand new to the platform, LinkedIn has a
professional field that's centered or.
Expertise and education.
This is a really valuable environment for job seekers, freelancers
and business owners, especially those who work in the B2B space.
You can connect with other users on the platform, you know, from
current or past positions and people have the option to follow you.
If you don't know them, but they still want to see your content.
There are more advanced paid options for LinkedIn like LinkedIn premium.
Sponsored updates and sales navigator, but we're going to cover
the free features on LinkedIn today.
Let me know if you'd like to see paid stuff in the future.
Okay.
So there are a ton of features on LinkedIn that you can use to get your personal
brand or company page to stand out.
Whether you're a professional or you're running a business page, you
should have access to the following types of content on the platform.
There's text and status updates, articles, photos.
Videos, newsletters and groups.
I know that's a lot.
So let's go ahead and break down what each of these features are
and how they work in practice.
So text and status.
Your text or status updates are probably the most straightforward
type of content on the platform.
It's very similar to posting a status to Facebook, just the professional version.
Baiting short text snippets with a fast hook is really popular in
LinkedIn, and you can easily create how to and list style posts that offer
value to your professional network.
Whether you're a freelancer business owner or a professional looking for
your next job, sharing valuable texts.
Shows your prospects that you can add value to a professional conversation,
long form, text and articles longer.
Text posts also work really well on LinkedIn with posts between 1900
and 2000 words, performing the best.
According to some research, you can actually post blog articles directly
onto the LinkedIn platform, as opposed to linking out to an external
website as well, which is a great way to increase your discoverability.
Since LinkedIn is SEO and search for.
It's not a bad idea to make sure that your blog posts are also
housed on your website, but you can definitely take advantage of long
form written content on LinkedIn by repurposing them onto the platform.
Sharing your thoughts on industry news and referencing links is a
great way to establish thought leadership and show professionalism
by citing reputable source.
If you establish a clear tone of voice, you could even become a
go-to source for commentary or industry updates on the platform.
If you want to be next, photo-sharing images are also a feature on the
LinkedIn platform and you can post anything from more curated Instagram,
like carousels that inform your.
To behind the scenes updates about your professional life.
These types of posts are excellent for building both expertise and familiarity.
Pictures with faces tend to perform best, but you're not limited to only pictures
of yourself or your team of course.
Think about what would be valuable for your audience.
Maybe a shot of a new campaign that you've worked on.
Maybe a client shout out.
So many ways to get creative with imagery on LinkedIn and use compelling
copy to get users to engage.
If you're interested in using photos and want to test out what resonates
with your audience, according to some research, an eight image, carousel
or slideshow tends to perform.
And keep in mind that including photos with your statuses or blog posts increases
the comment rate by a whopping 98%.
So video on LinkedIn can be anywhere from three seconds to 10 minutes and quick
tip people tend to drop off at around the ten second mark, if you haven't
included a compelling hook for viewers, if you're posting an educational video
for your personal brand or sharing work with a client as a business owner, make
sure to keep your video to the point.
This will keep viewers engaged with the video for a longer period of time.
And it'll help them decide more easily, whether your product
or service is a fit for them.
And while you definitely can link over to your videos on your website or YouTube
to get the most reach from each piece of content, I'd recommend repurposing them
into LinkedIn specific clips, using a tool like descript, and then uploading
them directly to the platform newsletter.
Newsletters are exciting because you can turn articles into a
subscription for platform members.
Anyone can see this content and you can invite connections or followers to
subscribe to your newsletter and see your regular content on industry topics.
You can create a newsletter as yourself or as a LinkedIn page.
If you're running into.
For business, LinkedIn articles only go to your feed, meaning that someone has to
be connected with or follow you to see it.
But a newsletter is more discoverable within the platform.
This feature is promising, but according to LinkedIn, you can only use newsletters
quote by turning on the creator mode and.
The news that are accessed criteria, a downside to LinkedIn newsletters to
consider is that it's not really the same type of exportable email newsletter,
where you can move contact information over to other platforms or a CRM.
It's more so a publishing feature that increases reach within the
LinkedIn platform itself exclusively.
So weigh the benefits of investing time on a LinkedIn exclusive newsletter
before you get started or something repurpose existing email newsletters
to make the most out of your time.
Groups groups, our professional networks that you can create or S to join.
These can be great to keep up with discussions in your industry and
hear what other professionals have to say, but just make sure that
you're joining for the right reasons.
Try not to share content centered only around self promotion and
making a sale, and instead take the opportunity to build relationships
with other people in your industry.
All right, we've gone over.
Many types of LinkedIn content that you can create.
So now it's time to dive into profiles.
The profile section on LinkedIn is really robust because it's essentially
an online resume meant to showcase your unique skillset and experience your
profile is made up of these components.
Your name or business name, a headline, your about section.
Attached media like portfolios, website links, news, coverage,
and more a profile picture banner picture and your job experience,
role by role organized by date.
Here's how you can make each of these profiles sections.
First, the headline, your headline is a short snippet above your name that
gives anyone who views your profile.
A fast rundown of who you are, what you do and what makes you stand out a
great headline should use a relevant keyword or title that you want to
be found under in search, which company or clients that you serve and
what you really bring to the table.
So an example could be search marketer for socially conscious
brands, or maybe a heart-centered business coach for non-fiction.
Your about section is a great place to share a professional bio that shows off
your personality and tells the story behind your experience in your about
section, you have up to 2000 words to detail your professional brand.
Some sections to include are your backup.
Meaning, where are you from?
Who or what inspired you to do the job you do today?
Your desired role, be specific about the type of work you're looking for,
including responsibilities skills you want to expand upon or learn and who you
want to work with and relevant keywords.
Make sure to do some research on how competitors or professionals are
talking about the work that you do.
One way to do this is by scanning different jobs.
For jobs that you would be interested in applying for, and just take note of the
keywords that you see over and over again, and then insert them into your about
section, where do they make the most?
Attached to media attached media is a really valuable section on LinkedIn
that gives anyone who views your profile, a rundown of your past work.
If you're a creative, you can attach a portfolio here and you can add
a standard resume to your profile for viewers to download as well.
Do keep in mind though that if you reference any links in these documents,
they won't be clickable even as.
Kind of a bummer.
You can also include news coverage, blogs, or really anything else and
make sure to include your best work.
Only these should really be examples that you'd be comfortable
with anyone on the platform.
Seeing I personally highlight interesting press that I've received as well as my.
Horses in this section, which can add even more context to our professional
narrative and lend more credibility.
Your profile and banner picture should be professional, but it's definitely
okay to add some personality in there to just make sure that the photo you
choose is something you're comfortable with the client or hiring manage.
Uh, your banner is an opportunity to include a call to action,
right on your profile.
You can reference a web address where a client can book a call with you reference
a free ebook you're using as a lead magnet list of your skills or directive towards
whatever action you'd want someone on your profile to take your experience.
This isn't relevant for a company page, but it's a great opportunity
for freelancers or job seekers to highlight their past experience.
Oriented format each job or project you complete will be organized
by date and each job listed.
The best practice is to first to give a short description of your job,
title and role bullet, or list your responsibilities and corresponding
results and share how this job aligns with your goals and career narrative.
So now that we've got the content and profile sections of LinkedIn
mastered let's delve into how you can create a strategy that is.
For you first, we got to have those content pillars.
I've talked about content pillars, a lot on my channel,
but the concept is really simple.
These are the values and the content categories you want
to center your content around.
They should align with your goals or business objectives, and every
piece of content should type back into the pillars you create for.
This will make your content cohesive and make it much easier
for you to plan consistent content.
Some example, pillars for a freelance tech marketer could be marketing trends,
tech, industry updates, and a client.
You can then start creating content, using the features of your
choice to post about these topics.
You can also search hashtags that are related to these topics and jump in on
conversations that are already happening.
My best tip for LinkedIn is not to wait to post until you're actually
in need of a new job, a client or opportunity instead, treat it like
something that you continuously nurture.
You don't need to post every day on this platform, but checking in
with an update once a week or so.
Pretty well.
And if your plan is to use LinkedIn for prospecting and finding clients or.
Start by working backward from your goals, are you a freelancer
looking for B2B clients?
Are you looking for your next full-time job?
Know exactly what you want.
So it's easier to decide what type of content to create, who to connect with and
which metrics will be the most relevant.
My favorite thing to do is go to your dream.
Company's LinkedIn page.
Click on the people tab and then search for the head of the department.
You would like to work in maybe the CMO or the head of marketing.
You can then choose to send a connection request with a meaningful non spammy.
This is key intro message, or find an email tool to pull contact
information from their profile.
There are lots of options out there like hunter.
Snoop and get prospect with both free and paid plans available.
And if you think that you might need larger scale InMail access and
more visibility, when searching for prospects, you might want to check
out a paid version of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn also has a job board by building a presence on LinkedIn.
The poster can go back to her profile and learn about your professional work that
they might not get from a resume alone.
You can also follow up with applications by looking at the person who posted
the job and sending them a quick message to stand out from the.
LinkedIn analytics look different for pages than they do for personal accounts.
So do you keep that in mind, LinkedIn will send you a notification every week
telling you how many searches you've appeared in, which is kind of interesting.
If you click on this notification, you can expand the data to see keywords
that you were found for companies that search for you and job titles of the
people who searched for you as well.
For a business page, you'll be able to see your followers, visitors,
competitor engagement, employee advocacy.
Means how many employees shared your content or mentioned your page and
engagement with your LinkedIn page?
So how do you decide which of these metrics is most important?
Like I shared earlier, it all comes down to your goals.
If you're ready for a new job, you might want to measure how many
times you show up in search and how many recruiter messages your.
If you're looking to get more clients for B2B business track,
how much reach your page has.
And if it's getting prospects over to your website, and if you're just
using LinkedIn as a general content marketing platform, then you can
measure awareness, engagement, and conversion metrics, depending on
what your ultimate marketing goal.
All right.
LinkedIn is a really valuable tool to establish a personal
brand or grow your business.
So I hope that this overview of it has been helpful.
And if you're ready for more social media marketing content, be sure to
subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss out on future videos.
And you can also click that.
Down in the description box to RSVP for my upcoming live class, which
will be totally free and lots of fun.
So thanks so much for watching.
I'll see you in the next one.
Have a great day.
Bye.