5 Ways LinkedIn is Changing B2B Marketing & Sales in 2020
With over 310M active users each month and an estimated 145M users active each day the impact of having a current and active presence on LinkedIn is huge in the world of B2B Marketing and Sales.
I’ve long been an advocate for taking the quarterly fresh look at your profile and being active on LinkedIn and in 2020 that becomes even more important. Here’s where you can get the most out of LinkedIn:
1. Increased Visibility
Connecting to the people you want to work with and the people you are working with is a great start – that initial connection will bring you top of mind for about 3 seconds. To become memorable you have to increase your visibility. Extra credit awards for consistency.
How to implement today: Post a status update at least 1x a week. Will everyone in your network see it? No, but a percentage of them will and if your content is of-service to them you’ll be making an impact.
2. Create Deeper Connections for Greater Impact
Have you ever been to a dinner party and had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to the person very (very) excited to talk about themselves? It’s the only topic that interests them. LinkedIn is a lot like a dinner party. Make sure you’re not just there talking about yourself.
How to implement today: Like and comment on the content someone in your network has posted about. If you feel like the content would be of-service to your network click the share button.
3. Ambassador within Your Organization
Over 30 million companies are represented on LinkedIn so it’s a pretty good bet that your organization is too. When you share your companies content you’re doing a few things: you showcase your loyalty (which is good even if you’re looking for a new role), have internal visibility as an ambassador and you provide an easy point of conversation starters with your network on the work you’re doing today.
How to implement today: Follow your company on LinkedIn and share a recent post that would be of-service to your network.
4. Establish Expertise
Let’s play out a scenario for a moment: You are lost in the middle of nowhere and your mobile phone has no service. You mercifully find a gas station and you ask for directions to a hotel – the first person says “I’ve never been but I bet it’s about 2 miles down the road on the right” and the second person says “I stayed there last night, it’s 5 miles down the road, take a left by the old movie theater and you’ll see it on the left.” Which persons directions do you take? The one that has established they’ve been there. They have expertise. LinkedIn is a great place for you to establish YOUR expertise. The key to doing this is framing it to be of-service.
How to implement today: Ask yourself this question. What is something I’ve learned this month that would be helpful to a specific person in my network? Send them a LinkedIn message which has better deliverability than email by a whopping 63%. Would that lesson be helpful to more than 10 people in my network? Post THAT.
5. Create Long Tail ROI in Events
The role of events in B2B environments is critical. With workforces spread across the country and remote working growing in popularity getting real engagement in person is even rarer which necessitates showing up to connect for the long tail of events.
How to implement today: Block 1 hour the first business day you’re back in the office after every event you’re attending in 2020 to connect with the people you engaged with from your peers, prospects to those that were on panels you enjoyed.
Cass McCrory is a B2B Social Influence and Selling Expert bringing LinkedIn into focus to establish expertise, connection, and impact. You can learn more about how Cass drives big change through your most powerful asset: your team on social media.
Source: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/10/the-global-state-of-digital-in-october-2019
