Social Media: 5 ways to use LinkedIn to build brand trust

If you manage your brand’s social media marketing strategy, you’ve noticed that the reach for the organic updates you post on LinkedIn trends lower than on other social media platforms.

The traditional explanation for this is because the audience is much smaller and the type of content and engagement is different than, say, on Facebook.

But according to Business Insider’s recent Digital Trust Report, “LinkedIn is the most trusted social platform.” And data from the Edelman 2019 Trust Barometer proves it. Two out of three respondents say “a good reputation may get me to try a product, but unless I come to trust the company behind the product, I will soon stop buying it.”

No doubt, building and nurturing that trust can be a challenge. But fostering engagement with your brand on LinkedIn as a first step toward building that all-important trust can be a good place to start.

Here are five tips that can help you leverage this social network for engagement and move prospects “down the funnel” and into your sales process or over to your website where they are more apt to convert.

1. Coach executives and C-suite on how to optimize their personal LinkedIn pages. First, share industry standards and best practices with them on what type of information, links and images to include. And help them develop a manageable posting schedule . . . one that is doable given their busy schedules and other job responsibilities.

Then, help them establish a list of topics that not only reflect the values and purpose of their organizations, but also resonate with, and activate, employees and internal brand advocates who are important for boosting engagement. The Edelman 2019 Trust Barometer shows that when just three percent of employees share company-related content on LinkedIn, the company’s LinkedIn engagement gets about total a 30 percent lift.

2. Develop content for different audiences. Just don’t inundate them. That means carefully segmenting and scheduling your posts and promotions on LinkedIn without overlapping the timing. Specifically, promote content targeted at one audience for a period of days and then share your next post for another audience after that period of time is over. This way you’ll avoid annoying your audiences with constant post notifications and be more apt to earn greater appreciation for your brand.

3. Post and share beyond normal workday hours. Like at night. At lunch. Or during commute times. Although fewer targets may be active on LinkedIn at these times, those that are may be more likely to engage with content that you post. That’s because they have a block of time to read, consider, comment and share your brand’s long-form content.

Reaching out during “off hours” can also be an effective strategy for posting your organic posts, that is, when other brands may not be out there. According to marketing platform, HootSuite, the best times for B2B brands to engage with audiences on LinkedIn is around 7am and after 5pm, just outside of the normal 9am-5pm workday, when your competitors may flood the platform with content.

4. Don’t worry about over-posting, if it’s good content. Some social media channels punish brands and limit the organic reach of their content when they post continually throughout the day, every day. However, on LinkedIn publishers have found that they can indeed publish more frequently without the fear of being penalized. For example, USA Today posts about three to 10 times per day, international company, Virgin Group, posts updates on LinkedIn about 5 times per day and financial brand Ellevest posts a couple of times per day. Just one word of caution: your content must be good. And rake in results. Otherwise, the platform will indeed limit how many people see it.

5. Test out and optimize new ad products. From native video to photo galleries (tagging allowed!), LinkedIn has been rolling out updates to its platform, which has, in turned, helped to boost its overall engagement. LinkedIn reports video alone now garners 30 percent view-through rates, a KPI for engagement. So why not try the latest updates and see which ones work best for your campaigns and budget? Just be sure to consider the impact the changes may have on your content development process and resources.

Current research from LinkedIn shows 40 million B2B decision makers use the platform to look for, read and share good-quality content. Will they find your content to engage with?

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