New LinkedIn features you should care about

LinkedIn plays a pivotal role in our communication strategies because it’s the biggest B2B social marketing platform out there.

Whether or not you should be using LinkedIn is a subject for another day – right now we just want to tell you about two new features that small to mid capped companies should care about.

LinkedIn plays a pivotal role in our communication strategies because it’s the biggest B2B social marketing platform out there.

Whether or not you should be using LinkedIn is a subject for another day – right now we just want to tell you about two new features that small to mid capped companies should care about.

LinkedIn is (finally) turning on native video for company pages!

You may know that LinkedIn recently enabled native video - that is, it enabled video to be uploaded directly to the site and played in newsfeeds, rather than as embedded content from a video hosting site like YouTube. This was excellent news because a social media platform will always push its native content higher in a newsfeed than content from an external platform. So while we all know by now that video is an excellent way to deliver content, any time you've embedded a YouTube link to LinkedIn, LinkedIn has pushed other content ahead of it because it's sitting on a competing social networking site.

Since LinkedIn introduced native video, we've been busy ensuring that when we're making new videos with our clients, there's a LinkedIn friendly version as well. The only drawback so far has been that LinkedIn has only turned this feature on for profile pages and not company pages.

We've just received news that LinkedIn is starting to turn native video on for company pages - and some of the company pages we're managing will be early adopters!

Here are two really great examples of how early adopters are using native video on their company pages:

Boston Consulting Group tends to feature straight interviews like this with its senior executives in its videos – and you can do the same with the right tools (a tripod, a microphone, your smart phone, decent natural light, and a professional setting).

 

In this video, Inc Magazine gets creative using still images and text:

 

If you're unsure about how video will feature in your communication strategies in 2018, please talk to us about it.  And if you're still not convinced that video is worthwhile, see below some stats that might just change your mind.

Video marketing stats*
•    59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video
•    Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
•    Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
(*source: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics)

Who is clicking through to your website from LinkedIn?
Another excellent feature LinkedIn has introduced is Website Demographics. This feature enables companies to better understand the types of professionals clicking through to their websites from LinkedIn. 

 

We're working with some of our clients to have this feature enabled - talk to us if you want to know more. 

Why should you even care about LinkedIn?
We know, we know - LinkedIn is probably at the very bottom of a pile of lower order competing priorities for you. 

BUT  LinkedIn plays an important role in the content strategies we develop for our clients because in a world of shrinking media opportunities, social marketing sites give us a platform to continue to share our news. They also have an advantage over media because we can grow our own direct followings and control our messaging to ensure it's accurate and on brand.

About Ilona Marchetta - PR and digital account lead 

Ilona has more than 10 years’ experience in communications, spanning journalism, public relations, copywriting and digital marketing.

She has worked across the listed company, government, private and not-for-profit sectors. 

Ilona is passionate about working with entrepreneurs and developing compelling brand stories across content platforms. She manages a number of influencers, handling the commercial aspects of their content and giving guidance on how they can increase their digital ‘currency’.

About IR Department 

Established in 2007, Investor Relations Department Pty Ltd (IR Department) is an independent corporate and financial communications agency, known for delivering outstanding results for clients. 

Our experienced consultants understand the importance of matching business objectives with communications campaigns.  We translate complex data and messaging into understandable investor communications that form the backbone of successful investor engagement strategies, and support appropriate valuations.

We provide expert consulting services across the areas of investor relations, public relations, marketing and communications.  We like to do what we say we’re going to do – delivering to brief and reporting to clients as we go, so our clients aren’t left guessing about what we’re doing, and they can measure our collective success along the way.

For more information or to contact us, please visit www.irdepartment.com.au.