Engaging your audience on social media is hard. Converting them is even harder.

Posting on the regular only gets you so far, and paid ads get expensive fast.

But what if there’s a social media platform that could make all the difference for your brand?

LinkedIn is a professional network. But right now it’s also one of the best channels for social media marketing—for B2B and B2C brands!

Here are the 6 reasons why you should start marketing on LinkedIn today:

Key Takeaways

LinkedIn's algorithms prioritise activity in your network and magnify organic reach.
Its targeting options make it the best platform to connect with decision-makers.
LinkedIn has a lot of potential for B2C brands as it's easy to stand out with captivating content and humour.

1. Potent user demographics

LinkedIn’s user base is global, has a high buying power, and includes a lot of decision-makers.

It has 174+ million users based in the US and 163+ million users in Europe, including 15+ million in German-speaking (DACH) countries.

LinkedIn membership numbers as of December 2020

According to a LinkedIn Audience 360 study:

4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions

Over a 4th are senior-level influencers

Including 63 million decision-makers

And 10 million C-level executives

Given these statistics, it won’t come as a surprise that LinkedIn’s audience has 2 times the buying power of the average web audience.

As LinkedIn states: its “audience means business”. If you’re B2B and need to reach decision-makers, sell luxury products, or items for professionals, LinkedIn is the place to be.

2. Unique targeting options

Because LinkedIn is a platform for professionals, it offers unique targeting options. You can filter on:

Company (size, name, industry)

Experience (job function, title, seniority)

Education (degree, school/university, fields of study)

Skillset

Professional interests

And more

With these options, you can zoom in on the audiences that are most likely to convert. And you can optimise your marketing campaigns for different target groups.

This is the case for B2B as well as B2C brands. By filtering on job titles alone you can for example:

Identify people with the buying power to afford fancy dinners and luxury spas by filtering on seniority

Find people who need to travel and stay at business hotels like consultants at global consulting firms

These are only a few of the many ways in which you can get creative with LinkedIn’s unique targeting options!

3. Organic reach is high

LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritises activity in your network. It keeps content active for longer and pulls posts to the top as your network likes or comments on them.

It means content can keep showing up in your feed as people in your network engage with it.

As a result, you can get thousands of views on your post, simply by the power of your network. This kind of organic reach is rare on many other platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Also, LinkedIn does a great job of showing you content similar to posts and ads you interacted with before. It, again, makes it easier to appear in one’s feed without a large network or huge budget.

4. Easier to stand out (especially with B2C content)

LinkedIn is known as the network for professionals. It is used for networking and most of the content is work-related.

This creates a huge opportunity for B2C companies to stand out! Liven up your audience's LinkedIn feeds by posting videos and high-quality photos, and inject a bit of humour if it fits your brand.

Realise that, yes, people might be on LinkedIn for their work. But it doesn't stop them from being consumers!

Especially if you’re selling high-cost items or products for professionals, LinkedIn is a great place to reach your audience. Like fancy watches, cars, and luxury hotels.

Mercedes-Benz for example shows off its latest models with captivating videos. And LinkedIn’s native travel platform VISION Destinations includes gorgeous large-scale images:

As a B2B company, you can stand out as well! Use rich media and new creative content formats, such as LinkedIn stories and carousel posts.

5. Decision-makers are within arm’s reach

Because LinkedIn allows you to filter on job title and company, you can find decision-makers at all levels within an organisation.

With the high number of senior-level influencers and C-level executives, LinkedIn is one of the best channels for B2B marketing.

You can, for example:

Approach the Head of Sales to sell your CRM tool

Target office managers who organise company retreats to sell your skiing vacations

Target HR managers to sell bike lease plans, like the Dutch company VanMoof does

Paid ads are not the only way to get in touch with high-value profiles on LinkedIn. You can also capitalise on your network by raiding it for promising connections.

Go to a company's profile page, check their employees, and see which ones are 2nd connections. Then send them a connect request (with note!). Or better yet, ask your mutual contact to introduce you.

6. The place for Employer Branding

LinkedIn is the social media platform to boost your reputation as an employer. Build a solid Employer Brand by celebrating your employees and showing off your company culture.

It will attract talent and motivate your current team. And as your team makes all the difference for your business results, this can pay off big time.

Want to know how to build a great Employer Brand on LinkedIn? We’ll give practical advice on how to do so in one of our next LinkedIn posts. So make sure to keep an eye on our blog!

LinkedIn offers unique possibilities that make it one of the hottest social media marketing platforms right now—not only for B2B brands, but also many B2C ones.

Organic reach is high. Your network carries real power. You can stand out with creativity, humour, and rich media. And LinkedIn’s unique targeting options help you reach audiences that are hard to connect with on other platforms.

But social media is always changing. That’s why it’s crucial to take advantage of LinkedIn’s opportunities as long as they last.

In our next post, we’ll give you the 4 steps to get started on LinkedIn. If you don’t want to miss out make sure to sign up for our monthly Social Trends Update!