We know what you’re thinking GLAD WORKS friends: LinkedIn is a big snooze. But we’re here today to convince you otherwise and encourage you to go back and take a look at LinkedIn as it is today. It’s not just a place to post your resume and make connections with folks you sort of know, then nothing happens. Not anymore. It’s bringing sexy back to content marketing (for B2B especially) and you shouldn’t ignore it if you know what’s good for you!

What marketers are doing now

Many marketers are now choosing LinkedIn over Twitter and Facebook, making it the top social media outlet for B2B content marketing! This makes perfect sense since LinkedIn is a place where people share aspects of their professional lives. You don’t see pictures of puppies and babies very often on LinkedIn, do you?  Personal stuff and just-for-funzies is what facebook is for. The audience on LinkedIn is already there to talk business, which makes it a heck of a lot easier to get people to read your posts. You’re not the guy or gal walking into a fun conversation about baby Hugo’s latest caper to talk about how to increase your conversion rates. Your posts end up being ignored more often than not on Facebook because they’re probably not as fun as baby Hugo. (We know they’re even better than posts about baby Hugo, but people are silly.)

There’s a time and a place to talk business and it ain’t usually on Facebook

LinkedIn is striving to become a more relevant place every day. On LinkedIn you can join groups, find answers to your questions and have real conversations with other professionals in a professional atmosphere. Nobody on LinkedIn is going to interrupt your business conversation with a picture of baby Hugo dumping spaghetti on the cat.

What all this means to you is that you’ve got a great atmosphere for fostering direct connections with people who can be good for your business—whether by taking advantage of your services or becoming allies and mentors. And LinkedIn is working to become even friendlier toward content marketers. Rumor has it that soon they’ll be rolling out a sponsored content feature that will let businesses deliver content directly to their followers. This means that your articles can be used as targeted status updates.

Getting started

If you haven’t really dipped your toe into the LinkedIn pool yet, that’s ok. It’s never too late to start emphasizing your presence. Begin by increasing your connections so that as many people will see your posts as possible. Join some relevant groups and become an active member. Post your content to those groups and make sure you actively link to your blog or website. This does not mean you can spam your group. It means that you should join the conversation by contributing something useful and by reading and commenting on what others are posting as well.

The same rules apply

LinkedIn is a social space, so the same basic rules apply there just as they do on Facebook and Twitter and Google +. Make sure you get involved and make yourself known. Ask questions of others and contribute meaningful answers to the questions they may have. It takes work to build a reputation as a thought leader, but it’s worth the effort. Just think of how much you can learn by talking to potential customers, mentors and allies and you’ll see the value in LinkedIn right away.

Pretty sexy, right?

We think so too.

But…what about Facebook?

Well, you should still be on there, but consider adding more “fun” posts about the good old-fashioned shenanigans that take place around the office. Use Facebook to you’re your personality a little bit. Of course, you can make sure your LinkedIn stuff has some personality too, but this is a good way to sort out your baby Hugo hijinks from your serious business conversations.

We don’t want you to feel overwhelmed or discouraged by our post today. We know you’re already doing your best on Facebook and trying to get that sought after and illusive consumer engagement. But think about your last ten posts and decide which social platform may be the best fit. Maybe that answer is LinkedIn, maybe it’s still Facebook. Maybe it’s a combination of both. Just think about it and don’t be afraid to experiment. 

Have any of you GLAD WORKS friends tried to do more content marketing on LinkedIn lately?  What’s your experience been like?