You’re Wasting Your Time on LinkedIn

Jill Willis from Attract & Engage considers whether you can still reach your audience and capture attention?

I recently had a discussion with a couple of business owners regarding leveraging LinkedIn’s professional platform to connect and network with potential prospects. The question they both wanted answered was, is LinkedIn dying? My quick answer was, NO. It is just changing. Here’s the thing. If you’re approaching LinkedIn as a place to sell to people, without knowing what problems they want help with, then you’re wasting your time. LinkedIn has evolved over the past two years to be barely recognisable for those of us who have been here since the start. Forget all the rules you learned and things that used to work.

This is where it’s at …

#1 Quality content

If you have been producing your own company content up until now on the fly, good for you, but your time is up. Unless you are a full-time creator (professional writer, a serious YouTuber, or a graphic designer), you need to give it up. Hire a team because the standards on LinkedIn have skyrocketed and it is clear this will only become stronger in 2024. Everyone is either a ghostwriter or has hired one. Check out the quality of the carousel posts and vertical videos and you’ll understand what you are up against in 2024.

#2 Video First

Traditionally, LinkedIn has not been particularly friendly to video. But this is changing: GenZ are arriving on LinkedIn and video is their preferred format to consume. With the rise of AI, people are looking for authentic content. Lastly, people’s attention span for reading is getting shorter – not so for video it seems (Average US Adult now spends 53 minutes a day watching videos on TikTok). Video gives you the best chance of capturing the attention of your Millennial and Gen Z business decision makers. This is important because attention is your most valuable marketing asset, without it none of your marketing efforts matter.

#3 Algorithm

In the old days of LinkedIn, one could still “wing it”, but in 2024, those days are long gone. The LinkedIn algorithm wants users of the platform to encourage genuine, meaningful conversations versus self-promotion and jargon. The algorithm (allegedly) does not favour a particular post format (think: text, images, video and so on) but it does want people to “post things that encourage a response” rather than simply drop links and expect engagement. Key take-aways for businesses are … If you want to make your time on the platform worthwhile its worth understanding these ‘guidelines’ and learning how to operate within them to boost reach.

Jill’s Rapid Fire Advice ...

Q: How often should I post?

A: It’s different across all social platforms. On LinkedIn you should post once per day to gain the most followers and engagement. If you want to post on LinkedIn twice a day make sure you spread your posts by 7 hours. If you post them too close to each other, it affects the previous post’s reach.

Q: Should I use LinkedIn to pitch for sales?

A: Every day on social media I get 10 to 20 messages from people pitching me stuff. Likely you do too. Remember this, if you can’t add value, your sales pitch will fail. So, instead of using LinkedIn to pitch services, why don’t you try to build a relationship and provide value. Sure, it takes longer, but you’ll at least get somewhere.

Jill Willis is Founder of Attract & Engage the growth marketing agency for construction, landscape and B2B sectors.