Listen
The Rise Of LinkedIn To 500M Members: What Marketers Need To Know For 2018
We’ve discussed the potential and power of LinkedIn quite a few times in the Daily Carnage. Like that time we dropped the “The Massive Opportunity of LinkedIn” into a Listen or the “45 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Stats Every B2b Needs to Know” as a Read, just to name a couple.
It’s becoming the best social media channel for marketers faster than you can say, “LinkedIn generates 3x more conversions than Twitter and Facebook.”
Seriously though, in just a couple years, the site has grown from 100 million members to 500 million. Not to mention a ton of other stats you can find in that second link up there.
Today’s Listen is from Buffer’s Science of Social Media, and, surprisingly enough, this is only their second time talking about LinkedIn. After years as a job board and then being bought by Microsoft, the now content-first platform is earning Mad Respect from its members—big businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketers alike.
Let’s see what else makes LinkedIn so good, and why a lot of people think 2018 will be “The Year of LinkedIn.” Facebook Schmacebook…
- (02:20) Ways LinkedIn has been on the rise around the world.
- (02:45) How its algorithm makes the channel so top notch.
- (02:55) LinkedIn’s incredible (but invite-only) influencer program, which brings in big names, such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Ariana Huffington.
- (03:35) Aka… it attracts a lot of influential people and that’s obviously a huge advantage.
- (05:05) Publishing as a major benefit.
- (05:35) LinkedIn attracts great writers and provides these writers with top engagement.
- (05:55) The time Brian Peters posted an article that reached 70% of his total followers. Dang.
- (06:40) The advantage of LinkedIn video and what makes it stand out from Facebook video.
- (08:05) How to master the news-trending-focused algorithm and why you should tap into each story’s hashtags.
- (09:15) LinkedIn as one of the only social media platforms that lets you connect directly to people in every level of a company.
- (09:30) Professional contacts = open doors.
- (10:25) How Buffer’s Science of Social Media used the channel to get NASA’s social media manager to speak on their show.
- (10:55) How the CEO of Bikini Luxe used LinkedIn to promote her company. While it’s a strange product to promote on a professional network, she made serious a ~splash~ and saw a lot of success. You can tune in to her cool story here.
Read
Understanding Pain Is the Key to Marketing
What’s wrong?
If you really want to be a customer-centric marketer, you need to ask your customers that question. Believe it or not, those two words can completely reframe your company’s approach to marketing because it will make you more empathetic to their struggles.
Lots to cover, so without further ado…here are a few steps you can take to better understand your customers’ pain-points:
- Go one-on-one. This is the simplest, but most time-consuming step. You’ll want to actually talk to *gasp* your customers. Pick up the phone. Send them an email. That will help you view your customer as a person, rather than a persona. Sometimes personas boil your customers down to just data and numbers.
- Put emotion on your map. What emotions are your customers feeling at the awareness level of your marketing? What about as they move further down your marketing funnel? If you haven’t taken the time to identify the emotions and feelings of your customers at each step, now is the time to start.
- Seek out complaints. We all hate this one. It’s easier to hide and avoid any and all criticism. But, hiding and ignoring the truth does nothing. Absolutely nothing. That’s not a good thing. Use social media to find out what people are saying about keywords you target, the industry you work in, your products, etc.
- Poll throughout the process. It’s a little pricey, but you can use a tool like Qualaroo to ask your customers specific questions on specific pages. Or, go the old-fashioned route with emails and surveys to ask them questions after the sale.
- Steer into the pain. This is a complex topic, and we’re running out of words to fit it in. To boil it down, steering into the pain basically means you need to ask deeper questions of your customers when you’re polling them. It’s a powerful tactic and can really get your customer to connect with you.
Tons of good insight in this one…
Watch
Sweet In Sweats
Guess what this writer is doing immediately after finishing writing today’s Watch? Going home, putting on sweatpants, and binging Stranger Things 2 (I know, I know, 99% of America has watched it already). The key part here is *putting on sweatpants*.
You know that feeling when you put on sweatpants after a long day of work? Yeah, putting on sweats feels pretty sweet. That flawless transition leads us right into the name of Fruit of the Loom’s new ad campaign: Sweet in Sweats.
The campaign features plenty of ’80s-style excitement—you know, people jumping into the air acting cheesy. There’s also an ’80s-inspired jingle, and maybe our favorite tactic from the ’80s: freeze-frames.
These ads manage to both pay homage to and make fun of the ’80s in 30 seconds. We gotta respect that.
Warning: the Sweet in Sweats jingle is gonna get stuck in your head after watching these ads.
Hey, Look at This
Ever wished you could boil down all of your Google Analytics data into a simple report to send to your clients or boss? Good news, we just found Quill Engage. It automatically explains Google Analytics data in plain English so that even our moms can understand it. Hi mom!
