LinkedIn for success, part two: How to increase engagement on LinkedIn

There’s no denying it, LinkedIn is most certainly the ultimate B2B platform. No matter the type of business, LinkedIn offers a platform to reach out and directly engage with key decision-makers, increasing leads, sales and traffic for your business.

​​But at the same time, LinkedIn can be a tough platform to crack, especially when running your company page. Having a strong LinkedIn presence is key to furthering your personal LinkedIn profile, while building awareness of your company page.

And so, it comes as no surprise that many brands struggle with LinkedIn engagement. This is why we’ve put together this two-part LinkedIn series, to help you maximise your LinkedIn profile and company pages for success.

In today’s part two, we’re here to look at how to boost Linkedin engagement, build a LinkedIn community and utilise LinkedIn comments for success.

Here’s how to improve LinkedIn engagement 

Growing a Linkedin company page doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right strategy in place you can increase engagement quicker than you think. Here are our top tips for improving engagement on LinkedIn:

Create insightful content 

It’s pretty simple, if your content isn’t interesting, nobody is going to read it. Always look for ways to add valuable content to your LinkedIn page, whether it’s writing articles on LinkedIn itself, or sharing value-packed content from your website.

Be consistent with LinkedIn content

In order to engage followers on any platform, you must have a strong presence and post regularly, whether it’s text posts, external videos, visual content or LinkedIn articles.

Build relationships with other LinkedIn members 

It’s important to develop relationships with other LinkedIn members beyond the likes and comments. Don’t be afraid to send (personalised) connection requests, to strengthen this relationship further. Building your professional network will enable you to further your content’s reach and grow both your personal LinkedIn page and company page.

Best practice for LinkedIn: What shouldn’t you do? 

Social media marketing can be a tricky challenge to face for any business, especially on a LinkedIn company page. Much like a business Instagram, LinkedIn engagement can be difficult, especially without the support of your employees and the optimisation of their personal LinkedIn profile.

Below, we’ve put together some best-practice tips for encouraging LinkedIn comments.

Here are the things best avoided when commenting/using LinkedIn:

Being unprofessional 

LinkedIn is a professional network, so if you’re looking to share a steady stream of memes or photos of your weekend, these may be best left on other social media platforms. It’s important to avoid (too much) humour, as this can be subjective and has the potential to upset or offend, especially to those you don’t personally know.

Before you start creating your own posts on your LinkedIn profile, or creating content for your LinkedIn company page, remember that LinkedIn – more than any other social media platform – is designed to represent your place of work. This means that your views and opinions may result in commercial/reputational damage for your employer.

Tagging clients and companies without approval 

This may seem like a totally harmless addition to your LinkedIn post, but without approval, you could be potentially breaking a confidentiality agreement/NDA. Ensure that before you publish your LinkedIn post you have permission to speak about the project and include the company page/people involved.

The same applies to tagging customers and sales prospects, especially when your LinkedIn posts are focused on sales, marketing and promotions. Nobody wants to be spammed – at all – let alone via LinkedIn.

Being critical 

Any grievances are best handled internally, away from the public gaze. LinkedIn – whether your personal LinkedIn profile or company page – is not the place for engaging in disagreements or heated debates/grievances.

Divulging confidential information  

There are certain things that shouldn’t be shared on social media platforms, let alone your LinkedIn profile or company page. Whether it’s about your business or its clients, confidential information is best left out of your LinkedIn posts and articles.

How to conquer LinkedIn commenting 

Enough about what to avoid on LinkedIn, here are our best practice tips for mastering LinkedIn commenting and boosting your engagement:

Ensure your comment is packed with value  

Every day, our LinkedIn feed is packed with LinkedIn articles, posts, videos and more. With so many people’s posts floating around, dropping a comment that is filled with value is a sure way to get your own Linkedin profile noticed. Whether it’s congratulating a connection on a recent win, or leaving your own insight on a LinkedIn article, valuable content is key.

With the LinkedIn algorithm improving all the time, we begin to see relevant posts in our LinkedIn feed, simply because a connection has recently commented. These are great opportunities to get involved and make future connection requests.

Always fact check and spell check 

While LinkedIn has the capability to edit and update your own comments, it’s crucial to take a moment and read over your comment (and LinkedIn posts) before hitting publish.

Share relevant LinkedIn posts to encourage engagement 

While commenting on another LinkedIn post is great, if something really takes your eye, don’t be afraid to share it to your own LinkedIn profile and comment appropriately. This can be a great way to encourage engagement outside of your organisation and within your own network.

How to reply to LinkedIn comments 

When you post content on company pages, it can be difficult to encourage comments. One of the best ways to gain some traffic to your LinkedIn page is to share it on your personal profile. This is where your employees come in.

Your employees are a vital asset in growing your company page, since every member will have different connections on their LinkedIn profile.

When you do receive LinkedIn comments, always respond professionally. Use the tips above for mastering your comment, spell-checking, fact-checking and offering value through your comments. Get personal with your replies by tagging the person you are responding to, or using their name directly. It’s important, however, to not enter into unprofessional ‘banter’ between colleagues via comments, or get drawn into arguments on social media.

Commenting for better reach on LinkedIn

Engaging in relevant groups, relevant hashtags and on other people’s posts in your network will help you to further your reach on LinkedIn. LinkedIn supports those who engage with others, and this is best done through comments.

While it’s important to post frequently to stay relevant on LinkedIn, the quality of your comments (and content) also matters. When commenting on a blog post, poll or general LinkedIn update, be friendly and professional. This will help you to build your network!

Grow your LinkedIn and optimise your page for leads and sales 

With the above tips, you’ll be well on your way to mastering LinkedIn and speaking directly to your target audience. Did you know that you can also grab our FREE best practice guide to LinkedIn?

Download yours now and share our tips with your colleagues for effective LinkedIn marketing.