As a digital marketing agency, we treat LinkedIn different than we do other social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. We get many questions from our clients asking why that is. Well, there are a few reasons we will think about today.
Overall, it is important to think about your marketing strategy as a whole. Where can we find your target audience? Many people think that in order to have a successful marketing strategy, you must be present on all sites. Actually, that’s far from true. If your target audience is nowhere to be found on Twitter, but interacts with you heavily on LinkedIn, its better for you to allocate your time to your LinkedIn presence and focus less on Twitter.
Now, while each social media platform is different from one another to an extent, we generally advise to maintain the same strategy for each platform – usually meaning posting the same content across the board on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We don’t recommend LinkedIn being included in that. But why? What’s the difference?
Its important to understand the difference between the two first.
One of the most important questions is, where is your target audience found online? Who is your target audience? This is key to understanding where you will find them. The types of users between LinkedIn and social media platforms are usually different. LinkedIn holds a much smaller audience than social sites, as you will find primarily professionals on there. This is where you will target your business owners, recent college graduates, etc. Social sites on the other hand are more for, well, anybody. This is where you will reach your local moms, community figures, teenagers, etc. It is critical to know what message you are trying to tell and to WHO in order to know where to post.
The use of the different platforms is something to focus on as well. People tend to use LinkedIn and social media for different reasons. LinkedIn was originally created primarily for job recruiters and those seeking a job to connect on a professional level. Though it has since evolved beyond that, LinkedIn is still primarily professionally focused. Social sites, on the other hand, are just that – social platforms. Sites like Facebook or Instagram are meant for sharing and engaging with your friends and family. Usually what is shared on these are more lighthearted than LinkedIn, even for businesses.
As we stated above, there is a basic difference in the statistics between LinkedIn versus other networks. This includes the amount of people on each site. Again, LinkedIn hosts way less people than social sites like Facebook and Instagram. People are much more likely to visit social sites over LinkedIn on a regular basis. Simply put, this is a reason a lot of businesses will choose social sites over LinkedIn – more eyes can mean more business to some.
The way businesses usually interact and post on each platform is different as well. For example, a business may create a business page on Facebook to connect and interact with customers, actively posting and engaging their audience in conversation. Social sites are a great way for businesses to show a little bit more of their company culture, or photos and videos, or more relatable content. According to Facebook, over one billion people like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times daily. Having a business page and connecting with your customers can allow you to participate in these ongoing conversations. For LinkedIn, many businesses tend to create company or corporate pages to post job openings, attract potential employees, start conversations with customers or clients, build leads, and even connect people to their website, blogs or even other social sites.
Both LinkedIn and social sites have proven to be beneficial networks. Ultimately what it comes down to is what your audience interacts with more and what they prefer to use to interact. When you know where your customers spend their time, you can mold your strategy to reach them in their space.
StrategyNest can help you create the perfect social media marketing plan tailored to your business. Call us or contact us above for a free consultation.