Ife Babatunde on New Ways Marketers Can Engage Their Brand’s Audience on LinkedIn

At The State of the Story in March, Ife Babatunde, Senior Agency Lead at LinkedIn, spoke with Magnet Media CEO and founder Megan Cunningham about winning strategies for LinkedIn and how brands can build successful narratives at scale with LinkedIn’s new features.

What does success on LinkedIn look like for brands in 2021?

The conversations that used to happen pre-pandemic – by the water cooler or in the break room – have moved to LinkedIn. Therefore, to find success on LinkedIn, brands need to remember the mindset of people coming to the platform. People are coming for an opportunity and positive encouragement. They also want to learn.

So the secret sauce for a brand that wants to present itself on LinkedIn is two things.

One, it's to be helpful. Before you post content on LinkedIn, stop and ask yourself: Am I adding value? Is this making people more productive and successful?

And two, it's to be human. Does this humanize my brand? Will it give my audience energy? Will it empower them? Will it add levity to their day?

To use LinkedIn as an example, we recently posted in the feed: “It’s February 1. Time to finally close those tabs from 2020.”

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What's trending on LinkedIn?

We are seeing an explosion of growth right now on LinkedIn. We have nearly 750 million members and are growing at a rate of three new members per second.

When it comes to engagement, there's actually 10 times more engagement with content on the platform than job postings. So in terms of what's trending, it's all about video.

"It's all about video."

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What is a LinkedIn Live Stream?

LinkedIn Live allows you to broadcast live video content from your LinkedIn page. It’s a new feature that allows you to create and host a virtual event on the site.

Brands are choosing to tell their stories on LinkedIn Live because there is a built-in community on the platform that lends itself to much deeper audience engagement.

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What are some success stories of how brands have used LinkedIn Live to build their brand voice on the platform?

I love Louis Vuitton as a case study because it highlights how B2C brands can find success on LinkedIn with our audience of high-value, high-net-worth consumers.

Louis Vuitton came to LinkedIn looking for a new channel to bring the brand to a broader audience of luxury consumers. They have been using LinkedIn Live to live stream multiple catwalk shows.

Over the course of four live catwalk shows, the brand was able to grow its follower base on LinkedIn by nearly 50%. Louis Vuitton was also smart about pre-event and post-event strategies for content distribution.

After the Louis Vuitton live stream and virtual men's wear collection in Shanghai, the brand created post-event video content from the catwalk show. They used this content on their platform to reach a million luxury consumers in just three days.

We are seeing brands use LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events as a full funnel solution that can drive both upper funnel as well as lower funnel demand.

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What are LinkedIn Stories and how can brands use them effectively?

LinkedIn Stories launched last year, and they are a very similar format and user experience to what you might find on other platforms. Stories last for 24 hours and they're immersive full screen. For LinkedIn, they are only available on the mobile app.

When you're thinking about content to share on LinkedIn Stories, keep in mind the business context of LinkedIn.

Stories are a great way to share thoughts from your leadership and highlight upcoming events. You can also use stories to humanize your brand. So you can celebrate company milestones, cultural moments like Black History Month, or your employees.

Because stories last for 24 hours, you can experiment a little bit more and take a more creative approach to content that runs in the newsfeed and stays with your page.

"You can experiment a little bit more and take a more creative approach to content that runs in the newsfeed and stays with your page."

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Should brands use humor on LinkedIn?

People are always surprised that humor works really well on LinkedIn. As a brand, you want to lose the corporate jargon. Don't be afraid to take a more conversational tone because the best posts on LinkedIn are the ones that open the door to community interaction and invite you to participate and share your experience.

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Who are LinkedIn Infleuncers and how can someone become one?

A LinkedIn Influencer is part of a group of 500 of the top minds in their business – people like Richard Branson, Melinda Gates, Sallie Krawcheck.

It's important to note that LinkedIn does not accept invitations to become a LinkedIn Influencer, rather it is invite-only by the editorial team.

In addition, we have LinkedIn Top Voices, which is an annual ranking published each year of the top LinkedIn members who are driving the most engagement to the platform and are shaping conversations in their industries.

If you want to become a LinkedIn Influencer, you want to get noticed by the editorial team. The three things to keep in mind are consistency, engagement, and value.

1. Consistency: Are you posting to the site regularly? Can you signal to our editorial team that you're committed to the platform that LinkedIn is your platform of choice?
   
2. Engagement: Are you growing a follower base? Are you driving likes, comments, and shares? Is there healthy dialogue in your comment section?
   
3. Value: Do you have expertise in your field? Do you have an interesting perspective that our members can learn from? Is there proof that people should be listening to you?

In my opinion, these tips apply not just to LinkedIn, but to any platform where you want to get noticed and gain traction.

"The three things to keep in mind are consistency, engagement, and value.

Hear more from Ife Babatunde and learn more about social storytelling and how brands can build successful narratives at scale that hold up when customized for a global platform.

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