Playbook · LinkedIn Posting Playbook This playbook will help you better engage and connect with...

POSTING ON LINKEDINPlaybook

PLAYBOOK

MARKTETING

© All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

2

Pages 4 - 8 Pages 12 Pages 14 - 18

Introduction

Context

Summary

How to Use

Definitions

Statistics

Optimize

Pages 26

Plan Execute

Pages 20 - 24

Develop

Top 10 Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

Anatomy of an Effective Post

Content Ideas

Posting Tips Optimize

Content Writing Tips

Best times to post on LinkedIn


LINKEDIN POSTING

INTRODUCTION

3

Introduction

Context

Summary

How to Use

Definitions

Statistics


Context

4

How This Playbook Fits Into Company Expert’s Solution Center

Introduction Plan Develop Execute Optmize

GROWTH ACCELERATOR

1

Planning

2

Marketing

3

Online Presence

4

Sales

Product Category

Online Presence > Social Media

The above four building blocks of growth are the foundational elements of our Growth Accelerator system. They allow us to systematically assess and optimize various components of growth. Within each of the four blocks there are 18 different enablers of growth.

Each of these blocks are part of an interconnected ecosystem that Company Expert leverages with these Playbooks to inject speed, alignment and accelerated growth into the DNA of your firm –Our Growth AcceleratorTM

RELATED TOOLS

GROWTH ACCELERATOR

2

Marketing

Insights Products

3

Online Presence

Insights Products

1

Planning

Insights Products

4

Sales

Insights Products

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https://www.companyexpert.com/product-category/marketing

https://www.companyexpert.com/category/online-presence/

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© All Rights Reserved 5

Playbook Overview

1 2 3 4 5

Effo

rt

Impact

1

2

3

4

5

Key: 1 Low – 5 High

Highest Value

Activities

Time to Complete:Posting .5 hours per week using an automated tool

Building Block of Growth: Marketing

Other Related Enablers of Growth: Persona Development Value Proposition Content Marketing Marketing Tools Marketing Process

Impact/Effort Scoring:

Score Summary:

Developing content takes a lot of time and effort to position your firm as a trusted advisor.

LinkedIn is the most effective platform for communicating and selling to B2B prospects.

Tool Score

Product Summary:

Posting to LinkedIn is part art, part science, part informing, part selling – but always adding value for your followers.

This is the definitive guide to posting on LinkedIn, in this playbook, you will find:

Best practices

Little know secrets

When to post

What should be posted

How much of the content should be yours versus 3rd

party content

How you should sequence in your posts, and much more!

Done right, you will be position as a trusted advisor to you key prospects. Done wrong, and it will damage your brand and ability to get leads on LinkedIn.

Don’t take a change download your copy today!

Format:PowerPoint

Number of Pages:26



Introduction

6

LinkedIn Posting Playbook

This playbook will help you better engage and connect with your audience on LinkedIn. As a B2B firm you cannot ignore the worlds’ largest business network platform – other than your website this is #1 place your prospects will look to assess your company. This playbook will help you:

Leverage best LinkedIn practices

Increase your ROI

Grow a network of prospects

WHY USE THIS PLAYBOOK? WHO IS THIS PLAYBOOK FOR? HOW TO USE THIS PLAYBOOK

B2B professional service firms who are new to the LinkedIn platform

Firms that have been using the platform without much success

Marketing staff who want to focus on LinkedIn as a key way to grow their client base

The playbook can be used as a standalone strategy to drive more engagement and conversions or it can be used as a component of a broader marketing strategy on LinkedIn.

The practices share should be adapted to best suit the needs of your organization and where you are from a LinkedIn maturity standpoint

Tips and strategiesTIP Warning, be carefulKEYSUMMARY

Help



Definitions

Call-To-Actions is a statement designed to get an immediate response (to take action) from the person reading it.

Each of the four building block of growth contain 18 different capabilities or drivers of growth

A hashtag (# followed by keyword) is used on social media to help organize content and track discussions based upon the keywords

A Playbook is discrete activity and process to achieve a certain outcome. Playbooks are often one component of a Solution Set Example: Creating a Value Proposition is a playbook within the Editorial Guidelines Solution Set

Posts allow all LinkedIn members to share their professional expertise, experiences and content with their connections and the larger community. Posts you share will be broadcasted to your connections’ feeds in their LinkedIn homepage. Post are limited to about 5 lines.

Publishing allows members to write in-depth about their professional expertise – challenges they’ve faced, opportunities they’veseized, important trends in their industry, etc.

A Solution Set is a series of Playbooks combined to provide a holistic approach towards completing a specific marketing activity. Example: The Editorial Guidelines Solution Set contains some of the following Playbooks: Creating a value proposition, creating target personas, and how to write a blog

CTA

Drivers of Growth

Hashtag

Playbook

Posting

Publishing

Solution Set



Why LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the #1 channel B2B marketers use to distribute content at 94%.

6 out of 10 users actively look for industry insights.

280 billion feed updates are viewed annually.

Professional content gets 15X more content impressions than job postings with 57% consuming content on mobile.

LinkedIn makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites & blogs.

92% of B2B marketers include LinkedIn in their digital marketing mix.

Source: OmnicoreSproutsocial Study

Effectiveness Ratings for B2B Social Media Platforms Statistics You Cannot Ignore



LINKEDIN POSTING

Plan

Develop

Execute

Optimize

PROCESS OVERVIEW

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

9


LinkedIn Posting Strategy Specifically Designed for Professional Service Firms

1

Plan

2

Develop

3

Execute

4

Optimize

Scope of this process:We have outlined some best practices in this Playbook, however, it was not meant to provide you the actual process of posting – that can be easily found on the LinkedIn site.

Stage 1 – PlanFirst impressions make a big difference, use your profile to position your firm as a trusted advisor

Stage 3 – ExecutePosting the right message at the right time

Stage 2 – DevelopDeveloping the right content that will resonate with your target market

Stage 4 – OptimizeContinue to monitor and enhance your approach

Google founder Larry Page has attributed the strategy of having "more wood behind fewer arrows”

Helped them reach record profits. We see a lot of firms trying to have a presence on multiple social media platforms and failing at all of them. Focus on a successful LinkedIn presence before you start on another platform.

TIP



LINKEDIN POSTING

PLAN

Plan


11



• We have a LinkedIn Profile Optimizer Playbook you should refer to for more information. Here are 10 quick tips to improve your profile:

• Make sure you are in business attire and you profile picture is professional

• Add a professional looking background picture

• Make sure you have a compelling headline

• Customize your LinkedIn profile URL

• Make sure you add any relevant skills

• Ensure your work history is up-to-date

• Include your contact information in your profile

• Make sure you make full use of the description section

• Turn off sending updates when you make changes to your profile

• Make sure you have a call to action on your profile

Most professional services business owners and executives spend a lot of time making sure their website is up to date and reflects their brand image. However, few take the time to customize their LinkedIn profile. Those that do, will differentiate their business, get more leads, and be better positioned as an industry expert.



LINKEDIN POSTING

DEVELOPDevelop

Anatomy of an Effective Post

Content Ideas


13


Anatomy of an Effective Post (For more information go to the Editorial Guidelines Playbook)

Anatomyof a Blog

1

5

4

2

3

Attention Getting

Headline

Images

Call to Action

Body:

Problem

Agitation

Solution

Summary

Attention Getting Headline1

Develop a headline that will immediately grab the attention of the reader

Summary2

A short summary of the blog that motivates the user to read the entire blog

Images3

In addition to the headline, pictures can draw the reader into the blog

Body: Problem Agitation Solution4

Body of the blog using the problem, agitation, solution (PAS) structure

Call to Action5

Engaging the reader and getting them to perform some action to solve the problem



Content Ideas

List posts are highly effective

Make sure you use a number in the headline

Examples: 6 ways to grow your business consultants won’t tell you, best apps to use for (your target market), top 10 books to read, top 20 blogs of the year, 7 secrets of government proposal writing

Describe a process or how to so something that is unique to your customers

Examples: How to use Linkedin to attract clients, how to marketing automation tools to engage your prospects, step by step process for writing a grant proposal

A case study demonstrates your capability using client work as an example

This serves two purposes, if demonstrates expertise and client value that you deliver

Examples: Example of a client coming to you for a particular problem, your assessment, recommendation, and outcome. For example a client that had no previous government business but after working with you it is their highest revenue channel

Defining a problem you see many of your clients having and then recommending a solution.

This process follows our recommended Problem, Agitation, Solution Approach that we describe later in this document

Examples: What are the top issues or problems your clients face? Identify them and the write your solutions. For example, most clients do not have experience writing and do not know where to start, what is your solution for helping those clients

Conduct some primary research and share the results with your clients

This helps position the firm as industry experts and the content can be repurposed in blogs, conference presentations, PR and much more

Examples: Research report on the biggest issues facing your clients, use of social media in your industry, implications of the government shutdown

A picture is worth a thousand words. Infographics help take complex data and information and puts it into a consumable format

Examples: An infographic can be promotional –e.g., promoting your success rate as a firm. An infographic can also highlight research findings. Aspire could use it to discuss their success in government market.

A white paper is an authoritative, In-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution.

This thought piece is another way to demonstrate your expertise.

Example: White papers can be on a wide range of topics. Obviously you want to select a topic that would be of interest to your clients and reinforce your brand image. For example, Navigating the Government Agencies

Check list are helpful for people to digest the content and be able to follow actionable next steps.

Examples: Do these 10 things before bidding on a proposal, 15 things you can do to ensure a successful onboarding of a new client. Before submitting a grant proposal, make sure you check the following boxes.

Instructional Case Study Problem Solution

Research Post Infographic White Papers Check List Post

List Post



Content Ideas

This is a detailed guide to a specific client problem

This usually takes the form of an extended blog and covers everything you need to know about the particular topic

Examples: The ultimate guide to converting more clients, the ultimate guide for twitter advertising. For Aspire it could be the ultimate guide for finding proposals on government databases.

If you have a long topic that you would like to cover break it up into a series of multiple blogs.

You can release the next blog within the series after a specific time

Example: This is a three-part series on networking, the definitive series on scaling your business. For Aspire, it could be a download followed by a series of follow-up emails

Develop a post that gets comments from multiple influencers on a specific topic or question

When you get multiple influencers giving you content, they will likely also promote it through their distribution

Examples: What do you think the key trends will be in the coming year? What is the single biggest mistake you see when people put together a proposal.

Even smaller blogs can get influential people to be interviewed for their site

Have a phone call that is the easiest for the person you are interviewing

Example: Interview a proposal gate keeper and ask them questions around best practices and things you should avoid.

Conduct some primary research and share the results with your clients

This helps position the firm as industry experts and the content can be repurposed in blogs, conference presentations, PR and much more

Examples: Research report on the biggest issues facing your clients, use of social media in your industry, implications of the government shutdown

If you had a great experience regarding a product or service you use in your business write about it. Make sure it is balanced –again you want to earn the trust of the readers

You can also use it to make a point regarding your own industry

Example: What are the lessons learned from that experience, how does it parallel similar experiences (or not in our industry). For example, you may want to talk about the interaction with a government agency versus a business and how it is different

Taking a post that you really like that someone else has written and share what you liked/agreed with or use it to emphasize another point you are trying to make

If you use another writers work make sure you credit it back to them and send them a link for them to promote the blog.

Examples: Highlights of interesting research, key trends and your perspectives. Where you agree and where you disagree with the article. Aspire may want to find some research work on proposal writing and provide your perspective on the findings.

Curate and answer questions that you are consistently asked or find on different forums or in social media

Encourage your readers to post comments and become engaged in the discussion

Examples: These are the 5 questions you need to answer before you take on a new client. The 10 key questions and answers you will need to win more grants.

Series Post Influencer Post Interview Post

Comparison Post Product or Service Review Highlight Post Q&A

Ultimate Guide Post




The most important writing tip can be summed up with Albert Einstein’s quote:

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

When it comes to content and engaging your audience you should try to add value in everything that you do. This includes writing insightful and actionable strategies that your followers cannot find anywhere else. This is what will help position your firm as a trusted advisor

Value

An article published by the Content Marketing Institute found that short content, with word counts of 1,000 or less, dominate LinkedIn. But surprisingly, this is not the content that readers want most. Posts with 1,000 to 3,000 words get the most shares. Check this out:

Up to 1,000 words: Average shares of 6,439.

Medium content of 1,000 to 2,000 words: Average shares of 7,771.

Long content of 2,000 to 3,000 words: Average shares of 8,702.

The bottom line? If you want to hook LinkedIn readers, you must publish long-form, high-quality content to capture their attention and inspire them to share it with their peers.

Long-Articles

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

Albert Einstein



Content Writing TipsSometimes Content OnlyLinkedIn users often just scan their feed between doing whatever it was they went there for in the first place. While visual content is great at giving the eye something to latch onto, it can also be an encumbrance if the copy is the most engaging aspect of the content.

Sometimes, tips and quick text-only nuggets of content are the best way to get someone’s attention. Here are some examples you should consider:

• interesting excerpt from a book

• an inspirational quote

• some quick tips

• a survey.

.



LINKEDIN POSTING

EXECUTEExecute

Posting Tips

Best times to post on LinkedIn

19


Posting Tips

Hidden Content

You can leverage the power of captivating starting line with the hidden text. In short, “hidden text” is when you, as the reader, can’t see anything except the first line. It can be really powerful for engaging people to continue reading your post. Only the first line is visible if you don’t click “see more”. To do this, simply put 2-3 blank paragraphs between the first and the second line of your LinkedIn post. Key takeaway: Use hidden text to force other people to click on the “see more” button and engage with your content.

Tag Relevant People

Engage Conversation Tagging relevant people in your LinkedIn posts can be extremely helpful for your reach and engagement. Even more, it will force other people to comment on your posts. Don’t forget - comments are more valuable than likes at the beginning.

To mention someone in a post:

On your LinkedIn homepage, click into the Share an article, photo, video or idea field or click Comment at the bottom of someone else's post.

Type "@" and then begin typing a name in the box. You'll see a list of potential people you can mention.

Click on the name of the person or people you want to mention from the list and continue typing your message.

Better Engagement

Consider offering something in exchange for a comment. Whenever you have a research study, white paper, new tool use a “comment and get” method. In other words, it works like this: We will offer you an amazing guide that will solve some key problems, but in exchange, you need to comment on this post with “guide”. Comments are far more meaningful than likes - and thus - you can expect a large increase in your views.

Shortening Your Links

Use Bitly or other similar application to shorten the URL to links that you post

HashtagsThey can help improve engagement by making it easier to find specific content. For instance, typing #MarketingStrategy into the LinkedIn search bar will display any content featuring that hashtag on your news feed. (This applies to most if not all of the other content types on this list).



Posting Tips

Hashtags

They can help improve engagement by making it easier to find specific content. For instance, typing #MarketingStrategy into the LinkedIn search bar will display any content featuring that hashtag on your news feed. (This applies to most if not all of the other content types on this list).

Avoid spaces, punctuation, or special symbols. Use no more than 3 hashtags leverage both broad and niche hashtags for increased exposure

Republish on LinkedIn

LinkedIn posts eventually disappear down your feed whereas LinkedIn articles are easier to find, should anyone want to look up your body of work without leaving the platform.

This assumes that you write more posts than articles, which will be true for most LinkedIn users.

Also, LinkedIn hates links from posts to external websites – so if you can keep people on LinkedIn and serve them where they are, that’s a good idea.

Best practice is to wait a day or two before republishing your content, to give Google time to register that the original content has come from your website. Tweak the headline to help you rank for two different searches (one for the original article, the other for this ‘new’ article).

Need help findings hashtags?

Try Hashtagify.me to vet hashtag popularity (and reveal the influencers who are using them). o discover what specific hashtags mean to an audience, try Tagdef.com. This site allows you to easily search for hashtags or phrases to discover their definition and popularity. A quick search can ensure that your hashtag doesn’t have a hidden message you didn’t know about.


https://hashtagify.me/

https://tagdef.com/en/


According to Sprout Social, the best times to post on LinkedIn are:

The best times to post to LinkedIn: Wednesday at 9–10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Best day: Wednesday.

Most consistent engagement: Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m.–2 p.m.

Lowest engagement: Occurs on Sunday and the least popular times to post are every day from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Not every professional service firm will be as well informed as you are about the science of posting. Use these times to start with until you have enough history and then begin to experiment with the best times specifically for your firm.



Posting Tips

Do not feel you have to rigorously stick to this schedule. If you have a lot of your own content, providing it is value-added you should post more of your own content versus promoting some other firm.

Post Frequency

The most important issue is consistency. So many professional service firms start off like wildfire and then when they get busy their activity drops. Experts have different perspectives about how often you should post, the general consensus is no more than 5 times per week and no fewer than 2 times per week.

Reposting

When you write a new blog post it 3 times once each over a 3 week period to make sure you get the most use of the article or blog. For other firms’ content you are sharing only post it once.

To help you better understand LinkedIn posting strategies, we have provided you an example on the next page

Content Posting Ratio

While there is no standard protocol to follow when posting on LinkedIn, however, many professional services follow the 10:4:1 rule created by Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey Cohen in their book, The B2B Social Media Book.

The 10-4-1 Rule is a ratio that serves as a guideline for the right balance of content to publish in social media. For every 15 of your social media updates, 10 should be pieces of other people's content, 4 should be your own blog articles, and 1 should be a landing page (or other types of promotion for your firm)

The thought behind the rule is that your social media posting shouldn't be a series of blatant sales pitches. If you do the math, you'll find that the 10:4:1 rule dictates that 67% of your postings should be other people's content and 33% should be your own.



MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

13rd Party Promotion

2Post Partial Article 1

33rd Party Promotion, Repurpose, or Company Promotion


5Post Full Article 1

No Posting No Posting

























24

3rd Party Promotion: Promoting a third party article with a few commentsRepurpose: Using components of a certain article or blogCompany Promotion: Promoting surveys, events, landing pages

Partial Article: Post on personal and company with read more link to siteFull Article: Change title post full article on LinkedIn publishing



LINKEDIN POSTING

OPTIMIZE

Optimize

Optimize

25


Referral Traffic to your Website

You can use Google Analytics to track the number of people who made their way over from LinkedIn to your website.

Timing and Content

Look at the times you are getting the most engagement and schedule more posts during this time/day. Also look for the type of that your followers are more interested in to keep them engaged

There are a number of tools you can use to monitor and optimize your LinkedIn activities, many of these tools also allow you to schedule posts and respond comments directly on their platform. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Zoho are a few examples. If you plan on activity using LinkedIn you should consider buying a subscription to a similar application.

TIPMonitor

Awareness Metrics

With LinkedIn, you can monitor several short-term results of your social selling efforts, such as an

increase in your number of personal connections, content shares and likes, and follower engagement with your company page. Include your employees

In your social selling process. Let's say you have 20 employees and they each have 300 connections this means you could potentially have 6,000 people viewing and engaging with content related to your company.


https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-measure-social-media-using-google-analytics-reports/


APPENDIX

License

You Will Be In Good Company With Company Expert

Page 29

Page 30

27

Calendar TemplatePage 28


MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY






3rd Party Promotion: Promoting a third party article with a few commentsRepurpose: Using components of a certain article or blogCompany Promotion: Promoting surveys, events, landing pages

Partial Article: Post on personal and company with read more link to siteFull Article: Change title post full article on LinkedIn publishing

Calendar Template


License

29

Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Company Expert. This publication has been written for information purposes only. Every effort has been made to make this document as complete and accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes in typography or content. Also, this document provides information only up to the publishing date. Therefore, this document should be used as a guide - not as the ultimate source.

The purpose of this publication is to educate. Company Expert does not warrant that the information contained in this document is fully complete and shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions. The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this publication.

Any references to company names in sample templates are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual organization unless otherwise noted.

This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. The Publisher wants to stress that the information contained herein may be subject to varying state and/or local laws or regulations. All users are advised to retain competent counsel to determine what state and/or local laws or regulations may apply to the user's particular business.

The Purchaser or Reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, federal, state, and local, governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising, and all other aspects of doing business in the United States or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the Purchaser or Reader.


You Will Be In Good Company With Company Expert

Our proprietary suite of solutions and technologies are designed to inject speed, knowledge, and accelerated growth into the DNA of B2B Financial Services, Technology, and Professional Service Firms

The Company Expert Difference

Our Focus Our Experience Our Proprietary Solution Our Execution Capabilities

We specialize in helping small and mid-sized B2B Financial Services, IT, and Professional Service Firms with breakout growth strategies

We have been helping firms grow since 1997 and each of our Partners has at least 25 years of experience creating sustainable growth for businesses like yours

Proven success by leveraging our proprietary playbooks, research, and technology. We systematically fuel growth through our proven Growth Accelerator SystemTM (GAS)

Unlike typical consulting firms, we stay actively involved with you by providing resources and management to effectively implement our recommendation

Company Expert is so confident we can deliver real results for your firm – we will not accept payment if you are not satisfied… WE GUARANTEE IT

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Playbook · LinkedIn Posting Playbook This playbook will help you better engage and connect with...

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