LinkedIn for content marketing social mediaPublishers and brands may turn to LinkedIn because of diminishing organic reach on Facebook.

Facebook recently announced that it will prioritize posts of users’ personal contacts and show fewer posts from publishers and other businesses in news feeds. LinkedIn meanwhile has implemented numerous changes that make it more attractive for content marketing. Since being purchased by Microsoft, LinkedIn has added native video, enhanced its search features, and improved its news feed algorithm to show more relevant content. LinkedIn’s professional audience is attractive for B2B product promotion and upscale consumer brands for content marketing and PR.

LinkedIn Emerges as a Content-Sharing Network

Readership and engagement of the top 100 best performing articles on LinkedIn quadrupled over the past two years, according to NewsWhip.

“If nothing else, this proves that LinkedIn is becoming a genuine force as a platform where people read and engage with content, and as such it is worth paying attention to which publishers’ content is having the most success on LinkedIn,” writes Benedict Nicholson, a NewsWhip editorial researcher.

In terms of engagement on LinkedIn, top publishers for the second half of 2017 were Forbes, Business Insider and NBC in that order.

Top performing content focused on workplace advice for new workers preparing for job interviews or decision-making advice for veteran executives. Particular types of articles that performed well included:

  • The “one thing” theme: tells the reader something that can add a positive or remove a negative from their life, such as the article “The One Word that Can Hurt Your Reputation at Work.”
  • Job advice: answers challenging job interview questions.
  • CEO worship: show examples of what the best CEOs do, highlighting their emotional intelligence or great communication skills.

NewsWhip offers these tips for LinkedIn publishing:

Know the platform. LinkedIn is not like other platforms. It was founded as a job advice site; it still has that orientation. Content that is successful on the platform reflects that. Publishers such as The New York Times enjoy outstanding engagement on social media in general, but their LinkedIn engagement often comes up short because its content is off target.

Know your competition. Know what you’re up against. Make sure you know who the major players are in your field and who’s doing what well.

Know the content that works. Workplace advice performs well now, but that could change. Make sure you’re on top of evolving content and current trends.

Use social data to perfect your strategy. “At the end of the day there’s no better way to see if your content is working than to see if the numbers back it up,” Nicholson says. Test different types of content and ways of sharing until you find what works best for your strategy.

Publishers Leave Facebook for LinkedIn

In spite of earlier struggles on LinkedIn, many publishers plan to place less emphasis on Facebook and more on LinkedIn this year, according to Digiday. Although LinkedIn is known as a professional network, consumer publications expect to publish on the network or are exploring LinkedIn publishing options. The Times and Sunday Times of the U.K. that now don’t publish on LinkedIn expect to make the network a priority, and HuffPost UK is developing work-related videos and text articles for the professional network.

Financial Times, the Economist and CNBC are testing native videos on the platform. Some results have been impressive. The Economist’s video on artificially grown meat generated 2,000 likes and a few dozen comments. Engagement on LinkedIn – comments, likes and shares – increased more than 60 percent year-over-year due to product updates, new features and analytics, Digiday reports.

Facebook’s algorithm changes that thwart publishers’ ability to reach audiences account for some of the increased interest in LinkedIn. Due to Facebooks constant algorithm tweaks, publishers and brands view Facebook as less reliable. They feel they can’t expect to maintain Facebook referral traffic. The disappearance of organic reach may be especially troubling given the substantial time and resources publishers poured into Facebook marketing in recent years.

As publishers migrate to LinkedIn, businesses may also find a significant audience for content marketing and PR on the professional network. Content on business subjects will likely be well-received. Still, LinkedIn remains a relatively small driver of website traffic for most brands. “The answer will most probably lie in a more diverse approach, gaining numbers on various platforms to supplement any Facebook declines – while also working to learn and adapt to the new Facebook reality,” says Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today.

Bottom Line: Publishers, brands and business may leave Facebook for LinkedIn. While Facebook reach has plummeted, some publishers enjoy robust engagement on LinkedIn, due at least in part to its recent enhancements. However, as a network focused on professionals, LinkedIn differs from other social networks. Strategies that succeed on consumer-focused social media platforms might not work well with the professional audience on LinkedIn. Focusing content on job-related issues works best.