Linkedin is the biggest social media platform for business to business (B2B) content. Whether you work in sales or you are looking for a job, Linkedin is a great place to generate business and to sell your product, service or skillset.

Here are some great ways to stand out from the crowd on Linkedin…

Create Your Linkedin Profile

As a foundation for your Linkedin presence, many marketing experts advise their clients to establish a strong brand presence before investing in ads.

It is required that you create a business page before you begin any paid campaigns on the platform. Optimize your Linkedin Business Page with as much relevant information as possible. Linkedin reports that business profile pages with completed information receive 30% more views than those that are not complete (more information on business.linkedin.com).

Share Content

Sharing informative and helpful content, interspersed with offers and sales promotions is the best way to build an engaged following on Linkedin.

Sharing pioneering ideas or ‘thought leadership’ content in regards to industry solutions is not only helpful & useful, but it can also impress your target audience and keep them engaged & interested. An example of a thought leadership piece of content might be a video about building your brand through Reddit or Linkedin. Snippets of the video could be shared on Linkedin along with the full-length version. It could also be repurposed as blog content or a Linkedin post.

Specific articles on marketing & sales also tend to do well on Linkedin. In particular visual step by step guides, videos and even pdfs are very popular and again helpful for the Linkedin audience in general. The more helpful and/or entertaining content you share, that is consistent and on-brand, the more likely you are to create an engaged following who will know and respect your brand.

It is also advisable to share content that shows some of the things going on behind the scenes at your business. This transparency helps to inspire trust in your target audience. Events being held at your office, what you are doing for different charities, a profile of different employees – could all be shared on Linkedin to help build trust by providing transparency.

Testimonials & case studies can also help build trust.

Gary Vee’s $1.80 Technique

This can work across several social media platforms, including Linkedin. It works best for companies with a physical location, including retail shops and eateries. Simply search for your local area or city – this tends to work best with social media platform’s app on your mobile phone – and then simply post meaningful comments on up to 100 posts per day.

Gary gives the example that when he ran a liquor store, he would comment on a picture of someone mowing their lawn (on Twitter) with something along the lines of “great lawn, do you want a beer after this?”

For Linkedin specifically, Gary recommends searching for topics that matter in your niche, reading relevant posts & articles, and leaving a highly relevant comment. By doing this, you can leverage the audience of whoever is making the post. He adds that the leveraged content, in general, you need to produce it, or engage with it. The engagement has to add value though, you cannot push your product or services directly on Linkedin with comments!

Use Microcontent 

Another tip from Gary Vee’s Youtube Channel – is to put out 3 to 4 pieces of content per day. He suggests that this is possible by generating “microcontent” from your blog posts and vlog or Youtube channel. By editing a 20-minute video into 10-30 second highlight and teaser videos, it is very easy to make lots of content for social media.

The content typically shared on Linkedin as opposed to other social media sites is more formal, but typically if it is on-brand and provides value (entertainment and/or useful information) it should be suitable but ensure that you do not share the same content across all platforms. Make it unique and in keeping with the style typical on each website. For example, in general, Instagram is more visual and less formal than Linkedin. There is always an opportunity to stand out and cut through the noise with content that is not in keeping with these typical styles but this should be planned and thought out as part of a bigger social media strategy.

Gary also suggests collaborating. Figure out how to get the attention of the big names and the big accounts in your niche. This might be as simple as leaving insightful comments on their posts & content or tagging them with some type of positive news or information, like a review or just a genuine compliment.

Outreach with a Personal Touch

Depending on your niche, brand and job – it’s not always a good idea to message people directly on Linkedin, as it can be a little annoying and seem spammy. However, if you have had success in the past from this method then here are some tips.

1. Be Personal – add a personal touch by looking at a prospects Linkedin profile, their business website and their social media accounts. Make a reference to a specific post on social media or a specific part of their site.

2. Interact with their content first – Comment on their posts and articles on Linkedin. See if you can get a conversation going in the comments section and then follow up with a message.

3. Offer something of value – for example, after you’ve warmed up the relationship with the prospect by commenting on their posts and outreaching with a personalised message, you could offer them something of value. For example, if you are a freelance social media consultant, you could send them a free audit of their social media accounts.

4. Try and be Original – if you read through someone’s Linkedin profile and posts and they seem to have a good sense of humour, you can always look to mirror that tone in your outreach. Another way to stand out could be to see what they are interested in – and share a unique insight or statistic. For example, if they follow a specific football team you could share your favourite moment in the recent history of the club.

5. Consider Linkedin Premium – With a Linkedin Premium account, you can message people without being a connection first. Linkedin users are all too familiar with the typical process of receiving a connection request and then a sales pitch. You can stand out by bypassing the connection request stage of the outreach process. Linkedin Sales Navigator may also provide a good return on investment, with its advanced search features and lead recommendations.

6. Send a Single Follow Up Message – sending a polite and subtle follow-up message approximately 3 days following your first message can produce good results. Make it short and to the point. You could, for example, ask them to get in touch if and when your service and product might be interesting or useful to them.

7. If you are in a different time zone to some of the prospects that you are targeting, consider hiring a virtual assistant and/or a virtual phone answering service, like Moneypenny.

When looking to build your brand or sell your service or product on Linkedin, Linkedin Ads also have a massive potential to reach many engaged and relevant prospects. For smaller businesses with a smaller profit margin however, the techniques listed above may prove more practical.