Over the past few years, Linkedin has really separated itself from other Social Media Networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Its current user base exceeds 259.for more information visit us @ http://clicktecs.com/7-powerful-steps-to-leverage-linkedin-in-2014-2/

1. 7 Powerful Steps To Leverage Linkedin in 2014
Over the past few years, Linkedin has really separated itself from other Social Media Networks
such as Twitter and Facebook. Its current user base exceeds 259 Million and with over 2.1
Million interest groups within Linkedin, and a new sign up number of 172,000/day, it is a
significant channel that should be on your promotion short list in 2014.
Assuming you are active on multiple social media channels, your website is likely getting
visitors from these sites. One of the key differentiators I found is that the audience visiting your
site from Linkedin tends to be predominantly business focused.
With so much to offer, the question becomes, how can you leverage Linkedin for your
business in 2014?
Here are 7 Powerful Steps to Leverage Linkedin in 2014.
1) Understand visitor-to-lead conversion by social channel:
If you are using Google Analytics, you can easily set up a custom reporting dashboard that
shows you Goal Conversions such as leads form submissions, newsletter sign-ups or coupon
downloads, all broken down by channel. You will be able to see how many leads came in from
Paid Search, Organic Search, Referral Traffic, Direct Traffic as well as the Social traffic. If you
click on Social traffic, the report will drill down to show you all the specific social media
channels (Linkedin, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Yelp, etc.) contributing to visitors
and conversions on your website. Statistically, it is known that Linkedin has a 3 times higher
visitor-to-lead conversion ratio compared to Facebook or Twitter. Armed with this information,
you can redirect your Social Media Strategy to get the biggest bang for your buck. If the strategy
above sounds a bit too “technical” just send me a note and I’ll be happy to walk you through the
steps.

2. 2) Write posts to ensure high visibility at opportune times:
Most users write posts expecting a level of engagement and are disappointed when no one cares
or comments on their posts. You need to build a simple habit to ensure the highest possible
visibility for each of your posts and updates. Here is an easy tip to increase the response rate: try
posting during the week, Monday to Friday, especially during morning hours when viewers are
most engaged. The opposite is true for Twitter. If you want to get more engagement and
visibility on Twitter, you should post in the evenings and weekends. In addition, make sure
everything you post on Linkedin provides value or could be of interest to the audience. In other
words, the content, from a business standpoint, is key, whereas the other channels
(Facebook/Twitter) allow for a more personal or casual approach. [see point # 4 for details].
3) Increase OR decrease the frequency of posts:
I often see a business contact of mine using Hootsuite or other auto-posting tools to post every
hour on Linkedin. The repetitiveness of seeing his picture on my newsfeed that many times
causes me to ignore his posts, even though they may be pertinent. This creates a diminishing
returns scenario because most groups you are a part of on Linkedin will move your post over to a
promotions area if they think you are spamming. The lesson here is to avoid looking “spammy”
with your posts, and not to use auto-post sites. The ideal number is 20-30 posts a month, which
will allow you to reach about 60%-70% of your audience. You don’t have to worry that people
are not logged in and checking their newsfeeds at the exact moment you post. The social media
channels have overcome this and they cycle through posts. This is the reason you will see a post
on the top of your newsfeed that may have been posted several hours ago.
4) Know your audience:
Instead of going out and finding anything and everything to fill your posting goal for the month,
take some time to really figure out what your members are interested in. As a general rule of
thumb, and if you have been connecting with the right people on Linkedin for your particular
business/industry, you will find that 60% of the members are interested in Industry Insights and
40% of the members are interested in new Products and Services. Use this knowledge to
prepare a plan on what to post and when to post it, in order to cater to the needs of all your
followers.
5) Include Links and Images with your posts to drive up to 200% more engagement:
Linkedin makes it quite easy for you to paste links in the status updates. It even displays a
thumbnail of the page you will end up at – if you click on the link. I have always found that if
you write a great headline in your post and link it back to your blog or a page on your site, you
can bring that traffic to your website. Assuming your site has been built with visitor-to-lead
conversion in mind, you have the home court advantage to convert that visitor into a lead.
6) Link to YouTube Videos:

3. A popular stat I read a while back said 1 in 8 people make a decision on purchasing a product or
signing up for a service after watching a video. It does help that a majority of the population are
visual learners. If your company or you have a YouTube channel, linking to YouTube videos
will result in a 75% higher share rate. Remember, you can track how many of the visitors from
YouTube came back to your site using that report from Google Analytics that I spoke about in
my first point. If you want to get more complex and discuss attribution (how much weight to
give to the Linkedin Post and how much weight to give to the YouTube Video in order to do lead
attribution models), well… that is for another post. J
7) Be original:
Sharing content from others about your industry is great, however if you want to build a level of
credibility or authority for yourself, you have to be able to produce original content. If you or
someone at your company can produce that content, you are well on your way. Here it is by the
numbers:
 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post that they read.
 60% of consumers feel positive about a company after reading its blog.
 70% of consumers learn about a company through its blog versus ads.
If you are not already leveraging Linkedin, or, after having read my post, want to make this a
new resolution, then follow the 7 powerful steps I have outlined above to get ahead of the
competition. If you have other ways that you feel are worth mentioning, feel free to leave a
comment or connect with me on Linkedin. And, of course, if you have questions, please reach
out! I may just have the answer.