By Megan Thudium
In today’s world of complex B2B buying, there’s no longer a simple formula for staying relevant in the eyes of your target audience. Marketers must remain innovative, flexible, and be willing to test new approaches that generate demand, growth and attention.
A human-centred approach to content is just one example of how marketing strategies are changing. Human-centred content is approachable, original and tailored to the needs and interests of your target audience. It’s seldom self-serving, rather, it’s giving, supportive and educational.
Human-centred approaches are the future of B2B content, but how can you easily adopt this approach into your marketing strategy? The simple answer is – by leveraging your team and the marketing channel, LinkedIn.
In this article, learn the simple LinkedIn strategies that you can adopt to leverage your best demand driver—your team. A team-based LinkedIn content strategy is the number one way to build a people-first approach to your company’s marketing.
LinkedIn: You know it but does it matter?
As marketers, we know specific channels attract specific audiences. To create an effective marketing strategy, we have to understand the audience, identify the right channels and create the right content. All in a good day’s work.
Does LinkedIn matter? Simply, yes. LinkedIn is the B2B social media network that is enabling B2B companies everywhere to drive demand. B2B has always been a complex and difficult industry to navigate, but LinkedIn offers marketers the opportunity to speak directly to their audience and the networks they’re socialising in.
LinkedIn is a social media platform for business professionals. People looking for opportunities, be that starting new careers or growing their brand, congregate and connect on LinkedIn. This makes it an ideal channel for B2B businesses to build an audience, post regularly, and build targeted profile connections.
Old push-marketing tactics are no longer working in B2B.
According to Edelman Trust Barometer, an employee’s voice is 3 times more credible than the CEO’s when it comes to talking about a company. Your audience is craving original and personalised connections with your company brand. Publishing LinkedIn content through your team’s profiles is one of the best ways to build human-to-human connections that increase revenue and brand relevance.
3 reasons why employee LinkedIn content is human-centered
If you’re getting no traction from your company’s social media profiles — or your paid advertising — it might be time to turn inwards towards your company’s top asset.
Your team embodies a wealth of knowledge that can build trust and authority with your target audience. Encouraging them to post, engage and build communities on LinkedIn will increase brand relevance and revenue.
Learn the three ways why LinkedIn content is so human-centered:
- Human-to-human, not brand-to-human — It might seem obvious but posting content through your employees has a much higher impact than through your company’s brand. It really comes down to simple psychology. Do you trust someone that has a name, face and personality on social media? Or do you trust a faceless brand? Case in point.
- It’s not just business content —LinkedIn is a social media platform, meaning you don’t just post business content. The best performing posts on LinkedIn are personalised stories, real-account career experiences, personal topics and helpful educational advice. You can’t always treat your LinkedIn content like TikTok or Instagram but personal content brings about a level of humanity and down-to-earth relevance that performs well.
- Conversations that matter — As social beings, we love engaging with communities of like-minded people with similar interests and opinions. LinkedIn is a channel that focuses on and encourages high-level business conversations around interesting topics. For example, sustainability is a trending topic that prompts enriching conversations. As the LinkedIn algorithm develops, I predict that the platform will get better and better at curating conversations within the topic clusters that matter to you. This opens up the opportunity for your team to engage in specific and relevant conversations — that impact your company’s bottom line!
Out with the old —and in with the new. You can no longer stay relevant with your audience and grow with old-school push-marketing tactics. Human-centered approaches to content through relevant and person-specific experiences will drive the industry forward. LinkedIn is just one example of a relevant channel that will enable company teams to do just that!
About the Author
Megan Thudium is an American marketer working in Berlin, founder of MTC | The Content Agency. As a branding, content and LinkedIn B2B marketing specialist, Megan works primarily with innovative tech brands in Germany and throughout Europe. These are startups and corporations focused on scaling their operations and offering their sustainable solutions into the native-English North American market. You can find Megan on LinkedIn actively sharing insights and networking with technologists and B2B leaders. With her agency and clients, Megan is looking to make meaningful connections in today’s digital-first, socially-connected world.
