TikTok now has more than 1bn users, well on the way to Facebook’s 2.9bn. LinkedIn may not have as many users as Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram, but at 850 million members worldwide, it’s one of the largest social media networks in the business community.
Beyond that, it’s the go-to for professional networking and job seeking: 50m people a year search for jobs on LinkedIn. As a business leader in an increasingly complex hiring landscape, I can’t afford to ignore that. I’d like to see it as the quality over quantity platform, and the targeted over mass market.
Back in 2003 when it launched, LinkedIn may have just been a job board and a place to host your CV, but today, I view it as a place to broadcast company and industry news to my carefully vetted and highly relevant universe of contacts. As a PR agency, we recommend LinkedIn as a key broadcasting tool for that very reason. We work with multiple technology CEOs and they all see it as their number one source of comms with a significant impact on lead generation – it’s like the world’s largest dinner party with your key prospects. You know who is on there and can keep a very tailored approach to who you connect with and approach. That’s without using its marketing tools.
If anything, I see more CEOs communicating on LinkedIn than I ever did, and far more interaction between them and their customers and influencers. Take the Brewdog hoo-ha for instance. James Watt, CEO, used only LinkedIn to try to put right the crisis that was unfolding within his company. The media then used his LinkedIn updates as the story unfolded.
Keep in mind that LinkedIn saw a 22% increase in engagement in 2022. That means that its users were posting more content, engaging with content on LinkedIn and sharing that content much more than in 2021. It’s great for recruitment and we have hired seniors and new starters through the platform. In excess of 50% of our hires come through LinkedIn (unpaid ad postings).
As an agency, we are advising our clients to take advantage of this increased engagement. And, as a company, we’re using LinkedIn to communicate our thoughts, successes and meet new potential candidates. If we are face to face with clients, we grab a picture as it seems that happy faces of people together are also more important since the pandemic and definitely now with all the catastrophic news going on. LinkedIn will be vital during the next months with mental health (hence all the personal posts too) as well as networking opportunities as we face this cost of living crisis, together. It’s a great and cost-free marketing platform. A prime example of a tech solution for today’s cost of living crisis.
So, asked if I think it’s on the wane? Hell, no. I’m a big fan. That said, my team has insisted we launch a TikTok channel. Watch this space.
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