Boutique Travel and Lifestyle PR Agency Unveils Top Five LinkedIn Trends

Known as a professional social media platform, LinkedIn has evolved into a storytelling platform for brands to create authentic connections with customers.  This year, brands are leveraging employee-generated content (EGC), user-generated content (UGC), authentic and personal storytelling, videos, and AI to grow and build their business.

Did you know . . .
 

• “LinkedIn has more than 1.1 billion users, with 67 million company pages, making it a primary tool for business and company outreach.” (Source: LinkedIn)
• “Fifty-three percent of the platform’s users come from households earning more than $100,000.” (Source: Pew Research Center)
• “Marketers see 2x higher conversion rates.” (Source: LinkedIn)

In this blog, Allen Marketing Communications, Inc., a boutique travel and lifestyle public relations agency based in New York City, showcases the top five LinkedIn trends to build meaningful interactions and knowledge exchange on this professional social media platform.

Authentic And Personal Storytelling—The Human Connection

Human stories are still the most influential trend on LinkedIn.  “The first-person posts, which describe a personal experience or feeling, do much better than pure promotional posts.” (Source: LinkedIn Creative Trends). This strategy helps business people to connect with the thought leaders.

This strategy promotes sharing of their stories, experiences, struggles, and growth with team members and leaders. True stories not only make the story memorable, but they also create long-term believability and emotional appeal.

Employee-Generated Content (EGC)—Turning Teams Into Ambassadors

The employee-created content (EGC) enhances internal authenticity and builds trust on LinkedIn. Research indicates that “users pay more attention to content published by individuals than they do to corporate profiles.” (Source: LinkedIn Marketing Collective).

EGC makes a company more human and more reachable, as well as more transparent. Staff members who give their stories and impressions about their day-to-day activities, understanding, and project highlights act as the representatives of the working culture.

“Those brands with active staff promotion to posts have registered significant increases in staff followership and brand recognition.” (Source: Metricool).

User-Generated Content (UGC)—Letting Your Community Speak

LinkedIn has experienced huge momentum in user-generated content (UGC). Companies are allowing their audiences to be authentic when it comes to their products and services. Brand perception is being defined more by the notion of what can be coined as community-driven credibility than traditional advertising could ever achieve. “UGC is one of the five strategies that will be at the top of the engagement strategies in the future,” (Source: Metricool).

Viral storytelling indicates that peer content shared by actual users is much more trusted than a brand-controlled story. UGC provides a human touch to a company, creates a ripple effect of stories from other consumers, and builds brand loyalty.  UGC enhances a company’s organic presence through reviews, backstage activities, or updates on collaborations.

AI—The Catalyst Behind Smarter LinkedIn Content

AI enhances content creation by enhancing the strategy, advancing targeting, and heightening metrics of engagement within organizations and industries. Research shows “AI is currently one of the fastest-growing expertise parts of the site, and job postings and discussions associated with AI have risen dramatically in recent years.” (Source: LinkedIn Business Marketing Collective).

By leveraging actual insight and empathy, AI assists a marketer in simplifying the ideation process without sacrificing any authenticity. Simply put, AI does not substitute the storyteller but gives him a stronger voice.

Video Content—Moving From Optional To Essential

Videos have become the center of LinkedIn interaction. Research shows “the posts that include video are much more engaged with, with more than three times more views than image- or text-based posts.” (Source: LinkedIn Creative Trends Report). The new features of the vertical and short-form video elements in the platform have facilitated the ease with which brands can create engaging and mobile viewing content.

Video storytelling is most effective when it is emotional and meaningful. Viewers are attracted to unstaged scenes such as team meetings, product presentations, and professional commentary. “The frequency of video posting every week has increased by more than 14 percent in the last year." (Source: Metricool).

Our team of talented media relations and social media strategies are here to help brands boost their ROI on LinkedIn. Contact us today.

​By Joanna Allen, chief executive officer, Allen Marketing Communications, Inc.