The Yin & Yang of Using LinkedIn for Your Business

by Syrup | Dec 17, 2019

Between all the social media platforms out there, LinkedIn comes in strong as both my personal and professional choice for where I spend a good chunk of my screen time. This statement always receives a couple of eyebrow raises because as a, dare I say, millennial, LinkedIn isn’t where you’d expect to find me on a Saturday afternoon. But, believe it or not, your audience, regardless of their demographic, might be hanging out in the LinkedIn world more often than you’d expect. 

Let’s dive into some LinkedIn fun facts:

• 40 million students and recent graduates are on LinkedIn.
• 190 million workers in the U.S. have a LinkedIn profile.
• 90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers, and 63 million are in decision-making positions.
• There are 303 million active monthly LinkedIn users.

With this many users, it’s virtually impossible for you not to be reaching your target audience at any given point. 

While reaching your audience is one thing, getting them to engage is an entity of its own. When it comes to using LinkedIn for your business, I like to consider it as a yin & yang model. Too many times, we see businesses using LinkedIn solely as a sales tool. And while it’s a great platform to key in on your core sales objective, you don’t want your audience to think that’s all there is to your business. 

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Teddy Roosevelt

The Yin: Thought Leadership and Sales

Traditionally, the yin principle is viewed as the dark, negative side of the model. But when it comes to LinkedIn and your social content, I like to look at it as more of the hearty side of things. There’s no argument that LinkedIn is a B2B’s best friend. It’s your go-to place to find the latest in the business world, and to reach other business-savvy professionals. Because of the inherent nature of the platform, posting thought leadership and sales-oriented content is a must. Basically, your people need to know that you know your stuff.

• Thought Leadership: Blog posts, thought-provoking content, statistics and news in the industry
• Sales: Your product/service, why your audience needs it, and how to get their hands on it

The great thing about LinkedIn is that they make it incredibly easy to share your hearty content in an engaging way. From posting LinkedIn slideshares to using industry-specific hashtags, there are so many different ways you can captivate your audience to get them to stop scrolling and say, “Wow, they really do know what they’re talking about.”

The Yang: Culture

Let’s get real for a second. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal consumer. If you’re scrolling through LinkedIn and see a company you’re interested in working with, but all they post are articles and product demos, would you be inclined to work with them?

Probably not.

And it’s not necessarily at the fault of anything they’re doing. It’s because humans are more inclined to make purchasing decisions if they can connect with a brand on a more intimate level. And in most cases, it’s through showing off your culture. Many businesses forget that they’re more than just a business. You have living, breathing employees putting (hopefully metaphorical) blood, sweat, and tears into their work. You do real work for real people. Show that off!

Just make sure that your culture posts are in-line with your brand voice while still giving value to your customers. These could be things such as team outings, promotions, achievements/awards you’re proud of, or maybe even a cool in-office tradition like getting an entire bottle of syrup poured on your head for your headshot.

Putting it Together

Yin Yang is the concept of duality forming a whole, and when it comes down to it, only leveraging Yin or Yang will upset your equilibrium and leave your consumers chasing after the other side to seek balance. Or, in simpler terms, it’ll throw your content strategy completely out of whack. If your business isn’t utilizing both content types, don’t worry. It’s a simple fix, and we’d love to help you get it sorted out.