In order to gain a better overview of the benefits of having a multi/omni-channel approach to your digital campaigns, we need to explore what each Social Network can bring to the table. So, last week we talked about the marketing potential of Twitter. To continue this mini-series, today, we will try to shift our focus to LinkedIn. If Twitter is the king-platform for news and media related businesses, LinkedIn takes pride in being the top social media site for professionals. With an infrastructure designed to enhance business level communication and a community of over 610 million professionals, LinkedIn is a true powerhouse when it comes to networking. And if you are thinking that this seems to be the perfect location for B2B marketing operations, you would not be in the wrong.

Best asset: the business mindset

The company takes pride in gathering most of the world's professionals on a single platform. Among the previously mentioned 610 million users, LinkedIn hosts 90 million senior-level influencers, 63 million decision-makers, 17 million opinion leaders, 10 millionC-level execs etc. Of course, almost all these people have active accounts on several other social media platforms. But what makes LinkedIn special is the reason why people access it. As a rule of thumb, users navigate on the platform with a business mindset.

We believe this is maybe the most important aspect of LinkedIn for several reasons. First, unlike the behaviour on other social media sites, users surfing on LinkedIn are here for business and business only. Second, marketers don't have to focus so much on disrupting the socialising experience, but on creating quality content. Chances are that flashy marketing would not have the same impact as, for example, on Facebook or Instagram. Usually, LinkedIn users know what they want, and this is why marketers should play more on anticipating and fulfilling specific needs.

Another key characteristic of the business mindset is that LinkedIn users organise in very specific business-oriented groups. And the developments of the past few years showed an incredible potential in managing social media groups for marketing purposes. And, by now, it should be no surprise that LinkedIn is the very best place for this type of activities. Besides the outstanding benefits of networking and riding the wave of innovation in virtually every business aspect you are interested in,LinkedIn groups can help you grow a very loyal and interested audience for your paid ads campaigns.

Paid Ads: laser-cut targeting

The LinkedIn Campaign Manager platform is similar to Facebook Business Manager or Twitter Ads so you can setup your campaigns fast. Plus, monitoring your campaigns has never been easier. Just connect all your Social Media ad accounts to the Sether platform and you wiil make the most of each network's advertising super-power. LinkedIn is best known for its outstanding targeting capabilities. It's a really powerful feature. Basically, the platform takes advantage of the fact that users are extra careful when introducing their job titles and describe their job responsibilities in great detail. Not to mention that the LinkedIn business page is basically a more friendly version of the brand's white paper. Well, if LinkedIn is not the actual B2B heaven, it is definitely a very good replica of it.

And yes, everything business-related can be targeted with the paid ads system. You are not just targeting mere interests, but the actual hierarchy of the decision chain. You don’t just target vague business activities, but the actual names of the company you want to engage with. Not to mention that you can even select the size of the companies –depending on the number of employees. In short, all these options are designed with the goal of delivering ads straight to the decision makers.

When it comes to advertising, besides the more conventional paid ads formats (such as Text ads or Sponsored content), one of our favourite advertising methods is the so called Sponsored InMail feature.This works much like the classical email marketing solution, but is actually a built-in component of the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. Our experience showed us that when paired with the extraordinary targeting system, this feature is perhaps the sharpest option for driving B2B leads.

In conclusion, LinkedIn is the ideal channel to add to your digital marketing mix if you want to spread your business message to a clearly defined niche of powerful and driven change-makers