It’s becoming more and more apparent that LinkedIn is becoming the port of call for professionals to get their coffee stop content.

Gone are the days when all you did was get your social media CV in place and your profile freshly updated to look good for the job market. Nope – the stats show it isn’t quite like that. Today 15 x more content is being devoured on LinkedIn vs the job postings in the feed. And, the members are clearly enjoying the environment with +40% YOY growth in engaged feed sessions weekly and an uplift of 2-3x increase in referral traffic to publishers.

Across any industry you’ll find thought leaders, influencers, publishers and experts contributing to the professional conversation. If content is King then context is King Kong supporting the argument that LinkedIn is the perfect zone to drive conversation. It’s becoming perfectly designed to be the arena for sharing insights, inspiration and advice. More importantly, for the member, it is crucial if you (as a professional) want to get to grips with trending content that your industry has on top of their minds.

Take the marketing industry for example. A place not short of well-informed opinions or quite the opposite. Active LinkedIn members know how to navigate the platform and search for the valuable nuggets that will keep them up to date with intelligent topics – making them look good and on top of it. LinkedIn have the ability to figure out what topics are trending in any industry, location or even job function in order to deliver to the right person and right time and place.

So, we asked our contacts there to give is an idea on what kind of articles Marketing Directors in EMEA are engaging with. Yes, it’s possible!

So, what are these pros interested in? We got a report for the month of September 2019 and it gave us a quick insight into what appeals to and interests these ‘unicorns.’ Here the main themes I picked up:

Peer and new industry talent raise interest

Without a doubt it’s clear that marketers want to know who is doing the best work so its only natural that any article entitled ‘the top 30 B2B marketers under 30’ is going to generate interest. Perhaps it’s our competitive nature or that we’re considering recruiting for a new department but its always going to attract an industry audience. That’s backed up by the pressure we’re seeing for business to show top female presence in the boardroom. The continued showcase of women in the industry trended well! Inspiration is always going to be a good draw card so hearing what Top CMO’s have to say about the job will get the clicks rolling the thumb stopping. 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/global-cmo-real-life-unicorn-efrat-fenigson

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/09/06/25-25-women-who-have-shaped-the-digital-industry-part-5

 Customer experience matters more now than ever in a world of millennials

It seems wherever I go today there is talk about “CX”. Obviously, this either high on the marketing agenda or a revisited trend up for renewal. Whichever way you look at it, making the experience and memorable and unique is going to win minds and attract attention. It takes a lot of effort and energy but this doing it cleverly are enjoying the benefits. Unilevers approach with Pure Leaf and St Ives are great examples of how to get it right.  

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-unilever-changing-face-retail-experience-jillis-jacobs

https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2019/09/18/b2b-how-big-brands-connect-abm/

Advertising and marketing research studies/ best practices are always going to nail it

What’s always going to work is fresh up to date credible research.  Global insights and examples of what success looks like would be hard for any CMP to ignore. So, when a study about the most effective logos from the Harvard Business Review is available engagement is on the cards. I found this one particularly interesting.

https://hbr.org/2019/09/a-study-of-597-logos-shows-which-kind-is-most-effective

Why Deliveroo, Costa and BrewDog are growing faster than other UK brands

The takeout short and sweet? For me, it’s simple of you looking to engage with any audience:

•  Make it relevant to if you want them to engage (know their roles!)
• Make it topical and up to date with their industry trends
• The Triple I – Make your potential engagement Insightful, Inspirational and Intelligent
• Give them value -at least one take away!