To all marketing folks looking to become a LinkedIn superstar, this article will surely help you outshine the crowd.

LinkedIn is considered to be the most trusted social network for businesses and professionals looking to engage with each other.

The platform has over 760 million users, 40% of whom visit the website daily. That's almost three hundred million professionals you could touch base with every single day, and the number continues to grow.

What’s interesting about LinkedIn is its user profile. People in senior-level management and decision-making roles account for a staggering 590 million users -- indeed, Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn more frequently than Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter.

Starting just as a simple platform for work-related connections back in 2003, LinkedIn has now pushed on to become one of the key players in the social media space and aims to be the home of all working professionals and the central hub for 70 million companies worldwide.

So you've made a post, and despite the user statistics, it isn't doing so well. You may be wondering -- what am I doing wrong?

You may not be connecting with your target audience in the right way. What you post on your profile defines your branding, and it's key to choose content wisely and post at the right time.

LinkedIn Content: Should you use videos or articles?

Companies and individuals have ramped up their LinkedIn content efforts to stay in touch with the professional world, resulting in a 60% increase in content creation in 2020 alone.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, B2B company, or professional looking to boost your brand, you have to determine which type of content will best hook your target audience.

Keep in mind, though, that the content you share on LinkedIn doesn’t always have to be directly related to your field. Professionals come to the platform to discuss a wide variety of topics about working life.

As of 2021, 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing, more so than on any other social media platform.

So, what should I post? How can it make an impact on my business?

There are three types of content you can post on LinkedIn: status update, video, and article. Each has a particular purpose for your branding efforts.

For instance, status updates are short messages you could post on your feed. It’s the easiest way to stay connected with your audience, as it can be as short as a sentence. You can post something inspiring, thought-provoking, or entertaining.

But let’s look deeper into the other more complex types of content, i.e. videos and articles.

Why choose videos?

There are several reasons why marketing videos are ideal for LinkedIn:

1. Boost Engagement

According to Abhishek Shrivastava, LinkedIn’s Director of Product, video posts garner three times the level of engagement on average compared to text posts.

This comes as no surprise. Videos are one of the most effective ways to draw audiences in. But wait! If videos are that effective, why didn’t the one you posted last time do well? That's where a second factor -- knowing the best time to post videos on LinkedIn -- comes into play.

Surveys suggest that users have a very strong preference for video content—about 54% of them choose video over email, social images, and blog articles from businesses they support. Landing pages with videos convert around 800% better than pages without videos.

For B2Bs, video is also quite useful, with about 92% of B2B marketers using the format in their marketing campaigns. These figures are telling as to the potential of LinkedIn video ads to boost brand engagement and conversion.

2. Easy to Create

Many people expect video creation to be challenging. Despite the positive figures touting the impact of marketing videos, many aspiring thought leaders or brands on LinkedIn still largely prefer to post text content.

Of course, video would take a bit more time than, say, status updates. But it’s not as difficult to create as you would think -- for one, mobile devices have made it possible to shoot quality videos without hiring professionals to do it for you.

If this also seems difficult for you then another simple option is to just go live! You can publish on LinkedIn Live, which is the site’s version of Facebook Live. LinkedIn Live is an interesting way to potentially forge deeper connections with your target audience and drive more engagement.

In 2020, LinkedIn's live stream increased by 437%. These videos are more about being in the moment, and less about looking polished or professionally made.

3. Built for Sharing

Videos lend themselves well to sharing. Forbes mentions that being religious about sharing your native videos on relevant groups in addition to sharing on your feed is an effective way to assert your position as a thought leader while simultaneously reaching a wider network.

4. Next Mega Trend

Video is presently considered to be the content format people most like to consume. According to Mark Zuckerberg, video is quickly becoming the next mega trend as social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube make video creation increasingly accessible.

LinkedIn is as much a part of this trend -- when asked, 59% of executives choose to consume the same information via video rather than text.

Why Choose Articles?

Articles have their own set of advantages when used for marketing on LinkedIn. These include:

1. Steady Engagement

They say content is king when it comes to marketing, and you can adopt the same philosophy for LinkedIn. Sharing evergreen and thought-provoking content on the site helps create opportunities for your target audience to remain engaged over time.

By providing useful content for readers, you actually nurture your branding efforts -- when the time comes for those same readers to make purchasing decisions as customers, you'll have already persuaded them to pick your brand over others.

2. Personal Branding

Unlike writing on any other social media platform, writing on LinkedIn in particular enables you to gain the trust of the reader. It gives you the unique freedom to express your thoughts and present your area of expertise from a professional standpoint, which helps a lot with personal branding. By publishing written content on LinkedIn, you can develop your personal brand as a thought influencer and bring positive impact to your business as a result.

3. Key Words

If there’s one thing all marketing folks know, it’s that any well-written piece will help you in search engine optimization, or SEO. You can publish articles that capitalize on the potential of keywords to help boost the searchability of your content.

4. In-Depth Discussion

Long-form articles enable you to have more room to tackle a specific topic in greater depth. Again, you'd actually be strengthening your thought leadership this way by allowing your network greater visibility into the knowledge and information that you (and your brand) bring to the table.

It’s recommended that you publish long-form content at least twice a month to be able to steadily build a strong base. You can also use shorter status updates to promote your articles.

5. Can also be Shared

While not as strong in encouraging shares as videos, articles are also commonly shared within personal networks.

What’s even better with LinkedIn is that if you've written a blog post elsewhere, you can still share it through LinkedIn Publisher. Simply cut and paste the headline and copy into the publishing page. In this way, you can re-use articles you’ve already written!

Wrap Up

As the primary social media channel for connecting with professionals, LinkedIn is truly an ideal platform for building your brand. While posting, take the time to really understand your audience and determine the type of content that will get them to engage and share. As we’ve explored, videos are proven to be significantly more effective in connecting with potential clients.

The key to attracting people is to avoid being too pushy about your product on your LinkedIn post. It’s best to engage people in a thought-leadership style of conversation, and if people like what you’re saying, they’ll be more likely to check out your website and product offering.

Now go share some videos with your LinkedIn network!