And that’s why live streaming is becoming more common in B2B marketing. Enter LinkedIn Live, a native streaming platform for creators to broadcast in real-time.

From webinars to interviews and beyond, Live is a prime way to educate your B2B audience. We get it, many B2B marketers are totally new to the streaming world and what it entails.

That’s exactly why we put together this quick guide to getting started with LinkedIn Live.

Table of contents

• How to go live on LinkedIn step-by-step
• LinkedIn Live vs. LinkedIn Events
• Which types of presentations are best for LinkedIn Live?
• LinkedIn Live best practices and tips

How to go live on LinkedIn step-by-step

Let’s kick things off with the key steps of setting up your first LinkedIn stream.

Thankfully, the platform makes the process pretty quick and painless. You don’t need a bunch of technical know-how or equipment to get started.

1. Make sure you meet LinkedIn Live’s access criteria

If you’re not sure to apply to LinkedIn Live, don’t sweat it. No applications here.

LinkedIn Live is available to all creators and Pages. Granted you meet the platform’s broadcasting criteria, anyway. You simply need to tick the following boxes:

• A minimum of 150 followers/connections following for your account or Page
• Be located in a region approved for LinkedIn Live (aka not in mainland China)
• Have an account that’s in good standing with the platform (hint: no bans or violations)

Keep in mind that you can go live as either an individual (Creator) or as an individual on behalf of a Page. Individuals can’t stream to a Page and Pages can’t stream to individual profiles.

Simple enough, right?

2. Use the proper live stream equipment

If you can successfully host a Zoom meeting, you likely have the tools to go live on LinkedIn.

A dedicated webcam, microphone and reliable Internet connection are all standards for streaming. Depending on your hardware, onboard cameras and mics are sometimes subpar.

LinkedIn Live presentations don’t have to be pristine and polished. That said, try to maintain a sense of professionalism. We recommend testing your broadcast quality before trying LinkedIn Live. You can use a free, open-source tool like OBS to preview your streaming setup in action.

3. Pick your LinkedIn Live streaming service

Important: you cannot stream through LinkedIn Live events directly.

This is different from Instagram or TikTok where going live all happens in-app.

Don’t panic, though. LinkedIn does a lot of handholding to make it easy for creators to go live. You have two options:

1. Use one of LinkedIn’s preferred streaming partners to host your broadcast. This includes Restream, Socialive, StreamYard, SwitcherStudio or Vimeo.
2. Use LinkedIn Live’s video encoder tool to host your stream from an external platform. These platforms include Zoom, WebEx or OBS.

Deciding which method is “best” really depends on your tech stack and how-to. If you’re already comfortable with a tool like Zoom or OBS, start there. Generating a stream URL and key to connect your LinkedIn broadcast can be done in a matter of seconds.

4. Create a LinkedIn Event to attach your stream to

Many broadcasters choose to stream from LinkedIn Events versus Pages. That’s because Events makes it simple to schedule broadcasts and gather registrants.

Creating LinkedIn Live Event is a straightforward process. You’ll be prompted to fill out basic information about your broadcast. This includes the broadcast date, registration options and who’s presenting.

Once your event is created, you’ll be provided a custom URL to promote your presentation.

LinkedIn Live vs. LinkedIn Events

At a glance, Live and Events might seem identical. They’re not the same, though.

LinkedIn actually has a one-page breakdown to clear up the confusion. Here’s a summary:

• Live broadcasts can be streamed solely to Page followers or to private Event attendees
• Page streams are public and are heard more toward audience discussions and Q&As
• Events can only be accessed by attendees and are more “official”

In short, Pages are more community-focused. Live Events are ideal for more in-depth, formal presentations. Which you choose really depends on the types of streams you host.

Which types of presentations are best for LinkedIn Live?

LinkedIn Live is still growing as brands and creators experiment with new videos. Right now, creators are prioritizing:

• Webinars (traditional presentations, in-depth breakdowns of topics and trends)
• Panels and interviews
• Q&A sessions between communities

For example, interviews are popular among individual creators on LinkedIn Live. One-on-ones provide plenty of opportunities for unique discussions and perspectives. As an added bonus, going back and forth with someone means less time for silence.

Panels and workshops are likewise popping off on LinkedIn Live at the moment. Trends, tactics and strategy tips are always a safe bet for live presentations.

Educational webinars are likewise a safe bet. Niching down on topics is a smart move to attract relevant attendees.

LinkedIn Live best practices and tips

Recent video marketing statistics illustrate the demand for live video for consumers and brands.

That said, views on your LinkedIn Live presentation aren’t guaranteed by default. This is true even if you do have an established audience. Below are a few best practices to stick to.

Come up with a clear agenda for your stream

No surprises here, live streaming is not a place to freestyle.

Make a conscious effort to create some sort of skeleton or outline for your presentation.

If you’re totally new to video, consider a practice run-through and time yourself. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to rush through a presentation. The “one slide, one-minute” rule of thumb doesn’t always hold true.

On that note, make sure there’s enough meat in your presentation to hold viewers’ attention. LinkedIn Live is not the place for short-form streams. LinkedIn recommends a 10-minute streaming minimum for the sake of maximizing your audience. Most presentations are anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

Also, consider that having a clear agenda helps with promoting your stream. Establishing what topics you’ll cover beforehand make it easier to highlight the value you’ll provide to viewers.

Get your audience involved in the presentation

The beauty of live streaming is that it turns passive viewers into active participants.

The chat function in LinkedIn Live is perfect for getting your audience involved. You can pose questions to them, respond to comments or conclude your video with a full-blown Q&A.

Remember: live video is compelling because of interactions like these.

Another way to engage your audience is to field questions before filming your video. For example, you might ask followers on your Page if there’s anything they want you to cover.

Give your Live presentation an engaging title

Similar to YouTube, titles and thumbnails are crucial for earning viewers and attendees.

A title like “The Standout, Must-Need Skills for Digital Marketers” is a great example. The title works because it’s specific, value-packed and intriguing by design.

We naturally want to know what those skills are, right? Well, we’ll have to tune in to find out.

Food for thought: when you go live, attendees (and some followers) will automatically get a notification. With a compelling title, people will be more likely to tune in.

Actively promote your LinkedIn Live presence

Hosting a live stream can be a ton of work. Anything you can do to maximize viewers is a plus.

Getting the most mileage possible out of your presentation comes down to how you promote it. For starters, try to get as many people (attendees, employees, colleagues) to shout out your Live Event as possible. Rather than restrict your reach to a single Page or account, don’t be shy about spreading the word.

Also, LinkedIn features like topics and hashtags can earn your presentation more reach. Posting about your Live stream multiple times is fair game leading up to the big day. If you have the budget for them, you can also run Live clips as LinkedIn ads.

Speaking of which, make a point to give viewers ample time to plan and register. LinkedIn does some of the legwork for you by offering notifications and calendar slots for Live Events. If you have an email list, be sure to promote your presence there as well.

Once your broadcast is over, LinkedIn lets you share it on your Page or edit clips to promote in your feed. This highlights how LinkedIn Lives can be repurposed and treated as evergreen content.

Look at your LinkedIn analytics over time related to your Live videos over time. Then, you can determine whether your presentations resonate with your target audience. Note that in-depth analytics data is available for broadcasts to Page followers.

Are you ready to go live on LinkedIn?

Whether you’re a B2B brand or creator, LinkedIn Live is worth exploring if your goal is to educate your audience.

Using video content to cement your status as an industry expert is a smart move. This is especially true as many brands are still only experimenting with live streams.

Looking for fresh ways to level up on LinkedIn? Check out our comprehensive LinkedIn marketing guide if you haven’t already.

The post The ultimate guide to LinkedIn Live and how to use it appeared first on Sprout Social.

These LinkedIn Statistics will show you why it is the network for B2B marketers, to target motivated audiences in 2023.

We will bring you up to date on the value of LinkedIn as a network, and provide insight into how to expand your reach with statistics and data from trusted sources, including the Sprout Social Index™, Social Media Trends for 2022 & Beyond. The demographic data alone could be the key to planning your LinkedIn marketing strategy for 2023. 

Let’s dive in.

Table of contents:

• LinkedIn demographics statistics
• How many users are on LinkedIn?
• LinkedIn advertising and marketing statistics
• LinkedIn Engagement Statistics

LinkedIn demographics statistics

1. More men use LinkedIn than women

Worldwide, men tend to use LinkedIn more than women. As of January 2022, 57.2% of users were male and 42.8% were female. The numbers of users are skewed slightly higher to male in the United States, at 58%.

Note: Sprout Social acknowledges gender beyond male and female; we are presenting the stats as reported by the source. Statista limits its gender reporting to male and female.

2. Members in the US are generally older than global users.

LinkedIn usage statistics on age of users vary globally. As of January 2023, 60% of global users were aged 25–34, representing younger millennials. Those between the ages of 18–24, mid-range Gen Z, made up 20.4% of LinkedIn users while only 2.9% of people over 55 were using the platform. No statistics were provided for users aged 35–54.

In the US, as of December 2022, 31% of users were older millennials between the ages of 30 and 39. Those aged 40–49 made up 23% of the user base, while almost 20% were primarily within the Gen Z cohort at 18–29 years old. No statistics were provided for users aged 50 and over.

So although the Gen Z user cohort appears consistent both globally and in the US, users in the United States alone tend to be a bit older.

3. At least half of LinkedIn’s members’ households earn more than $75,000

LinkedIn demographics indicate that more than half of users have higher incomes. A December 2022 survey indicated that 53% of LinkedIn users in the United States had a high monthly household income. The year before, Pew research showed that 50% of LinkedIn users had a household income of more than $75,000. That 2022 survey found that 29% of users’ households would be considered middle-income, while only 17% would be considered low-income.

This correlates with the Pew study which found that 21% of US users’ income was between $50,000 and $74,999 and 21% was between $30,000 and $49,000. Only 12% of LinkedIn users had an income of less than $30,000.

4. More than half of LinkedIn’s members have at least a bachelor’s degree

These LinkedIn numbers are not surprising when we consider the LinkedIn members’ education statistics. In December 2022, one-third of LinkedIn members had a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and another 23% held a master’s degree or its equivalent. Just 2% had a secondary-level education. This is an 8% decline in high school users from February of 2021.

5. LinkedIn is favored by suburban and urban dwellers

A Pew research study determined that 30% of LinkedIn users lived in urban centers, 33% lived in the suburbs and only 15% lived in rural areas.

How many users are on LinkedIn?

6. LinkedIn has more than 900 million members in 200 countries and regions

The question of LinkedIn usage statistics was answered in LinkedIn’s second quarter of fiscal year 2022 update. The number of current members is in excess of 900 million. And 3 new members sign up every second!

At this time, there are over 61 million companies listed on LinkedIn.

7. There are more than 199 million members in the US alone

As a country, the United States clearly represents the most members on LinkedIn. However, as a region, Asia Pacific (APAC) has the most members at 227 million. North America, or NAM, is next with 220 million members, then EMEA, Europe, the Middle East and Africa is next with 210 million. Latin America (LATAM) is last on this list with 109 million members.

LinkedIn is available in 26 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Turkish.

8. Most desktop traffic to LinkedIn comes from the US

With these LinkedIn numbers, it’s no surprise that the largest share of desktop traffic to LinkedIn comes from the US. As of May 2022, 31.28% of this traffic came from the United States, 7.08% came from India and 5.99% came from the United Kingdom. Brazil and Canada rounded out the top 5 with 4.39% and 4.11% respectively.

9. More than 137 million US LinkedIn members use the platform daily

In December of 2022, data indicated that 69% of US users were on LinkedIn daily, 15% used it several times a week and another 5% used it once a week. LinkedIn’s most up-to-date statistics do not contain data on the number of monthly average users (MAU). But, it was projected that in 2022 MAU in the US alone would reach 66.8 million, a 2.1 million gain over 2021.

Also, App Ape reported that 48.5% of US LinkedIn app audiences were monthly average users in 2021. In that same year, 17.1% of US Android LinkedIn app owners used the app daily.

10. The average visit to LinkedIn is just over 7 minutes long

There were 1.7 billion visits to LinkedIn in December 2022, a 16.86% increase over November. The average visit lasted 7.27 minutes and, on average, 7.66 pages were visited. These LinkedIn stats refer only to desktop traffic.

LinkedIn advertising and marketing statistics

11. The #1 platform for B2B marketers

According to a study by LinkedIn, it’s the leading platform for lead generation. And, 4 out of 5 of its 900 million members drive business decisions. That’s over 720 million members! Even when membership was only 850 million plus, LinkedIn reached 180 million senior-level influencers. And, a LinkedIn audience has twice the buying power of the average online audience.

Compared to other social channels, 82% of B2B marketers obtain their greatest success with LinkedIn. A staggering 93% of B2B marketers used LinkedIn for organic social marketing in the 12 months preceding October 2021. And 77% said they saw their best organic results from LinkedIn. Of the 77% of B2B respondents who used paid social media platforms, 75% chose LinkedIn in that same time period, saying it produced the best results. So, it’s not surprising LinkedIn generated 3.8 billion in ad revenue in 2021, which revenue is expected to increase to 7.7 billion by 2026.

12. Ads on LinkedIn do especially well

Ads on LinkedIn garner a 33% increase in purchase intent for brands. When they advertise on LinkedIn, brands can see a 2–3x lift in their brand attributes. Marketers experience a conversion rate up to 2x higher on LinkedIn. And audiences that have been exposed to brand and acquisition messages on the platform are 6x more likely to convert.

13. Highly effective channel for lead generation

LinkedIn is rated as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads by 40% of B2B marketers. In fact, 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation and 62% say it produces leads for them. It only makes matters better that LinkedIn’s cost per lead is 28% lower than Google AdWords.

And, 35% of B2B marketers ranked LinkedIn as the most important social media network overall in 2021. With all that LinkedIn has to offer marketers, it’s no surprise that 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing.

According to the latest LinkedIn statistics, the platform has an audience reach of 199 million users in the US alone.

LinkedIn engagement statistics

14. Complete your LinkedIn page

Pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views. LinkedIn best practice is to fill in all the information including your logo, overview, organization information and so forth. Don’t forget, members can search you by keywords, so the more complete and relevant your page is, the better. Companies that have done this and are active on their pages see a 5x lift in page views, a 7x lift in average impressions per follower and an 11x lift in clicks per follower. And, companies that post on LinkedIn weekly will see a 2x higher engagement rate.

15. Listicles and LinkedIn Polls seem to do best on LinkedIn

Text-only posts should not be ignored. They are still quite common on LinkedIn and can do a lot to engage your target audience when employed strategically. The character limit for posts has changed to 3000 in 2023 which can be anywhere between 500 and 1000 words. Use hashtags. They can be searched on LinkedIn, bringing users straight to your content.

An independent study of 3000 posts on LinkedIn found that long-form content of 1900-2000 words get the most views, likes, comments and shares on LinkedIn. And if those posts were broken up by 5, 7 or 9 headings they gained 50%, 33% and 47% more views than a single heading post, respectively.

Listicles, especially “how-to’s” do very well on LinkedIn. The independent study found that a “how-to” post performs 31.5% better in terms of LinkedIn analytics than all other types of posts.

LinkedIn Polls help you engage with your audience because they get to give their opinions about the questions you pose. Use them to learn about pain points, what they’re looking for from your brand and more. Your question should be engaging and relevant. You can give up to four answer choices. Use the number that will best allow your ideal audience members to share their opinions. Not only do these polls engage your audience, but you can learn a great deal about them to help you in your future marketing efforts.

This LinkedIn Poll by Sarah Johnston got 6,290 votes and 160 comments.

Imagine what you could do with the right question.

16. Images have a marked effect on engagement

Using images in your posts results in a 98% higher comment rate compared to text-only posts. And for ads with a single image, larger images of 1200 x 627 pixels garner up to a 38% higher click-through rate. In the case of images, sometimes more is better. Custom collages of 3–4 images in a post perform particularly well for companies. And the independent study mentioned above indicated that posts with a single image are over 2x as engaging as a text-only post. Posts with 4 images are almost 4x as engaging and those with 8 images are almost 10x as engaging. Further, having 8 images is nearly 4x as engaging as a single image post.

17. Video is becoming more impactful on LinkedIn

Video gets 5x more engagement on LinkedIn. Users will engage with video ads for nearly 3x longer than other types of ads. Since videos are often watched without sound, it’s a good idea to add captions to attract and engage your audience. And, show them what you want them to see within the first 10 seconds before you lose their attention. LinkedIn’s research shows that members are 20x more likely to share a video on LinkedIn than any other type of post. Plus, 73% of B2B marketers say that video positively impacts their marketing return on investment.

According to LinkedIn, you can use YouTube videos too, and they will play directly in your feed, generally resulting in a share rate of 75%.

Video is so versatile. You can share just about anything. It doesn’t only have to be ads. You can share your brand values, news, and information on upcoming events or opinions on social issues that matter. In fact, data from the Index indicate that 71% of consumers think it’s important for brands to raise awareness and take a stand on sensitive issues. This is a great way to engage with and grow your audience, especially if you take advantage of the many tools available to you on LinkedIn.

People tend to favor short-form videos, which they find 2x more engaging than long-form videos. And, according to the Index, 34% of consumers want to see authentic, less-produced videos. Only 26% would like to see polished, highly produced video.

LinkedIn Live videos get 24x more engagement than static posts. Live stream also gets 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than other videos.

You can keep up with this influx of comments from LinkedIn Live using Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox, one of its social media management tools. The Smart Inbox consolidates all of your incoming messages in one place so you don’t have to go from platform to platform to engage with your audience.

LinkedIn recommends that you have a moderator for your live streams and plan to stream for at least 15 minutes to allow your followers time to join. Your audience will keep building as you stream. Use #LinkedInLive in your stream description as well as any other relevant hashtags. This will help you grow your audience beyond your followers.

18. LinkedIn features help you extend your reach

The minimum audience size to run an advertising campaign on LinkedIn is 300 members, but you should shoot for 50,000 or more for text or single image ads. You can increase your reach by using LinkedIn’s “lookalike audience” feature.

This targets people or companies with similar characteristics to your matched audience segment. Using this feature can increase the size of your original audience by up to 15x, not including your original matched audience.

And, you can extend your reach further with the LinkedIn Audience Network feature. It delivers your single image, carousel and video ads beyond your LinkedIn feed to users on third-party apps and sites.

Over 9 million users have turned on LinkedIn Creator Mode since it was launched at the beginning of 2021. Using Creator Mode allows you to grow your reach and influence by helping you establish thought leadership through the content you create and share.

To learn more about the tools you can get access to through creator mode, including LinkedIn Live, visit LinkedIn Creator Mode Help/Answer.

Creator Mode can have a profound impact for marketers. Thought leadership is critical to 79% of potential buyers in determining which providers they want to learn more about. And 70% of potential B2B buyers say LinkedIn is one of the most trusted sources of that information. Another 75% say thought leadership helps them determine which vendors to choose.

Thought leadership is important to 90% of B2B decision makers. Almost half of all C-suite executives will spend at least one hour per week engaged with this type of content.

Improve your LinkedIn marketing strategy in 2023

In 2022, LinkedIn was ranked number 7 in the top ten fastest-growing brands worldwide, based on brand value growth (68%). It was one of only two social media networks in the rankings; YouTube was the other. And LinkedIn’s tools, such as Creator Mode and Audience Network, help you to extend your reach and engage new audiences.

As these LinkedIn statistics and data have shown, executives, decision-makers, buyers and marketers are all networking and growing their businesses on LinkedIn.

Isn’t it time you used LinkedIn for business? Sprout has all the tools you need to do so effortlessly, including the Smart Inbox to help you keep the conversation going smoothly across social platforms.

The post LinkedIn statistics for marketers in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

While organic content is still the heart of any LinkedIn marketing strategy, running ads can help amplify your content’s reach and impact.

In this guide, we’ll dive into LinkedIn advertising, discussing everything from the different ad formats available, to creating a target audience, to measuring the success of your campaigns.

Table of contents

• How to get started advertising on LinkedIn
• Choosing the right LinkedIn ad types for your campaign
• The true cost of LinkedIn ads
• Measuring the success of your LinkedIn ad campaigns
• Best practices for LinkedIn advertising
• LinkedIn ad examples to inspire you

How to get started advertising on LinkedIn

Using the LinkedIn ads campaign manager

Start by signing into the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. The LinkedIn ads manager is where you can manage your LinkedIn advertising campaigns.

Before you get started with Campaign Manager, you need to create a LinkedIn account if you don’t have one yet; it takes just a few seconds to create one.

Enter your account name and select your currency. If you’re running ads on behalf of a business, link your campaign with a LinkedIn page.

Setting a relevant ad objective

Next, choose the objective for your ad campaign. Do you want more people to become aware about your business? Perhaps you want to attract more website visitors. Or maybe you want to capture more leads.

LinkedIn advertising gives you several objectives to choose from for three different stages of the sales funnel–awareness, consideration and conversions. At this stage, you can set the most relevant objective for a particular LinkedIn ads campaign.

If you’re an employer that’s advertising for an open position, you also have the option to set an objective to promote job opportunities.

Nailing your ad targeting

You can’t run a successful ad unless you’re targeting the right people. Make sure you have a clear idea of what kind of people you want your ad to reach. You have several targeting options for LinkedIn ads–whether you want to target people based on location, industry, company size, education, job function or skills.

You can even select multiple attributes at a time to further narrow down your targeting. You also have the option to exclude audiences with certain attributes that aren’t relevant to you.

Before you save your ad campaign, make sure you enable audience expansion so LinkedIn can expand and engage a new audience with your ad campaign. This option automatically includes people with similar attributes as the ones you’ve selected.

Choosing the right LinkedIn ad types for your campaign

LinkedIn offers several ad types and formats to help you promote your business in the best way possible. Let’s take a look at these ad types below:

Sponsored content

LinkedIn sponsored content looks just like a regular post that you’d see on your feed except with a CTA button and a “promoted” label.

You can choose from five different formats of sponsored content — single image, carousel, video, event and document. It’s better to switch between the options every once in a while to compare their performances and see which one works best with your audience.

• Single image ads: These ads consist of a single image and are typically used to promote a product or service, increase brand awareness or drive website traffic.
• Video ads: These ads include video and are typically used to demonstrate how a product or service works, tell a brand story or increase engagement.
• Carousel ads: These ads include a series of images or videos that users can swipe through. Carousels are typically used to showcase multiple products, services or ideas, or tell a story in slideshow format.
• Event ads: These ads allow businesses to promote upcoming events like webinars, conferences and meetups. They include date, time and location details, and a call-to-action to register or attend the event.

• Document ads: These ads allow businesses to promote whitepapers, ebooks or case studies by displaying a preview of the document and linking to the full version. They’re typically used to generate leads and increase brand awareness.

Lead gen forms

LinkedIn’s lead gen forms let you easily capture leads without requiring users to leave the platform. You can add these forms to any sponsored content or message to collect names, emails and job titles.

The forms are pre-populated with users’ profile data, which encourages more people to sign up. You can also include custom questions in your forms to gather additional information about your prospects.

Once a user submits a form, their contact information is sent to your business and they’re also added as a new lead in LinkedIn’s CRM.

Sponsored messaging

LinkedIn also lets you send paid direct messages to targeted users. In fact, using this ad tactic alongside sponsored content can boost your clickthrough rates by over 70%.

There are two sponsored message ad formats you can choose from:

• Message ads: This ad format lets you send personalized and targeted messages to users with a single call-to-action (CTA.) You can also add lead gen forms to your message ads to easily capture leads.
• Conversation ads: This ad format lets you add multiple CTAs to your messages to help prospects engage with your business and access targeted offers and links.

Quick tip: To improve your sponsored messages, you can personalize them with your audiences’ names and job titles using LinkedIn macros.

Text and dynamic ads

LinkedIn also offers special ad options that are a bit different from regular sponsored content. These include text, spotlight and follower ads. Let’s take a look at each one below.

• Text ads: Pay-per-click (PPC) text ads appear on the right-hand side of a desktop screen. They include a small image along with a short headline and blurb. They may be less prominent than sponsored content but can still be very effective depending on your campaign goal.
• Spotlight ads: These are dynamic ads that are personalized for each individual profile. Spotlight ads link back to your website or landing page, and are a great way to share insightful, thought leadership content.
• Follower ads: These dynamic ads are also personalized, but the goal is to get you more followers on your LinkedIn company page.

The true cost of LinkedIn ads

The average cost-per-click (CPC) on LinkedIn is between $5-6.

But the actual cost of LinkedIn ads depends on factors like the type of ad, targeting, budget and the campaign’s performance.

The pricing system for ads can also vary.

For example, sponsored content is generally priced on a CPC or cost-per-mille (CPM) basis, while sponsored messages are typically priced on a cost-per-send (CPS) basis.

Targeting options, such as demographic and job title targeting, can also affect the cost of LinkedIn ads. The more specific the targeting, the more expensive the ad will be.

Additionally, if your campaign is performing well and achieving the desired results, the cost-per-conversion may be lower, making the campaign more cost-effective.

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to set a budget and measure the ROI to ensure your ad costs don’t add up and jeopardize your financial goals.

Setting up your ad budget and schedule

A big part of running ads on LinkedIn is setting a budget for your campaigns. This helps you control the total cost of advertising on the platform.

LinkedIn offers three budget options to control your ad spend:

• Daily budget: This option lets you specify the average amount you want to spend on your ad per day. You can choose between a continuous schedule or a set schedule for your daily budget.
• Lifetime budget: This option lets you specify the total amount you want to spend on your campaign from start to finish. LinkedIn will then automatically adjust the daily budget to deliver optimal results. The daily spend can vary depending on factors like traffic, seasonality and bid type.
• Combination: You can also set both daily and lifetime budgets for your campaign. This will help you control the total cost as well as your daily spending. However, you can only select a continuous schedule for this type of budget strategy.

Once you’ve specified the budget for your ad, you also need to set the campaign schedule. The schedule will determine the lifetime of your ad and also help pace your spending.

The scheduling options you have will vary depending on your budget type.

• Continuous schedule: Run your campaign continuously from a start date. The campaign will end once your budget has been entirely consumed. You can use this option for all three budget types.
• Set schedule: Run your campaign from a specified start date to end date. You can use a set schedule for both lifetime and daily budget options, but not if you’re using a combination of the two.

Understanding LinkedIn bid types

LinkedIn advertising is based on an online auction system where your ad competes with other ads for placement. To win, you must place competitive bids for your ads.

You can choose from three bidding types in the Campaign Manager:

• Manual: This bidding strategy lets you set a specific bid amount for a key result. This option can charge by clicks, sends, impressions or views, depending on your ad format, objective and goal. Manual bidding gives you more control over the bid amount, but you need to track the performance of the campaign and adjust your bid as needed.
• Cost-cap: This bidding strategy lets you set a maximum cost per key result. This allows the system to automatically adjust your bids to achieve optimal results while staying within your campaign’s budget.
• Maximum delivery: This is a automated bidding strategy that uses machine learning to set and adjust bids while utilizing your entire budget. The goal is to maximize key results and use your total budget most efficiently.

Measuring the success of your LinkedIn ad campaigns

You don’t run LinkedIn ads no reason. You’d do so with the hope of getting some return on your investment. This makes it crucial to monitor and measure your ad success so you can see whether your investment is paying off.

Perhaps you might even notice that some types of LinkedIn ads are working better than others and you’ll want to shift your focus towards those. You might also find that some ads aren’t delivering any results at all, so you’d want to stop setting money toward something that doesn’t work.

The LinkedIn ads manager comes with a robust reporting feature that lets you track LinkedIn analytics and metrics to understand your ad performance. This includes metrics like clicks, impressions, cost per click, click-through rate, cost per impression, conversions, cost per conversion, leads and cost per lead.

You can even track your performance with different audience demographics in the ads manager. For instance, you can view how people performing a certain job function responded to your ads in terms of clicks, impressions and click-through rate.

Looking to dive deeper? Sprout Social’s LinkedIn management tool can help you dig into the good stuff, visualize key metrics and keep an eye on performance and trends data.

Best practices for LinkedIn advertising

Finally, let’s walk you through some LinkedIn best practices that will help you run successful ad campaigns on the platform.

Maintain the correct LinkedIn ad specs

Your LinkedIn ads need to instantly attract and draw in your target audience and you can’t do that without outstanding visuals. When creating visuals for your ads, make sure you follow the proper LinkedIn ad specs and sizes.

The specs vary for each LinkedIn ad type and ad format. Here are the basics:

Sponsored content

Single image ads

• Should be in JPG or PNG format.
• File size should be 5MB or smaller.
• Keep headlines under 70 characters to avoid truncation.
• Keep descriptions under 100 characters to avoid truncation.
• Images display at 1200 x 627 pixels and should be at least 400x in width.

Carousel ads

• Use 2-10 cards per ad.
• Individual cards should not be larger than 10MB.
• LinkedIn recommends using 1080 x 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio of 1:1 for individual images.
• Keep introductory text under 150 characters and two lines to avoid truncation.
• Character limits below ads are either 45 characters maximum, or 30 characters with a lead gen CTA button.

Video ads

• Keep it under 15 seconds for better engagement (though LinkedIn allows up to 30 minutes of video ads).
• File size should be between 75KB and 200MB
• Your video should be in MP4 format running at less than 30 frames per second.
• Audio size should be less than 64KHz.

Multiple aspect ratios and quality options are available with varying requirements. Check out the full LinkedIn ad specs for video ads to learn more.

Message ads

• Banner creative should be 300×250 pixels.
• It should be no larger than 40KB.
• It should be in JPG, non-animated GIF or PNG (without flash) format.
• Add up to three links using a maximum of 70 characters for anchor text.
• Message text should be no more than 1,500 characters.
• Subject should be no longer than 60 characters.

Text ads

• Ad image should be 100×100 pixels
• It should be in JPG or PNG format
• File size cannot be larger than 2MB
• Keep headlines under 25 characters
• Keep descriptions under 75 characters

Note that there are five different sizes and ad specs for text ads. There’s also a whole bunch of LinkedIn ad size and specs for dynamic ads like follower and spotlight ads that are tailored to individual users depending on which format you choose.

For even better results in lead generation through your LinkedIn ads, some experts also recommend using colors that contrast with the platform’s blue and white colors in your visuals. This will give your ad an instant pop, allowing you to effectively draw in your target audience.

Support your ads with a strong organic brand

Running ads alone does not guarantee leads and conversions.

You also need a powerful organic strategy in place to pique your audiences’ interest, build trust and boost the impact of your paid campaigns.

Along with investing in ads, regularly share valuable and engaging content to establish your business as a thought leader. Create a well-designed company page and use consistent branding to look authentic and high-quality.

Don’t forget to engage with your audience — respond to comments and messages, and welcome both positive and negative feedback.

Finally, track analytics to understand the performance of your organic content. This will help guide your ad campaigns and set your future content up for success.

Keep testing and optimizing

Based on the insights collected from your performance tracking efforts, you’ll uncover some excellent opportunities and ideas to improve your ads.

Run A/B tests on different LinkedIn ad types, ad creatives, ad copy and CTAs. Find out what resonates with your audience and use that to further improve your ad performance.

Additionally, you might even want to use A/B testing to optimize your ad targeting. Make slight alterations to your targeting criteria to identify which audiences are most responsive to your ads. This will eventually help you perfect your LinkedIn ad targeting and get more out of your advertising efforts.

LinkedIn Ad examples to inspire you

Now that you know how to run ads on LinkedIn, let’s look at some interesting examples from real-life brands to get your creative juices flowing.

Asana

Asana is a cult-favorite project management tool used by businesses worldwide. This means they have some great numbers to show off and attract potential customers. This is exactly what they’re doing with this LinkedIn ad example, where they use their success in helping increase employee satisfaction as eye-catching copy.

Shopify

Shopify does a brilliant job of addressing one of the biggest pain points of office-based employees — the long, monotonous commute. They do so by using powerful imagery and contextual copy, enough to grab the attention of anyone looking to transition to a more flexible work setting.

TikTok

In this LinkedIn ad example, TikTok promotes its virtual event using an engaging video made with high-contrast, bold colors and trendy imagery — perfectly aligned with their brand identity. We also love how the copy speaks directly to the specific audience for this post — B2C startups.

Notion

Who says event ads are just for webinars? SaaS companies like Notion can also promote product demos on LinkedIn using multiple ad formats, including event ads. Make sure to throw in a lead gen form into the mix like Notion does to encourage more people to register.

Canva

This carousel ad by Canva is everything the online design tool stands for — colorful and versatile. Using this ad format allows Canva to highlight the many ways users can benefit from the software, visually showcase the tool’s interface and abilities, as well as look beautiful and eye-catching.

Grammarly

Grammarly’s LinkedIn ad is proof that you don’t need flashy colors and visuals to create an impactful advertisement. In the example above, the popular AI writing tool demonstrates its editing feature using a screenshot of the app itself as copy.

Does it work? You bet! And the clever bit about this ad is the sentence being edited in the screenshot resonates with the target audience (hint: freelancers and contractors.)

Grow faster with LinkedIn ads

With the right approach, LinkedIn advertising offers plenty of opportunities to connect with the right audience and grow your business. But it can get overwhelming when you’re just starting out.

Make the most of the steps above to build a winning LinkedIn advertising strategy and generate valuable leads. Interested in learning more? Check out our LinkedIn marketing guide to 10x your growth on the platform.

Or, find out how you can use LinkedIn for business beyond marketing.

The post LinkedIn ads: the ultimate guide from zero to hero appeared first on Sprout Social.

Employee advocacy—the promotion of a company that an individual works at—can supercharge brand awareness, sales leads and talent acquisition on any channel.

In this article, let’s dive into why it’s time to start your strategy, and 10 tips to help you get started.

• Why is LinkedIn employee advocacy right for your social strategy?
• 10 tips to master advocacy on LinkedIn
• Tip 1: Optimize your LinkedIn page
• Tip 2: Set goals for your strategy
• Tip 3: Sort your stakeholders
• Tip 4: Curate content and create copy
• Tip 5: Show employees what’s in it for them
• Tip 6: Onboard and train employees
• Tip 7: Set an internal promotion schedule
• Tip 8: Secure executive buy-in
• Tip 9: Measure, report and readjust
• Tip 10: Practice what you preach
• LinkedIn advocacy metrics

Why is LinkedIn employee advocacy right for your social strategy?

There’s a reason 68% of marketers say their company has an advocacy strategy. It’s key to reaching untapped audiences, while getting your employees more engaged. And there’s plenty in it for your workforce, too.

With employees leaning on LinkedIn as their home to share content about their work and their own thought leadership, it’s the perfect place to kick off your program.

LinkedIn is easily the most important platform to prioritize your advocacy strategy. Here are a few ways advocacy on LinkedIn can lead to real business results.

Connect with decision makers

With over 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn, it’s the place to connect with your next B2B buyers. And content is the key to reaching them.

From deep thought leadership to relevant memes commenting on industry insights, content is powerful. And considering most B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions, interesting, persuasive content can translate into dollars.

Employee content receives about eight times more engagement than brand channel content. Imagine the impact encouraging your workforce to post could have.

Build trust with prospective talent and buyers

People trust who they know—a friend’s recommendation is the top reason people buy on social media.

Employee posts are the digital equivalent to word-of-mouth marketing. Encouraging them to become thought leaders grows brand trust by amplifying trusted voices; voices that are three times more likely to be trusted than the voice of a CEO.

Trust matters, and translates to sales—72% of consumers say they feel connected to a brand when they trust it. And consumers who feel more connected to a brand are more likely to pick them over competitors. Similarly, most high-level professionals say thought leadership is a more trusted basis for assessing a vendor than marketing materials.

Brand trust also gives you the pick of top talent. After all, what would you believe first: a post saying “my company is the best place to work” written by a CEO, or an employee?

Engage your employees

Having engaged employees doesn’t necessarily mean going into the office every day, or attending every happy hour.

An advocacy strategy helps employees engage with their business in a way that also empowers them to grow their own influence and networks. And companies with engaged employees are 20% more likely to retain them, according to LinkedIn.

And if it’s buy-in you’re worried about, consider this: most employees would post about their company if the process was made easy, which an advocacy strategy takes care of.

10 tips to master employee advocacy on LinkedIn

Now that you know the “why,” let’s get into “how” to get your LinkedIn employee advocacy strategy off the ground.

As with any strategy, the hardest part is starting. So we’ve got 10 actionable tips to kick off your strategy and master brand amplification in the process.

1: Optimize your company’s LinkedIn page

If you’re encouraging employees to post more, your company page needs to be presentable. After all, every six pieces of content shared on LinkedIn influences 13 company page views, one new follower and six views on your careers.

Our LinkedIn audit article goes much deeper into this. For now, here are a few quick wins to score right now:

• Check your branding: Your profile picture and cover image should be high quality, eye-catching and up-to-date.
• Complete your profile: This is a no-brainer—an incomplete or barren profile doesn’t inspire trust.
• Add fresh job postings: Eight people are hired every minute on LinkedIn. Post your open roles and remove outdated ones.
• Recent post shares: Keep your posts up to date. Even better, engage with employee posts to show that you care.

2: Set goals for your strategy

A brand amplification strategy has cross-team benefits. Which means you’ll need cross-team goals.

To set goals for your strategy, consider what extending your LinkedIn reach can do for each of your teams.

For your marketing team, goals might center around brand awareness, building impressions and reach, increasing followers, etc.

For recruiting, decreasing time-to-hire, increasing applications and reducing turnover are huge.

And for sales, think about increasing leads and lead conversion.

Meet with other teams to show them how your program will benefit them, and to set relevant goals.

3: Sort your stakeholders

Advocacy is a team effort, through-and-through. Collaboration is the best ticket to success.

Identify who should be looped in at the least, and who can help out at most. Here are a few stakeholders to consider:

Project owners

Even when it’s collaborative, an advocacy program will need someone to oversee it. The project owners can be responsible for overseeing or actively:

• Curating content for employees to share
• Creating copy for that content
• Sharing an internal newsletter with share-ready content
• Providing training and onboarding employees into the program
• Gathering and reporting on performance results
• And more

Identify a project owner. Then, identify go-to advocates on each team to send you data, help curate or to simply encourage their team to post ready-made content you provide.

Content supporters

Consistently providing post-ready content and copy for employees is a key part of advocacy. But it’s also time consuming. Tapping your creative teams to help can provide new leadership opportunities, while lightening the workload.

“Our three-person social team has limited time,” says Aubree Smith, Content Specialist and advocacy champion at Sprout Social. “To support advocacy, the Content Team curates our highest priority content and writes pre-approved social copy for employees to use on LinkedIn.”

This collaboration has made it possible to provide more post-ready content. The better the content variety for employees, the more empowered they are to share thought leadership.

Internal influencers

When you think of “influencers,” you probably think of accounts with a million followers. But you have influencers under your roof—your social-savvy employees.

Identify employees who are already active on social media, and those with a large LinkedIn network. Then, pitch your program to them. This can be streamlined with a tool like Sprout’s advocacy platform, which identifies employees with large follower counts.

Piloting your program to a small, interested group first will help you determine your processes before you extend it to the entire organization. And after your program has started, you can identify more all-star content sharers by looking at who shares advocacy posts the most often.

4: Curate content and create copy

From simple reshares, to lengthy “broetry,” there are many ways to post on LinkedIn—and that can be overwhelming.

“I’ve always wanted to be active on LinkedIn, but I would often get stuck on questions like: what should I post? Who am I writing for? Am I adding any value?” Sprout Growth Account Executive Chris Long tells us. With nearly 10,000 LinkedIn followers, he’s a certified Sprout influencer.

Not knowing what to post and posting anxiety block employees from posting—even when they want to. Solve this by providing employee advocacy content and pre-written post copy to make posting easier, and to ensure messaging is on-brand.

Think about what your employees would be most likely to post. Celebratory employee spotlights and industry insights are a great place to start, as employees are most likely to share employee updates and educational content. Plus, they positively impact your brand image.

In addition to providing content, you need a go-to place for employees to find it, and an easy way to regularly share new content with employees.

This is one of the best reasons to use a tool. Sprout’s advocacy platform provides a one-stop hub for you to curate LinkedIn copy and content, and for employees to find it. We even have a built-in newsletter tool to help you share new content with your teams as it’s curated.

Request a demo

And all content shared from our advocacy platform looks native to LinkedIn, making your employees’ thought leadership look seamless.

As Chris puts it, “I love Employee Advocacy because it’s helped me answer those initial questions by giving me tracks to run on when I sit down to write. Big picture, it’s helped me gain confidence in my social presence.”

5: Show employees what’s in it for them

When it comes to employee benefits, monetary prizes are always enticing.

But our research shows that expanding networks and content pride are also major motivators.

Chris sums it best: “Through advocacy I’m easily building ‘muscle memory’ by posting with more consistency. And over time I’ve seen a tangible impact on lead generation, people reaching out about job openings and making genuine industry connections.”

When you introduce your program, consider what benefits you’ll offer—like swag, monetary incentives or recognition. And highlight skills employees gain through advocacy, like becoming thought leaders, expanding their networks and making a business impact.

6: Onboard and train your employees

It can’t be overstated: the key to employee participation is ease.

Whether you offer live trainings, recorded trainings, document guides or all of the above, here are some areas to provide training for:

• What not to post: This is especially important if you have a flexible advocacy program and encourage employees to source their own content. Provide guidelines for on-brand language, brand values and dos/don’ts.
• What to post: Provide guidance on the types of thought leadership, insights and resources that are appropriate to help shape employees’ own strategies.
• Social media copywriting: Provide training on using hashtags, how to write for LinkedIn, emoji best practices and best practices for writing on social.
• How to use your tools: If you’re using a robust solution like Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform, train admins who curate and approve content, and employees who will use the advocacy tool as a hub to search for and post content directly to their channels.

7: Set an internal promotion schedule

If you’re running a promotion on social media, you know you don’t just post once.

The same goes for advocacy.

When you launch your program, promote it via email, internal newsletters, team message systems, town halls and more.

Then, keep advocacy top-of-mind with a consistent internal promotion schedule. This can include:

• A regular newsletter of ready-to-post content and copy for employees to share
• Reminders in Slack or Teams when there’s a fresh batch of advocacy content
• Leaderboard updates that celebrate employees who post the most
• Updates on the impact their advocacy posts have had on the business

8: Secure executive buy-in

It’s always a bonus to have the boss on your side to boost your program resources.

But for an advocacy program, it can add a whole new level of executive-driven content. While employee voices are a powerful trust-builder, people also want to hear from your CEO—70% of consumers feel more connected to brands with CEOs active on social.

Ask your executives if they’d be willing to create posts or content employees can blast out to their own networks.

Not all content you provide to employees needs to be linked to a blog or video. You can also provide posts for them to reshare and add their own commentary to. When you use a platform like Employee Advocacy by Sprout, you can provide executive posts they can reshare, and their posts will look native to LinkedIn.

9: Measure, report and readjust

Once your program has started, revisit your goals. Look at how they’re tracking, and whether your strategy—or your goals—need a course correction.

And evaluate the advocacy program itself—with the knowledge that it won’t be perfect immediately. Evaluate your performance, survey employees and meet with your stakeholders to determine what’s working and what isn’t.

Pro tip: Share progress with your employees. They got you to this point. Celebrate how far their posts have pushed the strategy, your company’s LinkedIn presence and your business goals.

10: Practice what you preach

Share employee advocacy content yourself!

You don’t want to be a posting poser. Get your own thought leadership off the ground, as you encourage employees to share their own.

Beyond leading by example, this will also help you get a sense of how to use any employee advocacy tools you utilize, pain points in the process and will help you develop tips.

LinkedIn employee advocacy analytics: what to measure and why

We’ve talked about the importance of measuring and reporting on your progress. And there are some stand-out metrics you can use to measure employee advocacy efforts to prove ROI.

While LinkedIn’s analytics are a strong intro to measuring advocacy, they only go so deep. We’ll show you a few ways Sprout’s advocacy platform can help.

Let’s go through a few of them and why they matter.

Metrics that tell you, “how many people are using advocacy?”

Conversion rate

Look at what percentage of your employees opt in to your advocacy program to see if you need another push. If your number is high, this is also a great metric to share with executives for more buy-in.

Find this by dividing the number of employees who showed interest in your advocacy plan, divided by the total number of employees you opted-in.

Active participation

Not everyone will participate in your program—that’s ok. But you still need to assess whether you have healthy participation.

Looking at “Employees posting from recommendations” in LinkedIn’s baked-in advocacy analytics shows you how many posts have been shared by employees.

But using a platform like Employee Advocacy by Sprout gets more specific, providing a pre-calculated percentage of employees who actively post, average shares per employee and more.

Top contributors and posts

Knowing who participates the most and which posts perform the best helps you determine who to give incentives to.

And knowing which of your curated posts get the most employee shares helps you understand what employees like to share, and what kinds of stories to curate more often.

LinkedIn shares

Shares provide another way to measure which posts employees are most interested in sharing.

This can also ladder up to your business goals and brand awareness.

Metrics that tell you, “how does advocacy support business goals?”

Advocacy post reach or impressions

Reach directly ladders up to brand awareness business goals.

In LinkedIn’s analytics, this metric tells you how many LinkedIn members interacted with advocacy posts shared by employees and their companies, location, job function, seniority and industry.

But Sprout’s advocacy platform measures potential reach by looking at the networks of each employee who shares your content, and how many new people that content may have reached.

Earned media value

Advocacy is essentially employee-driven advertising for your company. Earned media value allows you to directly compare the reach your employees’ reach to your paid efforts.

In other words, this metric can show your organization how many advertising dollars your advocacy program saved them. In Sprout’s advocacy platform, you can customize this to your needs.

Clicks and engagement

Looking at clicks and engagement is a great way to link social media advocacy efforts to driving traffic to your website, newsletter, blog and more.

And engagements can help you understand what content is successful beyond your employees, and entices new audiences to stop and interact with employee-shared content.

LinkedIn SSI

Social selling is one of the most powerful benefits LinkedIn can bring to your sales team. According to LinkedIn, salespeople who regularly share content are 45% more likely to exceed their quota.

As your sales team shares their own advocacy posts, their LinkedIn Social Selling Index will rise, laddering up to their personal lead goals and your business goals.

Strengthen your strategy with a LinkedIn employee advocacy tool

From content curation to measuring employee involvement, we’ve talked about a lot of moving parts in this article. The best way to make advocacy a cake walk for your employees, and to streamline your efforts, is with a LinkedIn employee advocacy tool.

Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform streamlines every step of your strategy—from content curation and sharing, to measuring your efforts. Advocacy makes it easy for employees to get involved, easy for you to start and saves you crucial advertising dollars.

A tool is your ticket to creating a powerful program that has real impact—for your social and your entire organization. Find out more about how our solution will empower long-term results.

The post 10 Tips to Master LinkedIn Employee Advocacy appeared first on Sprout Social.

If you’re a marketing professional, then you know that LinkedIn is a powerful tool you can use to build relationships, connect with others in your industry and promote your products and services.

But it isn’t enough to simply build a profile and start posting. There are best practices for LinkedIn posts, profiles, pages and ads that marketers and professionals need to keep in mind as they use the platform.

Even if you already have a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy, it’s important to know practical best practices for the platform.

With more than 57 million organizations on LinkedIn and over 822 million users in 200+ countries and regions, LinkedIn is the most popular professional networking platform on the planet.

Let’s uncover what you need to know about using LinkedIn for business effectively.

LinkedIn post best practices

If you want your content to be successful on LinkedIn, you need to know what type of content performs best on the platform. This is going to look different for every business, as it depends on your audience, your industry and your goals.

LinkedIn users:

• Are looking for helpful and informative content that is relevant to their industry.
• Are also interested in content that is visually appealing, such as infographics or videos.
• Respond well to content that is timely and newsworthy.

Here are a few LinkedIn post best practices to remember when crafting content:

Be audience-specific

Out of all the LinkedIn best practices, possibly the most important is producing content that is audience-specific. What this means is you have to develop LinkedIn content that people in your industry actually want to read.

To get a better idea of who your audience is, ask these questions:

1. Who reads our content? Finding your reader base is critical. Know who is clicking on your LinkedIn page and direct content towards those that want it.
2. Who follows us on LinkedIn? Look at your followers and understand your core demographics on LinkedIn.
3. Who can we target? Find out who you can target with your content and work with LinkedIn’s campaign features to further your reach. Sprout Social’s LinkedIn Pages Reports can detail exactly who’s reading your content.

Leverage native documents

A study by Social Insider and Cloud Campaign found that native documents, including PDFs, generate 3x more clicks than any other type of content on LinkedIn.

This makes sense when you consider LinkedIn users are looking for helpful, in-depth information that they can use in their own work. By uploading a PDF directly to LinkedIn, you can provide your audience with the valuable content they crave.

Native documents are used to:

• Share an in-depth case study.
• Provide a helpful how-to guide.
• Offer an exclusive white paper or report.

Dive into thought leadership

LinkedIn is the perfect place to share your company’s thought leadership. This content type showcases your company’s perspective on industry trends.

When creating thought leadership content, make it authentic and interesting. This isn’t the place for traditional advertising copy. Your goal is to start a conversation and get people thinking about your company in new ways.

Consider creating a LinkedIn poll that’s relevant to your industry. Show your readers your awareness of the field and don’t be shy about giving insights into your industry. You can also offer “behind the curtain” content to give them a better understanding of how your company came to be.

Promote industry events

Promoting industry events and tradeshows can help you get attention on LinkedIn.

If you’re attending an event, make sure to post about it on your LinkedIn Page. You can even create an event page on LinkedIn and invite your connections to attend.

If you’re not attending an event, you can still share a post linking to the event website. This is a great way to get involved in industry conversations and show your followers that you’re up-to-date on what’s happening in your field.

Use visual content

LinkedIn users respond well to images, videos and graphics. In fact, LinkedIn posts with images get a 2x higher comment rate as those without. When creating content for LinkedIn, be sure to include images, infographics, videos or other visual elements as often as possible.

If you’re wanting to promote a visual such as an infographic, but have limited resources, don’t worry–you’ve got options. Sites like Canva or Piktochart make it easy to design your own graphics in just a few clicks. Alternatively, your design team can use software such as Canva to design templates for social teams to customize and share.

Activate employee engagement

Your employees are some of your best brand ambassadors. So why not use their social powers to push your brand on a professional network like LinkedIn?

When employees post about their authentic experiences about your company, the benefits expand beyond brand awareness. With employees sharing company news to their networks, it extends the sales team network and leads, generates buzz and impressions for your marketing team, increases earned media for your PR team and builds trust with talent prospects for your recruiting team.

To make it easy on your employees, it would be wise to invest in a brand amplification tool. Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social is a centralized hub that allows staff to find and share content to their personal social networks. Businesses can curate the content they want to share online, whether it’s a major campaign or a company news, and track ROI with analytics. By removing barriers for your employees, you can create a seamless employee advocacy strategy.

Best practices for LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn ads can help you reach new audiences and grow your business. However, as with any type of paid advertising, you’ll need to be purposeful in how you use ads.

Here are some best practices for LinkedIn ads:

Target key decision-makers

LinkedIn ads let you target people by their job title, company size or even specific skills. So when you’re developing your LinkedIn ads, don’t just target employees—target the people who are actually making decisions about what products or services to buy. For example, you could target specific job titles, like “VP of Marketing” or “Director of Sales.”

Make your ad copy relevant

Your LinkedIn ad copy should be relevant to the people you’re targeting. For example, if you’re targeting small business owners in the healthcare industry, your ad copy should reflect that: “Are you interested in making your health tech employees more productive? We are experts based in Los Angeles. Get in touch now to discover how.”

The more relevant your ad copy is to the people you’re targeting, the more likely they are to take notice—and maybe even take action.

Personalize your ads

Take the time to personalize your ads using the dynamic ads feature. This can be as simple as including the recipient’s first name in the headline or using an image that features one of their products.

You can also use LinkedIn’s Lookalike Audiences feature to create an audience that has characteristics in common with your current and past customers.

Test, test and test again

Linked is a more expensive platform than some others, so it’s important that you make the most of your ad spend by testing different audiences, creative copy and ad formats.

This might look like running a series of short, timed tests for each variant before launching a full-fledged campaign. When you find something that works well, commit to it for at least 30 days. We also recommend committing to a minimum daily spend, so you can gather consistent data.

LinkedIn Page and profile best practices

Having an outdated or unattended LinkedIn Page will always do more harm than good. Just like every other social network, LinkedIn requires you to be present and engaging. Building a community on this platform requires attention and social media monitoring skills.

Prevent your page from going stale by following these LinkedIn profile best practices.

Make use of headers and profile photos

As we mentioned, visuals help drive engagement on LinkedIn. This means your header image should be interesting and relevant to your business.

Continue to update your profile and cover photos, descriptions and business details as they change. If you’ve been in the same role for a while, update your profile photo and header to reflect any new hobbies, interests or professional development courses you’ve completed.

Your profile is like an online CV so make sure it’s up-to-date.

Post frequently

Post up to once a day and aim for a new post every weekday. The best time to post on LinkedIn is 10 a.m. to noon CT on Tuesdays, assuming your followers are mostly in your time zone.

If you’re not sure what to post, think about the pain points your target market experiences and how you can help them. In fact, we have a list of social media post ideas to help you generate content you can share with your network.

Humanize your Page

Be genuine with your interactions and show there’s a human behind the messages and posts. This doesn’t mean unprofessional, rather add your brand voice, personality and authenticity to your company updates. Try adding emojis to your posts or addressing common concerns in your industry.

Add a call-to-action to your Page

LinkedIn Pages have a button option where you can include a call-to-action, such as “Visit website” or “Sign up” for a newsletter, event or webinar. This is an easy way to turn your LinkedIn Page into a lead-generation tool and encourage visitors to take action.

Other CTA buttons on LinkedIn pages include “Register” and “Contact us”.

For personal profiles, LinkedIn also offers a “Follow” button so that visitors can stay up-to-date with your activity on the platform.

Track LinkedIn Page success

Tracking and measuring success on LinkedIn is critical to ensuring your content and marketing strategies deliver results. Some of the following LinkedIn metrics can tell you more about your overall engagement efforts:

• Visitor demographics: Who reads your content, their industry, job title, seniority level, location, company size, function and referral source.
• Page views: The number of company page views during a specified date range.
• Unique visitors: The number of users that viewed your company page, excluding multiple visits from a single user.
• Impressions: The number of times the post was shown to LinkedIn members.
• Engagements: The number of interactions divided by impressions.
• Clicks: The number of clicks on your content, company name or logo.
• Followers acquired: The number of new followers you gained from a sponsored update (non-organic on the native platform, but available through Sprout Social).
• Audience: This shows if a post was sent to all your followers or a targeted group.

Finding marketing success on LinkedIn

As a marketing professional, you have to communicate with all of your LinkedIn connections. You also have to make sure that the right people see your posts. With Sprout Social’s LinkedIn management tools, you can easily target your posts so that they reach the right audience and refine your campaigns over time for maximum results.

Whether you’re part of a small group or an enterprise team of 200, Sprout can help you organize your LinkedIn content to match your company goals. LinkedIn is a unique space for social media management, but with the right tools and direction, you can transform how you approach LinkedIn for business into a powerful marketing tool.

The post LinkedIn best practices for marketing professionals appeared first on Sprout Social.

Staying relevant and capturing your audience’s attention is a constant challenge for marketers. And now that brands rely on video content more than ever, it’s critical to use the correct social media video specs and advertising video sizes.

However, we couldn’t find all the correct social video sizes in one place. So we decided to create a complete guide of every single social media video spec and advertising video dimension.

Before we start, here are some additional resources to help you keep the information in once place:

• Easily reference our social media video specs in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Looking for image sizes? Check out our social media image sizes guide for help.
• Want to get better results with video? Download our social media video content workbook.

Social Media Video Specs & Ad Sizes Per Network

We’ve gathered a plethora of information on each social network’s specific video sizes and specs. Simply click the links below to jump to your desired network:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

Collaborative Publishing Made Easy with Sprout

Visually appealing content can often be found at the heart of successful social posts.

Whether it’s a video, image or text, Sprout’s Asset Library serves as the central hub, making accessibility, organization and collaboration easier than ever.

Experience how easy asset management can be when you get started with a free trial today.

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video is consumed at higher rates each year, so it’s no wonder why so many marketers search for the correct Facebook video specs.

The challenge for marketers is that there are simply so many types of videos you can share on Facebook and the platform updates its design frequently. Each video format has different dimensions and specs, which can make it confusing to know whether or not you’re uploading the correct format for organic or paid posts. Follow the specs below to optimize your posts.

Shared Post Video (Landscape & Portrait)

Easily the most common type of video on Facebook comes from shared posts. This type of video lives in your Facebook feed, and can be shared by brands or your friends. While it’s not as easy to get organic reach on Facebook, it’s still a viable way to share video. You can choose between two video orientations: Landscape and Portrait. Here’s a look at the video specs for both.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video dimensions 1280 x 720 for Landscape and Portrait.
• Minimum width is 1200 pixels (length depends on aspect ratio) for Landscape and Portrait.
• Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9.
• Portrait aspect ratio is 9:16 (if video includes link, aspect ratio is 16:9).
• Mobile renders both video types to aspect ratio 2:3.
• Max file size is 4GB (3 GB maximum in Sprout).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 240 minutes (45 minutes if uploading in Sprout).
• Video max frames 30fps.

360 Video

Facebook’s 360 Video allows users to get a complete 360-degree view by scrolling with a cursor on web, by touch or turning the device on mobile.

Video Guidelines

• The resolution and aspect ratio depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 5120 x 2560 maximum, aspect ratio 2:1
  • Stereoscopic: 5120 x 5120 maximum, aspect ratio 1:1
• Recommended max file size is 10GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length maximum is 30 minutes.
• Recommended framerate is 30 fps.

Facebook Reels

The convenience of cross-posting your Instagram Reels to Facebook expands the viewership and reach of your videos. This format appears organically in feeds, but often gets “priority” on Facebook feeds.

• Recommended video formats are MP4 and MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23 FPS minimum
• Allowed Duration: 4 seconds – 60 seconds
• Allowed File Size: No file size limit
• Resolution: 540 x 960 (540p) minimum (1080×1920 or greater recommended)
• Allowed Aspect Ratio: 9:16

Facebook Video Ad Specs

In-Feed Video Ads

These ads are the sponsored equivalent of in-feed posts and follow similar guidelines.

Video guidelines

• Recommended to upload the highest resolution video possible.
• Recommended resolution: 1080×1080.
• Recommended aspect ratio is between 9:16 to 16:9 (Horizontal: 16:9, Square: 1:1, Vertical: 4:5 or 2:3 and Full Portrait: 9:16).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV (see full list here).
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Video length max is 240 minutes.

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Link description: 30 characters.
• Headline: 40 characters.

There are more than 5 million advertisers now on Facebook and having the right specs for your ads can be tricky. Each type of Facebook video ad is different, so let’s go ahead and break down the specs for each type of video you can produce.

Carousel Video Ads

Facebook Carousel Video ads allow brands to showcase multiple videos (or images) and a link within a user’s Facebook feed. It has grown in popularity because its unique scrolling feature allows users to see more content before clicking a link. In fact, Digiday estimated Carousel Ads to be 10 times more effective than standard social media ads.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4 GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration range is 1 second to 240 minutes.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Collection Video Ads (Mobile)

The Facebook Collection ads showcases multiple images and a main video above it. This is perfect for displaying multiple products (or various colors of a single product) and a video as well. The ad type has been popular so far with retailers and clothing companies.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080×1080.
• Square aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 120 minutes.
• Video max frames 30 fps.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Headline max: 40 characters.
• Landing page URL required.

Instant Experience Video Ads

Facebook Instant Experience ads open up a full-screen experience after the first click, which can be further customized with a variety of interactive features. This can include multiple video experiences, including features to auto-play on loop.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution: 720p
• Portrait aspect ratio of 9:16 with pillarboxing for all others uploaded.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Maximum length of all video content must be 2 minutes combined.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Slideshow Video Ad

Facebook’s Slideshow videos were built for advertisers wanting to reach audiences with slower internet connections. Instead of a regular video, slideshows are just that–a slideshow of images or video in an ad display.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1200 x 720.
• Aspect ratios available are landscape (16:9), vertical (4:5) and square (1:1)
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Slideshow duration max is 15 seconds.

Facebook Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

Facebook has also added the Stories feature, disappearing short photo or video updates that are only available for 24 hours. In addition to user-generated organic posts, Stories ads that run in between sets of user stories are also available.  While most users will be sharing immediate & organic updates from their phone’s camera without worrying too much about their video specs, the guidelines for this format are similar for paid & organic posts.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution 1080×1080
• Aspect ratios: 1.91 to 9:16, with colored gradient bars rendered above and below videos under 9:16. The text field will also be placed under below videos smaller than this aspect ratio.
• Max video file size is 4GB
• Duration is 1 second to 2 minutes
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters

For more information on the video specs for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram launched video capabilities in 2013 and quickly saw enough success to start advertising on the platform in 2015. Since then, video only continues to grow as an engaging social format. So needless to say, Instagram videos are absolutely worth the investment.

In-Feed Video (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Since 2015, Instagram crafted its videos formats to allow three different styles: landscape, square and vertical. The predominantly-mobile social network is perfect to share videos of any size organically to reach your audience.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution for all formats is 1080 x 1080
• Recommended horizontal pixel resolution is 1920
• Multiple aspect ratios are supported: Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9, square aspect ratio is 1:1, vertical aspect ratio is 4:5.
• Max file size for all formats is 4GB (*100MB maximum for Sprout Direct Publishing and 512MB maximum for Sprout Mobile App Flow Publishing).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 to 60 seconds.
• Recommended frame rate is 23 to 60 FPS.
• Recommended data rate/bitrate for posting through Sprout: 5 Mbps (megabits per second)

Character Limits

• Primary text recommendation: 125 characters.
• Maximum number of hashtags: 30

Instagram Reels

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Reels are another option for your video strategy on Instagram. These short-form, easily digestible videos are becoming the preferred type of content in Instagram feeds.

Fortunately for social content creators looking to easily generate a lot of content for Instagram, most of the video specs for Instagram Reels are fairly similar to other formats on the platform, with the main differences being the short length and the ease of editing in-app to add effects and sound.

As Instagram has started to add separate tabs for different content types, thumbnails will be cropped differently on each view. If the viewer is on the first tab that has all content types, the thumbnail will be cropped to the traditional square post size of 1:1–center your subjects and plan to avoid undesirable vertical cropping.

• Allowed file extensions: .MP4 or .MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23-60 FPS
• Allowed Duration: 3 seconds – 15 minutes
• Allowed File Size: 4 GB max (1 GB or less in Sprout)
• Allowed horizontal pixels: 1920p
• Allowed maximum bitrate: 5Mbps
• Allowed aspect ratio: 0.01:1-10:1 (9:16 recommended)

Instagram Video Ad Specs

Instagram’s advertising revenue has significantly increased over the last year. In fact, Instagram predicts to earn $4 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2017 alone. The push for Instagram advertising is real and marketers have to be ready to take advantage with engaging videos.

In-Feed Video Ad (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Much like the in-feed organic Instagram video options, the network provides similar options for advertising. These video ads appear nearly identical to organic posts to blend in with users’ feeds. In fact, the Instagram video specs are the same for organic and paid content.

Video Guidelines

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Video Character Guidelines (Mobile)

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Carousel Video Ad

Much like Facebook’s Carousel Ads, Instagram offers a similar feature. Carousel ads allow users to see more of a product or feature than a single image or video. With Instagram, your carousel video ads can have 2-10 cards with a full-width call to action below the ad.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution is 600 x 600.
• Max resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max video length is 60 seconds.
• Instagram allows 2-10 videos/cards per ad.

Instagram Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

It didn’t take long for Instagram Stories to feature ads within users’ story feeds. Brands can seamlessly integrate their video content between other Instagram users. Much like Snapchat, it’s smart to make these videos more raw and in-the-moment to avoid drastically standing out as an ad, especially since users can immediately swipe to leave.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 2 minutes for ads and 15 seconds for organic. If you upload a longer video on organic, it will be clipped into multiple Stories slides.

If you’re looking for further information including images, check out our complete guide to all the Instagram ad sizes!

For more information on the video specs for Instagram, visit the Facebook Help Center.

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok has quickly gained attention in the social space, and some social marketers might be feeling caught off guard by the rush to understand what works and what doesn’t on the platform. Fortunately, TikTok’s focus on easy to create and share videos means it’s not hard to start producing video content for the platform, and there are plenty of trends to inspire TikTok content creation. Read on for the specs.

TikTok Organic Videos

TikTok videos are all about the ease of creation, editing and sharing, so it makes sense that specs are more or less oriented around typical mobile phone dimensions. One key trait to keep in mind if you’re trying to repurpose video content across platforms is that videos uploaded from another file source, rather than recorded on the app, can be longer than 60 seconds.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 recommended to fill a standard mobile phone screen (1:1 with letterboxing)
• Length: 15 seconds recorded in-app, 60 seconds in-app (4 sections of 15 seconds), or over 60 seconds when uploaded from another source
• Maximum file size: 287.6MB
• Video formats: MP4 or MOV recommended

TikTok Feed Ads

TikTok ads are a rapidly evolving opportunity for brands. The in-feed option for paid TikTok content is fairly similar to the formatting for existing organic content. To fine-tune paid content for the best performance, be sure to consult TikTok’s business center for the latest tips.

Video Guidelines

• Resolutions must be at least: 540×960, 640×64 or 960×540
• Aspect ratio options: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9
• Length: 5–60 seconds, but 9–15 seconds is recommended
• Maximum file size: 500MB
• Bitrate minimum: 516 kbps
• Ad description character limits: 1-1000 Latin characters or 1-50 Asian characters
• Video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .MPEG .3GP, .AVI

Twitter Video Specs

Twitter is a popular space to share and interact with different social media videos. For marketers, it’s all about keeping a user’s attention with enthralling and click-worthy video content. In the sports and entertainment industry, Twitter is often the go-to for sharing video content, so it’s critical to learn the correct Twitter video specs.

Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter provides two formats of in-feed video content to share with your followers: landscape and portrait. These specific formats are only available for uploading video directly to Twitter, rather than sharing YouTube or Vimeo links. Luckily, Twitter makes it easy to share organic content, but the dimensions do change as the video bitrate alters.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolutions are 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square).
• Aspect ratios recommended at 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square). 1:1 is recommended as the best route for rendering across devices with the best output.
• Max file size is 512MB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 for web and .MOV for mobile.
• Video length max is 140 seconds.
• Recommended frame rates are 30 or 60 fps.

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

Twitter Videos Ad Specs

Looking to promote your video through paid ads on Twitter? Luckily, you can use the same exact formats from Twitter organic videos. Stick to the same specs for both organic and paid video to ensure maximum visibility.

For more information on the video specs for Twitter, visit the Twitter Help Center.

Snapchat Video Specs

Snapchat is still an active network for younger generations to share video content. Whether it’s through FOMO-inducing disapppfilters, Snapchat is a hotbed for video sharing. And for your brand, it’s important to know the correct video dimensions for Snapchat.

Single video ad

This video format is the most common across the channel and is the main way users communicate back and forth through the app. However, your business can post videos to its story so others can see what your business is up to. Just follow these specs:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 32MB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is between 3 and 10 seconds.

Long-Form Video Ad

Snapchat currently offers one main video format for ads, which is known as the long-form video. While there are partner opportunities to put video within Snapchat’s discovery option, most dimensions are the same, but require your business to reach out to the social network for more details on advertising. However, the Snapchat Long-Form Video Ad is what users see in between viewing users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16 or 16:9.
• Max file size is 1GB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 to 180 seconds.

For more information on the video specs for Snapchat, visit the Snapchat Ads Help Center.

YouTube Video Specs

Known as the second-largest search engine behind Google, YouTube is an essential network for video content. For marketers, YouTube is a great space to promote, educate and share video content around your brand.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for video content, it hosts everything from short form promotional videos to full-length movies and TV. This means users are streaming content on all sorts of devices, which could have different levels of zoom or overscan.

While there’s no hard and fast rules from the platform on how to approach the video editing concept of ‘title safe’ areas where text like titles and subtitles aren’t cut off, you do want to avoid placing these types of visual elements right at the edges of your video area. Read on for more specifics on each format available on YouTube.

Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)

While YouTube allows users to upload various types of media formats and use plenty of different dimensions, organically, there’s truly only one format for the video player. Organic videos should all follow 16:9 ratio, but can be uploaded 4:3. However, the smaller ratio will automatically pillarbox the sides to still make it fit in the player. YouTube has seven recommended dimensions and ratios for standard YouTube videos:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Video length max is 12 hours.

YouTube Video Ad Specs

Standard YouTube videos are pretty straightforward, but there are a few video ad formats to learn if you want to advertise on the network. According to data from Google, Brands advertising on YouTube often receive a 20% increase in traffic.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-roll & Bumper Video Ads

We’ve put these four YouTube video ads specs together because in the end, they all play through the standard YouTube video player. That means all of these ad types follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but only differ in video length. Let’s look at each ad type:

• Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before, during or after the content and becomes skippable after 5 seconds. This ad format is the only one allowing advertisers to monetize views from any viewing device.
• Non-Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before the content and users must watch the full 15 seconds (can also be added during or after video). However, views from TVs or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view.
• Mid-roll Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played mid-view (like TV commercials) and is only available for content longer than 8 minutes. Ads are added either manually or automatically and again, views from TV or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view. Mid-rolls can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or entire ad (whichever is shorter).
• Bumper Video Ads: This YouTube ad type is played before the content.It’s a small 6-second video ad that cannot be skipped, which is usually optimized for mobile views.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Minimum dimension is 426 x 240.
• Max dimension is 3840 x 2160.
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Skippable video length max is 6 minutes (skippable after 5 seconds).
• Non-skippable video length max is 15 or 20 seconds (30 seconds in some regions).
• Mid-roll video length minimum is 30 seconds.
• Bumper video length max is 6 seconds.

Display Ad

YouTube display ads are shown in users’ search queries and sometimes appear in the right video column when watching a video. These ads are static, which means they don’t automatically play. However, once the video is clicked, the type of content displayed can simply follow the standard video player guidelines mentioned above.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions for the static image is 300 x 250 for the larger side view or 300 x 60 for the smaller side view.
• Actual recommended video dimensions are: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3)
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

YouTube Shorts

Introduced late 2020, YouTube Shorts have recently made its debut as another short-form video feature. These videos are a new way to watch, create and discover short-form content. Shorts can be captured and edited from a smartphone or uploaded through the standard upload workflow from desktop or mobile. Because people are watching more short-form videos globally, using Shorts is a new way to reach wider audiences to entertain, education or make them feel good.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p),
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Video length is 60 seconds max.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Music from the YouTube music library is limited to 15 seconds.
• Title character limit: 100 characters max.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Specs

Even though LinkedIn is still in the early stages of video content adoption, the network is still a go-to source for sharing. In fact, nearly 75% of business executives say they watch online videos every week. With that number only likely to grow, it’s safe to say LinkedIn will continue to put video content at its forefront.

Shared Video

The only video format you can upload is through a shared video. While there are options to share YouTube links in shared posts and in LinkedIn Pulse articles, there’s still just one way to upload your own video.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio is 1:2.4 to 2.4:1.
• Max file size is 5GB.
• Accepted video formats are .ASF, .AVI, .FLV, .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-4, .MP4, .MKV, and .WebM.
• Video length minimum is 3 seconds, max is 10 minutes.
• Video max frames 60fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn, visit the LinkedIn Help Center.

Video Ads

As of 2018, LinkedIn now offers video ads. The requirements are a little bit different than shared video, so be sure to consider them when developing ads for your paid campaign.

Video Guidelines

• Required dimensions are:
  • Landscape video: Minimum: 640 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1080.
  • Square video: Minimum: 360 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1920.
  • Vertical video: Minimum: 360 x 640, maximum: 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratios are:
  • Landscape: 16:9
  • Square: 1:1
  • Vertical: 9:16
• Maximum file size is 200 MB
• The accepted video format is .MP4
• Video length max is 30 minutes, although LinkedIn’s guidelines state most ads perform best at around 15 seconds
• Frame rate must be less than 30fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help.

Pinterest Promoted Video Specs

Pinterest allows video upload for business accounts only, so they have specs designed for brands to get the most out of the highly visual and inspirational lifestyle content frequently shared on the platform.

Shared Video

In addition to ads, business accounts can upload organic video content. There are two formats: standard and max width video.

Video Guidelines

• Standard video recommended aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 2:3, 4:5 or 9:16 (vertical)
• Max width video required aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 16.9 (widescreen)
• Max file size is 2GB.
• Acceptable video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration is 4 seconds to 15 minutes (for ads, the platform notes that 6-15 seconds are optimal).

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters.
• Description: Up to 500 characters.

Promoted Pinterest Video

There are two formats for Pinterest Promoted Video: standard and max width. Both versions have the same specs as the options for organic uploads. These video ads appear in users’ boards, but advertisers can select the style in the ads manager.

Video Guidelines

• Same as shared video

The post Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Video Specs appeared first on Sprout Social.

LinkedIn is the #1 channel for B2B marketers to distribute content. And it makes sense, considering 80% of all B2B social media leads come from the professional platform.

In this article, you’ll learn about LinkedIn analytics, which metrics to track and how to make the most of this data when it comes to improving your LinkedIn strategy.

Table of Contents

• What are LinkedIn analytics?
• LinkedIn analytics metrics to know
• Visitor analytics
• Follower analytics
• Engagement analytics
• How to make the most of LinkedIn analytics
• LinkedIn analytics tools
• Use LinkedIn analytics to create a data-drive strategy

What are LinkedIn analytics?

LinkedIn analytics is a collection of metrics that helps you measure the effectiveness of your posts, updates and strategy on the platform.

It’s statistical data that provides valuable insight into who your audience is, and how they’re responding to your company page and its content.

How to access LinkedIn analytics

You can easily access the native LinkedIn analytics tool from your dashboard. Follow the steps below to start tracking data on the platform:

• Sign in to your LinkedIn account
• Head over to your company page
• Click on the Analytics drop-down from the menu
• Click on the tab you want to view metrics for

Note: You must be a page admin or have “analyst” access to track analytics.

Why track LinkedIn analytics

Tracking LinkedIn analytics helps you learn about your page’s overall performance, your audience and the kind of content people want to see more of.

For example, you can find out where your audience is located, which posts they’re interacting the most with and what type of content is driving the most traffic to your website.

This information allows you to shape your marketing strategy in a way that it delivers maximum ROI and helps you achieve your goals.

Analytics also help you understand how you stack up against the competition. This lets you set realistic benchmarks and plan better content in the future.

LinkedIn analytics metrics to know

Having access to so much data can get overwhelming. But you don’t have to fixate on each metric you see.

Depending on your goals, you must know which metrics need your attention and what they mean for your business.

Here are some key LinkedIn metrics marketers should know about:

Visitor analytics

LinkedIn visitor analytics help you learn about the people viewing your company page on the platform. These people are not necessarily followers or customers of your business, but they’ve shown some level of interest in your LinkedIn presence.

• Page views: The total number of times your page was viewed during a specified date range. This metric includes multiple views from the same user.
• Unique visitors: The total number of unique users that have viewed your company page. This number excludes multiple visits from the same user, which makes it a good indicator of how many people have shown interest in your profile.
• Visitor demographics: This section shows who’s viewing your company page. You can filter this information by location, industry, job, company size and seniority.

Keep track of profile impressions using tools like Sprout Social, measuring day-to-day changes in addition to averages over time.

Follower analytics

Followers represent people who have actively subscribed to your company page and content. In a way, they make up your brand’s community on LinkedIn.

Understanding who your followers are and where they’re coming from helps you create more engaging content. Plus, you’re able to assess the popularity of your brand on the platform.

• Total followers: The total number of users following your company page. Depending on your goals and industry, the follower count reflects your brand’s popularity and trust.
• Follower trends: You can track the number of new followers within any given date range. Are your followers increasing or decreasing over time? The follower metrics graph also shows whether there’s a sudden drop or spike in followers.
• Organic followers: The number of followers you gained without spending money on advertising. These users found you through search engines, shares or feeds, and have shown genuine interest in your brand or content.
• Sponsored followers: The number of followers you gained through advertising. This metric helps you gauge the success of sponsored posts and campaigns.
• Follower demographics: This section helps you learn about who your followers are. You can filter this data by location, seniority, industry, company size and job function. Use demographics to create more targeted content followers resonate with.

Here’s what audience demographics look like in Sprout Social, broken up clearly by seniority and job function.

Engagement analytics

LinkedIn engagement analytics help you learn about the performance of your campaigns, posts and videos. Specifically, you can find out whether your content is resonating with the target audience and how they’re responding to it.

• Impressions: The number of times your post was shown to LinkedIn users.
• Video views: The number of times your video content was watched by users.
• Reactions: The number of people who reacted to your post. LinkedIn reactions include Like, Celebrate, Support, Funny, Love, Insightful and Curious. Getting a reaction means your content has elicited a response (read: engagement).
• Comments: The total number of comments on your post. Getting the conversation started is a prime indicator of engaging content. Tracking comments also tells you which topics resonate most with your target audience.
• Shares: The number of times your post was shared by LinkedIn users. Posting shareable content helps you increase reach, visibility and brand awareness.
• CTR: The click-through rate (CTR) is a percentage of the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions on a post. This metric shows the extent to which your content is inspiring the audience to click on your company name, content or logo.
• Follows: The total number of Follow clicks on your sponsored content.
• Engagement rate: LinkedIn calculates the engagement rate using a standard formula: Clicks + Likes + Comments + Shares + Follows / Impressions. This metric is expressed as a percentage and sums up the average engagement level of a post.

Here’s an example of how you can track visual engagement data for LinkedIn in Sprout’s dashboard.

How to make the most of LinkedIn analytics

Knowing what each metric means is not enough.

To win on the platform, you need to analyze and leverage this data to create strategic content that clicks with your target audience.

Here are four ways to use LinkedIn analytics to boost your marketing strategy:

1. Know who your audience is

Understand your audience by looking at your visitor and follower demographics.

• Where are most of your followers located?
• What industries or departments do they work in?
• Are they entry-level employees or do they hold senior positions?

Doing so will help you create more relevant content that’s more likely to attract leads and drive conversions.

You can also find out whether there’s a discrepancy between your visitor demographics and your followers. This could indicate a disconnect between the content you’re sharing and the information on your page.

2. Understand your audience’s behavior

Use LinkedIn analytics to learn about how your audience interacts with your posts and content from other brands in your industry.

• What motivates your audience to engage with your content?
• Are they more receptive to certain topics or formats?
• How much does your audience like to share content?

Every audience is different. Understanding how yours behaves will help you set realistic goals, spark engagement, schedule posts and create better content.

3. Understand what type of content works best

Some content types get more engagement over others. This could be due to audience preferences, the nature of your business, your brand voice or the LinkedIn algorithm.

Track the performance of your posts to understand what content gets you the most engagement, traffic and overall results.

For example, you might find videos get more views and comments than written or image-only posts. You may also realize that asking thought-provoking questions or running polls gets you more engagement.

Whatever it is, learning about what works well requires both experimentation and analysis. Try different content types and formats, but also continuously track analytics to learn what works and what doesn’t. Then, replicate your success to grow on the platform.

4. Reveal new topics and trends

Tracking LinkedIn analytics can help you stay on top of trending topics in your industry.

For example, you can see which posts are getting more engagement and whether there are certain topics your audience is showing more interest in.

You can also look at competitor analytics to see if they’re getting more engagement all of a sudden. Check out their pages to analyze the topics they’re posting about.

LinkedIn analytics tools

LinkedIn’s native analytics lets you track metrics related to overall page performance, visitor and follower demographics and individual post engagement.

But if you want to dig deeper, you might want to use a more robust social media analytics tool to extract in-depth data.

Below are two popular LinkedIn analytics tools for professional marketers:

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that lets you track in-depth analytics for LinkedIn and other social media networks — all from a single dashboard.

Track metrics for organic and sponsored posts, learn about your audience, and keep tabs on growth and engagement for multiple company pages.

Generate comprehensive reports or customize them based on chosen metrics. You can also compare your performance with competitors to benchmark KPIs.

Additionally, Sprout offers LinkedIn management tools for easily planning and publishing content as well as engaging with your audience.

Inlytics

Inlytics is a specialized LinkedIn analytics platform that lets you monitor performance, optimize your profile, and keep track of engagement and audience data.

Its clean, visual dashboard displays real-time and historical analytics to help you understand your content’s effectiveness.

You can also collaborate with team members, schedule your posts and publish better content with data-driven recommendations and insights.

Use LinkedIn analytics to create a data-driven strategy

Tracking LinkedIn analytics is key to growing on the platform.

Learning about your audience and campaigns helps you create more effective strategies and spend money where it matters.

More importantly, you’re able to connect with your followers, build brand awareness, expand your network and generate a loyal following with the help of data-driven content.

Check out our latest social media trends report to find out how you can succeed on LinkedIn and other platforms in 2022 and beyond.

The post LinkedIn analytics: The ultimate guide for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

If you haven’t brought video into your social media strategy, consider this your “twist my arm” moment.

But video creation requires work. You want your time and effort to go toward content that is effective for your channels and your brand. And to know what videos work, you need the right metrics.

Let’s explore video engagement metrics that help you understand organic performance across your biggest channels.

Dive deeper into video engagement performance with Sprout Social

Sprout’s Premium Analytics give you a full, 360-degree view of how your videos—paid and organic—perform on social.

Fast reporting helps you understand what content impacts your business and strategy, and how.

Request a demo to try Sprout’s Premium Analytics tools and see how they can enhance your strategy.

Before we start, know your goals

If you feel overwhelmed by the dozens of video metrics out there, there’s good news—you can be choosy.

The best way to pick the right metrics is to ask yourself: what are my channel-specific goals?

As Sprout Social’s Senior Social Media Manager Rachael Samuels puts it, “On every network, the metric that relates to the goal or purpose of the video is what you should measure. If you want people to comment or take action, views aren’t the most important but view duration might be. If your goal is awareness, if it’s an ad, if you want your video in front of thousands of people—views are more important.”

Video engagement metrics you need to improve content performance

While everyone knows metrics like views and impressions can inform performance, they might not tell the full story.

Here are some key video engagement metrics to help you dive deeper into your performance data and know where to focus your production efforts.

TikTok metrics to track

As a short-form video app, views are everything on TikTok. The second your video starts playing, it’s counted as a view—including when a video is replayed. Views from you watching your own video, however, don’t add to your total count.

Here are some TikTok metrics to track.

Total likes and total views

These are two individual metrics, but they’re important to compare. A high total views count is exciting. But if your total likes are low, you’re not getting the most out of your content.

The TikTok algorithm uses likes as a key signal when it comes to identifying popular content to organically show to more users. If your likes are low, especially on videos with a high view count, experiment and find new ways to make your content more engaging.

Post time

Most newly-uploaded videos reach peak engagement soon after being published. Publish videos when your audience is more active to rack up more engagement earlier. Look at the post time of your most successful videos to identify your best times to post on TikTok.

Watched full video

Viewers watching your video to the end holds a lot of weight with TikTok’s algorithm. Luckily, the majority of consumers find short-form video to be the most engaging content type.

To achieve a better video completion rate, create engaging, bite-sized videos with sounds and text that keep viewers watching. Tracking this metric will help you understand how well you’re hitting this goal.

Traffic sources

Knowing whether the majority of your traffic comes from your followers or new users in the For You Page tells you how much organic reach your content is getting.

A little background: there are three TikTok feeds, including the Friends Tab, Following Feed and the For You Page. The For You page is where you want your content to show up, and where you can go viral. Tracking video views received from the For You feed will tell you which videos TikTok is pushing to more people.

Average watch time

Like we mentioned, completion rate matters on TikTok. Tracking the average time people watch your content will inform when people are falling off, and what your ideal video length might be.

Keep in mind—TikTok only keeps your data for 60 days. Using a tool, like Sprout Social’s reporting and analytics, empowers you to see your lifetime TikTok data, and even compare your TikTok performance to the performance of your other accounts.

Facebook video metrics to watch

A video view on Facebook counts when a user watches a video for at least three seconds.

Average video time watched

This can help you understand your audience’s preferred video length.

Sound on vs. Sound off video views

The vast majority of video on the internet are watched without sound. Knowing whether your videos are watched with or without sound can help you prioritize captions, music, voiceover and more. Dig into how sound on vs. sound off video plays compare using Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics tools.

Full video views vs. partial

A partial view is the number of times users watch a video for at least three seconds, but no more than 30 seconds and not to the end.

A full video view is the number of times users view your post’s video for at least 30 seconds, or almost to the end for shorter videos.

Seeing these two metrics next to each other can help you visualize if your video retention improves over time.

Click-through rate

Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of times users clicked in your post as a percentage of impressions during its lifetime—especially important if your goal is to boost conversions or leads.

Cut out the manual calculation that goes into CTR. Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics feature calculates this metric in a downloadable report in seconds.

Unique video views

This is the number of unique users who viewed your video. If one person watches a video 10 times, it counts as one unique view.

Using Sprout’s Premium Analytics, compare this number against your total views to get a sense of how often your video is being replayed—an important metric considering Facebook favors content that keeps people coming back.

Click to play vs. Autoplay metrics

This can tell you how many people click to play your videos and which videos inspired interest. While videos on Facebook generally autoplay, this feature can be turned off.

Peak live viewers 

If livestreaming is a part of your video strategy, using Facebook’s Live video metrics can help you refine your approach to live audience.

Shares and comments

Facebook post engagements include reactions (Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry), shares, clicks and comments. Total engagements can give you a sense of how effective your video was overall.

People sharing your content is one of the best ways to organically reach new eyes in an algorithm-satisfying way.

95% video views

Facebook prioritizes content that sustains viewer attention. This metric highlights when viewers have watched at least 95% of your video, including those who skip ahead. Find this when you download your Post Performance Report with Sprout’s Premium Analytics.

Stand-out YouTube video metrics

YouTube has more than 2 billion active users and their newest video type—YouTube Shorts—generates more than 15 billion daily views. But beyond its popularity as a social platform, YouTube also has SEO and search applications. The platform is often touted as the most popular search engine behind Google.

Here are a few YouTube metrics to measure whether your videos are standing out.

Average view duration

YouTube prioritizes how much time is spent watching a video. It’s important to know which videos inspire people to keep watching, and how to recreate their success.

Card clicks

YouTube cards are the main type of pop-up you see during a video. There are four different kinds:

• Video: allows you to link to another YouTube video (see example below)
• Channel: allows you to link to another YouTube channel
• Link: YouTube Partners can link to an external website
• Playlist: can link to a public YouTube playlist

Card teaser impressions

This is the number of times that card teasers were displayed to viewers.

Subscribers gained/lost from video 

Looking at how many people subscribed to or unsubscribed from your channel from one video can tell you a lot about its impact.

Likes/Dislikes

While this may just seem like a vanity metric, YouTube’s algorithm weighs Likes and Dislikes when determining which videos to serve.

Key Instagram video metrics

On Instagram, a view is counted when someone has watched a video for three seconds or more.

Saves

When someone saves a video on Instagram, it means they liked it so much that they want to easily rewatch it. Instagram also uses saves as an indicator of what to show in the Explore feed.

Story metrics

Looking at Instagram Story analytics can help you understand their impact and which ones to recreate or turn into Highlights. Keep an eye on:

• Story taps back: Could indicate people are rewatching your Story, or the previous frame contained too much information
• Story taps forward: Could indicate people don’t want to stay on your Story
• Story exits: Who dropped off of or swiped out of your story
• Story replies: Who took the time to respond to your Stories, if you offer replies

Profile metrics

Looking at the following profile metrics can indicate if a recent video post led to a spike in profile actions:

• Website clicks
• Email link clicks
• Get Directions Clicks
• Phone Call Clicks

Using Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics feature, you can quickly pull these numbers to understand your audience behavior.

Essential LinkedIn video metrics 

Like Facebook, LinkedIn counts a view after three seconds, and your video view count doesn’t display publicly on your post until your video has reached 500 views.

Click-through rate

LinkedIn prefers native content that keeps users on the platform. Make sure your external links, like the job posting link below, are worth it by looking at which videos drive the most clicks to post links.

Pro tip: LinkedIn’s paid ad analytics open up opportunities for a deeper understanding of video performance. In Sprout’s Premium Analytics, you can look at view conversions to understand how your video directly impacted engagement.

Comments

Posts with a lot of longer comments, like the post below, get the platform’s attention—even more so than reactions (Like, Celebrate, Support, Love, Insightful, Curious.) They’re richer in content and can potentially increase time spent on a post, or dwell time, which LinkedIn’s algorithm favors.

Followers gained or lost 

Looking at this number after you’ve posted a video vs other types of content can reveal whether video is a powerful tool for you, or hurts you.

Helpful Twitter video metrics

A video view on Twitter is counted when someone has watched your video for at least two seconds with at least 50% of the video visible in their window.

Engagements

Twitter’s algorithm favors engagement as one of several key signals. The more engagements, the more attention. On Twitter, engagements include:

• Retweets
• Favorites
• Replies
• Mentions
• URL clicks
• Hashtag clicks
• Media views

Tweets that are Liked or commented on by one person may show up in their followers’ feeds, connecting you to new potential fans.

Follow or Unfollow from posts

Use this metric in Sprout’s Premium Analytics to understand which of your videos drive people away, and what videos attract new audience members.

Post media clicks

Post media clicks can tell you how many times viewers clicked your video—to pause it, for example—while watching.

What’s next: Turn video engagement information into action items

You’ve published videos on your social channels.

You have a sleek report highlighting their performance.

…Now what?

Data has a million stories to tell about your brand and channels. Here are a few ways you can level up your social media analytics from data points to actionable insights.

Report impact to stakeholders

Data provides a window into your strategy. It can also back you up when you need more resources for video creation by illustrating video’s impact on your brand to senior leaders.

Similarly, if your higher ups are pushing you to publish video formats that you know are not performing well, data can help prove your point. Use Sprout’s presentation-ready reports to present clear findings to your leadership team, and use Premium Analytics to answer some of their biggest questions about how social affects your business.

Know where to allocate your ad spend

It doesn’t make sense to boost or make an ad out of a video that doesn’t resonate. Knowing which videos are your most engaging can help you determine where to distribute your budget.

Guide your content strategy

Video content is a lot of work. Especially if you have to coordinate remote video production.

You want to make sure the work and energy you invest goes into the type of content that works best.

Looking at your video engagement data can highlight successful content to recreate and content that’s underperforming.

Here are a few factors that metrics can help you determine:

• Video length: Looking at view duration and video lengths with higher engagement can help you prioritize the right type of video content.
• Theme: What types of videos garnered the most engagement? Were they about your product? Funny? Informative?
• Quality: If all of your viewers drop off of a video at the same time, what’s turning them away? What can you fix?
• Card clicks: Specifically on YouTube, are a lot of people clicking a card at a specific time? Or is your card missing your audience?
• Frequency: Use video engagement data to determine how often to post, and when to pull back.
• Time of day: With social platforms like Facebook and Twitter putting a lot of value on posting time, video engagement data can help inform when your best times to post on social might be.
• Titles and description copy: Did your top-performing videos have particularly keyword-rich descriptions? What were their titles like?
• Preview images: Is there imagery that worked particularly well for video clicks?

Identify which videos to repurpose

The more mileage you can get out of one video, the better.

Identifying your high performers can help you determine which videos are worth repurposing and posting on other channels—even beyond social.

Connect content to intent

Going viral for the right reasons is every social media manager’s dream. But at the end of the day, your social efforts have to positively impact your business’ bottom line.

Video engagement data, when paired with other metrics, can help you connect content interactions with audience intent.

Looking at a successful video and comparing it to website clicks, event registrations, profile views, email signups, etc. at the time it was posted can connect content to action. This can illustrate the real business impact your efforts make to your senior leaders.

Make an impact with video engagement metrics

Video engagement metrics and social media analytics don’t exist in a silo.

By combining some of these metrics with awareness metrics—like impressions—and more, you can start to form a full picture of how video can drive your social strategy, and your business, forward.

It’s hard to be decisive when it comes to social data, but you’re not alone. Use our social media metrics cheat sheet to find the metrics that matter most to you. Then, level up your insights and make data analysis a breeze—request a demo of Sprout’s Analytics tools today.

The post The marketer’s guide to reporting on social video engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

Simply put, this relatively new feature from LinkedIn gives individuals a boosted platform to share their content. So if you’re looking for ways to improve your LinkedIn marketing strategy, read on to learn how to use LinkedIn creator mode for your brand.

• What is LinkedIn creator mode?
• How to turn on LinkedIn creator mode
• How to turn off LinkedIn creator mode
• 3 LinkedIn creator mode benefits
• LinkedIn creator mode pros and cons
• Upgrading your LinkedIn strategy

What is creator mode on LinkedIn?

In short, creator mode gives users access to additional features to create and publish content and grow their audience on LinkedIn.

When you turn on creator mode, LinkedIn optimizes your profile for publishing content. This means that your articles and posts will be more visible to LinkedIn users. You’ll also be able to see insights about your readership, including who’s reading your content and how often they’re engaging with it.

How to turn on LinkedIn creator mode

Step 1. Start by going to your LinkedIn profile and click on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. Then click View Profile.

Step 2. Scroll down to Resources and click on the button that says Creator mode: Off. Toggle this button to activate creator mode.

Step 3. You’ll see a preview of what LinkedIn creator mode will look like on your profile. Click Next.

Step 4. On the next screen, you’ll add hashtags to indicate the topics you post about the most. Choose up to five topics and click Done.

It you want to change your topics, you can unselect one of the topics in green then add another topic to replace it.

Step 5. From there, simply follow the prompts to finish setting up LinkedIn creator mode. And you’re done!

How to turn off creator mode on LinkedIn

Step 1. To turn off creator mode, head back to your LinkedIn profile and click on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. Then, click View Profile.

Step 2. Scroll down to Resources and click on the button that says Creator mode On.

Step 3. You’ll be able to toggle and switch Creator mode Off.

You can add topics by clicking on Add topics (you can add up to five topics).

You can remove topics by clicking one of your existing topics in green. This will unselect the topic and you can then add another topic to replace it.

Step 4. Once you’re finished making changes, click Save.

3 LinkedIn creator mode benefits

There are three major benefits to switching to LinkedIn creator mode:

1. 1. Creator mode can help you grow your following on LinkedIn. When you switch to creator mode, your reach will be amplified and your primary profile action button switches from Connect to Follow. This makes it more likely that people will follow you since it eliminates the need for you to approve the connection first.

2. LinkedIn creator mode is also a great way to establish your voice on the platform. Because your original posts are displayed prominently on your LinkedIn profile, you can share what you’re all about and what potential followers can expect from following you. And because your content will be amplified on your profile and across the platform, it will be easier for you to build out your personal brand.
3. LinkedIn users who activate creator mode will have access to specific creator features, including LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Newsletter. Plus, you’ll get access to creator analytics – separate from LinkedIn Page analytics – and see the number of post impressions your content receives.

LinkedIn creator mode pros and cons

Wondering if creator mode is right for you? Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Creator mode pros

• LinkedIn creator mode gives you access to a whole suite of new LinkedIn features, including the ability to add five hashtags to your profile and a 30-second video as your profile picture. This will help boost the search visibility of your profile while also providing a more personalized welcome to potential followers.
• Since LinkedIn creator mode emphasizes your original content, it’s a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build your personal brand.
• You can build and send your own LinkedIn Newsletter to keep your followers engaged and up to date with your brand.
• Host live streams directly from your LinkedIn profile, a LinkedIn Page or Event to showcase your subject matter expertise. Live stream capabilities are granted if you meet all of LinkedIn Live criteria.
• You’ll get regular content tips from LinkedIn to help you produce even more engaging content as part of your LinkedIn publishing strategy.

Creator mode cons

• If you activate creator mode, your profile will now show your About section farther down your page, and the Feature and Activity sections will be up top. If you don’t have good content to showcase here, this might look awkward.
• Not everyone will be interested in the same type of content, so you may need to produce a variety of content to appeal to a wider audience.
• You’ll need to spend more time publishing and promoting your content and profile if you want LinkedIn creator mode to be used to its full potential.

Upgrading your LinkedIn strategy

Creator mode can be a great way to increase your follower count and build your brand on LinkedIn.

If you’re a content creator, there’s really no reason to not use creator mode. Linkedin creator mode gives you more visibility and reach, which can help you grow your business. Plus, LinkedIn offers exclusive tips and advice to those who use the feature.

For brands and businesses, if your employees or C-suite use creator mode, it can show off your company’s expertise and build thought leadership.

If you’re not sure if LinkedIn creator mode is right for you, look at your content strategy. If you’re regularly creating new B2B content, creator mode can help you increase your reach.

Use our LinkedIn for business worksheet to assess your current LinkedIn strategy and take your efforts to the next level.

The post How to use LinkedIn creator mode effectively appeared first on Sprout Social.

And recent social media demographics highlight the platform’s growing (and high-earning!) user base.

But as more professionals flock to the platform, standing out from the crowd is a challenge.

Consider how over half of all U.S. marketers are now marketing on LinkedIn. If you want to get more eyes on your personal account, it’s not going to happen by accident.

This post breaks down the building blocks of an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy. We’ll also highlight best practices and ideas for personal accounts and brands alike.

• How businesses use LinkedIn for marketing?
• Why personal accounts are so valuable for LinkedIn marketing
• 5 LinkedIn marketing tips to strengthen your strategy
• What does your LinkedIn marketing strategy look like?

How businesses use LinkedIn for marketing

First thing’s first: there’s no “right” way to use LinkedIn for business.

Some companies see the platform as a branding tool. Others use it as a hiring hub.

Understanding the big-picture activity of brands on LinkedIn is key to building a presence on the platform. Below is a snapshot of how most businesses leverage LinkedIn.

Content distribution

Anything B2B brands can do to squeeze more out of their content strategies is a plus.

LinkedIn has exploded as a distribution platform for B2B content. Specifically, content that helps brands position themselves as industry authorities. For personal accounts, content distribution is all about establishing your expertise.

This means sharing any combination of the following, for starters:

• Blog posts
• Case studies
• Reviews and testimonials
• Customer success stories
• Videos (think: interviews, webinar snippets, tips)

Announcing company news and notable wins

Consider that LinkedIn doubles as both a social platform and a sort of news source.

If you want to find the latest happenings for any given company in your industry, they’re likely front-and-center on LinkedIn. Brands and personal accounts can break their own news by announcing:

• Launches of new products or services
• Major company milestones (think: # of employees hired, # of years in business)
• Financial wins (think: going public, getting funded)
• Previewing major pieces of upcoming content (think: case studies or annual surveys)
• Rebrands

Positive press and PR still matter for brands and LinkedIn marketing is a popular way to spread the word. The platform is a prime place to get in front of B2B influencers, journalists and other players in your industry.

Highlighting company culture

For positioning and recruiting purposes, many brands center their LinkedIn strategies around culture.

This is yet another way for companies to stand out from the crowd. Not to mention attract new talent. Some popular ways to highlight culture include:

• Celebrating new hires
• Taking a stand on social issues
• “Day-in-the-life”-style company posts
• Company event recaps (think: retreats, conferences “behind-the-scenes” posts)

For example, Chili Piper regularly showcases their employees in the wild. The company even allows employees to take over the company account from time to time.

These sorts of posts humanize brands and likewise highlight how the platform is less “suit and tie” than it used to be.

Lead generation

Food for thought: LinkedIn exceeded $1 billion in ad revenue last year while also increasing organic engagement.

The platform’s status as a B2B selling hub is well-documented. That said, generating leads on LinkedIn is a balancing act. Brands and professionals alike have to be mindful of how they nurture leads and sell. Being too in-your-face won’t do you any favors.

For example, LinkedIn marketing is massive for SaaS companies looking to gain more users. This can be done through:

• Promoting company events such as webinars (see below)
• Announcing new products, product plans or pricing tiers
• Running LinkedIn ads

Why personal accounts are so valuable for LinkedIn marketing

Although the platform is quite literally all about business, personal accounts are even more valuable on LinkedIn.

This rings true whether you’re an employee, solo business owner or someone at the C-level.

Beyond that, personal accounts can act as an extension of business accounts for the sake of promotion.

Let’s look at why employee advocacy is so important for brands on LinkedIn. Likewise, we’ll explain why personal accounts hold so much power on the platform.

Earn more engagement than what’s possible on a company page

Like it or not, “thought leadership” content is a staple of B2B social media and marketing on LinkedIn. This includes:

• Storytelling posts
• Firsthand tips and experiences
• Discussions and threads

Ever notice how pretty much every viral LinkedIn post comes from a personal account? 

That’s no coincidence. Personal stories and anecdotes are among the platform’s most compelling content.

As a result, employee content typically earns way more engagement and reach than what’s possible from a personal page. This mirrors how platforms like Instagram or TikTok tend to favor personal accounts over brands.

Squeeze more out of your LinkedIn content marketing efforts

Piggybacking on the point above, brand accounts are limited when it comes to reach.

But through employee advocacy, brands boost updates with help from their internal teams.

Doing so means that exponentially more people see your content. Also, this means that employees can spice up their posts and give their captions a personal touch.

Support your hiring and recruiting

You don’t have to look hard to realize just how much hiring happens on LinkedIn.

Consider how employees can serve as any given company’s biggest cheerleaders. Empowering workers to highlight the benefits of working for a brand is an awesome way to attract top-tier talent.

5 LinkedIn marketing tips to strengthen your strategy

LinkedIn is apples and oranges versus other social platforms.

And so finding your footing on the platform might require some trial-and-error.

If you want to earn more engagement and get in front of your audience faster, here are a few LinkedIn marketing tips to stick to.

1. Post original content (hint: don’t just dump links!)

You can’t just drop links and expect engagement on LinkedIn.

Social platforms at large don’t want you bouncing users off-site if they can help it. This explains why content repurposing is a staple of LinkedIn marketing.

For example, many brands will break up or consolidate blog content into smaller, text-only LinkedIn posts. Others will create a slideshow or infographic as an alternative to an external link.

And when someone does post a link, they typically feature it on the first comment rather than their actual post.

Spend two minutes on LinkedIn and take note of all the text-based posts. When in doubt, post content that keeps people on the platform.

2. Fine-tune your publishing frequency (and participate more!)

Frequency and consistency matter on LinkedIn just as they do on any other platform.

For brand accounts, we don’t typically see multiple posts per day (or even daily). Those that do post regularly tend to see the most engagement during the weekday mornings and early afternoons.

However, posting multiple times per day is totally fair game for personal accounts. Figuring out what’s “optimal” is going to require some testing.

But what’s more important than frequency is being an active participant on the platform.

That means engaging in discussions, sharing resources and answering questions. Doing so can get you in front of industry players and likewise raise your company’s profile.

This is where a tool like Sprout Social really comes in handy. With Sprout’s Smart Inbox, you get a comprehensive view of your LinkedIn presence. This includes tags, comments, shout-outs from employees and more.

3. Don’t be totally “suit-and-tie”

As noted earlier, LinkedIn might be a professional network but that doesn’t mean your presence should feel stuffy.

Remember: LinkedIn marketing should be personable and relatable. For brands and personal accounts, mind your marketing messaging and brand voice.

Prioritize meaningful tips and experiences over jargon. Don’t be afraid to show off your sense of humor, either.

4. Empower employees to promote and engage on your behalf

For brand accounts, employee advocacy is make-or-break in terms of content distribution and reach.

Although you could have your teammates share your links and promos by hand, doing so is impossible at scale without a dedicated platform.

This is yet again where Sprout comes in clutch. Sprout’s employee advocacy features let brands boost and track the performance of company content.

Note: Brands need to be mindful of how employees carry themselves on LinkedIn. They should 100% have autonomy and freedom. That said, take steps to avoid potential social PR problems. Chances are you’ve seen your share of pile-ons directed at insensitive or downright offensive statements on LinkedIn. Make sure your employees are on the same page when it comes to how they represent your brand.

5. Let LinkedIn analytics uncover top-performing content ideas

Because LinkedIn offers so much creative freedom, you’re spoiled for choice in terms of what you can post.

But this also highlights the importance of regularly assessing your content performance. Looking at your LinkedIn analytics, you can understand by the numbers:

• Which types of posts earn the most engagement
• Whether there’s a time or frequency that impacts performance
• How your employees and personals impact your company’s reach
• Whether your LinkedIn content is generating traffic and leads

Beyond the platform’s native analytics, tools like Sprout Social can help in a big way when it comes to answering all of the above.

What does your LinkedIn marketing strategy look like?

Growing on LinkedIn doesn’t happen through random comments and replies.

The best accounts on the platform provide meaningful help and have a strong sense of personality. Once you signal yourself as a consistent and reliable resource, you might be surprised at how quickly you can scale your presence.

Not 100% sure where to go next on LinkedIn? Check out our LinkedIn for business worksheet to double-check that you’re doing everything you need to do to grow your presence!

The post LinkedIn marketing: How to use it and 5 tips to improve your strategy appeared first on Sprout Social.