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Apr 07, 2020 Tribal Impact

5 LinkedIn Tactics You Should Use

Only 1.4% of salespeople are deemed “top social sellers” by LinkedIn, with a Social Selling Index score of 70+. In this blog we cover 5 LinkedIn tactics to help you join the elite.

Achieving social selling success on LinkedIn takes work - and a lot of it. A Hinge Marketing Institute study shows that nearly 60% of individuals in formal employee programs spend at least five hours a week using social media for business goals. 

That’s just employee advocates. Social sellers are more likely to be in the 19.2% that spend 5 to 10 hours a week on professional networks, or the 9% that spend 10-20 hours. 

Luckily, there are ways to vastly decrease this time (such as implementing a 10-minute coffee cup routine) and increase the ROI of all those hours. Read on for our top LinkedIn tactics.

 

LinkedIn Live - Remove The Video Filter

Most marketers are starting to embrace the power of video but they’re often heavily edited by all but the more daring. LinkedIn Live allows you to create more authentic and interactive native videos - powering up your engagement rates. LinkedIn claim that native videos see 24x more comments and 7x more reactions. 

If you’re ready to experiment then these five formats are perfect for LinkedIn Live:

  • Ask me anything
  • A fly-on-the-wall of your office or someone’s day
  • Product demonstrations
  • Roundtable discussions
  • Celebrations

 

Boolean Search Strings

B2B buying is becoming more complex. That’s reflected in the fact that there are now between 6 and 10 people involved in the B2B buying cycle, according to a Gartner 2019 survey, which means you need to start finding the right people, not just person, to connect with.

Trying to identify them all with a quick search and filter on LinkedIn won’t always yield the results you want. Or at least, it won’t in the most efficient manner. Sometimes there’s no perfect industry category  to select (or you’re faced with competing ones). And then there’s the problem of how many different titles there can be for any one role. 

Boolean search strings allow you to become laser-sharp in your hunt for prospects . With just one search string you can quickly filter to show all the variables you're looking for - you can include and exclude specific keywords/ job titles making the your search results much more specific. For more information on how to create LinkedIn Boolean search strings, LinkedIn provide some guidance, here.

 

5 linkedin tactics quote

 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator may seem like a pricey investment for your team (with prices starting from $64.99 a month). We’ve asked before Is it worth the Money? (Yes, so long as you know how to use it.) And besides, is a 50 search limit per month ever enough in sales? We've also written about how to get the most out of your Sales Navigator Investment.

Here are our favourite LinkedIn tactics on Sales Navigator:

  • Advanced filters - activity level. Active social users are perfect for social listening . By following or connecting you can quickly see what their pain points, likes/dislikes and interests are. 
  • Advanced filters - sales triggers (growth and new roles). Big changes and ideas often follow growing companies or senior professionals moving into new roles. They'll often be seeking new solutions, which could be yours. 
  • Saving searches and tags. These leave you with more time for social selling!

Creating Authentic Posts/Comments

People still buy from people, even B2B buyers. So it’s no surprise that Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2019 showed that buyers feel that the most credible content is that which is authored and shared by a company’s technical experts (65%) - beating that of journalists (36%) and CEOs (47%). Regular employees are also one of the most trusted sources of content at 56% (and their credibility grew 6% from the previous year).

You won’t see true success on LinkedIn if your posts aren’t authentic. Marketing crafted messages still have a time and place but it’s important to add your own thoughts and opinions to discussions, based on personal experiences. Social selling is about building relationships with prospects and becoming seen as a trusted source of information, so drop the sales pitch and start engaging with people around your shared interests.

 

Adding Value To Connections At The Right Time

It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if someone isn’t in the market to buy now or in the near future, they’ll probably ignore your InMail.

By using the social listening and sales trigger tools we mentioned above, you can be confident that you can add value when they need it. You can also address any pain points they may have with links to videos or guides that they’ll find useful.

If you want to stay front of mind when they are ready to buy or reach out then don’t spam your connections with articles or comments. It’s much easier to engage with people on a topic they’re already passionate about, so try to add at least two to three meaningful, authentic comments on your connections’ posts each day. 


These LinkedIn tactics can help you reduce your time spent on the network and close more deals, but only if you make it part of your daily routine. You don’t need to spend an hour a day doing so either. In fact, with the right tools, you can do so in just 10 minutes a day. 

 

 

About Tribal Impact

Tribal Impact is a B2B Social Selling and Employee Branding Agency.

We're a team of social media strategists, trainers, coaches, content creators and data analysts who are passionate about helping our B2B customers develop and scale their social selling and employee advocacy programs.

Learn more about us here.

Published by Tribal Impact April 7, 2020