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Sep 01, 2020 Fiona Challen

Boost Your Social Selling Success With LinkedIn's Featured Section

As LinkedIn rolls out its new Featured section where you can showcase your work and services via links and media, you may be thinking, "Haven't I seen that before?"

If you've embraced social selling then your About section may already feature media links to enhance your credibility and quickly show what you can offer. LinkedIn's new Featured section may then seem like no more than a simple re-brand. Or maybe you're keen to get started with evidencing your skills and experience.

Either way, LinkedIn Featured’s increased usability and prominence makes it a much more effective sales tool that social sellers should embrace.

Here’s an overview of what content you can upload and how (and why it’s more effective), plus ideas for what content to include as a salesperson to maximise your success.

 

What You Can Upload To LinkedIn’s Featured Section And How

 

You’re effectively unlimited in what you can choose to add to the Featured section, as you can add:

  • Any LinkedIn posts that you’ve created, or even ones that you’ve shared
  • LinkedIn articles that you have written and published
  • External website links
  • Media files such as images, videos, documents and presentations

It’s now simpler to find content to share, as you’ll see in the steps below. But a stand-out feature is that LinkedIn will display the engagement rates as you scroll through to select content and to those who view your profile. It's therefore much quicker to select the best content to give your professional brand a credibility boost.

Featured content is also more prominent than before and it's easy to flick between content, improving usability for viewers which should help boost content views.

How To Add Content 

When you head to your profile, underneath your About section there is a new Featured area.

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When you click on "Add featured content", you're prompted to share posts, articles, links and media.

You can also add any posts that you've shared or commented on (and again, the engagement figures will show on your profile). This is a great opportunity to highlight that you engage effectively with others on LinkedIn and can provide meaningful insights into ongoing conversations.

If you choose to add external links or media, then you'll need to add a Title and Description so, as you would when sharing content, make it enticing to read more!

Lastly, once you've added content you can reorder it by clicking on the section and then using the burger icon to move content up and down in order of priority.

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LinkedIn Featured Content Ideas For Social Sellers

If your goal is to increase sales for your organisation, then your content should showcase both what you can offer and how you deliver it to meet the needs of your buyers. And if you can demonstrate that you're an industry thought leader, then it will further increase your success rate.

You should also consider the content format you wish to feature. Video is becoming an increasingly popular content format for B2B buyers.

59% of C-level executives would rather watch a video than read text if it was on the same topic, according to Forbes and LinkedIn’s data shows that video campaigns have a 50% view rate.

Just remember that buyers have different viewing preferences, so it’s best to include a mix of content formats.


Recommendations And Case Studies

Social proof is one of the most convincing ways to increase buyer confidence and LinkedIn recommendations are generally seen as a trustworthy, verifiable source. If you can, complement these with case studies that tell the story of how you helped a customer/client achieve a goal or overcome a challenge.

You can upload screenshots of LinkedIn recommendations or PDF case studies but try to include a video recommendation or case study too as they provided added authenticity.

 

Articles And Posts

As we mentioned above, it's now much easier to select which of your articles or posts have received high engagement rates, which will help build your credibility.

If you’ve not built a strong enough core LinkedIn network to have gained enough traction, try engaging with trending conversations with your unique  views and insights.

 

Boost Your Social Selling Success With LinkedIns Featured Section quote

 

Certifications

If you have any technical certifications that help a thorough understanding of your buyers' needs, they're worth featuring to preventing viewers having to scroll to the end of your profile.

 

Product/Service Sheets

Sales sheets listing the features and benefits of your product or service help tell B2B buyers at-a-glance whether you can help meet their needs. In feature-heavy industries such as SaaS, a product comparison sheet is a particularly useful document to feature.

 

Smart Links

Formerly PointDrive, LinkedIn's Smart Links are highly personalised content 'packages' which allow you to  bundle your sales content - pitch decks, product overviews and more - into one trackable link that can be shared from any channel (find out more, here).

They are normally created for specific buyers' needs but you can create and feature a more universal one for your key buyer persona. That way, you can then track who's viewed it, what pages they've viewed and even who else they've forwarded it to - meaning you can identify others within the decision-making unit.

 

Video Introductions

Video introductions are one of the best ways to bring your “About” section to life and communicate your passion, values and what you can offer to potential buyers. In the same way you would with an elevator pitch, try to keep your video between one to two minutes long.

Focus on what makes you different from others with similar experience, how you incorporate your values and skills to solve business problems and what you’re like to work with. Including personal details like what you love to do in your spare time can help build rapport with buyers.

 

As we said at the beginning, the LinkedIn Featured section isn’t completely “new” but it’s worth making the switch if you haven’t already – or starting to experiment with the best content to showcase if you haven’t already.

For more tips on how to boost your LinkedIn profile , our LinkedIn Personal Brand Worksheet helps you discover what would make buyers want to connect with you over others with similar experience - and, most importantly, how to pull it together.

 

 

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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 Fiona Challen September 1, 2020
Fiona Challen