‘I don’t have time to create new content for LinkedIn.’ That’s the reaction I get often when I start speaking with the companies about their presence and activities on platform.
After months of working with clients online, I had a chance to have a session with the client on their premises recently. We are doing a modular training where I teach them step by step how to do it the right way. Interestingly enough we were doing CONTENT.
When I asked the team what are their ideas for the content, they went blank. No ideas. They struggle. Thats the reason they don’t post on LinkedIn.
So I took them for a walk around their HQ, told them to observe and see if there’s anything they deem fit for content. I did it myself too.
When we reconvened in the meeting room I had my hands full of brochures, awards, parts of theri products and they came back empty handed.
When we work in an envirorment daily, we tend not to notice things around us as anything different as they are. Plus many of you are already creating content for other platforms and it can be a basis for LinkedIn posts.
What can you use or repurpose as LinkedIn content?
BROCHURES/LEAFLETS; depending of your industry or your goal, you can take parts of the content out of your material and make a post. They are usually filled with nice pictures and descriptions, so there’s a lot of material to be utilized. I realized that one brochure I picked at my clients provides content for more than a month.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about your product or service; you sales team, your suppost team and even you probably get asked a lot of questions. Answer to each of the questions can be a post. You could also make a brochure with all the answers and upload it as a document.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS; if you remember I often repeat myself saying ‘don’t sell’ on LinkedIn. But client testimonials are selling it for you. The one thing that you should keep in mind is to agree with your client and have their permission for a testimonial. You can use a testimonial someone wrote on your webpage, it was sent to you by mail/email or written as a recommendation on LinkedIn. If you want to take it a step further, you can record your client’s testimonial and use a video.
INSIDER’S INDUSTRY LOOK/BEHIND THE SCENES; do you remember the saying ‘Couriosity killed the cat’? We are inquisitive beings so we like to have sneak peeks. We like to see how certain things are made as we feel closer to them. So if it doesn’t break any rules or exposes your secrets to the competition try making some content that tells your audience how you go about your daily business.
VIDEO OR WRITTEN INTERVIEWS WITH YOUR TEAM MEMBERS; these make your company human and we like to know who are the people behind. Just make sure you include all levels of your employees. Many companies do it with only top management but it may come handy to have some interviews with people in the production, especially if you are planning to recruit for these positions.
EXPLAINING YOUR SERVICES/PROCESSES; this is the opportunitiy for storytelling. Imagine you being a dairy producer. You can start telling a story with picturesce mountains where the cows spend their nature in the pristine nature. Then they are milked and you only pick the best quality milk as you aim to give your customers the best. The more you can make your audience imagine the process, the more they will feel you.
If you run out of the ideas, you can jump to QUOTES and MOTIVATIONAL TIPS; I woud suggest to use quotes from people in your company and ask your coleagues about what motivates them. And them credit them for it. What keeps your manager going when the targets are not met? What does your marketing team member do, when there are deadlines and they run out of ideas? How does your production cope if a machine breaks down?
A DAY IN A LIFE; the bigger the company, the more content you have. You can go filming, taking pictures of each department and create posts about it. You can also go throughout departments and present what each of them do and what are their responsibilities.
You woud like to write something but you don’t know what your audience is interested in? It can happen. When you are not clear about your target audience it’s still good to post content. Then you can use the www.answerthepublic.com platform. You can write a subject, a keyword, a phrase and you will get the answers what people are inquiring about. And here it is your content😉
CELEBRATIONS; did you or your team member win a award? Did you win a tender? Is there a milestone to celebrate. Did you hit your target? Do you have a new member or a member that got promoted? Let your audience know and share your success wih them and let them celebrate with you.
One thing many are afraid to do is to speak about their failures. But remembers – the more people can relate to you, the more they will like you. So don’t be affraid to speak about it, just don’t make it the focus of your post.
I have listed some types of content that is ‘in front of you’ when you enter the premises of your company. There are many more but I will continue with them in the next article.
