The Secret to LinkedIn's Content Marketing Strategy

Jason Miller is the Global Content Marketing Leader at LinkedIn where he leads worldwide content and social media marketing initiatives. He helps marketers understand how to take advantage of digital advertising and content marketing tactics on LinkedIn, and beyond, to achieve their marketing goals and deliver real ROI.

He is also the author of the bestselling B2B marketing book Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social Media and Content Marketing up to 11. At the recent B2B Marketing Expo, he held an insightful presentation outlining some key elements of LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Strategy.

Jason said that the most successful content that gets shared on the web is written in over 2,000 words with 2,000-3,000 being the sweet spot for shareability.

The Big Rock and the Pebble

At LinkedIn they believe that their ‘Big Rock & Pebble’ approach is the best way to gain the maximum amount of exposure, downloads and in turn leads for a particular piece of content.

What does this mean?

They produce a ‘Big Rock’ (which is defined by them as their big pieces of content e.g. reports, whitepapers, books etc.) once a quarter. This is the gated content where you will gather your lead data, grow your membership, etc.

Alongside their ‘Big Rock’ they also create smaller ‘Pebbles’, these pieces are created from the ‘Big Rock’ and give the viewer a taste of what is to come. This could be an infographic, short article, presentation, blog piece, short-form video, etc.

The ‘Pebbles’ are free to view content that you share as widely as you can utilising, all social media, your own website, email, etc. Within the ‘Pebbles’ you link back to the main ‘Big Rock’ which is where you would generate your leads/member downloads.

Using organic interactions to begin with you should then watch for when your views/downloads start to dip. At this point, bring in your PPC and Sponsored post backup. By delaying your paid-for activities you will provide greater longevity for your piece as well as being able to clear your local market without having to spend any cash.

LinkedIn stated that they received an 18,000 per cent return on investment for their latest piece of content thanks to utilising this approach.

Key Takeaways

1. The majority of top shared content from around the globe comes from content that is between 2,000 and 3,000 words long.

2. Supplement all of your large content pieces with bite-sized, easy to digest content that is easily shareable.

3. Don’t jump out of the blocks with paid-for promotions, hold fire to increase the longevity of your content.