Last week in our class at Columbia Octagon’s communications duo of Lauren Tietjen and Alyssa Romano covered a wide range of subjects on proactive storytelling. However one thing stood out: the story that Octagon got the most responses from on LinkedIn was not something about Michael Phelps and his latest deal, or a new project for Steph Curry; it was a montage of pictures posted during the Winter Olympics.
As strange as that may sound to some, the value of LinkedIn for reaching a business audience with storytelling remains a valuable, and in many ways, underused tool. Last week at the first Seattle Sports Business and Career Conference we talked about the value of being conversant and understanding of the value of multiple platforms, and we emphasized LinkedIn as not to be forgotten when reaching a slightly older but very focused business audience, especially in sports and entertainment. While maybe not as always a large and quick engagement platform like Twitter, Facebook or even Instagram, thousands of sports business execs use LinkedIn as well as a bookmark for news and information sharing. There are hundreds of people who don’t consider themselves “social media friendly” who regularly use LinkedIn for gathering news and getting smart of topics, because of its stickiness and ease of use. It also lacks much of the personal social sharing elements of other platforms, making it even more valuable for those B to B stories that are looking to be told.
With all that in mind it is still stunning to see how many outlets, especially news outlets, choose either not to use LinkedIn to share news, or even worse, do not have a LinkedIn icon on their share list. You still see lots of Google + icons, but LinkedIn as a regular choice? It’s often missing.
Oh and don’t forget the pictures to go with a link. While those who do post news and stories on LinkedIn often have the ability to see suggested hashtags (also very valuable in sharing for those who are time crunched) and while a key picture from a story is often brought in automatically, adding a picture to the process always drives engagement.
Conversant in all platforms can often be a time suck, but the fact remains in a multitasking world you never know where the audience is at all times, and for those in business, news or entertainment, LinkedIn can be more valuable than all the other places for the traditional follower.
Onward.
