With more than 5.75 million users, it’s no wonder that savvy companies are leveraging LinkedIn to increase visibility in the marketplace and communicate with their customers and prospects. LinkedIn also helps users develop a competitive edge and gain recognition as experts in their fields.

Similar to other marketing outreach initiatives, LinkedIn is not a one-and-done tactic. To get the most from it requires constant time, attention and learning to keep up to date with its newest features, algorithms and technologies. Here are some recent LinkedIn engagement changes that will give you more and better ways to take advantage of this powerful platform.

LinkedIn Engagement Features

1. Employee Notifications. Your employees can be your most powerful advocates, but it’s easy for company content to get drowned out by the many other sources they follow. With Employee Notifications, company page admins can now alert employees to new posts so they appear directly under their notifications, rather than simply in their ongoing newsfeed. In this way, employees can interact with, comment on and share content with their LinkedIn network. This makes it easy for employees to nurture and strengthen your organization’s messages. Notifications are limited to once every seven days, so make sure you’re sharing the most relevant and valuable content.
2. Kudos and Team Moments. Employees understand the inner workings of your organization, create its culture and play major roles in its accomplishments. Perhaps most importantly, they humanize your brand. With the new Kudos and Team Moments features, page admins can easily welcome new team members. They also can spotlight outstanding work, celebrate successes or simply feature team members’ personalities. User-friendly templates make the process quick and easy.
3. Completion Meter. Complete LinkedIn pages generate 30 percent more page views per week compared to incomplete LinkedIn pages. However, it can be difficult for page admins to know which content they’re missing. With LinkedIn’s Completion Meter, admins can locate exactly which areas of their profile are lacking, and which information can best boost visibility and engagement with prospects and connections. Check in on the Completion Meter frequently as new features and algorithms are introduced regularly.
4. Communities Hashtags. Hashtags are vital to any social media strategy. LinkedIn pages have a feature that enables organizations to create personalized hashtags associated with their brand. This feature makes it easy for prospects, clients, employees and partners to follow specific segments of your content and engage with your organization regularly. Hashtags also make interacting with the Communities module of LinkedIn pages more approachable, making your brand visible in even more spaces.
5. Invite to Follow. LinkedIn constantly surveys its users about their goals and challenges when using the platform. Users reported that one of their greatest pain points is enhancing LinkedIn engagement by increasing the number of engaged and relevant followers on their company page. Invite to Follow allows page admins to grow their follower base by directly inviting connections to follow their page. Organizations can best utilize this feature by allowing multiple employees to act as page admins and leverage their varied networks. There’s a daily invitation limit, so ensure users are inviting the most relevant connections.
6. LinkedIn Live. Live streams are steadily growing in popularity. Consider that 80 percent of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read a blog. While there are many platforms that allow for live streaming such as Facebook and Instagram, a live-stream option native to LinkedIn can help organizations connect to their professional networks without having to link to external platforms. Our favorite use for LinkedIn Live streams is allowing online users access to exclusive in-person events or conferences. Other ideas include webinars, product releases, reviews, interviews and corporate discussions. Organizations can engage in live conversations with real-time participation from their networks, allowing for all-new levels of engagement.

Connect and Communicate

LinkedIn was launched in 2003 as a platform to connect job seekers and employers. The purpose and capabilities of LinkedIn have expanded greatly and will continue to do so in the future. In short, LinkedIn has evolved into a marketing platform, education resource, reputation builder, and, of course, a community. This makes it an essential marketing resource and tactic. By consistently using LinkedIn to connect, engage and communicate, you build your network and relationships as you seek to achieve your personal and business goals.