LinkedIn’s Lockdown Year

LinkedIn is more than just a professional networking platform. It has grown to become an essential place for B2B marketers to find useful content. The tumultuous events of 2020 have not hindered LinkedIn’s expansion. In fact, this has been a year of rapid growth and maturation. A larger, more engaged audience is turning to the platform as their go-to source for quality content. There are now over 706 million members on the platform and Microsoft’s earnings release report for Q3 2020 shows that LinkedIn sessions have grown by 26%.

With so many decision-makers gathered in one place, marketers are taking notice. 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation while 62% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn successfully generates leads. This is twice as many as the next social media platform.

Here are some of the statistics that show how far LinkedIn has come in 2020.

1. Content impressions far exceed job posting impressions

As a professional hub in the midst of a recession, you may expect Linkedin to be most popular for job hunters. While it certainly gains attention for recruiting, the social media network has established itself as a leading content and learning platform.

LinkedIn content generates 15 times more impressions than job postings. Every single week, there are 9 billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed. Keep in mind that only 3 million members share content on a weekly basis. This means that a relatively small amount of users are benefiting from these 9 billion weekly impressions.

2. Usage and engagement are surging

LinkedIn has added 45 million members since November 2019 and those who join the platform are more actively engaged than ever before. An estimated 30% to 47% of users are monthly active users. Of these active monthly users, 40% of them are using the platform daily. Users spend an average of ten minutes a day on the platform while visiting over eight pages.

Along with steady growth, the platform is also benefiting from an acceleration in several different engagement metrics in 2020. Content shared across the platform is up nearly 50% year-over-year in June 2020. The platform has also experienced a four times year-over-year increase in LinkedIn Learning hours watched in June 2020. Add to this an 89% increase in live streams since March 2020.

3. The most B2B traffic

LinkedIn drives more than 50% of social traffic to B2B sites. B2B professionals flock to the platform every day to get the latest industry insights they can use to improve their business. LinkedIn enables these professionals to establish connections and build meaningful relationships with those who share their interests. It is a uniquely valuable tool to have so many of the professionals who represent your ideal clients centralized in a single place. By actively producing valuable content, you are able to drive relevant prospects directly to your website.

4. The most qualified audience

It’s no secret that LinkedIn is considered the top social media platform for professionals. The way it is used is inherently different than other social platforms as you don’t find the procrastination and distraction often present on other platforms. Here, people come to network and learn.

This is reflected in the demographic attributes of the users who make up the platform’s member base. LinkedIn is the most used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies and there are over 30 million companies now on the platform.

Roughly 45% of content readers are in upper-level positions (C-level, Directors, VPs, Managers). This includes 90 million users that are senior-level influencers, with 63 million in decision-making positions. There are also 17 million opinion leaders, and 10 million C-level executives.

5. An excellent platform for video consumption

LinkedIn has proven that it is more than just a platform for long-form content. The platform is also a great medium for videos, which have shown to be an effective way of engaging your audience and improving your social media performance. With content available in both written and video format, 59% of executives say they would choose to consume the video version.

A study by Wyzowl found that 38% of marketers post video content on LinkedIn while 87% of those who used video on the platform find it effective. Using videos can get your content five times more engagement, while live videos can see 24 times more engagement.

6. Outstanding organic performance for thought leadership

LinkedIn provides the opportunity to reach a highly relevant audience within a professional context. You are able to engage with your audience in a more meaningful way by producing and sharing content aligned with professionals’ interests in mind — informative and value-adding material primarily in the form of thought leadership and long-form content.

79% of potential buyers indicate thought leadership as critical for determining which providers to learn more about. 45% of business decision-makers and 49% of C-level executives say that thought leadership content has directly led them to do business with a company.

Marketers can build brand awareness and trust in their business by sharing advice and industry-related content that will show your audience that you’re a credible expert

LinkedIn may not be the biggest social media platform but it’s proven itself as one of the best for establishing meaningful connections with your target audience. With so many like-minded B2B professionals gathered in a single place, there has never been a better opportunity to use your valuable content to reach highly qualified prospects at scale.