In 2023, LinkedIn surpassed one billion users in more than 200 countries and territories – a staggering figure. And with users departing Twitter/X like a sinking ship, LinkedIn is the go-to business networking platform for many professionals and business owners.
The LinkedIn trends to watch in 2024
Are you already active on LinkedIn? Have you connected with customers there?
If you’re looking to raise your business profile on LinkedIn over the coming months, here are a few of the hottest LinkedIn trends to look out for in 2024.
AI-embedded features
2023 saw the emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT and Baird. Social media platforms like LinkedIn started to invest heavily in AI and this trend is likely to continue in 2024.
Expect to see AI-enabled recommended content, job searches, recruitment and sales tools. You can even use AI to generate cover images for your LinkedIn newsletter now.
It’s likely that LinkedIn will be looking at new ways to use AI to help users create more tailored content and find relevant connections.
Hyper-personalised content
Gone are the days when LinkedIn was solely the place for job hunting and cheesy corporate head shots.
Over the past year or two, there’s been a shift towards a more informal and relaxed vibe on LinkedIn. It’s not Facebook (and nor should it be). But people are sharing their business stories more and talking about the ups and downs of their professional careers and personal lives. There’s even the odd dog photo or two. It no longer has that stuffy corporate vibe – everyone is a lot more chilled.
Authenticity is a hot trend on LinkedIn right now. Posting and engaging around your work-life challenges makes you more relatable – helping you have more meaningful interactions and build deeper connections.
And, if you’re running a business, authenticity and transparency matter. More than 90% of consumers say that authenticity is important when deciding which brands to support (Stackla).
Clients often tell me that they feel a bit embarrassed about posting personal stuff on LinkedIn. But, remember that people buy from people. So, it’s good to let people into your world.
So, what should you post? You could post about what motivates you or what prompted you to get into your line of work or start a business. People love hearing these personal stories. If you’re not comfortable sharing information about your personal life, why not share stories about your business, daily challenges or even tips for business success.
Business owners and leaders getting more involved
Companies are encouraging their leaders to take a more active role on their personal feeds on LinkedIn. Employees typically have networks ten times as large as companies. What’s more, personal posts on LinkedIn attract 561% more engagement than a company’s social media account.
So, CEOs, senior leaders and business owners should be using LinkedIn to raise their personal profiles as thought leaders in their fields and boost the visibility and reputation of their company in turn. Here’s an interesting article with more information on why business leaders should be posting more on LinkedIn.
Having a strong personal brand online helps you to stand out from the crowd and differentiates you. If you’re active on LinkedIn, you may have heard quite a lot about ‘personal branding’ over the past year. It’s one of those awful buzz phrases so what does it actually mean?
Personal branding encompasses everything from your profile to the content you share. A staggering 82% of consumers believe that a company’s reputation is influenced by the personal brand of its employees. So, think about how you can support your business or company through your personal page.
Whatever your role, you need to have a consistent ‘personal brand’ (values, messaging etc) that people associate with you. So, if you enjoy driving gas-guzzling cars and private jets, you might not want to post about climate change. Equally, if you champion female talent in the tech industry, think about how you can promote inspirational women in your network or share relevant research or thought leadership pieces with your audience.
Storytelling
Did you know that someone is 22 times more likely to remember a fact if it’s wrapped up in a story? That makes it a very powerful marketing ploy.
And, of course, storytelling has been used in many marketing campaigns over the years and it’s proving increasingly popular on LinkedIn.
But how can you weave storytelling into your LinkedIn posts?
Here are just a few ideas:
- Tell your business story – this is a really obvious one but it’s always a winner. People love to hear about a business backstory.
- Talk about what inspired you in your career (a great teacher, a life-changing experience etc).
- Recount an anecdote about your business (a funny story, a salutary tale)
- Profile an inspirational figure
- Post about your business highs and lows – and what this has taught you.
Social search
Social search has become increasingly popular, particularly amongst Gen Z. This is when users search for information using the native search facility on a social media platform. Research shows that young people are increasingly switching from search engines to social media to find information online. This trend took off on TikTok but it’s now gaining popularity on the other social platforms too.
LinkedIn is sure to be tapping into this trend to keep users on the platform. Recent research from Social Media Today reveals that LinkedIn is looking to refocus efforts around keywords and topic searches and deprioritising hashtags.
So, always use topic keywords in the main body copy of your post to help your content get found. For example, if you’re writing about ChatGPT, you’ll want to include this phrase and related phrases (AI tools, Open AI etc) in your body copy. But just one thing to add: LinkedIn hasn’t completely killed off hashtags yet. So, I would still keep using them for now.
LinkedIn newsletters
By the start of 2024, there were 143,00 newsletters on LinkedIn, with more than 500 million subscribers.
LinkedIn newsletters provide a great way to connect with your audience. Recent new features have included an article preview, new audience demographics and AI-enabled visuals. New features indicates that LinkedIn sees this as an area for growth over the coming year.
So, have you published a newsletter yet? It’s really easy to get started and you don’t need to have any graphic design skills – you just add your text and photos and move things around with drag-and-drop functionality.
Currently, there aren’t many options for styling your newsletter and it’s all rather basis right now. But the upside is that it’s super simple to create your first edition. It takes me around an hour to produce each edition for clients.
Take a look at this blog, where I provide a step-by-step walkthrough on how to create a newsletter.
But, one thing to remember. You do need to publish your newsletter regularly, and promote it on LinkedIn if you want to build your subscriber list.
Short-form video
If you use LinkedIn regularly, you’ll have noticed that more and more user videos are popping up. Video is a great way to engage, entertain and inform your audience on LinkedIn. Research shows that LinkedIn users are 20% more likely to share video content than other post types on the platform.
I know from chatting with other business owners that people are often frightened about ‘putting themselves out there’ on LinkedIn – perhaps because they don’t like appearing on screen or they just don’t know what to say in their videos.
Here are just a few ideas to help you get started:
- Post a business tip for your audience. Keep it short – 1-2 minutes max.
- Talk about a specific business challenge and how you addressed this problem.
- Provide a step-by-step guide (use a tool like Loom if you’re doing a walk through online).
- Do a quick Q&A on relevant business topic.
Just remember to add captions to your video – 80% of social media scrollers watch with the sound turned off. So, this is essential. LinkedIn has a caption feature but it does has some limitations. I always use CapCut – a free tool that is dead easy to use.
So, there you have it – my list of top LinkedIn trends you need to look out for in 2024. By piggybacking on these trends, you can use LinkedIn to generate more leads and get in front of your ideal customers.
***Need some expert help to get your business in front of new clients using LinkedIn? I offer LinkedIn power hours and training as well as day-to-day platform management and strategic advice. Please drop me a message today to learn more.***
