LinkedIn: Unlocking Its Potential for Leaders

An Audience Within Reach, Yet Underutilized

Pierre Le Baud, a social media expert, highlights the enormous untapped potential of LinkedIn. In France, the platform boasts 37 million members, representing about 90% of the active workforce. On a global scale, this number reaches 1.3 billion users. Despite this vast audience, only a quarter of business leaders choose to actively publish on LinkedIn. This underutilization leaves considerable room for those looking to stand out.

Actively Publishing on LinkedIn Can Pay Off

Leaders who regularly engage on LinkedIn see tangible benefits. On average, they experience a 15.5% increase in their active followers and a 23.4% rise in engagement on their posts. These figures illustrate a clear demand from the audience. Indeed, 40% of professionals spend at least one hour a day staying informed, and 52% believe that insights from industry leaders are essential for keeping up with current trends. However, 17% of users feel that leaders' posts lack impact, highlighting a need for improvement.

Fabrice Pelosi emphasizes that a leader absent from LinkedIn risks going unnoticed in their own ecosystem. Furthermore, according to a Semrush study cited during the conference, LinkedIn has become a major source of information for generative AI models, ranking just behind Reddit. In France, LinkedIn is the most cited platform by large language models (LLMs).

Publish to Embody, Not Just to Promote

LinkedIn News prioritizes content that provides real added value, such as exclusive information, studies, financial results, or major announcements like fundraising or acquisitions. The tone used is as crucial as the subject matter.

Lauréline Tansini advises leaders to embody their brand without reducing themselves to a mere promotional tool. She recommends focusing on three or four main themes to avoid overwhelming the audience with a flood of disparate information. Fabrice Pelosi from Brevo emphasizes transparency and sharing customer experiences, highlighting the importance of demonstrating profitability beyond fundraising.

According to Fabrice Pelosi, LinkedIn can now serve as a primary communication platform, attracting the attention of journalists and institutions.

Best Practices for High-Performing Content

Consistency is essential to maintain audience interest. Lauréline Tansini collaborates with Vincent Huguet to publish twice a week, achieving around 500,000 impressions over six months. A steady rhythm is crucial, as a single good post every six months is not enough to retain an audience.

The choice of language is also strategic. A local topic should be addressed in French, while an international subject is better conveyed in English. Multilingual posts are discouraged as they are less valued by the LinkedIn algorithm. Some leaders circumvent this issue by posting the same message twice, once in French and once in English.

Posts that generate comments are the ones that benefit most from algorithmic visibility, according to LinkedIn News.

Key Metrics to Monitor

To assess the impact of their posts, leaders should monitor the growth of their follower count and the volume of comments received. The authenticity of comments is a key indicator of the interest generated. Fabrice Pelosi adds that private messages can also reveal the success of a piece of content.

As for the ideal time to post, there is no universal rule. Lauréline Tansini admits that the LinkedIn algorithm is unpredictable and recommends testing different times to determine which generate the most engagement.