6 Ways to Grow Your Cybersecurity LinkedIn Audience
It isn’t easy finding ways to grow your cybersecurity LinkedIn audienceWhat is a LinkedIn Audience? A LinkedIn audience is made up of professionals and businesses across various industries who use the platform for networking, career development, and sharing industry insights..... Growing your audience on LinkedIn can be a challenging task if you don’t have the right strategies in place. In this blog post, we’re not just scratching the surface; we’re diving deep into six powerful and actionable strategies you need to implement to see growth. These techniques aren’t just theory; you can leverage them right now to gain traction on LinkedIn.
What is a LinkedIn Audience?
Before we get into the specifics, let’s just make sure we’re on the same page. A LinkedIn audience consists of professionals and businesses across various industries who use the platform for networking, career development, and sharing industry insights. For a cybersecurity company, this audience typically includes IT professionals, cybersecurity experts, decision-makers in technology sectors, companies needing cybersecurity solutions, and enthusiasts interested in staying informed about the latest trends in cyber protection.
Why Post on LinkedIn?
Now, let’s quickly cover why building an audience and posting on LinkedIn is important for cybersecurity marketers. LinkedIn provides a targeted environment for engaging with a specialized group – your target audience – offering opportunities for direct interaction, content sharing, fostering professional relationships, and lead generation. It is an invaluable resource for companies looking to connect with industry-specific professionals, target their customer base directly, and ultimately increase sales.
Frankly, if you’re not posting on LinkedIn, you’re a step behind your competitors. According to SproutSocial, LinkedIn is rated as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads by 40% of B2B marketers. In fact, 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation, and 62% say that LinkedIn produces leads for them. If you need any more convincing information, LinkedIn’s cost per lead is 28% lower than Google AdWords.
1. Create a content calendar
Creating a monthly content calendar is essential to build your cybersecurity LinkedIn audience. It enables you to have a system where you can organize all your content in one convenient location. It also helps you monitor what is scheduled, lets you be consistent with your posting, and saves you a lot of time.
When creating your content calendar, remember that your content should be a mixture of informative, educational, and entertaining posts across a range of formats. This will cater to a diverse audience, help them stay engaged, and keep them interested in your content so that they feel following your LinkedIn account is worthwhile.
2. Repurpose content
The secret to posting various content types is to repurpose existing content. With the proper planning, you can repurpose, for example, one long-form video – like a cybersecurity webinar – into many digital marketing formats.
Below are five ways you can repurpose content from one video:
- List key points taken from the video and create a carousel post around the key points.
- Use the appropriate software to turn your video into an audiogram. There are many free and paid versions. Some free ones include Headliner, Wavve, and Animoto.
- Transcribe your video into a blog post.
- Create short-form videos from your original video.
- Turn critical moments from the original video into a video series.
- Use key points from the video to create an infographic.
By adopting this strategy, you will have plenty of content to post daily. The more content you post that resonates with your followers, the more followers you will attract.
3. Post a minimum of three pieces of content per day
When you know what your ideal customer wants, ensure you deliver value in all your LinkedIn posts. This should lead to an increase in engagement metrics – such as likes, comments, and shares – which in turn increases your LinkedIn followers. It is recommended to post a minimum of three LinkedIn posts a day – this will allow you to gain greater exposure and create brand awareness in both the short and longer term. It can also aid your organization to build trust and brand authority with your audience.
4. Tag relevant personnel/organizations
Adding tagging to your LinkedIn Strategy will enable you to be more social in your posts. Tagging sister companies, partners, employees, and blog authors can increase the likelihood of the tagged individual/company resharing the post with their audience, thus creating better brand awareness, reaching your target audience, and increasing your LinkedIn Audience. Collaborations and partnerships with cybersecurity influencers can also be extremely valuable here, as tagging them will increase your reach further.
5. Use relevant hashtagsWhat Are Hashtags? Hashtags are a form of metadata used on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and others, marked by the prefix “#”. Originally popularized on Twitter, they...
Hashtags are a form of metadata used on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and others, marked by the prefix “#.” Originally popularized on Twitter, they are a way to categorize content, making it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. They enable users to discover posts around specific topics or events by clicking on a hashtag, leading to a feed of public posts that share the same hashtag. This functionality transforms the individual hashtag into a digital gathering place for conversations and content sharing across diverse user bases, regardless of the users’ direct connections on the platform.
According to LinkedIn.com, ‘only 1-2% of users are actively creating content on the platform’. This means that your content will be more accessible when a LinkedIn user searches for the hashtag you added to your post. Use hashtags relevant to your post, cybersecurity solution, topic, etc. I would recommend using no more than three hashtags per LinkedIn post.
Leverage both broad and niche hashtags for increased exposure (e.g., #IT vs #encryption). Using this strategy for each post ensures you get likes from LinkedIn users who aren’t following you and increases your LinkedIn audience over time.
6. Be a thought leader
CISOs, cybersecurity leads, decision-makers, and other stakeholders are always on the hunt for high-quality thought leadership content. Producing valuable content that addresses your audience’s pain points is essential to building a LinkedIn audience made up of your target market. When produced correctly, thought leadership, like whitepapers, educational content, and client case studies, can drive interest, increase followers, drive curiosity, and spark conversations.
It’s like sharing a good story; people connect with it, and it becomes more than just content – it becomes a conversation starter that brings people together around your insights. So, sharing your cybersecurity content isn’t just about visibility; it’s about building a community that appreciates your thought leadership. This engagement naturally translates into LinkedIn follower growth, more potential clients and potential customers in the marketing funnel, and enhanced lead gen.
Conclusion
With LinkedIn being the fastest-growing B2B marketing social media network, it is essential your brand focuses on growing your LinkedIn followers, as well as leveraging the platform to meet your marketing and organizational goals.
Implementing the strategies mentioned above will ensure you grow your cyber security audience. The key to follower growth is knowing what your customers want and providing them with value in each LinkedIn post. Once you know this and deliver accordingly, you will notice a consistent stream of LinkedIn users following your organization, engaging with your content, and entering the marketing funnel. From there, you can be confident that you’ll generate more leads, more sales revenue, and meet your KPIs.
Remember, consistency is king, so ensure you post daily, do the above, and watch the fruits of your investment grow. If you enjoyed learning 6 ways to grow your LinkedIn cybersecurity audience, speak to one of our consultants and see how Bora can help you grow your LinkedIn cybersecurity audience.