LinkedIn Posting 101: How to Drive Better Engagement

Between giving quotes, completing projects, and acquiring new customers, many general contractors have a difficult time planning a solid marketing strategy to expand their client base. However, general contractors can hone in on one aspect of marketing so they won’t be overwhelmed by the big picture. That one aspect of marketing we’re referring to is social media. LinkedIn, in particular, has 500 million users, with 40% of them using the platform daily.

Organic LinkedIn posts are a great way to keep your business top of mind for your potential clients. Because you’ll be dealing with competition, you must have a solid strategy for posting on LinkedIn and think outside the box.

LinkedIn is without a doubt the most valuable 20 minutes you can spend a day on a social media. From the folks at the GCs we've talked to, LinkedIn is the closest thing to a universally adopted platform for business development. If you haven't yet integrated LinkedIn into your daily sales habits, there's a treasure trove of newfound networking success just around the corner.

How to Post on LinkedIn to Engage Your Audience and Attract New Clients

Give the people what they want

To succeed with LinkedIn marketing, it’s important to think about your overall content strategy. And your audience should be the center of it all. After all, they’ll be the ones consuming your posts. So, you must cater to their interests and make "sticky" posts; one's that'll attract and provoke engagement. A "call-to-action" is important to end on. What do you want your audience to do when they're done reading your post? Whether it's an answer to a pain point or an anecdote, tell them exactly what you want.

As a business development professional at a general contractor, your audience will be anyone in the construction-sphere (thus, you can probably guess what the content should be focused on) though obviously inching toward future clients is an idealized, though subconscious goal.

Besides the topics, it’s also important to figure out other characteristics of your audience. There is a granular, hyper-specific type of data that can only be found through trial and error. For example, what types of posts does your audience engage with the most? Do they prefer graphical content? Those endless string of one-liners posts (you know the ones)? What about text-avalanche thought-leadership posts?

There is no catch-all rule for what works and what doesn't and will vary by simply the types of people you're currently connected with on LinkedIn. Look for patterns of what gets traction and continue to build on it. The more construction "influencer" individuals you follow, the more your feed will point you in the direction of the types of posts you should make. Pay attention to what type of content gets the most likes and comments everyday.

Insights such as "when is the best time to post?" can be attained by viewing your analytics within LinkedIn and is again a trial and error situation. You can also look at competitors’ profiles to see how their audience engages with their company. It's helpful to follow business development professionals at competing general contractors that are larger than yours, and around your size, in terms of annualized construction volume (ACV). You can have healthy networking opportunities and draft off of their reach merely by interacting with their posts (we'll get to interaction techniques next time).

Getting to know your audience and their behaviors will help you develop a solid content marketing strategy on LinkedIn. This will allow you to maximize engagements, bringing you one step closer to winning over future clients.

Don't be afraid of the camera

Videos and presentations can be a great way to build trust with your audience and show them you’re an expert in your industry. Through videos, you can educate your audience in an alternative way on topics that are relevant to their pain points.

Videos can be an excellent way to do that because they’re far more engaging than text and pictures, and the novelty and slightly elevated effort level needed in producing them over writing a blurb means the LinkedIn algorithm favors them. Some people may enjoy reading an interesting post, but being able to listen and/or watch something catch everyone else's attention when reading gets stale. This is especially true when your company is trying to illustrate innovative tricks of the trade, trends in the construction industry, latest news, or behind the scenes of your projects or work-life.

There's no need to be overwhelmed by adhering to well-produced, high-budget videos here. You don't need a Marvel budget to drive engagement on LinkedIn video content. They could be as simple as recording yourself on your phone chat about a topic you alternatively could have written out and posting as-is. Transparency is in, and there's no reason to put time and money into producing videos on LinkedIn when you could do a selfie-video several times a week for free and get way more engagement.

Variety of content matters—spice it up!

To keep your content fresh and engaging, consider posting a variety of content types. Don’t just overload your audience’s eyes with lots of text. But at the same time, don’t overwhelm them with tons of videos and images. Also, don’t bombard your network with a bunch of links that point to your website or other page. Social platforms don’t want audiences to leave their platforms. So, link content often gets buried in the feed, where not many people will see it, resulting in less engagement.  

But when you post a variety of content, the algorithms are more likely to be in your favor. Plus, your network will be more likely to trust the valuable insights you bring, which means they’ll check out your link content (when you do occasionally post those).

Channel your inner Mad Men; deliver on catchy headlines

Time to put your Don Draper tagline thinking cap on. This is where copywriting is an innately powerful magic wand, and Ogilvy on Advertising comes into play despite it being decades old.

When people scroll through social media, they come across lots of content. And chances are, many posts will be ignored until they see something that catches their eye. That’s what you can do with a high-performing headline. To get a sense of what a compelling headline is, head over to some of your competitors' profiles and look at their posts. What kinds of headlines do they use? What sort of language? Which ones do you think are drawing the most attention?

By taking note of the format and which ones perform the best, you’ll be able to see the types of headlines that resonate the most with your audience. You can also use keywords that are known to perform well on the platform. Words like “habits”, “mistakes”, “successful”, and  “leader(s)’ get tons of shares and engagements. Again, trial and error. Find what words catch your audience yourself.

Touch on your personal life and experiences (but keep it professional)

LinkedIn isn’t just a platform about finding jobs, workplaces, job offerings, product promotions, and bragging. If you really want your business to stand out, your content should be about more than just promotion. People are more drawn to businesses that aim to connect with them on a personal level. So, you must humanize your brand by being relatable. People interact with people, and that's why LinkedIn engagements are highest between people posting rather than businesses. The businesses that have weaponized their employees as LinkedIn soldiers are the ones that are going to gain success quicker.

You can find success by talking intimately about your personal life (though, you know, not TOO intimately), experiences, opinions, and insights. What gets you out of bed in the morning, what keeps you engaged during the workday, the way your family weekend in Tahoe reminded you why you do it all in the first place. Sometimes your tagged place of employment after your name on LinkedIn is advertisement for your GC enough. This brings the human element to the forefront, and shows potential clients that you’re more than just a person at a company trying to make a name for itself. It reminds them that an actual human being is behind your brand.  

Responsiveness is in: Reply to comments on your posts

Last time, we mentioned CTA's (call-to-action) at the end of your post. When you leave an open loop, what comes next is, you guessed it, people attempting to close it. Having people reply to you isn't your endgame but just the very beginning (remember: more Avengers, less Avengers: Endgame). If someone comments on one of your posts, don’t leave them hanging. Otherwise, you’ll just be posting to be seen, and not to engage with that LinkedIn community you're trying to establish.

Even if a user disagrees with something you said, engage with that comment. There's no need to be defensive or dismissive. The whole point is to encourage conversation, the polite sharing of ideas whether they're in conflict or not.

As you keep the conversation going, this will signal to LinkedIn that the content is interesting. As a result, the algorithm is likely to increase the visibility of your posts so that more people see them and emulate the back and forth's that have been happening. Don't forget that the algorithms of all social media sites look to keep eyeballs on the social media as long as possible; LinkedIn is no exception.

"Like," comment, and reshare

Just like other people may comment on your posts, don’t hesitate to do the same on others’ posts. Spend a few minutes each day commenting on posts you find interesting or thought-provoking at the top of your feed. Not only does this help people remember you and recognize your brand, but it also makes them more willing to engage with your own content when it's your turn to post.

PS when you do comment, try not to be salesy, even if your company is the exact solution to a given question or topic (at worst, be coy and self-aware that you're being salesy if you absolutely have to). Actually interact with the content of the post and try to make industry connections.

As of the writing of this blog, there are six ways to non-verbally react to posts on LinkedIn: a thumbs up (like), an applause (celebrate), a hand offering a heart (support), a heart on its own (love), a lightbulb (insightful), and a purple face pondering (curious). If you want to engage but aren't sure how to approach (or maybe you're just pressed for time), drop an emoji and move on. Any (non-negative) engagement is good engagement and you're still building rapport that could be reciprocated later. Just be sure to pick an emoji that's contextually appropriate; always read posts carefully before you engage or you could potentially reveal that you were being careless.

Lastly, you have the option of resharing a post. There's no need to go crazy with this function as it's generally reserved for times when getting the word out on something is a bit urgent. Resharing is certainly a way to make a splash with flattery, just be sure to be sparing. Again, you're sowing reciprocity so resharing only heightens your chances with that person to reshare later. It's worth examining certain people's post histories to see if they're even resharers. If they've never reshared something, it may dissuade you (or not; maybe the post is just that incredible).

LinkedIn Post Ideas for General Contractors

Struggling to think of something to post? As Gary Vee would say, "stop thinking and just post it." Like any habit, posting on LinkedIn can only be fine-tuned with practice.

• Construction memes or construction plays on existing memes; GIFs or still photos
• Posing problems and wondering what your network's advice is
• Graphics you've either found or created yourself; perhaps industry statistics. Canva is a great free tool if you're in need of a web designer in a pinch.
• Videos/presentations; we covered videos last time but don't get caught up in production value. A selfie video is more than enough or if you're looking to spruce it up with graphics, iMovie is a free option. If you have a LinkedIn post that could work better as a video, don't think. Just go for it!
• Behind the scenes in the office or on a jobsite
• Spotlight on staff; a new hire or a congratulations thrown to someone who deserves it
• Live videos; like Instagram, LinkedIn has a livestreaming feature!
• Tips and tricks
• Latest news; can be the news on its own or your (even-keeled) commentary on it
• Thought leadership posts; maybe you've got something on your chest. Put your op-ed hat on and write a LinkedIn article.
• Photos of projects; status updates or project completions.
• Quotes; like news can be on its own or your (even-keeled) commentary on it
• Testimonials; on the salesy-er side but a customer spotlight every now and then is fine
• A day in the field; everyone loves the comforting monotony of the day-to-day
• Awards and accolades; again taking the spotlight every now and then is fine. If you're a rockstar, be a rockstar.
• Contests to engage your network; there's no boundaries here, be as creative as you want!
• Links to blog posts and other self-produced content

Build trust as a personality at a General Contractor with LinkedIn content marketing

When you master the art of creating organic content for your LinkedIn audience, you can build relationships with potential clients and gain trust. In much the same way that you see the same people actively posting on LinkedIn and begin to think of them as influencers of the industry, people will start to think the same about you.

What separates you from the rest won’t be the type of content you post. What differentiates your company will be your ability to make your content meaningful and captivating enough for your audience to take a second look at the company you work for. At the end of the day, be yourself. No matter who you are people will want to engage with someone who's transparent, honest, and affable, especially on a social media platform that, at times, is short on all three.